Aid heads to Nepal as Australia fears for 43 missing citizens

Australia is sending an RAAF aircraft to Nepal with hygiene kits, shelter materials and solar lights as authorities search for 43 Australians missing after flash floods near the Nepal-Tibet border.

Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong said more than 4,400 people remained missing on both sides of the border and more than 930 had been confirmed dead. Nine of the missing Australians were on the Chinese side when the floods struck, she said. Australia is working with the Nepali and Chinese governments, but Wong described the search and recovery effort as “very difficult”.

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We are deploying an RAAF aircraft to deliver these kits which are designed to support people in circumstances of natural disasters that destroy infrastructure and their shelter. Whether it’s shelter kits, lights, hygiene kits, these are the things needed for those people who are facing the devastation of their homes and their communities.

The federal government has committed A$8 million in aid. Australian citizens have donated another A$2 million through a public appeal, and the government will match that amount. Wong said the aircraft would deliver supplies intended for people whose homes, shelters and local infrastructure had been destroyed.

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I first want to again express what I’ve been expressing to the families and friends of the 43 Australians who are not accounted for, that this is such a difficult time, it’s an incredibly distressing, traumatic time. I think all Australians are with you. And certainly we are with you. We are working to do whatever we can and to provide any information we obtain.

Wong also expressed sympathy to the families and friends of the missing Australians, saying it was an “incredibly distressing, traumatic time”. She said the government would continue working to provide any information it obtained.

Elsewhere in the live news coverage, Treasury said artificial intelligence could help restore Australia’s productivity growth to its historical average over coming years. Treasurer Jim Chalmers called AI “the biggest economic transformation in our lifetime”. Sydney and Brisbane were reported as the only state capitals with median house prices still above A$1 million. A union petition calling for an additional public holiday in New South Wales was also due to be presented to state parliament.

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AI is shaping up to be the biggest economic transformation in our lifetime.