Australia news live: large fire at Geelong oil refinery; Canavan defends Coalition’s hardline immigration plan
TL;DR
Fire crews are combating a large blaze at the Geelong oil refinery, which broke out late last night. Residents nearby have been advised to stay indoors due to smoke.
Key points
- Fire crews are battling a large blaze at Geelong refinery
- Residents have been warned to stay indoors due to smoke
- Geelong’s mayor calls the fire unprecedented
- The refinery is one of Australia’s two remaining oil refineries
- Reports suggest the fire is coming under control
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Fire crews continue to battle an out-of-control blaze at a Geelong refinery that broke out late last night.
Residents in areas south of the Viva oil refinery in Corio – one of Australia’s two remaining refineries – have been warned to stay inside to avoid smoke.
Geelong’s mayor, Stretch Kontelj, told ABC Melbourne radio this morning that the fire was “unprecedented”.
“Speaking to the management, no one can recall an incident of this magnitude either,” he said shortly before 6am on Thursday. “But from reports, it is coming under control.”
The refinery said no one had been reported injured so far, and that there was no immediate impact on fuel supplies.
Nationals leader Matt Canavan defended the Coalition’s planned crack down on immigrations as “fair and reasonable” and that migrants would understand the policy.
Asked on 7.30 last night how Australia’s migrant communities would see the plan, Canavan referred to the “rigour” of the naturalisation process his Italian grandparents went through in the 1950s and his own publicised Section 44 high court citizenship saga (which he said ultimately proved him to be a “dinky-di Aussie”). He said:
double quotation markIt’s fair and reasonable that we set high standards to join the club of Australians and I’m sure migrants here today want to see that …
We have a Government that has put its head in the sand now and has not listened to the Australian people that clearly want change.
Canavan claimed support for Australia’s migration program is “falling off a cliff.”
When the show’s host, Sarah Ferguson, asked again about the specific wording of a policy described as “discriminatory”, Canavan said:
double quotation markI think we should discriminate on values …
We shouldn’t discriminate on colour, religion, sexuality, gender, but surely … we should discriminate on people who don’t support democracy, who profess support for terrorism or violence, who don’t believe in equality between male and female genders. People who have those views I don’t want them in our country.
Canavan reached for a literary quote: “Having good fences make for good neighbours”.
Ferguson noted:
double quotation markI’ll comment that the Robert Frost line in that poem was delivered in irony.
But we’ll return to that another day along with many other questions, thank you for joining us …
Fire crews continue to battle an out-of-control blaze at a Geelong refinery that broke out late last night.
Residents in areas south of the Viva oil refinery in Corio – one of Australia’s two remaining refineries – have been warned to stay inside to avoid smoke.
Geelong’s mayor, Stretch Kontelj, told ABC Melbourne radio this morning that the fire was “unprecedented”.
“Speaking to the management, no one can recall an incident of this magnitude either,” he said shortly before 6am on Thursday. “But from reports, it is coming under control.”
The refinery said no one had been reported injured so far, and that there was no immediate impact on fuel supplies.
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the best of the overnight stories and then Nick will take over.
Matt Canavan has defended the Coalition’s planned immigration shake-up as “reasonable and fair” and said it would be accepted as such by migrants already in Australia. More coming up.
Residents in parts of Geelong have been warned to take shelter due to smoke from an out-of-control fire at the Viva oil refinery in Corio – we’ll be bringing you more details soon.
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Q&A
What caused the fire at the Geelong oil refinery?
The cause of the fire at the Geelong oil refinery has not been specified in the reports.
What precautions are residents taking due to the Geelong refinery fire?
Residents south of the Viva oil refinery have been warned to stay inside to avoid smoke inhalation.
How significant is the fire at the Geelong refinery according to local officials?
Geelong’s mayor described the fire as 'unprecedented,' indicating its severity and scale.
Is the fire at the Geelong oil refinery under control?
Reports indicate that the fire is coming under control, although it was still out of control earlier.
