SYDNEY: Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Friday ruled out calling a national election for April on Sunday or Monday, as had been expected, so his government can focus on an approaching cyclone in Queensland state.
A national election must be held by mid-Ma, and had been expected for April so the government could avoid delivering a national budget forecast to show a deficit.
"It is our intention to serve full term," Albanese said in a television interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Friday evening.
The preparation work had been done to deliver a budget on March 25, he said.
Australia ordered thousands of people in its eastern regions to evacuate before Tropical Cyclone Alfred makes landfall on Saturday, as the storm brought heavy rain, huge waves and strong winds that cut off power, swamped beaches and shut airports.
"I have no intention of doing anything that distracts from what we need to do. And what we need to do is to look after each other at this difficult time," Albanese added.
Meanwhile, violent winds toppled power lines on Friday as a tropical cyclone inched towards Australia's eastern coast, swelling rivers, sparking evacuation orders and leaving 80,000 homes without electricity. Tropical cyclone Alfred was 125 kilometres east of Brisbane by Friday afternoon, crawling towards the densely populated coastline at 'walking speed', government forecasts said.
Some four million people were in the firing line along a 400-kilometre stretch of coastline straddling the state border of Queensland and New South Wales.
It is a region rarely troubled by typhoons — it has been more than 50 years since a tropical cyclone made landfall in that stretch of coast.
No deaths have been reported, but police said one man was missing after his four-wheel drive vehicle was swept from a bridge into fast-running river water south of the cyclone.
"The male driver was able to exit the vehicle and secure himself to a tree branch," New South Wales police said in a statement.
But later, "the man was swept from the tree and seen to go beneath the water where he has not been sighted since."
Heavy rains associated with the cyclone had already prompted flood warnings in the area.
Around 80,000 homes were left in the dark across the two states as winds uprooted trees and brought down power lines, officials and utility companies said, as repair crews raced to restore electricity.
Queensland Premier David Crisafulli said the storm already "packed a punch", warning conditions would get worse as it approached land on Saturday morning. Images showed a white yacht blown into the rocks after snapping its moorings at Point Danger on the Gold Coast.
Two people made "a lucky escape" after a large gum tree crashed through the roof of a house in rural Currumbin Valley, the Queensland Ambulance Service said. — AFP
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