‘Unprecedented’ fire at oil refinery in Geelong
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.
Key events
Good morning, Nick Visser here to take things over. Let’s get to it.
Matt Canavan defends Coalition’s migration policy
Ima Caldwell
The 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 mark It’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 mark I 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 mark I’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 …
‘Unprecedented’ fire at oil refinery in Geelong
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.
Welcome
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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