Australia news live: total fire bans in parts of Victoria, NSW and SA amid autumn heat blast

Millions of fish dead near Menindee

The scale of the fish kill in the lower Darling-Baaka river near Menindee was described as “unfathomable” by local Graeme McCrabb who has been driving his boat through more than a kilometre of dead fish.

Here’s our full story on the mass fish kill from my colleague Adam Morton published late yesterday.

Good morning and happy Saturday. It’s Graham Readfearn here to take you through our live news coverage with many of us feeling this autumn blast of heat.

There are total fire bans in parts of Victoria, NSW, South Australia and extreme fire danger ratings for many areas. A bit more detail about that to come.

There’s some heat on the way for Melbourne with a top of 37C forecast, with 33C for Brisbane and Sydney getting 30C.

There’s also news this morning that much-loved Jurassic Park actor Sam Neill is being treated for stage-three blood cancer.

Before we get into today, a quick summary of yesterday.

• Millions of fish are dead in another mass kill in the lower Darling-Baaka river near Menindee, in New South Wales’ far west.

• The US state department approved the sale of up to 220 Tomahawk cruise missiles to Australia, to the tune of $1.3bn.

• Former Labor minister and Midnight Oil frontman Peter Garrett said the $368bn Aukus nuclear submarine deal was the “most costly and risky” ever made by an Australian government.

• Treasurer Jim Chalmers said Australian banks are “well placed” to withstand some vulnerability.

• The Productivity Commission said in its five-yearly report that “the often touted ‘four-day week’ is that much harder to achieve”.

• Four people were arrested after climate protesters occupied Dominic Perrottet’s office.

• Time magazine released its list of the world’s greatest places for 2023 and the only Australian capital to make the list was Brisbane.

OK Saturday, let’s see what you’ve got.