Those rivers of gold from the mining boom just aren’t flowing like they used to. Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan will deliver a pre-budget speech in Brisbane today and he’ll be warning of leaner times ahead. He says mining investment is expected to double next financial year, but it won’t come with a tax windfall. 

 

More than 2,000 Jetstar passengers were stranded in Sydney overnight. Sixteen passengers managed to get through a terminal without being screened because of a power failure. That meant all the passengers in the terminal had to be screened again. More delays are expected today as the airline clears the backlog. 

 

The flood threat has eased in the southern Queensland town of Roma. Dozens of people were evacuated ahead of an expected flood peak of just over eight metres. But the waters only got over 7.5 metres overnight. Still the mayor says that would have been enough to flood up to 160 homes. 

 

An international conference called to raise money for new safety measures at Chernobyl has fallen short of its target. It’s 25 years since the world’s worst nuclear disaster. The Ukrainian government wants to build a new sarcophagus around the damaged reactor.