Australia news updates live: ACT Covid restrictions to ease Friday; masks to come off in Queensland this week; NSW students to sit HSC exams

It’s pretty clear that it won’t take much rain for sodden catchments across much of eastern Australia to start flooding.

As it happens, there’s already been a bit of rain in recent days, such as 113mm at Gunnedah in northern NSW in the past day or so, according to WaterNSW’s reports.

WaterNSW is expecting Wednesday will bring widespread rain over the NSW northwest slopes and plains, northern tablelands of about 20-40mm, with isolated areas collecting up to 100mm.

On Thursday, those in the northwest slopes and plains, northern tablelands and northern rivers regions can expect another 50mm or more of rain, with again the possibility of 100mm-plus totals.

The Bureau of Meteorology predicts sizeable falls over the next eight days over a large area:

They have also issued an initial and lengthy list of rivers likely to have minor to major flooding.

As a result, parts of the NSW State of Emergency Service are gearing up for a “significant weather event moving from the north west of NSW to the east coast in coming days”.

“The system will bring heavy rainfall and potential flooding to widespread areas of NSW,” the SES said.

All SES units in the Northern Zone, for instance, will be briefed today at 6pm AEDT on the likely hazards.

For now, Warragamba, Sydney’s main dam, is not expected to spill. It’s sitting at about 97% full. That dam last spilled in March, with large flooding downstream.

Keepit dam is full and is among the inland NSW dams likely to spill. Wyangala, another big one, is at 99% full and is receiving about 30 billion litres a day. It will be spilling soon if it isn’t already.

It looks like farmers racing to get their crops in aren’t the only ones likely to be extra busy this week.

New Zealand’s parliament is on high alert after thousands of anti-vaccination mandate protesters, some threatening violence, gathered in Wellington and across the country.

As of early Tuesday, about 2,000 people had gathered in central Wellington, and almost all the gates and entrances to parliament had been shut off. According to news outlet Stuff, the Speaker of the house, Trevor Mallard, said it was the biggest increase in parliamentary security he had seen since his election in 1984.

At the Senate inquiry into money laundering, Transparency International Australia’s chief, executive, Serena Lillywhite, has warned Australia is “highly exposed to money laundering and the flow of dirty money”.

The Senate legal and constitutional affairs references committee is considering whether anti-money laundering laws should be extended to lawyers, accountants and real estate agents.

Lillywhite said Australia is a “destination of choice for corruption-related proceeds” from countries such as Sudan, China, Russia and Malaysia which “too often ends up in the property market”.

She said: “Money laundering is not a faceless crime. It has devastating impacts in Australia and overseas. It can reasonably be argued it is pushing up property prices in Australia and locking Australians out of owning their own home.”

Lillywhite welcomed the Australian government’s introduction of director ID numbers, but wants much bigger reforms including a register of beneficial ownership.

In April 2016, Kelly O’Dwyer, then assistant treasurer, said “we agree there needs to be a registry of beneficial ownership in our country”, but ahead of the 2019 election the Coalition backflipped and said it was not policy to create one.