Minister urges calm as PM nears poll loss

Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott will be well into the annual Pollie Pedal charity bike ride when Malcolm Turnbull wakes up to the latest Newspoll.

One of Mr Turnbull’s cabinet colleagues is calling for calm ahead of the Prime Minister’s looming 30th Newspoll loss.

It has emerged Tony Abbott will be touring through the Latrobe Valley on Monday when the latest poll is expected to be made public. The release coincides with his annual Pollie Pedal charity bike ride which aims to raise NZ$500,000 (FJ$740,285) for Soldier On.

“(I’ll be) getting out and about around our great country meeting people and listening to their concerns,” Mr Abbott said.

Haast:

At least 20 pilot whales have died after stranding in a sandbar at the mouth of Okuru River, south of Haast. The Department of Conservation (DOC) was alerted to the stranding on Wednesday afternoon. Eleven whales were found alive but more are thought to have died overnight. DOC spokesperson Trish Grant says when found, the whales appeared to have been there for around 12 hours.

“A refloat of the whales wasn’t possible because of dangerous sea conditions, with a high swell, and because the tide was receding. It would have been too dangerous to carry out a refloat of the whales in darkness in the overnight high tide.”