Emily Wind here, signing on for blogging duties. Thanks to Martin for kicking things off for us.

It’s going to be a busy morning, especially in New South Wales, as people brace for more train disruption and assess damage from the storms overnight. If you have any tips, photos or want to share your experience, you can get in touch via email: emily.wind@theguardian.com.

Let’s get started.

The autumn selling season could be the best time for prospective homeowners to get a foot on the property ladder as house prices hit peak affordability, AAP reports.

Annual property price increases have slowed to their lowest levels in Australia since September 2023 as affordability pressures and limited borrowing power take their toll on demand, Domain’s house price report for the December quarter shows.

Softer clearance rates and more listings were giving buyers more of a choice and helping to take away urgency from their purchasing decisions, said the Domain chief of research and economics, Nicola Powell.

We are seeing a rapid slowdown across pretty much all of our capital cities. We’ve got stable pricing, some cities in decline and those that are rising, they’re not rising as fast as they were.

House prices across the capital cities grew at 1.1% over the last three months of 2024, slower than the average of recent years but maintaining the markets’ positive growth streak of eight consecutive quarters.

Sydney, the country’s most expensive property market, was the only capital to go backwards, with median house prices declining $1,300 over the quarter.

Wages for low-and-middle income earners growing at higher rates under Albanese government

Wages for low and middle-income earning Australians are growing at higher rates under the Albanese government than previous Coalition governments, a new Labor analysis of wage growth rates shows.

Wages for those earning under $54,000 rose 6.2% on average between June 2022 and September 2024 while Labor was in government, while it rose 2.4% between September 2013 and June 2022, the analysis showed.

In higher incomes, or those earning more than $125,000, wages rose 3.3% on average over the 27-month period while incomes rose 1.9% on average between 2013 and 2022.

Overall, Labor’s analysis showed wages, on average, had risen 3.8% between June 2022 and September 2024 compared with 2.2% between September 2013 and June 2022 while Coalition governments were in power.

The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, said Australians are doing it tough but it would be worse under the opposition leader, Peter Dutton.

The choice at the next election is between a Labor government which has been creating jobs, getting wages moving again and rolling out cost-of-living help versus a Coalition that wants Australians working longer for less.

The NSW mental health minister will today meet with representatives of the psychiatrist workforce as the impending resignation of more than half the state’s specialist mental health doctors comes into effect next week.

There are 443 psychiatrist positions in NSW Health, of which there were already 30%-40% pre-existing vacancies, in addition to which at least 205 are set to resign from 21 January.

The doctors are resigning because they say they cannot continue to work in the understaffed mental health system, arguing they need higher pay and better conditions in line with other states to retain more staff, but the government says they cannot agree to their demand for a 25% pay rise.

The mental health minister, Rose Jackson, said she hopes meeting today with the doctor’s union, the Australian Salaried Medical Officers’ Federation (Asmof), as well as the NSW branch of the peak body for psychiatrists, the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, could offer “an opportunity for discussion, perhaps an opportunity for a path forward.”

In a press conference Asmof held on Wednesday, an emergency doctor said they stood in solidarity with their psychiatrist colleagues because the state’s mental health services are “on the brink of a collapse, this isn’t a crisis any more”.

Psychiatric trainee Dr James Leader said being physically unable to provide the care to mental health patients is causing “moral injury” to doctors in the public hospitals. “The system is forcing us to compromise in ways that we do not want to.”

Our reporter Mostafa Rachwani is out and about and will be bringing us some updates on the train situation very soon.

But in the meantime, this is the statement from Sydney Trains last night warning about disruption today:

All suburban and Intercity trains will return to their stabling yards by midnight to help Sydney Trains manage the ongoing severe impacts of today’s industrial action, as this evening’s severe weather also takes out more services across the network.

The decision has been taken to assist the return of the fleet wherever possible, to be ready to run from their home stabling yards on Thursday morning.

It means train services will progressively reduce frequency from around 9pm to ensure all trains would be in their assigned locations before the last service, which typically ends at 1am each weekday.

Sydney Trains is forecasting another heavily degraded day on the network from early Thursday when passengers will again face lengthy delays, service cancellations and large service gaps as a result of over 350 bans that have been notified.

Passengers should also be aware that tonight’s wild storms have caused trees to fall on overhead wiring at Normanhurst and Bell, and caused power outages at Lidcombe, Cabramatta and Flemington, multiple signal/track failures at Shellharbour Junction and flooding at Town Hall, which have all had varied impacts to services.

During Wednesday, 1,500 services were cancelled up until 7.30pm as a result of industrial action, approximately 40% of all Sydney Trains timetabled services.

With more than 350 work bans in place across the network as part of the Combined Rail Unions industrial action, we urge passengers to delay non-essential travel, use alternative forms of public transport, and plan ahead by checking the latest updates on transportnsw.info and live travel apps.

Where possible, NSW TrainLink booked passengers are contacted via SMS to alert them to changed travel arrangements.

Sydney Trains and NSW TrainLink apologise to our passengers again for the disruption and thank them for their understanding as staff at the Rail Operations Centre and across the network work to minimise the impacts of this difficult industrial period.

Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with some of the top overnight stories before Emily Wind comes along shortly.

The chaos across Sydney’s train network caused by industrial action yesterday is expected to worsen today, as a standoff over a new pay deal between rail unions and the New South Wales government drags on. Train bosses warned passengers last night that today would be “another heavily degraded day on the network” with “lengthy delays, service cancellations and large service gaps as a result of over 350 bans that have been notified”.

Last night’s severe storm in the greater Sydney area will only make matters worse, Sydney Trains warned, after flooding hit Town Hall station concourse, brought down trees on to lines and caused power cuts. We’ll have updates on both the trains and the storm damage soon.

Adam Bandt says a Greens-Labor power-sharing parliament could see a “golden era of progressive reform” as he confirms that stopping Peter Dutton becoming prime minister is now his party’s main election focus. However, the Greens leader faces a challenge on his own doorstep as the former AFL player and failed Melbourne lord mayoral candidate Anthony Koutoufides considers a tilt at Bandt’s seat.

Annual property price increases have slowed to their lowest levels since September 2023 as affordability pressures and limited borrowing power take their toll on demand, according to a new report from Domain. It echoes the findings of a recent CoreLogic study and offers some hope for prospective buyers – and for federal ministers hoping the housing crisis will ease before the election. They will also hope for good news from today’s unemployment numbers due at 11.30am. More coming up.