The body of a woman, in her 50s, has been found inside a Sydney home with injuries so horrific that senior police officers described it as one of the worst crime scenes they had seen in years.  Energy Minister Mick de Brenni has refused to take responsibility for the Callide Power Plant explosion, sensationally accusing CS Energy bosses of lying to him about maintenance and safety at the facility.  Port Lincoln father Troy Smith will likely avoid prison after being allegedly caught with more than 3g of meth inside his Bali hotel room, with prosecutors recommending he serve his sentence in a rehab facility.Chilling GoPro footage has emerged of a teen charged with terror offences armed with knives and tactical equipment before allegedly walking into a Labor MP’s office. 

Julian Assange will today start his new life as a free man with his wife and two young sons in Australia.  The cost of dying is set to skyrocket in Victoria, with the Allan government considering introducing what has been panned as a “death tax by stealth”.  CS Energy issued warnings that maintenance was being neglected at its plants just two years before a major explosion tore through Callide Power Station.  A wealthy Adelaide college has raked in more than a quarter of a billion dollars in recent years.

The widow of slain camper Russell Hill says she feared Greg Lynn would walk free, saying “an innocent person doesn’t get rid of the bodies”.  Vape legalisation advocates say the Coalition could raise $510 million a year in tax revenue under its plan to regulate the sale of nicotine products through retailers like supermarkets or convenience stores.  A minibus carrying farm workers is believed to have been trying to overtake another car when it crashed into a tree in Victoria’s northwest.  Former NRL star Jarryd Hayne will not face a fourth trial after he successfully appealed his convictions over the alleged rape of a woman in 2018. 

Vapes will be made available at pharmacies without a prescription after the Albanese government struck a deal with the Greens that will soften a proposed retail ban on e-cigarettes.  The boss of Australia’s anti-doping agency has warned that the AFL – and Australian sport more widely – is at a “crossroad” as a damning report identified “key issues” around players buying cocaine, ice and ecstasy from criminals.  The notorious Bicycle Bandit who plundered 11 banks in a terrifying crime spree   has received one of the longest sentences in SA history – but a judge acknowledged the “air of artificiality” about his penalty, given that he’s about to die.  New data has revealed Queensland patients waited up to 14 hours in the state’s emergency departments as choked hospitals struggled to cope with soaring demand.  

A young girl who witnessed her mother’s alleged shooting murder is struggling to process the terrible tragedy, according to those close to the Mackay family.  The Bicycle Bandit’s sentencing has been expedited after he expressed an intent to access his voluntary assisted dying kit – but one of his victims, who also has terminal cancer, says he deserves neither empathy nor sympathy.  With a little help after years of trying, purple Wiggle John Pearce is to become a father for the first time. 

An eight-year-old boy took an illegal replica assault rifle to a Sydney school, forcing a class into lockdown and sparking a police investigation into how it ended up in the boy’s hands.  Elite private schools are exempting poorly performing students from national NAPALN tests in a bid to improve their overall scores, a scathing academic report has revealed.  Queensland’s political leaders are bitterly divided over the state’s nuclear future, with all levels of government at odds over the safety and economic viability of the controversial energy plan.  Cameras to catch Adelaide drivers distracted by mobile phones have been switched on, with hefty fines for those caught breaking the law. 

Dozens of rounds of live ammunition, police uniforms and bulletproof vests are in the hands of criminals after being stolen from cop cars during the Wakeley riot two months ago.  Queensland homeowners missing mortgage repayments are at their highest level since the early pandemic, with hundreds of families at risk as $223m worth of home loans go into the red.  An offshore wind farm proposed for NSW’s south coast has divided the tight-knit Illawarra community.  Millionaire John Singleton has lavished Erin Molan with a share in a $700,000 prize filly he’s named after her. 

Former premiership-winning South Australian greyhound trainer Tony Rasmussen has been banned for life and fined a record $220,000 after being found guilty of a string of welfare and integrity charges.  The Reserve Bank is set to pave the way for an upcoming interest rate rise when it concludes its board meeting on Tuesday afternoon amid a robust jobs market and concerns that fresh stimulus will heighten already elevated levels of inflation.  The notorious, terminally ill “Bicycle Bandit” who terrorised the state for a decade will spend what remains of his life in jail, after a court rejected his final plea for mercy.  An extra $720 million has been injected into the Queensland economy since the end of trade blocks imposed by the Chinese Government on Australian products like beef, barley and cotton. 

Opposition Leader John Pesutto has taken another swipe at the Allan government for failing to condemn union heavyweight John Setka’s savage attack on the AFL. Taxpayers were slugged more than $100,000 for an Australian delegation to attend the funeral of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Opposition Leader David Crisafulli has boldly declared Brisbane’s Olympic and Paralympic Games “mess” would be fixed within 100 days of an LNP government surging to power, salvaging Queensland’s reputation on the world stage. A teenager allegedly tried to steal a police car after a violent failed carjacking but was tasered and capsicum-sprayed, a court has heard.

A menacing attack by John Setka on AFL umpiring boss Stephen McBurney that included his image on a spoof “Wanted: Dead or Alive” poster has been slammed by anti-violence campaigners and the state opposition. Youth offenders have injured 137 people in six years by crashing cars they have stolen in aggravated burglaries.  A NSW Police officer faked a breath test when he caught the son of his senior colleague drink driving on a country road in the state’s southwest. Hundreds of  people rallied at Tyndale Christian School in Salisbury East on Wednesday night, in opposition to proposed changes to discrimination laws for faith-based schools.

CFMEU boss John Setka has demanded the AFL sack its umpire boss, former building watchdog Stephen McBurney, or face delays on its league-related projects nationwide.  In NSW, Disruption to Sydney’s light rail network for 24-hours on Wednesday could soon extend to the city’s trains and buses, the sector’s union has warned. Taxes on Queenslanders will help plug the state’s revenue hole as the golden era of coal royalties comes to an end. Two former Adelaide coaches have questioned the team’s mentality on the back of a string of narrow defeats that has left its season in free fall.

A former Labor minister has sided with families of Covid victims who feel outraged that Daniel Andrews was given the nation’s highest King’s Birthday honour – as polling shows 95 per cent of people don’t think he deserves it.  Premier Steven Miles says today’s state budget will be the “best ever” despite it containing the second-largest deficit in a decade to help fund a major pre-election cash splash. South Australia’s richest private schools have prime real estate holdings estimated to be worth more than $12bn, with one  located on a vast holding near the CBD valued at nearly $3bn. A 12-year-old repeat offender with a record of more than 80 charges is back at home after being caught breaking and entering just three days after he had been freed on bail by the NSW Supreme Court. 

Nine chairman Peter Costello has been captured on video pushing a journalist to the ground at Canberra Airport, after the former federal treasurer refused to answer the reporter’s questions relating to the rolling harassment scandal at the under-siege media company.  Four years on from the deaths of Russell Hill and Carol Clay, the couple’s loved ones sat ­metres away from the man ­accused of murdering them.  The price tag of the Miles government’s centrepiece “Big Build” has ballooned to $107bn over the next four years – almost the same cost, per minute, of the Apollo Project that landed men on the moon.  Port Adelaide has brushed off scepticism about its early-season form, believing it has set a really good platform to attack the second half of the campaign as it chases a flag. 

An encampment of rough sleepers has sprung up outside the Reserve Bank’s Martin Place offices as hundreds of people sleep on the street in the City of Sydney every night.  Taxpayers are forking out $2 million a year to look after a intellectually disabled boy, but his care is still failing so catastrophically he has been the subject of more than 500 critical incidents in less than two years.  A court has heard two Queensland owned electricity generators allegedly manipulated the price bracket of their wholesale power packages to create massive artificial spikes in energy market prices for their own profit.   Alleged Bicycle Bandit, armed robber and terminal cancer patient Kym Allen Parsons has been approved for voluntary assisted dying and has the means to end his life, eight months before his trial. 

Devastated cruise passengers have reacted furiously to the closure of the iconic P&O Australia brand after a 92-year history and the loss of Aussie jobs.  Victoria Police is being forced to fund daily operations with more than $100m saved from hundreds of staff vacancies.  This is Queensland’s tactical blueprint for Selwyn Cobbo to shock the Blues.  Adelaide has won planning approval for its move to Thebarton Oval, as the Crows’ long search for a new home reaches its conclusion. 

Foreign citizens including New Zealanders and permanent residents from the UK, US, Canada and Pacific island nations will be able to join the Australian Defence Force in a move to tackle the nation’s military recruitment crisis.  QLD Treasurer Cameron Dick has left the door open for tax changes on business and industry in next week’s state budget, but reiterated a “promise” that everyday Queenslanders will not suffer.  Supermum Jess Stenson says her two young children helped her deal with the drama surrounding an appeal over her marathon selection for the Paris Olympics.  Dramatic footage of Sydney hitman Hamad Assad being killed has been obtained by DTTV, nearly eight years after the man known as “The Executioner” was himself executed. 

A teenage boy who made the call for emergency services to help an unresponsive young girl in Adelaide who later died has recalled the incident in harrowing detail.  Queensland monthly building approvals have dropped to 25 per cent below their 10-year average, with struggling families turning to measures such as “instant” homes to cope with the housing crisis.  Councils and the construction industry have slammed the NSW Government’s new housing targets as “numbers on a piece of paper”, raising fears a building industry on its knees will be unable to hit the state’s goals. 

Investigators have uncovered a phone while searching a dam for the body of missing Ballarat mother Samantha Murphy.  Killer bus driver Brett Button was behaving oddly in the hours leading up to the Hunter crash which left 10 dead and 25 injured, boasting to wedding guests he could perform “donuts” and telling them “this bit’s going to be fun” as he took the Greta roundabout 25km/h faster than recommended.  Brisbane 2032 chief executive Cindy Hook has urged concerned Queenslanders to “speak up” and demand an Olympic Games stadium a growing city needs.  An “inexperienced, immature” driver whose “reckless and dangerous” choices caused the death of a beloved friend, daughter and granddaughter will spend at least two years ­behind bars. 

There was still no sign of a mother and baby more than 24 hours after a human placenta and umbilical cord were found on a Sydney riverbank as officials plead for the woman to take herself and her newborn to hospital.  Heat sensors have been installed in the homes of teachers in a remote Queensland community – and the government has now also urged them to sleep with duress alarms.  A rogue food delivery rider who clocked up 240 demerit points since the start of the year is ­allegedly still on the road driving dangerously – and authorities are struggling to stop him.West Adelaide footballer Sam May has been dubbed a ‘miracle man’ after making a remarkable recovery from serious injuries from a fall at a Port Lincoln hotel last month.

Facebook has become a thriving marketplace for black market merchants hawking everything from counterfeit cash, cloned credit cards and illegal firearms.  A sexual harassment scandal has engulfed one of the country’s biggest retailers, implicating its CEO, and forcing the resignation of a senior executive.  QLD Premier Steven Miles’ sensational call to slash immigration amid unprecedented growth has been questioned, with documents revealing that the state’s population is on par with what was predicted when Labor came to power nine years ago.  Students have moved into the new, $98m expansion of an Adelaide CBD school after construction delays meant they had to learn elsewhere on campus for the start of the year. 

Black market merchants peddling methamphetamine, ice and heroin are using Facebook posts promoting illegal vapes to funnel customers to websites and Telegram chats selling hard drugs.  A new diabetes drug thought to be “better than Ozempic” will be trialled in Melbourne in a move researchers hope can help end global shortages.  An Adelaide man has shared how a “fantastic holiday” with his wife came to a horrific end when their Singapore Airlines flight hit severe turbulence, sending them into freefall and leaving his wife with a serious spinal injury.  Multimillion-dollar sobering-up centres are sitting largely empty, with just 417 people checking in over their first five months of operation. 

SA Premier Peter Malinauskas’s push to ban children under 14 from social media has been bolstered by the US’s top doctor, who urged government action to tackle “a medical emergency among young people”.  Aviation experts have begun an investigation into how a Singapore Airlines flight dropped more than a kilometre in less than a minute, leaving one man dead and other passengers “doing somersaults” as the plane plunged.  One of Channel 9’s on-air stars has revealed her former boss Darren Wick sexually harassed her in public, groping her and breathing heavily down her neck.  Shocking allegations of gender selection within QLD’s embattled fertility industry are being investigated by the health ombudsman. 

Anthony Albanese has declared he will not go to the polls until he has broken the back of the cost-of-living crisis, saying he is committed to going the distance in his first term of government.  A staggering 70 per cent of Queensland’s public hospital staff have been assaulted or witnessed violence at work a damning new survey has revealed, with warnings patients are also at risk.  The cost of building a new home in Victoria went up about $25,000 overnight earlier this month.  Adelaide commuters purchasing single trips to travel short distances on public transport are paying the highest fares in the country. 

More than 60,000 of 80,000 failed asylum seekers still in the country have been allowed to remain here with full work and study rights.  Patient prescriptions and private GP and healthcare provider information was among the data leaked in the major medical breach involving MediSecure.  Victoria Police has rejected a recommendation to introduce nine-hour shifts for frontline cops in a move that pits Chief Commissioner Shane Patton against the Allan government.  AFL Brownlow Medallist Ollie Wines has been cleared by his cardiologist to train and play against North Melbourne this week, after he was subbed out of Port Adelaide’s thrilling win over Hawthorn with heart palpitations. 

Almost 320,000 Australians have been unemployed for between two years and a decade despite living through the biggest jobs booms in Australia’s history.  The University of Melbourne has warned pro-­Palestinian protesters occupying a major building on campus that it will send in police to break up their encampment because its “patience is now at an end”.  A frightened mother from regional SA says her child’s school was forced into lockdown after a seven-year-old boy with a history of behavioural issues produced a knife and threatened to kill classmates.  The Queensland government’s alternative plan for the Gabba could cost $1.1bn and cut its capacity by 4000 seats. 

The daughter of missing camper Carol Clay has told a jury she was concerned her mother’s affair with Russell Hill would become public after their disappearance.  Apartments could become more affordable in Brisbane under Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner’s plan to remove outdated minimum carparking requirements for new developments in high-density areas.  Australia’s peak soccer body is refusing to say how it plans to vote if a motion to expel Israel from the World Cup goes ahead in Bangkok later this week.  A tenant in one of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s investment properties has been given an eviction notice but is pleading with the leader of the country not to kick him out. 

Social media giants such as Meta and TikTok have been put on notice, with the federal government announcing a wide-ranging probe into online platforms’ potential harm to Australians.  Confronting footage has emerged of pro-Palestinian students at Queensland’s largest university admitting they would be terrorists if involved in the overseas conflict.  Troubled former North Melbourne footballer Tarryn Thomas is again being investigated by police for allegedly harassing a former partner.  A Port Lincoln father allegedly caught with methamphetamine in Bali was sent an unsolicited package, purportedly holding lubricant but actually containing drugs, while in the Indonesian party capital.

A repeat domestic violence offender with an apprehended violence order banning him going near his former girlfriend ambushed her outside a Sydney gym and stabbed her in the throat with a kitchen knife.  Jewish students and staff at Queensland’s top university fear for their safety after a suspected antisemitic attack on the office of a Jewish academic.  The governnment will pump an extra $3.25 billion into the North East Link – the biggest single investment it has made in Victoria since being elected.  Twenty scholarships will soon be available for students wanting to work in artificial intelligence research at Lot Fourteen, with significant investment aimed at boosting SA as a global competitor in the sector. 

Accused mushroom murderer Erin Patterson has formally entered not guilty pleas to three charges of murder and five of attempted murder as her case will be fast-tracked for trial to the Supreme Court.  Premier Steven Miles’ $1000 election sweetener, spruiked as helping Queenslanders with their power bills, could be cashed out and spent on anything in a $2.5bn billing loophole.  Medical experts are sounding the alarm as a predicted epidemic of cancer in under 50s threatens to overwhelm the country’s GPs and blow out hospital wait times.  Sydney’s iconic Darling Harbour has been given a multimillion-dollar facelift, with a new playground, sound shell and a bamboo forest at the Chinese Garden of Friendship to be officially opened to the public Wednesday. 

Under-18s will be banned from buying knives, raising the age limit from 16 while NSW Police will get new powers to search people for blades in response to the alleged stabbing of an Assyrian bishop in Wakeley and the Bondi Junction massacre.  A new $400 bonus for an estimated 700,000 Victorian students will be unveiled as the key cost of living measure in today’s state budget.  The state government has spent more than $111m buying properties and doing technical studies for a renewable energy project that has no business case, is not backed by the Opposition and is vehemently opposed by locals.  A third of primary school students and almost half of high schoolers have sought, or are planning to start, treatment for mental health concerns. 

Parents will be able to see social media through the eyes of their teenage children using a new tool exposing how young people can be surrounded by misogynistic content that promotes harmful attitudes toward women.  Staff shortages, lenient consequences for poor behaviour and the false perception educators get 12 weeks off a year are some of the systematic issues driving disrespect in the classroom.  Queenslanders won’t pay “a single cent” for electricity from July, with Premier Steven Miles doubling the state’s power rebate to $1000 in a major $2.5bn pre-election cash splash.  South Australian mums and dads are less likely to yell at their kids or feel guilty about how much time they spend together than parents elsewhere in the country.

Coward-punch killer Kieran Loveridge, whose unprovoked attack on a young man on a Kings Cross street 12 years ago shocked Sydney, is now out of jail and on a crusade to educate young men about the dangers of alcohol and violence, saying if anyone knows the horror consequences, it’s him.  The union for prison officers has accused the Victorian government of recklessly endangering their lives amid what it brands an “epidemic of ­assaults”.  Queensland Premier Steven Miles has buckled to pressure and will remove the detention as a last resort clause amid poor electoral prospects and mounting criticism the government is soft on crime.  AstraZeneca has acknowledged that its Covid-19 vaccine can cause a rare and potentially deadly blood-clotting condition, according to court documents. 

Child experts are calling for a national blanket ban on mobile phones in schools as they warn kids are struggling with basic skills in the classroom like reading for long periods of time, critical thinking and recognising emotions on faces.  The father of accused Melbourne footballer Joel Smith says he fears his son is being “scapegoated” to cover up rampant illicit drug use in the AFL.  CFMEU workers on Brisbane’s $6.2bn Cross River Rail project are expected to walk off the job on Tuesday following unmet demands for huge pay rises that would mean an entry-level construction worker earning $240,000.  Rory Sloane thought he might be able to pull just one more “out of the hat” and yet again come back from a serious injury. 

Anzac Day - unspoiled by commericalism or activism - is fast becoming our nation’s seminal day.  Labor is on track for a savage electoral defeat as voters desert QLD Premier Steven Miles and the LNP extends its two-party lead just six months before the state election.  Victorian homeowners could be forced to fork out thousands of dollars to upgrade old appliances with energy efficient models as the statewide crackdown on fossil fuels intensifies.  Virgin Australia has suspended direct flights from Adelaide to Bali due to the delayed delivery of new Boeing MAX aircraft. 

War heroes and army veterans have slammed a group of pro-Palestine protesters who are set to rally at several city locations on Anzac Day.  Police swooped on what they claim was a teen terror cell in Sydney’s southwest ­yesterday, arresting seven youths allegedly linked to the Wakeley church stabber.  Queensland teachers are being stabbed with pencils and having desks thrown at them by students, as compensation payouts top half a billion dollars over the past decade.  And an Adelaide Inquest has heard a woman who died while being ramped told a paramedic she couldn’t breathe shortly before going into cardiac arrest.

Elon Musk could afford to personally pay the fine for his social media platform X’s refusal to remove footage of a violent stabbing attack in Sydney for centuries, as the billionaire is accused of putting his “ego” ahead of “common decency”.  Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has admitted the government “needs to do more” to grapple with the growing domestic violence crisis in Australia.   The West Adelaide Football Club has shed new light on the moments leading up to the discovery of a seriously injured footballer Sam May at a Port Lincoln hotel on the weekend.  Crown Resorts has finally been given the all clear to hold a casino license at Sydney’s Barangaroo by NSW Independent Casino Commission (NICC), ending years of uncertainty over a vision outlined more than a decade ago by James Packer

Five young Victorian children – including two known to child protection – died from malnutrition and neglect in just 17 months during the pandemic.  A NSW woman has allegedly been murdered by her ex-partner just over a fortnight after he was granted bail after being accused of raping her three times.  Queensland’s youth crime epidemic has been laid bare as a new report reveals the number of young criminals jumped 5.2 per cent to more than 11,000 offenders, with 11 of those charged with murder.  A West Adelaide footballer is in a serious condition in Royal Adelaide Hospital after an incident at a Port Lincoln hotel on Sunday morning. 

Pro-Palestine activists are turning up at University of Melbourne classrooms and photographing students after asking   for a show of hands to indicate who agrees with their views on the Israel-Gaza war.  A teenager has been charged after allegedly attacking an Assyrian Christian bishop during a livestreamed service at a church in Sydney’s southwest after days in hospital.  Police say the Australian boss of a transnational organised crime syndicate was living in Brisbane’s suburbia as he masterminded a series of huge drug shipments including a “botched” 900kg cocaine import where bricks of the drugs washed ashore.  Owners of short-term accommodation, such as Airbnb and Stayz properties, will be slugged hundreds more in rates, under a proposal by Adelaide City Council. 

Brittany Higgins will keep the $2.4m compensation payment she received from the government despite Justice Michael Lee finding the basis for her claim, that there had been a political cover up of her assault, was “untrue.”  The family of schoolboy accused of the Sydney church stabbing say the teen was “religious but not a radical” and he is “extremely remorseful”.  Ongoing protest action that continues to plague Victoria has forced at least 10,000 Victoria Police officers off the beat with more than 560 protests staged in Melbourne’s CBD in the past six months alone.  A federal inquiry has failed to find any evidence of the QLD government having completed any real work in preparation for the  2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games, according to key senators leading the probe. 

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has hinted that a brave Frenchman who faced off  with a rampaging knifeman, who stabbed six people to death in Bondi Junction, on Saturday may jump the queue to become an Australian citizen.  Woolworths CEO Brad Banducci has been threatened with jail time after refusing to answer questions about the supermarket chain’s profitability in a two hour-long standoff with furious senators.  More than half of Queenslanders have witnessed an accident on the Bruce Highway and a whopping one in three people are dissatisfied or extremely dissatisfied with the nation’s longest route.  Embattled former player agent Ricky Nixon is facing a slew of fresh criminal charges as he stares down the threat of imminent bankruptcy. 

After one aborted, then abandoned, criminal trial and two successful out of court settlements Bruce Lehrmann was on Monday found to have raped Brittany Higgins.  The Victorian government is pushing for a “substantial ­increase” for workers on minimum and award wages, well ahead of the “economically ­responsible” lift other states want amid warnings too big a rise may drive up inflation.  A new housing “super portfolio” has been created to focus on fixing the South Australia’s housing crisis – and several other key portfolio responsibilities have been switched – as part of Premier Peter Malinauskas’ first cabinet reshuffle.  Queensland Education Minister Di Farmer has bowed to pressure from the teachers’ unions and home education bodies, announcing homeschooling reforms and proposed changes to student suspensions and expulsions are officially on hold. 

Drug dealing would be virtually impossible for criminals without social media and apps like Meta-owned WhatsApp, with a new study finding 70 per cent of Australians use them to buy illicit substances.  NSW households face paying at least $20 a year extra on their electricity bills after a blowout in the already massive cost of a new privately owned transmission line to the troubled Snowy Hydro 2.0 project.  A young man who was brutally stabbed to death in a suspected drug deal gone wrong in an industrial street was “polite” and “well mannered” when he sought information from residents less than 12 hours before his unsolved murder.  More than half of Queensland’s most hardcore youth offenders are roaming free on the streets – but the minister says more young criminals are locked up than ever. 

In a devastating on-air moment, a Channel Seven veteran has announced the tragic death of Sunrise reporter Nathan Templeton.  A $1 billion money laundering and tax evasion syndicate has been busted by the Australian Federal Police, who claim 1200 business were cashing in on the scheme.  Security footage has captured the moments after a 21-year-old Adelaide man was stabbed to death in a “senseless” attack in a quiet industrial street, with police now launching a major murder probe.  Queensland’s construction sector has the lowest rate of female participation of any industry, with insiders saying “toxic masculinity” is locking women out of the sector. 

The state government is looking at charging foreigners more to buy property in NSW, with Treasurer Daniel Mookhey declaring money from overseas investors should be directed to help “build new homes”.  A large group of Hells Angels bikies charged over a joy ride have appeared in court, prompting a heavy police presence in Adelaide’s CBD.  Double time when it rains, a full month of rostered days off each year, and an extra $1000 a week when working away from home are just some of the sweetheart conditions the Queensland government has struck with the construction unions under its controversial Best Practice Industry Conditions policy.  Melbourne’s world class major sporting events are encouraging workers to take sickies. 

The man charged with murdering his ex-girlfriend, who was found dead in a burnt-out car near Ballarat, posted a tribute after her death saying he would “forever love you” and allegedly messaged friends claiming she had taken her own life.  The owner of an e-scooter that allegedly set fire to a hotel room, causing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of damage, had taped over the room’s smoke alarm because her vaping had been setting it off too much.  Queensland’s critical housing shortage is being exacerbated by the Miles’ government centrepiece $92bn Big Build pipeline.  Sydney petrol prices have hit their highest levels this year just in time for the school holidays, with economists warning further increases could fuel inflation and impact the potential for interest rate cuts. 

Students were shown pictures of adults who had undergone transgender transformation surgery, and incest and bestiality were discussed in an unsupervised  sex-ed session in an Adelaide school.  Former Seven producer Taylor Auerbach says that Bruce Lehrmann was reimbursed by the network for drugs and prostitutes during a night out which prompted him to tell his boss the former political staffer was on the “warpath”.  Indian community leaders and Life Saving Victoria say the state government must urgently invest in multilingual water safety education and swimming lessons to “help save lives” after a series of tragic drownings.  The peak medical body has set in motion crisis talks with surgeons to find solutions to exploding elective surgery lists in regional Queensland. 

Australia’s next Governor-General will be a female corporate high-flyer with a long history of advocacy on gender, climate and Indigenous issues.  A Queensland pumped hydroelectricity project slated to cut through the world’s platypus capital and furiously opposed by locals could balloon to $18bn – the state’s most expensive project ever.  Bosses at the Seven Network are holding crisis talks on the future of Spotlight as allegations of payments for drugs and prostitutes engulf the current affairs program.  SA Premier Peter Malinauskas has declared this year’s Gather Round sequel will be better than the original as the AFL’s festival of football returns to Adelaide today. 

Former Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation trial against Network Ten and presenter Lisa Wilkinson has been reopened at the 11th hour after sensational new evidence was presented to the Federal Court.  Parents in Sydney’s booming northwest are being forced to make 90 minute round trips to pick up their children from their catchment primary school after the state failed to deliver any of its promises for education in the area.  An expert says the three people who died after ingesting beef wellington allegedly laced with poisonous fungi may have spent their last moments writhing in pain as the toxins from the death cap mushrooms worked through their bodies.   Organised groups stealing bulk quantities of items to sell on the black market at discounted prices or to exchange for drugs are behind a rise in retail thefts  in South Australia. 

A motorcycle rider was killed in a crash during a police chase in Sydney’s inner west yesterday afternoon.  A Caboolture mother claims Queensland Health failed her toddler, who is now brain-damaged and fighting for life in intensive care after contracting the usually harmless hand, foot and mouth disease.  The Victorian Premier’s office is fighting to keep hundreds of documents from Daniel Andrews’ time in office secret in a legal case with ramifications for government transparency.  Adelaide City Council member Jing Li helped enrol 500 new voters in the hotly contested 2020 local government election, according to Freedom of Information documents.