Daily Telegraph - News Feed

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.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.