MORNING BRIEFING: Michael Ferguson says union bosses have hit a 'new low' and a court hears that a Launceston man accused of murder said his alleged victim "is going to pay".

Two people charged with aggravated assault over a fight at an AFL game at Adelaide Oval are engaged in another altercation outside court.

The SA Government has revealed plans to mothball 60 public hospital beds and offer further redundancies in the health system, despite record levels of ambulance ramping outside emergency departments in recent months.

Letters released by the Independent Commissioner Against Corruption show he was refused $2 million to fund an evaluation of the Central Adelaide Local Health Network.

Chinese interest returns to the Ballarat goldfields, which may provide job security for more than 200 people in the town, but there is concern about how new royalties will affect businesses.

Victoria as recorded six new cases of coronavirus overnight, with a new cluster at a psychiatric facility.

The Federal Government is ordered to pay $206,000 in legal fees for a two-year-old Tamil girl who has been embroiled in a high-profile legal battle to stay in Australia with her family.

The curve is flattening, the growth factor is below one, but is it still too early to ease coronavirus restrictions? We asked four health experts what Australia should be doing next.

The Victorian Opposition is calling for Deputy Chief Health Officer Annaliese van Diemen to resign over her comments comparing the "terror" of COVID-19 to Captain Cook's arrival in Australia.

A health industry expert is calling on federal authorities to oversee the return of windfall profits, as customers negotiate with insurers to save money.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews responds to the state's Deputy Chief Health Officer's tweet comparing coronavirus to Captain Cook's arrival in Australia at a press conference on May 1, 2020.

Federal Education Minister Dan Tehan accused the Victorian Premier of jeopardising the national consensus on Australia's coronavirus response be refusing to reopen classrooms.

Victoria's health department counsels Annaliese van Diemen over her tweet comparing the impact of COVID-19 with Captain Cook's arrival in Australia, but clears her of breaching the Victorian public sector code of conduct.

With the COVID-19 pandemic, immunity has never been such a hot topic. It's meant a family-run dairy that produces colostrum is being overrun with enquiries.

A north Queensland mother is worried for the health of her children after PFAS was found in fish and water samples taken near their Mackay property.

Chef Julie-Anne Booth, after a lifetime sometimes cooking for royalty, is back home sharing her food experiences with regional food producers.

Young, adventurous and enterprising couple Jess Davidson and Andy Hoffman quit their jobs to follow a dream more than a year ago.

A health facility able to meet the needs of acclaimed Aboriginal playwright Jimmy Chi was not available at the time of his death, a coronial inquest has heard.

Conservation groups want harsher penalties for illegal land clearing, as the WA Government investigates a Chinese-owned company over the mysterious clearing of 120 hectares at a cattle station.

More than 2.7 million Australians live in a house with a swimming pool and with growing environmental awareness, residents across the country are converting their pools to ponds.

A social media video of a tourist hanging off a notorious WA cliff on Easter Sunday has prompted a furious response from a sea rescue group.

A shortage of volunteers and funding has triggered serious concerns for animal welfare in far-north Western Australia, with cats, dogs, puppies and kittens "very much at risk" of being euthanased.

When hunting the Tasmanian tiger, some people use drones and other gadgets, others stealth but one scientist isn't content to wait for one to be found: he intends to bring them back from the dead with technology.

Autonomous mining trucks and remote health tools are among key Australian technologies that NASA will need for its 2024 Moon mission, stakeholders say.

The Peck family want the Tasmanian Government to overhaul the Mental Health Act so clinicians can consider a patient's history and risk of self-harm when considering involuntary treatment orders.

Consultants investigating Ambulance Tasmania found poor management of fatigue and workplace stress and a lack of workplace health and safety procedures across the organisation, a leaked report reveals.

A Tasmanian great-grandmother-to-be was shocked to discover she was forking out for private health services she didn't ask for and didn't need. But her insurer said it was simply a case of 'buyer beware'.

Researchers have used marsupial lion fossils discovered in Naracoorte and the Nullarbor to discover that the Thylacoleo was similar to a tree-climbing Tasmanian devil, ambushing its prey in forests.

FOI documents also reveal the Federal Government knows the process is creating division in small towns and causing some businesses to be boycotted.

Leonora, a small town in the West Australian Goldfields, is being touted as a suitable location for an underground, low and intermediate-level nuclear waste storage facility.

People living in South Australia's regional areas call for the State Government to help improve liveability.

Industry experts say consumers are often misguided about what is healthier between alternative and dairy milks, and some say branding is the issue.

On the outskirts of Bendigo in central Victoria, a farm run by a social worker is helping children and adults with behavioural and mental health issues.

Bus drivers used to receive respectful thanks at the end of a quiet ride, but these days some say they work in fear of being punched, stabbed, screamed at or spat on.

A report on the workplace culture at a major hospital in Victoria uncovers limited supervision of junior mental health staff, as well as allegations of bullying and sexual harassment.

Mental illnesses don't switch off after business hours, and a new program in outback New South Wales aims to cater for just that. 'Connections' is the name of a new initiative at Broken Hill in far west New South Wales where people who have experience of a mental illness socialise and support others struggling with mental health problems.

The Fair Work Ombudsman releases a report revealing widespread breaches of workplace laws by Caltex franchisees.

A 53-year-old man accused of lighting up to four bushfires in north Queensland will undergo a mental health assessment, after a dramatic arrest where he allegedly rammed a police car and officers fired shots at his vehicle.

Thousands of Townsville locals have gathered to break the world record for 'the most people wearing high-visibility vests at a single venue'.

Communities, harvesters and AgForce are shocked by a decision to cease the 2020 kangaroo harvest as millions of the animals starve during drought.

A lack of aged care facilities has been badly impacting on the remote Northern Territory's elderly, but many of their stories will not reach the ears of royal commissioners.