DAILY BRIEFING: The prisons watchdog says he was pressured to redact a report on the Ashley youth detention centre and he will strongly resist requests to do so in the future.

The head of the Royal Hobart Hospital's emergency department tells an inquest of a large increase in the number of mental health patients trying to access care, and of more suicide attempts at the facility.

A mansion in Melbourne's east, newly constructed units and more than 3,000 acres of Tasmanian farmland are among the assets seized by Australian Federal Police as part of a two-year investigation into alleged money laundering by Chinese nationals.

Scientists at the University of Tasmania find vaping is just as harmful to human health as cigarettes and even has the potential to cause lung cancer. But some say any alternative to smoking is worth the risk.

DAILY BRIEFING: An 85-year-old retired GP has been missing in the state's north since Monday, and the Opposition calls on the Government to fix issues within TasWater after a boil water alert is issued for parts of Hobart.

A severe heatwave threatens to break all-time records in South Australia and Victoria today including the maximum of 46.1C in Adelaide set in 1939 as experts warn that "nowhere is going to escape the heat".

A former Adelaide doctor jailed for trying to murder a pharmacistwho reported him for overprescribing medication loses his bid to reduce his decade-long sentence.

Last year, Edie Rayner wrote an open letter addressed to all the doctors of Australia. Like many regional towns, her Kimba does not have a permanent doctor but she's looking to change that.

At 73, Dr Graham Fleming could be enjoying a quiet retirement. Instead, he's gearing up to be a struggling regional town's first resident doctor in nearly 18 months.

John Flynn established a medical facility in Innamincka and now, 68 years later, the RFDS is continuing on-the-ground medical services.

Hundreds of thousands of eggs are removed from the shelves of supermarkets across four states following an outbreak of salmonella cases linked to an exotic strain of the bacteria.

A surprise collection of 1,300 lots of Holden and other memorabilia, including 120 cars, secreted away by a South Australian panelbeater has gone under the hammer.

Usually, federal elections are decided outside Victoria. This one could be different, with Bill Shorten hoping to pick up a number of seats in his home state that were once considered Liberal bastions.

Victorian agriculture authorities are investigating allegations of cruelty at the Bridgewater Poultry Farm, after footage released by Animal Liberation appeared to show workers mistreating chickens they were culling.

Footage from a Victorian poultry farm, released by animal activists, appears to show workers stretching the necks of chickens and throwing them onto a concrete floor.

With production doubling in the past five years thanks to new extraction technology and investment, Victorian mines are digging deeper where most of its gold actually is.

The daughters of Kerry Robertson, 61, the first Victorian to use the state's Voluntary Assisted Dying Act, say their mother's death was "beautiful and peaceful".

Snow was recorded in Ballarat, Kyneton and the Dandenongs as cold air washes over the state.

They are the lifeblood of Australia's smaller regional towns, selling everything from ammunition to bread, but what's it really like behind the counter at a country town's local store?

Victoria moves to decriminalise public drunkenness on the eve of a coronial inquest into the death of Aboriginal woman Tanya Day, who suffered head injuries in a police cell in 2017.

Hopeful prospectors flock to Victoria's goldfields in search of a lucky strike, but the region is also a hotbed of scientific discovery thanks to the number of meteorites found there.

The only nursing home in Pyramid Hill will close by the end of November, leaving 30 locals out of work.

A local council warns Victoria's "culture of recycling" is at risk as the state's waste crisis deepens and an estimated 780 rubbish trucks' worth of recyclable material is sent to landfill in a week.

The Swan Hill and Robinvale regions produce more $800 million in agricultural goods each year, but a "dangerous" C-class road connects them to Melbourne. The community says the lack of funding is a "human rights issue" and the system "needs to change".

Buried among the hundreds of witness statements submitted to the aged care royal commission is a table showing how one of the country's biggest for-profit chains employs just one registered nurse for 106 residents on the night shift.

The 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, is celebrated worldwide and for the first time in Bendigo.

A Melbourne doctor is banned from practising after sparking outrage with online chat room posts, including one that said "some women deserve to be raped" and another that said his marriage "would end in murder" if it fell apart.

Since the privatisation of Victoria's coal-fired power stations in the 1990s, the Latrobe Valley has struggled with high unemployment. But a workers' group has decided not to wait around for new jobs to appear.

James Day died from complications caused by influenza eight days after he was admitted to hospital in eastern Victoria. He is one of 37 people killed so far this year.

More than 60 people search for missing Melbourne man Jeremy Boyden and his dog, Rocky, who were last seen on a road in Victoria's high country three days ago.

The search for missing hiker Jeremy Boyden and his dog Rocky enters its fourth day, as rescue teams focus on searching the large network of alpine huts scattered across Victoria's high country amid worsening weather.

Victorian public housing tenants say residents could forgo medication or heating because of higher rental prices after the State Government's market review.

A man has been ordered to stand trial over the death of his partner, who was hit by a car in the driveway of her Traralgon home.

Jesse Reid reached speeds of up to 200kph before he veered onto the wrong side on the road and crashed into a veteran policeman's motorcycle.

Lado Alphonse says he was a "reject in society" before being recruited by the Cora Lynn Cobras. Now, he is among several players bringing new life to the regional Victorian football community.

Drunk and high-on-ice driver Jesse Reid is sentenced to 10 years in prison over the 2018 death of policeman Victor Kostiuk, who was taking part in a charity motorbike ride in Victoria.

Teachers will be offered up to $50,000 to relocate from Melbourne to rural and regional schools desperate for qualified teachers, as part of a new Victorian Government plan to tackle flagging results.

In regional Victoria, palliative care patients are waiting hours and sometimes days for much-needed medications to help with pain and quality of life.

Police find the bodies of Caleb Forbes and Shannon Lowden in their car, almost a week after they went missing near the Baw Baw National Park in eastern Victoria.

Latrobe Regional Hospital in Victoria's Gippsland has been ordered to pay more than $31,000 to a former security guard who was sacked last year.

Vic Roads and Zoos Victoria

The Victorian Government investigates the scale of a ransomware attack by "sophisticated cyber criminals" on some of the state's major regional hospitals that has forced healthcare providers to go offline.

Farmers struggling in the driest parts of Victoria will have access to an extra $31m in relief funds, days after the Federal Government announced an extension in drought support.

Victoria finally has a permanent kangaroo pet food program, but farmers are concerned red tape will result in carcasses left to rot in paddocks.

Pusparani Kumaravel has shaved her head after waiting six years for a visa. She feels like it's the only way she can have some control of her life.

A special kind of election is unfolding across Victoria as the Aboriginal communities taking part in the treaty process cast their votes to elect a First Peoples' Assembly.

A planned $17-million hi-tech education precinct in Victoria's Latrobe Valley, a centrepiece of the Hazelwood transition program, is in jeopardy after the project's major partner pulls out.