TRANSCRIPT
Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan claims her tougher new bail laws won't trap young people in a cycle of reoffending.
Advocates say the reforms aren't evidence-based and risk entrenching criminal behaviour.
But Ms Allan says the crime rate is simply too high not to act.
"After listening to Victorians, after having to listened to victims of crime, listening to the advice of Victoria Police, and to other representatives across the justice system, we needed to bring about a jolt to the system. We are seeing too many instances of people's homes being invaded. Too many people - particularly young people - carrying deadly, dangerous machetes on our streets. We are seeing too much of that."
Shop owners say there has been a spike in retail crime involving weapons in the past year, with incidents involving knives and blades up more than 40 per cent and and an increase in violent or serious events of 30 per cent.
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Indepdenent federal M-P Andrew Wilkie has accused the Tasmanian government of running a protection racket for the local salmon industry, and has called for an independent inquiry following allegations of misconduct.
This comes amid a debate over the hygiene and animal welfare standards in the industry, following mass deaths that resulted in 5,500 tonnes of salmon being dumped in February.
The R-S-P-C-A has now withdrawn certification for Huon Aquaculture's Atlantic salmon farms in Tasmania's southeast, which were involved in the deaths.
In 2014, a policy document from Huon was revealed, advising staff that, in any large mortality event, as many fish as possible should be recovered for harvest and processing.
Mr Wilkie is asking for an inquiry into whether companies are selling diseased fish to the public.
"We want the industry to be sustainable and it's not sustainable when it has practices like this. We also want the community to have confidence they're eating a safe and healthy product and don't tell me it's safe and healthy to be eating a fish that died of disease and because it still had pink gills it was sliced up and smoked and sold at Woolies and Coles. That can't possibly be healthy."
The salmon industry denies claims that diseased fish were sold for human consumption.
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Federal Opposition Leader Peter Dutton says regulating big supermarkets is an example of how he'd handle cost of living concerns better than the current government.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission [[A triple C]] has released its final report from a 12-month inquiry into the pricing strategies of the supermarkets, describing them as as among the most profitable in the world.
The competition regulator made 20 recommendations for reform, including forcing Coles, Woolworths and Aldi to publish all prices on their websites to allow online comparison tools to better inform shoppers.
Mr Dutton says, if he wins the election, his government will have a very clear brief in this area.
"And we've been very clear, if consumers are being ripped off we will not tolerate it. Our job is to ensure that consumers aren't being ripped off, that there's not market concentration that's leading to people paying too much for their groceries. But, I'll tell you what, we've got a bad government in Canberra that's driving up the cost of electricity."
The federal government says it will allocate $2.9 million over three years in next week's Federal Budget to help support suppliers to Australia's supermarkets.
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A new poll shows Labor and the Coalition are almost equally popular with voters, as the Prime Minister prepares to call the Federal Election.
The latest YouGov poll provided to Australian Associated Press, shows the Opposition clawing back ground on the government, with the major parties tied 50-50 on a two-party preferred basis.
The result comes after two weeks of Labor holding a narrow 51 to 49 per cent lead in the polls, off the back of the response to ex-tropical cyclone Alfred and public reaction to the government's backing of Ukraine.
While the Coalition gained ground in the lead-up to the election, Anthony Albanese is still ahead of Peter Dutton as preferred prime minister.
The poll showed 45 per cent of those surveyed backed Mr Albanese as preferred leader compared to 40 per cent for Mr Dutton.
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The leader of the M-23 rebels in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is ignoring calls for ceasefire by both the Congolose and Rwandan governments.
Walikale is the farthest west the rebels have reached, in an advance that had already overrun the eastern D-R-C's two largest cities since January.
The town of 15,000 people fell after fighting on Wednesday between the Rwandan-backed rebels and the army and allied militias.
M-23 leader, Corneille Nangaa [[nun-gah]], says he won't obey the ceasefire calls beacsue he has no reason to.
TRANSLATED: "They have put prices on our arrest. We have nothing more to lose. We will fight until our cause is heard. Meanwhile what happened in Doha, as long as we don't know the details and as long as it doesn't solve our problems, we will say it does not concern us."
The unrest is rooted in a long history of conflict between the D-R-C and its neighbour Rwanda, as well as competition for mineral riches.
It is the region's most violence conflict since the 1998 to 2023 war that resulted in millions of deaths.
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British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer says plans for allied countries to safeguard a potential Ukraine ceasefire are coming together.
Leaders and senior military officers from more than 30 countries, including Australia, have met to finalise plans for an international peacekeeping in Ukraine that could include as many as 30,000 troops.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says he remains open to making a small contribution to a peacekeeping force in Ukraine.
Another meeting on the issue is scheduled for next week.
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In football, a penalty goal in the ninth minute of second half stoppage time has given Brazil a two-goals-to-one victory over Colombia in a World Cup qualifier.
Real Madrid star Vinicus Junior scored the winning goal in Brasilia to keep Brazil in second place in South American qualifying.
Elsewhere, ninth-placed Peru beat Bolivia three-goals-to-one in Lima in a boost for their slim chances of making the World Cup.
And defender Omar Alderete has scored the lone goal of the game to give Paraguay a one-goal-to-nil victory over bottom of the table Chile.
The top six nations in the ten-nation South American qualifying tournament get automatic spots in next year's World Cup, with the seventh place finisher going to an intercontinental playoff.
