Sunday's news in under 5 minutes.

1. Prime Minister Tony Abbott plans to overhaul adoption laws. 

The Federal Government has plans to streamline processes to make inter-country adoption easier for Australian families.

An Inter-Country Adoption Support Agency is planned to open in April, and will include a 1800 hotline, website and dedicated Federal Government advocates to negotiate with foreign governments on behalf of prospective Australian parents, reports The Daily Telegraph. 

The government is currently planning negotiations with the USA, Vietnam, Poland, Latvia, Kenya, Bulgaria and Cambodia to cut down on the average five-year wait prospective adoptive parents currently go through.

“Prospective parents have told me they simply don’t have anyone advocating for them,” Mr Abbott said. “This is all about helping the families who want a child, and the children who need a safe and loving family. Now there will be someone to guide them and support them.”

The plan includes funding for family support services to provide much needed help to parents and families involved in adoption.

“For those parents who want to adopt from overseas, we will make those processes simpler to navigate, with a central contact point,”  Mr Abbott said.

There were 317 adoptions finalised in Australia in 2013-14 (domestic and intercountry). This is the lowest number on record, a fall of 9 per cent from the year before and 76 per cent lower than from 25 years ago (1989-90).

One of the most extraordinary adoption stories you’ll ever hear.

 2. Sydney Labor candidate admits to dealing cocaine.

Edwina Lloyd, criminal lawyer and candidate for the state seat of Sydney, has told the Sydney Morning Herald about her arrest for dealing cocaine when she was 30.

That arrest, she says, changed the course of her life. She entered rehabilitation for drug and alcohol addiction at The Buttery in Byron Bay and then began her law degree.

By the time that she went back to court and pleaded guilty to the charge, the judge was so impressed with her transformation that he did not record a conviction.

After finishing her law degree she was admitted to the bar. After several years of practice, she is now the candidate for the NSW seat of Sydney. She says that she disclosed her drug arrest to both the Bar Association and the Labor Party prior to taking up the positions – and both were supportive of her transformation.

She told the SMH, “I know what it sounds like – a politician with a colourful past – I know I am going to lose some skin over it. But I want other people to have the opportunity I have had, to change and build a successful life.”

Lloyd works as a legal aid lawyer and is passionate about the capacity of the criminal justice system to rehabilitate offenders.

“This is my life’s work. I want to reduce the stigma and put a human face to these sorts of problems. I want people to see that rehabilitation can and does work,” she told the SMH. 

Last month, NSW Labor Opposition Leader Luke Foley revealed previous drink driving convictions. The partners of other politicians have also disclosed drug offences. Federal Deputy Opposition Leader, Tanya Plibersek’s husband served three years of a nine year sentence for conspiracy to traffic heroin in his early twenties, and the husband of former MP and current candidate, Verity Firth, was arrested for buying an ecstasy tablet in 2011.

3. Police search for a man who attempted to blow up a Queensland mosque. 

Queensland police are trying to enhance security camera footage of a man who attempted to burn down a mosque in Toowoomba, west of Brisbane.

Investigators said a security camera recorded the man breaking into a building near the main mosque on West Street in Harristown.

Would you have stepped in if you saw this happening in your street?f

They believe he started a fire in a plastic bin which burnt a hole in a wooden floor, but the flames died out before it could take hold.

Police said a gas stove was also turned on in a deliberate attempt to blow up the building, but the leaking gas failed to ignite.

The incident occurred sometime between 2pm on Friday and 12.30pm on Saturday, police said.

They are currently trying to enhance the footage to identify the suspect and encouraged anyone with information to contact Crime Stoppers.

The mosque opened in March last year.

This article originally appeared on the ABC here. It has been republished with full permission.