Tuesday's news in under 5 minutes.

We’ve rounded up all the latest stories from Australia and around the world – so you don’t have to go searching.

1. Tonight’s budget to focus on families and small business.

Tonight’s budget is expected to focus on small business, jobs and families policies. The Abbott Government has already laid out its childcare initiatives package, and changes to paid parental leave.

The ABC reports that cuts to paid parental leave will be concentrated on wealthier parents.

Three quarters of families earning between $90,000 and $100,000 per year will lose some or all of their benefits.

According to the ABC that drops to half in the $50,000 to $60,000 income bracket, and a quarter of families in the $20,000 to $30,000 range.

Overall, the Government expects the changes will impact about 80,000 parents.

The Small Business Minister, Bruce Billson has told the ABC that the government will deliver tax cuts for small business – with a big surprise element of this year’s budget in his portfolio.

“A delightful package, a delicious package energising enterprise and showing respect and reward and encouragement for those small businesses that are crucial to jobs and economic growth in our country,” Mr Billson said last week.

What else is in the budget?

• GST for digital products bought online – this is expected to include Airbnb, car-sharing service Uber, movie download service Netflix, and some Google products.
• Pension eligibility rules will also be tightened, with tens of thousands of wealthier retirees set to lose access.
• A new subsidy for nannies in a two-year, $250 million trial program to start in January
• An extra $450 million will be spent on fighting terrorist propaganda and bolstering intelligence agencies.
• The Treasurer has announced multinational companies caught sending profits offshore to avoid tax will face hefty fines.
• Funding of $230 million for two years to provide services for homeless people, with an emphasis on tackling domestic violence.

2. Government paid parental leave scheme had lifted breastfeeding numbers.

A report into the success of the PPL scheme, which provides 18 weeks’ leave at the minimum wage to most primary carers, has shown it was achieving its aims after just three years in operation.

The report, quoted today by Fairfax Media showed that the PPL was having a “clear effect” of delaying mothers’ return to work after the birth of their baby.

It was also attributed to increasing the probability of mothers returning to work before the baby’s first birthday.

The report found the existing PPL “increased employers’ retention of mothers when they returned to work.”

“Produced small, but statistically significant, improvements” in mothers’ average physical and mental health.

And had been associated with a lift in the proportion of mothers who were still breastfeeding when their child was six months or older.

The increase in breastfeeding duration was “consistent across all groups of mothers” except single mothers.

On Sunday the Treasurer announced that mothers would now have to adjust their PPL if they had access to a work based scheme. Almost 80,000 new mothers are expected to lose some or all of their government parental leave payments.

3. Man in custody over woman’s death.

Victoria Police said a Dallas man in his 40s was taken into custody.

Police said he was assisting Homicide Squad detectives with their investigation.

Police are urging anyone with information regarding the woman’s death to call CrimeStoppers on 1800 333 000.

4. NAPLAN testing starts today.

With more than one million children expected to undergo NAPLAN testing right across Australia today there has been a report saying that parents have been increasingly seeking counselling for stress they undergo as a result of NAPLAN testing.

Brisbane clinical psychologist Emily O’Leary of Anxiety House told News Limited that there was a spike in parents seeking help in the lead up to NAPLAN and again before the test results were due to be released.

Relax parents relax.

5. Woman gives birth on flight to Japan.

A woman has given birth on an international flight bound for Tokyo on Saturday.

Air Canada officials say doctors on-board and flight crew helped a woman, thought to be Canadian, give birth mid-flight while the plane was over the Pacific.

Despite being 37 weeks pregnant, the woman had no idea she was with child.

According to iTV, the woman had no idea she was in labour, and said to her partner “something just fell out of me.”

“This happened completely unexpectedly,” the baby’s father told Japan’s Fuji News Network. He said the baby’s name is Chloe.

The mother and baby are doing well in hospital.

Air Canada’s website says a pregnant woman with “no previous history of premature labour” may fly within the first 36 weeks of pregnancy.

6. Singo’s “brain snap” caught on camera.

John Singleton has been photographed in an attempted assault on old friend, millionaire Jack Cowin at a long lunch in Sydney.

The Daily Telegraph has photos of Singleton lunging at the 73- year old with a broken wine glass at an upmarket waterfront restaurant in Sydney.

Staff at Kingsley’s steakhouse in Woolloomooloo are seen restraining Singleton.

Singleton was lunching with Cowin and musician Jon Stevens.

Singleton told The Daily Telegraph that the confrontation was over his choice of rose wine over beer.

“Singleton was displeased with this and whacked Cowin over the head with a bottle,” he said.

Cowin, 72, said was the result of “a long lunch”.

“You know how these things go,” he said.

7. Sea level rising faster in past 20 years than in entire 20th century, study finds.

By Selina Ross

A new study has found sea level rise accelerated faster in the past two decades than it did for the majority of the 20th century.

The report, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, corrected an anomaly that had puzzled the scientific community for years.

Satellite data dating back to 1993 appeared to show sea level rise accelerating in the 1990s and then slowing over the following decade.

Over the past five years, researchers from the University of Tasmania have been using tide gauges to check the satellite data.

Lead researcher Christopher Watson said they now thought they had the answer.

“Wherever there’s a tide gauge we’re able to compare that with the satellite altimeter record,” he said.

“Now, once we make a correction for how much land motion is at the tide gauge, or how much it’s moving up and down, we’re able to get a better picture of the really small inaccuracies within the altimeter record.”

He said the study suggested satellites marginally overestimated the rate of sea level rise in the first six years and that distorted the long-term picture.

Dr Watson said revised data suggested the rate of rise actually increased over the past 20 years.

“What we can see here is sea level clearly rising over the 20-year satellite altimeter record with acceleration in the record,” he said.

CSIRO fellow John Church, who co-authored the report, said sea levels were predicted to rise by up to 98 centimetres in the next 85 years.

He said that would affect more than 150 million people living in low-lying coastal communities.

“If we have major mitigation, then we can limit that rise to be somewhere between 30 and 60 centimetres during the 21st century,” he said.

He said that would require an urgent and significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and a big shift away from fossil fuels to renewable energy.

A version of this story was originally published on ABC.

8. Paraguay rebuked for failure to protect pregnant 10-year old girl.

Warning: This item deals with the rape of a child and may be distressing for some readers. 

The girl allegedly became pregnant after being raped by her stepfather. He was arrested on Saturday but denies the rape.

The experts said that the Paraguayan government’s decision has resulted in “grave violations” of the girl’s rights and called for her to have access to “all necessary healthcare”.

Paraguay bans abortion except in cases where the mother’s life is at risk, with no exceptions for rape victims.

The country’s health minister Antonio Barrios said that abortion had been “completely ruled out” for the girl, and that he was hopeful for a “happy outcome” to her pregnancy.

The girl is approximately 23 weeks pregnant.

If you just feel like you need to speak to someone, please call 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) – the national sexual assault, domestic and family violence counselling service.

9. Miracle cat lives for 49 days in a shipping container.

A cat who went missing in Darwin for seven weeks has been discovered trapped in a shipping container in Brisbane, Queensland.

Nine News reports that the cat, Pippa, had snuck into a neighbour’s shipping container and then transported to Brisbane.

“I got call from my former neighbour, ‘Hi, this is Jason, we’ve found your cat in our container,’” the cat’s owner Rebecca Schilling told Nine News.

The container was sealed on February 20, 2015, transported via the VLine transport services and reopened on April 10.

“When I first opened the door there was poo, cat hair and the smell of vomit and cat urine,” Mr King said.

“I climbed up over things and I found our expensive mattress had cat urine and vomit all over it.

“I took everything out and sure enough behind the very last thing I found the cat.

“I was surprised to find it alive… It was really light and bony. You could see its skeleton and its spine.”

After a few good meals and a wash Pippa is now set to make the journey back to Darwin – this time by a shorter route with lots of jokes about now having just eight lives accompanying her.

Do you have a story to share with Mamamia. Email us news@mamamia.com.au
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