Monday'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. Black box recording shows co-pilot encouraged pilot to leave cockpit.

A leaked recording of the Germanwings flight 4U 9525 cockpit voice recorder has been obtained by German newspaper Bild.

It then shows the captain desperately attempting to get back onto the flight deck before it crashed.

Captain Patrick Sondenheimer can be heard screaming “For God’s sake, open the door!” as he banged on the cockpit door, pleading with the co-pilot. Then minutes later “Open the damn door!”

Thirteen minutes later, the plane crashed into the French Alps.

The transcript reveals that many of the passengers knew what was going on with screams for several minutes heard in the background while Sondenheimer tried to get Lubitz to open the door.

For more read this post here.

2. Father of Andreas Lubitz completely shattered.

The father of Andreas Lubitz, the Germanwings co-pilot who allegedly deliberately crashed his plane into the French Alps last Tuesday, is “devastated, completely shattered” by the mass murders.

“He is carrying on his back the entire weight of the drama. He is a man whose life has broken down,” Bernard Bartolini, the mayor of the town of Prads-Haute-Bléone, said to BFM News Channel.

Mr Bartolini said he met the parents of Lubitz when they visited the crash site along with families of the passengers and crew who died.

“He (the father) is a man whose life is in ruins. I felt incredibly sorry for him as he expressed all his emotion, he expressed his emotion because he has lost a loved one, but also because his son is perhaps the (cause) of all this tragedy.”

 3. Air Canada Airbus A320 crash lands.

An Air Canada A320 plane has had a crash landing at Halifax airport in Canada in bad weather.

The Airbus A320 “exited the runway” at Halifax Stanfield International Airport and 23 people, suffering non-life threatening injuries, have been taken to hospital Air Canada confirmed. There were no fatalities.

Environment Canada had issue a snowfall warning for the region and issued a statement that read:  “Visibility may be suddenly reduced at times in heavy snow.”

4. Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan clemency bid.

Lawyers for Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan will today head back to court in Indonesia bringing forward an expert witness who will support their challenge of the presidential decree denying the two drug smugglers clemency.

The ABC reports that the witness was due to present evidence as part of the bid last week, but failed to appear in court.

5. Fears childcare fees will skyrocket.

There are concerns that if a benchmark figure for childcare costs recommended in the Productivity Commission report goes ahead parents in Sydney and Melbourne may face sky rocketing childcare fees.

The Productivity Commission has proposed a figure of $74 to $79 a day for children aged three to five.

There is concern as if a chosen childcare costs most than $7.20 an hour, or $79 per day; parents will be expected to cover the extra cost.

The average price of childcare in Sydney CBD is $138 per day and in Melbourne CBD it is $107.

Executive Director of The Parenthood Jo Briskey has joined a chorus of voices calling for the benchmark to be set higher. She has said if the government were to go ahead with a benchmark figure at or around that proposed by the PC thousands of families would be worse off depending on where they live and the centre they access.

“If subsidies move to being based on a benchmark figure at or around $79 almost all families paying the Sydney metro average of $89.40 for a 3 year old in care three days a week would see a jump in their childcare costs.”

“Sydney families who earn less than $50,000 or more than $100,000 would be hardest hit. A family earning $160,000 would be almost $700 a year worse off and a family earning $40,000 would be $350 a year worse off.”

6. “Turmoil in Queensland politics” as ALP expels Billy Gordon.

Queensland may be back to the ballet box for the second time in six months after Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced yesterday she had ordered Billy Gordon’s Labor membership be torn up after he admitted to misleading them over a series of criminal offences including domestic violence and multiple break-and-enter charges.

For more read this post here.

 7. Tax system overhaul needed, Government not relying enough on consumption taxes: discussion paper.

By James Bennett

A Federal Government discussion paper has suggested Australia relies too heavily on corporate and income taxes and not enough on consumption taxes like the GST.

In highlighting the complexity of the current GST system, the 200-page paper used an example of how pizzas, pizza subs, pizza pockets and bakery-style pizza rolls are defined by law and taxed differently.

The Re:Think paper found the Federal Government collected about 70 per cent of its revenue from company tax and personal income tax.

As inflation and pay increases will see more workers paying the top tax rates, the paper found 56 per cent of the Government’s income will come from personal income tax alone within a decade.

The document warned that will discourage hard work and investment, creating the potential to harm Australia’s economic growth in years to come.

It also questioned the rationale for tax breaks like negative gearing and super contributions.

In a chapter on the GST, questions were raised over both the rate of the tax and the range of items it applies to.

“Australia’s GST rate is one of the lowest among developed countries and is roughly half of the average rate among OECD countries,” the paper noted.

Despite applying to less than half all goods and services consumed, the GST is the Government’s third-largest source of revenue, collecting $56 billion a year.

Using the example of pizzas and pizza rolls — the former are taxed, while some of the latter are not — the discussion paper suggested, “exemptions to the GST significantly add to its complexity and increase the compliance costs”.

“The ATO has advised that determining whether a pizza roll is taxable requires consideration of the depth of any filling or topping, the recipe for the dough and whether the roll can be cut, have additional filling added or is expected to be served as is,” the report said.

The Government has consistently said it cannot alter the GST without the agreement of the states and would put any proposed changes to voters.

The discussion paper makes no recommendations and instead poses a series of questions asking how the tax system might be improved.

It is the first step in the Government’s white paper process, which is expected to recommend broader changes for the Government to take to the election in 2016.

Treasurer Joe Hockey said the paper’s findings showed Australia’s taxation system was outdated.

“The problem we face is that our current tax system, which was designed before the 1950s, is ill-suited to the 2050s,” he said.

The Treasurer will officially launch the discussion paper in Melbourne this morning.

A version of this story was originally published on ABC and has been republished with full permission.

8. Four-year-old girl sneaks out of house for slushie.

A four- year old girl who left her home alone at 3am and hopped on a bus was in search of a ‘slushie’.

The little girl unlocked the back door of her home in the US state of Philadelphia and walked through the pouring rain in the middle of the night before hopping on the bus.

Bus driver Harlan Jenifer told Philly.com the girl, wearing her purple raincoat flopped down in a seat as she chanted “All I want is a Slushie.”

The bus driver stopped and called police, who took the girl to hospital where she was reunited with her mother.

Authorities in Philadelphia said the girl’s family did not know she had unlocked the back door and left the house.

9. Perth man mauled by lion.

A Perth man on holidays in Johannesburg has written of how he was mauled by a lion that had jumped through an open car window while was on a lion park.

Brendan Smith, from Perth wrote on Facebook “No later than 36 hours after touching down in Africa I find myself in hospital after a lion jumped through the car window and decided to go to town on my legs.

“Pretty full-on but am alive, with insurance coming to the party and an influx of curious Africans wanting to see “the lion man”.

“Could have and should have been a lot worse but chicks dig scars so I’ll be sweet!”

10. Schools to report students who play violent video games.

Parents of British school students have been told by principals that they will be reported to police and social services for neglect if they allow their children to play over 18 computer games, according to The Sunday Times.

Parents will be issued with a warning by primary and secondary schools who find children had been watching or playing games like Call of Duty and Gears of War or Grand Theft Auto.

Parents have been warned about the possible actions in a letter stating that sexual content and violence in the games are inappropriate and could lead to “early sexualised behaviour” and leave children “vulnerable to grooming for sexual exploitation or extreme violence”.

Many parents have responded by saying reporting families for allowing children to play unsuitable computer games was a step too far.

11. UK approves meningitis B vaccine.

The UK has become the first country in the world to offer a nationwide vaccination program against meningitis B, the most common cause of bacterial meningitis that kills one in ten infected babies.

The drug will become a part of the national childhood immunisation scheme, meaning babies will receive the first vaccine at two months old, followed by two further doses.

In Australia meningococcal B vaccine has been approved for for widespread use, but for many it is still too expensive.

The Meningitis Centre Australia has a petition you can sign to lobby the federal government to put it on the National Immunisation Program so that it is free for everybody.

You can sign the petition here.

12. Australia World Cup champions.

Big celebrations across the country as Australia become World Cup champions for a fifth time, last night defeating New Zealand with a seven wicket victory.

It was the last one day international for captain Michael Clarke who revealed on Saturday that he was retiring from one-day cricket.

13. Australia to require two people in the cockpit at all times following Germanwings tragedy.

The federal government will institute new aviation laws requiring two people to be present in the cockpit of commercial aircraft at all times.

The decision follows the horrific Germanwings plane crash, in which pilot Adreas Lubitz is believed to have deliberately crashed the aircraft, after locking his co-pilot out of the cockpit.

According to the ABC, the laws will take effect immediately.

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