1. Schoolies attendee shares dangerous act of ‘balcony hopping’ on social media platform Snapchat.
Footage has emerged of a teenager “balcony hopping” at a Gold Coast hotel while on schoolies.
In the vision obtained by the Seven Network, which was initally uploaded to Snapchat, the teenage girl climbs around the edge of a balcony several floors up at the Beachcomber Resort at Surfers Paradise. During the act her friends are heard saying, “this isn’t going to be funny when she falls”.
In 2012 a Brisbane teenager attending Schoolies plunged to her death from a balcony at Beachcomber. The resort then implemented a new policy where they would to lock all balconies during the week of celebrations.
But in 2014 Beachcomber management decided to reopen the balconies after reportedly receiving backlash from teens, The Courier Mail reports.
Inspector Bruce Kuhn said climbing between hotel or apartment balconies is a “life-endangering act”.
He said if anyone is detected involved in “balcony hopping” police will act immediately.
“If someone is observed to climb between balconies police can charge those involved with the offence of unregulated high risk activity.”
A second separate incident from this week’s schoolies shows a boy at the same resort dangling his legs from an awning and climbing along a ledge inside a room.
2. Australian woman arrested over international surrogate agency.
An Australian nurse has been arrested for allegedly running a surrogacy agency in Cambodia.
The 49-year-old nurse was arrested following an edict banning surrogacy.
Tammy Davis-Charles from Melbourne was detained for acting as an “intermediary in surrogacy and for falsifying documents.” Officers also seized passports, money, mobile phones and documents during the raid, AAP reports.
Cambodia’s chief of the Anti-trafficking Office, Police Colonel Keo Thea said that more than 20 Cambodian women to carry babies through her Fertility Solutions PGD Clinic.
Sam Everingham, director of the Australian non-profit organisation Families Through Surrogacy called on authorities “to make sure they do respect the safety of the surrogates and the babies and the parents in the transition period here.”
3. Paid parental leave backflip.
The Prime Minister is planning on increasing paid parental leave for new mums to 20 weeks.
Crossbench senators Derryn Hinch and the Nick Xenophon’s senators have pushed for the compromise deal after rejecting the previous plan.
The Daily Telegraph reports and Social Services Minister Christian Porter has confirmed it is under consideration.
About 60 per cent of families will be better off, or not affected, under the revised proposal, compared with only 47 per cent of families previously.
The new deal would mean employer schemes are taken into account so a woman who received 10 weeks of paid leave from her employer could only get 10 weeks of government pay, bringing her to a maximum of 20 weeks. It will increase parental leave payments to low and middle income mums from 18 to 20 weeks, or up to $13,452.
They are also negotiating the start date.
4. Queensland police find body of 9-year-old boy who died after jet ski crash.
A nine-year-old boy who went missing after a jet ski crash at a Mt Isa lake has been found dead.
The little boy went missing yesterday morning after a jet ski carrying his father and six-year-old brother crashed into the side of Lake Moondarra and hit him at high speed.
The man and the six-year-old were taken to Mount Isa Hospital with suspected head, spinal and leg injuries.
5. Twelve years after she left Australia, Schapelle Corby can return.
Schapelle Corby has been given a return date to Australia.
The Parole Board and Indonesian authorities confirmed Corby’s release date, meaning that exactly 12 years to the day after she was convicted of smuggling four kilograms of marijuana into Bali in her boogie-board bag, Schapelle Corby will be free to return to Australia on May 27 next year.
Corby served nine years in Kerobokan prison in Bali and now lives with her sister Mercedes Corby while keeping a low profile.
6. Petition to ban Matthew Leveson’s ex from Brisbane nightclubs.
A petition to ban Michael Atkins from the nightclubs of Brisbane is gathering signatures, amid banned questions over his role in the 2007 disappearance of his former partner Matthew Leveson in Sydney.
Mr Atkins, 53, was banned from The Beat Megaclub in the Fortitude Valley two years ago but there is now a push to make the ban city wide with more than 500 people signing a petition, The Courier Mail reports.
The petition says: “This is affirmative action for the beautiful Leveson family and Matt’s friends, who have been so brave in the face of adversity over the past 9yrs; Mr Atkins may have returned to his old life, and his pool parties, but banning him from gay venues such as The Beat and others around Australia will ensure it will never be quite the same for him again.
“All private venue entry rights are at the owner’s discretion so the more support we can garner, the better chance we have of ensuring Michael Atkins won’t be welcome in his favourite playgrounds.
“It is unfair that this guy is allowed to have fun shopping in Aldi, work out at the gym nearby, and go to work, whilst Matt’s family have spent days still looking for him in the Royal National Park.”
7. More than 100 people killed after Indian train derails.
At least 104 people have been killed after a passenger train derailed in northern India.
More than 150 others were hurt after 14 of the train’s carriages left the track in northern Uttar Pradesh near the city of Kanpur.
Volunteers and police pulled out bodies from the coaches and were working to rescue trapped passengers in other carriages, said Daljeet Chaudhary, a director general of police.
The death toll is expected to rise.
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Top Comments
4. Oh no! So the Grattan Institute wants to squeeze pensioners even further but it says nothing about more and more welfare being given to families.
Drat those damn pensioners living so long.
So that resort took down the guards because stlly young teens complained.Anything bad happens theres a lawsuit.My daughters sensibly decided not to go,someone will get hurt then we will be wise after the event.If you were that girls parent youd be tempted to go and bring her home
Good thinking on your daughter's part.
Occasionally they listen to me