The daily NIRS News half hourly update, for July 14, 2016
Libs narrowly ahead in Herbert
The last undecided seat from the federal election is turning into a cliffhanger. In latest counting for the north Queensland seat of Herbert, sitting LNP MP Ewen Jones is just 34 votes ahead of Labor challenger Cathy O’Toole.
A win in Herbert would give the government 77 seats in the 150-seat lower house, one more than the majority the government needs to pass disputed legislation.
Counting will end on Friday, the deadline for arrival of the last postal votes.
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Andrews calls for return of Abbott
Dumped former defence minister Kevin Andrews has called on Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to return Tony Abbott to the frontbench.
Mr Andrews said the senior party leadership should be a balance of liberals and conservatives, and that Mr Abbott had a lot of experience as a former prime minister, and was seen as a figurehead of conservatives within the parliamentary party.
He said the government also needed to regain the trust of many voters who chose to vote for minor parties rather than the coalition.
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Data to test PM’s jobs slogan
The newly elected Turnbull government is likely to face its first challenge later today, with economists predicting a rise in the jobless rate when June employment figures are released.
Economists expect the unemployment rate to increase to 5.8 per cent after being stable at 5.7 per cent for three months.
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Woman charged over alleged glass attack
A woman who allegedly thrust a glass in the face of a police officer in the NSW city of Goulburn has been charged with wounding with intent.
Police say that just after 10.15pm on Wednesday officers conducting a patrol of a licensed premises spoke to a 39-year-old woman and directed her to leave.
Police allege she became verbally abusive and while attempting to walk away thrust a glass in the face of a male sergeant who suffered a cut to his right eyebrow. The officer required stitches at Goulburn Base Hospital.
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WWF to buy and retire reef shark licence
The World Wildlife Fund is attempting to raise $100,000 for a commercial Great Barrier Reef shark fishing licence, to prevent it ever being reactivated.
The WWF claims the previous owners of the licence, which is up for sale, caught more than 500,000 kilograms of shark between 1993 and 2004.
The WWF want to prevent the license from being used again to target sharks.
Australia’s WWF conservation director Gilly Llewellyn told AAP it’s a new approach to save sharks, with at least 10,000 saved per year. It also reduces the unintended capture of turtles, dugongs and dolphins.
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Aviator cuts stopovers in record attempt
Teenage pilot Lachlan Smart will cut short his stopovers in two US cities after he fell a day behind in his quest to become the youngest person to fly solo around the world.
A hurricane in the East Pacific, forced Smart to delay by 24 hours his flight from Hawaii to California, where he landed on Wednesday.
The 18-year-old will make up time by reducing his stay at his next two stops in Las Vegas and the Texas town of Fredericksburg as he aims to touch down again on the Sunshine Coast in late August.
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Victoria defrosts after wild weather
And in weather, the wild conditions for the south east of the country are over, at least for now, as a bitter cold front moves on.
Victoria and Adelaide had been feeling the full force of icy and windy conditions for the last two days, with snow falling in low lying areas and winds damaging homes and cutting power to thousands. Canberra and parts of Tasmania were also blanketed in snow.
In Sydney, a man was killed when a tree fell on his car, caused by high winds.
The Bureau of Meteorology says conditions are improving as the cold front leaves the east coast of Australia.
