New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian (Barra-jik-lian) plans to ease COVID restrictions from next Friday February 12th unless there are unexpected outbreaks. The decision has come as the state recorded no new local infections overnight.

The new restrictions will replace the 4 square metre rule with the 2 square metre rule for venues such as restaurants, bars and places of worship.  Singing and dancing at nightclubs are still considered high risk and will not be allowed. 

Braille building bricks are coming to Australia to help vision-impaired children learn literacy and numeracy skills.

Vision Australia says the bricks help to normalise learning braille in a fun and accessible way, the bricks feature letters, numbers, and punctuation in braille.

The braille Lego bricks are not available in stores and will be gifted free of charge across the country to schools that have students with vision impairment.

The electoral commission of Queensland has announced Fran O’Callaghan will be elected as the Townsville councillor. 

The Townsville council by-election was held on January 23 this year. Ms O’Callaghan won her place today after postal votes were counted. 

Around 1600 Townsville residents chose to vote via mail this by-election. The popularity of postal votes has increased since the COVID pandemic began.

A new Space-X starship rocket has exploded after attempting to land during an experimental launch in Texas.

This follows another rocket explosion late last year during flight tests, the rocket system is partially funded by NASA and could end up being offered to the US military.

Space-X has planned its first orbital flight for the end of the year and expects manned missions to take place in 2023.

The High Court has ordered fresh hearings on the coal mine project at Queensland's Darling Downs, led by the New Acland.

After the back and forth discussion between the Oakey Coal Action Alliance, the case is now sent back to the Land Court.

The Queensland Greens says they are warning the Labor State government not to meddle with the Queensland Land Court as it hears the case again.
 

Human rights groups are again urging the Australian government to cut defence force ties with the Myanmar military after they seized power from the democratically elected government yesterday.

The greens and human rights groups say Australia must end all cooperation with Myanmar's army and impose sanctions on top generals who engineered the coup.

The Australian Defence Force has provided assistance to the Myanmar military, including training and English lessons for several years.

University of Adelaide has assigned the Former University of Queensland Vice-Chancellor, Professor Peter Hoj as its new Vice-Chancellor and President for a five-year term. 

Professor Hoj says he prioritises the connections between other universities to serve local and global communities. He commences his work next Monday.

The Palaszczuk government today announced a 1 million dollar deal with Australian medical supplies company Metagenics to build a tablet making an coating facility within its Northgate factory. 

Queensland Deputy Premier Steven Miles says this project will create new jobs for Queenslanders and enable the state to produce tablet-based medicines locally, rather than relying on international supply chains. 

Metagenics is a company which originated in Queensland and specialises in supplying natural medicines in Australia and New Zealand.

A bill banning gay conversion therapy is set to pass through the Victorian upper house with the support of three crossbenchers.

The bill will impose criminal sanctions of up to 10 years’ jail for those that subject others to conversion practices that cause injury or serious injury.

People who try to circumvent the new law and send people out of state for gay conversion therapy could face criminal charges and fines to a maximum of almost $10,000.