A man with severely impaired vision has won a two-year fight to get on the disability support pension, after Centrelink decided he was fit for work in 2017 and placed him on Newstart.

Adel al-Shuraifi’s disability pension application was denied twice by Centrelink, but the Administrative Appeals Tribunal later found him to be automatically eligible for the pension as he is permanently blind.

The agency chose to appeal this decision, and hearings were held in Brisbane to decide if Al-Shuraifi’s impairment was severe enough for him to receive the pension.

A leaked Queensland Health Email reveals orders to halt IT upgrades during parliamentary sitting weeks. 

It follows weeks of Queensland Health IT problems with repeated crashes of the statewide $1.2 bullion integrated electronic medical records. 

Health Minister Steven Miles denied he had any knowledge of the order stating; “I don’t know who sent this email, what it’s about, I’m happy to look into it for you.” 
 

A vacant nursing home in Sydney’s north awaiting development is now offering a short-term solution to Australia’s lack of public housing, leasing eight of its 20 bedrooms to homeless or financially unstable women over the age of 55.

Annabelle Daniel is the CEO of Women’s Community Shelters, the organisation running the facility, and says Australia has to push for more affordable housing to prevent vulnerable, older Australian women from becoming homeless.

“But we also need innovative solutions like this in the meantime,” Ms Daniel said.

Halloween revellers in Hong Kong have been struck by tear gas after getting caught up in a clash between police and anti-Government protesters. 

Hundreds of protesters wearing face masks targeted Hong Kong’s party district, gathering in the streets amongst party-goers.

The crowd of drinkers and protesters were gridlocked in a tiny, enclosed street and were told by police they had “disperse or [police] may use force”.

Frustrated party-goers shouted at police saying, “We want to drink. Can’t you let people have some fun for once?” 
 

Qantas has confirmed it has found cracks in three of its Boeing 737s, after completing an audit this week.

In a statement, the airline said: "Of the 33 of Qantas' 737 aircraft that required inspection, three were found to have a hairline crack in the pickle fork structure.

"These aircraft have been removed from service for repair."

In this morning's announcement, the chief executive of Qantas Domestic, Andrew David, described those comments as "irresponsible".
 

A bushfire burning close to homes at Loxton in South Australia's Riverland has been contained but still poses a threat to people in the area, the Metropolitan Fire Service says.

About 110 firefighters battled the fire, which started about 2:00am, burning in a south-westerly direction towards homes and a school in the township of Loxton.

Early this morning firefighters were still putting out spot fires and embers on structures with crews from Adelaide on their way for support.
 

Australia's consumer regulator said it has filed a lawsuit against Mazda Motor Corp for allegedly misleading consumers in dealings with consumers who bought Mazda vehicles between 2013 and 2017 yesterday. 

The case concerns seven vehicles purchased by individual consumers across six Mazda models that had faults with a year or two of purchase 

Police are investigating after a Mother who claims to be a nurse infected lollipops with son’s chickenpox in Brisbane. 

In a Facebook post shared to an anti-vaccination page, the woman said, “My beautiful son… has the chickenpox at the moment and we’ve both decided to help others with natural immunity this Halloween.” 

She later posted; “You said I’m vile and gross like I have done something that hundreds of thousands of parents haven’t already done.”