The rate of Indigenous people aged 10-17 in youth justice supervision has been found by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare to be 15 times higher compared to 2012-13.

AIHW spokesperson Anna Ritson says while there has been a drop in the rate of Indigenous young people under supervision in recent years, the decline for non-Indigenous young people was proportionally greater, effectively increasing Indigenous overrepresentation in the youth justice system.

A new state of the art water laboratory officially opened today in Cairns.

Member for Cairns Michael Healy at the official opening, said the Cairns Regional Council Laboratory Service would provide crucial water testing services for Far North Queensland.

Mr Healy says the new facility replaces the old laboratory building which has been in operation since 1994, enabling continued water quality testing across the Far North to ensure everyone’s health and safety

The death of a 50-year-old man in a Lime Scooter related accident has prompted the Pedestrian Council of Australia to call for a ban of the electric scooters in Brisbane.

Council chief Harold Scruby says ‘the risk to riders and pedestrians can’t be adequately managed’ and Brisbane City Council should not ‘be looking to issue a second company an operating license.’

The Brisbane City Council has expressed sympathy for the man’s family and says it won’t be commenting further, pending a police investigation into the death.

Road workers in Britain have accidently discovered an underground chamber that is believed to be the site of the earliest christian burial with archaeologists calling it the Anglo-Saxon equivalent of King Tutankhanmun’s tomb.

The chamber, originally uncovered between a road and a railway line in the south-eastern English village of Prittlewell in 2003, has turned out to be a 1,400-year-old tomb.

New details have been published about the finding, which archaeologists say is the most important Anglo-Saxon burial discovery in more than 70 years.

North Korea has fired two short-range missiles in its second weapons test in less than a week, the South Korean military says.

The missiles fired from the north-western city of Kusong hours after the top US envoy arrived in South Korea for talks on how to revive nuclear negotiations.

The continuing development of North Korea’s nuclear program and missile advancement is seen as a way to apply continued pressure on the US after their failure to make concession in ongoing denuclearisation negotiation.

Aboriginal Victorians aged 16 and over will be eligible to enrol and vote for a new electoral roll dedicated to help shape the rules for treaty negotiations.

Treaty Advancement Commissioner Jill Gallagher says ‘the community felt it was important that youth play a major role in whatever we design and go forward because it will probably be them that will be negotiating treaties.’

The First People’s Assembly will replace the Treaty Advancement Commission and work with the state to prepare for negotiations, including ground rules.

The Australian Electoral Commission has closed 26 polling booths in regional Victoria but has failed to  communicate the closes with residents regarding the decision.

Former Mayor of Horsham Rural City Council David Grimble says to close the polling booths ‘without notification and so close to the election is extremely disappointing.’

The AEC says it closed the polling booths because of low voting numbers and the difficulty involved in attracting electoral staff.

A building at the former Commonwealth Games Athletes’ Village has been repurposed and refitted by the Queensland Government to make way for Gold Coast’s newest coworking and innovation space — COHORT.

The former site of the Commonwealth Games hair salon, corner shop and police station has been transformed and is now a prime location for start-up businesses to lease space in a co-working environment.

Brisbane businesses will have significant opportunities to grow exports with a Queensland trade mission to Hong Kong and Chongqing.

Minister for Agricultural Industry Development and Fisheries Mark Furner, who is leading the delegation, says businesses from the region were grabbing those opportunities with both hands at HOFEX, a major international trade event.

Mr Furner says Queensland is in prime position being only an eight hour flight from Hong Kong  with Hong Kong importing 95% of its food.