Leaked child protection figures show the number of children in Tasmania waiting for child protection services has quadrupled in just over a year.

The ABC obtained the leaked figures from the Department of Communities, and revealed there were 280 cases as of March 8 that had not been allocated a child safety officer.

Assistant secretary of the Health and Community Services Union Robbie Moore, said, “this is an urgent situation, these figures demonstrate vulnerable children are not being given the services they deserve.”

ALP councillor Steve Griffiths has backed federal LNP member for Ryan, Jane Prentice, in urging the federal government to purchase the former Toowong ABC site, a motion that was lost.

Ms Prentice wrote to Scott Morrison urging him to purchase and return the site to green space, saying “with the plans for ever increasing high rise development in the local area I feel it is important that local residents be afforded an open space for all to enjoy.”

A 110-kilometre network of roads across Brisbane City will be shut down on a Sunday morning in April as thousands of cyclists hit the streets for the new Tour de Brisbane.

The race, which will take place on April 14, will feature as the main event of the Brisbane Cycling Festival.

Infrastructure chairman Amanda Cooper said, “it’s not a small event, it’s an event that has very wide implications not just for Brisbane.”

The Federal Government will unveil a draft terms-of-reference today regarding the Royal Commission into the mistreatment of disabled Australians.

The public will then have two weeks to give feedback on the scope before it is finalised.

The proposed terms of reference have encompassed a wide range of contexts, with Social Services Minister Paul Fletcher stating that the draft is deliberately broad to ensure no one falls through the cracks.

Federal authorities have arrested dozens of people over a college bribery scandal, that involved wealthy parents, Hollywood celebrities, and prominent business leaders, cheating their children into elite American universities.

Thirty-three parents were charged in the Justice Department’s ‘largest ever college admissions prosecution’, with more indictments expected to come.

Australia’s former trade minister Andrew Robb has slammed ex-colleagues Malcolm Turnbull and Barnaby Joyce, as well as Australia’s security agencies, over what he sees as anti-China sentiment.

Mr Robb had been working with Chinese company Landbridge on a plan to develop a health precinct in China, until the company’s chairman was told Beijing would not accept the proposal.

Federal Funding will be necessary to complete the Brisbane Cross River Rail project in order to free up the QLD Government’s budget to invest in roads and other major projects.

The 2019 Queensland Major Projects Pipeline report, commissioned by the QLD Major Contractors Association and the Infrastructure Association of QLD, detailed the major projects expected to be built by the private and public sector.

Venetians now want control on visitors as Venice is facing multiple tourism threats.

The city-on-the-sea has been on every traveller’s bucket list for years, but now Venice locals are doubting the city will survive long enough for coming generations to experience.

Just near the famous Rialto Bridge, a clock tracks the local population decline and it now registers under 53,000 locals which is less than half the number 60 years ago.