New South Wales music festivals will have to adhere to new, targeted regulations after a string of five overdose related deaths occured in the last year.

Minister for Racing, Paul Toole, says the regime will put the onus on festival organisers to assess and proactively manage safety risks.

The new scheme, which will encourage chill out zones and readily accessible water, will be introduced on March the first.

Electric scooter incidents are becoming common in Brisbane after new data reveals emergency services responded to about 60 scooter-related incidents since November last year.

Queensland Ambulance Service bicycle response team paramedic Madeline Shield says incidents happen due to people speeding, riding without a helmet, doubling-up, or driving under the influence.

A failed green energy project at Kogan Creek power station near Chinchilla is costing Queenslanders jobs and tens of millions of tax dollars after French government owned solar company Areva Solar KCP was liquidated.

Plans to build a solar plant with Darling Downs civil engineering firm Nortask were scrapped in 2016 after Areva Solar reported fast moving clouds and technical issues were preventing progression.

Four people were found clinging to rocks after being swept away at far North Queensland gorge.

A man and woman in their 40s along with a male teenager and a boy were swept away just after 4.15pm on Thursday at Mossman Gorge, almost 80 kilometres north of Cairns.

Swift water rescue crews managed to get the four people back to dry land after they were stranded on two rocks when they were swept away by the strong current.

A Brisbane McDonald's worker who broke her leg climbing down from having a smoke on the restaurant's roof before her shift has won an appeal granting her the right to worker's compensation.

WorkCover initially rejected the workers claim for cover and her first appeal, to the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission, was dismissed.

The worker eventually won her Industrial Court of Queensland battle for worker's compensation this week.

The Greens are urging the government to spend $1 billion making buildings and public spaces more accessible to people with disabilities as there are mounting concerns that too many are segregated from mainstream life.

This marks a broader policy to be launched, aimed at improving and integrating people with disabilities in housing, education, and employment.

Greens disability spokesman, Jordan Steele-John, says “the reality for disabled people in Australia today is very different to people who do not journey with a disability”.

Faced with a shearer shortage, the Australian wool industry is spending $10 million on research to streamline wool harvesting.

Projects range from better shed design to robotics, including one project that would fully automate the process of getting wool off a sheep and into a bale.

The idea of robotic shearers has drawn criticism from some with shearer Sam Weatherall  saying that A robot can't feel when he sheer is on the skin, can't work around wrinkles and that it won't be efficient".

The Ugandan government is urging UK donors to check who they are giving money to after they found that at least 60 illegals orphanages and children’s homes have been funded by UK charities, church groups, and volunteers.

The Ugandan government recently announced a programme to close down more than 500 unlicensed orphanages in the country.

The government will shut down unregistered homes to try and improve oversight of children's care in the country.

Eight people have been hurt in a crash involving a commercial rigid inflatable boat on the River Thames in london

Four people - two men and two women - were taken to hospital with what were believed to be minor injuries, London Ambulance Service said.  

The Thames Clippers river bus service said one of its boats was assisting with the operation.