New figures show former Queensland politicians claimed over two-hundred-and-seventy-thousand dollars in taxpayer-funded travel entitlements last year.

Seventy former MP’s or their relatives claimed flights and train trips, while seventy-six did not make a claim.

The benefit will end December thirty-first this year, following a Queensland Independent Remuneration Tribunal ruling in 2014.

Russian investigators looking into a hole which caused an Oxygen leak on the International Space Station have said the hole was deliberately caused.

The Head of the Russian Space Agency Dmitry Rogozin had denied the possibility of the hole being caused by a manufacturing defect.

A government official has also denied a media report which linked the US astronauts with the deliberately made hole, with the current ISS commander, US astronaut Drew Feustel saying this suggestion is ‘embarrassing’

A boy in Papua New Guinea has died from polio in the nation's first fatal case since the disease reappeared in June.

The World Health Organisation has stated that the boy was one of 14 confirmed cases across the country.

Whilst the country was declared polio-free in 2000, the reappearance of the illness is said to be due to falling vaccination rates within the country since 2000.  

Department stores’ thicker plastic shopping bags are now being targeted in the war on waste with authorities investigating a voluntary phase-out.

The $50,000 project has so far included engaging with the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation to organise roundtable discussions with major department stores, boutique retailers and peak bodies.

a Queensland Environment and Science Department spokeswoman said the discussions explored options to reduce and phase out single-use heavyweight plastic bags in the retail sector.

Almost one in five Australian honey samples have been found to not be pure, according to a new study by Macquarie University.

The study, conducted at the same high security government lab where drugs seized by Border Force are tested, found 27% of overseas samples were mixed with non-honey substances.

It comes weeks after a Fairfax and ABC investigation found Capilano’s Mixed Blossom Honey was combined with other sweeteners such as beet syrup and rice syrup.

Queensland’s public service is still promoting more men than women to its highest-paid positions.

A recent report by the Department of Environment and Science shows almost ninety per cent of its top bureaucrats are male.

Deputy Opposition Leader Tim Mander told the ABC promoting gender equality should be a focus for government and business.