Three seventeen-year-old Gold Coast boys are in a serious but stable condition after suffering burns from live railway lines.

A spokesperson from the Queensland Ambulance Service says the boys climbed on top of a railway barrier and were struck when electricity from the high voltage wires arched across to them.

The boys were found under a rail overpass, with two having 50 per cent of their bodies burnt and the third found with his heart racing at 175 beats per minute.

Jackie Trad's office in West End has been vandalised, with a far right group placing a sticker of their name and a swastika over the Deputy Premier's face.

Ms Trad, an Australian with Lebanese ancestry, has previously been labelled “Jihad Jackie” in slurs from the LNP opposition.

The Deputy Premier said in a statement she believes there's connection between this incident and a speech she made weeks earlier on immigration, in response to Katter's Australia Party Senator Fraser Anning's maiden speech.

Coalition Frontbencher Sussan Ley has joined calls for the Liberal Party to adopt quotas to increase the number of female MPs in the Parliamentary Party.

The Assistant Minister for Regional Development said while she hasn't historically been a fan of affirmative action policies like those adopted by Labor, measurements must be taken to increase representation.

The Victorian Government is under fire for breaching privacy laws after personal details of citizens were released in an online data dump.

The Government tabled around 80,000 pages of documents in Parliament, including private citizen correspondence, regarding then-Planning Minister Matthew Guy’s rezoning of Phillip Island farmland between 2011 and 2013.

India’s Supreme court has decriminalised homosexuality overnight, after abolishing the law introduced by British rulers in 1861.

Chief Justice Dipak Misra says the law had become a weapon for harassment for the LGBT community and represented a violation of fundamental rights.

India is now one of more than 120 countries decriminalised homosexuality and is now is pressuring other South Asian nations who still have laws in place.

On his third day of confirmation hearings, Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is facing pressure after confidential documents pertaining to his personal stance on abortion were leaked to the press.

The leaked documents have fortified belief by pro-choice advocates that Kavanaugh will move to revisit 1973’s Roe v Wade case, which found restrictions on women procuring an abortion a violation of their Constitutional right to privacy.

Brisbane City Council's overseas travel expenses have risen to $185,000 - a figure more than double that of the previous financial year and 6 times more 2015 to 2016 period.

The 30 trips involved Council Officers visiting China and several European destinations for conferences and site inspections, including a $37,000 trip for three council officers to attend the 2018 Trade Fair for Water, Sewage, Waste and Raw Materials Agent.

The world surf league has announced it will award equal prize money for both men and women competitions across events within 2019 and beyond.

This move has been met with positivity as Australian Surfing champion has said the change is a move in the right direction, saying that whilst the prize money is great, the message means even more and hopes that this change serves as a model for other global sports organisations.