The Crime and Corruption Commission has withdrawn their charges against whistleblower Paul Pluta, who publicly leaked information from Queensland Rail in 2016.

In light of the legal consequences faced following the leak, Mr Pluta said he wants to warn people about the dangers of being a whistleblower.

However, a CCC spokesman said the body does not discourage people from making public interest disclosures.

New wastewater testing reveals that the use of the opioid fentanyl has doubled in regional Australia in the past year.

The report released today shows that fentanyl use is at its highest since annual testing began.

Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission chief Michael Phelan said while the findings are alarming, the data will also help direct resources to areas of priority.

Victorian laws implementing safe access zones outside abortion clinics are being challenged today by anti-abortion advocates in the High Court.

Pro-life campaigner Kathleen Clubb is protesting these laws after being found guilty last year of breaching these zones in East Melbourne in 2016.

The laws in question make it an offence to communicate about abortion to those entering or leaving these centres “in a way that is...likely to cause distress or anxiety”.

Hurricane Michael is set to hit Florida tomorrow, after being upgraded from a Category 3 tropical storm.

Florida Governor, Rick Scott, has declared a state of emergency in 26 counties, with 1250 National Guard troops commencing evacuations and 4000 troops on standby.

After Florida, the storm is forecasted to move along the Atlantic Coast to the Carolinas, which is still recovering from Hurricane Florence last month.

Google has shut down its social networking site Google Plus after it was revealed the private data of over half a million users was leaked.

The leak, which reportedly occurred in march, was not disclosed to users because the company feared regulatory scrutiny.

Jacob Lehmann, director of legal firm Friedman CyZen, said users had a right to be notified that their information was compromised.

The QLD Ombudsman has found the housing department put profit over the safety of two domestic violence victims, evicting one woman from public housing because she couldn’t make rent payments.

In another case, a woman became homeless after the department refused to relocate her from a residence where her ex-partner discovered and abused her.

Domestic Violence support advocate Shaan Ross-Smith says “If you don't feel safe in your own home, where else can you feel safe?"

The Queensland government has been targeted by international cyber attackers in a string of online attacks over the past year.

State government IT experts defended 19 distributed denial of service attacks, with the specific intention of the attacks being unknown.

DDoS attacks such as these have the potential to cause major outages, with Spotify, Netflix and Twitter being affected in 2016, inconveniencing millions of users.  

The Melbourne National Centre of Excellence has been accused of inflicting “brutal” punishments on young gymnasts.

The organisation has been called out by parents who reported that their children were subjected to belittlement and harassment, including being made to swing from bars until their hands bled.

Gymnastics Australia board member George Tatai says the organisation is sweeping the issue under the carpet.

The NSW government is facing backlash after it announced plans to use the Sydney Opera House to market a $13 million horse race.

National Trust NSW conservation director, Graham Quint, says projecting commercial material onto the Opera House may be in breach of the Heritage Act.

In a public protest, more than 206,000 signatures have been amassed in a petition to stop the promotion.