New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has defended taking a $45 000 flight to Nauru for the Pacific Islands Forum.

Arden flew a day after her deputy as she wanted to minimise time spent away from her baby.

The NZ PM says she weighed up the issues and logistics and decided to take a separate flight as she felt it was a unique set of circumstances.

Ardern is still breastfeeding her 11 week old daughter, who isn’t old enough to receive vaccinations required to travel to Nauru.

A Queensland construction company has been fined $405,000 over the deaths of two workers at Brisbane’s Eagle Farm Racecourse.

Criscon plead guilty to two counts of failing to comply with health and safety plans over the October 2016 deaths.

The boss of subcontractor Construction Building Technologies also failed to comply with basic requirements of safe work methods and has been charged with manslaughter for alleged gross negligence.

The Brisbane City Council have proposed an amendment to prevent the construction of townhouses and apartments on lots better suited to single homes.

The council’s city planning chairman Matthew Bourke says the amendment would ensure future suburban development keeps in-line with its surroundings.

The amendment was proposed as an effort to preserve the unique character of Brisbane’s backyards.  

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has scrapped plans to raise the pension age to 70.

The PM announced the decision to leave the pension age at 67 on breakfast TV this morning before Cabinet had formally agreed to it.

This marks the first major policy back down since Morrison became PM.

A Sydney woman has been ordered to pay $83 000 after cutting down two of her neighbour’s trees because they were dropping leaves in her pool.

The woman is one of two home owners in the area who are required to collectively pay more than $150 000 for illegal tree lopping and clearing.

The local council hopes it will act as a deterrent to others.

Protesters gathered in Iraq’s southern oil hub of Basra mourning the death of a protester killed a day earlier through violent demonstrations resulting in at least 6 deaths.

The demonstrations were held near a provincial government building on Tuesday when protesters stormed the office and set it alight.

Reporters say security forces are using live ammunition and tear gas to break up the demonstrations.

SBS News has released an investigation on an Indonesian pasung centre where the mentally ill are shackled in chains, despite the practice being outlawed in the 1970s.

Mental health research assistant Anto Sugianto, a pasung survivor, is trying to alter Indonesia’s regressive approach to treating mental illness through education.

Mr Sugianto said if people get the right education about mental health and how to deal with mental illness so they can seek the right treatment, there will be no pasung.

Over 100 childcare centres in Queensland will be closing their doors today as workers walk off the job to fight for higher wages.

Over 7000 staff nationwide will walk out in protest over the sector’s "wage crisis” as staff are currently being paid as little as $22 an hour - almost half the national average wage.

A rally is due to be held today at 3pm in Queens Gardens in George Street.