Westpac has admitted it broke the law and has agreed to pay penalties totalling $113 million after the corporate regulator hit the bank with 6 lawsuits over careless treatment of customers, including charging dead people fees. 

The US Supreme Court is set to decide whether to uphold a Mississippi law that would ban almost all abortions after 15 week of pregnancy. 

The ruling could gut the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which protects pregnant women’s liberty to choose to have an abortion.

The supreme court has a conservative majority after former president Donald Trump appointed Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett as judges who are expected to uphold the Mississippi law. 

Education professionals are concerned Queensland could lose thousands of teachers as the state government makes COVID-19 vaccinations mandatory in public and private schools in just weeks. 

The Teachers’ Professional Association of Queensland secretary, Jack McGuire, has said he suspects at least 10 % of teachers would be reluctant to get the jab which would see around 6,000 teachers and 180,000 kids impacted. 

The latest vaccine hesitancy data shows 11.1 % of Queenslanders are either unwilling or unsure if they will get the vaccine.

The Master Plumbers’ Association of Queensland (MPAQ) is warning residents to check their plumbing and drainage as the south east continues to receive a massive deluge of rain.

Following prolonged rainfall, residents should check for drainage and septic overflows, blocked or silted drains, hail damage to pipes and gas regulators and Gutter blockages. 

MPAQ President Kent Vickers says checking plumbing is a public health priority.

Freedom of Information documents have revealed that Australia’s Future Fund has invested $157 million in 14 companies that have done business with the Myanmar military such as supplying fighter jets, missiles, radar and millions in annual revenue to war criminals. 

The Future Fund holds about $200 billion in investments made on behalf of the Australian government. 

The fund’s holdings include $4.9 million invested in 5 companies of the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), which has sold combat aircraft and missiles to the Myanmar military. 

At least 22 civilians have been killed in an attack on a camp for internally displaced people in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ituri province. 

The province has been plunged back into a cycle of violence since late 2017 with the rise of the Cooperative for the Development of Congo militia, which has since split into rival factions. 

It is the third attack by the outlaws against displacement sites in the space of a week, causing more than 50 deaths and enormous material damage. 

Brisbane buses will run free for 2 weekends leading up to Christmas with hope it will attract locals to the CBD this festival season. 

Lord Mayor, Adrian Schrinner, announced the news this week saying that bus riders can “put their go cards away” for the weekend of Friday the 10th to Sunday the 12th and again on Friday the 17th to Sunday the 19th. 

Travel will be free on all of Brisbane’s 1,200 buses and city gliders. 

Queensland is announcing jab mandates for schools, airports and prisons as the state prepares to bring its rules in line with most other jurisdictions, with new rules expected to go live before the start of the 2022 school year. 

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk on Tuesday this week flagged mandatory vaccine rules for staff at prisons, youth detention centres and airports while there are discussions for all public servants to be vaccinated as well.