A study has found alarming levels of toxicity readings in 19% of Brisbane backyards, with the highest levels detected in Yeronga and Holland park.

Professor Mark Taylor and his team from Macquarie university conducted the most extensive study of soil samples in Australia, investigating lead levels in over 17,000 samples across 3600 homes.

It has come to light in the Senate that Services Australia sent Centrelink debt letters to over eleven-thousand Australians, claiming they were all overpaid while on JobKeeper payments.

The average debt per person was three thousand dollars, but the federal government was not going after businesses which claimed JobKeeper support whilst making a profit.

Australia has been urged by experts to start placing heavier regulations on the video gaming industry. This call for action comes as countries such as Germany, Belgium, Japan and China have taken drastic measures against ‘loot boxes’. 

Loot boxes are purchasable prizes which medical observers have compared to gambling as they function like ‘mini-casinos’. Children are at most risk of being exploited by loot boxes.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has apologised on behalf of the Greek government for their constant delays and breakdowns in responding to the wildfires. 

In the seventh day of the blazes, 500 fires have been burning throughout Greece forcing the evacuation of numerous villages. 

A new vaccination centre will open at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre (BCEC) this Wednesday.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said initially 1000-1500 doses per day would be administered on site. 

Queensland Ambulance Service has apologised to the family of a Brisbane sixty-nine year old woman who died while waiting nine hours for an ambulance.

 
This tragedy was one of a number of cases dating back as far as May this year, when information leaked from south-east Queensland Ambulance Networks revealed how Brisbane hospitals were at 190% capacity.

Researchers from the University of Queensland have described the fossils of a new pterosaur species unearthed in Wanamara Country, North West Queensland as the closest thing to a real-life dragon. 

This species of pterosaur had a wingspan of around seven metres, with a spear-like mouth containing forty teeth.

A survey by charity group Anglicare has found that three quarters of Australians would support a universal basic income policy.

Executive director Kasy Chambers (not to be confused with the singer-songwriter) said the increases to jobseeker and newstart have highlighted to Australians that poverty is a policy choice.

The Northern Territory government has launched a new agreement with first nations Australians aiming to reduce high Indigenous incarceration rates in the region. 

Titled the ‘Aboriginal Justice Agreement’, community elders and legislators hope that the agreement will implement actions and establish new local laws that will reintroduce community courts as well as expand on programs aimed at reducing recidivism.

The agreement is set to be launched in Alice Springs and Kalkarindji later this month.