For the second year in a row COVID-19 is causing headaches for grain farmers, who are begging the Federal and state governments to allow them to bring in overseas machinery drivers for this year's harvest.

Last year, with borders closed due to COVID-19, farmers were so desperate for labour they trained stood-down pilots to drive their harvesters.

Victoria has gone another day with no new local COVID-19 cases, as the state prepares to take further steps out of restrictions from Friday.

It's the eighth consecutive day without a locally acquired case being recorded and from 11:59pm today, masks will no longer be required in schools and private workplaces such as offices and factories.

Two Olympic Village workers in Tokyo have tested positive for COVID-19 days before the village opened to athletes.

The Tokyo Organising Committee revealed the pair tested positive last week and had been eating with two other village workers.

Dining with other workers is forbidden under the Committee's own regulations.

The Queensland Premier has defended her decision to fly to the Tokyo Olympics this month, as an online petition trying to stop her surpasses 30,000 signatures.

Many of those signing the petition are believed to be Australians stranded overseas who are calling for Annastacia Palaszczuk to remain in Australia until she changes her stance on cutting hotel quarantine numbers.

The W&J Nagana Yarrbayn Cultural Custodians, a group of Traditional Owners of Wangan and Jagalingou Country have raised the alarm over environmental practices by Adani Mining. 

A parliamentary inquiry has opened into section 131a of the Queensland Anti-Discrimination Act, with advocates calling for something more clearly defined and tougher penalties for hate crimes. 

Basketballer Patty Mills has been named Australia’s first Indigenous flag bearer for the Tokyo Olympics, alongside Cate Campbell.

Patty Mills said "As the first Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flag bearer, my connection between our country and this particular moment runs extremely deep.”

Victoria is the only state in Australia recording data about ethnicity as part of the COVID-19 vaccination rollout, which some experts argue is vital to understanding the impacts of the pandemic on different communities.

A Brisbane man living in Bardon has allegedly had the Aborignal flag hoisted outside his home cut down and stolen from his front yard. 

Brad, who has first nations ancestry and who had raised the flag outside his residential home two weeks ago said the incident had been really confronting.

Julian Assange would be permitted to serve any custodial sentence he receives in an Australian prison if convicted in the United States on espionage and hacking charges, according to new assurances made by the US government.

The assurances are seen as concessions in an attempt to extradite the 50-year-old to the US to face trial.