Queensland health authorities have allowed more walk-in appointments at mass COVID vaccine hubs to ensure rising supply is used.

According to Health Minister Yvette D’Ath, those waiting for bookings are cleared once they come into the system.

The state will not explore other options, such as drive-in-clinics to help boost lagging vaccination rates until another outbreak happens.

Nearly extinct roughly 40 years ago, the Northern hairy-nosed wombat is making a come-back. 

With the help of Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service implementing protective measures such as habitat management, predator fencing and trial and error in understanding the wombat’s needs - has led to a population growth of over 300 - a huge increase to when the species’ number dipped to low as 35. 

The wombat population is being held at the Epping Forest National Park in Central Queensland.

The second day of the National Summit on Women’s Safety is takes place today, and of the issues raised were those of Anthropologist and Indigenous leader Professor Marcia Langton. 

Professor Langton says Indigenous Australians need their own local and regional plans to reduce violence against women, as the current national initiatives have proven to be ineffective.

Langton suggests that the national plan of the past 12 years must be involved in designing local initiatives.

South Australian police prevented an elderly male driver in Adelaide from depositing ‘thousands’ of dollars to scammers. 

While driving, the elderly man was in conversation with someone pretending to be a major bank, claiming 'two illegal transactions had been taken from his account'.

It was not until he was spotted making an unauthorised road turn, police stopped the elderly driver and questioned him. At that point, police learnt of the scam call.

The Taiwanese defence ministry reported renewed Chinese military activity in its airspace, confirming 19 aircraft including nuclear-capable bombers.

Taiwanese combat aircraft dispatched to warn away the Chinese aircraft, while missile systems were deployed to monitor them.

It is unclear what prompted China’s air mission on this occasion, though in past exercises, the Taiwanese military  have accused China of playing 'threatening games'. 

Queensland has recorded no new cases.

Authorities continue to monitor the cluster that started with the Logan truck driver.

However, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk is hopeful that the chance of an outbreak and a lockdown is decreasing.

She is continuing to urge eligible Queenslanders to get the vaccine in this “window of opportunity”.
 

There are concerns that Brisbane’s e-scooter safety considerations are not enough after a woman was hit by a rider in West End recently.

73-year-old Robyn Abell fell to the ground and hit her nose, arm and wrist on the pavement, requiring her to go to the Mater Hospital Brisbane Adult Emergency Room for immediate treatment.

The Brisbane City Council currently allows e-scooters to be ridden on footpaths, but residents have already voiced concerns that local footpaths are not wide enough to share the space with e-scooters.

A senior UN official has warned the climate crisis will “wreak havoc” across the Australian economy if coal is not rapidly phased out.

Slewing Hart, the UN’s assistant secretary general for climate action, believes wealthy countries should phase out coal by 2030 and, “if adopted this would leave nearly a decade for Australia to ensure a just transition for its coal workers and others affected.”

The latest assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel on climate change found emissions were already affecting the weather and climate extremes.

Social media giants increase global child safety after UK regulations introduced.

TikTok has turned off notifications for children past their bedtime, Instagram has disabled targeted adverts for under 18s entirely and Youtube has turned off autoplay for teen users.

On Thursday, the UK introduced a new set of regulations aimed at protecting children online.

Rather than applying the changes just to the UK as they would be legally required to, companies have made changes global.