The Brisbane City Council has waived 172 parking fines issued to drivers with disability permits.

The Council is investigating its parking ticket technology after incorrectly issuing fines to drivers.

A disability permit allows drivers to park for free in metered parking bays for an unlimited time when the sign indicates 30 minutes or more. Drivers began receiving up to three tickets per day due to the flawed technology. 

Woolworths will be the first to trial a new form of packaging on its shelves. Recycling start-up Samsara has plans to open a new recycling plant which will use enzymes to eat plastic and break it down into molecules to be reused. The technology developed at the Australian National University will eliminate single use plastic. 

Samsara chief executive officer Paul Riley said, “This means we will never have to create new plastic from scratch using fossil fuels again.”

The trial will take place over 2 years and will begin with Woolworths’ own-brand products.

Victoria is home to its first Aboriginal-owned solar farm, due to be completed next year.

A paddock, which has remained vacant for over a decade, will soon become the site of the state’s first indigenous-owned solar farm. The block in eastern Victoria’s Gippsland region will contain solar panels, as the region moves toward cleaner energy. 

The electricity sales generated from the site will go towards funding for local indigenous communities.

The United States have announced they will lift the covid travel ban for fully vaccinated UK passengers. 

From early November, passengers from the UK and most of the EU will be able to travel to the US. Currently only US citizens, green-card holders and those with exemptions can travel freely to the US. 

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson tweeted, “It’s a fantastic boost for business and trade, and great that family and friends on both sides of the pond can be reunited once again.”

Queensland has recorded no new community cases, but two in hotel quarantine.

Victoria recorded 567 new COVID-19 cases, but no deaths.

In Sydney, fully vaccinated adults in another twelve LGAs can experience an easing of restrictions, following other parts of the city.

A gay bar opened last week in the Gold Coast, it hopes to unite a ‘disconnected’ community.

The Chameleon Lounge Bar, in Broadbeach, is the first LGBTQI+ safe bar in almost two years.

Dan Duncan, the owner, says, “We seem to be losing the gay culture on the Gold Coast because there was nothing.”

This venue gives LGBTQI+ people a chance to meet in-person in a welcoming space.

Drunk drivers in outback Queensland will face a $2,000 bill for alcohol interlock devices.

Until now rural convicted drivers have been able to apply for a court exemption because there was no qualified technician to install the devices.

The devices, which require a breath test and facial recognition to start ignition, will hopefully prevent alcohol-related road crashes.

Federal government forecasting predicts about 850,000 people, twice the current numbers, will be living with dementia by 2058 unless there is a cure or breakthrough treatment.

An Australian Institute of Health and Welfare found dementia was the leading cause of death for women,the second leading cause of death for all Australians after heart disease.

The report found an estimated 337,200 people provide unpaid care, often at a great cost to their own wellbeing and income. 

New research claims women receive worse medical treatment than men for common heart attacks.

A study by Sydney researchers has found that women diagnosed with a common type of heart attack or the condition unstable an-JIGH-nah (angina) received “less evidence-based treatment” than men, both immediately and in the long term.

The lead researcher David Brieger, a physician and professor of cardiology at the University of Sydney, says “Despite the way we think we’re practising, we are still innately conservative and under-treating women for whatever reason.