A Report released by the Commonwealth Ombudsman yesterday shows that the Government pursued robo-debts even after they knew the program was unlawful.

Services Australia, the government department responsible for robo-debt decided to keep pursuing debts while it checked whether they were legally sound.

Services Australia told the Ombudsman it had not paused debts that were potentially invalid because that would have meant pausing all debts owed by a person.

Scott Morrison says he never blamed the EU for vaccine troubles.

He says any suggestion that he, in any way, made any criticism of the European Union yesterday would be completely incorrect.

He also emphasized the fact that 3.1 million of the contracted vaccines that Australia had been relying upon in early January, when the government set out a series of targets did, not turn up.

Two cyclones detected off the WA coast are predicted to create a rare weather phenomenon known as the Fujiwhara effect. 

The Fujiwhara phenomenon occurs when two cyclonic systems rotate around each other. In tropical cyclones, the effect can happen when cyclones are within 1,400 kilometres of each other. 

There is a risk of one of the systems hitting the far west Pilbara coast by the end of the week. However, the Bureau of Meteorology currently predicts the cyclones will have little onshore impact due to their distance from the coast.

Forbes’ annual world’s billionaires list has broken its previous record by including 500 new billionaires onto the list.

The list has been growing despite the world economic downturn due to the covid-19 pandemic.

This year’s billionaires are worth a combined 13.1 trillion US dollars, up from 8 trillion US dollars last year.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk reported the state’s fourth consecutive day without community transmission of COVID-19. There are six new cases in hotel quarantine.

She has also invited the New Zealand prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, to holiday in Queensland after the recommencement of the trans-Tasman bubble in earnest on 19 April.

Protesters have stopped work on Adani’s Carmichael rail line this morning by blocking vehicles from entering the construction site off the Gregory Highway in central Queensland.

The protest group called “Health On The Frontlines” is made up of healthcare professionals that want to stop Adani from risking our planet and health.

In 2019 The Australian Medical Association declared climate change a health emergency

The International Monetary fund has released its predictions for Australia’s economic future today.

The IMF predicts a stronger economic recovery than previously predicted at the start of this year, with annual economic growth expected to reach 4.5% in 2021.

They have warned, however, that there is still much uncertainty as to how the COVID pandemic will play out; the speed of vaccine roll-outs and the emergence of new COVID strains could impact economic recovery.

Amnesty international's annual report has flagged human rights abuses in Australia including offshore detention, restriction of protests and Indigenous people’s rights.

The Report has outlined Australian lawmakers are declining to bring Australia in line with international standards despite public support for raising the minimum age of detention for children from 10 years old to 14 years old.

Almost 3 in 5 children in detention are Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders.

A man has been arrested in the Netherlands over an alleged theft of two paintings, both worth over 15 million Euros. 

Spring Garden, by Vicent Van Gough was stolen from Singer museum in March last year. 

Frans Hals's Two Laughing Boys with a Mug of Beer was stolen from Leerdam Museum in August. Neither painting has been recovered. 

Queensland is banning the use of tattoo ink that can cause cancer and bring the tattoo industry in line with European regulations.

A 2016 study found that one in five tattoo inks in use in Australia contained carcinogenic chemicals.

Queensland Treasurer, Cameron Dick, introduced the law to parliament that would make it illegal to sell ink or tattoo someone without a “compliant analysis certificate”.