New South Wales MP for the Animal Justice Party Emma Hurst is calling for a mandatory animal ban for anyone found guilty of bestiality. 

Currently, people convicted of bestiality charges are still allowed to own and work alongside animals and the maximum penalty for aggravated animal cruelty is a $22 000 fine or two years in jail. 

The mandatory bans are set to be debated next week in the New South Wales parliament.

Thousands of Syrian protestors took to the streets in the rebel-held city of Idlib last night to mark ten years since the uprisings that triggered the Syrian civil war.

The 2011 uprising began amid calls for the deposition of President Bashar Al-Assad and, after ten years and nearly 400 000 deaths, the protestors’ message has not changed. 

Idlib is currently protected under a cease-fire agreement which is preventing violence, but internal displacement and food insecurity remain serious threats to millions of Syrians.

The new UN-backed interim Libyan unity government was sworn in in the eastern city of Tobruk last night.

New Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah and his three-member presidential council are tasked with organising elections in December this year that will end a decade of conflict and instability in Libya.

Since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, the previous UN-backed government and rebel leader General Haftar’s forces have been vying for influence across the country, with the resulting power vacuum allowing conflict and crime to thrive.

86 close contacts of the doctor who contracted COVID-19 while treating in the Princess Alexandra Hospital have returned negative results, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said this morning. 

Hundreds of further results are expected in the coming days, which will show whether the doctor spread the virus while he was infectious in the community before testing positive last week.

With less than two weeks to go until JobKeeper winds up, the Queensland Premier has renewed pleas for the Prime Minister to extend support for tourism operators hit worst by international border closures.

Ms Palaszczuk says “Without more targeted support for our tourism industry, we’ll see thousands of jobs lost in Cairns, the Whitsundays and the Gold Coast.”

The Queensland government says that the half price airfares announced by the PM last week were good but not enough and “won’t go to those who are most in need.”

Brisbane renewable energy company, RedEarth, has signed a contract with a housing developer to provide a “virtual” power plant for thousands of homes powered by the solar energy collected from their rooftops.

Co-founder Charles Walker said the internet of energy turns homes with solar panels and batteries into a network that optimises the generation, transmission and utilisation of electricity. 

Attorney-General Christian Porter has launched defamation proceedings against the ABC in the Federal Court today, alleging that an online story published by the Broadcaster portrays him as the perpetrator of a “brutal” rape that contributed to a woman taking her own life.

Mr Porter has engaged several high profile solicitors to represent him, including Bret Walker SC, who successfully acted in the appeal to the High Court of Australia of Cardinal George Pell.

Approved capacity for Melbourne’s leg of the March 4 Justice rally has been increased to 5,000 attendees this morning.

The permit comes at the same time a number of female Liberal politicians in Canberra have confirmed they will attend the March 4 Justice rally today, including Senators Sarah Henderson and Jane Hume, and MP Bridget Archer. 

National rallies are planned across the country today to protest against gendered violence, including in Brisbane’s King George Square.