Agriculture Minister David Littleproud is calling for Australians to eat 100 percent Aussie this Christmas to support our farmers. 

“Australia’s farmers have defied drought, bushfires and a pandemic to deliver an abundance of fresh food throughout the year,” Minister Littleproud said.

Queensland’s unemployment rate has stayed at 7.7 per cent this November while the national average dropped to 6.8 per cent, the ABS revealed. 

Over 211 000 Queenslanders are out of work this Christmas, 41 000 more than this time last year. 

Queensland budget papers estimate the state jobless average won’t drop to 6.5 percent until June 2024. 

The Brisbane Transit Centre, known as Brisbane’s ‘ugliest’ building, has been torn down to make way for a new underground rail network and stadium. 

Transport Minister Mark Bailey says tearing the building down over the past 12 months has been a ‘mammoth operation’. 

Shopping centres across Brisbane are gearing up for a frantic few days ahead of the final weekend before Christmas.

Hundreds of thousands of shoppers are expected with many centres opening for extended trading hours.

Alison Pearson from Westfield says they’re also taking additional steps to keep customers COVID-Safe.

Australia’s beautiful palm cockatoos are expected to more than halve over the next 50 years due to slow breeding rates and habitat loss according to new research. 

The birds are found near the tip of Cape York Peninsula in Far North Queensland and have an estimated population of 1,500.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian is expected to announce the new COVID-19 cases at 11am this morning after an outbreak this week on Sydney's Northern Beaches. 

New genomic testing has revealed that the Northern beaches outbreak was an international strain of the virus however it is still unclear how it got into the community. 

QLD has announced anyone who has visited the Northern beaches since Friday 11 December would have to quarantine. 

More than three hundred schoolboys who were abducted last week in Northwestern Nigeria have been freed, according to a state official. 

State governor Aminu Bello Masari said the boys were kidnapped by bandits masquerading as the ISlamist terrorist group, Boko Haram. 

French President Emmanuel Macron has a fever after testing positive for COVID-19 on Thrursday. 

The President will self isolate for a week in the presidential residence in Versailles. 

His diagnosis has sent ripples through the French and European political sphere, with multiple figures now forced to quarantine.