TRANSCRIPT:
- A group of Australians among those injured on a Singapore Airlines flight hit by turbulence;
- Promising signs in Australia's latest anti-scam report;
- Aleksandar Vukic eliminated from the ATP 250 event in Lyon.
A Queensland MP has been forced to close her office after receiving threats in the wake of her alleged sexual assault.
Brittany Lauga says two female staff members at her office in Yeppoon, in central Queensland, have been threatened on several occasions, weeks after the Member for Keppel disclosed she attended hospital and reported to police that she was allegedly drugged and assaulted on a night out in Yeppoon on April 28.
The MP has confirmed the move in a statement posted on her Facebook page.
"The safety of my staff is absolutely my number one priority. As a result of several threatening and offensive safety concerns from members of the public, the Keppel Electorate Office is closed on the request of Queensland Parliamentary Services. The Keppel Electorate Office staff are currently working remotely. Constituents are of course still able to contact the office and receive support and advice as per usual."
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A group of Australians are among dozens of passengers confirmed to have been hurt in a severe turbulence incident on board a Singapore Airlines flight, that's claimed the life of a UK man.
The Airline says 56 people on board the plane were from Australia, and eight of that group have been taken to hospital in Bangkok, where the plane was forced to make an emergency landing.
Embassy officials in Thailand are trying to confirm if any other Australians have been injured.
Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil has told Channel 7 her thoughts are with those affected.
"This is a terrible experience that these people have gone through. As usual the Australian government will provide consular assistance wherever we can, wherever it's needed to those people. And I know the Embassy in Bangkok and the High Commission in Singapore are actively trying to contact those Australians at the moment."
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The government says progress has been made in the investigation of an Australian aid worker's death in Gaza in April.
Zomi Frankcom and six of her World Central Kitchen colleagues died in an Israeli airstrike that the Israeli Defence Force called a "misidentification" in the fog of war.
It's been confirmed that retired air chief marshal Mark Binskin travelled to Israel in early May after being appointed as Australia's special advisor on Tel Aviv's investigation into their deaths.
A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs says there has been "positive engagement" with Binskin to date - and that their expectation is for a "thorough and transparent" inquiry, and "full accountability."
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Bird flu has been detected at a Victorian egg farm.
The property at Meredith, northwest of Geelong, has been placed into quarantine.
Samples from the farm have been sent to the Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness at Geelong to determine the strain of the disease.
That testing will determine if it's a new deadly strain causing mass bird deaths around the world - but hasn't yet been detected in Australia.
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It's been revealed that scammers fleeced less money out of Australians in the last few months.
The National Anti-Scam Centre says there's been an 11 per cent fall in total scam losses over the March quarter, with most of the improvement led by shrinking losses to investment scams.
But the report has found there's still been a slight increase in the number of scams reported to the government body, with fraudsters starting to exploit the cost-of-living crisis by deceiving social media users trying to make extra money through second jobs.
Financial Services Minister Stephen Jones says despite the prevalence of scams, the report shows that Australia is heading in the right direction.
"The increase in reporting of scams is a good thing. And I said right at the beginning of this program that we're encouraging Australians to report, one of the things we've learned is that when somebody becomes a victim of a scam, they're embarrassed, they feel shame, they feel like they've been mugged. And they don't want to report it. And we're trying to change that mindset. Because a person who has been scammed is probably the victim of a network that is trying to scam other Australians."
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Aleksandar Vukic is now turning his attention to the French Open at Roland Garros after being knocked out of the ATP 250 event in Lyon by second seed Alexander Bublik.
The 28-year-old Australian was beaten 6-4 6-2, having defeated world Number 76, Mackenzie McDonald, for his biggest A-T-P main-draw win on European clay.
