TRANSCRIPT:
A group of Australians are among dozens of passengers confirmed to have been hurt in a severe turbulence incident on a Singapore Airlines flight.
The airlines says 56 people on board the plane were from Australia.
Eight of that group have been taken to hospital in Bangkok, where the plane was forced to make an emergency landing.
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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Two Royal Australian Air Force planes have repatriated a group of citizens from New Caledonia.
The 84 Australians have landed safely in Brisbane.
More than 200 Australians remain trapped in New Caledonia.
Minister for the Pacific Pat Conroy has told Channel Nine the government is still working on helping them to leave.
"We've prioritised the elderly, the pregnant and the most vulnerable, and obviously we'll continue to work with the French government to make sure we get every Australian out of New Caledonia who does want to leave."
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A Queensland MP has been forced to close her office after receiving threats.
The Member for Keppel, Brittany Lauga, says two female staff members at her office in Yeppoon, in central Queensland, have been threatened several times.
The MP says she has closed the office on official advice.
The threats come weeks after Ms Lauga reported allegations of being drugged and sexually assaulted on a night out in Yeppoon on April 28.
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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.
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Victorian premier Jacinta Allan is calling on pro-Palestinian protesters occupying universities to leave.
Campus authorities have so far resisted bringing in the police.
The state's police union has warned that moving in on the encampments is a no-win situation.
But Ms Allan says that the demonstrators have overstayed their welcome.
"We have reached the point where many Victorians are frustrated or fed up with some of the reckless behaviour we've seen. I know I certainly am. Most certainly the right to protest the right to peacefully protest is a hallmark of our democracy, but violence, Violence is absolutely not. And we should not be seeing violence overseas bring violence to the streets of Melbourne."
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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.
But the report has found there's still been a slight increase in the number of scams reported to the government body.
Financial Services Minister Stephen Jones says despite this rise, 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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The Northern Territory parliament has passed a bill that will allow the police commissioner to enact a three day curfew.
Indigenous justice groups argue the law will disproportionately target Aboriginal people.
But the government says the new powers will keep crime down in the top end, which has been grappling with growing rates of anti-social behaviour.
Police Minister Brent Potter says the curfews would be used sparingly, rather than as an initial response.
I'm Deborah Groarke. This is SBS News in Easy English.
