An Australian woman has been charged after allegedly lacing a colleague's curry with snail poison.

Police in the state of Western Australia say the alleged victim made a meal for her co-workers in February, which they shared at morning tea.

But when the 58-year-old returned to eat leftovers at lunch, she noticed bright green granules in the food and that her tongue felt numb after tasting it.

The accused - who was in a relationship with the alleged victim - has been charged with endangering the life, health or safety of another person after a months-long investigation, and will face court on 5 November.

Police allege the 43-year-old woman - who hasn't been named - visited a chemical storage shed before returning to the staffroom where the curry was kept.

After tasting it, the alleged victim handed the meal over to detectives, who identified the substance as snail pellets containing metaldehyde, a poisonous substance.

Commissioner Col Blanch told reporters the poison can cause serious injury or death.

"We're just very thankful that the person who tasted the curry was aware of something that wasn't quite right," he said, according to the Seven Network.

Breaking news: water is wet.

Just came across this. If you’re missing teeth, in VIC and want to Make Australia Great Again, check it out.

In short:

Newly surfaced emails have revealed sensitive court data was sent to India more than a decade ago.

A spokesperson for the Federal Circuit and Family Court said the current court leadership was unaware of the earlier data offshoring.

What's next?

Shadow Attorney General Michaela Cash and Greens leader David Shoebridge are both calling for an investigation. 

Giriwa May believed he was "Peter Brock reincarnated".

However, he would win no trophies or admirers for his actions behind the wheel of a stolen four-wheel drive last year.

Instead, on Thursday, he was sentenced to four years and 10 months' jail.

High on drugs, May rammed a police car and then drove the vehicle through the entrance of a shopping centre, causing patrons to run for their lives.

County Court Judge Stewart Bayles said May showed complete disregard for the safety of police who tried to arrest him and people inside the Northland Shopping Centre in Preston.

"People could have been killed or seriously injured," Judge Bayles said.

"One can only imagine the fear and the terror this conduct must have instilled in those people."

On June 18 last year a Northland security camera detected that the number plate on a stolen Landcruiser May was driving was itself stolen. 

Police were contacted and arrived soon after in an unmarked vehicle.

Two officers tried to box May in, but he put the Landcruiser in reverse and rammed the police car out of the way.

He then headed for the shopping centre entrance.

The two-tonne vehicle crashed through the centre's security bollards and glass doors, then sped past retailers and hit a children's playground.

May drove the four-wheel drive through another exit, narrowly missing children wearing backpacks and people carrying their shopping.

Footage of the incident showed some shoppers running. Others dived out of the way. One woman can be seen pushing her pram into a shop, before racing to grab a young boy who was metres from being struck.

No-one was hurt, but Judge Bayles described chaotic scenes at the centre.

"There is no audio on the CCTV footage but witnesses describe people as screaming, lying on the ground and crawling to get out of the way and avoid being hit," he said.

The CCTV footage shows May driving out of the shopping centre and away from police in pursuit.

He was arrested the following day in East Melbourne.

The cost of the damage to the shopping centre was about $145,000.

May made no comment to police who arrested him the next day.

However evidence from his phone showed he had filmed himself watching a news story about his actions at Northland. He can be heard saying: "It's f***ing mayhem alright, beast, Peter Brock reincarnated."

He sent an associate a photo of himself and the stolen vehicle on Snapchat, and wrote: "Peter Brock ain't got nut'n on me".

He texted another person: "Cuz I'm on the run hectic … that was me on the news."

The court heard May was a heavy drug user, consuming up to a gram of methamphetamine a day.

On Thursday, Judge Bayles said May was remorseful and spoke of his shame for letting down members of the Indigenous community.

May pleaded guilty to intentionally exposing an emergency worker to risk by driving, conduct endangering life, handling stolen goods, driving while disqualified and damaging property.

He will have to serve a minimum of two years and 10 months' jail before being eligible for parole.

With time served, May could be released in April 2028.

In short:

The final cost of Hobart's new AFL stadium is still unclear, with the current estimate more than a year old.

Tasmania's premier would not commit to limiting the state's contribution to $875 million.

What's next?

An updated price tag is expected to be released before the end of the year.

Kos samaras latest article. What is everyone's thoughts

"The first politician who has an honest conversation with Australians about the world they actually live in will win. Not the best slogan or the biggest promise. The truth.

The truth is this. The 30 years after the war were never normal. One wage bought a house, raised a family and funded a retirement. That happened in a few dozen countries, once, for about three decades. Growth per person ran at 3.8 per cent a year, after nearly 40 years it’s now at 1 per cent. Seven workers for every retiree. The West had the world's factories almost to itself and cheap oil. Every one of those conditions is gone and no government can bring them back. Some are actually accelerating the decline of prosperity in the west, like Trump. Yes, a note to some of you Trump fans, please stay away from any job that requires economic skills.

The new world has now become the old world. It has more in common with 1930 than with anything in the last 40 years. Slow growth. An ageing country. A fair share that has to be chosen on purpose rather than delivered by the tide.

In 1930, a workers wage was mostly consumed by basic material needs, food, fuel and a roof over one’s head. Hello 2026.

Which brings me to immigration.

Blaming migrants for the end of the boom is the laziest, most empty-headed response available to Australian politics. It requires no thought, no plan and no courage. There is no migration cut that makes a house cost three times a wage again. A smaller intake does not restore seven workers for every retiree. It drives the ratio towards two, faster. It makes the problem worse while pretending to solve it. Anyone selling it is not offering an answer. They are offering a scapegoat so they never have to explain the arithmetic because explaining it and actually working towards a solution means one thing - empowering employees.

Link below."

Greens leader David Shoebridge has refused to say whether the party will release the findings of an inquiry into allegations against Greens senator Jordon Steele-John.

Steele-John,32, has rejected allegations that he made inappropriate comments towards women and has taken leave from the Greens party room.

Shoebridge denies he knew about historic complaints about the Western Australian senator between 2017 and 2025, until a letter from seven Greens members demanding an investigation into "concerning behaviour" landed on his desk this week.

"I've been leader now for two weeks, and when I received these complaints, I took the most timely action that I believe you could take, and I'd ask people to judge me and on the response that’s been taken, the timely response that's been taken," Shoebridge told reporters on Friday.

"This is a process that will be commissioned by the WA Greens, and the parameters that we are very clear about is it will be fair, and it will be independent, and it will be timely. But it is not my role to put parameters around what we have said must be and will be an independent process.

"And we are committed to undertaking that process, and committed to doing justice to the matters that have been raised, and justice to any party that has been involved in the matter, and I think that should be actually a bedrock. That should actually be a bedrock of politics."

When asked about the minutes of a NSW Young Greens meeting in October 2018 raising sexual harassment claims against Steele-John, Shoebridge denied he knew about it.

"I was in a different parliament," he said.

"I do not recall having any involvement at all in that, and I don’t think people would expect an upper-house MP in a state parliament to have any role in that."

In a statement, Steele-John said the allegations lacked specific details.

"I utterly reject this characterisation of me, which tries to assert I am someone I am not," he said.

"Any allegation of this nature is extremely serious and must be treated accordingly. If someone has made an allegation, I am prepared to address it.

"I have referred this matter to the WA Greens, so that a fair, independent process can be commissioned that upholds the principles of natural justice and ensures procedural fairness for everyone involved."

The letter sent to Shoebridge contains accusations he says the party takes "incredibly seriously".

"When matters like this are raised, they require a fair and independent and timely process for them to be dealt with. The WA Greens are commissioning that process," he said.

The senator will self-refer matters outlined in the letter to an independent complaints process.

SBS News has contacted Steele-John's for comment.

Steele-John entered parliament in 2017 at 23 and is the party's spokesperson for disability and mental health, leading a campaign against NDIS cuts.

Below is this "news" story about the guy found guilty of murder (amongst other charges). It's so disingenuous to refer to this guy as "Australia's most decorated soldier". Fine on face value, till you learn some of those awards were fraudulently gained. He would never have gotten them had the truth known at the time. I guess he has friends at news dot com for this garbage to get a run. That combined with outlet Combined with the sites very low standards:

After a decade of watching media outlets, authors, and documentary filmmakers make millions of dollars off his name, Australia’s most decorated living soldier is launching a commercial fightback.

The deaths of three children murdered by their mother will be examined at an inquest following sustained political pressure.

Jamela Hawke, 10, and her brothers Anand, 7, and Kelvin Jr, four months, were violently killed by their mother, Margaret Dale Hawke, in the family's Port Hedland home in July 2022.

WA Attorney-General Tony Buti on Thursday directed the state coroner to hold an inquest into the vulnerable children's deaths, saying there was fresh evidence.

"I have personally reviewed the files from the Department of Communities and police, and they are truly heartbreaking," he told reporters on Thursday.

The order reverses former WA coroner Phil Urquhart's decision not to hold an inquest into the deaths.

"There is new evidence and circumstances that were not considered by former coroner Urquhart," Dr Buti said.

The decision follows mounting political pressure on the WA Labor government from the children's grandmother Dorothy Papertalk, Indigenous Australians Minister Malarndirri McCarthy, the WA opposition and others.

"This tragedy is unspeakable, and my thoughts have and always will be with the family members that are grieving," Dr Buti said.

Hawke was sentenced in 2023 to a minimum non-parole period of 25 years after she pleaded guilty to three counts of murder.

The Supreme Court heard Hawke grew up in a violent home amid alcohol abuse and she had been abused in a series of relationships as an adult.

In the lead-up to the murders, she had been using a cocktail of drugs, including methamphetamine, and her state of mind was likely impaired as a result.

She had repeatedly asked for help from community groups and medical staff, saying she was struggling to care for her children, but few options were available.

Dr Buti declined to provide details of the new information that had prompted him to order an inquest.

An acting icon best known for his small roles across a range of some of the most iconic films and TV shows ever produced in Australia has died aged 74.

Gary Waddell died earlier this week after a short battle with dementia. Waddell’s career on Australian film and TV spanned nearly 50 years and included parts in iconic shows like Blue Heelers, Home and Away, A Country Practice and Rake.

He also appeared in films including Charlie’s Country and Chopper.

Family, friends and former colleagues have sung the praises of the “hilarious, beautiful, charming” and “naughty” Victorian, who first appeared on Australian screens as the leading man of edgy 1975 drama Pure Sh*t, in which he played a heroin addict.

Singer-songwriter Lo Carmen said Waddell was a “one-of-a-kind, heart-of-f**king-gold dude”.

“He used to turn up at our place with little cars and books and old cool toys and gifts for our son Dutch, just because he was full of love,” Carmen said.

“We’d stand around talking about books and films and food and nothing and everything and laughing our heads off for the next two hours.

“You’d be in tears of laughter. I don’t know why on earth he wasn’t cast in everything.”

Waddell’s talent managers said he “passed away peacefully” after living with dementia “over the last few years”.

“Gary was one of a kind, a true artist in every sense of the word, and his body of Australian work was so utterly impressive,” they wrote on Facebook.

“The SJM team send their love to Gary’s family at this time. Thanks for everything Gary, you will be missed. We’ve hat a lot of fun over the years.”

Waddell most recently appeared in the 2022 film The Survival of Kindness.

Police arrested a knife-wielding man in central Footscray on Wednesday afternoon.

Officers were called to Byron Street at about 4.30pm on 14 October following reports that a man was threatening passers-by with a knife.

A 37-year-old man of no fixed address was arrested and later charged with possessing a controlled weapon and possessing methyl-amphetamine.

He was bailed with conditions to appear at Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on 6 April 2027.

There were no reports of injuries to members of the public.

As has been said thousands of times - this is a political issue and as such you can't take the feeling component out; but TLDR if you can't be assed reading what is actually quite and easy to digest piece - if they actually do care about implementing evidence based policy (not what passes for it in this "alternative facts" hyper reality bubble these days) all the Parties should have waited to learn what the Census data showed and focussed much less on the NOM and instead put their efforts and experts onto the social and economic impacts. Modelling is only as useful as the data on what it is based "All these announcements have been made in the absence of comprehensive information on the employment of temporary residents and their impacts on housing and other aspects of infrastructure. This information will become available from the results of the 2026 census, for which there is no published release date as yet.

The sensible approach to take in this situation is to not make drastic changes until proper research is conducted. This could and should be done by whatever government is elected in 2028, but this is likely to be a vain hope.

Politicking about temporary migration in lieu of reliable data will inevitably be ill-informed. "

Good luck getting "sensible" in the current mad as hell political landscape in Australia.

https://theconversation.com/australia-has-3-competing-migration-policies-the-problem-none-are-based-in-evidence-293945

‘Fake meetings’: Special Minister of State's office finds no evidence of Anika Wells meeting amid birthday party travel scandal | News24

I've emailed a few politicians over the years and had a mixed bag of experiences. Curious how other people have gone.

The oldest one I remember was to Sarah Henderson (Coalition) about a bus driver who kept missing my stop. Someone from her office replied saying they'd spoken to management and it shouldn't happen again. Ironically, I got attitude from the driver afterwards, now that I drive I don’t know if it changed that experience for others.

I also contacted Katie Hall (Labor) about the vape ban. I used some wording from a template suggested by an organisation I'd somehow ended up on the mailing list for, which I probably wouldn't do again. The response was fairly generic. I've since moved from illegal vapes to nicotine pouches like Zyn and eventually nicotine mints, so it's not really an issue I'm particularly invested in anymore.

More recently, I've emailed Daniel Mulino about the lack of opportunities for financial planning graduates to get the experience and training needed to complete their Professional Year. It's too early to judge whether anything will come of that.

I've also contacted the Greens asking them to push for all parties to release their election policy costings about a week earlier than they currently do ahead of the Victorian state election. No response yet, but it's still early days. Given they make such a point of costing policy I figured to send it to them first.

What's everyone else's experience been like?

Who have you contacted, did they respond, and did they actually address what you wrote about?

Feel free to name politicians who replied or didn't, and share what the response was like. I'm interested in whether contacting them has actually made a difference for anyone.