A youth crime crisis in some areas of regional Australia is fuelling long-standing tension between Indigenous residents,the wider community and police.
Veteran police are facing trial for punching,hitting and swearing at teens. Their defence argues their actions should be judged on “the agony of the moment”,not hindsight.
Western Sydney residents are being warned of rising waters in the flood-prone Hawkesbury-Nepean as flooding continues across inland NSW.
Severe shortages across regional NSW has prompted health officials to offer up to $500 a week in bonus payments to lure nurses to hospitals,including Tamworth,Tenterfield,Moree and Armidale.
At about 4pm each afternoon,happy hour arrives at Moree Showground. It’s the highlight of the day for a group of otherwise unhappy campers.
The unvaccinated outnumber the vaccinated in Boggabilla and Toomelah,where only the fully jabbed are allowed over the border to shop for the bare essentials.
And the vast majority with the virus are young:90 per cent are under 40,and 43 per cent are under 20.
Queensland’s most vaccinated town has so far crushed its new COVID-19 outbreak. In its southern neighbour,cases have climbed by 78 in just five days.
The mayor of Moree,where another 15 COVID-19 cases were recorded on Friday,says the town feels like it has been abandoned by the state government.
Queensland authorities are managing a cluster of COVID-19 cases in the southern border town,linked to an outbreak of more than 30 infections.
Infections in parts of the Hunter New England region which previously had little to no COVID-19 have driven a spike in NSW’s cases on Thursday.