The family of a man shot and killed by police during a dramatic seven hour siege in Brisbane yesterday has spoken out, saying they do not blame police officers for what happened.

The man, 48-year-old Peter Pilkington, had allegedly stormed a Compton road business complex in the Brisbane suburb of Stretton around 1.20pm armed with a gun, triggering a mass police operation.

Five bystanders barricaded themselves in an adjoining room from the accused gunman after he stormed into their office.

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He was eventually shot in the chest and died shortly after.

Peter's brother, Shannon Pilkington, today told 9News he feels for all involved.

"My heart goes out to everyone in this situation," Shannon said.

"Five people were terrified. The police officer has to live for the rest of his life with what he's done."

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Shannon said his brother had been suffering mental health issues, and alleged he has been denied treatment prior to the shooting.

He said Peter's marriage had recently broken down and he had had been investigated by the Australian Federal Police in recent years due to suspicious posts on social media.

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Authorities said the siege was not linked to terrorism.

"I'm not making excuses, he's done some bad things," Shannon said.

"This is not the brother I know. I'll remember my brother for the good person that he used to be."

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The incident and shooting is currently under investigation by the Ethical Standards Command, and the Queensland Crime and Corruption Commission.

Shane Prior from the Queensland Police Union backed the decision of specialist officers and said the shooting of police firearms is always a last resort.

"I can tell you with absolute certainty, every single police officer at that scene wanted the incident to be resolved peacefully," he said.

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A man has made a remarkable escape as his boat went up in flames in Sydney's south.

The man had only had the sports cruiser boat for less than two weeks when the entire vessel was consumed by flames at Yowie Bay, sending out an enormous plume of black smoke.

The father in his 30s was forced to leap for his life and managed to get to a nearby boat ramp, remarkably escaping with barely a scratch.

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As flames took hold of the boat, witnesses jumped into their own boats to save other vessels close by.

"We ran a rope around the boat and pulled it out of the way of the other boats," Nathan Smith said.

Fire crews and marine police then managed to put out the blaze, but the $90,000 boat was already destroyed.

It was brought back to Yowie Bay Marina to prevent further hazardous materials from entering the bay.

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According to police, the boat caught fire the moment the owner turned it on.

He had been planning a day on the water with his family.

The one silver lining for the man's devastating day is the boat was insured.

On Saturday, December 4, 4.7 million residents of NSW were required to turn out and vote in their local council elections being conducted by the NSW Electoral Commission.

By Tuesday night prior to the vote, 215,757 had registered to use the online and mobile iVote system, almost the same amount as used the system in total during the last State Election.

Come polling day, when registrations to vote online closed in the early afternoon, a whopping 652,983 had registered to vote.

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The numbers overwhelmed the system, and it crashed, with the NSW Electoral Commission forced to issue an apology and advise anyone who had registered but been unable to lodge a vote would not be fined.

The move to online voting is in part thanks to a shift in demographics, but also due to an opening of the state after strong COVID-19 restrictions, with one of the eligibility criteria for online voting being that you were outside your local council area on polling day.

With 4,742,509 voters across the eligible LGAs on Saturday, the iVote registrations account for 13.77 per cent of voters.

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However, after manual counting and scrutineering of paper votes on Saturday night, Monday and now Tuesday, the total votes counted and registered in the online Virtual Tally Room for the NSW Electoral Commission do not yet include any of the iVote ballots.

Not a single iVote is yet included in the listed outcomes.

Statistically, like all "booths", it's unlikely the iVotes vary greatly from the majority already counted, but if there is any anomaly, it won't be seen until tomorrow with the NSW Electoral Commission confirming to Nine News that iVotes would be included sometime on Wednesday.

The votes that should be easiest to tally are seemingly taking the longest to "count". Not a great sign for the future of any digital elections we might envisage.

Hail and heavy rain have battered western Sydney as a severe thunderstorm moved across the city, causing major traffic delays and damaging property.

Large hailstones hit homes and cars as well as a sudden downpour of rain.

The ceiling at the entrance of Penrith HomeCo Centre has collapsed as a result of the storm. No one was injured.

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The whole store was evacuated after the roof collapsed and the centre began to flood.

There are now major traffic delays on the Anzac Bridge after the heavy rainfall caused flash flooding.

Two of the three westbound lanes are currently closed.

Motorists are urged to take care when driving near the floodwaters.

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The Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) said severe thunderstorms are no longer affecting Greater Sydney.

"The immediate threat of severe thunderstorms has passed, but the situation will continue to be monitored and further warnings will be issued if necessary," the BoM said in a statement.

A severe weather warning is however in place for the state's Mid North Coast, Hunter, Metropolitan, Central Tablelands, and Central West.

These storms are likely to bring heavy rainfall and flash flooding tonight.

"Locations which may be affected include Taree, Gosford, Scone, Mudgee, Wellington and Hill End," the BoM said.

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Weatherzone said more than 130,000 lightning strikes have flashed over NSW today as the trough moves across the state.

"A few systems, including near Penrith, Gosford and Karuah have brought large hail," Joel Pippard, from Weatherzone, said.

"Furthermore, heavy rain of 24.8mm in 30 minutes at Chifley Dam and damaging winds like 83km/h at Gunnedah have been recorded."

The storm will ease overnight but is expected to start again in the morning.

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Three-year-old Oli's smile belies the pain he has endured batting neuroblastoma, an aggressive rare cancer.

The diagnosis was delivered to parents Joel and Leni Plueckhahn 15 months ago as Mrs Plueckhahn was going into labour with Oli's youngest sister.

"I was having contractions with my third daughter and yeah they told us they found a 10cm tumour," Ms Plueckhahn said.

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Oli has since had five months of chemo, surgery to remove the stomach tumour and countless other interventions.

His mum has called him "the most resilient boy ever".

Mr Plueckhahn said the couple would do whatever they could to make their son fit and healthy.

"Seeing him run around and be a three-year-old, it just melts my heart," he said.

Oli has been ruled clear of cancer, but the family plans to travel overseas in March to access treatment they hope will prevent the cancer from returning.

"Survival rate for neuroblastoma is only 60 per cent at the moment, which is why we are going over to the states to participate in a clinical trial," Ms Plueckhahn said.

Dozens of Oli's family and friends will participate in the Melbourne Marathon this wekeend to help fund the trip.

Oli's grandfather Manny was a Marathon veteran, running in the event 40 times before he death from a rare blood cancer just after Oli's birth.

The family are sharing their story to also generate support for Rare Cancers Australia.

The Melbourne Marathon will be stage over two days this weekend.

The money raised by walkers and runners participating will go to a raft of deserving causes.