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Pan Pac says its opening of a massive lumber warehouse at its Whirinaki plant shows it is confident it can weather the Covid-10 instigated export crisis.The warehouse, the size of two rugby fields with a capacity to store 14,000m3…

The National Party says it is “unbelievable” two senior Government ministers are publicly criticising the Ministry of Health for refusing to release Māori vaccination data while saying they are unable to do anything about it….

France has persuaded the European Union to slow trade negotiations with New Zealand until after its presidential election in April next year.The Financial Times reports that France is seeking to pause trade negotiations between…

For stage and screen star Simon Burke, being sent into lockdown while rehearsing for his latest role in new musical Moulin Rouge was extra poignant because it meant he was away from his family for a milestone birthday.

He had to celebrate his 60th in Melbourne where he is based for the show, away from his partner in Sydney, because the borders were closed.

"It was quite emotional," he said.

READ MORE: 'It's going to be emotional': Curtain finally rises again for Sydney actors

He admits it was a challenge to cope with.

"As my partner said, 'you're not the only one to have a significant birthday in lockdown,' he told 9News.com.au.

"But if that's the worst thing that can happen to you then you're doing pretty well."

However, Burke, who famously hosted Playschool and has appeared in multiple musicals and television shows around the world, is feeling better ahead of the show's opening on Friday – which has been delayed since August.

He plays flamboyant club owner Harold Zidler and said it's the perfect post-pandemic night out.

"It carries such an energy of excitement and fun and particularly given the fact we're opening in Melbourne, which has had the longest lockdown in the world," he said.

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"I think there'll be a rush like no other on opening night, and for our entire season."

And while Burke kept fans up to date on social media during the pandemic, you won't see anything from one of his co-stars about the return to stage.

Samantha Dodemaide, who plays Nini, spent her lockdown getting off the likes of Facebook and Instagram, she revealed.

"It has so many positive and wonderful elements to it but it also for me had some negative and not helpful elements," she said.

"I thought 'I'd rather spend that hour before bed instead of scrolling, reading a good book."

READ MORE: Aussie actress who had stroke after COVID-19 jab still fiercely supports vaccination, says husband

Samantha hasn't performed on stage since early 2020 and said the new COVID-19 rules such as rehearsing in masks has been a challenge.

"I don't know which is easier or more difficult, the singing or the dancing but combining them especially together, there's a lot of gasping for air," she said.

Dodemaide also spent lockdown recovering from broken rib, after a mishap during rehearsals.

In an interesting twist, Aussie actress Nicole Kidman also broke a hip while rehearsing for the movie version of the story, by Baz Luhrmann.

"People said, 'you know, Nicole Kidman broke her rib in rehearsals.' I was like 'oh maybe this could be a sign," she said.

Disney musical Frozen also reopens in Melbourne tonight.

Meanwhile, another show is preparing to return to the stage.

Next Thursday, play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child will finally return to the stage in Melbourne.

The Princess Theatre had a $6.5m revamp for the show, which opened in 2019, with Melbourne among just a handful of places in the world to host it.

But star Gillian Cosgriff who plays Delphini, captured just how badly the production has been impacted by lockdowns when she asked bosses for old programs to do craft while in isolation.

As well as creating fun outfits from them, she made a collage to portray the 560 missed shows.

"It's certainly not been an easy time for anyone," she said.

"I suppose what is nice about it is for me it really reinforces so much I love my job."

Cosgriff is also passionate about getting arts workers the support they need when they can't work due to lockdowns – and said shows also boost multiple other businesses too.

"Arts workers are some of the last people to go back, and so they need support until they're able to reopen," she said.

READ MORE: COVID-19 vaccine booster shots to roll out nationwide from today

"Thousands of people come and see our show. But that also means they're in the city. So they're having dinner and they're going into pubs.

"I went in the chemist and the woman asked me what I did and I told her and she said even the chemist is busier when the show is on."

Cosgriff described the play, which was written by Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling as well as Brits, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany, as "a once in a lifetime, theatrical experience."

She said even she doesn't know how many of the magic tricks are done.

"You are seeing things that your brain can't compute," she said.

The original two-part performance will continue until March 27 next year, before it is overhauled into a single performance from May.

Theatregoers heading to any production must be fully vaccinated and wear a mask except while eating or drinking.

A person is in a serious condition after falling from a building in central Wellington.A police spokesperson told the Herald they were called to the incident on Holland St at around 1.30pm.Wellington Free Ambulance confirmed they…

Christine Trimboli's health has been on a terrifying, downward spiral for the past year.

In the space of 12 months, the 29-year-old has gone from being fit and healthy to losing 25kg and having to quit her full-time job because she is so ill.

Tests have shown she has suspected stage-four endometriosis and her uterus is adhered to her bowel.

Ms Trimboli says she was devastated when she found out it could be 18 months until she is able to have laparoscopic surgery in the Western Australian public hospital system to both confirm her diagnosis and relieve her pain.

The Perth mum is one of almost 30,000 people waiting in the state for elective surgery, after more than 1000 procedures were cancelled in recent months to help the struggling public hospital system manage its workload.

'I didn't even eat at my wedding'

It all started for Ms Trimboli in November last year, when she began to experience sudden bouts of stomach upsets, pain and nausea.

"I was having to rush to the toilet in the middle of my shift," she said.

Ms Trimboli's weight plummeted.

"I frequently go days without eating because I am in too much pain and throwing up," she said.

"At first, doctors didn't know what it was. They thought it was (inflammatory bowel disease) Crohn's."

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With no private health insurance, Ms Trimboli was put on the waiting list to have a colonoscopy in the public system. She was told the wait time would be about three months.

Meanwhile, Ms Trimboli was due to marry in December, but she and her fiancé were so worried about her health they got married three months earlier than planned.

"The wedding was supposed to be December but we moved it to August to make sure that I was well enough to walk down the aisle and not in a wheelchair," she said.

"I didn't even eat at my wedding. I ate no food the day before or on the day at all."

Three months came and went, and Ms Trimboli still did not have a date for her colonoscopy.

By now in constant pain and desperate for answers, Ms Trimboli and her husband used $2500 they had been saving for a house deposit so she could have the colonoscopy done in a private clinic.

"Five days later, I had the colonoscopy, and seven days later I had the test results," she said.

The test, and a follow-up internal ultrasound, indicated Ms Trimboli likely had severe endometriosis.

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Ms Trimboli then paid to see a private specialist, who, after examining her, found part of her uterus was attached to her bowel.

"He said I believe there is endometriosis also in your stomach and lungs and that is why you are in so much pain and it hurts to breathe and walk."

Doctors are unable to officially diagnose endometriosis without surgery to physically see the damaged scar tissue.

The specialist confirmed Ms Trimboli would need laparoscopic surgery. The procedure would also allow a surgeon to remove as much of the scar tissue as possible, alleviating a significant amount of her pain.

The specialist was able to book in a date for the surgery — the only problem was it cost $7500.

"It was just too much money, so I went back to my GP and asked to be put on the public waitlist," she said.

Ms Trimboli said she was shocked when her doctor told her surgery would be classified as a non-urgent, category three procedure.

"I was thinking that it would be category one, the most urgent, because I am so sick," she said.

"I've had to quit my job. I'm taking $40 worth of medication a week. We are moving house because I can't physically get up the stairs anymore."

Under guidelines for doctors, patients waiting for elective surgery can only fall in category one or two if there is a chance their condition will become a medical emergency.

It is recommended category one patients are operated on within one month, category two patients within three months and category three patients within a year.

However, Ms Trimboli said she was told it would be about a 10-month wait to get an initial appointment with a surgeon and then a further eight months before the surgery.

Elective surgeries cancelled

Unlike in New South Wales and Victoria, where elective surgeries have had to be postponed at various times because of the pandemic, Western Australia's public health system has had very few COVID-19 patients to treat.

It has still, however, been struggling to keep up with the demand on its services.

In September, half of all public hospital elective surgeries were postponed in a bid to "alleviate system pressures", WA Health said.

A month earlier in August, more than 1000 elective surgeries were cancelled in the Perth metropolitan area.

Health Director General Dr David Russell-Weisz said at the time the decision to scale back elective surgery was not taken lightly.

"We regret that this will cause disruption for patients affected by the change," Dr Russell-Weisz said.

"However, taking this action now will allow for redeployment of staff to key areas, deliver additional bed capacity and help reduce hospital demand, to ensure we continue to provide safe, timely and high-quality care."

As of the end of September, 30,000 patients were waiting on surgeries, with 10 per cent defined as being "over boundary", meaning they had waited more than the recommended time.

Extreme suffering 'ignored'

Lewis MacKinnon, who is the deputy chair of the WA faculty of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, said some of his patients had been waiting years for elective surgery procedures and the situation appeared to have become worse recently.

"I've got a patient who's a category two, which is traditionally a 90-day wait, she has been waiting six months for knee surgery," he said.

"I contacted the hospital directly only to be told that they're not even looking at category twos at the moment and it's probably going to be the first quarter of next year before she is seen.

"There certainly are some heartbreaking and erroneous wait times at the moment."

Dr MacKinnon said another of his patients had been waiting between 12-18 months for an endometriosis-related procedure.

During that time, she had presented to emergency several times, been to more than 20 appointments with him to deal with pain management and also developed depression, he said.

"Yes, endometriosis is very unlikely to threaten her life but it certainly has significantly impacted it," he said.

While categories for elective surgeries tended to focus on emergency presentations, they failed to take into account the personal suffering involved, Dr MacKinnon said.

"There's an enormous emotional distress that patients go through and strain that happens upon families," he said.

"I think it would also be frightening to quantify the economic impact of patients waiting — in some cases several years — for surgery, at which point they may have decreased function in terms of capacity to exercise or work."

Ms Trimboli has started an online petition calling on the government to change the way elective surgeries are triaged to take into account cases of "extreme suffering".

Deputy president of Endometriosis Western Australia, Akaiti James, said waiting times for people with endometriosis were "cruel".

Many people with endometriosis spent years trying to find out what was wrong with them, and elective surgery waiting times only exacerbated the problem, Ms James said.

"With endometriosis, there is a 6.5-year delay in diagnosis, so that is a long time to be going to a doctor and to be having pain and not being validated."

Without an official diagnosis, people were unable to access services they may need to help treat the symptoms of the condition, Ms James said.

9news.com.au has contacted WA Health for comment.

Contact reporter Emily McPherson at em********@******om.au.

London's famous river is more exciting than we thought. Seahorses, eels, seals — and venomous sharks — have all been discovered in the Thames, the results of a "health check" have shown.

A survey by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) revealed "positive news" for wildlife, and ecosystem recovery, the society said Wednesday.

Back in 1957, the capital city's river was declared "biologically dead."

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But now, surprising creatures, like sharks including tope, starry smooth-hound and spurdog — a slender fish measuring some 58 centimetres and covered in venomous spines — have been found.

Spurdogs can be found in deep water, and the spines in front of the shark's two dorsal fins secrete a venom that can cause pain and swelling in humans.

Tope shark, which feed on fish and crustaceans can reach 1.8 metres and up to 48 kilograms.

The species have never launched an unprovoked attack on humans, according to the UK's Wildlife Trusts.

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Meanwhile, the starry smooth-hound, which can reach up to 1.2 metres and 11 kilograms, mostly eats crustaceans, shellfish and molluscs.

However, the number of fish species found in the tidal areas of the river has shown a slight decline, and conservation scientists have warned that further research is needed to understand why.

The 346-kilometre river, home to more than 115 species of fish and 92 species of bird, faces pollution and climate change threats, ZSL warned.

The river also provides drinking water, food, livelihoods and protection from coastal flooding to surrounding communities.

Climate change has increased the Thames' temperature by 0.2C a year on average, ZSL said, warning that this "paints a worrying picture" when combined with sea level rises.

Water levels have been increasing since monitoring began in 1911 in the tidal section of the Thames, rising at some points by 0.43 centimetres a year on average since 1990.

"As water temperature and sea levels continue to rise above historic baselines, the estuary's wildlife will be particularly impacted, through changes to species' lifecycles and ranges," ZSL warned in a statement.

Today is Remembrance Day when Australia commemorates members of its armed forces who have died in wars, conflicts and peacekeeping operations.

Adding extra poignance, this year's event comes 80 years after the nation's greatest naval disaster when the HMAS Sydney II was sunk with the loss of its entire crew.

The pride of the Royal Australian Navy was sunk after a short but fierce battle with the German raider HSK Kormoran on November 19, 1941, off the coast of Western Australia.

READ MORE: Thousands to attend Remembrance Day service in Melbourne

All 645 crew aboard the Australian warship died.

The sinking of HMAS Sydney was the largest loss of life in the RAN the biggest Allied warship lost with all hands during World War II, and a major blow to Australian morale.

With no survivor testimonies, the sinking of HMAS Sydney II has attracted speculation for decades, with many historians believing she was ambushed by the German vessel.

Just how the heavily armoured and powerfully gunned Australian battleship was was lost to an armed merchant vessel has been the subject of debate over decades.

The official Australian Government inquiry concluded that both ships were travelling at 14 knots when Kormoran, disguised as a Dutch freighter, de-camouflaged, showing her battle flag before opening fire.

In March 2008, the Australian Government announced that the wreckage of both ships had been found, approximately 112 nautical miles off Steep Point, Western Australia.

READ MORE: Thousands to be allowed to attend Remembrance Day service

What is Remembrance Day

Remembrance Day marks the end of fighting in World War I on the Western Front on November 11, 1918.

Formerly known as Armistice Day – in reference to the German surrender in 1918, The name was changed to Remembrance Day in 1945.

Every year, one minute of silence is held at 11am (local time) on November 11.

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The red poppy is the best known symbol of remembrance.

On the mud-soaked battlefields of northern France, the wild flower grew abundantly after the close of World War I.

Major events

Commemorative services are held in Australia at memorials, schools and community centres today.

The national ceremony is organised by the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.

Flags are lowered to half-mast about 10.30am (AEST) before the services.