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A harrowing three-minute film depicting a struggling pregnant woman who ended up taking her own life has been ordered off-air. The video was part of a campaign by Mothers Matter to raise awareness about postnatal depression and…

Senator Michaelia Cash has been appointed Australia's new Attorney-General, replacing Christian Porter, in a swathe of new changes to the cabinet announced by the Prime Minister.

Scott Morrison has declared his new cabinet and ministry will have the "strongest" female representation an Australian government cabinet has ever had. 

Senator Cash will also be the Minister for Industrial Relations. 

Foreign Minister Marise Payne will lead the taskforce of the new ministerial roles – including Women's Safety and Women's Economic Security – Mr Morrison describing her role as the "Prime Minister for Women". 

See the full proposed ministry list here

https://twitter.com/9NewsAUS/status/1376438230518796289

READ MORE: 'Blokes don't get it right all the time': Scott Morrison

Karen Andrews has been named the Minister for Home Affairs. 

While Anne Ruston will take on the new portfolio of Minister for Women's Safety.

"Getting these results for Australian women will be achieved through collaboration, it will be achieved through listening, they will be achieved by acting together," Mr Morrison said.

"They won't be achieved by dividing Australians."

https://twitter.com/ElizaEdNews/status/1376371907495292931

Linda Reynolds has been demoted from her position as the Minister for Defence, with Peter Dutton to take on the role.

Ms Reynolds will remain in Cabinet, but will transition into a role in NDIS and government services. 

Mr Morrison said he had discussions with Ms Reynolds prior to the cabinet shuffle. 

"She has recovered extremely well," he said.

"She is in good health and I know she will do an outstanding job in this area." 

Melissa Price will also return to cabinet and will retain the portfolio for Defence Industry.

"These changes will shake up what needs to be shaken up, while maintaining the momentum and the continuity and the stability that Australia needs," Mr Morrison said.

It is the government's second reshuffle in three months.

Senator Jane Hume will take on the additional portfolio of Women's Economic Security. 

Amanda Stoker has also been appointed Assistant Minister for Women, in addition to her position of Assistant Attorney-General. 

Stuart Robert will move to the Employment, Workforce, Skills, Small and Family Business portfolio.

Porter statement

Christian Porter has been moved from Attorney-General to Industry Science and Technology.

Mr Porter will continue to serve in cabinet, Mr Morrison said. 

The prime minister said the former Attorney-General's new role will allow him to focus on his portfolio and local electorate.

"I certainly expect him to continue to serve in my cabinet – both now and after the next election," he said. 

"He's been an outstanding minister and a person of great capability."

Mr Porter in a statement said it had been a "great honour and privilege" to serve as Attorney-General and Minister for Industrial Relations.

But "accepting and understanding" the commencement of defamation proceedings against the ABC, had required him to be replaced in the role.

"Given the false claims made about me by the ABC, I had no alternative but to launch the defamation proceedings and I have no regrets about taking that course of action," he said.

"The Federal Court action will allow for the truthfulness of the claims made by the ABC to be tested.

"I look forward to having these issues determined in a procedurally fair process with actual rules of evidence."

Mr Porter wished Senator Cash "well" in her new appointment as Attorney-General and Minister for Industrial Relations.

Second cabinet reshuffle since December

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has reshuffled his ministry for the second time in just months as he continues to battle scandals levelled at members of his own party.

Mr Morrison today unveiled a new-look front bench cabinet that sees embattled MPs Christian Porter and Linda Reynolds dumped from their senior positions.

Both Mr Porter and Ms Reynolds have faced crisis-level scandals in recent week that has brought into question the workplace culture and treatment of women within Australia's highest office.

Ms Reynolds has been confronted with intense scrutiny over her knowledge and actions surrounding the alleged rape of her former staffer Brittany Higgins in the Senator's office in March 2019.

Mr Porter is accused of raping a woman during a trip to Sydney for a debating tournament in 1988. He strenuously denies the allegations.

The two ministers have been on leave in recent weeks.

Mr Morrison last reshuffled his cabinet in December last year when then Finance Minister Mathias Cormann retired from parliament.

He said the re-shuffle was about "getting the right perspective" in the wake of the justice for women movement. 

Mr Morrison said when he first became Prime Minister in 2019, he had the "highest number" of women appointed to cabinet. 

The swathe of changes announced in the cabinet reshuffle today, goes "further than that", he said. 

"It sets a new benchmark, a new ambition for our government," Mr Morrison said. 

"I am very pleased about that." 

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Brittany Higgins has spoken out following the sacking of an Adelaide radio broadcaster who labelled her a "silly little girl" and questioned her sexual assault allegations.

FiveAA breakfast host David Penberthy today announced that 75-year-old Jeremy Cordeaux's employment had been "terminated".

Ms Higgins alleges she was raped by a fellow staffer inside the office of Defence Minister Linda Reynolds in Parliament House in 2019.

During his weekend breakfast show, Cordeaux said Prime Minister Scott Morrison should have rejected her allegations.

"I just ask myself why the prime minister doesn't call it out for what it is. A silly little girl who got drunk," Cordeaux said.

"If this girl has been raped, why hasn't the guy who raped her been arrested? Apparently everyone knows his name."

https://twitter.com/BrittHiggins_/status/1376344703008825344?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Cordeaux also questioned why security guards at Parliament let Ms Higgins and the man into Senators Reynolds office.

Ms Higgins took to twitter to share her thoughts on Cordeaux's departure.

"I'm grateful to (Nova) and (FiveAA) for standing up for the one in five Australian women who will experience sexual assault in their lifetime," she wrote.

"I politely disagree Mr Cordeaux. No, I do not deserve to have my "bottom smacked".

"This rhetoric isn't helpful especially given the cultural reckoning about consent that is taking place across the country. Instead of seeking to modify the behaviour of victims, let's try to address how we can deter perpetrators of sexual crimes."

In a statement read on air this morning, the station apologised "unreservedly" to Ms Higgins and withdrew the comments "without reservation".

READ MORE: Brittany Higgins welcomes offer to meet with Prime Minister Scott Morrison

"We acknowledge that the comments were completely inappropriate and offensive," Penberthy said.

"The views expressed by Jeremy Cordeaux do not reflect those held by FiveAA and Nova Entertainment and we unequivocally withdraw them."

Earlier this month, Senator Reynolds apologised to Ms Higgins for calling her a "lying cow" and made a confidential damages payout that was donated to charity.

They're huge, hungry, and there's more of them than ever.

But saltwater crocodiles are still a protected species, even as deadly attacks on people continue to mount.

Two crocodiles were killed earlier this year after a fisherman disappeared in north Queensland. One had human remains inside.

Another man had to prise a croc's jaws off his head at Lake Placid recreation park in January.

And crocodile catchers say their job is only getting busier, especially after the wet start to the year, which drove the big salties closer to human habitation.

A difficult problem

Saltwater crocodiles were hunted close to extinction before they were declared a protected species in the 1970s.

It's estimated as few as 3000 were left in the Northern Territory when hunting was bad – but in the decades since, numbers have boomed.

Exact populations are unknown but it's estimated the NT waterways are now home to about 100,000 salties. It's thought this approaches pre-European colonisation numbers, but the lack of comparable data makes such speculation difficult.

Though it's often hailed as a triumph of conservation, one of Australia's most high-profile advocates for the modification of protection laws said the population boom is the result of an unbalanced ecosystem.

"The biggest factor of all was the removal of the king predator – homo sapiens," Kennedy MP and Katter's Australian Party head Bob Katter told nine.com.au.

"If you start interfering with nature, you better know what you're doing."

In past centuries, Mr Katter said, a clutch of crocodile eggs provided welcome sustenance to a family, which helped keep numbers down.

READ MORE: Epic crocodile battle caught on camera

And along with the banning of traditional hunting and gathering which had sustained First Australians for thousands of years, he said, there was another, overriding concern.

"I don't think allowing animals to tear us apart is the act of a civilised people," he said.

"It's not just about crocodiles – it's about the sanctity of human life.

"Take that away and we're back to the jungle. That suits me, I'm a barbarian, but it's not where we want to go as a people."

Mr Katter said where human lives were in danger, acts to protect those lives should override other laws and regulations.

"If there's a croc in a creek where my kids swim and fish, sorry, we were here first," he said.

"Lake Placid used to be where kids went to swim, it was a playground for Cairns. But now, you'd only do it if you're mad."

READ MORE: Monster crocodile caught in Darwin harbour

Legislators in the city, far removed from crocodile habitats, he said, did not understand the centrality of the creeks and rivers to north Queensland communities.

"If you go north of Townsville, every 200 metres there's a waterway," he said.

"We don't have fun parks, water parks, all that. Our fun was going down to the creek, and you've taken that from us."

The nippers are getting bigger

Charles Darwin University lecturer Dr Keller Kopf is beginning a study this year on the high density of crocodiles in waterways.

The aim, he said, is to study how much food the increasing population of saltwater crocodiles requires.

"As crocodiles change in size, their diet changes – from insects, to fish, to mammals and larger animals," he said.

And speaking of size, Dr Kopf said, an interesting change was taking place among crocodile populations.

"The data so far shows populations in most waterways continues to increase, but that increase is slowing down," he said.

"But biomass is increasing quite dramatically."

In other words – crocodiles are getting bigger.

"They're long lived animals, they live for more than 50 years, up to 100 years, and they'll keep growing," Dr Kopf said.

READ MORE: Massive croc shocks anglers after surfacing on Queensland beach

But he was adamant growing numbers posed no threat to the ecosystem.

"There's no potential for an overabundance in a crocodile population," he said.

"A higher biomass is good for ecosystems."

He said there was no need to lift protections on crocodiles to curb a threat to humans.

"There are already extensive trapping and removal programs, and that approach appears to work quite well," he said.

In croc country

The federal government's oversight of things crocodilian is essentially limited to the regulated export trade, though in 2014, then-Environment Minister Greg Hunt shot down a proposal to introduce safari hunting licences.

The Northern Territory government admits that balancing crocodile protection and human welfare can be "difficult and contentious".

"Crocodiles are able to blend into their surroundings. They are also able to move over extremely large distances on land and water," the government's Be CrocWise advice states.

"This means that culling or removal will never guarantee that any area within the likely range of the saltwater crocodile is 'crocodile-free'. Removing one crocodile may simply create more space for the other crocodiles that already live there or allow new crocodiles to move into the newly vacated area."

For now, it seems the standing solution for the crocodile issue is for people to accept that when in croc country, they might not be the top of the food chain.

"It is always safer to assume that a crocodile is present and to take precautions by not swimming or wading, and adopting safe fishing and safe boating practices," the NT government says.

A drum containing acid has forced the evacuation of a beach north of Sydney when the mysterious container washed ashore.

Crews from Fire and Rescue NSW were called to Shortland Esplanade, in Newcastle, yesterday afternoon shortly after the container was spotted on the sand.

A label on the barrel led authorities to believe them to contain Hydrochloric Acid (HCl).

As a precautionary measure, crews closed the area just after midday while hazardous materials crews could work to safely contain and remove the contents into several drums.

A photo was shared showing crews dressed in full protective gear working to make the beach safe.

The origin of the container remains a mystery.

Following the delicate operation the beach was declared safe and reopened to the public just after 3.30pm.