The weather on Christmas Days forecast to be a scattered mix of soaring temperatures, afternoon thunderstorms and a sprinkling of rain across the country.

With just under a month until December 25, the Bureau of Meterology and Accu Weather already has some long-range predictions for whether Christmas will bring rain, hail or shine.

The outlook is peachy for most capital cities with sunshine with minimal cloud cover, while some are expected to see some late afternoon storms.

Here's what the weather is forecast to look like on Christmas Day in each city.

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Sydney, New South Wales

Christmas Day in Sydney is forecast to be mostly sunny with a bit of cloud cover throughout the day.

The morning could bring some early showers but it's only expected to be 0.8mm rainfall at the most.

There's a slight possibility of thunderstorms for Sydneysiders and it's expected to hit a maximum of 24 degrees, a bit colder than last year's temperature which hit 28 degrees.

It's forecast to be about the same on Boxing Day with a maximum temperature of 25-degrees, but clear sunshine all day.

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Melbourne, Victoria

Melbourne is expected to be a little cooler than Sydney this year.

AccuWeather forecasts a top of 22 degrees with only a slight chance of showers.

Don't forget your sunscreen because the sun will be shining without much cloud cover on Christmas Day too.

Boxing Day will be much hotter, with temperatures reaching 28 degrees and a small change of thunderstorms during the day.

Brisbane, Queensland

It's forecast to be a scorcher in Brisbane on Christmas Day.

Temperatures are expected to it 30 degrees but it could feel like 33 degrees according to AccuWeather.

There's no chance of rain but could be a little cloudy throughout the day.

The evening may also bring some showers in Brisbane.

Temperatures will be a little cooler at 27 degrees on Boxing Day.

Canberra, ACT

Christmas Day in Australia's capital will be a warm day but still pleasant at 23 degrees.

It's forecast to be quite cloudy throughout the day with a small chance of rain.

The temperatures will drop to 11 degrees throughout the evening in true Canberra fashion.

December 26 is looking a little hotter at 25 degrees.

Perth, Western Australia

It's looking like a perfectly pleasant and sunny day in Perth this Christmas.

The temperature is forecast to be much cooler than last year at 25 degrees with a slight chance of rain throughout the day and evening.

Boxing Day will be much the same weatther at 24 degrees, cooling slightly in the evening.

Adelaide, South Australia 

Adelaide is predicted to enjoy a similarly sunny day with average temperatures.

It's forecast to reach 24 degrees on Christmas Day with a chance of some scattered showers throughout the day.

The next day will be the hot one – Boxing Day in Adelaide is forecast to reach 30 degrees.

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Darwin, Northern Territory

Christmas Day may bring some thunderstorms for Darwin with tops of 32 degrees.

Morning showers are forecast with a bit of stormy weather and rain.

It'll still be a scorcher even into the night and the evening will also bring some showers.

Boxing Day will be a little warmer at 33 degrees and thunderstorms too.

Hobart, Tasmania

It'll likely be a lot cooler in Hobart with a top of 18 degrees forecast in Tasmania's capital on Christmas Day.

There will be a bit of cloud cover to shield from the sun and a slight chance of rain.

Boxing Day is expected to bring some thunderstorms in the afternoon in Hobart and a top of 21 degrees.

A teenage boy accused of murdering a grandmother during a carjacking faces more months behind bars before a magistrate decides if he will stand trial.

Vyleen Joan White, 70, died after being stabbed in the chest outside a shopping centre at Redbank Plains, west of Brisbane, on February 3.

Police alleged White was killed during the theft of her 2009 model Hyundai Getz hatchback.

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A 16-year-old boy from the nearby suburb of Bellbird Park was charged with one count each of murder and unlawful use of a motor vehicle, and three counts of stealing.

The youth's charges had a committal mention in Ipswich Children's Court today but he was not required to appear in person or via video link from custody.

Crown prosecutor Chris Cook told Magistrate Melanie Ho that he had discussed potential dates for a committal hearing with the youth's solicitors at Hannay Lawyers.

"(Brief of evidence) disclosures have been made. The only item of substance outstanding is a statement on one of the issues with DNA. The Crown is content, if necessary, to proceed with a committal without that," Cook said.

Hannay Lawyers law clerk Jodie Layzell told Ho she consented to the dates suggested by the prosecution.

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Ho asked Cook if the committal hearing would last just one day.

"I would be surprised if it ran longer," Cook said.

He confirmed to Ho that he was still unsure of the exact number of witnesses who would give evidence at the committal.

Ho ordered that the youth face a committal hearing on March 14 and he would be required to appear in court.

The youth was remanded in custody.

Ho told Layzell she would need to file an application if the defence wished to cross-examine any witnesses.

White's death prompted changes to Queensland's juvenile justice laws and was mentioned by then-LNP opposition leader David Crisafulli in a debate with then-premier Steven Miles over youth crime before Labor's defeat at the October 26 state election.

Exclusive: An Australian woman arrested and convicted for inciting another person to murder her parents was caught after a podcast host uncovered a haunting "kill list" on the dark web.

The Canberra woman pleaded guilty in February after police accused her of trying to solicit a hitman's services online using Bitcoin. 

This "hitman", though, was a scam artist who was taking money for murders but never carrying them out.

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British author Carl Miller first stumbled across the Australian case after an IT expert found a horrifying murder-for-hire site on the dark net in 2020, 9news.com.au can reveal.

There was a fleeting mention of a high-profile Canberra couple who were assassination targets on the list in Miller's podcast Kill List, along with hundreds of other targets from the US, UK, Canada, India and Spain.

Miller alerted authorities in Australia's capital of the woman's plans to have her parents murdered in 2020 after she paid $6000 to the bogus hitman site.

His tip-off resulted in a conviction of inciting another person to murder after the woman, now 30, pleaded guilty in court before her trial began. 

The Australian Federal Police confirmed to 9news.com.au the podcast had played a role in their investigation.

She is yet to be sentenced in court.

"I remember it quite well, it was one of the first cases," Miller told 9news.com.au.

"When we first broke into the murder-for-hire site, this was one of the cases that we initially [saw] and identified."

The targets cannot be named for legal reasons, however Miller said they are "prominent business people in Canberra".

The identity of the woman has also been suppressed.

Do you have a story? Contact reporter April Glover at

Among the targets was US woman Amy Allwine, who was murdered by her husband Stephen Allwine in 2018 after her name appeared on the website.

It was too late for Amy, but Miller could try and save others from the same fate.

There were 500 names on the list but 175 had money change hands.

These people became Miller's priority as he combed through the list, found phone numbers and addresses and tried to alert them.

Since Miller's podcast was released, he has retired from working with police on the "kill list" and the website is now being accessed by authorities.

"No more having to comb through the most grotesque kind of orders you can possibly imagine," he said.

When asked if there are more scam hitman services sitting live on the dark web, he said: "We know there are".

"There's a whole industry of these things," Miller added gravely.

Kill List, from Wondery and Novel, is available everywhere you get your podcasts.

The former Auckland Central MP has died after a long battle with cancer.

Exclusive: Australians are braced for a stark cost-of-living Christmas this year, readers of Nine.com.au say.

The cost of living crisis isn't showing any signs of slowing down and it's hitting Australians where it hurts this holiday season.

According to an exclusive survey of 581 readers, high inflation will force Australians to tighten their belts even further.

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The survey found 49 per cent of readers will be cutting spending on gifts, food and drinks due to cost of living constraints.

One reader said the rising cost of groceries and general living expenses has put a "dampener" on Christmas.

"Sadly, exchanging of gifts this year will be at an all time low. So disappointing," one said.

Another said their family will be sticking to a "tight budget" and are scrapping some major expenses.

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"I can still have Christmas despite being on a tight budget. Make your own Christmas decorations and just have fun doing it," they said.

"My wife loves making things and cooking. Christmas is still going to be big but it's food and drinks that will be the only costs. No presents, just cards."

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Some survey respondents noted they can barely afford everyday expenses like bills or groceries and paying for Christmas feels like an impossibility.

However, 36 per cent of readers said they won't be making any financial changes at Christmas this year.

Another 15 per cent said they weren't sure if the cost of living will result in a budget Christmas just yet.

Research shared by The Salvation Army in Australia offered a similar grim snapshot of Christmas this year for millions of Aussies.

It also found more than half of Australians are expected to spend less on food during the festive season.

Another 48 per cent of people admitted they will slash spending on gifts.

*The nine.com.au poll, which runs once a fortnight, canvases the views of the nine audience on 9Nation, which is an online community of our readers and viewers.

New Zealander was visiting his parents, who were the targets of a robbery.

A British marketing specialist who has been unable to get permanent residency in Australia despite living here for 12 years has called out the country's "frustrating and unfair" immigration system, saying it feels like she is in a "toxic relationship". 

When Mia Mildren moved to Australia on a working holiday visa back in 2012, she only intended to stay for six months, before heading home to England.

That was 12 years ago, when Mildren was 21 years old.

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She is now 33 and has spent a third of her life in Australia.

"I just fell in love with the country when I came here," Mildren told 9news.com.au, adding she had done everything in her power to make Australia her permanent home ever since.

Over the years, Mildren has held a succession of temporary visas.

She worked on a farm in North Queensland, and in cafes and bars in Sydney and Melbourne before studying business and marketing at a Victorian university.

"All up, I think I would have spent probably $70,000-$80,000 plus on visas, immigration agents, university, everything; to stay here in Australia and get permanent residency," Mildren said.

But it's a goal that has eluded Mildren, and she remains one of Australia's 2.8 million temporary residents.

This is despite Mildren spending much of her time in Australia on employee-sponsored skilled visas, which have a path to permanent residency after a certain number of years of working for an employer or in the industry.

Bad luck and poor timing had played a big part in her missing out on permanent residency, Mildren said, with multiple redundancies and the pandemic proving to be major setbacks.

Mildren is on her second Temporary Skills Shortage visa, which will expire in November next year.

When that happens, Mildren fears she will not qualify for a new visa because of changes planned by the federal government which will see the Temporary Skills Shortage Visa replaced by a new Skills in Demand visa.

"Due to recent changes in skilled visa requirements, I face the heartbreaking prospect of leaving the country I call home," she said.

The changes, announced at the end of last year by the Department of Home Affairs, put the emphasis on attracting migrants in occupations with skills shortages and reducing the growing number of temporary residents.

The number of temporary residents living in Australia has ballooned over the last decade, but dropped during the pandemic as students and temporary workers were encouraged to go back home. 

Federal government figures show a low of 1.64 million temporary residents in June 2021.

Those numbers have steadily increased, reaching a record high of 2.8 million at the end of September this year.

According to the Department of Home Affairs' migration program planning levels, around 185,000 migrants will be offered permanent residency in the 12 months from July 2024 to June 2025, with 70 per cent going to skilled workers.

Under the planned Skills in Demand visa, which is yet to be introduced, there will be three main pathways for temporary visa holders – all leading to permanent residency.

The first pathway is for highly skilled, specialist workers on salaries of more than $135,000 a year.

Then there is a middle pathway for skilled migrants earning above the temporary skilled migration income threshold of $70,000.

The third pathway is for lower-earning workers in critical sectors with staff shortages, such as aged care. 

In June, Jobs and Skills Australia (JSA) released its draft core skills occupations list, which will essentially provide the blueprint for which migrants will be granted temporary skilled visas under the new system.

Mildren's occupation of "marketing specialist" landed in a somewhat middle ground.

It was not included on the provisional list of in-demand skills, but nor was it excluded.

Instead, it was listed as "targeted for consultation".

Then, last month, Jobs and Skills Australia released a separate labour market analysis, which changed its previous categorisation of marketing specialists as being in "shortage" to having "no shortage". 

Mildren said both of these developments led her to think her days in Australia might now be numbered.

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The draft core skills list, which is set to be completed later this year before Immigration Minister Andrew Giles signs off on the final document, has raised eyebrows about some of its inclusions and exclusions.

While yoga and martial arts instructors, dog handlers and jewellery designers made the cut, some tradie occupations such as plumbers, roof tilers and bricklayers were only slated for further consideration, prompting scathing criticism from industry bodies such as Master Builders Australia

In a submission by the Grattan Institute during the government's consultation process, authors Brendan Coates and Trent Wiltshire said granting visas only to skilled migrants with specific occupations could make the whole system unnecessarily inflexible.

"Unduly restricting the occupations listed … risks Australia missing out on many talented migrants who cannot be sponsored for a visa because their occupation is not on an occupation list," they wrote.

"Occupation lists should therefore prioritise high-skill, high-wage workers, not occupations deemed to be in shortage."

Mildren said, most of all, Australia needed to give temporary workers like herself, who had contributed to the economy by paying taxes for years, a fair go.

She has started an online Change.org petition calling on the Department of Home Affairs to assess applications on a case-by-case basis.

Mildren said the thought of having to leave Australia after so long was devastating.

"I've given everything to this country," she said.

"It's so hard. I physically don't know where else I belong, because this has been my whole adulthood – it's very much like being in a toxic relationship." 

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