The Court of Appeal has however ordered a retrial for Stephen Stone.

Hundreds of thousands of people live on land exposed to river or coastal flooding already.

Costello says she had never claimed heated tobacco products were safe.

MetService issued a swathe of alerts for the South and North Islands.

‘We have confidence as a business that the Whakapapa ski area is viable commercially.’

The prime minister has condemned any planned pro-Palestine rallies on the first anniversary of the Hamas terrorist attacks.

Anthony Albanese warned protesters "certainly shouldn't" take to the streets on October 7 and said any rallies would "cause a great deal of distress".

"Because it would be seen, I think, as incredibly provocative. It would not advance any cause," he told ABC Radio.

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"In a democracy, we allow for people, indeed, it's important that people be able to express themselves peacefully. 

"But October 7 will be one year since the largest number of deaths and murders, call it for what it is, of Jewish people, since the Holocaust. I'll be attending a vigil to commemorate that terrible day."

Albanese described pro-Palestine rallies on this day as having the potential to "cause disharmony".

"I think that people should recognise the sensitivity which is there and have a bit of common sense and see whether their cause will be advanced or whether it will be set back," he said.

"And my view very clearly is that there is nothing to be served by that."

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Opposition Leader Peter Dutton shared the prime minister's views on planned rallies next week.

He said the October 7 attack is an anniversary that "should not be celebrated" and called on the government to take action against protesters.

"At a state and federal level, the government should be doing everything they can to stop these protests from taking place," Dutton said.

NSW Premier Chris Minns also backed calls for police to block the rallies set to take place in Sydney on Sunday, the day before the first anniversary.

NSW Police made a submission through the Supreme Court to block the protest yesterday.

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"Our number one concern in New South Wales is peace and safety for New South Wales streets, and the police don't believe that can be done safely with the acceptance of the form one application this coming weekend," Minns said, acknowledging the application made by protester organisers to legally rally.

"I want to make it clear also that this will be a difficult weekend for Sydney. Obviously, tempers remain high."

Albanese said today he supported the police in "whatever action" they are taking to block the protests.

A Canadian man is behind bars after he allegedly attempted to smuggle 15 kilograms of methamphetamine through Sydney Airport in his suitcase.

The import was caught by Australian Border Force (ABF) officers when they examined the man's bags after he stepped off the plane from Vancouver, Canada, on July 31.

ABF officers found several vacuum-sealed bags allegedly containing a powdery white substance concealed in the suitcase.

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Further testing of the powder returned a positive result for methamphetamine.

The matter was referred to the Australian Federal Police (AFP), who arrested the man and charged him with one count of importing a commercial quantity of a border controlled drug.

The maximum penalty for this offence is life imprisonment.

The 38-year-old is due in court again today, after being refused bail for the offence on August 1.

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AFP Detective Acting Superintendent Dom Stephenson said the drug haul amounted to around 150,000 individual hits, had it reached Australian streets.

"Criminal groups will go to any lengths to bring illicit substances into our country," he sai.

"The devastating impact methamphetamine has on individuals and their families is well known – that's why we're committed to stopping it whenever we can."

The average prices of homes in wealthy suburbs across Sydney and Melbourne took a nosedive in the past three months.

When mother-of-two Tamara Dawes was diagnosed with breast cancer, she was just 42.

The primary school teacher was initially told the cancer hadn't spread.

But by the time she had surgery to remove the 95mm lump, along with her breast, it had reached some of her lymph nodes.

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Dawes, 46, from Lake Macquarie, NSW found the lump while monitoring a patch of eczema which had emerged on her breast.

While she was told there was no link between the skin condition and cancer, she thinks her body was trying to tell her something.

She was diagnosed quickly with HR positive, HER2 negative breast cancer, after her GP sent her for tests.

"I wasn't surprised but you can't ever be prepared." she said.

"It was at stage 3, when I had all the initial testing they said there was no lymph nodes but by the time I had the surgery it has spread to over half the lymph nodes they took out," she said.

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The mother of two daughters, Willow and Finley, had an immediate reconstruction followed by eight rounds of chemo and 25 rounds of radiation.

While she has finished mayor treatments for now, she still sees all her specialists annually.

"They don't make any big announcements," she told 9News.

"I am just on a maintenance programme."

She is also on hormone medication as well as treatment for osteoporosis caused by her treatment.

Now, a new clinical trial could help patients like Tamara, who are diagnosed at a young age.

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Called OLIO, study Chair Dr Stephen Luen, says the research hopes to identify a new and improved treatment for young women with the type of breast cancer Dawes had.

"This research is looking at the unique biological features of these women and how this knowledge can help us improve treatments and ultimately improve outcomes," Luen said.

"Young women often have more aggressive breast cancers and lower survival rates, and the only way we can address this is to do this vital research."

The OLIO study will be open at 21 sites in Australia and will recruit 50 participants.

Founded in 1978, Breast Cancer Trials conducts a national and international clinical trials research program into the treatment and prevention of the disease.

Dawes said she felt a lot of information is targeted at much older women.

"All the information and booklets you get when you're diagnosed they have older people in it," she said.

"Investing time and research into younger people is so important."

Do you have a story? Contact journalist Sarah Swain on ss****@******om.au

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange says he was freed after years of incarceration because he pleaded "guilty to journalism".

Assange gave evidence of the impact of his detention and conviction to the legal affairs and human rights committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France.

The Parliamentary Assembly includes lawmakers from 46 European countries.

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Assange was released in June after five years in a British prison after he pleaded guilty to obtaining and publishing US military secrets in a deal with Justice Department prosecutors that concluded a drawn-out legal saga.

Prior to his time in prison, he had spent seven years in self-imposed exile in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he claimed asylum on the grounds of political persecution.

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"I am not free today because the system worked," Assange said in his first public remarks since he was released.

"I am free today after years of incarceration because I pled guilty to journalism."

He added: "I pled guilty to seeking information from a source. I pled guilty to obtaining information from a source. And I pled guilty to informing the public what that information was."

The transition from years of confinement in a maximum security prison to addressing the European parliamentarians has been a "profound and a surreal shift," Assange said as he detailed the experience of years of isolation in a small cell.

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"It strips away one's sense of self, leaving only the raw essence of existence," he said, his voice cracking while he offered an apology for his "faltering words" and an "unpolished presentation."

"I'm not yet fully equipped to speak about what I have endured — the relentless struggle to stay alive, both physically and mentally," Assange said.

The Australian internet publisher was accused of receiving and publishing hundreds of thousands of war logs and diplomatic cables that included details of US military wrongdoing in Iraq and Afghanistan.

His activities were celebrated by press freedom advocates, who heralded his role in bringing to light military conduct that might otherwise have been concealed.

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Among the files published by WikiLeaks was a video of a 2007 Apache helicopter attack by American forces in Baghdad that killed 11 people, including two Reuters journalists.

Critics say his conduct put American national security and innocent lives — such as people who provided information to US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan — at risk, and strayed far beyond the bounds of traditional journalism duties.

The yearslong case ended with Assange entering his plea in a US district court on the Northern Mariana Islands, an American commonwealth in the Pacific.

Assange pleaded guilty to an Espionage Act charge of conspiring to unlawfully obtain and disseminate classified national defence information.

A judge sentenced him to the five years he had already spent behind bars in the UK fighting extradition to the United States.

Assange returned to Australia a free man in late June.

At the time his wife, Stella, said he needed time to recuperate before speaking publicly.

His appearance today comes after the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly published a report on Assange's detention in a high-security UK prison for five years.

The assembly's human rights committee said Assange qualified as a political prisoner and issued a draft resolution expressing deep concern at his harsh treatment.