A common parking act is causing a headache for drivers with disability – and you might not even know you've done anything wrong.

If you've visited a car park recently you may have noticed bays marked with yellow-cross hatched lines beside disability parking spaces.

As innocuous as they seem, these yellow-lined spaces are vital for drivers who use wheelchairs or mobility devices to move in-and-out of their vehicles with ease.

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Disability advocates have shared dozens of photos of offending drivers taking up these spaces to the Facebook group Australian Disability Parking Wall of Shame.

Founder of Access Solutions National, Dale Sheppard, said it highlighted a broader problem around accessible parking in Australia.

Sheppard, who uses a wheelchair himself, works as an auditor to ensure construction complies with disability access requirements.

He said a situation where a driver was able to park in a yellow-lined mobility space was an example of the bay being non-compliant.

Requirements set by Standards Australia outline that disability bays must measure 5.4m by 2.4m and include a yellow-lined shared parking space of the same dimensions.

They must also include a centralised bollard.

"They shouldn't be able to park in the shared area. They have a non-conforming accessible bay," he said.

Sheppard said construction companies and retailers with carparks had a role to play to ensure their bays are compliant but educating able-bodied drivers was the most important part.

"The abuse by non-permit holders – that's the biggest issue and where I would say the greatest education has to be had," he said.

"It's not a loading zone, it's not a 15-minute drop-off/pick-up area.

"They're not there for your convenience, they're there because people need them."

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A scientist has described his shock at witnessing a tiger shark vomit up a fully intact iconic Australian animal.

Marine biologist Nicolas Lubitz was left stunned when he saw the predator regurgitate an entire echidna off the Queensland coast during a marine research project two years ago.

The former James Cook University PhD student shared the story today ahead of the release of a research project's findings later this year.

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"We were quite shocked at what we saw. We really didn't know what was going on," Lubitz said.

He and other researchers from the university were tagging marine wildlife off the coast of Orpheus Island off North Queensland in May 2022 when they made what is believed to be a world-first discovery.

"When it spat it out, I looked at it and remarked, 'What the hell is that?' Someone said to take a picture, so I scrambled to get my phone.

"I managed to only get one picture, but you can see the outline of the echidna in the water."

Lubitz said it was likely the shark nabbed the echidna as it swam in the shallows off the island or even between islands, which the creatures are known to do.

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The dead echidna was still whole when it was regurgitated, suggesting it was only a recent kill by the three-metre-long shark.

"It was a fully intact echidna with all its spines and its legs," Lubitz said.

"It was a decent-sized tiger shark but it wasn't massive.

"It's very rare that they throw up their food but sometimes when they get stressed they can."

"In this case, I think the echidna must have just felt a bit funny in its throat."

Known for their voracious appetites, tiger sharks have been documented swallowing seabirds, tyres, vehicle number plates and even a small television screen.

The James Cook University researchers were part of the Queensland Integrated Marine Observing System Acoustic Telemetry Array Project, which involved researchers tagging marine life with acoustic and satellite trackers, to gather data on marine life.

Federal Greens leader Adam Bandt has threatened to sue Mark Dreyfus over comments the attorney-general made about pro-Palestine protests yesterday.

In a statement this morning, Bandt said his lawyers have written to Dreyfus over the comments that he says were defamatory towards him and his party.

"I understand a number of media outlets have chosen to stop broadcasting and publishing his statements because of legal concerns," Bandt said.

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"I welcome their restraint.

"I think that the first law officer of this country should not make utterly unfounded statements and spread disinformation. No politician should do that."

The threat of legal action comes after a heated question time in which both Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton accused the Greens of spreading misinformation and playing a role in the pro-Palestinian protests, including those that have damaged MPs' offices.

The comments Dreyfus made that Bandt is threatening to sue over were not made in parliament, where speech is protected by parliamentary privilege.

The attorney-general appeared on the ABC's Afternoon Briefing program following question time.

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In a press conference today, Bandt hit back at claims made against his party.

"The Greens condemn antisemitism. The Greens condemn Islamophobia. The Greens condemn the invasion of Gaza," he said.

"In parliament this week, we've seen a desperate attempt from Labor to distract from Labor's ongoing support of the invasion of Gaza that has now seen over 36,000 people killed…

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"They made a series of outrageous accusations attempting to link the Greens to certain events that have happened at electorate offices.

"We are not going to be lectured to about peace and nonviolence by a prime minister that backs the invasion of Gaza."

Bandt said he didn't want to pursue legal action, and called on Dreyfus to apologise.

"I would prefer not to have to pursue these matters legally, and I hope the attorney(-general) will respond in a proper way," he said.

Dreyfus has not yet responded publicly to Bandt's statement.

9news.com.au has contacted the attorney-general's department for comment.

Dreyfus' Melbourne office was one of several damaged and sprayed in red paint last week during pro-Palestine demonstrations.

Another office that has been targeted by protesters is Albanese's electoral headquarters in Sydney's Inner West, where a sit-in has reportedly prevented the prime minister from attending the office due to security concerns.

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One of the organisers behind the rally, Sara, said the group initially met up every Thursday in November before the picket turned into a 24/7 sit-in in February.

The 33-year-old mum, who is Palestinian and has family in Gaza, said she has not seen the prime minister at the electorate since January.

"We condemn Anthony Albanese and his inaction," she told 9news.com.au.

"We just want to talk to him, it's an obligation for him to meet his constituents.

"There's hundreds of people involved, many his constituents, I'm his constituent."

In response to questions from 9news.com.au, the Australian Federal Police did not comment on whether security concerns have prevented Albanese from going to his office.

"The AFP respects the right to lawfully protest and regularly works with protest organisers to ensure the safety of protesters and the wider community," a spokesperson said.

"The AFP is responsible for assessing any reports of harassing, nuisance, offensive and threatening communications directed towards parliamentarians and Electorate Offices, including via social media.

"The AFP takes action where behaviour meets criminal thresholds. Those planning or engaging in such behaviour will be dealt with in accordance with the law."

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has insisted Australia is not heading for a recession, despite the economy recording its weakest growth in nearly three years.

He was speaking with Today this morning after data released yesterday showed gross domestic product rising by just 0.1 per cent in the first three months of the year.

Chalmers said he was not expecting a recession, but acknowledged the national accounts data from the Australian Bureau of Statistic was "very weak".

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Chalmers insists the economy is not heading for a recession.

"The economy barely grew in the first three months of the year. We knew it was going to be weak. And that was the case … people know that the economy is soft and they are under pressure," he said.

Chalmers said last year's spate of interest rate rises and stubborn inflation were causing "uncertain times" for many households.

"That's putting people under a lot of pressure and it's slowing the economy as well. There are some other factors, too.

"And so really, from our point of view, the most important thing to do is to fight this inflation without smashing the economy and to provide this cost of living help in the most responsible way. And that's what we're doing."

The Treasurer said next month's tax cuts as well as energy bill relief, a pay rise for workers on awards and help with rent and student debt offered some relief.

But looming over the economy is the warning from the head of the Reserve Bank of Australia that inflation remains a threat.

The central bank's governor, Michelle Bullock, yesterday told a Senate estimates hearing while she wants to provide relief to households struggling with mortgage repayments, bringing the CPI back to target was the bank's immediate priority, saying "inflation is actually the thing that is hurting absolutely everyone".

Boeing has launched astronauts for the first time, belatedly joining SpaceX as a second taxi service for NASA.

A pair of NASA test pilots blasted off aboard Boeing's Starliner capsule for the International Space Station, the first to fly the new spacecraft.

The trip by Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams was expected to take 25 hours, with an arrival on Thursday.

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They will spend just over a week at the orbiting lab before climbing back into Starliner for a remote desert touchdown in the western US on June 14.

"Let's get going!" Wilmore called out minutes before liftoff.

Years late because of spacecraft flaws, Starliner's crew debut comes as the company struggles with unrelated safety issues on its airplane side.

Wilmore and Williams — retired Navy captains and former space station residents — stressed repeatedly before the launch that they had full confidence in Boeing's ability to get it right with this test flight.

Crippled by bad software, Starliner's initial test flight in 2019 without a crew had to be repeated before NASA would let its astronauts strap in. The 2022 do-over went much better, but parachute problems later cropped up and flammable tape had to be removed from the capsule.

Wednesday's launch was the third attempt with astronauts since early May, coming after a pair of rocket-related problems, most recently last weekend.

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A small helium leak in the spacecraft's propulsion system also caused delays, but managers decided the leak was manageable and not a safety issue.

"I know it's been a long road to get here," NASA's commercial crew program manager Steve Stich said before the weekend delay.

Boeing was hired alongside Elon Musk's SpaceX a decade ago to ferry NASA's astronauts to and from the space station.

The space agency wanted two competing US companies for the job in the wake of the space shuttles' retirement, paying $US4.2 billion ($6.3 billion) to Boeing and just over half that to SpaceX, which refashioned the capsule it was using to deliver station supplies.

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SpaceX launched astronauts into orbit in 2020, becoming the first private business to achieve what only three countries — Russia, the US and China — had mastered.

It has taken nine crews to the space station for NASA and three private groups for a Houston company that charters flights.

The liftoff from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station was the 100th of an Atlas V for rocket maker United Launch Alliance. It was the first ride for astronauts on an Atlas rocket since John Glenn's Mercury era more than 60 years ago; the rocket usually launches satellites and other spacecraft.

Despite the Atlas V's perfect record, the human presence cranked up the tension for the scores of NASA and Boeing employees gathered at Cape Canaveral and Mission Control in Houston.

Boeing's Starliner and SpaceX's Dragon are designed to be fully autonomous and reusable. Wilmore and Williams occasionally will take manual control of Starliner on their way to the space station, to check out its systems.

If the mission goes well, NASA will alternate between SpaceX and Boeing for taxi flights, beginning next year. The backup pilot for this test flight, Mike Fincke, will strap in for Starliner's next trip.

"When you have a new spacecraft, you need to learn all about it and this has been a great exercise," Fincke told reporters late last week.

UN Secretary General António Guterres called on Wednesday for a "windfall" tax on profits of fossil fuel companies to help pay for the fight against global warming, decrying them as the "godfathers of climate chaos".

Guterres took particular aim at the carbon-spewing industry and appealed to media and technology companies to stop taking advertising from its biggest players, as has been done in some places with Big Tobacco.

Guterres' comments in a bare-knuckled speech timed for World Environment Day came as the European Commission's climate watching agency reported that last month was the hottest May ever – marking the 12th straight monthly record high.

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The European Union's Copernicus climate change service, a global reference for tracking world temperatures, cited an average surface air temperature of 15.9 degrees last month — or 1.52 degrees higher than the estimated May average before industrial times.

The burning of fossil fuels — oil, gas and coal — is the main contributor to global warming caused by human activity.

Meanwhile, the UN weather agency predicted an 80 per cent chance that average global temperatures will surpass the 1.5 degrees target set in the landmark Paris climate accord of 2015.

The World Meteorological Organisation, or WMO, said that the global mean near-surface temperature for each year from 2024 to 2028 is expected to range between 1.1 and 1.9 degrees Celsius hotter than at the start of the industrial era.

It also estimated that there's nearly a one-in-two chance — 47 per cent — that the average global temperatures over that timeframe could top 1.5 degrees, an increase from just under a one-in-three chance projected for the 2023-2027 span.

Guterres spoke from the American Museum of Natural History in New York in a bid to revive focus on climate change at a time when many national elections, and conflict in places like Ukraine, Gaza and Sudan this year have seized much of the international spotlight.

He repeated concerns about subsidies paid out in many countries for fossil fuels, which help keep prices low for consumers.

"Climate change is the mother of all stealth taxes paid by everyday people and vulnerable countries and communities," he said. "Meanwhile, the godfathers of climate chaos — the fossil fuel industry — rake in record profits and feast off trillions in taxpayer-funded subsidies."

Guterres said that global emissions of carbon dioxide must fall 9 per cent each year to 2030 for the 1.5-degree target under the Paris climate accords to be kept alive. But temperatures are "heading in the wrong direction," he said: They rose 1 degree last year.

"We are playing Russian roulette with the planet. We need an exit ramp off the highway to climate hell," Guterres said, while adding: "The truth is, we have control of the wheel."

"This forecast is affirmation that the world has entered a climate where years that are as hot as 2023 should no longer be a surprise," Noah Diffenbaugh, a professor at Stanford's Doerr School of Sustainability, said in an email of the WMO forecast.

Guterres called on advanced economies in the Group of 20 countries — which are holding a summit in Brazil next month, and are responsible for about 80 per cent of all emissions — to take the lead. He also said that the richest 1% of people on the planet emit as much as two-thirds of all humanity.

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People have queued outside the Bank of England's headquarters in London and at post offices around the United Kingdom to get their hands on the first UK banknotes featuring the portrait of King Charles III.

The portrait of the king will appear on all four banknotes issued by the Bank of England — £5, £10, £20 and £50 — with no other alterations to the existing designs.

The notes will coexist alongside those featuring his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, whom he succeeded as monarch on her death in September 2022.

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Coins and stamps bearing the image of Charles have already been rolled out.

People may not notice the new notes immediately in their change or withdrawals from ATMs, not least because so many transactions are now done cashless.

Though cash payments have declined over the years, they remain particularly important for lower income households and those who get welfare benefits at their local Post Office. In 2023, legislation was passed as part of to protect access to cash.

In line with guidance from the Royal Household, the new notes will only be printed to replace those that are worn, and to meet any overall increase in demand — the approach aims to minimise the environmental and financial impact of the change.

There are more than £4.6 billion Bank of England notes in circulation, worth about £82 billion pounds ($158 billion).

"This is a historic moment, as it's the first time we've changed the sovereign on our notes," said Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey.

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"We know that cash is important for many people, and we are committed to providing banknotes for as long as the public demand them.

"Bringing these new notes into circulation is a demonstration of that commitment."

In April, Charles was presented with the first banknotes bearing his portrait and praised them as "very well designed" while expressing his surprise at being only the second monarch to feature on them.

Although the Bank of England started to produce banknotes in the 17th century, Charles' mother, Queen Elizabeth II, was the first British monarch to be given the honour in 1960 on a £1 note.

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People will be able to snap up the new-look currency at selected Post Office branches across the UK.

"Our local customers come into our branch every day to withdraw or deposit cash for their daily needs, so we were excited to be one of the first branches to have the new banknotes available," said Karen Stonham, branch manager at the Portsmouth Post Office in southern England.

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A Victorian judge will refer federal Opposition Leader Peter Dutton to the national security watchdog over failure to disclose reports about the imprisonment of a terrorist.

Convicted terrorist Abdul Nacer Benbrika was released from prison in December under more than 30 strict conditions, after a push to keep him behind bars due to community safety risk was abandoned.

Benbrika, now aged in his 60s, is subjected to supervision and a curfew for one year.

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Part of the reason the Commonwealth opted for a supervision order over continuing detention was a report buried by the Home Affairs department under the former Coalition government.

The report wasn't given to Benbrika's defence team during legal proceedings that resulted in him staying behind bars after his prison sentence expired due to him being deemed a risk to the community.

It found the methods used to assess the future risk a person poses to the community were no better than flipping a coin.

Victorian Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Hollingworth said it was "clearly a document that should have been disclosed" and revealed four other reports critical of the assessment tool had not been disclosed.

In written reasons released on Wednesday, the judge said she would refer former home affairs minister Dutton, who was in charge of the Australian Federal Police in that role, to the Independent National Security Legislation Monitor to decide whether to investigate further.

She said the statutory requirement that the minister in charge of the AFP disclose exculpatory material was a "fundamental safeguard to ensure the protection of individual liberty under what is very unusual and draconian legislation".

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"What happened in this case should never have happened, and should not be repeated in the case of Mr Benbrika or any other person the subject of a post-sentence order application," Hollingworth wrote.

"The non-disclosure of the various expert reports amounts to serious interference with the administration of justice."

She said it would be up to the INSLM to decide if any further investigations will be conducted "to get to the bottom of why the various expert reports were not disclosed to Mr Benbrika" and whether the non-disclosure had wider implications.

"It seems from the INSLM report that the AFP minister [Dutton] has engaged in similar non-disclosure in relation to other terrorist offenders," she wrote.

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"The wider implications of the AFP minister's conduct in terrorist proceedings are a matter more appropriately considered by the INSLM than by a court hearing an individual application."

Dutton's office has been contacted by AAP for a response.

Benbrika spent almost 20 years behind bars after he was convicted over plots to attack the MCG during the 2005 AFL grand final and Melbourne's Crown Casino.

He has to wear an ankle monitoring bracelet and cannot leave Victoria without approval, with police to be given extensive powers to monitor his electronic communications.

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An Italian court has reconvicted Amanda Knox of slander, even after she was exonerated of the brutal 2007 murder of her British roommate while the two were exchange students in Italy.

The court found on Wednesday that Knox had wrongly accused an innocent man, the Congolese owner of the bar where she worked part time, of the killing. But she will not serve any more jail time, given the three-year sentence counts as time already served.

Knox, who had returned to Italy for only the second time since she was freed in 2011 to participate in the trial, showed no visible emotion as the verdict was read aloud.

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But her lawyer, Carlo della Vedova, said shortly afterward that "Amanda is very embittered".

Knox had written on social media ahead of the hearing that she hoped to "clear my name once and for all of the false charges against me. Wish me luck".

The slaying of 21-year-old Meredith Kercher in the idyllic hilltop town of Perugia fuelled global headlines as suspicion fell on Knox, a 20-year-old exchange student from Seattle, and her new Italian boyfriend of just a week, Raffaele Sollecito.

Flip-flop verdicts over nearly eight years of legal proceedings polarised trial watchers on both sides of the Atlantic as the case was vociferously argued on social media, then in its infancy.

Knox's retrial was set by a European court ruling that Italy violated her human rights during a long night of questioning days after Kercher's murder, deprived of both a lawyer and a competent translator.

Earlier in the hearing, Knox had asked the eight Italian judges and civil jury members to clear her of the slander charge.

In a soft and sometimes breaking voice, Knox had told the court that she wrongly accused Patrick Lumumba under intense police pressure.

"I am very sorry that I was not strong enough to resist the pressure of police,'' Knox told the panel in a nine-minute prepared statement, sitting alongside them on the jury bench.

"I didn't know who the murderer was. I had no way to know."

The case continues to draw intense media attention, with photographers massing around Knox, her husband Christopher Robinson and their legal team as they entered the courtroom about an hour before the hearing.

A camera knocked her on the left temple, her lawyer Luca Luparia Donati said. Knox's husband examined a small bump on her head as they sat in the front row of the court.

Despite Knox's exoneration and the conviction of an Ivorian man whose footprints and DNA were found at the scene, doubts about her role persisted, particularly in Italy. That is largely due to the accusation she made against Lumumba.

Knox is now a 36-year-old mother of two small children. She returned to Italy for only the second time since she was freed in October 2011, after four years in jail, by a Perugia appeals court that overturned the initial guilty verdict in the murder case against both Knox and Sollecito.

She remained in the United States through two more flip-flop verdicts before Italy's highest court definitively exonerated the pair of the murder in March 2015, stating flatly that they had not committed the crime.

In the fall, Italy's highest Cassation Court threw out the slander conviction that had withstood five trials, ordering a new trial, thanks to a 2022 Italian judicial reform allowing cases that have reached a definitive verdict to be reopened if human rights violations are found.

This time, the court has been ordered to disregard two damaging statements typed by police and signed by Knox at 1.45am and 5.45am as she was held for questioning overnight into the small hours of November 6, 2007.

In the statements, Knox said she remembered hearing Kercher scream, and pointed to Lumumba for the killing.

Hours later, still in custody about 1pm, she asked for pen and paper and wrote her own statement in English, questioning the version that she had signed.

"In regards to this 'confession' that I made last night, I want to make clear that I'm very doubtful of the verity of my statements because they were made under the pressure of stress, shock and extreme exhaustion," she wrote.

The big prize wasn’t struck – but has Lotto made you richer tonight?