Bruce Lehrmann's lawsuit against Network Ten has been extraordinarily reopened for new evidence suggesting the former political staffer abused a court process.

The 28-year-old was due to learn on Thursday whether his defamation case over reports of his alleged rape of Brittany Higgins had succeeded.

But, with the judgment cooling off in the printer, Justice Michael Lee this evening agreed last-minute evidence concerning leaked text messages should be admitted.

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"This is clearly fresh evidence," he said in the Federal Court.

A further hearing will be held on Thursday and Friday, with judgment delayed at least a week.

Ten said the potentially case-changing evidence came from a television producer who had worked to secure an exclusive interview with Lehrmann for network rival Seven.

It included an allegation that Lehrmann, 28, provided the producer more than 2300 pages of "deeply personal exchanges" between Higgins and her former boyfriend, in breach of the longstanding rule in legal practice known as the Harman undertaking.

Lehrmann received the material, going back years, while defending himself in a criminal trial.

Lee said the evidence may change the determination of the case and agreed with Ten that it went further than merely a question of credit.

It also drew into question whether Lehrmann had abused the court process, Ten's barrister Matthew Collins KC said.

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Collins, who described Ten's bid as "unusual and exceptional", further accused Lehrmann of giving his barristers instructions "that must have been wrong".

His barristers had previously told Ten and the court the undertaking concerning Higgins' messages had not been breached.

"This is not a trivial matter," Collins said.

"If the [producer] evidence is accepted, our submission will be it's a very serious matter."

Lehrmann sued Ten and journalist Lisa Wilkinson over a February 2021 report on The Project where Higgins was interviewed about her alleged rape in a Parliament House office in Canberra in March 2019.

He is seeking extensive damages, saying those reports have destroyed his reputation.

Lehrmann denies raping Higgins.

His barrister on Tuesday urged Justice Lee to dismiss the last-minute application, saying both his client and Higgins had told many lies on oath.

"It's really lipstick on a pig," barrister Matthew Richardson SC said.

"This stuff is trivial, it's just not relevant and to give leave to reopen on that sort of material would be inappropriate."

He did not comment on whether Lehrmann's instructions about the Harman undertaking had changed.

Tuesday's urgent hearing came after Ten filed its bid to reopen the case on Easter Sunday.

"I thought I had finished my work in this matter in Lent," Justice Lee quipped.

The judge said he remained hopeful of delivering his judgment next week.

Landmark reforms of Australia's aged care sector could be delayed for another year.

Leaked internal departmental communications suggest the reforms, suggested by the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety in 2021, will not be implemented by July 1 as previously suggested.

The implementation date was listed as "TBC" (to be confirmed) on the obtained documents, with January or July 2025 predicted as the new implementation date.

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The new proposed laws included changes to the standards for residents' rights, quality of care, and creating a simpler system.

The draft also suggests the possibility of civil and criminal penalties for aged care staff and directors found to be breaking the new standards.

The delay has left some industry experts worried about the uncertainty of the aged care sector. 

"We still haven't seen large portions of the legislation and we haven't seen the rules," Aged and Community Care Providers Association chief executive Tom Symondson said.

"If we rush it and don't get the transition right or get the training right we will potentially fail a generation of older people."

A federal government spokesperson has confirmed the delay to 9News, saying the target is a date later this year, which would avoid the 2025 electoral cycle.

"We appreciate that the government has undertaken some additional consultation this is a really major act that we need to get through," Council on Ageing chief executive Patricia Sparrow said.

"How long do older people have to wait for rights? They've been waiting for a long time."

A Royal Commission into Aged Care, held between 2018 and 2021, handed down a scathing report showing that successive governments, the national regulator and aged-care providers had ignored the neglect, abuse and below-average care that nursing home residents experienced for decades.

Family and friends of two Victorian men who tragically drowned on the Gold Coast have gathered at the family's home to pay their respects.

Melbourne man Sunny Randhawa, 38, drove his wife and two young children and parents to Queensland in his brand new car for the Easter break before tragedy struck.

On Sunday night, Randhawa's toddler daughter slipped into their hotel pool.

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Randhawa dived in to save her before getting into trouble himself.

His father Gurjinder Singh, 65, also tried to help but both men died at the scene.

Relatives have told 9News Randhawa had been a kind-hearted family man and a loving husband, while his father was retired and "full of life".

Family friend Nav Malhi said the news had deeply impacted Victoria's Indian community.

"(Sunny) was a really great guy," he said.

"It is really sad, everyone is pretty sad in the community. Horrible news."

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The pair make up the third Indian family living in Victoria to succumb to the same tragic fate.

In January, four members of the same family drowned near Philip Island.

And last month, student Jil Khokhara, 26, died and his two friends were taken to hospital following a similar incident near Apollo Bay.

Police have said the weekend's tragedy occurred because the pair didn't know how to swim.

Malhi said it was important Indian families learned to swim if they were planning to move to or visit Australia.

"Where we are coming from, the north part of India, there's no ocean. People really hardly know how to swim," he said.

"I would recommend everyone just to go and learn swimming as Australia is all ocean."

Randhawa's wife and mother have returned to Melbourne and are now planning a funeral for their two loved ones.

The family of an Australian citizen killed in an airstrike in Gaza has described the humanitarian aid worker as "an outstanding human being" driven by kindness and selflessness.

Melbourne-born Lalzawmi "Zomi" Frankcom, along with six other international aid workers, was killed in Central Gaza while working with the World Central Kitchen (WCK) charity.

Video footage posted to social media showed the bodies of five of the dead at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central Gaza town of Deir al-Balah.

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WCK confirmed seven of its team members were killed in what it believed was an Israeli airstrike.

They were from Poland, the UK, Australia, Palestine and one was a dual US-Canadian citizen, the charity said.

All of the workers killed were wearing protective gear with the charity's logo on it.

Frankcom's family released a statement to media this afternoon following the news of her death.

"We are deeply mourning the news that our brave and beloved Zomi has been killed doing the work she loves delivering food to the people of Gaza," the statement reads.

"She was a kind, selfless and outstanding human being that has travelled the world helping others in their time of need.

"She will leave behind a legacy of compassion, bravery and love for all those in her orbit.

"We are still reeling from the shock and we humbly request privacy during this difficult time."

WCK said the group was travelling in convoy through a "deconflicted zone" with two WCK branded-armoured vehicles and one unarmoured car.

The charity said it was devastated by the deaths of its team members and has paused operations in the region. 

"This is not only an attack against WCK, this is an attack on humanitarian organisations showing up in the most dire of situations where food is being used as a weapon of war. This is unforgivable," WCK chief executive Erin Gore said.

"The love they had for feeding people, the determination they embodied to show that humanity rises above all, and the impact they made in countless lives will forever be remembered and cherished."

The charity added it will be "making decisions about the future of our work soon".

The group was travelling through Nothern Gaza into Central Gaza when their vehicle was targeted in an airstrike, Mahmoud Thabet, a Palestinian Red Crescent paramedic, told the Associated Press. 

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Thabet was part of a team who took the bodies to the hospital. 

The WCK aid workers had been distributing more than 100 tonnes of humanitarian aid to civilians in the north that day and were returning to Rafah when the airstrike hit them.

Three aid ships had arrived from Cyprus yesterday, carrying 400 tonnes of food and supplies.

The charity had organised the aid drop in conjunction with the United Arab Emirates, while the IDF was involved in coordinating the shipment's delivery.

It is unclear why the vehicle was targeted, and the source of the strike has not been confirmed.

9News understands Frankcom, 44, had engaged in both national and international humanitarian work and helped provide aid to communities affected by the Black Summer 2019-20 bushfires in Braidwood, NSW.

She successfully completed a course at Harvard University focusing on Humanitarian Response to Conflict and Disaster in 2021.

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Celebrity chef and humanitarian José Andrés, who founded WCK in 2010, called on Israel to "stop indiscriminate killing," following the reported deaths.

"Today WCKitchen lost several of our sisters and brothers in an IDF air strike in Gaza," Andrés said in a post on X.

"I am heartbroken and grieving for their families and friends and our whole WCK family. These are people … angels … I served alongside in Ukraine, Gaza, Turkey, Morocco, Bahamas, Indonesia.

"They are not faceless … they are not nameless. The Israeli government needs to stop this indiscriminate killing.

"It needs to stop restricting humanitarian aid, stop killing civilians and aid workers, and stop using food as a weapon.

"No more innocent lives lost. Peace starts with our shared humanity. It needs to start now."

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A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it was working urgently to confirm the news.

"The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is urgently seeking to confirm reports that an Australian aid worker has died in Gaza," the spokesperson said.

"These reports are very distressing.

"We have been clear on the need for civilian lives to be protected in this conflict.

"We have been very clear that we expect humanitarian workers in Gaza to have safe and unimpeded access to do their lifesaving work."

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told a press conference today the attack was "absolutely unacceptable" and that "full accountability" was expected for the deaths.

"Aid workers and those doing humanitarian work and indeed all innocent civilians need to be provided with protection," he told reporters.

"Australia has had a clear position of supporting a sustainable ceasefire, for some period of time, of calling for humanitarian aid to go to the people of Gaza who are suffering from this deprivation, to make sure that hostages are released as well.

He said Australians wanted to see an end to the conflict.

"Australians want to see a peaceful, long-term political solution," he said.

"That means justice for Palestinians and a Palestinian state as well as the right for Israel to exist within secure borders."

The Israeli Defence Force has issued a statement saying it is "carrying out a thorough review at the highest level" in regards to the attack.

South-east Queensland and north-eastern NSW will be lashed with heavy rain and storms towards the end of the week as the system that brought damaging wind and rainfall to Victoria over Easter moves north.

Wild weather wreaked havoc across Victoria overnight, with more than 500 calls for help to the SES, cars trapped underneath trees and isolated flash flooding.

The system is currently moving across NSW and will bring a few "wet and stormy" days for parts of south-east Queensland and north-eastern New South Wales, according to Bureau of Meteorology senior meteorologist Dean Narramore.

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"It should mostly clear New South Wales tomorrow, but linger in south-east Queensland," he said.

"Then another system is going to come in and combine with that to reinvigorate rain and storms across south-east Queensland and north-east New South Wales on Thursday and then spread across much of New South Wales on Friday and Saturday."

He said the region could expect isolated falls in excess of 100mm with isolated flash flooding risk as well as gusty winds and possible big swells.

"If a deep low develops and sits near the coast, we could see even heavier falls and stronger winds," he said, adding that was one of many scenarios and forecasters would have a clearer picture in the coming days.

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The storms are linked to a low pressure system that is now sweeping over Tasmania.

Strong wind warnings remain in place for much of Victoria, although the threat of further severe weather has passed, the Bureau of Meteorology said.

Damaging wind gusts of up to 90km/h are expected across parts of regional Victoria and Melbourne from this evening.

Areas in the Central Coast, Gippsland, Port Phillip, Western Port and the Western Coast are expected to be impacted.

Sheep graziers in Gippsland have also been warned over rain and cold temperatures that could harm their flocks.

Decades-long "megadroughts" could hit Australia, including our biggest agricultural region, in the near future as climate change continues to worsen severe weather conditions.

New modelling released this morning by the Australian National University (ANU) and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes has detailed how climate change has already exacerbated droughts, and how it could make them even worse in the future.

Megadroughts already occur – there's one in the US right now that's been running since 2000 – but the researchers say the consequences of one in Australia will get increasingly severe.

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"The combination of climate change on top of naturally occurring megadroughts that could last for 20 years means that in the future Australia could see droughts that are worse than anything in recent historical experience," co-lead author Dr Georgy Falster from ANU said.

"We must consider, and prepare for, the possibility that one of these multi-decade megadroughts could occur in the near future.

"In this study, we paid particular attention to the Murray-Darling Basin.

"As the largest agricultural region of Australia, it's important to know how bad droughts in this region could be."

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As the driest inhabited continent on the planet, droughts aren't anything new for Australia.

There were 10 major ones between 1860 and 2000 – including the devastating Federation Drought of 1895-1903 – while the more recent Millenium Drought, which ran from 2001-09, was one of the nation's worst.

However, the researchers used a far wider net of climate observations, dating back to 850, in their modelling, finding that droughts have already got worse since industrialisation.

The study also found that south-western and eastern Australia can expect decreasing rainfall and a higher risk of drought in the future – including in the Murray-Darling Basin.

Home to 40 per cent of Australia's farms, the basin produces about $30 billion in food and fibre each year, including all of the nation's rice, nearly three-quarters of its grapes, and 30 per cent of its dairy.

Research co-author Professor Nerilie Abram from ANU said carbon emissions need to be reduced and water management improved to mitigate the risk of megadroughts.

"It is likely that changes to drought intensity could still arise as climate change continues to worsen," she said.

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"One example of this is the 21st century 'Tinderbox Drought', which was only three years long but was exceptionally intense and set the conditions for the Black Summer bushfires.

"The Tinderbox Drought was likely made more severe by climate change.

"The only thing we can do to lessen the potential severity and length of future droughts is to rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. For example, by rapidly transitioning to renewable energy sources.

"We can also reduce the impacts of future droughts by being prepared with water storage and management plans, and community support networks."

A small underwater drone has captured new vision of a historic shipwreck, which is twice the size of a blue whale, off the coast of Western Australia.

The device delved into the depths of the Rottnest ship graveyard in the Indian Ocean, where it captured footage of a 64-metre wreck scattered across the seafloor.

Video and imagery was delivered to researchers at WA Museum, who confirmed the wreckage was more than 100 years old and had been a coal hulk from Fremantle Port.

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The vision was used to develop a 3D model to illustrate the size of the wreck. 

"This is the clearest and most comprehensive data set the WA Museum has received from this particular wreck," WA Museum curator Ross Anderson said.

"This type of high-resolution imagery is invaluable for maritime archaeological research and education on underwater cultural heritage."

Humans have only explored five per cent of the ocean, which is home to about three million undiscovered shipwrecks.

Of those, 1819 are recorded lying off the shore of Western Australia.

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Some of the wrecks can be found in the Rottnest graveyard, which is a known burial site for ships, naval vessels, aircraft and secretive submarines from as early as the 1900s.

The sunken ships and aircrafts are between 50 to 200 metres below the surface, leaving the majority of them undiscovered.

Researchers will continue using the underwater drone to explore more of what lies in the Indian Ocean and are hoping to unlock the mystery of the SS Koombana, which vanished into a cyclone off Port Hedland in 1912.

Eight cruise passengers left behind in the African island nation of São Tomé and Príncipe have been struggling for days to catch up with their Norwegian Cruise Line ship as it makes its way up the western coast of Africa.

The passengers – who according to reports are six Americans and two Australians – were late getting back to the ship on March 27, according to a statement from Norwegian Cruise Line.

"Eight guests who were on the island on their own or with a private tour missed the last tender back to the vessel, therefore not meeting the all aboard time of 3pm local time," the statement said.

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"While this is a very unfortunate situation, guests are responsible for ensuring they return to the ship at the published time, which is communicated broadly over the ship's intercom, in the daily communication and posted just before exiting the vessel."

Norwegian Cruise Line said that the passengers' passports were handed over to local port agents for the guests to collect.

The cruise line said that guests are responsible for the cost of getting to the next available port of call to rejoin the ship.

The cruise line said it was working with local authorities and communicating with the stranded passengers.

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According to stranded South Carolina couple Jill and Jay Campbell, who have been in contact with CNN affiliate WPDE about their situation, the group of eight stranded passengers spent 15 hours travelling through six countries to try to rejoin their ship on Sunday in Gambia.

But the ship was unable to dock because of low tides and spent an additional day at sea.

The Campbells told WPDE that the group would next try to get to Senegal, where the ship is scheduled to call into port on Tuesday.

The Campbells told WPDE that several members of the group are elderly, another is a paraplegic and one woman is pregnant.

They said one member of the group has been without his heart medication for five days and had become ill.

CNN has contacted Norwegian Cruise Line for additional details but did not immediately receive a response.

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A missed all-aboard time

The group's mad dash started after a tour on São Tomé and Príncipe ran long on March 27.

"We were like, 'Our time is getting really short,' and they were like, 'No problem, we can get you back within an hour,'" Jay Campbell said of the tour organisers.

Campbell told WPDE that the tour operator contacted the captain to say that the passengers were on their way but would be late.

The ship was still in port when they got back, but Campbell said that the captain would not let them on board.

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"The harbour master tried to call the ship, the captain refused the call," Campbell told WPDE late last week.

"We sent emails to NCL, the NCL customer service emergency number, they said 'Well, the only way for us to get in touch with the ship is to send them emails, they're not responding to our emails."

The Campbells told WPDE the group was left without their medications and that most passengers didn't have credit cards that were accepted on São Tomé and Príncipe, so the Campbells spent thousands of dollars on their Visa card for lodging and essentials for the group.

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The Campbells said one additional passenger, who had been on a different tour, had a medical emergency and was hospitalised on São Tomé, leaving her stranded as well.

The Campbells said they were able to get in touch with that passenger's daughter back in California to help coordinate her return to North America.

Cruise ships will wait for passengers who have booked excursions through the cruise line who are late.

But any passengers who are on trips booked independently risk missing the ship if they are delayed.

The couple boarded the ship on March 20.

The website CruiseMapper.com shows that the cruise ship Norwegian Dawn is en route on Monday to Dakar, Senegal.

-reported with CNN

Here's what you can currently expect to pay as the median value for a home in all our capital cities, according to the latest numbers.

A snake catcher was called in to help a Brisbane family after they made an unnerving discovery in their garage.

Tony from Redland's Snake Catcher arrived at a home in Cleveland yesterday to investigate a child's wheeled toy.

Lifting the toy up, Tony said that any child who sat on the walker would have received "a bit of a shock" – there was a carpet python curled up underneath.

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The non-venomous snake had "a great place to hide right underneath this toy", Tony said in a video shared with 9news.com.au.

As Tony went to remove the python, the family's kids can be heard screaming as the python began to uncurl itself from a tightly wrapped ball.

The creature lifted its head to investigate, with the catcher describing it as "a lovely snake".

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Tony told 9news.com.au that Redland's Snake Catchers work alongside Queensland National Parks and Wildlife to release snakes back into the bush.

They identify areas where they can help rejuvenate snake populations.

The snake catchers advise the public to always seek professional help to remove snakes found in the home.