A cat has been reunited with its owner after going missing for almost two years in Adelaide.

Mozart was found at Government House by police on November 6 after going missing from his Norwood home in December 2021, about four kilometres away from where he was located.

Owner Marc Boote said he was "grateful" for his pet's return, after describing the loss of his cat as "traumatic."

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"He recognised me immediately," Boote said.

"He's an indoor cat now, and we're working on cat-proofing our pergola so he's got an outside run.

"I'm just so grateful he's OK and home again and I urge people to make sure their cats are microchipped because I'd never have got Mozart back if he didn't have that means of identification."

RSPCA Rescue Team Leader Nalika van Loenen was able to track down Boote through the dogs and cats online (DACO) database because Mozart was microchipped.

"We can't stress enough the importance of having your cat microchipped and making sure the details on DACO are kept up to date, so if your cat does wander off and is picked up as a stray, he or she can be returned to you asap," van Loenen said.

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Only a small percentage of stray cats found are microchipped, meaning there's no way to track down their owners, the RSPCA's Carolyn Jones said.

"Half the stray dogs that come to us are microchipped and therefore able to be returned to their owners, only around four per cent of the stray cats have microchips," Jones said.

"The only way for owners of these cats with no ID to get them back is if they happen to see them on our stray animals' page – and then they have five days to claim them before we begin looking for a new home for them."

A high-ranking NSW police force member's employment is now under review after he was charged with drink-driving, six months after the alleged incident.

9News last night revealed the inspector from the police executive office attended functions in The Rocks, in the city's CBD, in May before allegedly getting behind the wheel of his police-issued car.

The 46-year-old allegedly struck a barrier while off-duty and driving on the NorthConnex ramp at 1.54am before driving into a nearby street in Wahroonga and leaving the damaged car there.

He was charged with high-range drink-driving and driving under the influence last week.

The senior officer was never breath-tested but CCTV from two pubs in The Rocks allegedly captured him downing more than 20 drinks, with an expert understood to have a blood alcohol level between .280 and .320.

The officer in question, who police have requested 9News not identify due to operational reasons, is currently off sick and his employment is under review.

He will face court next month.

It is a police policy that a media release is issued about any officer charged but in this case, the details about the police officer were only made public on Tuesday after 9News put questions to the commissioner.

"It probably could have gone out on Friday and I've asked for a review to be done of that to see why it fell through the cracks and what happened there," Police Commissioner Karen Webb told 2GB's Ray Hadley.

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Deputy Commissioner David Hudson said he believed it was the wrong move to not issue a media release.

"There is no cover-up and that is part of what the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission (LECC) will examine but in my opinion, a media release should have been put out," he said.

Both Hudson and Webb have denied a "cover-up or interference" in the case.

"Any suggestion that there's a cover-up or interference, I reject," Webb told 2GB.

The LECC, the independent watchdog, is now examining the handling of the case from the top down.

Adrian Humphreys was fatally stabbed while camping last year in remote Taranaki.

The biggest names in Australian music are at Sydney's Hordern Pavilion for the 37th ARIA Awards.

The university’s legal team opened its defence this afternoon in the Employment Court.

New airline Bonza has launched its first flights from the Gold Coast to Townsville as it expands its Queensland services.

The budget-friendly carrier will start offering flights from as low as $49 as it joins other competitors, such as Qantas, Virgin and Jetstar, in the market.

"This is about market growth and bringing new choices to market," Bonza chief executive Tim Gordon said.

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Some Queensland residents had the opportunity to fly on the inaugural flight today.

"It's good to be able to fly from the Gold Coast to Townsville, it makes a big difference for me," one passenger said.

The journey is one of 14 routes to be available in time for Christmas.

Flights to destinations including Townsville, Melbourne, Mackay, Darwin, Rockhampton and Launceston are expected to come online over the next two weeks.

The new Gold Coast base will see an additional 84 flights operating out of Coolangatta every week with 14 new routes unveiled. 

The airline's changes are predicted to inject around $300 million into the state's economy.

An economist thinks the arrival of Chinese EVs will see uptake soar.

A survivalist with doomsday fantasies caught with more than a dozen guns including automatic machine guns was fuelled by his failed military career.

Aleziah Tolkein Spiers, 30, was discharged from the Australian Army after serving two years as a rifleman before turning to a survivalist lifestyle on his then-father-in-law's property at Clarkefield, in central Victoria.

While preparing for an apocalyptic or worldwide catastrophic event Spiers built a community of survivalist friends and ran regular workshops teaching activities and skills he learned from the internet.

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Through that network he met a 62-year-old man with motor neurone disease, who began bringing him tools, farm equipment and motorbikes for the property.

He also brought firearms, which Spiers stored in a shipping container and under floorboards in a shearing shed.

Among 16 firearms found during police raids in July were three machine guns, multiple semi-automatic rifles, including one that had been shortened, and several single barrel bolt action rifles.

A semi-automatic handgun was also found in Spiers' bedroom, prosecutor Zoran Petric told the Victorian County Court on Wednesday.

Police searches of the property had to be suspended overnight for safety reasons, but also uncovered knives and chemicals that could be combined to make explosives.

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Spiers pleaded guilty to firearms charges, also confessing he possessed daggers, a slingshot with ball bearings, a handheld crossbow, a sword, a nunchaku and an extendable baton.

He admitted storing, cleaning and even restoring some of the weapons. There was no allegation he had fired the guns.

When interviewed by police, Spiers said he believed the farm would be a good place to "bug out in the event of an apocalypse-type scenario" and while he never fired the guns he believed he would know how to if he sat down with one because he had cleaned several of them.

His barrister Timothy Fitzpatrick said while someone could look at Spiers with the number of weapons he had and draw a negative impression, scratching beneath the surface would reveal a man who was willing to help others.

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In 2015 he was awarded a bravery medal for swimming 250 metres at Frankston Beach to help rescue a woman, spending an hour in the water with another man to keep her afloat before more help arrived.

He acknowledged Spiers' survivalist lifestyle wasn't for everybody, but it was a choice for many people.

Judge Michael Tinney raised concerns that Spiers was a man conducting survivalist training with a stockpile of weapons and ammunition, while also having received military training and harbouring desires to be in the special forces, Australian Federal Police and counter terrorism.

"He's not in any of those – he's a person who, undoubtedly on the materials, has had some level of fantasy about apocalyptic scenarios and doomsday," he said.

He said experts noted that he made decisions based on his failed attempts at a military and law enforcement career, and a lack of trajectory toward the life he desired.

His survivalist lifestyle and other endeavours, underpinned by the immature fantasies of his prowess, appeared in part motivated by a dysfunctional need to boost his self-esteem, by placing him in a position as a leader admired by others, they said.

Spiers will be sentenced at a later date.

The High Court has found evidence that crooked cop Roger Rogerson allegedly admitted other murders was correctly excluded from a joint trial over the murder of drug dealer Jamie Gao.

Rogerson and Glen Patrick McNamara were both sentenced to life imprisonment in 2016 for the murder in May 2014 when Gao was lured into a darkened storage shed in Sydney's south and shot dead.

They also were jailed for stealing 2.78kg of methamphetamine with a street value of up to $19 million from the 20-year-old student.

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Both failed to overturn their convictions and sentences in the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal with Rogerson also losing a bid to appeal to the High Court.

Today, a panel of five High Court judges unanimously dismissed McNamara's challenge to his conviction.

McNamara had claimed that evidence of two conversations he had with Rogerson showed he feared for his life and acted with duress, and was not part of some joint criminal enterprise to enact the murder.

"The exclusion of the evidence left McNamara forensically disadvantaged and the tribunal of fact dispossessed of evidence consistent with innocence," his lawyers said in submissions to the High Court.

"The exclusion of this evidence precipitated a manifestly unfair trial."

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In dismissing McNamara's appeal, the High Court found that portions of these conversations were correctly excluded from the jury as they were deemed prejudicial to Rogerson.

In one alleged conversation from February 2014 about a potential book by Rogerson, the ex-cop is claimed to have admitted killing or conspiring to kill six other people.

In a second conversation in May 2014, just after Gao was shot in the storage shed, Rogerson allegedly threatened McNamara.

"Get up and f—— help me you weak c— or I'll leave you on the floor lying next to him," McNamara claims Rogerson said.

"He pulled the f—— knife first, get up and help me or you'll be as dead as him."

Farming groups across the country are sounding an alarm bell on the federal government's plan to buy back more water out of the Murray-Darling Basin, saying it will devastate communities and drive up grocery bills around the country.

Protests in multiple towns throughout the Basin are planned for next Tuesday, November 21, as local councils and farming organisations join forces to protest the government's current proposal.

The federal government is seeking to reform water markets – but the main target of community ire is its proposal to increase its voluntary water buybacks by 450 gigalitres.

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Water that is purchased by the government is not available for agriculture or irrigation.

National Farmers Federation president David Jochinke said towns and communities would suffer the impact of a rewritten Basin Plan, costing jobs, schools, shops, doctors, sports teams and services.

"The federal government has been presented with options to achieve a healthier river without the pain and cost of buybacks, but these are being ignored in favour of an easy political win," Jochinke said.

"These changes will cost thousands of jobs in farming, transport and food processing and reduce the value of food and fibre grown in Australia by $855 million per year."

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Griffith wheat and rice grower Glen Andreazza said there was fierce opposition to further buybacks across the Basin.

"We've seen the terrible social and economic impacts of previous water buybacks here in Griffith, and we're afraid the government will bleed us to death," Andreazza said.

"This is an incredibly productive food and fibre growing area, but this government wants to tie our hands behind our backs rather than let us grow food to feed people."

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He said it was "madness" to consider options that would reduce food production while prices kept rising and families struggled with the cost of living.

NSW Farmers Association president Xavier Martin said the rewrite of the Basin Plan ignored the social and economic impacts of further water buybacks.

"Less water available for consumptive use means less food and fibre production, which will ultimately lead to declining towns and higher cost of living for all," he said.

However, a number of environmental groups, scientists and Indigenous groups have backed – if in a qualified fashion – the government's proposal.

"The move to reinstate voluntary water purchases to meet the environmental requirements of the (Murray Darling Basin) is welcome, if long overdue," economics professor and water markets expert Professor Lin Crase said in a submission to the government.

"This offers both financial reprieve for taxpayers and additional comfort for environmental interests."