A Melbourne boss is trying to avoid conviction after he slapped a young apprentice while the man was strung upside down from a crane at a workplace Christmas party.

Steven Yousif, 29, repeatedly hit Ilyas Elkharraz's bare chest at the December 2020 event in one incident of bullying at Melbourne Glass Solutions.

Elkharraz lodged a complaint with WorkSafe, telling investigators he was also verbally abused and threatened by Yousif between April 2019 and May 2021.

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The carpentry apprentice said he felt anxiety, stress, depression and suicidal thoughts as a result of the bullying.

WorkSafe investigators first attended the Tullamarine work site in April last year where Yousif handed over requested documents.

The company director declined an invitation to be interviewed.

Another apprentice carpenter also came forward, claiming Yousif threatened to terminate his employment and stopped him attending TAFE classes between March and October 2019.

Yousif on Monday pleaded guilty in Melbourne Magistrates Court to failing to provide and maintain for his employees a working environment that was safe and without risk to health.

His lawyer Joseph D'Abaco said his client had been a young and inexperienced boss at the time of the offending.

"He was driven to make Melbourne Glass a successful operation – he pushed himself and others to the limit," he told the court.

"He now realises his conduct was wrong and has no place in the modern workplace."

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Yousif was embarrassed with how he acted and he apologised unreservedly to the two men for the pain and distress he caused them, D'Abaco said.

He urged Magistrate Andrew Sim to hand down a sentence without conviction otherwise Yousif's second business Jaden Commercial Windows would suffer financially.

Melbourne Glass Solutions is no longer operating as a company.

Jaden would miss out on tenders if a conviction was listed against Yousif and his employees would be collateral damage through no fault of their own, D'Abaco said.

But the magistrate noted Yousif would have to declare the offending in any tender applications, regardless of whether a conviction was listed.

Prosecutor Tristan Joseph said it was appropriate for a conviction to be handed down.

He said although Yousif was only charged because he was the sole director of the company, the offending was more serious because he carried out the bullying.

But D'Abaco said the magistrate should not see it as an aggravating feature.

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Sim adjourned his sentence to next month so he could take time to consider the penalty and whether or not a conviction should be recorded.

The maximum sentence available is a fine of $80,595.

The federal government is weighing up whether to introduce new laws after 80 asylum seekers were released from immigration detention into the community following a High Court ruling last week.

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus confirmed this afternoon that special visa conditions have been placed on the 80 people, who were being held in indefinite detention due to failed character tests or national security risks.

"I can assure the Australian community that the first priority of the government is to keep our community safe," Dreyfus said.

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"There will be appropriate visa conditions and the commonwealth government will be working with state and territory criminal justice agencies, who, of course, are primarily responsible for each of the people concerned.

"All of these people have already had interactions with the state and territory criminal justice agencies in question."

He said the government was "of course" considering whether to introduce new laws in response to the High Court ruling, although did not specify whether that would be to re-detain the 80 released asylum seekers, or to more broadly legislate indefinite detention.

The court ruled the indefinite detention of a stateless Rohingya man who had served time for child sex offences was unlawful, saying it was unconstitutional to detain someone with no prospect of being removed from Australia.

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The decision overturned a near-20-year precedent that allowed Australia to lock up asylum seekers who had failed character assessments but could not be deported.

In its submissions to the court, the Commonwealth said more than 300 other detainees could be impacted by the decision.

Immigration Minister Andrew Giles confirmed the 80 people had been released "almost instantly" and said the government would need to wait for the High Court's reasons to be published before it introduced any new legislation.

"We continue to consider all measures that may be available to lengthen our protection of the community," he said during question time.

"We are yet to have the reasons for the court's decision.

"We have been approaching this issue in anticipation of the decision because we regard community safety seriously."

A man has been charged after a woman was allegedly sexually assaulted outside her home in Broome, WA last night.

Police allege the woman was grabbed and sexually assaulted after she walked outside her home about 10.30pm, having seen a light being shone through her window.

Following an extensive police search of the area, a 25-year-old man was arrested by Broome detectives on Piggott Way just after 11pm.

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The Halls Creek man has been charged with sexual penetration without consent, along with four other offences relating to separate incidents on the same night.

He is due to appear in Broome Magistrates Court today.

Australians are set to spend more on Christmas presents this year despite high inflation, interest rate hikes and cost of living pressures on households.

The Christmas Retail Trends Report, conducted by Monash Business School's Australian Consumer and Retail Studies, found shoppers intend to spend 16 per cent more on clothing, footwear and accessories, compared to last year.

Spending on electronics is also expected to increase by 40 per cent, while purchases on household goods are set to jump by 16 per cent.

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The survey, of 1014 shoppers across Australia, found budgets compared to last year had increased with respondents indicating they planned to spend about $427 on immediate family, $246 for extended family, $149 for friends and $266 on themselves.

Lead researcher, Dr Eloise Zoppos, said increased spending could be attributed to inflation and supply chain price rises following the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We've consistently found over the past few years since COVID, that people have told us they're spending more and more each Christmas on gifts," Zoppos said.

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"One reason could be that restrictions have eased and people are having larger gatherings, and seeing more family and more friends at Christmas.

"Of course, the other side to that is there has been inflation across some categories so spend could also be attributed to a perceived increase in the cost of certain categories.

"So our results are likely a mix of people seeing more people, and spending more money on gifts for family and friends, and also some inflation element where people are perceiving the cost of products are more than they have been previously."

Consumer behaviour expert from Deakin University, Paul Harrison, said he was not surprised by the figures despite the cost of living impact on households.

"People like to observe rituals and people are very kind of driven by expectations and the rituals that come with these sort of events," he said.

"It's a way of escape as well, it's a way of treating yourself and being kind and good to the people you care about."

Harrison said the data was consistent with holiday season consumer spending seen during recessions, as these traditions "are critical and important to that social nature and what it means to be a human being".

He said it was important to consider it was difficult to resist spending money at Christmas, as people become swept up "in this ritual buying frenzy".

"Australia is very kind of driven by Christmas as a material, consumption, moment," he said.

"I think to resist that urge, even during a cost of living crisis, means that you are pushing back against all the expectations of everybody around you.

"So it actually becomes easier to consume and buy things at Christmas time, than it is to resist."

He said another reason shoppers were likely to spend more at Christmas was due to poor planning, as well as being surrounded with constant reminders to spend.

"When we don't plan, we're more susceptible at that time because there's more of an expectation to buy, marketers are very good at twisting and nudging us towards those kinds of elements," he said.

"There's a theory in psychology called ego depletion, which means that when we're overwhelmed with these types of things, we don't tend to think rationally. And to save money is a rational activity."

However, retail expert Gary Mortimer said some categories of the report appear "overly optimistic" in their projections.

"Ultimately nobody is going to cancel Christmas, but it'll certainly be more subdued and consumers will be more frugal in their approaches," he said.

"Generally what tends to take place is discretionary categories tend to struggle when times get tough and families tend to turn to the necessities, so things like food retailing, they're more concerned about putting food on the table than they are buying new shoes or a t-shirt. 

"I think while retailers would certainly welcome an increase in sales this Christmas, I don't think objectively that number is going to be realised in those areas based on the data."

Turns out swimming cassowaries can be added to the list of things to beware of in Queensland, home of giant crocs, the dreaded irukandji jellyfish and killer snakes.

The cassowary might be Australia's heaviest bird, and some claim the world's most dangerous, but "astonishing" footage showed it is a remarkably proficient swimmer.

Campers were confused and delighted by the bird as it paddled out of a light shore break and onto the beach off Bingil Bay Campground in Queensland, 100km south of Cairns.

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In the footage, taken from a distance, it's difficult to make out what is moving through the water, with the bird's periscope-shaped neck and head looking similar to a dorsal fin.

But as it nears shore, the distinctive hornlike helmet on its head, called a casque, becomes clear and a cassowary steps out of the water and shakes its feathers off.

"We're not sure how long this animal was in the water or why it went for a swim but the footage is astonishing," Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service officer Stephen Clough said.

"Cassowaries can swim and will take to the water to cross from one side of a river to the other, or if they feel threatened by domestic dogs or another cassowary through a territorial dispute," he said.

On October 31, campground host Nikita McDowell was alerted to the swimming cassowary by a guest, who told her it was about 200 metres offshore.

"I ran down and waited for the cassowary to emerge from the ocean, and it must've been exhausted as it stood in the shade beneath a tree with its legs shaking for about half an hour," McDowell said.

"Perhaps it entered the ocean around South Mission Beach and was caught by the current or in a rip and swept around to Bingil Bay."

She called Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service and they told her to monitor the bird, but that it would likely move on when it was ready.

"I went to make a coffee and when I returned, it was gone," McDowell said.

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Cassowaries are unpredictable and can inflict serious injuries to people and pets by kicking with their large, clawed feet.

"The inner or second of the three toes is fitted with a long, straight, murderous nail which can sever an arm or eviscerate an abdomen with ease," ornithologist Ernest Thomas Gilliard wrote in 1956.

Officials estimate there are only 4000 cassowaries in Queensland.

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"They face numerous threats to their survival including habitat loss, vehicle strikes and domestic dog attacks," Clough said.

Feeding cassowaries causes them to frequent residential areas, where they are more prone to being hit by vehicles or dog attacks.

"It is often said that 'a fed bird is a dead bird,'" Clough said.

"This rare sighting and lucky escape by the cassowary is a reminder that we all need to do what we can to protect and conserve the species."

What to do if you come across a cassowary

• Never approach cassowaries.
• Never approach chicks; male cassowaries will defend them.
• Never feed cassowaries; it is illegal and dangerous.
• Never stop your vehicle to look at southern cassowaries on the road.
• Always keep your dog away from cassowaries.

The mystery of why a body of water in Queensland turned a vivid shade of pink has been solved.

Parts of Boondall Wetlands at Nudgee Beach in Brisbane had transformed into a completely different colour.

The hue emulated famous pink lakes with high salt levels that have become popular tourist attractions interstate.

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But locals were stumped at what was going on.

However, scientists have solved the mystery of why the water transformed colour – and it's the first time they've seen the phenomenon in the area.

The "rare" discovery wasn't what they expected, with the dry winter partly to blame.

The Water Ecology unit at the Department of Environment and Science (DES) said a microbe was responsible for the pink colouration – and it has not been observed by scientists before in southeast Queensland.

Principal Scientist Dr Glenn McGregor analysed water samples last month to try and figure out what was going on.

"Based on the colour of the water, we originally thought it might be a bacterium that sometimes washes up in mangroves and can cause similar pinkish accumulations," Dr McGregor said.

"We analysed four samples which confirmed it wasn't the microbe we thought it was, and we needed to do genetic sequencing to find the pink bloom culprit.

"The genetic sequencing was completed by Dr Chris Rinke at the University of Queensland.

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"The sequencing results have shown the microbe belongs to the genus Rhodovulum, and this is the first time this bacterium has been observed by DES in south-east Queensland."

Rhodovulum is associated with pink coastal waters and sulphide-rich environments such as blooming seawater pools and mudflats, Dr McGregor said.

"These bacteria utilize sulphide as an electron donor for growth which helps them survive in these in sulphide-rich environments," he said.

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"Due to the lack of winter rain, the Boondall Wetlands became saline, which created the perfect environment for Rhodovulum microbes that require hyper-saline conditions.

"As the Rhodovulum microbes reproduce and the populations booms, they turn the water pink because of their colouration.

"The beautiful pink blooms at the Boondall Wetlands is rare, but there are plenty of coastal locations across Australia with pink water when conditions are right."

Some of the most famous pink lakes in Australia include Lake Hillier in WA and Lake Bumbunga in South Australia.

As King Charles III turns 75, Australia Post is commemorating the new head of the Commonwealth with three special edition stamps.

Two of the stamps will mark the king's birthday on November 14, while a third will highlight his coronation.

One stamp features a young Charles in a black-and-white portrait during a journey to Sydney in 1966.

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A second, from 2018, shows the king seated at his desk, while the third pictures him in his crown.

It's the first time Charles III has appeared on an Australia Post stamp since his coronation.

"The collection encapsulates the essence of King Charles III's legacy, embodying his continued commitment to tradition and progress," Australia Post said in a media release.

The King Charles III stamp collection is on sale now at participating post offices, via mail order on 1800 331 794 and online while stocks last.

A freshwater spring bubbles amid the mangroves, cabbage palms and red cedars on Sweetheart Island, a two-acre uninhabited patch of paradise about 1.5 km from this little Gulf Coast town.

Pelicans divebomb nearby into the cool waters of Florida's Withlacoochee Bay and the open view westward holds the promise of dazzling sunsets.

It may have seemed like an ideal getaway for Florida businessman Patrick Parker Walsh. Instead, he’s serving five and half years in federal prison for stealing nearly $US8 million ($12.6 million) in federal COVID-19 relief funds that he used, in part, to buy Sweetheart Island.

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Although Walsh’s private island ranks among the more unusual purchases by pandemic fraudsters, his crime was not unique. He is one of thousands of thieves who perpetrated the greatest grift in US history. They potentially plundered more than $US440 billion in federal COVID-19 aid; another $US194 billion was wasted or misspent.

The loss represents close to 10 per cent of the $US6.77 trillion the US government has disbursed to mitigate the economic devastation wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to analysis by The Associated Press.

An AP review of hundreds of pandemic fraud cases presents a picture of thieves and scam artists who spent lavishly on houses, luxury watches and diamond jewellery, Lamborghinis and other expensive cars. The stolen aid also paid for long nights at strip clubs, gambling sprees in Las Vegas and bucket-list vacations.

Their crimes were relatively simple: the government’s goal was to get cash into the hands of struggling people and businesses with minimal hassle, particularly during the early stages of the COVID-19 crisis. Safeguards to weed out the swindlers were dropped. As Walsh’s case and thousands of others have shown, stealing the money was as easy as lying on an application.

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The thieves came from all walks of life and all corners of the globe. There was a Tennessee rapper who bragged about the ease of stealing more than $US1.1 million in pandemic unemployment insurance on YouTube. A former pizzeria owner and host of a cryptocurrency-themed radio show bought an alpaca farm in Vermont with pilfered aid. And an ex-Nigerian government official who grabbed about $US785,000 in COVID-19 relief benefits was wearing a $US15,750 watch and $US55,000 gold chain when he was arrested.

Nearly 3200 defendants have been charged with COVID-19 relief fraud, according to the US Justice Department. About $US2.2 billion in stolen pandemic aid has been seized.

Investigators won’t catch every crook. The scale and scope of the fraud is too large. Pandemic cases often depend on digital evidence, which is perishable, and the financial trail can go cold over time, said Bob Westbrooks, former executive director of the federal Pandemic Response Accountability Committee.

“The uncomfortable truth is the federal criminal justice system is simply not equipped to fully address the unprecedented volume of pandemic relief fraud cases, large and small, and involving thousands upon thousands of domestic and foreign actors,” Westbrooks said.

Top Justice Department officials are undeterred by the enormity of the task. They’ve created special “strike forces” to hunt down COVID-19 aid thieves and vowed not to give up the chase.

“We’ll stay at it for as long as it takes,” US Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said in August.

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Konstantinos Zarkadas, a New York doctor deeply in debt, joined the rogues’ gallery of COVID-19 fraudsters by falsifying at least 11 separate applications for pandemic aid that netted him almost $US6 million, according to prosecutors. He bought Rolex and Cartier wristwatches valued at $US220,000 for himself and family members and made a hefty down payment on a yacht, according to court records.

Zarkadas used about $US4.7 million to pay off part of an earlier civil judgment against him for breaching a real estate lease. His most brazen move was to send $US125,000 of the looted cash back to the government to settle a federal lawsuit alleging he violated the Controlled Substances Act by dispensing more than 20,000 doses of a weight-loss drug without keeping accurate records, prosecutors said.

The state of New York revoked Zarkadas’ medical licence shortly after he was sentenced to more than four years in prison for swiping the pandemic aid.

The stolen funds financed the high-rolling lifestyle of Lee E Price III, a Houston resident with prior felony convictions for forgery and robbery. He swindled nearly $US2.7 million by submitting bogus aid applications on behalf of businesses that existed only on paper, according to court records.

Price wasted little time blowing $US22,000 on a Rolex and more than $US366,000 for a flashy white Lamborghini Urus, a luxury SUV that can go from zero to 96km/h in three seconds. He also spent thousands of dollars at the Casanova, a Houston strip club. Price was sentenced to more than nine years in prison.

Vinath Oudomsine of Georgia also created a fake company that he claimed made $US370,000 a year and had 10 employees. A few weeks after Oudomsine applied for the pandemic aid, the government rushed him $US133,000 to keep his non-existent business afloat.

Oudomsine spent nearly $US91,000 on a 1999 Charizard Pokémon card, which depicts a gold dragon-like creature, jaws wide open, poised to attack.

While not as valuable as rare baseball cards — a mint condition Mickey Mantle card sold for $US19.8 million last year — Pokémon merchandise can command big money as collectors have driven up prices for collectibles issued by the popular franchise.

At Oudomsine’s sentencing last year, US District Judge Dudley H Bowen called Oudomsine’s theft “a $US133,000 insult” to a country reeling from the pandemic.

“I feel foolish every time I say it: Pokémon card,” Bowen said before sending Oudomsine to prison for three years.

Patrick Walsh's bid to save his aerial advertising businesses started out legitimately but quickly escalated into sizeable fraud.

Walsh operated a small fleet of cigar-shaped blimps that flew corporate logos over crowded venues. In June 2017, one of his blimps crashed and burned on live television at the men’s US Open golf tournament, one of the world’s premier sporting events.

“I was teeing off and I looked up and saw it on fire, and I felt sick to my stomach,” said professional golfer Jamie Lovemark, according to an Associated Press report. The pilot — the sole passenger — was badly injured but survived, according to a National Transportation Safety Board investigation.

In the wake of the crash, Walsh’s clients began to bail, his attorneys wrote in court filings. To stay afloat, he obtained high-interest loans that also allowed him to expand his businesses. By 2019, his companies had sales of $US25 million and had expanded into Latin America and Asian markets.

Then the pandemic hit. “COVID-19 did not slow down business, it killed it,” Walsh’s attorneys wrote. He panicked.

Between March 2020 and January 2021 Walsh submitted more than 30 fraudulent applications for emergency pandemic aid and received $US12.2 million, according to the Justice Department. Even if Walsh had followed the rules, his companies would have only qualified for a “small subset” of those loans, federal prosecutors alleged.

“His crimes are egregious and the product of greed,” prosecutors wrote in court papers. They cited the purchase of Sweetheart Island, undisclosed “luxury goods,” oil fields in Texas and a downpayment on a home in tony Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Walsh’s attorneys said in a court filing that he wasn't motivated by avarice, but desperation. Walsh was under enormous pressure to rescue his businesses and to support his large family, they wrote. He has 11 children.

US District Judge Allen C. Winsor didn’t buy the argument.

This was not “a single moment of weakness,” Winsor said in sentencing Walsh in January to more than five years behind bars.

As part of his plea deal, Walsh agreed to return the $US12.27 million he stole and to sell Sweetheart Island, which was among his first purchases with the stolen federal money, according to the court records.

Prosecutors said Walsh used $US142,000 of those funds to help finance the $US183,000 island purchase. Florida property records show that the island was sold for $US315,000 at the end of June.

Walsh’s attorneys said he didn’t buy the island as a “tropical paradise for entertainment” but as a real estate opportunity. They did not explain how the businessman would have transformed the isolated isle into a profit centre.

Withlacoochee Bay is scattered with similar small, uninhabited islands. The only hint that anyone had ever tried to develop Sweetheart Island were a few low, timeworn cinder block walls that extend into the water. There was still a “For Sale” sign posted on a weather-beaten and leafless tree that resembled a scarecrow warning people to stay away.

Iceland is braced for a volcanic eruption at any time in the country's southwest.

Authorities have been closely monitoring activity the past few days, and residents of a fishing town yesterday left their homes after increasing concern after civil defence authorities declared a state of emergency in the region.

Police decided to evacuate Grindavik after recent seismic activity in the area moved toward the town and monitoring indicated that a corridor of magma, or semi-molten rock, now extends under the community, Iceland’s Meteorological Office (IMO) said.

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The town of 3400 is on the Reykjanes Peninsula, 50km southwest of capital Reykjavik.

An eruption could start at any time in the next few days, according to the IMO.

“At this stage, it is not possible to determine exactly whether and where magma might reach the surface,” the office said

Authorities also raised their aviation alert to orange, indicating an increased risk of a volcanic eruption.

Volcanic eruptions pose a serious hazard to aviation because they can spew highly abrasive ash high into the atmosphere, where it can cause jet engines to fail, damage flight control systems and reduce visibility.

A major eruption in Iceland in 2010 caused widespread disruption to air travel between Europe and North America, costing airlines an estimated $4.7 billion as they cancelled more than 100,000 flights.

The evacuation comes after the region was shaken by hundreds of small earthquakes every day for more than two weeks as scientists monitor a buildup of magma some 5km underground.

Concern about a possible eruption increased in the early hours of Thursday when a magnitude 4.8 earthquake hit the area, forcing the internationally known Blue Lagoon geothermal resort to close temporarily.

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The seismic activity started in an area north of Grindavik where there is a network of 2000-year-old craters, geology professor Pall Einarrson, told Iceland’s RUV.

The magma corridor is about 10km long and spreading, he said.

“The biggest earthquakes originated there, under this old series of craters, but since then it (the magma corridor) has been getting longer, went under the urban area in Grindavík and is heading even further and towards the sea,” he said.

With Associated Press

A lion has been sedated and captured after being filmed padding the streets of a town near the Italian capital of Rome.

The escaped circus lion prompted a warning from authorities on Saturday afternoon (not long after midnight Sunday AEDT).

Alessandro Grando, the mayor of the seaside town of Ladispoli, about 35 kilometres west of Rome, said he hoped the incident could help put an end to animal exploitation in circuses.

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The mayor, who warned locals not to travel while the lion was on the loose, said the animal was quickly tracked to a nearby waterway.

The feline was eventually sedated with the help of various police forces, circus staff and volunteers, Grando said on social media late on Saturday (early Sunday AEDT).

The mayor said he wasn't responsible for approving the circus and that his autarchy had unsuccessfully tried in 2017 to ban circuses with animals from the town.