Australians are being urged to dig deep and help out farmers struggling to keep their livestock fed, with demand for hay soaring at a "phenomenal" rate.

Rural Aid said producers around the country had collectively asked for more than $1 million of donated hay in the past month.

And demand is expected to increase further as bushfires continue to burn across Queensland and New South Wales.

READ MORE: Hamas releases video of three Israeli hostages

Rural Aid said it anticipated demand would "accelerate rapidly" as conditions worsen through an El Nino summer.

"Rural Aid delivered $56 million of hay and other services over a two-year period between 2018-19 when drought and bushfire were ravaging the country," CEO John Warlters said.

"The drought has already arrived for thousands of farming families.

READ MORE: Cyclone level winds hit Sydney as bushfire contained

"Lower than average rainfall and higher than average temperatures and have plunged families back into financial and emotional turmoil.

"We are seeing that every day through the huge demand for our services and that's ahead of the hot and dry summer forecast by the bureau."

Australians who can afford it are asked to help out by buying a hay bale that would go to a farmer in need, either online or by calling 1300 327 624.

READ MORE: Urgent bushfire warnings as Queensland braces for high heat, winds

Queensland cattle producer Betty Johnson, Biggenden, is one of Rural Aid's recent beneficiaries.

"It's wonderful to get a bit of help when I really do need it," the 84-year-old said.

"If you have a look at my property, there's not a green speck anywhere.

"We've had no rain at all since about January which means that I've been feeding stock for ages. If you're feeding stock, it costs money."

Warlters said Rural Aid was hoping for the best but preparing for the worst.

"If the current dry is just the beginning – and that is what the experts are suggesting, then it is going to be an extraordinarily difficult time for our farmers," he said.

"Aside from the physical hardships of running a farm through drought and bushfire, we know the toll on mental health can be even greater."

The cause of actor Matthew Perry's death at his residence yesterday will require additional investigative steps by the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner's Office before reaching a conclusion, according to records from the agency.

The medical examiner updated its online record for Perry this morning, listing his cause of death as "deferred."

"In cases where the cause of death cannot be determined at the time of autopsy, a deferred certificate will be issued until additional studies have been completed," according to the LA coroner's guidelines.

READ MORE: 'The world will miss you': Matthew Perry's Friends co-star's touching tribute

No foul play is suspected, a law enforcement source told CNN, however, the incident remains under investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department Robbery-Homicide Division.

Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Brian Humphrey told CNN a 911 call came in Saturday at 4.07pm local time for a water rescue emergency. LAPD responded at 4.10pm and characterised the call as a death investigation shortly after.

Perry, 54, was found unresponsive in his hot tub, according to the Los Angeles Times, citing law enforcement sources.

READ MORE: How Matthew Perry scored his career-making role on Friends

Perry's parents, John Bennett Perry and Suzanne Morrison, along with his step-father, Dateline correspondent Keith Morrison, were seen arriving at the actor's home Saturday night amid the police response.

Friends co-creators Marta Kauffman and David Crane and executive producer Kevin Bright released a statement to CNN, saying they were "shocked and deeply, deeply saddened by our beloved friend Matthew's passing."

"It still seems impossible. All we can say is that we feel blessed to have had him as part of our lives," their statement said.

"He was a brilliant talent. It's a cliche to say that an actor makes a role their own, but in Matthew's case, there are no truer words. From the day we first heard him embody the role of Chandler Bing, there was no one else for us."

The statement added: "We will always cherish the joy, the light, the blinding intelligence he brought to every moment – not just to his work, but in life as well. He was always the funniest person in the room. More than that, he was the sweetest, with a giving and selfless heart…This truly is The One Where Our Hearts Are Broken."

On Sunday, Perry's family released a statement to People magazine saying that they were "heartbroken by the tragic loss of our beloved son and brother."

"Matthew brought so much joy to the world, both as an actor and a friend," the statement said. "You all meant so much to him and we appreciate the tremendous outpouring of love."

An open book

Perry was candid about his struggles.

He opened up about his recovery from addiction and his dedication to helping others in his memoir, "Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir," which he released in November 2022.

"The best thing about me, bar none, is that if somebody comes to me and says, 'I can't stop drinking, can you help me?' I can say 'yes' and follow up and do it," he said while appearing on the "Q With Tom Power" podcast last year to discuss his book.

READ MORE: From Canada to Hollywood: Matthew Perry's life in pictures

Perry went on to say that he wanted to be remembered "as somebody who lived well, loved well, was a seeker" and that "his paramount thing is that he wants to help people."

"That's what I want," he said.

Perry was battling addiction at the height of his career on Friends and said during the interview that because of this, he wasn't able to watch the show.

Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow, Courteney Cox, David Schwimmer and Matt LeBlanc co-starred alongside Perry on Friends, which ran from 1994 to 2004.

The actors have yet to comment on Perry's death.

It could be said that the casting of Matthew Perry in the role that made him a superstar was divinely inspired.

Perry, who died last Saturday at the age of 54, wrote in his 2022 memoir that three weeks before his audition for the role of Chandler Bing on the wildly popular NBC comedy series Friends, he was in his tiny Los Angeles apartment reading in the newspaper about actor Charlie Sheen.

"It said that Sheen was yet again in trouble for something, but I remember thinking, Why does he care — he's famous," Perry wrote in Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing.

READ MORE: 'The world will miss you': Matthew Perry's Friends co-star's touching tribute

"Out of nowhere, I found myself getting to my knees, closing my eyes tightly, and praying. I had never done this before."

Perry said his prayer was simple. He simply asked: "God, you can do whatever you want to me. Just please make me famous."

"Three weeks later, I got cast in Friends. And God has certainly kept his side of the bargain — but the Almighty, being the Almighty, had not forgotten the first part of that prayer as well," he wrote.

Perry almost didn't get the chance to play Chandler on Friends.

It was 1994 and Perry said he was scrambling for work after his "terrible" manager told him he had "no money."

READ MORE: Matthew Perry's cause of death listed as 'deferred', meaning more investigation needed

"So I called my agent and said 'You've got to get me any job, any job you can,'" Perry recalled during a 2015 appearance on Late Night With Seth Meyers.

"This happened to be the year that Friends was shot, but I was off the market because I had taken a job on a pilot called LAX 2194 that was about baggage handlers at L.A. Airport in the year 2194."

Then a script for a show then called Friends Like Us came along, he said.

"It was hilarious and great," Perry said. "There was this part that was perfect for me and it was making me crazy that I couldn't go up for it because [of] the baggage handlers show. I was losing my mind."

Fortunately, the TV executives who saw LAX 2194 thought it was horrible, Perry said, and he was freed up to pursue the role of Chandler, which made him famous.

Perry often said the show changed his life and gave him a lifelong bond with co-stars Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer.

The actor got emotional talking about it in May 2021, when he and his costars reunited for HBO Max's Friends: The Reunion special. (HBO Max is owned by CNN's parent company.)

"The best way that I can describe it is after the show was over, at a party or any kind of social gathering, if one of us bumped into each other, that was it," he explained. "That was the end of the night. You just sat with the person all night long and that was it."

Cox teared up as Perry spoke.

"You apologised to the people you were with, but they had to understand you had met somebody special to you and you were going to talk to that person for the rest of the night," he added.

"And that's the way it worked."

A Sydney professor has developed groundbreaking technology in an effort to tackle traffic congestion on Australian roads.

Professor Vinayak Dixit, from UNSW's School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, is using data collected from navigation mobile apps to optimise the traffic lights system.

Current traffic light systems use sensors, or loop conductors built into the road, to determine when a traffic light should change.

READ MORE: Sony investigates claims of cyberattack, data leak on dark web

Cameras are also used to capture and analyse congestion at intersections or junctions.

But Dixit has developed technology that collects information from apps such as Google Maps and Waze to identify bottlenecks and delays in real-time.

"It's about being able to use that data to control and optimise our traffic lights so we can get people moving faster," Dixit told 9News.

Although loop detectors are effective at measuring real-time congestion, Dixit argues they are costly and can only detect traffic in the area in which they are placed.

He believes smart technology should be used to fill in the gaps.

His system has already been trialled at intersections in India and Indonesia, which are home to some of the world's busiest road networks.

"We've been able to find significant improvement in delays, anywhere from 18 to 40 per cent in different regions," Dixit said.

NRMA spokesman Peter Khoury has backed the technology.

"Data is going to play a huge part in how we manage traffic moving forward," he said.

"It's going to be so important as Sydney continues to grow that we use every tool available at our disposal."

‘Nothing can make you happier than unconditional love.’

Asher the Flaxmere parrot is a chip off the old block,

Melbourne's sobering up centre does not have a guaranteed opening date, despite changes to public drunkenness laws coming into effect next week.

The Victorian Government confirmed construction delays would prevent the facility in Collingwood from opening by November 7, which coincides with the annual Melbourne Cup public holiday.

The new health-based reforms will mean police can no longer arrest someone for being drunk in public.

READ MORE: Beloved puppy killed in targeted attack in Melbourne

The facility will have the capacity to treat more than 140 patients each week, and will be run by non-profit community health organisation Cohealth.

Deputy Premier Ben Carroll couldn't confirm an opening date for the facility today.

"We are working very hard. I don't want to give a firm yes but I know we are working very hard to have Collingwood open as soon as possible," he said.

Victoria Police Chief commissioner Shane Patton assured police were prepared for the changes, however that was quickly refuted by the Police Association.

Secretary Wayne Gatt told 3AW's Neil Mitchell that he was "genuinely worried that the government was not as prepared as it should be".

"We will have a gap between the health service providers and the encountering of intoxication on the street," he said.

"We might in a position where we are walking away from the scene or where police members leave."

READ MORE: Red P-plater charged after teen dies in horror crash in Sydney

The Victorian government's push to abolish the state's public drunkenness laws was prompted by the death of Indigenous woman Tanya Day.

The Yorta Yorta woman died in hospital in 2017 after falling and hitting her head in a police holding cell.

She had been arrested for public drunkenness when she was found asleep on a train travelling from Bendigo to Melbourne.

While the centre has no guaranteed opening date, its operator will instead work on the city's streets.

Up to 10 teams – each with a vehicle, nurse and alcohol and drug specialist will patrol greater Melbourne from Melbourne Cup Day.

All of Australia's living former prime ministers bar one have released a joint statement on the conflict in Gaza, condemning Hamas but warning Israel it risks doing the terror group's work by killing thousands of innocent Palestinian civilians.

The statement, signed by Scott Morrison, Malcolm Turnbull, Tony Abbott, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard and John Howard – but not Paul Keating – said most Australians support the Jewish community following the attack on Israel on October 7.

"We believe we speak for the vast majority of Australians, of all faiths and of none, when we say we stand in solidarity with Jewish Australians at this time," it states.

READ MORE: Foreign minister says 88 Australians stuck in Gaza

"Likewise, we stand too with the Australian Palestinian community whose families are dying and suffering in this terrible conflict.

"They too deserve our love and support.

"Our nation's success depends on us not allowing conflict overseas to turn Australians against each other."

The former prime ministers go on to condemn the "cruel and murderous attack" carried out by Hamas, but also cautioned Israel that an indiscriminate invasion of the Gaza Strip is what the militant group wanted to provoke, even as Israeli troops escalate their attacks on the enclave.

"The Hamas terrorists sought to horrify and intimidate the people of Israel, shaking that nation's faith in its technology, its military, its government," they said.

"But they also sought to provoke Israel into a reaction that would kill countless innocent civilians in Gaza.

"The Hamas terrorists have no more interest in the safety of Palestinians than they do of Israelis.

"They want Israel to invade and bomb Gaza. They want to be able to point to thousands of Palestinian casualties from Israeli military action.

"Their mission is to promote hatred – hatred of Israelis, hatred of Jews, hatred of Palestinians, hatred of Muslims.

"If our hearts are filled with hatred, then we will be doing the terrorists' work."

READ MORE: Why Israel showed searing images of the Hamas attack

The statement goes on to say "the legitimate objective of defeating Hamas must be accompanied by support and protection for the civilian population of Gaza", adding that Israel must avoid civilian casualties with "all of its humanity and skill".

So far, more than 8000 Palestinians are believed to have been killed in Israel's retaliatory attacks on Gaza for the October 7 assault, many of them women and children.

The prime ministers said they were "horrified" by the deaths of Palestinian civilians, and called for "sustained humanitarian access" to allow aid into Gaza.

READ MORE: Aussies 'hours away' from major deadline

They also reiterated their support for the two-state solution.

The only living former prime minister who did not put his name to the letter was Keating.

He said yesterday that reports he would sign a statement "drafted by the Zionist Federation of Australia, condemning the attack by Hamas on Israel" were false and without foundation.

The former Labor leader, who was prime minister from 1991-1996, said he had been approached about putting his name to the statement weeks ago, and that his position hadn't changed.

But Turnbull disputed Keating's assertion that the statement was written by the Zionist Federation, saying this evening it "was drafted exclusively by the former PMs and nobody else".

A person has been found dead at the Crown Towers hotel in Perth, while it's understood a man has also been rushed to hospital.

A number of police are at the luxury hotel in Burswood after the person was found dead.

9News understands a man in his 40s has been rushed to Royal Perth Hospital.

More to come.

The top of Baldwin St must have looked like the summit of Mt Everest for Emrie Stockwell.