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."

Queensland Police have busted a major drug ring operating a cannabis farm in the Fraser Coast hinterland. 

Police raided the farm in the tiny town of Gungaloon, which has a population of 33 people and is surrounded by state forest, last week, seizing $60 million worth of drugs.

Detectives found more than 11,000 cannabis plants at the grow farm and 515 kilograms of dried cannabis bud.

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Police arrested 10 people at the farm, as well as another man who attempted to flee but was tracked down nearby by the police dog squad. 

Seven more people were arrested in subsequent raids across Brisbane, Moreton, Sunshine Coast and Logan.

Detective Inspector Brad Phelps from the Drug and Serious Crime group said the drug bust had disrupted a major criminal syndicate.

"It will be alleged that the Gungaloon farm has been operational for approximately 18 months and was producing several hundred kilograms of cannabis per week," he said.

"We've seized a significant quantity of drugs, plants, cash, assets and equipment as a result of these raids.

"The reality is that these dangerous drugs were destined for sale to some of the most vulnerable people within our state and beyond. 

"Now they're out of the market, and those allegedly responsible will be brought to justice."

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Around $521,000 in cash, 90 kilograms of cannabis, 245 grams of cocaine, 350 grams of ice, and 126 grams of MDMA were also seized by detectives in raids connected to the operation.

Among those arrested was a 22-year-old Boronia Heights man, who has been charged with a raft of drug offences including trafficking, supply and possession.

He has been remanded in custody and is expected to reappear at Richlands Magistrates Court in February.

A 43-year-old Inala man has also been charged with various drug offences including drug trafficking, production and supply.

He has been remanded in custody and is expected to reappear at Richlands Magistrates Court on November 10.

For the sixth time, the national carrier has paired with Indigenous designers and artists to create an airborne artwork.

The Israeli military's focus on hospitals in Gaza is growing more intense as its campaign to eliminate Hamas from the enclave enters a sixth week.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) invited news media to visit a medical centre for children yesterday, where a spokesperson alleged parts of the basement had been a Hamas "command and control centre" and may have been used to hold hostages.

Reporters embedded with the IDF were shown guns and explosives in one room located beneath Al-Rantisi children's hospital, which IDF spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari termed an "armoury."

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He also pointed to a chair with a rope next to it and a piece of women's clothing, which he said would be tested for DNA, and a makeshift toilet.

Israel has repeatedly claimed that Hamas locates its operational bases in tunnels under hospitals and other civilian infrastructure.

The access provided by the IDF provided was an effort to back up those assertions, which are denied by Hamas, as well as health officials and hospitals in Gaza.

Concerns are mounting that hospitals are now being targeted for military action.

Searing images and accounts from civilians inside continue to emerge and as doctors warn they cannot evacuate their most vulnerable patients.

Mohammed Zarqout, who has responsibility for all of Gaza's hospitals, said the basement at Al Rantisi had been used as a shelter for women and children – not to store Hamas weaponry and hold hostages.

It was also the location of the pharmacy and some of the hospital's administrative offices before rainwater made it "impossible" to use, he said.

Zarqout also said medical staff had been forced to leave the hospital by Israeli soldiers, and had been unable to take all the patients with them when they left.

The IDF is also working to determine if there is a connection between an apparent nearby tunnel entrance and the rooms under the hospital.

Reporters were shown a shaft, about 200 metres away from Al-Rantisi, which Hagari claimed was located next to a Hamas commander's house and also a school.

Wires leading into the shaft provided power to the tunnel from solar panels fixed onto the roof of the Hamas commander's house, he also said.

"We [put] a robot inside the tunnel and the robot saw a massive door, a door that is in the direction of the hospital," Hagari said.

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Zarquot said "the tunnel they claim to be a Hamas tunnel is actually an electrical wire assembly point. We raised the wires to prevent any electrical shocks caused by floods."

Reporters witnessed huge amounts of destruction on their way through Gaza with the Israeli military as they were taken to Al-Rantisi hospital.

Countless houses, tall apartment blocks, hotels and villas had been destroyed. Bullet and shell holes were visible everywhere and firefights were ongoing.

Days of intensive fighting near hospitals in the enclave in recent days have lead to what medical personnel still working there describe as siege-like conditions.

While hospitals are protected in times of war under international humanitarian law, that protection may be compromised if they are believed to be sites of military activity.

The World Health Organisation has recorded at least 137 attacks on health facilities in Gaza, which it said resulted in 521 deaths and 686 injuries.

One of Australia's top doctors has rejected calls for the return of a mask mandate as COVID-19 hospitalisations rise across the country.

Dr Nick Coatsworth told Today it was important to remember that vaccination and booster shots remained a strong defence against COVID-19.

It follows media reports that Queensland doctors were calling for the return of the mandate at public gatherings and in hospitals, GP surgeries.

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"The Australian Medical Association has quoted 245 hospitalisations of COVID-19 with this (current) wave in Queensland, but there are over a million admissions to Queensland hospitals every year," he said.

"The suggestion that this is a wave is probably incorrect.

"We don't need to go back to masks."

Dr Coatsworth said although there was a slight rise in hospitalisations, the number of intensive care admissions had dropped.

"Let's reassure the public that vaccination works," he said.

"COVID-19 is now a milder disease because of what we call herd immunity, we have all been exposed to it.

"There are other ways to manage the hospital pressures. In Canberra, we use virtual care clinics and hospital in the homes and frankly I was on shift yesterday and we had not a single patient with COVID-19 in our acute medical unit."

Individual health services are able to create their own guidelines to whether staff or visitors should be wearing a mask.

Matt LeBlanc has paid tribute to his friend Matthew Perry.

The Friends star posted on Instagram a series of photos of himself and Perry in character, as well as a photo of the cast in a group hug, in honour of the actor who died last month at the age of 54.

"Matthew it is with a heavy heart I say goodbye," LeBlanc wrote in the caption on the post, set to the song "Rainbow Connection."

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"The times we had together are honestly among the favorite times of my life.

"It was an honor to share the stage with you and to call you my friend.

"I will always smile when I think of you and I'll never forget you. Never."

The pair became close in their ten seasons on Friends, with LeBlanc portraying good-natured Joey Tribbiani and Perry as the sarcastic and affable Chandler Bing on the hit NBC series.

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True to the comedy that brought the men together and made them both superstars, LeBlanc ended his words with humour.

"Spread your wings and fly brother you're finally free. Much love," LeBlanc wrote.

"And I guess you're keeping the 20 bucks you owe me."

The cast was known to be incredibly close not just on the show, but also off.

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In a joint statement released after Perry's death, LeBlanc, Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow and David Schwimmer wrote, "We are all so utterly devastated by the loss of Matthew. We were more than just cast mates. We are a family."

"There is so much to say, but right now we're going to take a moment to grieve and process this unfathomable loss," the statement went on to read.

"In time we will say more, as and when we are able. For now, our thoughts and our love are with Matty's family, his friends, and everyone who loved him around the world."

A former lawyer for Donald Trump claimed the US ex-president planned to stay in the White House after losing the 2020 election, in a video obtained by US ABC News.

The video showed Jenna Ellis, a former attorney aligned with the Trump campaign, speaking with investigators in the Georgia election subversion case.

She related a conversation she had with Trump's former White House deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino, after Joe Biden won the 2020 election.

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"He said to me, in a kind of excited tone, 'Well, we don't care and we're not going to leave,'" Ellis said.

"He said, 'well, the boss', meaning President Trump, and everybody understood 'the boss' – that's what we all called him – he said, 'the boss is not going to leave under any circumstances, we are just going to stay in power'.

"And I said, 'well, it doesn't quite work that way, you realise,' and he said, 'we don't care'."

Other videos from former pro-Trump attorneys Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro as well as Atlanta-based bail bondsman Scott Hall, were also released.

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Information was revealed to prosecutors by Powell, Chesebro and Hall, according to the Washington Post, which reported Chesebro said in his statement that he briefed Trump at a White House meeting "on election challenges in Arizona and summarised a memo in which he offered advice on assembling alternate slates of electors in key battlegrounds to cast ballots for Trump despite Biden's victories in those states."

Powell, who was known for pushing some of the more fringe legal theories after the election, told prosecutors in her videotaped statement that if Trump named her special counsel to look into election irregularities, as she wanted him to do, "she would have sought to seize election equipment and would have used the military to do so if necessary."

Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis has renewed a motion for a protective order of discovery materials and said that the "release of these confidential video recordings is clearly intended to intimidate witnesses in this case" by subjecting them to "harassment and threats prior to trial."

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Included in the motion by prosecutors was an apparent admission via email from one of Trump's co-defendants.

"It was Harrison Floyd's team," Todd Harding, Floyd's attorney, said in an email thread with the DA's office, apparently acknowledging they leaked the videos. The email chain includes current and former defense attorneys on the case.

In a subsequent email, Harding called the prior email admission "a typo."

The Fulton County district attorney's office did not immediately respond to CNN's request for comment about the emergency protective order or leaked videos.

Cybercrimes have surged in Australia, with online attacks averaging out to one every six minutes.

The latest annual threat report from the Australian Signals Directorate has outlined some alarming facts about the new wave of cyber attacks against individuals and businesses.

About 94,000 cybercrimes were reported to law enforcement agencies in the past year, up 23 per cent since the year before.

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The ASD reported that calls to its hotline have increased by 32 per cent.

And the cost of such crimes to Australian businesses has climbed by 14 per cent.

The most common cybercrimes targeting individuals include identity fraud, online banking fraud, and online shopping fraud.

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For businesses, one of the most common attacks is compromised emails, which involves tricking people into sending money or giving away company information.

More than 2000 victims suffered a loss of nearly $40,000 as a result of these scams.

The ASD pointed to China as the major culprit behind the surge of cybercrimes, saying foreign actors don't just want to target governments for state secrets, but also to gain access to sensitive business information.

Hackers linked to Russia have also been identified as targeting Australia.