A jealous, angry boyfriend who killed his new girlfriend and tried to cover up the murder by dumping her body in a wheelie bin has been jailed for at least 23 years.

Joon Seong Tan, 38, learned his fate at the Supreme Court in Melbourne on Friday, after he was found guilty by a jury of the murder of Ju 'Kelly' Zhang at her Epping home in February 2021.

He felt "rejected, jealous and very angry", believing his girlfriend of one month was cheating on him, when he stabbed the 33-year-old woman six times and then tried to cover it up, Justice Amanda Fox said.

READ MORE: Three people killed in major highway crash in Queensland

"After killing Ms Zhang, you engaged in a deliberate and determined course of conduct calculated to hide your crime," she said.

Tan cleaned up the crime scene, washing her bed sheets and moved her body to a laundry cupboard.

Zhang's son, aged eight at the time, was in another room when she was killed.

When he asked where his mother was, Tan told him she was sleeping and then that she had gone out and not returned.

Tan called his housemate, who came over, and told him he had "lost his mind" and killed Zhang because she was bringing other men home.

He said her body was in the cupboard but was getting "stinky" and asked the housemate to look for a rubbish bin.

READ MORE: NZ politician slams justice system after Auckland shooting

The housemate left and did not return.

After driving around Heidelberg, Tan noticed it was bin night.

He went back to the Epping home, wrapped Zhang's body in a blanket and placed her inside a wheelie bin.

Tan drove the bin to Heidelberg West and left it for collection, returning the next morning to make sure the bin had been emptied.

He returned the bin to Epping, dried Zhang's sheets and made her bed.

Tan told Zhang's friends and family she had received a call and left her house in a pink dressing gown with her phone.

Her body was not found in landfill for another four-and-a-half months.

After being interviewed by police about her disappearance, he searched online for "how many years for killing a person in Australia".

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Tan denied he had killed her for years, only admitting the crime during a pre-sentence hearing last month.

"It seems you were moved by hearing about how much pain and suffering you caused," Justice Fox said.

But she found his late confession was not evidence of his remorse

Justice Fox jailed Tan for up to 28 years and he must serve at least 23 years before he will be eligible for parole.

He has already spent two years and four months in prison.

Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).

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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are warned the following article mentions the name and displays images of a dead Indigenous person.

The reward for information over the 1988 death of a New South Wales teenager has been increased to $1 million as police press to solve the case.

The body of Gomeroi teenager Mark Anthony Haines, 17, was found on train tracks along Warral Road near Tamworth after a night out with friends, on January 16, 1988.

Following a police investigation at the time, a coronial inquest returned an open finding.

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In 2018, the 30th anniversary of Mark's death, a $500,000 reward was announced for information.

A review of investigative records finished in 2022, with the information sent to the state coroner for investigation.

A coronial inquest was announced this year to begin in 2024.

READ MORE: NZ politician slams justice system after Auckland shooting

Today, the standing reward was officially doubled.

"We believe there are people in the community who have vital information about Mark's disappearance and know exactly what happened to him on that day," Detective Acting Superintendent Jason Darcy said.

"Any information – not matter how small you may think it is, could be the missing piece to the puzzle."

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Mark's Uncle Don Craigie said he hopes the reward increase will encourage people to come forward to help uncover the truth.

"We urge people to put yourselves in our shoes – we just want to know what has happened to our much-loved Mark," Craigie said.

"It's been too long without knowing – if anyone has any information, now is the time to come forward."

READ MORE: Disaster as cockatoos invade hotel room on Hamilton Island

He said Mark had been "a lovely young man" with many friends.

"I have been on this journey to find the truth about what happened to Mark for 35 years and I can feel we are getting very close," Craigie said.

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The only living survivor of HMAS Canberra that sank off the Solomon Islands in 1942 has told of the "luck" he encountered, as the US prepares to honour the sailors who didn't make it.

Des Jones, 100, was 19 when HMAS Canberra sank, killing 84 sailors, in a fierce allied sea battle during World War II.

Jones said he was always scared of sharks so he swam quickly to safety when the ship was sinking.

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"We were certainly grateful those Yanks were around … they did everything possible for our comfort."

For years there has been speculation the Canberra was hit not by the Japanese but from friendly fire from an American destroyer, the USS Bagley.

"We were definitely torpedoed by the USS Bagley destroyer … it was on our starboard side," he said.

READ MORE: Auckland construction site gunman was under house arrest

It was the Americans who saved 600 crew members.

The US is preparing to honour the Australian sailors by naming one of its own ships the USS Canberra.

Jones will be in attendance at a ceremony at Sydney's Garden Island in August.

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Sydneysider Alex Wang had been working in IT support for the same small company for eight years when he suddenly found himself out of a job.

"My boss was getting old and he just decided to retire and close the business," Wang said.

This event proved to be the very nudge Wang needed to make a big move he had been mulling for years.

READ MORE: Teen who lost leg in shark attack reveals how she got free

Despite holding a masters degree in IT from Sydney University, Wang said he felt his career had stalled and he needed a change.

So early last year, at the age of 44, Wang started an electrical apprenticeship.

Wang is part of a new wave of older Australians who have been busy reskilling and changing careers during the pandemic.

In 2020, mature-age apprentices made up 13.9 percent of all apprentices nationally, according to data from the National Centre for Vocational Education.

But, by 2022, mature-age apprentices – aged over 24 – accounted for more than a third of all apprentices.

Wang said taking on an apprenticeship with Brooks Australia, a company specialising in fire alarms, meant he could still use some of the skills he had developed during his IT career.

"It's a different industry but some of the skills are the same," he said.

"My technical background means that I have some experience already in assembling products, troubleshooting and product testing," he said.

Wang said while he was initially anxious about going back to school at TAFE as part of his four-year apprenticeship, it soon turned into one of the highlights of his week. 

"I'm 45 years old and I have a lot of classmates who are around 20 years old," he said.

"I was worried that they would be learning faster than me. But it's a good thing actually. It makes me feel younger and it's a lot of fun."

Wang, who has a wife and 9-year-old son, said part of the appeal of apprenticeship for him was being able to earn a wage while studying.  

"Without that pay I couldn't afford it because I have my family that I need to support," he said.

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Apprenticeship Support Australia Executive Director Peter Gilchrist said wages for school age apprentices were around $500 per week, while mature-age apprentices in construction could earn as much as $960 per week. 

"One of the benefits of the apprenticeship is you are actually earning something while you are undertaking formal qualifications and on-the-job training," Gilchrist said.

"So it can be seen as offering a softer landing on a new career rather than studying full time."

Industries that had seen the biggest increases in mature-age apprentices during the pandemic were construction, health and aged care, he said.

Government employer subsidies for apprentice wages put in place for during the pandemic had boosted apprentice numbers overall during the last two years, while lockdowns in some industries had likely encouraged more mid-life career changes Gilchrist said.

"I think mature-age people were making a transition to industries that were less affected or not impacted by COVID," he said.

Employers struggling to find the right staff often found advantages to hiring mature-age apprentices, Gilchrist said.

"Some of the feedback from employers that we've received is that mature apprentices come with a good amount of work experience," he said. 

"They might not have come from the same industry, but they have those basic work experiences."

Increases in apprentice numbers appeared to be tapering off in 2023, as COVID-era government subsidies came to an end, Gilchrist said.

Terms like the "great resignation" or "great reshuffle" were coined during the pandemic to describe a surge in the number of people looking for a career change or a new job.

Data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on June 30 shows the national job mobility rate remained the highest in a decade in February, for a second year in a row, at 9.5 percent.

Career expert Cayla Dengate, from LinkedIn, said there still appeared to be a keen appetite for change among workers despite the effects of the pandemic dissipating.

"We're a few years down the track now but there's still this really strong sense for job seekers that they want to find a job that aligns with their values .. and fits with the flexibility they want in life," she said.

"As the cost of living crunch continues one of the important considerations is also job remuneration."

Increased economic uncertainty appeared to be motivating people to look for more secure employment opportunities, Dengate said, with LinkedIn recording a 28 per cent increase in jobseekers.

However, at the same time, hiring had slowed down by 23 per cent year-on-year and there were now four active applicants for every job opening, she said.

"We've passed that time when there was a real talent shortage and people were desperate to secure the right talent," Dengate said.

"Right now, a job search, or pivot to another industry does require a little bit of planning to make sure you're set up for success."

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Video has emerged purporting to show a suspected lioness spotted on the outskirts of Berlin, Germany.

Police were alerted to the animal in Kleinmachnow, just outside Berlin's city limits, about midnight on Thursday (Thursday morning AEST) by people reporting that they had seen what appeared to be a big cat chasing a wild boar.

The informants also provided a video. Based on that and a subsequent sighting of their own, the police concluded that the animal was apparently a lioness.

READ MORE: 'It was like a tornado': Disaster as cockatoos invade hotel room on Hamilton Island

Helicopters and 30 police cars participated in the search, which was still ongoing Thursday afternoon.

A vet and two hunters also were involved, and a search with two drones and infrared cameras was under way in an area where the animal was seen.

People in Kleinmachnow, a town of about 20,000 in a flat, wooded area on the boundary between Berlin and the surrounding state of Brandenburg, were advised to stay indoors if possible.

Failing that, they were urged to refrain from walks and jogs in the woods, and to take dogs at most for short walks on a leash.

Local authorities left child daycare centres open, though they were asked not to let children outside, and scaled back the town's weekly market.

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The warning was extended to neighbouring southern areas of Berlin and an alert was sent on an official warning app that the animal was suspected to be a lioness.

On Thursday afternoon, police in the capital tweeted that there had been a "possible sighting" of the animal just inside the city limits.

https://twitter.com/PolizeiBB/status/1681835244981239808

"The primary aim, if at all possible, is to capture the animal, if necessary with an anesthetic," Kleinmachnow Mayor Michael Grubert said.

"Other measures will only be taken on a case-by-case basis by police officers on the ground if their own lives or those of others are endangered."

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Police said they had sought information about where the animal came from during the night, but none of the zoos, animals shelters, circuses or other facilities they checked was missing a lioness.

Grubert said there was no information on one being privately owned in the area, and added that he didn't know whether owning such an animal privately is even permitted.

He said authorities consider it unlikely that the animal has gone very far from where it was first sighted.

READ MORE: Two women fined $2300 each for interacting with dingoes on K'gari

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A former New Zealand deputy prime minister has hit out at Auckland's justice system after yesterday's fatal shooting, saying crime in the city has been "disastrously" escalating.

It's been revealed the 24-year-old gunman who shot and killed two people and injured 10 others, including two police officers, was serving a home detention sentence after he violently attacked and strangled a woman in 2021.

Speaking on Today, politician Winston Peters has questioned how the shooter got his hands on a shotgun while he was serving a sentence for violent offences.

READ MORE: Two wanted on break-and-enter offences charged after police chase

Peters said crime had significantly increased in recent years, attributing the rise to the justice system.

"Crime has seriously escalated in the last two and a half years because of a policy of catching and letting people go," he said.

"It's more like a fishing policy – catch and release.

"The consequences have been disastrous and there have been ram raids in their hundreds and hundreds. People here have simply had enough and they are sick of excuses."

Matu Tangi Matua Reid was wearing an ankle monitor when he carried out the shooting at a construction site on lower Queen Street in Auckland yesterday.

Police Commissioner Andrew Coster confirmed has confirmed Reid was allowed to be at work at the site as a condition of his bail.

READ MORE: Man arrested after pair wake to their house on fire in Melbourne's north overnight

Department of Corrections acting national commissioner Sean Mason said Reid was subject to 10 standard conditions and five special conditions during his home detention period.

These include residing at a specific address, not consuming alcohol and non-prescription drugs and completing a non-violence program to the satisfaction of a probation officer.

Four investigations into yesterday's shooting have been launched in Auckland, with two centred around the police response and a third around the offender himself.

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Two tourists have learnt the hard way the simple mistake of leaving your balcony door open can have major consequences on Queensland's Hamilton Island.

Ellie-May Hadrian and her friend Aimen walked back into their hotel room to find the disastrous results of a cockatoo invasion.

Packets of food scattered on the floor, bird poo on the bed, the surfaces, their clothes.

"It was like a tornado had come through our room," Hadrian told 9News.

It wasn't a storm but a simple mistake, forgetting to close the balcony door despite warnings from staff not to do so.

"Our beds and everything we own is f—ed," Hadrian says in a TikTok video that's been watched more than 2 million times and attracted thousands of comments.

"[We] opened the door, saw five or six cockatoos on the floor right outside the minibar," she told 9News.

" … we were like, 'Get out, get out, go away!'"

The avian party was over, leaving behind a massive cleanup and $25 minibar bill.

Hamilton Island staff are no stranger to the hungry birds wreaking havoc.

"They said it happens every single day," Hadrian said.

Visitors are warned to keep their doors closed but even outside the birds are opportunistic.

"They just get their little beaks, open the packaging and have a party," Hadrian said.

She's hoping her warning will not only save staff but other guests from the same fate.

"As long as people learn from our mistake, as long as something good comes from it I'm happy," she said.

Hadrian was gushing in her praise for the hotel's staff, saying she and her friend cleaned what they could before cleaners came through and took care of everything.

"I actually appreciate the staff so much because it's out fault, we left the doors open," she said, in a follow-up video.

"We're stupid enough to do that."

The time it takes for the average Australian to save for a home loan has blown out to almost a decade, grim new data has revealed.

With the escalating price of virtually everything causing people pain at the hip pocket, the announcement comes as no surprise to experts, who say Aussies are being forced to cut costs elsewhere in order to save.

The research, conducted by financial firm Canstar, suggests that it'll take singles a total of eight years and eight months to save to buy a home in the country, with couples on a dual income looking at about four years and two months.

READ MORE: Smaller tax returns come as a 'slap in the face' to struggling Aussies

In some positive news however, the data also revealed that Aussie first home buyers are saving slightly more per month in 2023 than they were last year.

The study claims that people are saving an average of $1,605 per month, up $188 in 2022.

"First home buyers being able to save more in a cost of living crisis shows how determined Aussies are to get off the renting treadmill," Canstar's Editor-at-Large and financial commentator Effie Zahos said.

"Property prices are continuing to rise but rents are also rising to historic highs.

"Renters are no doubt feeling the pressure to get a foot on the property ladder."

Zahos said that nine in every 10 potential first home buyers are prepared to make comprises to buy sooner.

"Radically reducing their spending was top of the list for what they would comprise on followed by purchasing an older property and buying an apartment over a house rounded out the top three," she said.

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"While 62 per cent of potential first-time buyers are regularly saving, worryingly, one-quarter don't know how much they are regularly saving and 13 percent aren't in a position to save."

The study also found that 29 per cent of potential first home buyers say they are receiving some form of contribution from their parents or family – is up from 21 per cent last year.

But Zahos warned accepting help from mum and dad could come with serious risks.

"The Bank of Mum and Dad comes with warnings," she said.

"After 12 rate hikes those parents that jumped in and helped their children financially one or two years ago may find that they are now being called on to bail the kids out as they struggle with much higher repayments and are trapped in mortgage prison with little equity in their loan to refinance to a lower rate offer.

"Parents deciding to go guarantor on a loan to help their child buy sooner should consider limiting the amount of their guarantee, check that their child has some form of income protection insurance, work out an exit strategy to release the guarantee and get independent advice so both parties know their roles and responsibilities."

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Survivors describe the morning of horror in Auckland’s CBD.

Two people wanted by police for suspected break-and-enter offences have been arrested after an hour-long chase across Sydney's west.

The wild chase began in Prestons about 9.30am when police were investigating property crimes and came across a suspect car, an allegedly stolen white Hyundai Sonata.

Officers followed the car and tried to stop them but the occupants drove off, sparking the chase.

READ MORE: Three dead in New Zealand shooting

Whyte said the car collided with the rear of a truck on the M5 motorway during the pursuit.

Footage shows the heavy damage sustained by the car following this collision as it continued to evade police.

The Sonata weaved in and around streets in Liverpool and Milperra while police pursued.

However, the pursuit broke off shortly after due to safety concerns, while PolAir monitored the Sonata from the sky.

Footage from the air showed the Sonata heading through multiple suburbs into North Parramatta – ultimately crossing from the city's south-west to the north-west in about 45 minutes.

The Sonata was seen driving at high speed, through red traffic lights, and on the wrong side of the road.

It narrowly missed colliding with other cars on several occasions.

"It was clear the driver and passenger had no concern whatsoever for other motorists. The manner of driving was appalling," Superintendent Adam Whyte said.

"It was lucky no one was injured.

"The driving was very very reckless."

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The car ultimately hit a traffic light and came to a stop on North Rocks Road at North Rocks, just after 11am.

It was blocked in by an unmarked police car and multiple officers swarmed the Hyundai.

Kasey Glover, 39, and Ashlee Ralston, 37, were arrested at the scene.

While police searched the car they found a number of items related to the property offences officers had been investigating.

Officers also found two unregistered firearms which Whyte confirmed to be a sawn-off rifle and a gel blaster rifle.

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Whyte said Ralston was being investigated by police for break-and-enter, stealing and fraud offences in the Fairfield and Liverpool area.

Glover had two warrants against him related to property offences and aggravated robbery.

Inquiries are continuing.

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