Former federal MP Lucy Wicks said she is "beyond distressed" Sydney radio station 2GB outed her as the person who complained about a fellow Liberal Party politician who allegedly sent her "hundreds of demeaning, degrading and abusive texts" over a five-year period.

Wicks, 50, said her complaint about the alleged abuse from New South Wales Liberal MP Taylor Martin, 32, was "formal and confidential".

Nine, the publisher of this website, is also the publisher of 2GB.

"My complaint to the Liberal Party was in relation to serious concerns including behaviour in the workplace, in the party and in political interactions," Wicks said today in a statement.

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"It includes allegations that I was physically threatened and received hundreds of demeaning, degrading, and abusive texts.

"During that five-year period, I was continually exposed to highly aggressive barrages of verbal abuse, which included threats to destroy my reputation if I spoke up.

"I am beyond distressed that I have had to disclose even a small portion of these details.

"I sought to create a confidential process that would enable natural justice and provide me with safety as I navigate this process."

Wicks represented the New South Wales federal electorate of Robertson for the Liberals from 2013-2022.

The Liberal Party is conducting an independent investigation.

On Sunday, Martin apologised and "welcomed the process that the party has commenced," adding that he fully intended to cooperate.

"I was young and inexperienced and I found myself involved in a situation that was way beyond me," he said in a statement.

"There were heated words during my attempts to go separate ways that I sincerely regret.

"It was an ugly and undignified parting of ways."

Martin said he was "so sorry and apologise unreservedly" to all involved.

It is understood Martin was recently made aware of the allegations and the formal complaint.

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It's understood the allegations came when Martin was a staffer in federal parliament years ago, the ABC reported.

Martin has been a member of the NSW state government upper house since 2017.

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The Victorian government continues to justify throwing thousands of public housing tower residents into a sudden COVID-19 lockdown but has agreed to pay each adult $2200.

A class action was brought against the state in 2021, after about 1800 adults and 751 children were locked inside nine public housing towers in North Melbourne and Flemington from July 4 to July 18, 2020.

Residents in the towers, who were not given any notice or warning before being locked inside their homes for two weeks, claimed they were falsely imprisoned by the government and were threatened with physical harm if they tried to leave.

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Earlier this year, the state government offered to settle with the group for $5 million.

The money will be distributed among those in the class action, and the government's lawyers told the Supreme Court on Monday each adult will receive $2200 and each child $1130.

However, government barrister Georgina Costello KC said the settlement did not mean the state would admit to any fault.

"The towers lockdown was an emergency response that was lawful, necessary and proportionate… for the purpose of protecting the lives of tower residents," she told the court.

She argued the government's detention of those inside the towers complied with the relevant legislation.

"The deprivation of liberty was reasonable and demonstrably justifiable," Ms Costello said.

She said residents were supported during the lockdown as they were offered welfare, food and medical services, and the rest of the state was also locked down between eight and 32 hours later.

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"It's a realistic settlement in light of the confinement in their homes, the welfare support they received and the fact that there were significant restrictions on liberty in Victoria at that time," she said.

Lead plaintiff Idris Hassan said the lockdown had an "indelible psychological impact" on him and compared it to living in Somalia during the civil war.

"During the experience of the lockdown he saw himself as a child in the ravages of a war zone," his barrister Juliet Lucy said.

Hassan's mother Hawa Warsame, who is also a lead plaintiff, said she hoped settling the case would alleviate some of the trauma she has experienced and allow her to move forward.

Both lead plaintiffs are asking for the court to award them a higher amount than the rest of the group, $40,000 each.

This is due to sacrificing valuable time and for expenses, stress and anxiety from taking a central role in the action, Lucy said.

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The mother and son have also been ostracised from the Somalian community because they became lead plaintiffs, she said.

Costello asked Justice John Dixon to award the plaintiffs between $10,000 and $20,000 to ensure the money is fairly distributed.

The class action also wants the government to foot their legal bill, which Dr Lucy said was now more than $650,000.

Justice Dixon will decide on the money distribution and has given both parties 14 days to negotiate on legal costs.

A 2020 review by Ombudsman Deborah Glass found an apology was warranted because the lockdown breached residents' human rights due to the lack of notice given and because the timing of the lockdown did not follow health advice.

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Two brothers watched helplessly as a scooter driver suffered fatal injuries.

Two ferry passages, from downtown to Devonport and a return, are cancelled tonight.

Demetrius Pairama, 17, was tortured and forced to hang herself five years ago.

High Court decision tells Veterans’ Affairs to aim for justice and don’t sweat the detail.

US tech giant Microsoft has axed more Australian jobs after the company made major staffing cuts across the globe earlier in the year.

About 50 Australian employees are believed to have lost their jobs this month, Nine newspaper the Australian Financial Review reports.

Microsoft confirmed "recent redundancies" to 9news.com.au but did not detail the number of job losses.

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"Organisational and workforce adjustments are a necessary and regular part of managing our business," the spokesperson said.

"We will continue to prioritise and invest in strategic growth areas for our future and in support of our customers and partners."

The Australian redundancies come as it is reported by US media that Microsoft has cut 1000 jobs in the US since the start of this financial year.

It's believed the job losses have come on top of 10,000 Microsoft employees around the world being laid off earlier in the year.

The company said in a US regulatory filing in January those layoffs were a response to "macroeconomic conditions and changing customer priorities".

The layoffs represented "less than five per cent of our total employee base, with some notifications happening today", CEO Satya Nadella said in an email to employees in January.

Microsoft's workforce expanded by about 36 per cent in the two years following the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, growing from 163,000 workers at the end of June 2020, to 221,000 in June 2022.

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A Chinese surveillance ship has been confirmed to be sailing off the east coast of Australia as the Talisman Sabre war games are underway.

The photo confirmed by the Australian Defence Force shows a RAAF P-8A Poseidon Maritime Patrol aircraft passing a Chinese Navy Dongdiao Class Auxiliary Intelligence ship in the Coral Sea off the coast of Queensland.

The ADF is expected to release a more detailed statement on the surveillance ship later today.

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It comes as the Talisman Sabre war games are underway with 13 nations participating in "high end, multi-domain warfighting" across sea, land, air, cyber and space.

The military exercise is to improve relationships between military forces through various operations.

More than 30,000 military personnel are involved in the war games.

Defence Minister Richard Marles said on Saturday in regards to reports of the foreign surveillance vessel that "there is always" a Chinese ship watching the war games.

"That's fine. They're acting in accordance with international law, and so this is to be completely expected," he said.

"For us, it's really about our capability and our capacity, and it is very much about our ability to work with other countries, our friends and our allies, and particularly the United States."

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Two Canberra men will face court in Brisbane accused of importing 247kg of cocaine hidden in the hull of a yacht.

The yacht was seized by Border Force and federal police officers when it arrived in Townsville from Vanuatu in April and was later revealed to contain the drugs with a street value of more than $61 million.

It's alleged the men, aged 55 and 44, travelled to Townsville from Canberra in May intending to recover the drugs from the boat.

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The men, both from Griffith in the ACT, were arrested at their apartment on Thursday.

Police say one of the men threw a backpack containing $290,000 cash in a vacuum sealed bag from the apartment balcony when the AFP knocked on the door and announced they had a search warrant.

Both men were due to appear in Brisbane Magistrates Court today charged with importing a commercial quantity of drug and dealing in the proceeds of crime.

They face a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

AFP Detective Superintendent Adrian Telfer said the cocaine trade fuelled violence on Australian streets and increased the power of organised crime.

"Every time someone buys cocaine they are lining the pockets of organised crime gangs who are responsible for violence here in Australia and around the world," he said.

"This amount of cocaine has an estimated street value of $61,750,000.

"That's money which criminal groups would use to buy weapons, corrupt officials and governments overseas and turn the Pacific into an illicit drug superhighway."

"The AFP and our partners, through the Queensland Joint Organised Crime Task Force (QJOCTF) work to stop drugs, like cocaine, hitting our shores because illicit drugs contribute to the road toll, child neglect and domestic violence."

He said the investigation is ongoing and police have not ruled out making further arrests.

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Sharks have scared us a lot this year, primarily for suspected attacks on humans – however, humans are a larger threat to sharks than sharks are to us.

The 35th official Shark Week takes place from July 23 to July 29 on the Discovery Channel and aims to increase conversation and education about these ancient marine predators that are key to the health of the ocean.

There are more than 500 species of shark.

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They are as diverse as the dwarf lantern shark, which is smaller than a human hand, and the whale shark, which can grow as long as a school bus, marine biologist Michael Heithaus, professor and dean of the College of Arts, Sciences & Education at Florida International University in Miami

Given that there are a large number of unique species, some characteristics may be true for one species, but not another.

Sharks have been around for hundreds of millions of years, and while they continue to evolve, they are also in grave danger.

Largely due to overfishing, shark and ray populations fell by 71.1 per cent between 1970 and 2018, according to a 2021 study published in the journal Nature.

Sharks can live for hundreds of years

Sharks have one of the longest life spans compared with other animals.

The Greenland shark is the longest-living known vertebrate on Earth, according to a 2016 study published in the journal Science.

Researchers using radiocarbon dating determined that the North Atlantic species likely lives an average of at least 272 years, and often doesn't reach maturity until 150 years of age.

Greenland sharks can live for at least 400 years, scientists have estimated.

Sharks are older than trees and dinosaurs

The earliest evidence of shark fossils dates back as far as 450 million years, which means these creatures have been around at least 90 million years before trees and 190 million years before dinosaurs.

Sharks have been around since before Pangea broke apart, said Catherine Macdonald, director of Field School and lecturer at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric and Earth Science. (There was one single gigantic continent called Pangea some 250 million years ago.)

Additionally, sharks have survived five mass extinctions, one of which wiped out around 96 per cent of all marine life.

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Sharks may be helpful for our environment

Tiger sharks, one of Australia's primary predators, may help ecosystems respond to extreme climate events.

The species' prey, including green turtles, seabirds and stingrays, avoid shallow water, often areas with seagrass.

As a result, the seagrass is able to grow to be bushlike and create a safe-haven nursery area for juvenile fish, shrimp and crabs, Heithaus said.

Seagrass absorbs the carbon that is in the atmosphere and uses it to build its body.

When the seagrass dies, the dead material gets buried in sediment on the ocean floor, and the carbon is taken out of circulation, Heithaus added.

Researchers are currently trying to determine whether other shark species play a role in this phenomenon and whether it occurs in other places such as coral reefs.

"It seems like it's more than just tiger sharks," Heithaus said.

"It's probably these bigger species that play an outsized role in helping shape the ecosystems they're a part of."

Shark pregnancies can last longer than three years

Reproduction patterns in sharks vary.

On average, sharks give birth after 11 or 12 months of pregnancy, but some sharks, such as the frilled shark and basking shark can be pregnant for over three years.

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Some sharks, like mako sharks and bull sharks, give live birth, while other sharks, like cat sharks, lay eggs, said Jasmin Graham, president and CEO of Minorities in Shark Sciences, based in Bradenton, Florida.

Long pregnancy terms, and the fact that some sharks take 10 to 12 years to reach sexual maturity, like the great white, further impact populations decimated by unsustainable fishing practices.

Sharks do not vocalise

Sharks are primarily silent creatures, as they don't have organs for producing sound.

Instead of speaking, sharks communicate through body language, such as zigzagging, shaking and moving their jaws.

Sharks can sense electricity

Sharks have a sixth sense — they can pick up nanoscopic electromagnetic currents. This extra sense can help them navigate the ocean and find prey, or even a mate.

"The minute electrical impulse that a prey's brain sends to its heart to tell it to beat is detectable to sharks, so they can find hidden prey quite effectively," Macdonald said.

With this finely attuned sense, sharks hunt sick and weak animals, playing a crucial role in keeping the marine ecosystem healthy.

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