More than 300 full-time jobs will be cut from Victoria's Department of Health.

Department secretary, Professor Euan Wallace, said 305 "full-time-equivalent" workers would be losing their jobs to save the state $50 million a year in a leaked video of a presentation he made last week.

"None of this is easy – I know that," Wallace said, while encouraging staff to look after "ourselves and each other".

READ MORE: Small businesses suffer as price of chocolate soars

It costs taxpayers $800 million every year to run the Health Department as part of Victoria's $27 billion health sector which, going forward, could also be streamlined.

"Given that ratio, the bulk of our efficiencies and savings have to come from the sector," Wallace said.

"Essentially, we are going to explore and ask questions about everything we fund."

The Community and Public Sector Union's Victorian secretary Karen Batt said it wasn't good enough.

"When I heard of the video I didn't believe what was in it," she said.

"We have had a discussion with the government about the need to look after staff.

"I then got a copy of the video.

"To say that I am horrified about being lied to is an understatement.

"There seems to be plenty of money for MP pay rises.

"There's plenty of money for executive pay rises … but there doesn't seem to be enough money to keep people in the dignity of work."

READ MORE: Alleged burglars arrested after police chase in Melbourne

MP Melissa Horne told media today frontline services wouldn't be cut.

"We are rebalancing the public sector, back to pre-pandemic levels," she said.

"We are making sure we have those important frontline services delivering better healthcare for all Victorians."

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The driver found a dismissal letter in her mailbox on Christmas Eve.

A new service that will allow Australians to have themselves barred from betting will launch in August.

The federal government will make BetStop, a "national self-exclusion register for online wagering", available from August 21, 2023.

Australians will be able to register with BetStop to voluntarily self-exclude from all 150 Australian licensed interactive wagering service providers from a minimum of three months, to a lifetime.

READ MORE: Australian dad dies after suffering brain haemorrhage in Bali

Wagering service providers (both online and phone-based) will not be allowed to open an account or accept a bet from self-excluded individuals, or send them marketing material.

People will be able to register with BetStop for free and in one go.

The government will also introduce mandatory verification, meaning gambling providers will have to confirm a customer's identity when they register for a new account and before they can place a bet.

READ MORE: Search underway after shocking Sydney dog attack

Currently the requirement for ID verification gives providers 72 hours to confirm.

Gambling providers will also have to promote BetStop, including on their websites and apps, and through marketing material to customers.

Find out more about the exclusion service online.

There are many different ways to get help and information about gambling. Call the National Gambling Helpline on 1800 858 858; use online counselling; find information about help services in your state or territory; get information and support for family and friends; get information about how to talk with someone about their gambling; or contact Gamblers Anonymous. All services are free, confidential and available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

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It was meant to be a trip to watch her cousin getting a tattoo – then she pulled out.

A family-owned business has been forced to cut its workforce in half as the price of chocolate continues to soar.

The price of cocoa, the main ingredient in chocolate, is trading at its highest level due to high demand, a shortfall in production and bad weather forecast in the cocoa-rich region of West Africa.

Melbourne's Ministry of Chocolate have had to lift prices by more than 15 per cent.

READ MORE: Alleged burglars arrested after police chase in Melbourne

Founder Drew Maddison said his workforce have gone from 33 people to 12 in just four months.

With prices increasing, he said it's been difficult to retain a strong sales.

"That's purely because we have seen a decline in the purchase of confectionery items," Maddison said.

"There's only so much we can absorb before we pass it on to the consumer. It's very daunting when everything goes up at once.

"You can't just softly increase your pricing, you've got to have a massive increase."

So far this year, cocoa futures have risen about 21 per cent. This season, cocoa yields are underwhelming, likely due to crop disease and heavy rains.

And next season, forecasters are expecting another deficit because of El Niño, a naturally occurring phenomenon in the tropical Pacific Ocean, which usually brings warmer global temperatures — poor conditions for growing cocoa.

Michael Harvey, a senior analyst for Rabobank, said cocoa and sugar prices will continue to cause pain for chocolate manufactures.

"Ultimately it's just underlying supply and demand fundamentals," he said.

"So there's weather risks in key production regions and there's also a bit of disease risk in some of those producing regions as well."

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Police found $31,000 in cash, drugs and a firearm, but they had no search warrant.

The man stole $15,000 worth of clothing and attacked a man about the head with pruners.

A new report has identified the toughest rental pressure points across Australia.

Owners of a $NZ33.5 million ($31 million) lucky Lotto ticket sold in New Zealand hid it in a sock drawer while they processed the life-changing win.

The Christchurch couple, who wished to remain anonymous, sat on their winning ticket for more than a week before coming forward to claim their prize, a Lotto NZ spokesperson said.

The "occasional Lotto players" bought a Powerball Dip the week before the multi-million-dollar draw from Merivale Mall's Fresh Choice Lotto outlet.

READ MORE: Australian dad dies after suffering brain haemorrhage in Bali

The woman said she had been busy doing chores on the Wednesday and hadn't checked the ticket until later in the night.

"I had been busy doing a few things, and then I thought I may as well check my ticket before I went to bed. I looked the numbers up online and started checking each line of the ticket," she said.

"The winning line was right at the bottom, and the numbers just sort of jumped out at me – all of them.

"I couldn't breathe at first – I was almost hyperventilating."

Unable to believe they might have won big, she woke up her husband to check the numbers because they were "dancing on the paper," she said.

Her husband confirmed it was "very real".

"It was hard to get back to sleep after that."

In no rush to claim their life-changing millions, she said the ticket was kept hidden in a sock drawer, but it was a "nerve-racking" week as she worried about burning the house down with the ticket inside.

"I kept thinking, 'Goodness, I better make sure the iron is turned off' every time I went out."

The couple took their time to claim their prize because, she said, "we wanted to keep things normal while we thought about our next steps".

"I'd keep things cool during the day but then come home and cry – tears of happiness, of course, but it was also a lot to take in."

The multi-million-dollar windfall would help their family "for generations to come," the man said.

"It is also enough for us to help community causes we care about over the long term and make a lasting difference – and that is what we are focused on.

"Winning this is definitely a defining moment of our lives."

READ MORE: Perth restaurant targeted by protesters after vegan ban

Lotto NZ would help guide new multi-millionaires after the life-changing sum was paid in full to their account, Lotto NZ spokesperson Lucy Fullarton said.

"For big wins like this one in Christchurch, our winners experience team gets in touch as soon as the winner claims their prize, so they have the support and guidance they need.

"We meet with them as soon as possible to talk through what they need to think about – including how to go about finding financial advice and the importance of setting priorities.

"We also put our big winners in touch with a private banker at their bank, who can help them manage the money in the immediate term."

Financial adviser Nick Crawford, author of Sudden Money and How to Handle It, said people who come into a lot of money unexpectedly should in the short term invest in a term deposit while they "catch their breath".

ASB's term investment calculator suggests around $9 million invested for six months could earn an average income of about $29,692 per month with an interest rate of 5.65 per cent.

The draw was the largest Lotto win of the year, eclipsing the $21.8 million won by a ticket bought in Quay Street, Auckland, on January 18.

This article originally appeared on Stuff and is republished here with permission.

A Sydney-based private detective agency was contacted from the US with a unique request.

The caller represented the estate of a dead author – a biographer who left $500,000 behind in publishing royalties when they passed.

The catch? The only person named in their lucrative will was a long-lost distant relative, believed to be living in rural Australia.

With little to go off, the detectives had to draw on their decades of police experience to track down the man on the rural NSW-Victoria border.

Finding their target in the bush "with kangaroos for neighbours," the detectives turned up at his house out of the blue, telling him about his inheritance worth over $500,000.

"He freaked out. He thought he was getting one of those Nigerian prince letters," Danny Mikati, a manager at Precision Integrity Services, told 9news.com.au.

It sounded too good to be true.

"We knew it was going to have to be someone in person, saying 'here's a licence, we're registered in Australia, we're not a scam'."

They told the bewildered man to "look us up, and speak to the US firm that is handling it," Mikati said.

"We showed them all the evidence, and they knew who the person was." 

After convincing their target that they weren't scammers, the private detectives were able to connect him directly to the US group to transfer over the fortune.

It was his lucky day, but just another work day for the detectives at Precision Integrity Services, who told 9news.com.au all about the often murky world of private investigations.

Going private after decades on the force

Before starting the business with his partner Anthony Macklin, Mikati was one of Sydney's most experienced detectives with NSW Police.

He worked counter-terrorism, arson, fraud and money laundering, taking on high-profile cases like the Cronulla riots and the Lindt-Café siege over his 17-year career.

READ MORE: The man who works through the night to return items lost on Sydney Trains

But the nature of investigations and the challenges of shift work had made life in the force difficult to sustain, he said.

However, walking away from the police didn't mean he had to waste the skills he'd gained there, with the work he's doing in private investigations eerily echoing his former life.

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