Traffic management is in place and motorists should expect delays.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has defended Australia's intake of migrants after revelations a record 400,000 new people will enter the country this year, on net.

The removal of COVID-19 border controls has led to a surge in migrants, half of whom are students, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.

The net migration figure of 400,000 means there are that many more people moving to Australia than leaving the country.

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Albanese said in pre-COVID times, students would leave at the end of their degrees and be replaced by new students.

He cited the 60,000 Chinese students enrolled at Australian tertiary institutions.

"Normally, there would be 60,000 coming and 60,000 going," he said.

"The migration to Australia is still, bear in mind, much lower than it would have been and was predicted by the former government."

Albanese said students coming to study in Australia created jobs and economic activity.

He rejected the opposition's accusation that he was building a "big Australia by stealth".

"They are opposed to everything, aren't they?" he said.

"Is what they're saying – that we shouldn't have students coming here?

"The truth is our migration system that we inherited was a bit of a mess," Albanese said.

"There were a million people in the queue for visas."

As Albanese was speaking at the press conference in Hobart, he was repeatedly heckled by protesters on the issue of housing.

Speaking on Weekend Today, Independent MP Sophie Scamps expressed concerns about bringing more people in during a housing crisis.

"We have a housing affordability crisis and a rental crisis," she said.

"We need to get stuck in to build the medium to high-density housing."

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But Scamps also cited the dire need for workers in certain industries.

"We think about the nursing shortage, aged care shortage, childcare shortage," she said.

"We need more people to fill those slots."

The 400,000 figure is 165,000 more than the 235,000 estimated in the October budget.

The surge is largely coming from students, after travel restrictions in China were lifted.

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To celebrate King Charles III's Coronation, the resort's team of model makers, including chief model maker Paula Laughton, have built a selection of royal miniature models.

Police have arrested and charged a man from rural Queensland after allegedly finding more than 100kg of cannabis in the back of a truck on the Gold Coast.

Officers allege a 42-year-old man drove 136kg of marijuana into Queensland from Melbourne, stashing it in the back of a Hino Pantech truck.

Police said they found the drugs behind a number of potted palm trees in the back of the truck after officers performed a vehicle search at 12:45pm on Friday in Elanora.

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The 42-year-old driver from Mutdapilly was arrested by police and was charged with one count of possession of dangerous drugs exceeding schedule three (cannabis).

He was due to appear in court today. 

A Queensland student is being flown back to Australia via a medical rescue flight after an accidental poisoning in Taiwan left him in the intensive care unit.

Alex Shorey, a 24-year-old from Toowoomba, was inadvertently poisoned with rat poison.

A fundraising page said the ingestion of Super Warfarin has left him "fighting for his life" in a hospital in Taipei.

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"Whilst we're unsure exactly how this poisoning occurred, it is suspected that Alex may have picked up some food at local street market or along his travels that was either laced with poison, or had somehow been contaminated with super warfarin," the page reads.

"Super Warfarin stops the blood from coagulating, and so Alex's body is haemorrhaging both externally and internally into his muscles and organs."

The University of Queensland student was doing an exchange at Tamkang University in Taipei.

Shorey went into hypovolemic shock on April 18, and went into cardiorespiratory collapse five days ago.

The fundraising page was raising money to fly him back to Australia.

"With fluid on his lungs after an anaphylactic episode, Alex is unable to fly on a commercial flight," the page read.

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"He needs high pressure oxygen treatment and the support of an ICU team that is only available via a specialised medical flight retrieval service."

The fundraising page has now raised more than $208,000, enough to fly him to Australia with a medical charter plane.

The flight was secured overnight in preparation of flying Shorey to Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney for treatment.

The fundraising page is now being closed, with any leftover money donated to the Medical Rescue team.

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A pedestrian has died following an alleged hit and run in Sydney's east.

Police say the 77-year-old was hit by a car on Roslyn Street, Rushcutters Bay at 3:30pm yesterday.

He died early this morning after he was transported to St Vincent's Hospital by a NSW Ambulance in a critical condition.

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Police allege the car that hit him did not stop.

Police are now investigating the incident, and are asking for any witnesses or anyone who may have dashcam footage to come forward.

Native animal species are rapidly declining in population as deforestation and increasing climate issues continue to impact animal habitats around the world.

Eva Green has been awarded $US1 million ($1.7 million) by a British court in a sensational dispute over the collapse of a film project she feared was destined to become a "B movie" that could ruin her career.

The film in question was a sci-fi thriller but the case played out in court like a melodrama. The producers of A Patriot portrayed the French actor as a diva. She had called one of the executive producers a "devious sociopath" and "pure vomit" and said the production manager was a "moron".

A High Court judge on Friday cut through the vitriol that he said threatened to complicate the case and deemed it "relatively straightforward", awarding Green the fee she had been promised for the production that folded in 2019.

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Green, 42, who played Vesper Lynd in the 2006 version of the James Bond thriller Casino Royale, said her professional reputation had been upheld after she stood up to a small group of rich men who employed "bully-boy tactics" to use her as a scapegoat for their own failures.

Her lengthy statement, however, exposed her fragility in the face of criticism and the hurt she felt from what she claimed was misreporting in the press that "has been more painful than I can say".

"There are few things the media enjoys more than tearing a woman to pieces," Green said. "It felt like being set upon by hounds; I found myself misrepresented, quoted out of context and my desire to make the best possible film was made to look like female hysteria. It was cruel and it was untrue."

Justice Michael Green dismissed a countersuit brought by England-based film production company White Lantern Film that had said the actor made "excessive creative and financial demands" and torpedoed the production.

The judge said Green had not renounced or breached her obligations and was entitled to her £810,000 fee.

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Green said she "fell in love" with the script for A Patriot and its environmental message but became increasingly concerned as corners were cut and production moved from Ireland to England.

"When an actor has appeared in a B movie, they are labeled as a B actor, you never get offered quality work ever again," she testified.

During the trial, the court was told that Green used an expletive when describing potential crew members as "peasants". She had said executive producer Jake Seal was "evil", a "devious sociopath" and a "mad man", and dubbed production manager Terry Bird a "moron".

She downplayed her biting words as her "Frenchness", which the judge dismissed as inadequate and not credible.

While Justice Green found in favour of Green, he gave poor reviews to both sides in his 71-page ruling.

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"For such a perfectionist in her art, she was surprisingly under-prepared for her evidence," he wrote, calling the actor "in some senses a frustrating and unsatisfactory witness".

The judge said that the unpleasant things Green said about Seal were out of a genuine concern the film would not do the script justice, and he didn't altogether disagree with her criticism.

"I have to say that, having heard him give evidence, I can see how it might be possible to take an instant dislike to him," the judge wrote.

"He was at times patronising, sarcastic and denigrating. I found him to have an innate aggression and can understand why Ms Green and others might have been displeased to be told that they had to make the film under his full control."

A man accused of attempting to murder his ex-girlfriend has told a Queensland jury that he only bought a hatchet to force her into speaking to him again.

Former security guard Cameron Turgay Bardak, 31, spent three hours testifying on Friday during his trial in Brisbane Supreme Court on the count of attempt to murder Maria Buci, 30, by striking her with the hatchet and choking her.

Bardak had pleaded guilty to an alternate charge of causing grievous bodily harm to Buci.

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While questioned by his barrister, Matthew Hynes, Bardak said July 1, 2020 was the "stupidest day in my life" because he bought a hatchet to threaten Buci in the event that she did not agree to talk about resuming their relationship.

"I saw the axe as a good coercive measure if she chose not to comply," Bardak told the jury.

Bardak said intentions to kill or hurt Buci "never crossed my mind", though he admitted he did end up hitting her on the hand and shoulder with the weapon.

Buci had met Bardak that day for lunch and he ended the relationship, with Buci returning to her work at a law firm in central Brisbane.

Bardak testified that he realised he had made a hasty decision and thought he could reconcile with her if they spoke in person at 5pm.

"I didn't want her to stew on it. In the past that went badly for me. This was a Band-Aid to get our relationship through the night," Bardak said.

Hynes ran through pages of profane and insulting messages Bardak exchanged with Buci before the attack, which included him saying his "life was over".

"It was about gaining sympathy for manipulation. A kind of 'look what you made me do' situation. It was coercive," Bardak said.

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Bardak said he waited for Buci to walk to her car then told her to walk up to the next level to his own vehicle.

She refused and he grabbed her by the arm, but she started screaming and would not stop when he put his hand over her mouth or showed her the hatchet.

After he hit bystander David Sturgess on the hand with "six out of 10" force, Bardak said he put both his hands on Buci's throat.

"With enough (force) to stop her screaming. I've never strangled anyone before. I was just winging it," Bardak said.

Under cross-examination by crown prosecutor Chris Cook, Bardak denied he planned a "cowardly murder-suicide" after Buci rejected his demands for forgiveness.

Cook showed Bardak a bystander's iPhone video of the attack which depicted Bardak on top of Buci with both hands on her neck.

"This is you wanting to reconcile the relationship? You were thinking about going to tennis with her on Friday?" Cook asked.

"I wanted to get her to my car," Bardak said.

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He denied he acted like a "robot" with the sole focus of killing Buci while ignoring punches to his head and kidneys from good Samaritans.

"You can't play tennis with a pile of bones, you can't plan with someone who's dead," Bardak said.

The trial continues on Tuesday.

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

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A suspected serial hoon has been arrested after allegedly reaching speeds of more than 260km/h on a busy Melbourne freeway.

Video footage shows Sushant Mittal allegedly speeding and weaving in and out of traffic along the Monash Freeway.

"This is literally what I do as a game," Mittal can be heard saying in the footage.

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Police arrested the 19-year-old today after it was alleged he hit more than 260km/h on a drive down the Monash in the early hours of Tuesday morning during another speeding incident.

"A collision at those speeds means there's almost zero chance of survival for the driver, and your mates in the passenger seat," Victorian Police Sergeant Paul Holtzinger said.

Officers seized Mittal's AMG C-Class Mercedes and other evidence at his home during the arrest.

"We allege he's driving a high-powered Mercedes at speeds that are absolutely ridiculous," Holtzinger said.

The suspected serial hoon allegedly proudly posts videos online of his illegal activities of speeding and doing dangerous doughnuts.

"We're aware of where these videos and pictures are being uploaded and we have our eyes," Holtzinger said.

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Today's arrest was part of the wider Operation Achilles – a hooning crackdown that, in its first two years, has seen more than 360 drivers charged and 375 cars seized.

Meanwhile, the number of hoon events across Victoria has declined by 75 per cent.

"Slow down, think of your family, think of your mates," Holtzinger said.

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