Two people have been taken to hospital after a stunt bike rider veered off a landing ramp and crashed into a barrier on the Gold Coast.

The rider was performing on busy Cavill Avenue, Surfers Paradise, just before 5.20pm on Thursday as part of warm-up events for this weekend's Gold Coast 500.

Footage of the incident obtained by 9News shows the rider landing awkwardly after performing a backflip and riding diagonally off the ramp and into a barrier.

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That barrier then hit several bystanders.

Paramedics said four people were injured but only two, believed to be a man and a female, were taken to the Gold Coast University Hospital in a stable condition.

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It was unclear what their injuries were or whether the rider was among the patients.

Organisers are yet to comment on the incident.

https://twitter.com/9NewsQueensland/status/1585554204633968640

Prince Harry's highly anticipated memoir will be entitled Spare and is set for a January 10 release, its publisher has revealed.

The 416-page book will include Harry's recollection of Princess Diana's funeral in 1997, when the 12-year-old prince walked behind his mother's coffin, Penguin Random House said in a press release.

Its title appears to nod towards Harry's perceived role within the royal family, from which he and his wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex stepped back as working royals in early 2020.

READ MORE: Duchess of Sussex responds to criticism over controversial interview

https://twitter.com/penguinrandom/status/1585576293881769984

Since then, the couple have relocated to the US, and worked to make themselves financially independent by signing a number of media deals. They have also revealed some tensions with Harry's siblings and his father, King Charles III.

"For Harry, this is his story at last," Penguin Random House said.

"With its raw, unflinching honesty, Spare is a landmark publication full of insight, revelation, self examination, and hard-won wisdom about the eternal power of love over grief."

Harry announced the book in June 2021 and it was originally due to be published in late 2022, but the release was pushed back.

The prince reunited with his family following Queen Elizabeth II's death last month, attending a number of memorial events including her state funeral in London. It is unclear whether Harry updated the book to reference the late monarch's death and the mourning period that followed.

Harry will donate proceeds from the book's sales to "several charities", the publisher said. It added he has already donated $US1.5 million ($2.33 million) to Sentebale, a group that supports children affected by HIV/AIDS in Lesotho and Botswana, following his support for a cause to which his mother, Diana, was closely connected.

He has also pledged £300,000 ($538,000) British charity WellChild, which supports children with serious illnesses.

It is unclear whether the content of the book will calm or exacerbate Harry's complex relationships with the rest of the royal family.

In a podcast interview last year, Harry said he was caught in a cycle of "pain and suffering" in the clan and hinted that he is heavily critical of the way his father, Charles, raised him.

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"When it comes to parenting, if I've experienced some form of pain or suffering because of the pain or suffering that perhaps my father or my parents had suffered, I'm going to make sure I break that cycle so that I don't pass it on," Harry told Dax Shepard, actor and host of the Armchair Expert podcast.

A Netflix documentary series featuring Harry and his wife, Meghan, is also expected to release soon, though a release date has yet to bee formally announced. Britain's Telegraph newspaper cited friends of the Sussexes as insisting it would still be going out in December, as per the original plan.

It follows a multi-year production deal that the couple signed with the streaming giant in 2020.

An older man believed to have been trapped for more than a day in a car that crashed down an embankment in Sydney's south-west has been freed and taken to hospital.

Fire and Rescue NSW said it was believed the man in his 80s had crashed down an embankment and "lain in the wreckage for more than 24 hours".

Paramedics and firefighters called to Old Razorback Road in Razorback about 5pm on Thursday stabilised the car before cutting the man free. 

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They said the car had crashed "several metres" down the embankment, trapping the man.

"Firefighters used cables and winches to prevent the car crashing further down the slope," FRNSW said.

"They then cut away the side panels so the man could be reached and treated by NSW Ambulance paramedics."

Emergency services said they strapped the man into a rescue stretcher and walked him back up the embankment before taking him to hospital.

There was no information immediately available about his condition.

The process of finding the right medication can take weeks or months but a new simple genetic test could improve this undertaking.

Researchers at St Vincent's Hospital Anxiety and Depression Clinical Research have successfully trialed a genetic test that could shorten the process.

Using testing called pharmacogenomics, a patient's DNA can be extracted with a simple swab to assess how they respond to medications and to pinpoint a treatment that's genetically compatible.

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Patient Helen Minns has struggled to manage her depression over the past two decades.

Minns said her depression could "suck the life out of every day".

"You can't get out of bed, sometimes it's impossible to think," Minns said.

She tried up to 10 different medications, some with intolerable side-effects. The DNA test helped her bypass "a lot of trial and error", she said.

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Fifteen percent of Australians are on antidepressants, which is the second highest per capita in the world for antidepressant use.

St Vincent's Hospital Associate Professor Kathy Wu said the test could reduce the adverse effects of the drugs.

"It would improve the tolerability of the medication and also maximise the chance of recovery from depression," Wu said.

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Nearly 800 Australian adults in several states are being recruited for the Aligned study.

Experts will continue to investigate whether using the test to prescribe medication for patients with moderate to severe depression is better than standard practice.

A group who attacked two police officers on duty in a beachside suburb of Melbourne acted like a pack of animals during the "extremely ugly and violent affray", a judge has said as he sentenced the men.

Jack Houldcroft, Trent Potts, Phillip O'Donnell and Jake Mitchell faced the County Court in Melbourne on Thursday, where they were punished for their role in a February 2019 street fight on Fitzroy Street in St Kilda.

The four men had attended a birthday party for Potts' brother on February 23, before heading out to a St Kilda nightclub. On their way home, about 3am Potts got in a fight with another person and kicked them in the groin.

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Police were called in response, and when they tried to speak to Potts and move him to the footpath he broke free and ran off down Fitzroy Street.

The officers pursued him, with Potts falling over and then getting up and turning around in a fighting stance.

One of the officers tried to pull Potts to the ground, but he resisted and lashed out at him, kicking and hitting the officer in the chest. Houldcroft, O'Donnell and Mitchell arrived and a street brawl ensued.

The second officer tried to intervene in the fight, but O'Donnell dragged him out and rammed his head repeatedly into the ground, rendering him unconscious and causing facial fractures.

The other officer suffered a ruptured bicep and required surgery.

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"During the affray, you behaved like a pack of animals, you in particular O'Donnell," Judge Scott Johns said.

"It was an extremely ugly and violent affray."

He sentenced Potts to three months in prison in combination with a community work order for his role.

O'Donnell received a 15-month prison sentence, and must serve a minimum of eight-months before he will become eligible for parole.

Houldcroft and Mitchell were both handed two-year community correction orders for their parts in the brawl.

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The judge said the police were outnumbered five to two and the fight would have been "clearly frightening" to bystanders, who were seen watching on in horror on CCTV.

"Each of your victims was simply at his workplace, trying to get through a Saturday night upholding the law, upholding the peace," Johns said.

"Each of you in varying degrees took an opportunity to disregard their authority and embark upon a brazen and cowardly group attack upon them.

"The confidence and willingness of each of you to resort to using your fists was shocking."

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He said such an attack on police amounted to "an attack upon society itself".

"Random street violence is a scourge on our society, mob violence must be condemned," Judge Johns said.

Speaking outside court, Police Association of Victoria Secretary Wayne Gatt echoed the judge's sentiments.

"They were shocking, they were violent," he said.

"They acted like animals. Our members are left scratching their heads a little bit and saying, well, is it enough? Can I just say this: nothing will ever be enough for the sort of violence we witnessed.

"At least for the next 15 months, people in St Kilda should be a little bit more comforted that people, that animals, that bottom feeding bogans like this have been put away as they rightly should be."

I got my letter from Optus.

I thought I was fine, but 35 days after the hack I received a letter in the mail confirming my driver's licence number was in the hands of the hackers. 

What now? 

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My data has been out there for quite a while, is it too late?

Have the hackers got me?

I'm only today applying for a new Victorian driver's licence number. 

A letter posted to me from Optus arrived in the mail on Tuesday.

More than a month after my data was exposed — no text messages, no emails.

Worse off, the letter was dated October 18, meaning it has taken over a week to reach my house after being posted. 

The letter reads: "We can reassure you we're doing all we can to protect you and our customers." 

Do I feel reassured? 

On October 11, Optus emailed me regarding my personal data, stating that my "proof of age card was exposed", but not to worry as it was incomplete data.

Great, I thought. 

I signed up to Optus with a proof of age card when I turned 18, I'm now 31.

It's not like that information is relevant 13 years later. 

My colleagues and I have been reporting on the Optus data this data breach for weeks, among other hacks.

It's not like I wasn't aware this was happening – I'm usually quite vigilant with these sorts of things.

I'm now left with many questions. 

Why has it taken so long to notify me of my licence number being exposed?

Has more of my information been exposed and I'll have to wait until next month to find out? 

There's no reassurance. 

I reached out to Optus with a media enquiry to check in on the situation and confirm that all affected customers had been contacted. They say they have.

"Optus confirms that we have now contacted impacted customers that have with up-to-date email or SMS contact information," a spokesperson said. 

Optus says if they do not have valid email or SMS contact details they revert to post.

"These customers will be contacted as soon as possible via post using the last mailing address we have on file," they said.

"In addition to the above we are in the process of contacting impacted customers with other lesser-known forms of identification used to make up 100 points of ID."

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VicRoads has a large yellow banner across the top of their website advising Optus customers to "click here". 

The process to update my licence was relatively easy, I just had to fill out a quick form and enter my old licence number. 

VicRoads is obviously being slammed with requests.

"Given the anticipated volume of requests, we expect that this may take some time. We ask you to be patient and ask that you do not call us to follow up on the request," their website read after I flagged my licence. 

I'm in the hands of the cyber gods now, nothing more I can do — but it's certainly a wake-up call for all. 

The world has entered a new age.

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A former Melbourne teacher who stalked a teenage student and his mother claims her trial judge was motivated by hatred, and says she will delay her appeal if she is refused bail.

Fiona Austin was jailed in September for stalking the boy over two periods between January 2015 and October 2016, in which she called and texted him thousands of times.

After reading the boy's diary saved on his hard drive, she began to pull him out of class to talk to him and offered the keys to her apartment if he needed a place to go.

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A jury ultimately found her guilty of stalking and harassment and she was sentenced to a total of 18 months in prison, with her 12-month non-parole period expiring early this month.

Representing herself in the Supreme Court on Thursday, Austin said: "To get parole, you have to admit you're guilty. I'm not guilty."

Austin claimed she was the victim of a significant miscarriage of justice, suggesting County Court Judge Michael O'Connell was influenced by his personal hatred of her during her trial.

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Justice Phillip Priest told Austin that was an "absolutely outrageous allegation", and repeatedly warned her through the bail application to stop interrupting him.

While Austin had her "first leg in" in that her sentence would expire by the time the court reached appeal proceedings, Justice Priest said he had difficulty accepting there was merit in her appeal arguments.

Austin claimed her conviction was unreasonable and unsafe, the trial judge was hostile and overtly biased, and her sentence was excessive and designed to cause her the greatest possible harm.

"That's a scandalous allegation to make," Justice Priest said.

Austin countered: "When I say something, it's scandalous, when accusations are against me, that's just fine."

Everything about Judge O'Connell during her trial "screams hostility and malicious conduct", Austin said, pointing to instances where she claimed he laughed at her victim's jokes.

Austin said she was limited in her ability to properly represent herself, given she did not have access to a computer in jail and couldn't look through electronic versions of legal documents.

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When Justice Priest suggested she get representation from legal aid, she retorted: "Legal aid, really? You've looked at the history of this matter …"

She told the judge his decision about whether to grant her bail should not rest on "your opinion of me, or Michael O'Connell, or your defence of judges everywhere".

If he did not grant her bail, she would not appeal until after she got out of prison, she said.

Justice Priest said he would do his best to put aside what he considered Austin's "gross impertinence" through the bail application, and would reflect on the matter in the quiet of his chambers to hand down his decision in the coming days.

"Of course I'm angry, I'm furious," Austin told him.

"No, I am not going to be sweet or polite, because that time is long gone."

In sentencing Austin in September, Justice O'Connell said she showed no empathy or insight into the profound impact on the boy and his mother, and was consumed by her own plight.

In early 2016 she posted multiple PowerPoint presentations online, blaming the teen for the destruction of her life, but also claiming she wanted to see him again.