Police will be monitoring a protest led by Destiny Church’s Brian Tamaki that intends marching through central Wellington before staging a mock trial at Parliament.New details have emerged of the rally set to take place on August…

New dad Dale Lander was looking forward to taking a few months off work to care for his firstborn son.

But, last month, a week before baby Liam was born, a conversation with Centrelink scuttled those plans completely. 

Lander, from Gippsland, Victoria, was told he wasn't eligible for the federal government's Parental Leave Pay – which provides 18 weeks' pay at minimum wage and is worth almost $15,000.

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Instead, Lander was informed he will only qualify for two weeks of Dad and Partner Pay.

It was money the 38-year-old mature age plumbing apprentice and his wife Meadhbh Ni Fhlannagain had been counting on.

"I initially wanted to take 12 weeks off and then use the rest of the Parental Leave Pay over the next two years," Lander said.

"Now, I can only take six weeks off, two of it is paid from the government and the rest of it is unpaid." 

The reason Lander does not qualify for paid parental leave is complex and involves a two-year waiting period for new migrants to access the scheme.

Although Lander is an Australian citizen who was born and raised here, his wife is Irish.

Ni Fhlannagain, a primary school education support officer, came to Australia nine years ago, and the pair married in 2017.

After their marriage, Ni Fhlannagain applied for a partner visa and – following an 18-month wait – was granted permanent residency in 2020.

When Liam was born 12 days ago, Ni Fhlannagain was just a few weeks shy of the two years she needed to spend as a permanent Australian resident before qualifying for Parental Leave Pay.

Current social services regulations allow a mother to "share" Parental Leave Pay entitlements with her partner, but only if her application for the allowance is accepted first.

Lander said he was told there would only be one situation in which he would qualify for Parental Leave Pay.

"They said the only way I could qualify was if we could provide a medical reason why my wife was unfit to be the primary carer for my son," he said.

"It was a bit disheartening.

"They do have the mechanism to make those payments, but the fact that we had to prove my wife was medically unfit, that seemed a bit shit," he said. 

Ni Fhlannagain said she was also shocked by the situation.

"Dale is an Australian citizen, so I was a bit thrown by that," she said.

"It seems really unfair for him not to be able to take time off and get that payment unless I am deemed medically unfit."

Australia's legislation relating to parental leave has long been criticised by advocates for being dated and not addressing the changing needs of dads.

Plans to make key changes to the Parental Leave Pay scheme were announced by the then Coalition government in this year's federal budget.

The proposed changes – slated to begin in March 2023 – aimed, in part, to address this disparity.

Under the budgeted plans, Parental Leave Pay and Dad and Partner Pay would be merged into one scheme, which would be lengthened to 20 weeks.

This would mean both parents could apply directly for the 20 weeks Parental Leave Pay and share it between them.

After Labor's election win, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese confirmed in June his government would be examining the Parental Leave Pay scheme.

"Changes proposed to the Paid Parental Leave Scheme in the 2022-23 Budget have not been legislated," a spokesperson for the Department of Social Services said.

"The Government will continue to consider enhancements to the Paid Parental Leave scheme, to ensure it is working in the best way for families."

'It's outrageous'

Meanwhile, some new migrants have called for changes to be made to the two-year waiting period for permanent residents to access Parental Leave Pay, saying it often leads to distressing situations.

UK citizen April Tole has lived in Australia for five years and is the partner of an Australian citizen.

The data analyst, from the Gold Coast, was in line to qualify for Parental Leave Pay, according to her daughter's due date in July last year.

However, in a harrowing and traumatic experience, Tole's daughter was born four weeks premature via an emergency caesarean after she developed sepsis.

"I was rejected for Parental Leave Pay because my daughter was born more than two years before I was granted my visa," Tole said. 

"However, if she had been born on time, or even just nine days later, I would have been eligible. 

"I ended up having to go back to work after seven months due to money issues and my daughter had to go to daycare.

"I was not ready, and it was very upsetting.  

"It is outrageous to be penalised for having a premature baby, when you already feel bad enough about the situation and having to care for a tiny baby. 

"The system needs to be reviewed and for paternity leave pay to be awarded based on a baby's due date … not birth date."

A departmental spokesperson said the Parental Leave Pay rules for new migrants reflected "the longstanding expectation that migrants support themselves and their families when they first become permanent residents in Australia".

Contact reporter Emily McPherson at em********@******om.au.

National’s leaders are condemning an image showing underwear being used as trophies in the student flat of embattled Tauranga MP Sam Uffindell. Today it was reported that Uffindell’s Dunedin flat was one of the filthiest in the…

Dingoes might seem cuter than your average apex predator – but they do pose a danger to humans.

What seems like curious or playful behaviour from them can actually be a serious form of "dominance testing" that can lead to attacks or aggression if not defused.

The Queensland Department of Environment and Science has now published two videos showing a candid dingo encounter on K'gari (Fraser Island), which shows the best way to face down a dingo.

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The video shows a dingo trotting up to a person – who is filming from their phone – on a beach.

The person stands still until the dingo lies down, and then begins to slowly back away, without turning their face from the animal.

This continues as the dingo follows the person for some time, until they reach their car.

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It matches the official guidelines for confronting a threatening dingo:

Stand up to your full height

• Face the dingo
• Fold your arms and keep eye contact
• Calmly back away
• If in pairs, stand back to back (dingoes move fast and there's less chance of being taken by surprise)
• Confidently call for help
• Do not run or wave your arms.

There are of course other dingo-safe behaviours to think about when in proximity to them, especially on Fraser Island, which has a large population of the animals.

People are advised to travel in groups, to keep children within arm's reach, to avoid littering, to not feed the animals – and if you need to go to the toilet in the bush, make sure somebody is able to go with you.

READ MORE: How you can see the last supermoon of 2022

A beluga whale that became a French celebrity after a wrong turn took it up the Seine River had to be euthanised after experiencing health complications during an urgent rescue operation, authorities said.

The sparkling white marine mammal appeared deep inside France last week, having accidentally veered off the normal ocean migration route that takes belugas to and from Arctic waters.

Fearing the malnourished creature would not survive in the Seine much longer, a wildlife conservation group and veterinarians planned to move the lost whale to a saltwater port in Normandy, from where they hoped to return it to the open sea.

READ MORE: Aussies living across 18 postcodes facing 'worrying' mortgage hit

A team of 80 people assembled to try to save the animal's life, and it was successfully moved Tuesday night from a river lock in Saint-Pierre-la-Garenne, west of Paris, into a refrigerated truck for the 160km journey to the port in Ouistreham.

But during the drive, the four-metre long whale started to breathe with difficulty, according to Florence Ollivet Courtois, a French veterinarian who worked on the rescue operation.

"During the journey, the veterinarians confirmed a worsening of its state, notably in its respiratory activities, and at the same time noticed the animal was in pain, not breathing enough," Courtois said.

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"The suffering was obvious for the animal, so it was important to release its tension, and so we had to proceed to euthanise it."

Environmentalists had acknowledged the plan to move the beluga risked fatally stressing the mammal. But marine conservation group Sea Shepherd said that it couldn't have survived much longer in the Seine's fresh water.

The group and veterinarians noted the whale had responded to a cocktail of antibiotics and vitamins over the last few days, making them hopeful it would recover once it was back in a saltwater environment.

READ MORE: The Aussie island overrun by giant tiger snakes

A necropsy is planned on the whale, which weighed about about 800kg.

Rescuers had hoped to spare the whale the fate of an orca that strayed into the Seine and died in May.

In 2006, a bottlenose whale — nicknamed "Willy" — swam up the Thames River as far as London and died during a its attempted rescue.

Another complicating factor during the beluga's rescue attempt was the extreme heat gripping France. Authorities tried to keep it cool and wet with soaked towels and moved it at nightfall when temperatures are at their lowest.

The sad end to a saga that gripped France in recent days came after experts determined the whale "was too weakened to be put back into water," Guillaume Lericolais, the sub-prefect of France's Calvados region, said.

Rescuers tried to feed the whale fish without success since Friday.

Sea Shepherd France said veterinary exams after the beluga's removal from the river showed it has no digestive activity.

Thousands of beer cans have spilled across a US highway after a truck crash.

Kentucky police say the truck overturned on a ramp coming across an interstate highway.

It spilled its entire cargo of Bud Light beer cans, with the clean-up operation taking several hours.

READ MORE: Report pinpoints neighbourhoods worst hit by mortgage stress

Traffic remained backed up during the clean-up.

Police said nobody was hurt during the incident, with the driver able to get out of the truck after the crash.

China has announced it is winding down military exercises off Taiwan after its ambassador to Australia pledged China "ready to use all necessary means" to reunify Taiwan with the mainland.

China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) on Wednesday (Thursday AEST) said it was ending almost a week of live-fire drills off Taiwan that were triggered by the visit of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan.

In a major escalation of tensions, Beijing sent military ships and warplanes across the median line separating Taiwan and China.

EXPLAINED: What is behind the China-Taiwan dispute?

The PLA said the naval and air operations were successful and had achieved their targets of sending a warning to those favouring Taiwan's formal independence and their foreign backers.

The actions disrupted flights and shipping in a region crucial to global supply chains, prompting strong condemnation from Australia, US, Japan and others.

Yesterday China's ambassador to Australia said China is "ready to use all necessary means" to reunify Taiwan with "the motherland", while addressing Australia's "difficult" relationship with the superpower.

During an address at National Press Club, ambassador Xiao Qian said the US was to blame for rising tensions around the self-governing island, which Beijing claims is part of the mainland.

China was "absolutely determined" to protect its sovereignty and territorial integrity, he said, insisting that Beijing "will never allow Taiwan to be separated from China".

EXPLAINED: What is the One-China policy and why does it matter?

He said China has been very patient waiting for a "peaceful unification".

"But … we can never rule out the option to use other means, so when necessary, when compelled, we are ready to use all necessary means," he said.

Asked to clarify how "all necessary means" should be interpreted, Xiao said: "You can use your imagination".

Taiwan split with the mainland amid civil war in 1949, and its 23 million people overwhelmingly oppose political unification with China while preferring to maintain close economic links and de facto independence.

The PLA said it will continue to carry out military training in the Taiwan Strait and is organising "normalised combat readiness security patrols".

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In what will be grim reading for some, a property report has zeroed in on the specific Aussie postcodes set to face the worst mortgage stress over the coming months.

More than 1.8 million households are currently in mortgage stress, the report claimed, and that number will spiral with more Reserve Bank rate hikes likely on the way.

The Otivo Mortgage Stress Report predicted borrowers in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland will be hardest hit, as interest rates rise and property values slide.

READ MORE: Australia's richest suburbs and jobs revealed

READ MORE: The shocking number of Australians at risk of mortgage stress

Both low-income suburbs and affluent neighbourhoods were flagged in the report.

Paul Feeney, chief executive of Otivo, told 9news.com.au he expects another 300,000 households will fall into mortgage stress over the next 12 months if interest rates rise by another one per cent, which is widely anticipated.

"That's when I think the pressure will really hit," he said.

"Particularly if inflation keeps going up and wages don't increase."

Should Feeney's prediction materialise, more than half of all Australian households with a mortgage would be in mortgage stress, up to 54 per cent from the current 45 per cent.

Even if households scramble to cope with the steep repayments, Feeney said the level of stress and anxiety inside countless Aussie homes will be significant.

"It is worrying," he said.

The most vulnerable postcodes fell into "two distinct groups", Feeney said, lower income households and higher-earning suburbs.

Feeney said he was "very surprised" to see some of Australia's "more well-off suburbs" now under pressure, including parts of the eastern suburbs in Sydney, inner Melbourne and upscale areas of Perth.

Four-straight RBA hikes was "eating" into people's surplus savings, he said.

For many, wages have remained static or gone backwards because of rising inflation.

"That's why we're seeing … the number of those in mortgage stress increasing."

READ MORE: Landlord's agonising dilemma over rental hikes

For a borrower with a $500,000 loan, the latest RBA decision meant a monthly repayment increase of $140, or an additional $472 every month since the RBA began lifting rates in May.

After August's announcement, a person with a $750,000 loan is paying an extra $211 each month, up $708 since May.

Those with a $1 million mortgage are paying $281 more each month, which equates to an eye-watering $944 increase.

For its report, which surveyed the cashflows of 52,000 households nationally, Otivo highlighted three postcodes in each capital city set to feel the biggest impact from the most recent RBA announcement.

Otivo defines a household being in mortgage stress when its monthly surplus is reduced to zero or runs into negative because of increased mortgage repayments.

The top three postcodes are highlighted below.

Sydney

In Sydney, some parts of the city's eastern suburbs who have traditionally had very few households with mortgage stress will now begin to feel the heat of interest rate rises.

Suburbs like Chifley, Eastgardens, Hillsdale, La Perouse, Little Bay, Malabar, Matraville, Phillip Bay, Port Botany have gone from 0 per cent mortgage stress to 43 per cent in mortgage stress, the report said.

Melbourne

In Melbourne, the report projected suburbs in the inner-south will be hit hardest.

Many of those suburbs have never suffered mortgage stress, but they will now begin to feel financial pressure over the next 12 months, the report concluded.

Brisbane

In Brisbane, suburbs in Ipswich including Brookfield, Chapel Hill, Fig Tree Pocket, Kenmore, Kenmore Hills, Pinjarra Hills, Pullenvale, Upper Brookfield face mortgage challenges.

The latest RBA hike has led to almost 52 per cent of households in these suburbs falling into mortgage stress, according to the Otivo report

Perth

Some of Perth's most affluent suburbs in the prestigious south-west will soon be hit with mortgage stress, the report warned.

Almost 59 per cent of households in postcode 6153 (Applecross, Ardross, Brentwood, Mount Pleasant) will be buffeted by the most recent RBA interest rate announcement.

Adelaide

In Adelaide, postcodes in the west are set to suffer with rising monthly repayments, because of recent RBA decisions.

Hobart

The three post codes worst affected in Hobart lie in the city's north and central neighbourhoods.

Sydneysiders have faced another day of rail chaos after industrial action shut down major rail lines in the city's east and south.

From Kings Cross to Wollongong, the rolling campaign of rail strikes left commuters stranded and running late.

"It's crazy, it's like nine hours delayed," one commuter told 9News.

READ MORE: Full list of upcoming train strikes and what lines are affected in August

"I just figured if I'm going to be late, there'll be other people late at work today as well," another commuter said.

The hardest hit commuters were students sitting their HSC exams today, forced to find alternative transport.

"Mum had to take me to a different train station," one student said.

Transport for New South Wales (TFNSW) said earlier in a statement there would be "major disruptions" across the network on Wednesday, particularly to the T4 Eastern Suburbs & Illawarra and South Coast services, due to industrial action by workers.

Sydney Trains chief executive Matt Longland said the strike would affect all rail customers, including morning and evening peak hour, due to there being fewer services.

"This stop work action is a broad action, it's much more than just train drivers," Longland said.

Employee Relations Minister Damien Tudehope said he was disappointed by the industrial action.

"I'm absolutely disappointed for the commuters of Sydney today because what they've neem put through was completely unavoidable," he said.

Staff returned to work at 4pm but flow-on delays are expected throughout the evening as services return to normal.

"The timetable is expected to be fully operational by around 8pm," Longland said.

READ MORE: What we know about Langya, the new virus detected in China

Longland said there were usually 70,000 commuters on the T4 train line on a usual Wednesday.

The Rail, Train and Bus Union (RTBU) claims there has been an over-reaction from the government as the industrial action was purposefully designed to avoid peak hours.

"We want to continue to run trains for those people who have no alternative, and we are quite disappointed the management team didn't do enough," RTBU secretary Alex Claassens said.

The renowned sails of the Sydney Opera House are glowing pink in honour of the Australian icon Olivia Newton-John.

The beloved UK-born Australian star's death, aged 73, sparked a wave of mourning across the entertainment industry and beyond.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet said lighting up the landmark is how the state can recognise Newton-John's contribution to cancer research and awareness.

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"Olivia Newton-John touched the hearts of so many people around the world with her music as well as her compassion and kindness – particularly toward people living with cancer," Perrottet said.

"She radiated with positivity in her lifetime and now our most famous performance space will shine in her honour."

Arts Minister Ben Franklin said Newton-John was an "arts icon" who has inspired generations of Australians and will continue to inspire those in the future.

"For decades Olivia Newton-John inspired Australians with her artistic ability and unrelenting courage," Franklin said.

READ MORE: China 'ready to use all necessary means' to 'reunify' Taiwan

"It is a touching tribute that the Sydney Opera House, a venue she performed at many times, will tonight be cloaked pink in her honour."

It comes as landmarks across Melbourne glowed pink on Tuesday evening to pay tribute to the star, who passed away in her California ranch after a years-long battle with cancer.

Her niece, Totti Goldsmith, confirmed late on Tuesday the family would accept an offer of a state funeral in Victoria to farewell the entertainment icon.