A building at a primary school in Melbourne's east has been extensively damaged in an overnight fire.

Police have this morning arrested a 29-year-old man from Sale, about 200km away from the scene of the fire in regional Victoria, over the blaze, charging him with criminal damage by fire.

The fire is believed to have begun at Antonio Park Primary School on Whitehorse Road in Mitcham just after midnight, when a call was made to Triple Zero.

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Around 40 firefighters responded to a fire, finding a portable classroom well alight and threatening a nearby factory.

Firefighters used an aerial appliance as a water tower as they tackled the blaze, declaring it under control about 1.09am.

The classroom building was extensively damaged.

The fire also spread to nearby vegetation.

The man, who has been charged, is due to face Melbourne Magistrates' Court this morning.

It is currently school holidays in Victoria.

Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or online at www.crimestoppersvic.com.au.

Reporters and producers at 9News Queensland had an unusual guest this morning when a snake was spotted in the newsroom.

The slithery creature took up residence in the Brisbane building, hanging out in a warm spot above the many televisions.

It was at the centre of the action, near the chief of staff's desk in the office, which is in the rural Mt Coo-tha area.

LIVE UPDATES: Metal detectors installed at Sydney Easter Show after stabbing

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Chief of Staff Aaron O'Brien said one of the producers noticed the interloper, which turned out to be a coastal python.

"I don't know how long it's been there," he said.

Security called snake catchers to take care of the creature.

Head of security Scott Matheson said: "It was just lying there warming up in the newsroom."

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"It was pretty docile," he added.

Mr Matheson said it's not the first time the studios have had uninvited guests – possums and koalas sometimes visit.

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A self-described "progressive activist" has crashed a private Scott Morrison event in western Sydney, calling the Prime Minister a "disgrace" before being ejected from the venue.

Adisen Wright, whose TikTok bio says "Vote 1 ALP" and is listed online as a Young Labor Left supporter, said he was "detained" after crashing the event on Tuesday night.

NSW Police said officers were called to the venue about 7.35pm and issued a move-on direction to a 20-year-old man, who left without incident.

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In a four-minute video shared on TikTok, Mr Wright asks Mr Morrison for a photo, while filming on his phone, before eventually shouting at the Prime Minister about support for Blue Mountains bushfire victims.

Mr Wright begins the interaction in a friendly manner, saying he's "pretty astounded as a young bloke here", before going on to say he lives in the Blue Mountains.

"I just want to ask one question, ScoMo," he says, before the Prime Minister realises the young man is still filming and confronts him about it.

When Mr Morrison tells him the event, at the Nepean Rowing Club in Penrith, is private, the 20-year-old immediately adopts a much more aggressive tone.

"ScoMo, across the river here, across the Nepean River, people lost their house — people lost their houses and they were burnt," he shouts.

"You're a disgrace. You are a disgrace."

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Mr Wright then walks out of the venue, followed by a police officer who questions him for a few minutes.

"Look, I didn't know it was a private event. I genuinely didn't. So I apologise for that," he tells the police officer in his video.

"But I just wanted to ask a question because look, I'm a — I obviously care about government and in our area we got, our house was incredibly impacted.

"We just want some action."

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More than 1 million hectares of land in the Greater Blue Mountains and World Heritage Area burnt during the 2019-20 bushfires, according to the federal Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment.

The department says it's spending $3 million on the area for emergency response and $13 million for resilience and recovery.

Mr Morrison was previously heckled by Hawaiian-shirt-wearing protesters on the first day of the election campaign, at an event on the NSW south coast.

According to his Facebook and LinkedIn accounts, Mr Adisen recently started as a receptionist at the Independent Education Union.

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He has reshared content from Anthony Albanese, Young Labor and local Macquarie MP Susan Templeman.

Mr Wright later told followers he had been "allowed out as I did nothing".

The video shared by Mr Wright had more than 75,000 views on Tuesday night.

Family members of four people killed in a helicopter crash off Port Stephens have slammed the actions of the pilot during an inquest today.

In September 2019, a helicopter crashed and killed the five people on board: pilot David Kerr, Sydney resident Jocelyn Villanueva and her fiancé Greg Miller, as well as Jamie Ogden and Grant Kuhnemann.

The helicopter was a 53-year-old Bell UH1 nicknamed "Huey" and had been restored back to operational capability.

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Mr Kerr has been described by friends as a smooth and confident pilot with 1440 hours of experience under his belt on the day of the flight.

But he was not trained to operate the helicopter at night.

A review also found he was taking four types of antidepressant and antipsychotic medication, which he had not told authorities about.

"He was on some medication and shouldn't have been flying," Darren Ogden, the brother of Jamie Ogden, told 9News.

In a statement read to the inquest, Ms Villanueva's family said "good people died because of the pilot's actions".

Mr Miller's mother Andrea Kay wants further investigation into the responsibilities of air services.

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Mr Ogden told 9News the flight had started with "good intentions".

"It was all good intentions in the start but unfortunately it didn't end that way," Mr Ogden said.

The ill-fated flight took off from Brisbane at 2.25pm after refuelling delays on September 6, 2019.

The helicopter landed in Coffs Harbour around 4pm to refuel.

A warning for severe turbulence had been issued and the light was fading when the pilot made contact with air traffic control at Williamtown at 5.55pm.

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Just after 6pm, the chopper suddenly veered off course and disappeared off the radar near Anna Bay 13 minutes later.

There was no mayday call.

Despite a massive multi-agency search at the time, only two bodies were ever recovered.

A 15-year-old boy charged with knife offences after a fatal stabbing at the Sydney Royal Easter Show has been released on bail.

Last night a 17-year-old working at the show was stabbed to death near the adult carnival rides about 8pm.

Another teen, aged 16, caught up in the brawl was also stabbed and suffered a leg injury. He is in a stable condition.

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This afternoon the 15-year-old was released from Parramatta Children's Court on the condition he does not come within one kilometre of the showgrounds at Homebush.

NSW Police do not believe he was responsible for the stabbing and are still looking for those responsible.

"We believe there is someone we still need to identify who is responsible for the stabbing," Superintendent Danielle Emerton said earlier today.

"It may be one person, it may be multiple people."

She called for people who had been at the show last night who may have footage of the incident to come forward to police.

The Royal Agricultural Society of NSW (RAS) has announced additional security and safety measures, including heightening the police presence and "increasing the visibility of metal detectors" to avoid any further violence occurring at the show.

Other security measures that were decided on include more random hand-wanding and bag checks, closing the main carnival at 9.30pm, making the twilight ticket arrival time earlier as well as increasing lighting.

"The RAS has a zero-tolerance policy towards any anti-social behaviour onsite and we will continue to work closely with NSW Police throughout the Show to uphold patron safety," the statement added.

The RAS said the main carnival will reopen tomorrow.

The general manager of the Sydney Royal Easter Show, Murray Wilton, said he received a phone call about "one minute past eight" last night about the fight.

"I, and my CEO, made our way directly to that area. Police and ambulance had already arrived, they got to the scene probably within about two minutes," he told 2GB's Jim Wilson.

"It was an horrific experience for everybody."

Mr Wilton was asked how someone would be able to bring a knife, which appears to be quite large based on videos shared online, into the showgrounds.

"How do you get a knife into a complex like this? You would think that it would be difficult, but, things can be thrown over the fence, a knife doesn't necessarily have to be made out of metal, so it's not going to be detected by metal detectors," he said.

He added it would be "impossible to physically pat down or search every person" with about 77,000 people coming through the gates yesterday.

Mr Wilton also said organisers are "tired" of young people – not children but teenagers – using the show to sort out their personal differences.

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'Confronting' attack not thought to be random

Investigators at this stage believe the stabbing was not a random attack, and involved two groups of people who were known to each other and met in an intentional confrontation.

NSW Ambulance Inspector Mark Whittaker said when paramedics arrived the 17-year-old was in cardiac arrest, having suffered a traumatic chest wound.

"Paramedics performed CPR and a number of other critical interventions at the scene before loading the patient for transport to Westmead Hospital, unfortunately despite best efforts he couldn't be resuscitated," he said, in a statement.

"There's no doubt this would have been a very confronting scene for the dozens of witnesses who were out to enjoy an evening at the Royal Easter Show."

Carnival area still closed

The adult carnival area remains closed today, though the rest of the show will stay open.

The Royal Agricultural Society said anybody who had a Tuesday pass to the show could use it on any other day instead if they chose to.

Anybody with reserved seating who chooses to not attend will be offered a full refund if they contact ca********@************om.au.

In a statement, the RAS, which runs the Show, said it was "shocked and saddened" by the incident and extended its sympathies to the death teen's loved ones and friends.

The RAS said it would work with police to ensure show-goers would be safe, but that there was already a "massive" police presence at the event.

It is nonetheless set to be "ramped up" for tomorrow night, Sydney Royal Easter Show general manager Murray Wilton said.

Police appealed for anyone with footage or information to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or at the website.

Australia's minister for the Pacific is making an urgent pre-election dash to the Solomon Islands to discuss the country's possible security agreement with China.

The trip by Minister for International Development and the Pacific Zed Seselja comes weeks after it emerged the Solomon Islands government proposed a deal that would allow Chinese naval ships to be based there.

"My discussions will include the proposed Solomon Islands-China security agreement. The visit follows recent dialogue and visits between the Solomon Islands Government and Australian officials," Mr Seselja said in a statement.

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"Direct engagement has been ongoing, including discussions between Foreign Minister Payne and Solomon Islands Foreign Minister Manele, as well as my own discussions with Pacific family partners in Brisbane over the weekend ahead of the Our Ocean Conference in Palau.

"Solomon Islands is a valued member of our Pacific family. We respect the right of Solomon Islands to make sovereign decisions about its national security."

Mr Seselja emphasised in his statement the role of the Solomon Islands in meeting "the security needs" of the Pacific, including the geopolitical security of Australia.

"Our view remains that the Pacific family will continue to meet the security needs of our region," he said.

Meanwhile, Australia's top political leaders have gone head to head over the possibility of Beijing establishing a naval base in the Solomon Islands.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison played down fears over the international powerplay while Opposition leader Anthony Albanese questioned why Australia has not done more to stop the deal.

Defence Minister Peter Dutton has previously said that Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare had been clear China would not be allowed a military base in the Pacific nation, after news of a security pact between the two countries emerged.

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Mr Morrison today backed that claim, saying it was not something Mr Sogavare "would allow to occur".

"And we're continuing to press on the issue of rotation, possible rotation of vessels or others, that might seek to go to Solomon Islands," he said.

"That's a serious issue that we'll continue to press."

Mr Albanese said Australia needed to strengthen its friendships in the Pacific.

"Why wasn't a minister dispatched to the Solomons?" he said.

"Australia needs to step up, not just in a title, we need to step up in reality and develop those relationships with the Solomons and other nations in the Indo-Pacific."

Mr Morrison said it was Australia's position to respect its neighbours in the Pacific.

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"There was a long time when Australia used to treat the Pacific as an extension of own our country. They didn't like it," he said.

"They didn't like being treated like that and nor should they."

He said Australia remained Solomon Islands' "first call" for security aid.

Defence Minister Marise Payne also pointed out that the Pacific region was becoming increasing important to the US, with Secretary of State Anthony Blinken conducting a recent tour of the region, including meeting with leaders in Fiji.

"The US is a strong supporter of the Pacific Island Forum and in that meeting, in Fiji, they also announced the establishment of a new embassy in (Solomon Islands capital) Honiara," she said.

"I think that is walking the walk and talking the talk in terms of their engagement and investment in the region."

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A cyclist has died after being hit by a tow truck in Melbourne's north this afternoon.

The male cyclist was travelling north along Melville Road in Pascoe Vale South at about 1.30pm when he was hit by a truck at the intersection of Brearley Parade, according to police.

The 43-year-old Brunswick West man died at the scene.

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The male truck driver stopped at the scene and is assisting police with their investigation.

Nobody else was injured in the collision.

The exact circumstances surrounding the collision are yet to be determined and investigations are ongoing.

The truck appeared to have been turning onto Melville Road when the crash occurred.

Melville Road has been closed for much of the afternoon, impacting tram services as well as drivers.

Anyone who witnessed the collision, or has dashcam footage or further information is urged to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or submit a confidential report at www.crimestoppersvic.com.au.

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