The Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Festival has cancelled this year's official party, citing an "existential threat" and two years of significant financial losses.

Chief executive Jesse Matheson said the "difficult decision" was part of his mission to renew and reimagine the renowned LGBTQI+ celebration.

He said the festival had suffered "two years of significant financial loss" and the post-parade party – a $2 million "festival within a festival" – was a major contributor, having run at a loss every year since the COVID-19 pandemic.

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"This decision was not taken lightly," he said in a statement posted on the organisation's website this afternoon.

"Facing an existential threat to the future of Mardi Gras, and with new sponsorship uncertain, it was absolutely the right decision."

Matheson said all festival events had been cancelled except the parade, Fair Day, Laneway and the Glitter Club, but hailed community producers and cultural institutions for stepping in to bring back several others.

"The Mardi Gras Party, however, was always going to be the biggest challenge," Matheson said.

"For those unfamiliar with its scale, the Mardi Gras Party is an approximately $2 million event – effectively a festival within a festival. 

"At times, it has cost more to deliver than the Parade and Fair Day, while also being our most expensive ticketed event for the community. It has always been a significant undertaking."

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He pointed to capacity constraints after losing access to the Royal Hall of Industries, the party's financial performance, community feedback and changing demographics to justify the decision to "pause" the event for the year.

"As CEO, I could not continue to sell expensive tickets to an event I did not believe offered value for our community, honoured the Mardi Gras PARTY's legacy, or protected the organisation's financial future," he said.

The parade, which attracts tens of thousands of people from across Australia to watch more than 10,000 participants and more than 200 floats, and other key parts of the festival will go ahead.

This year's theme for is "Ecstatica", which Matheson previously described as "euphoria as resistance, a reminder that our collective queer joy is on a break from the battle".

The Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Festival runs from February 13 to March 1.

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Victorian residents have been treated to a rare sight after space junk, believed to be from one of Elon Musk's satellites, soared back into the earth's atmosphere.

The astronomical display initially looked like a meteor illuminating the sky about 5.27am AEDT – but Melbourne astronomers quickly identified it as a piece of space junk.

Observational Astronomer Associate Professor Michael Brown said the debris was likely a piece of Musk's Starlink-5103 re-entering the sky.

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"Starlink-5103 is a match in both position and being in the current TIP window," amateur astronomer and scientist Marco Langbroek added in a post on Bluesky.

Despite the simple explanation, early risers all over the state were still stunned to witness the piece of junk streak across the sky.

Keen-eyed stargazers filmed the satellite from multiple Victorian suburbs, including Hastings, Langwarrin, Sandringham and Mortlake.

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There is an easy way to tell the difference between space junk and meteors.

Space junk from satellites typically travel at a slower pace, at around eight kilometres per second, and move almost horizontally.

Meteors and shooting stars, meanwhile, can travel tens of kilometres per second.

This comparatively leisurely pace means observers can capture space junk on camera.

A growing number of satellites and space debris in orbit around Earth are impacting the night sky.

As of December 2025, there were currently 9357 Starlink satellites – owned by billionaire Musk's company SpaceX – in orbit.

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Around 10 of these satellites are working, according to astronomer Jonathan McDowell.

The Starlink satellites orbit around 550 kilometres above the earth and are designed to stay in the sky for between five and seven years.

Musk previously described Starlink as "rebuilding the internet in space".

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Exclusive: The mother of missing schoolgirl Bung Siriboon is living out her final days after a two-year battle with cancer.

The family has given 9News permission to publish the health update of Vannida, who was diagnosed with primary central nervous system lymphoma in 2024.

She has undergone multiple rounds of chemo but is now in palliative care.

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Those closest to the family say she may only have days to live and it's feared she may never know what happened to Bung.

"These could be her final days, you'd think someone would say something now to help a grieving mum," Bung's best friend from high school Dyamai Hillard said.

Hillard has started a GoFundMe page to help Fred, Vannida and Bung's sister Pang during this difficult time.

"Some answers would change everything, I think it would give Nid the closure and the space to pass on without that pain," she said.

"And Fred, hopefully to heal a bit better because how do you go thorugh life missing your daughter and losing our wife, watching her pass away slowly?"

Bung's stepfather, Fred Pattison, has also lost his niece and mother recently.

"The support for GoFundMe could even just ease a little bit of the burden so he could be present," Hillard said.

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"[It] could go towards a number of things, but most importantly help him be able to pay for her funeral."

Siriyakorn "Bung" Siriboon vanished while walking to school in 2011.

She left her Elsie Street home in Boronia about 8.30am on June 2, 2011.

She was seen by a neighbour a short time later in Elsie Street, walking towards Albert Avenue.

Bung did not arrive at school that day and has not been seen or heard from since. Investigators continue to hold grave fears for her safety.

This year marks 15 years since the schoolgirl vanished without a trace.

There is still a $1 million reward for anyone who has information.

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Rahul Gautum will testify that he never asked the woman to stay the night.

He said he didn’t realise he hurt anyone until the news reported a “champagne shanking”.

Crisis talks between Sussan Ley and David Littleproud are yet to resurrect the Coalition, despite an olive branch offer from the Liberals floating the opportunity of a party reunion.

The Nationals Leader today confirmed his party had received a written offer from Sussan Ley and the Liberals to resolve the party split, after their partnership was unceremoniously slashed earlier this month.

In "constructive conversations" with Littleproud last night, Ley said she was willing to realign with the Nationals, if three senators who crossed the floor on hate speech laws are suspended from shadow cabinet for six months.

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The Liberals' offer is also dependent on an agreement that neither individual party room can override shadow cabinet decisions, after Bridget McKenzie, Ross Cadell and Susan McDonald broke ranks to vote against the hate speech bill in the Senate

The senators were later dumped, leading the entire Nationals frontbench, including Littleproud, to quit in protest

Littleproud said the Nationals intend to "take our time to consider the details" of Ley's proposition.

"The Nationals are united in our endeavours to reset the Coalition, but we won't be providing updates on any negotiations through the media," he said.

"It's important we take the time to get the settings right."

If negotiations between the two embittered parties reach an agreement, the Coalition could re-form this week.

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But Littleproud is so far keeping tight-lipped on the future of the alliance, noting his party room "remains focused on the issues that matter to Australians, including protecting our rights and freedoms."

Members of both parties congregated at St Paul's Canberra church this morning for a traditional service to mark the beginning of the parliamentary year.

Nationals MPs there seemed to believe that a Hail Mary would be needed to soothe the rift between the parties.

"That's where we need divine intervention," LNP MP Scott Buchholz said.

"I'll be praying for that, that's exactly what I'll be praying for," Nationals MP Michael McCormack said of a Coalition reunion.

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“There must have been either wilful blindness or recklessness involved,” the judge said.

The RBA has effectively said it had no choice in making its dreaded decision.

But hospital staff said Zain Taikato Fox’s injuries weren’t consistent with their story.

Melbourne's Lord Mayor has described a poster of the accused Bondi shooter in the style of a popular street artist as "just sick".

A picture of alleged gunman Naveed Akram with the caption "Aussie" has been plastered in multiple locations in Melbourne's CBD.

The poster was designed in the same style as famous street artist Peter Drew's "Aussie" series and has been spotted in over 40 places in the city.

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Lord Mayor Nick Reece said Drew's iconic posters are a celebration of Australia's national identity and multiculturalism and decried the copycat posters as "absolutely abhorrent".

"His posters are a good example of the role contemporary street art can play in politics as a means of social activism," Reece said in a statement.

"For Drew's work to be hijacked and appropriated into images of hatred and division is absolutely abhorrent.

"To use the image of the Bondi shooter is just sick. Families are still grieving, the community is still grieving.

"There is no possible universe in which this can be seen as an artistic response to the original series."

Reece said his team has worked around the clock to remove the posters.

Racist and hateful material will be removed in Melbourne within one hour of being reported under a new city policy, the mayor added.

"Our approach is 'whatever it takes': we are not going to tolerate hateful, racist material on the streets of our city, for even one hour," Reece said.

Executive Council of Australian Jewry president Daniel Aghion told The Age the posters are a "devastating and disrespectful" blow to the victims of the Bondi attack.

"The Bondi terrorists will fade into history and their names will be forgotten," Aghion said.

"The people who will be remembered are the victims, the survivors, and the heroes who rushed in to help. They represent the true Aussie spirit."

Fifteen innocent people were killed and dozens more were injured when two gunmen opened fire from a footbridge overlooking the park in Bondi on December 14.

Akram has been charged with 59 offences.

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