An unremorseful business owner has been jailed for tying a ligature around a kangaroo's neck and dragging it along a road, causing severe deformities.

Michael Anthony Holmes, 61, was sentenced at Queanbeyan Local Court today after he pleaded guilty last December to committing an act of aggravated animal cruelty.

Holmes was handcuffed and escorted into custody after receiving a 15-month jail sentence, with a non-parole period of eight months.

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Magistrate Roger Clisdell said Holmes' lack of remorse, combined with the seriousness of the offending, meant he posed too great a risk to the community.

This left him with no other option but to impose an immediate jail sentence, the court heard.

"The kangaroo had to be euthanised. (Holmes) caused immense suffering to the animal," the magistrate said.

"That sort of behaviour is just absolutely appalling."

Tendered court documents state Holmes saw a female kangaroo lying down and struggling to get up on the fence-line of his rural property near Bywong, in the NSW Southern Tablelands region, about 7am on April 13, 2025.

Nine hours later, he returned to the scene and tied a nylon rope around the animal's neck, attaching the other end to his vehicle before dragging the roo 400 metres down the road.

Holmes detached the rope, but left a fastened ligature around the kangaroo's neck.

The animal was still alive but severely deformed when a woman discovered it and called Wildcare, an animal rescue organisation.

The kangaroo suffered severe lacerations to its rib and hip area, consistent with being dragged along a road, court documents state.

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It died shortly after being taken by rescuers.

Police were called and inspected the embankment, finding tyre marks mixed with blood and rope at the scene.

Officers went to the home on the property and spoke to Holmes, who made full admissions to the offence and showed no remorse, the court heard.

He told police he moved the animal so it "wouldn't die on his property" and attract maggots, describing kangaroos generally as "complete vermin" and "jumping rats".

"He simply thinks kangaroos have no rights … no entitlement to treatment," Clisdell said of the offender.

The magistrate said Holmes had hours to call a rescue organisation, but instead chose cruelty against an animal he considered a "pest".

"He has made admissions, but he's not sorry about it. That gives me the very strong impression that he would do it again," Clisdell said.

A photograph of the kangaroo showed the severity of the injuries, with a large portion of its fur stripped off its side.

Wildcare Queanbeyan micropod co-ordinator Natalie Patrick said the sentence was a "huge win" for animal rights.

"His custodial sentence will hopefully deter other people from committing these senseless acts of cruelty and torture against wildlife," she told AAP.

The offender will become eligible for parole in October.

The woman said she went ‘ragey feral mum’ at the teen boys in a bid to get them to stop.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has brushed off the Coalition's plan to punish anyone helping the 34 Australians in Syria with alleged ties to the Islamic State to return home, as calls grow to show the children compassion.

The Coalition today unveiled a new proposal to criminalise helping anyone linked to terrorist organisations after the cohort of 11 women and 23 children tried to return to Australia earlier this month but were turned back due to unspecified procedural problems.

Opposition Leader Angus Taylor said his proposed law would target "terrorist sympathisers" and "shut the door" on those bringing hate and violence to Australia.

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"Labor needs to be up-front with the Australian people about what is going on here, but most of all, Labor needs to support this legislation, which will help to protect Australians and protect our way of life," he said.

Taylor, when pressed about the criteria for a potential prosecution, said it would revolve around someone who visited a "designated hot spot" for terrorism or supported a terrorist group, such as the Islamic State.

"It is already illegal for someone to visit a terrorist hotspot or to support a terrorist organisation," he said.

The proposed law would allow for some exemptions.

The opposition will introduce the legislation when parliament returns on March 10.

Laws introduced by the Morrison government in 2019 allow temporary exclusion orders to be applied to anyone deemed a national security threat from returning to Australia from overseas.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has used one such order to ban one of the women from returning, but admitted to the ABC yesterday that ASIO did not believe the other 33 met the criteria to be temporarily banned.

He added that they all hold Australian passports, as none of them could legally be denied from obtaining the documents.

The federal government has insisted it is not helping to repatriate the group. 

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When asked about the proposal from the opposition, Albanese said the Coalition "don't have serious plans" to deal with the situation.

"We, of course, have [legal] advice, but it's the same advice that the Coalition got, which is why the laws that are in place are the laws put there by the Coalition," he said.

"They pretend that the Constitution doesn't exist. They know that there are some limits on what can be done."

NSW Premier Chris Minns today revealed he has been working with the federal government about the group's potential arrival since late last year. 

He said up to a third of the cohort would settle in NSW and he would have sympathy for the children if they were to return to Australia.

"If they were to return to NSW, then I think we need to be transparent, the NSW government would educate them, and we would make sure that they were safe," he said.

"I worry about where these children will be in the years ahead, and I worry about what the consequences of doing nothing for them if they did return to Australia would be."

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Greens' home affairs spokesperson Senator David Shoebridge said the 23 children in the Syrian camps are victims of ISIS.

"They had no choice in going to Syria to have their childhoods devastated like this," he said.

"It is shocking that both Angus Taylor and Anthony Albanese are failing a moral test that was set by Scott Morrison, who said when he assisted children to return in 2020 that 'these young children who are coming back to Australia, they can't be held responsible for the crimes of their parents'."

Shoebridge added that the group will return to Australia, and that it was a matter of how.

"Will it be in an orderly and monitored way where Australian agencies can integrate people back into the community and monitor community safety, or will it be an unplanned and risky mess?" he asked. 

Save the Children Australia, an organisation that has called for the children's repatriation and provided them with humanitarian aid, said any attempt to criminalise advocacy would be "extraordinary".

"No Australian child should be left stranded in dangerous desert camps for seven long years, and both sides of government have previously recognised this by repatriating groups of Australian children and women in the past," chief executive Mat Tinkler said.

"We call on political parties to dial down the political rhetoric. It is time to show leadership and compassion for Australian children."

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Australian governments have repatriated Australian women and children from Syrian detention camps on two occasions.

Other Australians have also returned without government assistance.

The group of 34 Australians are expected to make a second attempt to fly back to Australia. 

They are part of the women and children affiliated with former IS fighters who have been detained in camps since the terrorist group lost control of its territory in Syria in 2019.

Though defeated, the group still has sleeper cells that carry out deadly attacks in both Syria and Iraq.

– Reported with Associated Press

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Australia's peak union body has used a federal Senate inquiry to argue giving landlords tax discounts is hurting everyday workers.

The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) is calling for an overhaul of capital gains tax concessions on property to "help drive a fairer housing system".

ACTU President Michele O'Neil told a Senate inquiry into the tax break the current tax discount "privileges professional landlords and hurts working Australians who are being priced out of home ownership".

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"Australian workers need a tax system that doesn't reward wealth more than it does work," O'Neil said.

"Too many workers can no longer afford to live near where they work, leaving them stuck with long and costly commutes and less time to spend with their families.

"Under our proposal to scale back the CGT discount, a first-time home buyer would be more likely to win out against professional landlords and be able to get into home ownership.

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"We need these changes now because a growing number of workers may never be able to save enough for a deposit while accelerating rents and house prices outpace the money they can save each week."

The ACTU wants the CGT discount scaled back from 50 per cent to 25 per cent, saying the discount "has become a tax minimisation scheme allowing the very rich to pay lower rates of tax by investing in the property market".

Its submission to the inquiry also calls for restrictions on negative gearing tax breaks.

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It wants both concessions limited to only one investment property.

Speculation is growing about whether the government will overhaul the CGT discount for investment properties as the centrepiece of the May 12 federal budget.

The inquiry has received dozens of submissions, including one from NSW Treasury calling for reform due to the damaging effect it says it has on housing affordability and home ownership.

A report claims 24,000 millionaires accounted for almost half the beneficiaries of the controversial tax break.

Oxfam Australia found the thousands of people who made over $1 million in 2022-23 gained an average of $271,000 from the 50 per cent capital gains tax discount on profits from the sale of assets, likely property.

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The Parliamentary Budget Office has estimated the CGT discount will cost the country $247 billion in forgone revenue over the next 10 years.

Greens Senator Nick McKim, who is leading the Senate inquiry into the discount, has described the policy as the "most unfair tax rort in the country".

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His death has sparked violent scenes across the country.

Te Whero went viral after singing Queen’s I Want to Break Free in 2020.

DoC says the mother may carry the dead calf for days or even weeks.

The woman is on trial and accused of deliberately making her child sick.

Former prime minister Scott Morrison is among dozens of people being sought by government lawyers as they build a defence against a compensation claim by Brittany Higgins' former boss.

The former Liberal leader was ensnared in Fiona Brown's case after she alleged he made a false statement to parliament after the Higgins rape scandal erupted in 2021.

Brown, a former staffer in Morrison's office, is suing the Commonwealth for damages, saying the government gagged her from responding to accusations about her handling of Higgins' claims.

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She held a leadership role in the then-prime minister's office in February 2021 and was chief of staff to then-senator Linda Reynolds in 2019 when Higgins says a fellow Reynolds staffer raped her in Parliament House.

Her lawsuit returned to the Federal Court today when Justice Nye Perram ordered mediation in late April or early May after the Commonwealth filed its defence.

The federal government's barrister, Matthew Minucci, asked for additional time to prepare the document, saying his client needed to contact the 32 people named in Brown's lawsuit, including Morrison.

Brown's amended statement of claim was filed in late November.

Perram agreed to hold two separate hearings for the matter, first on arguments about the government's liability for the alleged failures and the amount of damages it will have to pay.

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A second hearing on penalties will then be held if the government does not successfully defend the lawsuit.

In a 106-page court filing, Brown alleges she was sidelined from leadership meetings and the then-prime minister refused to talk to her after the scandal broke in early 2021.

The documents then claim Labor later used question time to probe Morrison about claims Brown had not supported Higgins, leading the prime minister to say: "I have had these conversations with the member of staff".

"I have discussed with her those matters and the support provided to her at the time in the messages that were sent to her," he told parliament.

Morrison subsequently spoke briefly with Brown for the first and only time, she claims.

"We've spoken, haven't we?" he allegedly said.

The filing said a "bewildered" Brown responded "yes" and Morrison walked off.

"(Brown) complained that she felt frightened, intimidated and distressed by prime minister Morrison," the filing said.

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The former prime minister has been contacted for comment.

The ex-aide also accuses Morrison and his top-level advisers of stopping her from personally responding to allegedly false allegations made by Higgins.

Higgins' appearance on Network Ten's The Project included identifying Brown by name and accusing her of misconduct for the mishandling of the rape, the documents said.

Brown also claimed that, contradicting Higgins' claim was a text she allegedly sent to Brown, thanking her for her support immediately after the rape.

Suing under the Fair Work Act, Brown alleges the federal government scapegoated and sidelined her, causing her psychological injury to the point she attempted suicide.

In an earlier Federal Court case, Justice Michael Lee found she had shown compassion and integrity in her handling of Higgins' complaint but she had been unfairly "vilified as an unfeeling apparatchik" seeking to cover up a crime.

Lee's finding that, on the balance of probabilities, Bruce Lehrmann raped Higgins was confirmed by the full Federal Court in December.

Lehrmann's criminal trial was derailed due to juror misconduct.

Lifeline 13 11 14

Beyond Blue  1300 22 4636.

A man who strangled his ex-partner in a hotel room made a pathetic attempt to revive her before making a cowardly escape.

Mary Benedito, 25, died in hospital after being violently assaulted by Reo Te Whetu Marama Marsh at a Gold Coast apartment complex on November 27, 2021.

Marsh, 39, faced Brisbane Supreme Court today for sentencing after pleading guilty to murder.

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Benedito had been subject to blunt force assaults and died of a brain injury caused by manual strangulation, Justice Lincoln Crowley heard.

"She had significant bruising to (her) arms, forearms, shoulders and fingers referred to as defensive injuries," crown prosecutor Nathan Crane said.

The couple were separated and had been arguing about Benedito's plan to move to New Zealand and her seeing other men.

"It's no explanation for his conduct," Crane said.

The couple could be seen on CCTV earlier in their holiday on the Gold Coast swimming and shopping.

Marsh fled their hotel room after fatally wounding Benedito and travelled to a suburb in Brisbane while attempting to evade a police search.

"He attempted to run a short distance from his arrest," Crane said.

Crane said Marsh had pleaded guilty to murder on the basis that he assaulted Benedito with intent to cause her grievous bodily harm.

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Benedito brought warmth, energy and care to any space she entered, her cousin Josiah Benedito-Taotafa said in a victim impact statement.

"She was humorous, totally confident in her values and deeply compassionate," he said.

Benedito's family had faced long hours moving between hope and dread as she lay in intensive care for three days before the decision to turn off life support.

"My family has seen their faith shaken, their health decline and a collective struggle to navigate grief, shock and trauma," Benedito-Taotafa said.

Benedito's sister said she never thought she would have to bury her younger sibling.

"Her greatest achievement was being a mum, and he took that from her," the sister said.

Benedito's aunty Maria, who had helped raise her as a child, said she would always be heartbroken.

"Seeing her black and blue with tubes keeping her alive broke our family into pieces," she said.

Marsh had daily regrets and self-hatred for taking what could not be replaced, he wrote in a letter to Benedito's family.

"The unfairness of my actions are too severe to ask for forgiveness," Marsh said.

Marsh's barrister said his guilty pleas had saved the family the trauma of a trial and he was genuinely remorseful.

Justice Crowley told Marsh he had dragged Benedito back to their hotel room and made a "pathetic" attempt to revive her before his cowardly escape when paramedics arrived.

"You used substantial force to do so. You smothered her at the same time you strangled her," he said.

"All this happened because you became angry … you sought to control her life."

Marsh was sentenced to life imprisonment.

He will be eligible for parole in under 16 years due to time already served in custody.

Support is available by 1800 RESPECT on 1800 737 732, Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Men's Referral Service on 1300 766 491.

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