The family of two girls who have died in hospital following a house fire in Townsville in North Queensland on the weekend say there are no words to describe the pain of losing them.

Evie, 13 and Hallie, two, were pulled from the burning two-storey home on Gum Court in Bushland Beach by first responders early on Sunday morning.

The girls were taken to Townsville University Hospital in a critical condition, where they died yesterday from their injuries.

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A statement released by the girls' family said they were devastated to confirm the girls had "passed away, surrounded by loved ones".

"There are no words to describe the pain being experienced by the girls' parents, Karah and Zac," the statement said.

"Both parents would like to thank friends, extended family and the wider community for the care, compassion and support shown during this incredibly difficult time.

"As the family grieves and supports their other children and loved ones, they kindly ask that their privacy is respected.

"Thank you for your understanding and kindness."

A fundraising page has been set up to support the girls' mother Karah, a nurse and single mother-of-four.

Two teenage boys were able to escape the fire.

The investigation into the circumstances of the fire is ongoing, but it is being treated as non-suspicious.

Anybody with informaton is urged to contact police.

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Parts of Australia that recorded temperatures of 50 degrees are forecast to soon receive a drenching, with storms and rain likely to impact every state and territory in the coming days.

This week, huge amounts of moisture have been building over northern and central Australia, reports weather channel Weatherzone.

Forecasters say it will trigger wet and stormy weather over the entire country during the weekend and possibly into next week, with flooding likely in some areas.

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Parts of northern and central Australia could record weekly rainfall totals of 100mm, while some areas might receive several hundred millimetres.

They include communities that sweated through temperatures over 40 degrees only a few days ago.

The South Australian town of Marree, where the mercury soared to 49.8 degrees last Thursday, could be soaked by 50mm to 100mm of rain by tomorrow.

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This downpour raises the chance of flooding and may cut off roads in central Australia.

The wet weather system may also raise a tropical low over Western Australia and the Northern Territory to tropical cyclone level, warns the Bureau of Meteorology.

Today the lower pressure system is forecast to move off the Kimberley coast in northern WA, and strengthen over the weekend as it tracks west.

The bureau is warning gales of up to 120km/h are possible for some coastal parts from late tomorrow.

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Speculation is building one of Australia's most controversial tax breaks will be overhauled as the centrepiece of this year's federal budget, with senior government ministers refusing to categorically rule out changes despite days of reports.

Under Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Labor has previously baulked at tinkering with the capital gains (CGT) discount following the party's particularly ill-fated attempt at the 2019 election.

But with young Australians becoming increasingly priced out of the property market, the budget desperately needing a way out of its structural deficit, and Treasurer Jim Chalmers speaking of the need to address the country's widening intergenerational divide, some signs are pointing towards a possible overhaul in the coming months.

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Why is the capital gains tax discount up for discussion?

Readers would be forgiven for thinking all of this is old news – the capital gains tax discount seems to become a major political flashpoint every couple of years.

It was only in late 2024 that reports emerged of the government directing Treasury to investigate a potential overhaul of the tax break.

This time, there are a couple of fresh factors at play. 

The first is a Greens-led Senate inquiry into the tax, which has received dozens of submissions and is due to report next month.

The second – and more significant – are reports, published first by the Australian Financial Review, that the government is considering changes to the CGT discount.

FROM 2024: What is negative gearing and why are calls to change it so controversial?

That, in turn, followed ALP national secretary Paul Erickson, the mastermind of Labor's last two election victories, hinting this year's budget on May 12 will include some significant, ambitious reform.

"You will see some pretty substantial contributions over the coming months from the PM and from the treasurer, and the lead-up to the budget that will set that out," he told the AFR over the weekend.

Senior Labor figures have since had the opportunity to categorically rule out the changes, but declined.

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Take a look at what Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said in October 2024, when he was asked to rule out changing the discount:

"I just did. And not only have I done that, the prime minister has made that clear."

Compare that to yesterday morning, when Marles was asked about capital gains once again but wasn't quite as demonstrative:

"Our position in respect of housing policy is clear. And that hasn't changed. And nor has our position in respect of the tax arrangements around housing. 

"And we've got to have more houses in this country and that is a real challenge."

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Why is the capital gains tax discount so controversial?

Alongside negative gearing, the CGT discount provides property investors with generous tax incentives at the same time as housing has become unaffordable for many, particularly young, Australians.

Introduced in 1999 by the Howard government, the policy allows investors to sell an asset they've owned for at least a year and to only be taxed on half of the profit.

While it applies to all types of assets, it has coincided with a significant increase in property prices:

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Unsurprisingly, the policy is popular with many Australians who have benefited from it over the past three decades, and a proposal to wind back the provisions has been widely cited as a reason why Labor lost the 2019 federal election.

But, at the same time as the concession is costing the nation's coffers around $23 billion a year – a number that will only rise – the government desperately needs to find new revenue for the federal budget, which is forecast to be stuck in the red for the foreseeable future.

Parliamentary Budget Office modelling commissioned in early 2024 by independent senators Jacqui Lambie examined five options for winding back both negative gearing and the CGT tax discount for property, all of which included so-called "grandfathering" provisions – that is, exemptions for existing property investors from the changes.

The analysis found reducing the concessions could save the federal budget between $15.6 and $59.9 billion over the next 10 years, while also making housing more affordable.

Leading economists including former Treasury secretary Ken Henry, Saul Eslake and Richard Holden have also thrown their support behind various changes to the CGT tax discount.

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Would any changes get through parliament?

One factor in the government's favour is that, if it does decide to go ahead with winding back the tax discount for investment properties, the overhaul would likely sail through parliament.

Labor easily has the numbers to get any bill through the lower house, and only needs the support of the Greens – who have long supported scrapping tax concessions for property investors – to get laws past the Senate, where the likes of Pocock and Lambie are also likely to lend their support.

"There's a real opportunity here for sensible reform to the capital gains tax discount on investment properties to incentivise the new housing supply our country so desperately need," Pocock said earlier this week.

"It won't solve housing affordability on its own but it will help."

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Now you see her, now you don't.

The face of Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni that was painted on a cherub in a church in Rome has been removed following outrage and an investigation by the country's cultural ministry.

Meloni's likeness appeared on the body of an angel following restoration works at the Chapel of the Holy Souls of Purgatory in the Basilica of St. Lawrence in Lucina, in central Rome.

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Although completed late last year, the issue came to light at the weekend when before and after photos posted on social media showed that the original angel's face had been replaced with an image that looked like the prime minister.

At first the volunteer restorer, Bruno Valentinetti, denied the claims, saying that he'd copied the original images from drawings.

But on Wednesday, he told La Repubblica newspaper that it was indeed the prime minister. However, he insisted that it was similar to the original artwork, the paper reported.

Valentinetti was tasked with smudging out his work, which has left a ghost-like white blob on the angel's body.

"I covered it up because the Vatican told me to," he told La Repubblica.

The Vatican has not weighed in publicly on the controversy.

The culture ministry, which ordered an investigation earlier this week, put out a statement on Wednesday about the removal of the image, saying that works in churches in Rome had to be pre-approved with drawings for proposed changes.

"In light of the removal of the face from the decoration in the chapel of the crucifix of San Lorenzo in Lucina, in agreement with the Minister of Culture, Alessandro Giuli, the Special Superintendent of Rome, Daniela Porro, has informed the rector of the Basilica that any restoration work requires a request for authorisation from the Ministry of the Interior's Fund for Places of Worship, which owns the property, the Vicariate, and the Special Superintendency of Rome, attaching a sketch of the image," the ministry wrote in a statement posted on its website.

Hundreds of visitors have visited the chapel in recent days to take photos of the image, the parish priest Father Daniele Micheletti said.

"I've always said that if it had created divisions, I would have had it removed," he told Sky Italia.

"From a regulatory standpoint, the painting could have remained there for a hundred years, but it has created too many divisions in the church."

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New polling tonight has exposed rising worker anxiety about the expanding use of artificial intelligence, as both the federal and state governments push to regulate the emerging technology

The Redbridge poll published by Unions NSW today shows 29 per cent of workers report being monitored by AI.

Another 24 per cent say AI is doing their rosters and 38 per cent think the risks of AI outweigh the benefits.

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The vast majority of those polled – 69 per cent – support tougher rules.

It's something both the federal government and NSW state government are both trying to push through.

Under new powers that have already passed the NSW parliament lower house, unions will be able to demand access to a business' AI software.

"They're entitled to ask, if it's not provided by an employer, then a court determines it," NSW Premier Chris Minns said in parliament today.

But businesses are warning the changes would give unions "spy powers" to sift through the emails of every company, cafe and corner store in the state.

Bran Black from the Business Council of Australia warned it would give unions personal data employees might not want them to have access to.

"It is dangerous in the context of the access that it affords to union officials," Black told 9News.

"To personal data, to emails, to HR systems, to payroll systems, to confidential information."

Businesses fear it would over-regulate AI and scare off investors, as well as delaying major housing and infrastructure projects. The laws are expected to pass through the upper house next week.

'Specific AI tax' for reskilling

The federal government has the first phase of an AI plan but everyone in Parliament House acknowledges the plan will need to change as the technology changes, and that will require a new level of agility.

"As we look to greater take up of AI in the workplace, that needs to be worked through with workers and unions," Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said.

While AI promises increased productivity, it will also bring disruption, lay-offs and the need for reskilling or retraining.

"What we know is, if AI is done the right way and workers are involved you get much better outcomes," Australian Council of Trade Unions president Michele O'Neil told 9News.

The Albanese government has made fee-free TAFE a cornerstone of two campaigns – hoping to address the skills shortage in technology and AI sectors – as governments around the world weigh up what's next.

Tech pioneer Bill Gates says from the victor should come the spoils.

"You might have a specific AI tax to raise money from the winners to support the losers," Gates told Nine's Charles Croucher this week.

The unions say all options should be considered.

"They need to pay for the intellectual property they're sometimes stealing," O'Neil said.

"But they also should pay for the training, and pay for the jobs they're creating."

Black said we haven't yet seen the "significant disruption as a consequence of artificial intelligence in the work place", in terms of jobs.

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Politicians faced relatively peaceful protests and persistent heckles in annual visit.

Hospital staff and paramedics "robbed" a 15-year-old boy of his best chance at survival by failing to intervene earlier after he suffered an allergic reaction, his grieving parents say.

Melbourne teen Max McKenzie died in August 2021 after suffering a cardiac arrest and an acute brain injury following his admission to hospital for an anaphylactic shock.

He was allergic to peanuts and tree nuts when he ate apple crumble at his grandmother's house.

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Neither Max nor his grandmother were aware the dessert contained nuts and he suffered an anaphylactic reaction soon after.

He told his mother he felt sick, and administered an EpiPen and ventolin as he also suffered from asthma, before his father Ben – an emergency physician – called an ambulance.

Max's condition deteriorated rapidly in the hours after and, while being loaded into an ambulance, he expressed concerns he was going to die.

He died in hospital on August 19 after scans found he had suffered an acute brain injury.

Victorian Coroner David Ryan held an inquest into Max's death and the interventions given to him in the lead-up and today found several steps were missed by medical professionals.

This included by paramedics, who failed to give him adrenaline at the earliest opportunity, and medical staff at Eastern Health's Box Hill Hospital, who did not intubate him soon enough.

Earlier and more adrenaline, and quicker establishment of an airway via intubation upon arrival at hospital, "would have given him the best opportunity for survival", the coroner said.

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"However, I am not satisfied that his death was preventable as a result of the treatment by paramedics and clinicians on that day," he said.

"It may have been, but I am not able to be comfortably satisfied that it was preventable."

Ryan said the circumstances were "rare and incredibly challenging" for all medical professionals.

He found a graduate paramedic should have driven the ambulance with lights and sirens to hospital, allowing her instructor and an intensive care paramedic to care for Max in the back.

The coroner recommended Ambulance Victoria review its guidelines for the treatment of patients with asthma and anaphylaxis, to ensure consistency in administration of adrenaline.

He also recommended graduate paramedics undergo emergency driving training before they hit the road, to ensure more experienced workers were in the back treating the patient.

Outside the court, Max's parents expressed their concern over missed opportunities to save their son's life.

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"It's been four-and-a-half years to get to these coronial findings, it's been a long journey," Dr McKenzie said.

"While not every aspect or concern we have about Max's care was able to be addressed today, the coroner found that Max should've got more adrenaline from Ambulance Victoria and he should've been intubated on arrival at Eastern Health Hospital.

"Those two things didn't happen, and they robbed Max of his best chance of survival.

"Max should not have died."

Dr McKenzie gave CPR to his son after he was taken to hospital on August 6, which he said should never have happened.

"I should never have had the opportunity to participate in Max's resuscitation because it should have been done before I got there and I think the coroner has highlighted that today," he said.

Max's mother said the hospital told them their care of the 15-year-old was "best practice and today the coroner has told us it wasn't", as she asked for a "heartfelt apology" from Eastern Health.

"Max was let down in so many ways, at so many points in time, and the coroner has found two points where Max's care was not appropriate and not OK," she said.

Ambulance Victoria and Eastern Health have been contacted for a response.

Police traced the offending after a tip-off led to a search of his home.

The bikes, worth a combined $4000, were stolen in Christchurch last weekend.

The federal government has praised the resilience of Australian writer Yang Jun, who has been detained in China since 2019, on an alarming anniversary.

The pro-democracy activist has been in jail for seven years on espionage charges and today marks two years since he was given a suspended death sentence by a court in Beijing.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong offered her thoughts to him and his family.

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"Today marks two years since Australian citizen, Dr Yang Jun, received a suspended death sentence in Beijing," she said today.

"Dr Yang has demonstrated remarkable resilience and fortitude in the face of great challenges for the past seven years of his detention.

"Today our thoughts are with Dr Yang and his loved ones. We want to see him reunited with his family."

Yang was detained in January 2019 on espionage charges after arriving in Guangzhou from New York.

He has maintained his innocence.

He was tried behind closed doors two years later, but a verdict was delayed until February 5, 2024, when he was given a suspended death sentence.

The federal government understands the sentence could be dropped to life in jail following two years of good behaviour. 

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There may also be an appeal process he is able to pursue.

But Yang's family and supporters grew concerned when he revealed he is suffering from a large cyst on his kidney.

They fear he could die in prison without adequate medical care. 

Australia's relationship with China has improved after the lifting of trade sanctions, diplomatic visits and the release of Australian journalist Cheng Lei from detention in 2023. 

Wong said the federal government was continuing to advocate for Yang at every occasion.

"The Australian government has made clear to China that we remain appalled by Dr Yang's suspended death sentence," she said.

"Dr Yang is entitled to basic standards of justice, procedural fairness and humane treatment, in accordance with international norms and China's legal obligations.

"We advocate consistently for Dr Yang's welfare and conditions."

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