An infrastructure boss has conceded a tunnel boring exercise in Melbourne's north-east contributed to a massive sinkhole that opened up on a nearby sports oval yesterday.

The collapsed turf was seen at AJ Burkitt Oval in Heidelberg yesterday afternoon and overnight.

Victorian Infrastructure Delivery Authority (VIDA) chief executive Duncan Elliott admitted two tunnel boring machines digging underground as part of the North East Link are located just metres from where the gaping hole emerged.

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"We are actually confident that the tunnel boring machines have been a contributing factor, not necessarily caused the problem, but certainly a contributing factor and that's part of the investigation," he said.

An exclusion zone has been created around the sinkhole and tunnelling has been paused while VIDA investigates the cause of the sinkhole, Elliott said.

"We won't be restarting operations until such time as [the investigation] is complete and it's policed by Worksafe and ourselves to ensure all plans and processes are [followed]," he said.

Meanwhile, local sporting clubs are scrambling to find replacement locations to keep their competitions running.

Banyule Cricket Club president Brad Bowler said at least 14 teams in his club would be impacted by the sinkhole.

"It's a really busy part of the surrounds down here and to have this taken away from us for a week, or heaven knows how long, is going to cause a lot of disruption," Bowler said.

"It's going to cost us a lot of money revenue wise …but you've got to move and just make sure everyone's safe.

"It's really disappointing what's happened…It's not good for what we're trying to promote down here, which is getting people out and active."

Local resident Chez Raccosta said he often heard construction work on the North East Link at night, but the noise was "nothing too overbearing".

"We came here all the time, it's a little bit nervewracking," he said of the reserve.

"I'm not sure I should be standing too close to it, but I've got faith in the engineers around here; they know what they're doing."

Locals gathered at the site last night, before police taped the area off, with authorities urging people to stay away.

Nobody was injured as a result of the sinkhole, a North East Link spokesperson told 9News.com.au.

"No injuries have been reported and there is no immediate threat to the community or residential properties," the spokesperson said.

"The area has been secured and crews are closely monitoring the site and surrounding areas – and we strongly advise people to avoid the area while investigations into the cause are underway."

Banyule City Council also confirmed on social media it was aware of the sinkhole and that it was "working closely with relevant agencies to assess the situation and determine what's next".

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Vic Emergency warned that the sinkhole might grow in size and echoed advice for people to stay away.

No further plans on repairing the sinkhole have been announced.

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Frustrations mount as questions around accountability arise.

Graham Garnett, 66, was expected to return on December 30 but has not been seen.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will not rule out a royal commission into antisemitism and the Bondi Beach terror attack, insisting the government is doing everything it can to promote unity within the community.

Speaking from the flood-affected town of Cloncurry in Queensland's north-west this afternoon, Albanese did not unequivocally rule out establishing a royal commission, appearing to bend to growing pressure to hold one.

"We're continuing to examine everything else that is required, working with the (Jewish) community," he said.

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"I continue to be engaged with leaders in the Jewish community. I'm talking and meeting on a daily basis with people to make sure that we do everything that is possible.

"What we need to do is to promote unity at this time, and that is my focus."

Albanese has ordered a review into intelligence and law enforcement agencies, to be led by former Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) Director-General Dennis Richardson.

He said "priority one" is the immediate needs of the Richardson review.

Albanese said the second priority will be recalling parliament once the required legislation was obtained.

"To take strong action against hate speech (and) to strengthen the laws that we have put in place.

"We're continuing to examine everything else that is required."

Albanese has so far resisted calls to hold a royal commission, despite widespread support for one.

"He does need to call this Commonwealth royal commission because it's the only way we can get the answers in this country that people are calling out for," Deputy Opposition Leader Sussan Ley said.

Labor MP Jerome Laxale also called for timely action. 

"If we need to go further, we should go further, but right now we need a quick response," he said.

A joint agency taskforce is currently working on new hate speech laws.

Albanese is expected to recall parliament early to have the new laws passed.

"We are making sure we get this legislation right. We are consulting, as you would expect," he said.

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Long-serving Nationals Senator Ron Boswell has died at the age of 85.

Boswell, who was born in Perth but spent most of his life in Queensland, was a Senator for the National Party for 31 years, and served as the party's leader in the upper house for 17 years.

He was a Parliamentary Secretary under the Howard government, and also held multiple portfolios when in opposition, including the Shadow Minister for Regional Development.

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Boswell was also the Father of the Senate from 2008-2014.

Nationals Leader David Littleproud paid tribute to Boswell, calling him fiercely loyal to the party and to Australia.

"Ron was a Nationals Elder and statesman of the highest order, a giant of our great cause, and a lifelong fighter for families, small business and regional and rural Australia," he said.

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"Ron Boswell was truly a one-of-a-kind politician. His legacy leaves behind a better Australia."

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also paid tribute to Boswell, calling him a "great Queenslander".

"He took principled stances about people who would seek to divide the nation. He was someone who was firmly focused on the national interest."

Boswell began his parliamentary career in 1983 after joining the Nationals nine years before, and won re-election on six further occasions before announcing his retirement from politics at the 2013 election.

He was a critic of same-sex marriage, and supported the creation of the Liberal National Party in Queensland after the 2007 election.

Boswell married Leila Beattie, who encouraged him to enter politics, in 1966. Beattie died in 2021.

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Since the dramatic capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, US President Donald Trump and senior members of his administration have issued warnings to several other governments, including those of Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, Iran and Greenland — a self-governing territory of Denmark.

"We are in the business of having countries around us that are viable and successful and where the oil is allowed to freely come out," Trump said.

"American dominance in the Western Hemisphere will never be questioned again."

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Here's what to know about what Trump has said in the past two days, and how some of those governments have responded.

Greenland

Trump repeated on Sunday (Monday AEST) that the US needed the huge North Atlantic island of Greenland "from the standpoint of national security".

"We need Greenland… it's so strategic right now. Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.

"We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it."

Responding to Trump's latest comments, Greenland Prime Minister Jens Frederik Nielsen said in a statement: "The current and repeated rhetoric coming from the United States is entirely unacceptable.

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"When the president of the United States speaks of 'needing Greenland' and links us to Venezuela and military intervention, it is not only wrong. It is disrespectful.

"Our country is not an object in great-power rhetoric. We are a people. A country. A democracy.

He later said in a press conference that Greenland was "not in the situation where we are thinking that a takeover of the country might happen overnight".

"You cannot compare Greenland to Venezuela. We are a democratic country," he said.

Trump has repeatedly stated that he wants to annex Greenland, a huge, resource-rich island of 2.16 million square kilometres, claiming that the autonomous Danish territory is needed for US national security, although he has also cited "economic security".

Both Greenland and Denmark, a NATO ally of the US, are staunchly opposed to the idea.

Colombia

Trump had harsh words for Colombian President Gustavo Petro on Sunday, describing him as "a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States, and he's not going to be doing it very long".

When pressed by a reporter on whether those comments meant there could be an "operation" in Colombia in the future, Trump said it "sounds good to me".

Petro defended his government's track record on combating drug trafficking in a nearly 700-word post on X, touting what he described as "the largest cocaine seizure in the world's history".

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He added: "I am not illegitimate, nor am I a narco. I only have as assets my family home that I still pay for with my salary."

Petro said he had ordered targeted bombings against drug-linked armed groups while adhering to humanitarian law.

However, cocaine production in Colombia has reached record highs, according to the the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

Petro, a former member of the M19 guerrilla group, later said he would himself fight to defend Colombia.

"I swore not to touch a weapon again … but for the homeland I will take up arms again."

Petro angered the Trump administration, which cancelled his US visa in September, after he called on US soldiers to disobey orders.

Cuba

Trump on Sunday said military intervention was unnecessary in Cuba, a key ally of Venezuela, because it was "ready to fall".

"I don't think we need any action," Trump said. "It looks like it's going down."

"I don't know if they're going to hold out, but Cuba now has no income.

"They got all their income from Venezuela, from the Venezuelan oil."

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But US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the Cuban government "a huge problem".

"I think they're in a lot of trouble, yes," Rubio told NBC's Meet the Press.

"I'm not going to talk to you about what our future steps are going to be and our policies are going to be right now, in this regard, but I don't think it's any mystery that we are not big fans of the Cuban regime."

"If I lived in Havana and I worked in the government, I'd be concerned."

At a rally on Saturday in front of the US Embassy in Havana, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel promised not to let the Cuba-Venezuela alliance go down without a fight.

"For Venezuela, of course for Cuba, we are willing to give even our own life, but at a heavy cost," Díaz-Canel proclaimed.

Mexico

Trump has frequently accused Mexico of not doing enough to clamp down on drug cartels.

On Sunday, he said drugs were "pouring" through Mexico and that "we're going to have to do something".

Trump added that the cartels in Mexico were "very strong" and warned that "Mexico has to get their act together".

In a phone interview with Fox News, Trump said he had asked Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum if she wanted the US military's help in rooting out drug cartels.

Sheinbaum has repeatedly rejected the US intervention in Venezuela and the seizure of Maduro.

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"Mexico reaffirms a principle that is neither new nor open to ambiguity," she said on Monday in a news conference.

"We categorically reject intervention in the internal affairs of other countries."

Responding to Trump's accusations that Mexico had not done enough to combat drug-trafficking cartels, Sheinbaum asserted: "Mexico co-operates with the United States, including for humanitarian reasons, to prevent fentanyl and other drugs from reaching its population, especially young people".

"We do not want fentanyl or any drug to get near any young person — whether in the United States, in Mexico, or anywhere else in the world."

Again rejecting the notion of US military action on Mexican soil, Sheinbaum said she did not think the United States was seriously considering an invasion of Mexico.

Iran

Trump also repeated his warnings to Iran, where anti-government protests have entered their second week.

"If they start killing people like they have in the past, I think they're going to get hit very hard by the United States," Trump told reporters Sunday.

Last week, Trump said that if Iran "kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to their rescue. We are locked and loaded and ready to go."

One Iranian human rights group estimated that 16 people had been killed in the protests so far.

CNN cannot verify that tally.

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At the end of last month, Trump warned Iran against any attempt to rebuild its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

After meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump said he had heard Iran was "behaving badly. … I hear that Iran is trying to build up again, and if they are, we're going to have to knock them down."

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said the ‌Islamic Republic "will not yield to the enemy" and that rioters should be "put in their place".

The US bombed several of Iran's key nuclear facilities in June, amid Israel's 12-day war against the country.

The attack ended what had been a stuttering process of bilateral US-Iranian talks designed to rein in Tehran's nuclear program.

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The Trump administration is doubling down over its claims of hegemony in the "Western Hemisphere", amid ongoing threats to attack or undermine neighbours the US claims to be a threat.

Taking to X earlier this morning, the US State Department posted a black-and-white photo of Donald Trump with the caption: "This is OUR Hemisphere, and President Trump will not allow our security to be threatened".

The assertions come as captured Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro faces court in the US for the first time following his audacious capture by US forces in Caracas.

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https://x.com/StateDept/status/2008221563888292207

US President Donald Trump has long insisted Maduro's regime is cooperating with "narco-terrorists" to smuggle drugs in the US, and last year built up a mass of US forces in the region.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, meanwhile, has recently claimed that Maduro's removal would prevent foes like Iran and Hezbollah from "operating" in Venezuela.

The incursion that captured Maduro was preceded by months of strikes on what the White House claimed were "drug boats", the legality of which has been questioned in the US.

Trump has, since Maduro's kidnapping, taken the opportunity to threaten other neighbours, whether ostensible friends or foes.

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The bullish foreign policy stance also comes on the back of mounting disapproval domestically, with Trump's ratings plummeting, and the continuing focus on the Jeffrey Epstein documents the administration has been ordered to release.

Cuba – a nation heavily reliant on Venezuelan oil – Colombia, Mexico, and Greenland have all been the subject of recent comments by Trump or Rubio.

Trump warned Colombian President Gustavo Petro to "watch his ass" and called him a "sick man".

He suggested Cuba's government would fall and again suggested the possibility of US military action in Mexico, while once more floating the possibility of unilaterally annexing Greenland.

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Rubio, meanwhile, posted on the White House website a self-compiled list of quotes given in recent interviews that build to suggest the US will continue to exercise its power in the "western hemisphere".

"We've seen how our adversaries all over the world are exploiting and extracting resources from Africa, from every other country. They're not going to do it in the Western Hemisphere," he said.

"That is not going to happen under President Trump. Read our national security strategy. He is serious about it."

It's a posture that harks back to the fifth US President, James Monroe, who established the Monroe Doctrine, which stipulates that the US will guard against foreign influence in its region.

"This is the Western Hemisphere," Rubio said in another interview.

"This is where we live – and we're not going to allow the Western Hemisphere to be a base of operation for adversaries, competitors, and rivals of the United States."

Trump had also referenced the 200-year-old policy, claiming that some in his administration were starting to reference the "Don-roe Doctrine".

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Exclusive: Pam Hemphill doesn't quite recognise the person who stormed the US Capitol alongside around 2500 others on January 6, 2021.

The Idaho grandmother, 72, was once a fierce Trump supporter – so loyal was Hemphill to the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement that she refused to accept the president's 2020 election defeat and joined the thousands.

Hemphill pleaded guilty to a misdemeanour count of parading, demonstrating or picketing at the Capitol Building and was sentenced to 60 days in prison.

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