Aishwarya Aswath wanted to be a teacher. She loved art and the news, even going so far as to record herself introducing the weather as a TV presenter.

Then the bubbly seven-year-old with a bright smile went from healthy to critically ill in just a couple of days.

Her parents claim they were ignored in their hour of need.

"I've lost my daughter," distraught father Aswath Chavittupara said.

"This should never happen to any other child in this country."

READ MORE: Top doctor warns of new COVID-19 virus targeting the young

Aishwarya developed a fever on Friday and on Saturday the couple took her to Perth Children's Hospital.

They said her condition deteriorated rapidly, her eyes cloudy and hands cold.

Mother Prasitha Sasidharan said she told doctors what was happening with her daughter's eyes was not normal and was told a doctor would come to investigate.

As Aishwarya's condition worsened, the couple from Morley in north-east Perth pleaded for help but told 9News medical staff ignored them.

"I actually went to the reception four or five times and I asked them to look at her," Ms Sasidharan said.

"I was begging."

READ MORE: Woman escaped Brisbane hospital quarantine in the middle of the night

The family said by the time doctors looked at little Aishwarya it was too late. She died within hours of treatment beginning. 

The family is calling for an urgent review into how the emergency department is run, to stop this happening to any other child.

"They actually failed to find out that this is an emergency, that's the main thing, and it shouldn't happen to anyone else," the little girl's mother said.

The hospital has begun a review to discover the cause of death and the coroner is also investigating.

Hospital management expressed its condolences to the family and offered to provide any support possible.

"The loss of a child is unbearable for any family and I've requested an urgent briefing from the Health Department to understand the circumstances surrounding the seven-year-old's death," Health Minister Roger Cook said in a statement.

The family of a man killed in a horror smash north of Perth is calling on the state government to reduce the speed limit on the notorious stretch of road.

Jared Smith was killed on Saturday when the Nissan X-trail he was driving collided with a Toyota Hilux when he was turning onto Indian Ocean Drive from Cervantes Road.

The father-of-three is the ninth person killed on the stretch of road in just over three years.

"If something had been done, I wouldn't be crying right now and I wouldn't be in pain," Mr Smith's sister, Sian Ceinwen, told 9News.

"I really, really hope there isn't a tenth family that has to go through this before something changes.

"He was one of my favourite people in the world. I started the weekend with a brother and ended the weekend as an only child."

The speed limit near the Cervantes turn off is 110km/h and the Smith family want that changed.

"Things can be changed so that another family isn't feeling this next weekend, feeling what we're feeling with the loss of our son," Mr Smith's father, Bob Smith, told 9News.

"Something has to be done. Reduce the speed limit … nobody wants anyone to be hurt, let alone killed."

Six people, including a baby, were injured in the horror smash. They were all flown to Perth hospitals.

The government says police and Main Roads will now review the speed limit.

A series of crashes in Sydney and surrounding major highways have served up "heavier than usual" Easter conditions, but traffic watchers in Brisbane and Melbourne are scratching their heads over one of the quietest Easter Mondays they've seen.

Australian Traffic Network reporter Trevor Collett said while NSW's South Coast fared reasonably well, there were significant problems on the Great Western and Hume highways.

The Hume was already busy when a four-car crash at Narellan, in Sydney's south-west caused delays from midday stretching into the evening, while a medical emergency closed the Great Western.

READ MORE: Traffic delays after truck tips and spills diesel on Sydney road

"It closed briefly for a medical emergency right at the point when it was already under the pump," Mr Collett said.

"And obviously the Great Western is going to continue struggling because of the closures on Bells Line of Road (stemming from the downpour that hit NSW last month)."

There were also major delays around Punchbowl in Sydney's west after a truck carrying two shipping containers full of plywood tipped, spilling diesel on the road.

Those crashes came after a horror long weekend in which at least 20 people were killed on Australian roads.

Overall, Mr Collett said the traffic was "probably heavier than usual" for an Easter Monday.

But things couldn't have been more different in Melbourne and Brisbane.

Victoria-based traffic reporter Jess Miller said the worst of the delays happened about 3-4pm on the major freeways heading into Melbourne, but even they were relatively quiet.

Neither the West Gate Bridge nor the Mornington Peninsula Freeway were their usual bumper-to-bumper Easter nightmare.

Ms Miller and her colleagues thought that would mean a big crunch later in the day but even that didn't eventuate.

"It's absolutely 100 per cent the quietest we've seen it after a long weekend … since I've been working in traffic," Ms Miller said.

While concerns about the coronavirus could provide a potential explanation, Victorian Tourism Industry Council chief executive Felicia Mariani told The Age operators were seeing "one of the best Easter seasons they have seen".

It was a similar story in south-east Queensland, where some accidents on the Bruce Highway heading back into Brisbane caused problems, but not the kilometres-long blockages holidaymaykers travelling back from the Sunshine Coast usually fear.

"We were quite surprised today. Obviously, it was quite busy but we thought it would be much busier late this afternoon," ATN traffic reporter Ben Mihan said.

"But obviously with the wet weather probably people decided to stay in. 

"It was probably the quietest Easter afternoon for four years, since I've been working here."

Mr Mihan said that could mean trouble for roads on Tuesday morning if travellers had chosen to make a late return.

A 43-year-old woman has died after getting half her body pinned in the pull-down chute of a charity bin at a Gold Coast shopping centre.

A cleaner found her lifeless body and called police to Stockland shopping centre at Burleigh Heads just after 7am today.

Detectives and forensic investigators have spent the day taking photographs of the scene and examining the woman's open ute, which was found parked next to the bin.

https://twitter.com/maccolahan9/status/1378843124395507713?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Firefighters were also called to the centre to help cut the bin open.

CCTV footage of the area has also been obtained, with investigators quickly ruling the incident as a misadventure and not suspicious.

The woman has not yet been formally identified.

The family of a 71-year-old Western Sydney man jailed overseas on trumped up charges are begging the Australian Government to help bring him home.

Fears are growing over the deteriorating health of Chau Van Kham, a retired baker from Berala with several medical conditions, as he languishes in difficult conditions in Thu Duc prison in Vietnam.

His wife and two adult sons have repeatedly appealed to Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne for help since he was arrested just over two years ago.

"I miss him a lot and want him to come back soon," his wife Quynh Trang Truong told 9News through tears.

READ MORE: 'Don't want him to die there': Plea from son of retiree jailed in Vietnam

"He's always been the rock of our household and it kind of fell apart, when they took him away," added their son Dennis Thong Kham Chau.

Mr Van Kham has lived in Sydney for 40 years, raising a family and running a successful bakery and laundromat.

Devoted to his adopted homeland, he advocates for democracy – a belief that has landed him in jail.

The family fears he will die soon unless the government intervenes in his imprisonment, which has been condemned by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.  

Mr Van Kham's barrister Michael Polak, an international lawyer based in London, is making a submission on the case to the United Nations.

"He should be enjoying his retirement in Sydney," Mr Polak said.

"We call on the Australian Government to raise this at the highest level." 

Mr Van Kham was visiting Vietnam when he was arrested on "terrorism" charges for being a member of the pro-democracy organisation Viet Tan.

He had met with another member of the group when he was detained in January 2019 in Hoi Chu Minh City.

His case went to trial 10 months later – but he wasn't told the allegations he was facing beforehand, was forbidden from meeting a lawyer privately and the Australian Consulate was not allowed into the courtroom.

With no independent witnesses nor evidence of violence, Mr Van Kham was convicted of "Terrorism to Oppose the People's Government" and sentenced to 12 years imprisonment.

Viet Tan is described by the UN as "a peaceful organisation advocating for democratic reform".  

Mr Van Kham was also fined for using a fake ID to cross into Vietnam from Cambodia – an offence he and his legal team does not dispute.

He suffers from glaucoma, high blood pressure, prostate problems, cholesterol and kidney stones and needs medication.

Mr Polak argues Mr Van Kham's detention is arbitrary as he was convicted for his beliefs rather than anything he had actually done.

"There's no evidence he's committed any offences, just that he's a member of this group, described by the United Nations, as a peaceful democratic movement and that's why he's convicted," he said.

The family's Sydney solicitor Dan Nguyen said Mr Van Kham has always been a hard-working family man who paid his taxes and values the Australian way of life.

"He's 71 soon to be 72," she said. "If nothing's done, he will die in jail." 

The legal team is timing the UN submission to coincide with Liberation Day on 30 April, a date when pardons are traditionally granted in Vietnam.

Thu Doc prison, located about three hours out of Ho Chi Minh City, is known for hard labor and cramped conditions.

Mr Van Kham's former cellmate Michael Phuong Minh Nguyen, a US citizen who was released four months ago after the US Government intervened in his case, told 9News he was worried about his friend coping in jail.

"Any prison is horrible, but in Vietnam it's worse," he said. 

Mr Van Kham arrived in Sydney in 1982, after fleeing Vietnam by boat.

In a written statement to 9News, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it was providing consular assistance to Mr Van Kham and that the Government of Vietnam was aware of its interest in his case and welfare.

Police have released the name of the man who died following a crash between a car and a motorcycle on State Highway 38, near Rerewhakaaitu, on Saturday.The motorcyclist was Tony Lars Hansen, 52, of Rotorua – one of seven people…

A magnitude 6.1 earthquake has struck off the East Coast.The quake had a depth of 22km and GeoNet has described the shaking intensity as moderate.It hit at 7.37pm on Easter Monday, about 120km east of Te Araroa. A second Easter…

By RNZ Two repeat pāua poachers have been banned from fishing, both for three years.A Lower Hutt man and a Napier man were sentenced last week, in unrelated cases, for repeatedly taking excess and undersize pāua.Ionatana…

By RNZ Fines totalling $4000 have been handed down to three people who illegally took shellfish from a closed beach in Auckland.There are 18 signs up at Eastern Beach warning that it is closed to shellfish gathering, to rebuild…

A woman’s claims for $13,930 in lost wages for work done on her ex-partner’s father’s dairy farm has been dismissed by the Employment Relations Authority.Identified only as LA by the authority, the woman claimed she was employed…