A man has been charged after a sex worker was allegedly sexually assaulted and robbed at knifepoint in Sydney's north-west.

The woman was allegedly confronted by a man wearing a dark face covering when she answered the door at a unit on Blaxland Road in Ryde about 10.25pm on Saturday, November 1.

Detective Superintendent Jayne Doherty said the woman attempted to get away from the man but he forced his way inside and held her up against a wall.

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"He then dragged her by the hair into another room within the premises and produced a large knife from his pocket, which was held to her throat and threatened her, demanding money," Doherty alleged.

The woman allegedly then handed him money.

"Police will further allege the male dragged the woman throughout the unit into a number of those rooms before pinning her onto a bed, hitting her a number of times while he tried to sexually assault her.

"Police will further allege the male then choked the female by putting his hands along her throat and actually sexually assaulted her through that time.

"Police will allege the female attempted to run from the unit and was detained further by that male while he rummaged through the rooms in the unit."

Doherty said a short time later the man left the unit and the woman called triple zero.

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Police searched a home at Castle Hill in the city's north-west and arrested a 21-year-old man at about 8.15am yesterday.

He was charged with robbery, assault, and sexual assault offences.

The man was refused bail and has appeared in court today.

Doherty said the woman was the only person in the unit at the time.

"She luckily only sustained minor physical injuries, however is quite traumatised by the whole incident," Doherty said.

"We think about sex workers generally in different ways.

"To come forward and say this is what I was doing at the time and this is what happened to me, I want to acknowledge the strength this young lady has shown.

Doherty said crimes against sex workers were often underreported due to a reluctance to report incidents.

"It's very difficult for anyone to tell about a sexual assault, but I think there are other layers added to this, I acknowledge that she has done a very good job coming forward," Doherty said.

"There are support services for sex workers, there is the Sex Workers Outreach Program in NSW, but I want them to know that they will be supported by NSW Police as well."

Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).

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$100,000 could be slashed from the price of properties and rents also made significantly more affordable under an ambitious plan to drastically increase the number of homes built in Australia.

The proposal, put forward by independent think tank the Grattan Institute, calls on governments to allow three-storey townhouses to be built on residential land in capital cities without the need for planning permits.

It also says the same exception should apply to apartment blocks of up to six storeys near public transport hubs and "key commercial centres".

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Authors Brendan Coates, Joey Moloney and Matthew Bowes argued the changes – along with nine other recommendations put forward in the report – would help alleviate many of the issues that have caused Australia's housing crisis.

"Housing in Australia's major cities is among the least affordable in the world," they wrote.

"Restrictive planning controls add hundreds of thousands of dollars to the cost of new housing in our capital cities.

"For decades, Australia has failed to build enough homes in the places that people most want to live.

"Now we have a housing affordability crisis that is dividing families and communities and robbing young Australians of their best chance in life."

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By providing default approval for those townhouses and apartments, new construction projects would be able to avoid time-consuming council and other government processes that the authors argue overwhelmingly favour a lack of development.

"The key problem is that state and territory land-use planning systems say 'no' to new housing by default, and 'yes' only by exception," they wrote.

It would also help Australian cities significantly increase their levels of population density, which currently lag well behind those seen overseas.

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The report says the proposed changes would lead to 67,000 homes being built a year, which would, in turn, cut rents by 12 per cent and reduce median prices by $100,000 over a decade.

The authors also argue the proposal could reduce Australian greenhouse gas emissions by providing more people with shorter commutes and would boost the national economy by up to $25 billion a year in the long term.

"Building more homes where people most want to live will make housing cheaper and create wealthier, healthier, and more vibrant cities," the report states.

The recommendations come just days after new research from Cotality found the cost of a median Australian home hit a new record high of $872,538, driven by the fastest price rise in more than two years – despite interest rates remaining somewhat restrictive at 3.6 per cent since August.

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The Reserve Bank and other experts have consistently warned the housing crisis has been driven by a lack of supply.

RBA Governor Michele Bullock has cautioned that, even though governments are starting to make promising moves to address the lack of construction, it is likely to be at least two years before property starts to get more affordable for Australians.

While the federal government set a target of building 1.2 million new homes between last July and June 2029, it is already lagging well behind and faces little prospect of actually hitting that goal.

The Grattan report argues part of the problem is the $3.5 billion in incentives from the Commonwealth to the states for building more homes are poorly structured.

The authors said the federal government should pay those incentives in periodic instalments rather than a lump sum at the end of the five-year period, and that it should also pay the states to reform planning controls.

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Cybercriminals accused of funding North Korean weapons of mass destruction have faced financial sanctions and travel bans imposed by the Australian federal government.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong announced the government is working alongside the US to "starve" North Korea of money after it took action against four entities and one individual found to be funding the regime's unlawful weapons.

It comes as a report found North Korean actors stole an estimated $1.9 billion in cryptocurrency from companies around the world in 2024.

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"We all know the scale of risk and the threat that North Korea poses to the region," Wong said today.

"So we are always looking at ways to do more with other partners to put pressure on the regime, and starving them of funds is obviously a very important part of that."

Wong described the scale of North Korea's involvement in malicious cyber activities as "deeply concerning".

She called on the one-party state to abandon its "unlawful weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner".

"The Australia government is taking this action with the United States to apply pressure on North Korea's illegal revenue generation networks and address its persistent challenges to security and stability," Wong added in a statement.

"Australia will continue to work with international partners to respond to malicious cyber activity, promote the framework for responsible state behaviour in cyberspace and keep Australians safe."

The US has doled out similar punishments against cybercriminals supporting the creation of weapons of mass destruction.

The US State Department earlier this week sanctioned two entities and eight people alleged to have supported North Korea's schemes to launder funds.

It named Ryujong Credit Bank, Korea Mangyongdae Computer Technology Company and its president U Yong Su among those sanctioned.

The department said the US "strongly condemns" the activities of entities associated with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

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Exclusive: Apple's head of environmental initiatives Lisa Jackson has landed in Australia to announce some groundbreaking new projects and initiatives as part of their broader green commitments leading up to 2030.

As a company that already powers all its stores and offices with renewable energy, Apple is looking to take that one step further by ensuring the Australian power grid contains enough green energy to offset the usage of every single Apple product used by Aussies.

This begins with a new solar farm currently under construction in Lancaster, Victoria.

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This, along with other renewable projects in Australia, will generate over one million megawatt-hours of clean electricity every single year on the behalf of Apple device owners.

While Apple can't actually ensure that renewables are being used in the powerpoint at your home where your iPhone is plugged in, it can match the amount of power you use with renewable energy on the grid to tip the overall scales of the Australian energy market just a little further toward renewables.

"By 2030, we want our users to know that all the energy it takes to charge their iPhone or power their Mac is matched with clean electricity," Jackson, Apple's vice president of environment, policy and social initiatives, said.

"We're proud to do our part to support Australia's transition to a cleaner grid and drive positive impacts for communities and nature, all while moving closer to our ambitious goal to be carbon neutral across our entire footprint."

Apple has entered a long-term agreement with a company called European Energy, which enabled the commencement of the construction of the 80MW solar project in Victoria.

It will begin generating power in 2026.

Another quite intriguing initiative announced today is the transformation of 1700 hectares of formerly sugarcane farmland into a macadamia orchard with over 800,000 trees.

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This orchard, south of Bundaberg in Queensland, stretches eight kilometres on once-heavily farmed land to allow for native species.

Macadamia nuts have nothing to do with power generation because this is all part of a separate pledge by Apple known as the Restore Fund.

This seeks to help investment in nature-based carbon removal projects around the world to offset areas of the Apple production chain that simply cannot be made carbon neutral – something we all now know as carbon credits.

With one million megawatt hours of new solar energy in Australia, users of Apple iPhones, Macs, iPads and anything else can rest assured they're doing their bit, little by little, for the environment.

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The bosses of Australia's big banks have been warned they face a flood of cases unless they reassess rejected work-from-home requests.

The Finance Sector Union (FSU) said today it has written to senior executives in the sector calling for them to review their flexible work policies following a landmark decision against Westpac.

The ruling found the bank acted unlawfully when it denied a workers' request to work from home.

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In a letter, the FSU warns that employers could be breaching workplace law if they continue to reject flexible work requests without proper consideration, consultation or justification.

The Fair Work Commission ruled Karlene Chandler had the right to work from home full time after Westpac failed in its obligations under the Fair Work Act.

She sought to work remotely from her home south of Sydney to enable her to carry out school drop-offs and pick-ups for her two young children.

The bank's failures included not responding within 21 days, not engaging genuinely with Chandler's request and not providing her specific reasons for refusing it, the commission found.

The FSU says the ruling sets a precedent that will have far-reaching consequences across the finance sector.

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It claims many employers have sought to impose blanket return-to-office mandates without consideration for workers' personal circumstances.

The FSU has identified other examples of work-from-home arrangement by finance workers that have been rejected by managers.

"Our members have proven they can deliver from home," said National Assistant Secretary Nicole McPherson.

"Flexibility is not a perk, it's a legal right and we'll keep fighting to make sure every worker in finance can exercise it."

Westpac has been contacted for comment by 9news.com.au.

Australian Bankers Association Simon Birmingham said working from home arrangements were best left to individual banks and their staff.

"Australian banks employ around 180,000 people in a wide variety of roles.

"Work from home has become a valued part of employment arrangements for banks and many of their employees but isn't possible in all circumstances all of the time.

"Flexible workplace arrangements are ideally matters for individual banks and their employees, who are best placed to together achieve outcomes that deliver the best for all parties."

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A rare white humpback whale has been spotted defying migration habits off the NSW South Coast.

It was first seen off South Durras, near Batemans Bay, about 7am yesterday and then again more than 50km north off Warden Head, near Uladulla, later that afternoon.

The Organisation for the Rescue and Research of Cetaceans in Australia (ORRCA) has analysed the footage to determine whether the whale is Migaloo – the only albino whale on Australia's east coast that has not been seen since 2020.

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The rescue organisation has ruled that the whale is a rare one-year-old white humpback about 10m long.

It was first seen in Tonga in 2024.

"Importantly, this is not 'Migaloo,'" ORRCA said.

"The appearance of another white whale in this population makes today's sighting incredibly unique, exciting and special."

ORRCA is unable to confirm whether the whale is white in nature due to albinism, as there is no footage of its underside.

Whales can appear white either because of albinism – where whales lack pigment completely – or leucism – where whales have reduced pigment but are not fully albino.

The whale is currently travelling north despite the late stage of migration.

ORRCA said its movements are "very unusual", but it will need to wait for more sightings to assess its travel pattern more accurately. 

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Where is Migaloo?

It's a question that whale watchers, scientists, and organisations have been asking for the last five years.

Migaloo, meaning "white fella" in some Aboriginal languages, is considered the one and only true albino whale in Australia's east coast whale population.

He is an adult male whale, estimated to have been born in 1986.

The elusive mammal was first spotted travelling through Byron Bay in June 1991, and has been seen as far as the Whitsundays in north Queensland and Cape Schanck in Victoria.

He was last seen off Port Macquarie in June 2020, with no confirmed sightings since.

Although a potential sighting off Kaikōura in New Zealand last month sparked a glimmer of hope that Migaloo had returned.

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The Queensland and federal governments have special legislation to protect him from harassment, with any vessels or aircraft that get too close to be fined $16,500.

Migaloo, wherever he is, would be 39 years old today.

The average lifespan of a humpback whale is about 50 years, but some have been recorded to live up to 90 years. 

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