The extensive wreckage caused road closures near Waikanae Railway Station this morning.

The new head of the NZ Police Association was selected by members this afternoon.

A man's early confession of guilt after helping to kill a tradie and shove his body into a metal box over a perceived $50,000 drug debt has sliced years off his jail term.

Darcy Schafer-Turner died after he was put in a chokehold, tied up with duct tape and held down by two men in a Sydney apartment on April 27, 2023.

Suffocating on his own vomit, the 22-year-old tradie was unable to be revived at the Peakhurst residence before his body was put into the box and dumped into a creek.

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One of the attackers – Zachary Richard Fraser, 24 – was jailed today for six-and-a-half years for manslaughter.

Fraser and another man – who fled the country to Germany and cannot be named for legal reasons – believed Schafer-Turner owed a drug debt of $50,000.

They lured him to the unit, saying they had cocaine for him to on-sell.

But plans went awry.

"There is someone laying on the floor in my bathroom dead," Fraser wrote to an acquaintance on messaging app Signal.

"It was an accident. I only meant to tie him up."

The man, whom Fraser had met through online gaming and also cannot be legally named, then reached out to a "cleaner" in Queensland.

Charles Dennis Turnbull, 36, caught a flight to Sydney and met the victim's attackers, joining them in a trip to Bunnings for a metal cabinet.

Schafer-Turner's body was then placed in the metal cabinet, loaded onto the back of a ute and driven five hours north to Macksville by Turnbull.

Turnbull, acting on a $30,000 offer, was later paid $20,000 by Fraser for his services.

A missing persons report and subsequent police investigation led to the discovery of Schafer-Turner's body in a creek south of Macksville on May 12.

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Fraser was arrested three days later.

While there had been an attempt to revive Schafer-Turner, neither of his two attackers called emergency services for help, Justice Nicholas Chen said.

Fraser took further steps of contacting the "cleaner" to try and cover up the crime, the judge said.

The 24-year-old's arguments that what occurred was "essentially spontaneous" were rejected by the judge who pointed out it had been spurred on by the perceived drug debt.

The incident had caused pain for the loved ones of the 22-year-old victim, described as a funny, caring young man with an adventurous spirit who was unconditionally loved.

"The taking of Darcy Schafer-Turner's life is a tragedy that has caused profound grief and sorrow to his family and those close to him," the judge said.

But Fraser's sentence was reduced because of his lack of a criminal record, his prior good character and an early guilty plea.

He had shown genuine remorse, accepting responsibility for the death and was unlikely to re-offend when released, Justice Chen found.

His time in custody would be made more onerous by his diagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder, persistent depressive disorder and dependent personality disorder.

But the judge dismissed arguments the latter disorder – which manifests as clingy behaviour and submissiveness – spurred on the unlawful and dangerous attack.

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The 24-year-old claimed the disorder meant he went along with the scheme at the other man's request.

With time served, Fraser will be eligible for release in July 2027 after being behind bars for four years and two months.

Turnbull pleaded guilty to being an accessory to manslaughter and was sentenced to a maximum sentence of three years and three months in December 2024.

His two-year non-parole period expired in May.

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Former political staffer Bruce Lehrmann will head to mediation to push his bid to have the government foot his legal bill following a raid on his home.

The National Anti-Corruption Commission raided his home in June 2024 amid an investigation into allegations that he misappropriated secret documents related to French submarines.

Lehrmann is suing Commissioner Paul Brereton and federal Labour government minister Don Farrell over the legal costs he incurred during the investigation into what he described as "frivolous, James Bond-like allegations".

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He claims he was repeatedly told he was entitled to funding for legal representation to defend himself during the investigation, but he still hasn't received any money.

Justice Brigitte Markovic noted it has been a year without a decision from NACC on whether funding would be provided.

She ordered mediation between Lehrmann and Mr Farrell to be held before December 1 in hopes of speeding up the process.

Lehrmann welcomed the move, which he believes could be successful in resolving his dispute with the minister.

"This is the second time I've proposed mediation with (Farrell).

On both occasions, I've been refused," he said.

"If funding had been granted, we may not even be here, and if we can seek a resolution through mediation, then there'll be no need to pursue action as against (Farrell)."

The call for mediation was opposed by the minister's lawyer, who rejected his contention that there was an unreasonable delay in processing the request for funding.

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Lehrmann reminded Justice Markovic that she didn't need their consent to order mediation, prompting her to reply: "I'm well aware of my powers, Mr Lehrmann."

The judge ordered that the mediation be resolved by December 1 and set the matter down for a one-day hearing in February.

Lehrmann agreed to the timetable, noting that if mediation was successful, he would be in "no rush necessarily" to ventilate his claims against Mr Brereton.

The former political staffer, who is "impecunious and in serious financial peril", hopes to receive the requested funding so he can be represented by lawyers at the hearing.

The former political staffer is accused of gathering the confidential information in March 2019, only days after he was alleged to have raped his colleague, Brittany Higgins, in Parliament House.

He has denied the claims, which remain untested in a criminal court after a 2022 trial in the ACT was abandoned due to juror misconduct.

But the Federal Court's Justice Michael Lee found in 2024 that the allegations he raped Higgins were proven on the balance of probabilities and dismissed his defamation suit against Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson.

Lehrmann has appealed against the defamation loss, but a decision is yet to be handed down.

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

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Thousands of NAB customers were locked out of internet banking as the company suffered an outage earlier today.

The outage, which has since been resolved, appeared to only impact customers trying to login via the website on desktop and mobile.

A notice shared to NAB's website stated that "internet banking isn't working at the moment".

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"We're sorry and are doing everything we can to get it back up and running," the notice reads.

"You can still use the NAB app or Telephone Banking."

Outage website Down Detecter saw spike in reports of an outage, with thousands of reports since 11am today.

NAB's banking app was still working.

"NAB Internet banking is back online and customers can login as normal," a NAB spokesperson said.

"All other services, including the NAB mobile app, telephone banking, ATMs and other services have remained available to customers as normal.

"We're sorry for any inconvenience this caused our customers."

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NSW State Coroner Teresa O'Sullivan has made a rare public statement after confirming the state recorded the highest number of Indigenous deaths in custody in a single year.

She revealed 12 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people died in custody so far this year — a figure she said was a "profoundly distressing milestone".

"These are not mere statistics," she said in a statement today.

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"Each of these deaths represents a person whose life mattered and whose loss is felt deeply by families, loved ones and communities across the state.

"They are individuals whose deaths demand independent and careful scrutiny, respect and accountability."

The Aboriginal Legal Service said it was a "horrifying record", adding that an additional four Indigenous people have died in police operations.

"This is a crisis and a preventable tragedy that should deeply alarm everyone in NSW," Aboriginal Legal Service NSW/ACT chief executive Karly Warner said.

"A prison sentence should not be a death sentence."

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people make up only 3.4 per cent of the NSW population, according to the latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

But the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research found Aboriginal adults represent 33.4 per cent of the total adult prison population, and Aboriginal youth account for 60 per cent of the youth detention population as of June.

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O'Sullivan said the number of Aboriginal people in custody has increased by 18.9 per cent over the past five years, while the number of non-Aboriginal people in custody has decreased by 12.5 per cent in that same time.

She added that 45.6 per cent of the Aboriginal adults in custody were on remand or refused bail awaiting court, which was an increase of 63 per cent in the same five-year period. 

"These figures reflect the entrenched over-representation of First Nations peoples in the criminal justice system – a systemic issue that compounds the risks and vulnerabilities contributing to the rising number of deaths in custody," she said.

Warner attributed the rise to punitive laws and policing practices and called on the state government to work with Indigenous communities to implement real solutions to reduce imprisonment.

"Prisons are dangerous places," she said.

"The Aboriginal Legal Service has represented families of people who died behind bars of simple and treatable health conditions, and people whose deaths involved hanging points that should have been removed long ago.

"We have solutions to reduce deaths in custody, but too many are sitting on the shelf, gathering dust."

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The NSW government said it takes Indigenous deaths in custody seriously.

"We are working to reduce all preventable deaths in custody, including by improving design and safety across correctional centres, and have invested $16 million to make our prisons safer by removing ligature points," a NSW government spokesperson said.

"We are prioritising community safety while working with communities to reduce crime, the drivers of crime and towards our Closing the Gap targets regarding Indigenous incarceration."

An external review of Indigenous deaths in custody is underway and is set to make recommendations to Corrective Services next year.

O'Sullivan — who was appointed as the second woman to lead the Coroners' Court in 2019 and described as being "passionate about reducing the number of preventable deaths in NSW" — said she will continue to investigate every death in custody "independently and thoroughly".

"Inquests will be conducted with impartiality, transparency and cultural sensitivity, ensuring that the voices of affected families and communities are heard and respected," she said.

For 24/7 crisis support run by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, contact 13YARN (13 92 76).

Readers seeking support can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or beyond blue on 1300 22 4636.

Before dawn on the day an enormous flash flood that flattened a rural village, emergency services feared the weather bureau's warnings were inadequate and rushed to issue evacuation orders.

A flood described by survivors as an "inland tsunami" razed much of the village of Eugowra, in central-western NSW, on the morning of November 14, 2022, killing locals Diane Smith, 60, and Ljubisa "Les" Vugec, 85.

A five-day inquest is examining the circumstances of their deaths, along with the lead-up to the flood, weather warnings and scale of the emergency response.

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NSW State Emergency Service zone commander Brigid Rice was woken by a call from colleagues before 3am that day as a rising river threatened the city of Bathurst and floods engulfed the villages of Molong and Canowindra.

"There was a lot for me to be taking in," Rice told the inquest at Orange courthouse on Wednesday.

At the same time, Rice was keeping an eye on data from gauges at Toogong and Smithfield, upstream from Eugowra, alarmed that water rises were "almost vertical".

"It was rising very quickly," she said.

At 3.49am, the Bureau of Meteorology issued a flood warning for Mandagery Creek at Eugowra, saying it was likely to reach a major flood level of nine metres.

But having seen water levels of 8m at the upstream gauges, Rice knew from previous floods that 9.5m would be merely a "starting point" at Eugowra.

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She said she felt the bureau's warnings were "inadequate" given the volume and velocity of water in brimming catchments after a night of heavy rainfall.

"I was of the firm view the nine-metre warning from the bureau would not be sufficient," she told the inquest.

The SES began preparing for a 10.5m flood, higher than the previous 1950 record that inundated 215 houses.

Knowing floodwaters generally took 12 hours to get from Toogong to Eugowra, Rice began preparing evacuation zone maps and emergency messaging.

At 6.12am a geo-targeted text message went out to Eugowra locals, telling people in low-lying areas to evacuate immediately.

The inquest has previously been told that the eastern side of Eugowra was generally considered "safe", based on previous floods, while the western side historically copped the brunt of floods.

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Several witnesses have described people moving to a bridge in the centre of town, or to the eastern side in preparation for the flood, including Smith.

But after 9am, a sudden and destructive "wall of water" swept through much of the town damaging or destroying a majority of houses – including on the eastern side – and sparking more than 100 helicopter rescues.

Rice agreed that the SES evacuation message put the onus on Eugowra locals to self-identify as being in a low-lying area.

Since the flood, the western zone has changed the wording of its messages ensuring they are relevant to individual communities.

"In some towns heights are really meaningful, other towns years are really meaningful, in other towns gauges are very meaningful," Rice said.

The inquest continues before Deputy State Coroner David O'Neil.

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The Pentagon is telling beat reporters to sign restrictive new rules by today or surrender their press passes by tomorrow.

Virtually every news outlet is rejecting the ultimatum and saying they will not sign.

The Pentagon Press Association, a body that represents the beat reporters, says the new policy championed by Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth "gags Pentagon employees and threatens retaliation against reporters who seek out information that has not been pre-approved for release".

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In a statement on Monday, the association said that "potential expulsion from the Pentagon should be a concern to all".

Last month, Hegseth's press office outlined new rules requiring beat reporters to sign a pledge not to obtain or use unauthorised material, even if the information is unclassified.

Any journalist who doesn't sign the pledge, Hegseth said, risks losing physical access to the Pentagon — something that has been a standard part of Washington-area news coverage for decades.

ABC News, CBS News, CNN, NBC News and Fox News (where Hegseth was an on-air host for a decade) issued a joint statement today afternoon condemning the new rules and refusing to sign the paperwork.

"Today, we join virtually every other news organisation in declining to agree to the Pentagon's new requirements, which would restrict journalists' ability to keep the nation and the world informed of important national security issues," the statement read.

"The policy is without precedent and threatens core journalistic protections.

"We will continue to cover the US military as each of our organisations has done for many decades, upholding the principles of a free and independent press."

Beyond the big cable and broadcast networks, Reuters, The Associated Press, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic and NPR have all said that journalists from their newsrooms will not sign on to the Pentagon's restrictions.

Editors and reporters across all these news outlets have said they'll continue to thoroughly cover the US military, with or without press credentials.

Some well-known members of the Pentagon press corps have used the credentialing controversy to encourage tipsters to get in touch with them.

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Even Newsmax rejects the rules

Some partisan media outlets have also raised objections: Newsmax, the pro-Trump cable channel and website, said on Monday that its reporters have no plans to sign either.

"We believe the requirements are unnecessary and onerous and hope that the Pentagon with review the matter further," Newsmax said in a statement.

The only media outlet that has publicly accepted the Pentagon's rules is One America News, a MAGA outlet that stands further to the right of Newsmax and Fox News.

The Pentagon Press Association said Hegseth and other officials have been "systematically limiting access to information about the US military" all year long.

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Officials have stopped holding routine news briefings; they have booted many news outlets from Pentagon workspaces; and severely limited where reporters can go inside the building without an escort.

Analysts have connected these impediments to Hegseth's well-documented disdain for the press and frustration with leaks.

The association said on Monday that "this effort has culminated" in the rollout of "vague new policies that, on their face, appear to violate the First Amendment".

While the policies were revised by Pentagon press aides after negotiations with news outlets, the updated language is still unacceptable to many newsroom leaders and media lawyers.

Possible legal action

Some news outlets are said to be contemplating legal action, but in the meantime, they're publicly stating that the restrictions are, as Post executive editor Matt Murray said on Monday, "unnecessary constraints on gathering and publishing information".

The association said Monday that the Pentagon's new language "is particularly problematic because it demands reporters to express an 'understanding' that harm inevitably flows from the disclosure of unauthorised information, classified or not — something everyone involved knows to be untrue".

Hegseth has ridiculed some of the media concerns and embraced the dispute on social media.

He claimed on Monday that the new rules boiled down to three tenets: "Press no longer roams free," "press must wear visible badge," and "credentialed press no longer permitted to solicit criminal acts".

He also responded to several outlets' statements on social media with an emoji waving goodbye.

Beat reporters responded on X by saying Hegseth was misleading the public.

The press association said "longstanding press access rules posed no national security threat, which is why those rules continued without problem for decades, across multiple administrations of both political parties".

Critics of the new rules perceive that the defence secretary's real intent is to impede independent coverage and scrutiny of the Trump administration.

The dispute is ultimately about newsrooms striving to produce "trustworthy, independent journalism to the American public," free of government influence, as NPR editor in chief Thomas Evans said in a statement on Monday.

"We urge the Pentagon and the Administration to uphold freedom of the press and the American people's right to know what is done in their name," Evans said.

Donald Trump has said he believes Time magazine "deserves to be called out" for running a "super bad" picture of him.

The publication revealed the cover for its upcoming November 10 issue, which features a photo of the US President taken from down low accompanied by the words "His Triumph".

The cover story explores how the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas could be one of Trump's defining second-term achievements.

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As Trump returned to the US from Egypt after a world leader's summit on the Gaza war, Trump told his followers on Truth Social he thought the cover image "may be the Worst of All Time".

"They "disappeared" my hair, and then had something floating on top of my head that looked like a floating crown, but an extremely small one. Really weird!" the US President said.

"I never liked taking pictures from underneath angles, but this is a super bad picture, and deserves to be called out.

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"What are they doing, and why?"

However, Trump conceded the magazine wrote a "relatively good" story about him.

Time magazine has not responded to the US President's comments.

This week Trump embarked on a whirlwind trip to the Middle East to celebrate the US-brokered ceasefire and hostage deal between Israel and Hamas.

The trip came as Israel and Hamas are in the early stages of implementing the first phase of the Trump agreement designed to bring a permanent end to the war sparked by the October 7, 2023, attack.

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Exclusive: Nurses at the Women's and Children's Hospital in Adelaide say they are copping $65 parking fines just to get to work due to a shortage of on-site hospital parking.

Student nurse Anna* told 9news.com.au that it's costing already underpaid healthcare workers a small fortune, and putting them in danger.

"It's ridiculous, nurses are so important and they're getting all these fines, and it just accumulates," she said.

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"And a lot of the doctors, they have parking spots, so it's just really nurses affected."

The Women's and Children's Hospital has an allocated staff parking area but it's not even close to being big enough to accommodate all staff.

Some park in the hospital's public car parks, which can cost up to $20 per day.

But many are reluctant to park there, as it means taking spaces that could go to the visiting families of sick women and children.

The other option is to park on the street nearby, but most streets only offer two to three hour parking and nurses can't just duck out to move their cars.

"You're not even guaranteed a break, and you're not guaranteed at the same time every day," Anna explained.

"So what I found is that a lot of nurses are just copping $65 fines every week."

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There are also safety concerns for nurses walking to and from their cars late at night and early in the morning.

"It's a safety issue for sure, especially when you finish at like 10," Anna confessed.

"Nurse burnout is real, and you're working really long hours, and sometimes your situational awareness before and after a shift is not that great."

A spokesperson from Women's and Children's Health Network (WCHN) told 9news "parking availability remains a high priority".

"We continue to consider options for improved parking solutions for staff and consumers visiting and working within the WCH," they said.

"Through negotiations with the City of Adelaide, WCH has secured 128 on-street parking spaces on MacKinnon Parade for exclusive WCHN Staff use (during permit hours) at a reduced rate to staff of $8 per day.

"Reduced car parking fees are also available for staff with key card access in the Medical Centre Car Park on Kermode Street."

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WCHN also negotiated with City of Adelaide Council to exempt staff from the two-hour restrictions on event parking around the hospital.

"Staff are encouraged to visit the WCHN Transport Office to obtain an exemption," the spokesperson said.

But Anna said not all hospital staff have been able to access discounts and exemptions.

She claimed the waitlist for discounted parking is long and even at a rate of $8 per day ($40 for a five day work week), the costs add up quickly.

"Most of the nurses on the ward that I'm on don't have access to it, they're still on a waiting list," she alleged.

In the month she's been on placement at the Women's and Children's Hospital, Anna has been parking a 20 minute walk from the hospital in a bid to avoid fines.

It's a long trek to and from each shift but she just can't afford to pay $100 per week for parking in the hospital's public car park, let alone $325 in fines (based on a five day work week, though many nurses work up to seven days).

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Public transport isn't an option either, as there are no O'Bahn buses available that can get her to the hospital in time for her shifts to start at 6am.

"I'm only there for a month, so I can't imagine how full time nurses feel," Anna said.

"And it's a problem everywhere, at every hospital, you're maxed out with the parking situation, so you're forced to either public transport it or park on the street."

The WCHN spokesperson confirmed work is well underway on the development of the hospital's new carpark.

It will have 1300 spaces, nearly double the current number of on-site hospital parking spaces.

But Anna fears that alone won't solve the issue.

"There's too many staff members [and] honestly I just think that this problem is going to transfer to that car park," she said.

"Fed up" nurses started a Change.org petition in the hopes of changing things.

It calls for Adelaide City Council to introduce a free street parking permit for rostered nurses and healthcare staff at the Women's and Children's Hospital.

Anna said there has been a flood of positive responses from everyday Aussies who agree our healthcare workers deserve better.

"They're tired, they just want to get home to their kids, and I think it's really sad that either they've got to walk or they're forking out [for parking] when nurses are already underpaid."

*Name changed for privacy reasons.

Have you got a story? Contact reporter Maddison Leach at Google Play.