Ministry is probing claims Chinese imports are undercutting local producers.

Mark Christiansen told Judge Skellern he did not understand what was happening in court.

Gerry Brownlee plans tougher stance on MPs’ attendance, dress and behaviour.

Bay of Plenty man charged over Foxton Beach incident granted interim name suppression.

No evidence has been uncovered during the second day of a renewed search for missing four-year-old Gus Lamont.

Australian soldiers, police officers and SES volunteers have trekked between 20 and 25 kilometres per day in hot outback conditions to search for Gus.

Extreme heat and strong winds is forecast to hamper efforts tomorrow and the search will start at sunrise before being called off at midday.

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Gus was last seen about 5pm on Saturday, September 27 at his family's homestead Oak Park Station in remote South Australia, about 40km south of Yunta.

Police, along with Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel, yesterday returned to outback SA and launched Taskforce Horizon to investigate Gus' disappearance after no trace of Gus was found in an initial six-day search.

No evidence was uncovered during yesterday's efforts either, police said.

The search has now extended to zones outside of the original search area.

It is expected extreme heat conditions tomorrow afternoon may restrict the search, police said.

Temperatures are forecast to reach tops of 36 degrees in the Yunta area tomorrow.

Officers and soldiers will continue the search during the cooler morning period.

The temperature reached a top of 30 today.

Eighteen police officers, 84 ADF personnel, 33 cars, SES resources, drones and utility terrain vehicles are being used are to scour the remote terrain in SA's mid-north.

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SA Police Commissioner Grant Stevens said yesterday no stone would be left unturned in the search for Gus.

"We are dedicated to making sure we do everything we possibly can to bring Gus back to his family," Stevens said.

The fresh search was not triggered by any new information, Stevens said.

"We are looking for up to two days but there will be a continual reassessment," Stevens said.

"The resources that we're deploying may change over time and the use of specialist drones will be another consideration as we move forward as well."

The search area covered so far has been around 470 square kilometres.

Stevens emphasised the sheer magnitude of the search area and said it was like combing through "100 Adelaide CBDs".

"We are searching in quite unusual terrain, it is a significant effort," he said.

"We're exhausting every opportunity to recover Gus."

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Taskforce Horizon consists of 12 specialists who will analyse information and suggest different areas to search.

Stevens told reporters there is nothing to suggest foul play in Gus' disappearance.

Police have received more than 150 Crime Stoppers tips since Gus went missing, but warn online speculation has been hurtful to Gus' family.

His family have said in a statement they are "devastated" and "deeply distressed" by his disappearance.

"I would describe them as stoic," Stevens added.

"But you can imagine just how they are feelings, without having Gus and without having answers to exactly where Gus is and what's happened to him.

"This would be traumatic for any family."

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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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