The skiing season is set to extend into September for the first time in three years as snow levels reached above two metres in parts of the Snowy Mountains.

Levels at Spencers Creek in NSW hit 220cm today, a large increase compared to last year, when levels sat at around 75cm at the start of September.

The location is roughly halfway between the Perisher and Thredbo snowfields, and indicates the ski season will continue until the start of next month.

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This is in stark contrast to the last two snow seasons, which peaked in early June and were all but over by September.

The increase in snow has been caused by cool conditions in the southern corner of Australia, where a frigid polar air mass sat over parts of Tasmania, Victoria and New South Wales last weekend.

It also caused high winds, with gusts of over 120km/h reported.

In Victoria, Mt Hotham reported snow levels up to 159cm, whilst Falls Creek said they were seeing an average depth of 143cm.

Some parts of Victoria even recorded blizzard conditions as the wind and snow combined to cause havoc on roads.

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The Queensland government is facing an uphill battle with union members who want to work less for the same pay.

Protests today came amid a warning the state's productivity was shockingly low and major projects were costing more and more amid attempts to ramp up construction for the Olympics.

Workers who help maintain critical infrastructure from the likes of QBuild, Queensland Health and Transport and Main Roads today marched on parliament demanding better conditions.

"The workers in these three state government industries are advocating across three state government sectors for a 36-hour working week," CFMEU organiser Mitchell Thurlow said.

But time is running out to build the homes, hospitals and stadiums needed by Brisbane 2032.

Acting Premier Jarrod Bleijie said there were some "sobering" remarks in the recently re-established Productivity Commission's latest report.

"For goodness' sake, we had the lowest productivity on work sites in the country," he said.

The report found productivity within the construction industry had dropped 9 per cent since 2018 and that the pipeline of works to be done has more than doubled in the past 4.5 years from $12 billion to $34.5 billion.

"If we are to deliver the infrastructure required for 2032 and beyond the legacy, we're going to need productivity on work sites," Bleijie said.

The commission is recommending permanently repealing the controversial best practice industry conditions laws, known as BPIC, and seeking more skilled workers from overseas to build the workforce.

But unions see this as a way of watering down hard-fought worker rights built over previous decades.

"In particular, [it would be] winding back Queensland's workplace health and safety laws, our labour hire licensing laws, and going towards importing migrant labour that will be at risk of further exploitation," Queensland Council of Unions general secretary Jacqueline King said.

Australian Workers' Union Queensland branch secretary Stacey Schinnerl said the move would "inevitably" lead to lower wages and worker exploitation.

Labor Opposition Leader Steven Miles agrees.

"That is the agenda, that is the secret hidden agenda of this Productivity Commission review," he said.

A friend of accused cop killer Dezi Freeman said the fugitive could potentially have a large network of supporters helping him stay hidden from cops.

Police today revealed they believe Freeman is being harboured by a member of the public after issuing a candid plea .

Bruce Evans, who says he is friends with Freeman, told 9News he doesn't believe it will "end well" for Freeman as the manhunt nears the end of its seventh day.

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Despite Freeman's well-documented dislike for cops, Evans said he never believed it would come to this.

"[I was] pretty shocked when I saw it," Evans said.

"I just didn't expect a shooting, I didn't expect a shoot out like that."

The suspected gunman is accused of killing two Victoria Police officers Neal Thompson, 59, and Vadim De Waart, 35, after police attended his property in Porepunkah to execute a warrant on August 27.

After pleading directly with Freeman to surrender, Superintendent Brett Kahan today widened the net and asked anyone who knows where he is to come forward.

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"I am going to change tack a little bit, and read into this what you will," Kahan told media.

"I extend that invitation to anyone who is harbouring, considering harbouring or knows something about the people who are harbouring [Freeman].

"You are committing an extremely serious crime by harbouring or assisting in the escape of Dezi Freeman."

Kahan said he believes people know Freeman's whereabouts.

Police do not know if it is one person or multiple people potentially concealing Freeman's location.

"People know the whereabouts of the person who has killed two cops," he added.

"We are absolutely hunting for a fugitive and we will continue to do so."

A mobile police facility has been set up in Bright, around 5km from Porepunkah, to gather information from the public.

Kahan confirmed police are still operating under the assumption Freeman is alive.

He said specialist resources have scoured "every neck of the woods".

"There's certain areas in and around that dense forestland, which we know has previously been populated by the fugitive," he said.

Kahan also wouldn't confirm if Freeman's wife Mali is cooperating with police, despite her plea for Freeman to surrender yesterday.

Manhunt enters seventh day

Police are still yet to close in on accused gunman Freeman as the manhunt for the alleged cop killer enters its seventh day.

Bulletproof Bearcat armoured police vehicles were seen entering Mount Buffalo National Park overnight.

Freeman has not been seen since two police officers were killed and a third was wounded in a shooting ambush at his Porepunkah property on August 26.

The so-called "sovereign citizen" is alleged to have opened fire on a group of 10 police as they attempted to execute a search warrant related to alleged historic child sex offences.

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Detective Leading Senior Constable Neal Thompson and Senior Constable Vadim De Waart were killed and a third officer seriously wounded.

Police have said Freeman remains armed with multiple guns and is skilled in bushcraft.

Yesterday, the fugitive's wife, Amalia Freeman, issued a statement through her lawyer calling on Dezi Freeman – also known as Desmond Filby – to hand himself in.

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"I lend my full support to Victoria Police in their search for my husband and will co-operate with Victoria Police in any way that I can," she said.

"Please Dezi, if you see or hear this, call 000 and arrange a surrender plan with the police.

"If anyone is harbouring, helping or supporting Dezi, please call 000 immediate and speak with the police."

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Amalia Freeman said she felt "deep sorrow" over the deaths of Thompson and De Waart and that neither she nor her children held anti-authority views.

A former outlaw bikie in the area, Stephen Mallett, was charged with weapons and drug offences on Friday but denied having ever met Freeman.

They are both understood to be members of a doomsday survival prep group.

Meanwhile, Freeman's nephew, Luke, described Mount Buffalo as Freeman's "holy place".

"He's always told me if he wanted to be dead and buried somewhere, it's going to be on Mount Buffalo," he said.

Thompson and De Waart will both be farewelled with full police honours in private funeral ceremonies at the Victoria Police Academy in the coming days.

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Police are investigating after a trio of thieves were caught on CCTV trying to steal a car with a family inside, including a toddler, in Melbourne's south-east.

A man was parked in his driveway off Nicholas Street in Ashburton when a stolen Mercedes Benz parked behind him yesterday evening, police said.

Three hooded unknown men dressed in dark clothing then exited the car and unsuccessfully tried to open the 38-year-old father's car door.

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The man then reversed his car, hitting the Mercedes Benz, before the trio fled the scene.

Car owner Chris was inside at the time along with his 38-year-old wife and a two-year-old child.

"They were banging on my window, at my window, they could see my child in the back yet they were still trying to take the car," Chris told 9News.

"I reversed out and they blocked the road and I went straight at them."

He crashed his car into the Mercedes Benz to get away.

Nobody was physically injured in the incident, but the family was left terrified.

"It doesn't feel safe now," Chris added.

"I have literally just had the locksmith leave, checking all our locks."

Police are now investigating and anyone with information is urged to contact police or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

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The chartered accountant took exception to the victim pouring his drink on him.

Two skydivers became snagged on a plane and dangled frantically mid-air before falling to their deaths, with critical safety checks overlooked before the "catastrophic" jump, a court has been told.

Experienced instructor Stephen Hoare, 37, and his tandem passenger Alex Welling, 32, died while skydiving at Goulburn airport, in southern NSW, on June 27, 2021.

SafeWork NSW has charged Goulburn Flight Training Centre and its sole director Attilio Giovanni Ferrara, also known as John Ferrara, with two counts each of breaching workplace safety duties.

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Ferrara is facing a 10-day judge-alone hearing in the NSW District Court in Sydney.

A short GoPro video taken by a skydiver who was with the pair showed Welling smiling excitedly as he moved towards the open door of the plane, strapped to Hoare.

The men were captured sitting on the edge of the open door for a few seconds before they attempted to launch.

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The vision showed a black strap getting caught on the exterior of the plane, leaving the men dangling upside-down mid-air.

One of the men can be heard swearing before the camera follows the course of the skydiver who went on to land safely.

The workplace watchdog's barrister Darien Nagle said a metal step had recently been added to the Cessna aircraft, owned by Ferrara's son's company, to assist with tandem skydives.

The trial would hear evidence the risks of snagging on the step had been identified in the flight training centre's own documents, Nagle said.

He said there was no "buddy check" carried out on the men's equipment before the jump, which could have identified the loose webbing that became snagged.

"It was always known and obvious that these types of steps, along with webbing that hadn't been buddy-checked, could lead to catastrophic results," Nagle told the court in his opening address.

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The addition of steps on Cessna skydiving planes was common practice across the industry to help launch parachuters clear of the aircraft.

Similar metal steps were removed from other planes after the men's deaths.

"It is, of course, an absolute tragedy these types of safety measures have to be taken after an incident like this," Nagle said.

The men's families left the courtroom while footage of the snagging incident was played.

Barrister Maurice Baroni, representing Ferrara and his company, indicated there would be parts of the evidence in dispute, including whether the flight centre was correctly identified as the corporate defendant.

Under cross-examination, SafeWork NSW inspector Narelle O'Brien acknowledged several of the company's employees referred to it as Adrenaline Skydive rather than Goulburn Flight Training Centre.

But she nominated the centre as the corporate defendant, based partly on documents that identified it as the entity that paid various skydiving instructors.

The trial continues before Judge Andrew Scotting.

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She dismissed a series of signs before starting treatment as “normal”.

Rain and clouds might obscure the view on the South Island’s west coast.

Australian households would have an extra $4000 in the bank every year – as well as higher wages – under a substantial overhaul of the tax system put forward by one of the nation's most respected economists.

Chris Murphy, who has modelled tax policy for the federal government and Productivity Commission, today released a research paper proposing changes to land, corporate and household taxes.

Combined, the reforms would provide $43 billion in "consumer welfare", effectively providing each household an extra $4000 a year.

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The changes would be budget-neutral – that is, not increase or decrease the amount of tax revenue collected by the government – and the boost to households would come from collecting $91 billion in ways that do less harm to the economy.

Murphy also modelled that it would lead to an increase in real wages, while at the same time improving real GDP by 6 per cent.

"At the (productivity) roundtable, the federal treasurer committed to 'a better tax system'," he wrote. 

"In that spirit, this paper models reform packages for Australian property, corporate and household taxes to increase consumer welfare by shifting towards more efficient taxes."

The first package includes removing stamp duty and land taxes on investment properties, and replacing them by effectively expanding council rates into a broad-based land tax.

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Murphy said that change alone accounts for $27 billion of the $43 billion benefit households would enjoy.

He also proposed reducing corporate tax for most companies, while at the same time increasing the tax bill for ultra-profitable entities in uncompetitive, oligopolistic sectors like banking and supermarkets, as well as reducing the concessions related to franking credits.

And on taxes that more directly affect households, Murphy said the government would do well to expand the GST to remove the current exemptions provided to goods and services like fresh food and private education.

He also called for the payroll tax threshold to be lowered, effectively increasing it for most small businesses.

Together, those two hikes would allow the government to cut income taxes by 11 per cent – or about $43 billion a year.

Murphy's proposal comes weeks after Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the government would work on potential changes to the tax system following the productivity roundtable.

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He indicated a road user charge for electric vehicle drivers, which would replace the revenue lost from declining fuel excise, is on the verge of being confirmed.

However, more substantial changes to the tax system – which economists say Australia desperately needs – are not likely to be handed down until far later this parliamentary term, if not taken to the 2028 federal election.

But Murphy said it was critical for the government to make a decision soon.

"Comprehensive tax reform stands out as a way of delivering large benefits compared to other areas of economic reform," he wrote.

"Achieving those large benefits requires a willingness to collect $91 billion in tax revenue in a different way that is less harmful for consumer welfare. 

"As Theodore Roosevelt said: 'In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing'."

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The minister is set to meet with the EPA’s board chairman to discuss his concerns.