An earthquake has destroyed numerous villages in eastern Afghanistan, killing at least 610 people and injuring more than 1300, a spokesman for the Taliban government says.

The 6.0 magnitude quake late on Sunday (Monday AEST) hit a series of towns in the province of Kunar, near the city of Jalalabad in neighbouring Nangahar province, causing extensive damage.

Footage from Nangarhar showed people frantically digging through rubble with their hands, searching for loved ones in the dead of night.

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The injured were stretchered out of collapsed buildings and into helicopters. Villagers in Kunar gave interviews outside their wrecked homes.

The quake at 11.47pm (5.17am on Monday AEST) was centred 27 kilometres east-north-east of the city of Jalalabad in Nangarhar province, the US Geological Survey said.

It was just eight kilometres deep. Shallower quakes tend to cause more damage. Several aftershocks followed.

Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul Matin Qani told The Associated Press that 610 people had been killed and 1300 injured in Kunar and a dozen people died and hundreds were injured in Nangarhar. Many houses were destroyed.

Buildings in Afghanistan tend to be low-rise constructions, mostly of concrete and brick, with homes in rural and outlying areas made of mud bricks and wood. Many are of poor construction.

One resident in Nurgal district, one of the worst-affected areas in Kunar, said almost the entire village had collapsed.

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"Children are under the rubble. The elderly are under the rubble. Young people are under the rubble," said the villager, who did not give his name

"We need help here," he pleaded.

"We need people to come here and join us. Let us pull out the people who are buried. There is no one who can come and remove dead bodies from under the rubble."

Eastern Afghanistan is mountainous, with remote areas. The quake has worsened communications.

Rescue operations were under way and medical teams from Kunar, Nangarhar and the capital Kabul had arrived in the area, said Sharafat Zaman, a health ministry spokesman.

Zaman said many areas had not been able to report casualty figures and that "the numbers were expected to change" as deaths and injuries are reported.

The Taliban government's chief spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said "all available resources will be utilised to save lives".

Nearby Jalalabad is a bustling trade city due to its proximity with neighbouring Pakistan and a key border crossing between the countries.

Although it has a population of about 300,000 according to the municipality, it's metropolitan area is thought to be far larger.

Jalalabad also has considerable agriculture and farming, including citrus fruit and rice, with the Kabul River flowing through the city.

A magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck Afghanistan on October 7, 2023, followed by strong aftershocks. The Taliban government estimated at least 4000 people perished in that quake.

The UN gave a far lower death toll of about 1500. It was the deadliest natural disaster to strike Afghanistan in recent memory.

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South Australia Police are investigating after a sign depicting accused Victorian Police killer Dezi Freeman was displayed at Adelaide's March for Australia rally.

The sign, held up by an unknown protester, showed an image of Freeman with the caption "FREE MAN" underneath, with the words separated by a stylised Southern Cross.

Freeman has been identified as being associated with the sovereign citizen movement, and is currently on the run and suspected of killing two police officers in an ambush at his regional Victorian home in Porepunkah.

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Police slammed the sign as offensive – but not illegal – and one of the protest's organisers said it was "ridiculous" and "unacceptable".

Acting commissioner Linda Williams said officers became aware of the man with the sign through the city's CCTV network.

"Police were deployed into the crowd, but by the time police arrived on that area, we couldn't see him and the sign had disappeared," Williams said.

"But our inquiries are well advised, so I would urge him before we find him if he wants to hand himself into a police station so we can have a chat with them about that sign ."

SA Premier Peter Malinauskas urged the sign holder to speak with police.

"This is not who we are as a state," Malinauskas said.

Many rallies saw clashes between left- and right-wing activists and Melbourne witnessed the most arrests as violence erupted in the streets.

Emotions were heightened as March for Australia protesters turned out in force in almost every capital city calling for limits to migration.

Self-declared neo-Nazis took to the stage at some point at several of the protests, prompting discomfort from some of the crowd and condemnation from organisers.

Counter-protesters also made their voices heard.

"[It's] trying to be disguised as something patriotic when they're actually something quite hateful," one said.

Premier's message to protesters

Following the protests, Malinauskas said the protesters were naive about the state and nation's history.

"2.4 per cent of the South Australian population is Indigenous, that means that 97.6 per cent of South Australians have an immigrant heritage," he said.

"I'm proud of mine and I think most South Australians are proud of theirs.

"Let me make this perfectly clear, the overwhelming majority of South Australians don't just tolerate diversity and multiculturalism, we celebrate it.

"It is part of who we are, it is not just something that is part of our social fabric, it is the very essence of our social fabric."

Malinauskas also praised the many people who have migrated to Australia for their "magnificent" contributions.

"My message to multicultural communities around the state is you are very much a critical piece of our social infrastructure, you add to our state and most South Australians are exceptionally grateful for it," he said.

"But the people who are protesting today would do well to familiarise themselves with our own history, instead they seek to diminish and deny it in a way that is unbecoming to them."

Arrests and pepper spray in Melbourne

Twelve people were arrested after rival protest groups clashed in the heart of Melbourne as outnumbered police tried desperately to keep them apart and away from passersby.

Pepper spray wasn't enough to separate thousands of protesters as a chaotic game of cat and mouse occupied the streets for more than seven hours.

Footage shows the two sides clashing and shouting at each other.

They gathered in their thousands at Flinders Street draped in Australian flags.

One of those flags was burnt and both anti-immigration marchers and counter-protesters threw bottles, spitting at and slapping each other as they evaded a thin blue line that was already stretched by the manhunt in Victoria's high country.

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One protester pushing for an end to "mass immigration" claimed it wasn't about race.

"If you come here you respect the country. You respect the culture. You adapt and be one of us. We're all brothers," another said.

But behind genuine displays of pride, known neo-Nazis were taking control.

Thomas Sewell, a self-proclaimed white nationalist was given the prime speaking spot from the steps of parliament.

"Today our men stood at the front of the march and when the Palestinians and the communists came charging at the Aussie flags it was our men that fought back," he said.

He was flanked by dozens of members of his Neo-Nazi National Socialist Network who led a crowd of thousands down Bourke Street turning some of the city's most famous landmarks into props for their hateful ideology.

Before the march they turned on each other, attacking right-wing podcaster Avi Yemini and his security entourage.

"They're there to promote hate in the community, to blame people for their gripes and their complaints and their whinges, and they're just unhinged grubs," Police Minister Anthony Carbines said.

As the violence escalated from both sides, Nine's own cameraman was knocked to the ground as a protester tried – and failed – to steal his equipment.

Six arrests were made and two police officers were injured after being hit by bottles thrown at them.

Arrests hours after protests in Sydney

While only one person was arrested during the protests in Sydney, two people police believed were involved in the earlier rally were charged after allegedly assaulting an officer during a brawl in the CBD.

Police were called to the Broadway bar about 5.15pm in response to reports a group of people at the bar were yelling offensively at passersby and a brawl kicked off.

They said the officer suffered minor injuries in an assault as police tried to break it up and two men, aged 29 and 48, were arrested.

They were this morning charged with affray, assaulting police and resisting police in the execution of duty, to appear in court this morning.

Police allege the 49-year-old assaulted a male constable, who the younger man also assaulted when police tried to arrest the older man.

Footage shows officers using pepper spray then making the arrests, and a shirtless man is filmed struggling with police before seeming to get away.

Mobile phone vision has also emerged of a protester with an Australian flag clashing with a passenger on a train at Redfern station, seemingly another hangover of a highly charged day.

The earlier arrest, in Hyde Park, involved a woman allegedly breaching the peace. She was taken to Day Street police Station.

Organisers of the rallies had called for there to be no violence and denied any links to neo-Nazis.

NSW Police Acting Assistant Commissioner Scott Tanner said it was an "amazing effort" from police.

"There's no further investigations into any matters that occurred today," he said.

Thousands of people gathered at Belmore Park in the city for the rally.

"We are not a racist country, we just want a good calibre of people here in here," one woman said.

They are calling for limits or an end to migration.

There was a huge police presence with several hundred funnelling the march down Broadway.

There were fears that the march could be hijacked by neo-Nazi hate groups and they were there front and centre leading the march.

Members of a White Australia group were there with their leader Jack Eltis.

"But we are here because anti-immigration is our key political issue," he told 9News.  

When asked if the group was racist he replied: "Yeah we are racist. We are proud of who we are as white men, we built this nation."

He also confirmed the group's members were "neo-Nazis".

The front of the march might have presented one picture but the bulk of those marching behind appeared to be anything but extremist

At the end, at an open mic session the White Australia group seized control.

It was a hate speech and wasn't winning over the majority of the crowd.

When the speaker was finished, police ushered the group away.

A few blocks away a march by the Refugee Action Coalition was a counter-protest condemning the White Australia group.

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Grit has been put on the spill and temporary speed limit signs are in place.

Māori, Samoan and Fijian communities gathered in Ōhinemutu ahead of this weekend’s match.

The jury watched CCTV showing the accused before the fire started.

Leaked data shows Whangārei Hospital was above the national average.

The man also allegedly spat at police officers while being taken into custody.

Housing values have risen again across Australia for August, with the strongest month-on-month growth since May of 2024.

The average value of houses overall rose by 0.7 per cent, with rises as high as 1.2 per cent seen in Adelaidelast month alone, according to Cotality.

It continues a trend of rising house values – growing 4.1 per cent this year – which is amplified by a lack of supply.

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Cotality estimates supply is still 20 per cent below average for this time of year, which tends to be a busy period in the housing market.

"Once again we are seeing a clear mismatch between available supply and demonstrated demand placing upwards pressure on housing values", Tim Lawless from Cotality said.

The value of homes in Sydney was modest, only rising 0.8 per cent and 2.1 per cent this year.

However, the median house price in the harbour city is still well clear of the rest of the country, currently sitting at around $1.2 million.

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Brisbane, Perth and Darwin all saw house values go up by at least 1 per cent, whilst Hobart was the only major city to record a decrease in value, falling by 0.2 per cent.

Growth in housing value is a consistent theme, and it could continue should interest rates keep falling, but Lawless suggests it will be more sustainable than the massive growth seen during the pandemic.

"I would be surprised if we saw the monthly rate of change in the national [value] getting anywhere near these earlier cyclical peaks, given how stretched housing affordability has become," he said

"What is more likely is that home values will rise at a more sustainable pace, with demand dampened by affordability constraints, more normal rates of population growth and cautious lending policy."

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A single-vehicle crash happened near Tikokino soon after midday on Sunday.

Taxpayers could be forking out hundreds of millions of dollars every year in financial concessions for property investors using homes as short-stay accommodation, a new report has found.

The research by the national housing campaign Everybody's Home estimates that this financial year, the federal budget could be losing between $111 million and $556 million in forgone revenue through negative gearing deductions claimed on short-stay rental properties.

Across Australia 167,955 entire homes are estimated to be operating as short-stay accommodation instead of long-term rentals, yet owners can still claim negative gearing and the capital gains tax (CGT) discount.

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Negative gearing is a tax concession that applies when the cost of owning an investment outweighs the income it generates.

The owner can then deduct that net loss from their overall income and lower their total taxable income, and therefore reduce their tax bill.

It can apply to any kind of investment in Australia but is most commonly associated with investment properties.

Despite there being no official breakdown of the number of negatively geared short-stay properties, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has reported that about half of all property investors utilise negative gearing in any given year.

Researchers who drew up the Everybody's Home report looked at a range of outcomes.

They found if only 10 per cent to 20 per cent of short-stay rentals were negatively geared, the annual cost to taxpayers could be more than $111 million.

But if 50 per cent of listings were negatively geared, the cost could balloon to $556 million.

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The report was released today after the federal government last week fast-tracked its promised 5 per cent deposit Home Guarantee Scheme, which could help thousands of Australians buy their first homes.

But campaigners and some economists argue tax reform is also needed to take the heat off property prices.

Everybody's Home spokesperson Maiy Azize says overhauling negative gearing has the potential to reclaim billions of dollars for the public purse.

"Everyday people are footing the bill for property investors to write off losses from holiday homes, all while families are being priced out of their communities because they can't find affordable rentals," she said.

"Renters across the country are being squeezed by soaring rents and a shrinking number of affordable homes – and in many parts of the country, short-stay accommodation is only making it worse.

"Generous tax breaks for investors, including for short-stay accommodation, are driving wealth inequality and pushing up house prices for everyone else."

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