It's been 15 years since the foul-smelling flower showed its petals in Sydney, but the rare Amorphophallus titanum – also known as a corpse flower – is finally blooming.

The flower, known for its smell of rotting flesh, blooms for about 24 hours, and can take three or four hours to completely unfurl.

As of 2pm, the plant was blossoming at Sydney's Botanic Gardens, which will remain open until midnight tonight.

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Sydneysiders can smell the flower, which has been dubbed by fans as "Putricia", at the Palm House in the Botanic Gardens.

According to the Botanic Gardens, the smell is similar to that of wet socks, hot cat food, or a rotting possum.

An audience of thousands of people have been watching a livestream of the plant for days in anticipation of the rare bloom.

"If you've got some wet teenage socks, throw that into a blender, then you get some cat food you've left out in the sun, whack that in your blender, and then get some day-old vomit. Put that in the blender, blend it all up, rip the lid off," Paul Nicholson, manager of volunteer programs, said of the plant.

"That's the kind of smell you're getting.

"It's actually stunningly beautiful as well."

After the petals or "spathe" have finished blooming, they will collapse and shrivel.

A single new leaf will emerge from the underground part of the plant, and the plant will continue to grow.

It will be years before the plant flowers again.

The Botanic Gardens will be open until midnight tonight, and open again at 8am tomorrow.

Another corpse flower bloomed in Melbourne in January, months after another one had done the same in Geelong.

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A surfer has described the moment he fought off a shark that charged at him in the water.

Dale Kittow had paddled over a wave at Cheynes Beach yesterday, about 68 kilometres east of Albany, when he saw the three-metre bronze whaler 10 metres away.

The apex predator started to circle the 37-year-old about 150 metres offshore before it charged at him.

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"I jumped off the back of my board and put it in between me and the shark," Kittow told 9News.

Kittow used his surfboard as a shield and punched back.

"The shark bit into the board, we got tangled in my leg rope, went under and got dragged for a bit. I hit it a few times," he said.

"I'm just lucky, mate. I was pretty rattled at the time but all good now."

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Experts have suggested the shark may have been investigating a nearby school of fish and considered Kittow to be a rival in the water.

"I think that Dale reacted really well in this situation," University of Western Australia shark researcher Dr Oliver Jewell said.

"He kept his arms and legs on his board, and he kind of pushed the shark away as it came close. That's usually enough to deter a shark."

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An 18-year-old man has been injured after a car was allegedly driven into the front yard of an Adelaide home.

Witnesses say the incident marks an escalating feud between neighbours on Bubner Street at Elizabeth South.

A silver commodore was captured on video driving across the road, and into the home's front yard before braking suddenly about 12pm today.

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It was then seen accelerating towards a group of people, who had allegedly been hurling abuse moments before the incident.

They were allegedly armed with machetes.

Across the road, there was a man with what witnesses said was a sledgehammer also hurling insults back.

Footage showed the car pulling out of the opposite front yard.

The driver was seen allegedly ramming the group again, this time appearing to hit two men.

The driver then drove away.

An 18-year-old man was taken to hospital with abdominal and leg injuries.

"I know I got the —- you know?" one person could be heard saying on audio recorded after the chaotic scene.

"I f—ing got him in the heart mate."

"I know I got him. He may have got me but I f—ing got him too."

Police seized a number of machetes from the home.

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Witnesses claim the group used them to smash the car's windows.

"When I came out I saw the people yelling and jumping around and stuff," a witness told 9News.

"Then I saw one of the dudes hitting the car with the big machete."

Witnesses said today's violence is part of an ongoing feud between neighbours.

The escalation is so severe that some are now considering moving out of the street.

"It's not safe here anymore, I'm moving out," one local told 9News.

Police are yet to make any arrests.

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An 88-year-old man has been charged with allegedly firing a bullet into the property of Manly Sea Eagles coach Anthony Seibold.

Police said they found a pistol, a rifle and ammunition at the home of Seibold's neighbour in North Curl Curl, Sydney.

Seibold said fortunately no one was injured.

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"We've got a lovely neighbour who … unfortunately an accident occurred where a bullet went through the garage," Seibold told 9News.

"Look, it wasn't anything sinister."

The man is due to appear in court in March.

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The Minns government's plans to plug gaps in the mental health system with existing health workers have been called "ludicrous" and a "declaration of war" by nurses and psychiatrists, as 100 mental health doctors walk off the job in a bid for higher pay and better conditions.

Mental Health Minister Rose Jackson revealed this morning that under proposed reforms to the public mental health system, 5600 nurses would manage care for mental health patients, including diagnosis and recovery.

Another 2000 health professionals, including psychologists, occupational therapists and social workers, would then oversee case management and therapy, to lighten the load on psychiatrists.

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"We have had discussions … they have involved how we might do some of that system redesign, not just involving nurses but general practitioners, peer workers," Jackson said.

It comes as 100 psychiatrists threaten to resign over the next two weeks over concerns about the public mental health system's integrity.

There are 43 psychiatrists who have already walked off the job, 25 have rescinded their resignation and another 99 have pushed back their resignation date to keep the system staffed.

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"Negotiations have been going on for a long time, staff psychiatrists have maintained their position that they would like to see a 25 per cent increase in one year. The government have a lot of different opportunities on the table … but we couldn't come to an agreement," Jackson said.

"We do anticipate potentially negative impacts to the system, as part of our contingency planning is managing the highest-risk individuals as a priority."

The matter will now be heard for arbitration at the Industrial Relations Commission.

Reforms met with intense criticism

The proposed reforms have been met with intense scrutiny by psychiatrists as well as nurses, who say mental health professionals are already overloaded.

"We've got serious concerns about how the current public mental health system will cope," NSW chair of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists Dr Pramudie Gunaratne said.

"It's unacceptable for other professionals to be put in a position to make decisions on things that are out of their scope of practice.

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"It is incredibly disappointing that the government is choosing to see this as being purely an industrial dispute rather than really taking ownership of what is a severely underfunded and collapsing mental health system."

Gunaratne described the public mental health system as "grossly underfunded and inadequate".

Forensic psychiatrist Dr Ian Korbel said the reforms were a "declaration of war" on the mental health system.

"What [Jackson] is calling for is for a substandard service to be provided, she's asking for psychologists and peer support workers to run the system. We don't have enough psychologists in the system as it is," Korbel said.

"I hope what we're going to see is a government that comes to its senses … otherwise what we're going to see is further deterioration of the mental health system to the point it'll have to be rebuilt."

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The NSW Nurses Union called the proposal "unacceptable".

"It is completely unacceptable and ludicrous that the government expects nurses to step in and fill the gaps in the wake of the psychiatrists' resignations," a union spokesperson said.

"The government can't expect nurses to mop up this mess by taking on even larger workloads than they already are.

"We're seeing beds and wards close across numerous local health districts without adequate consultation. This whole situation is being managed appallingly."

Jackson said eight beds had been lost at Prince of Wales Hospital in the wake of the resignations, with wards across the state being reconfigured to cope.

The government has also hired 23 locums to fill the gaps with another eight being processed.

Two days into his administration and US President Donald Trump has already made a big splash in the booming world of artificial intelligence.

As well as revoking Biden-era regulations, Trump has announced a US$500 billion ($797.1 billion) investment in a new company called Stargate, which will develop further AI technology.

As with all things involving the US, these decisions are likely to reverberate around the world, not least in Australia.

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Experts are divided on the issue, with some seeing opportunity in the heavy investment, and others worried the lack of regulation will lead to dangerous outcomes.

University of Technology Sydney Professor Michael Blumenstein said Trump's stance on AI is "very welcome", coupling it with the president's advocacy for space exploration.

"These declarations in the US do have significant implications for Australia and the world, given that there is already a race globally in both AI and space," he said.

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"As Australia is a close ally of the US, these announcements will hopefully stimulate a more ambitious position for our nation to contribute to AI research and technology development for local and global benefit as well as re-igniting investment in space research and to support the local space industry."

He said Australia's leading role in AI research had not translated into innovation yet.

However, Dr Fan Yang, a research fellow from the Melbourne Law School at the University of Melbourne, sounded a cautious about the far-reaching deregulation Trump had ordered.

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"This deregulation spans key areas such as AI safety, equity, diversity, and online disinformation, which will exacerbate harm for communities that experience different levels of vulnerability," he said.

"Australia is not well-equipped to respond to these forthcoming changes from the US, given the widespread reliance on American technological infrastructure within the country, the voluntary nature of AI safety standards, and the abandonment of the Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation Bill.

"Even if enacted, the bill itself is insufficient to effectively address the growing challenges of online disinformation."

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Associate Professor Niusha Shafiabady, from the Australian Catholic University's Department of Information Technology, likewise warned that Australian and US AI paths diverging could give rise to difficulties.

"We have many ongoing collaborations on sensitive projects including defence applications with our American partners," she said.

"In Australia, we are bound to follow the mandatory guidelines for safety and ethical applications of AI.

"Now that the same doesn't apply to our US-based collaborators, we wouldn't be able to continue working with them as effectively and efficiently as before."

She said ethical guidelines were "indispensable and necessary", and the US removing them would make collaborations "very tricky", with Australia perhaps even having to ban some projects coming out of the US.

However, Good Ancestors Policy CEO Greg Sadler said Trump was "probably right to be betting big on AI".

Good Ancestors Policy is an Australian charity focused on AI.

"The growth of AI capability has been dramatic, and the implications of transformative AI are something that the next Australian government will have to grapple with," Sadler said.

"Australians express higher levels of concern about AI risk than any other nation. A significant portion are worried about the potentially catastrophic outcomes highlighted by leading experts.

"Delivering on Australia's commitment in the Seoul Declaration by creating an AI Safety Institution should be a top priority."

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A man has been arrested after he allegedly fled the scene of a fiery crash about 65 kilometres north of Melbourne, leaving his passenger for dead.

A Mitsubishi SUV was driving on Kilmore East Road in Kilmore about 8pm yesterday when it crashed into a tree on the side of the road and burst into flames, according to police.

The driver, a 29-year-old Kilmore East man, allegedly fled, jumping the fence of a nearby family home before emergency services arrived.

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The passenger, a 38-year-old Kilmore woman, was cut out of the car and rushed to the Royal Melbourne Hospital with life-threatening injuries.

Footage filmed by a nearby resident showed the alleged driver shirtless and barefoot, hobbling through his backyard after he jumped the fence.

"I was running from this c— bro, he was gonna bash me," the alleged driver said in the video.

"He's going to f—ing bash me, bro."

The resident said he tackled the fugitive before the man ran away.

"Don't ever come in here again. How did you get in here?" the resident said in the video.

Police say it's remarkable the accused driver was able to get out of the wreck and run from the scene.

"The vehicle, for some unknown reason, has lost control, travelled to the incorrect side, gone down an embankment and hit a tree," Detective Sergeant Roslyn Wilson said.

"We've had a number of collisions over the last week and we want everyone to pay attention to what they're doing when they're driving."

The Kilmore East man was arrested after he presented to hospital today, where he remains under police guard.

Anyone who witnessed the crash or has dashcam footage or information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers.

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Three officers were seen running after a man on the ride-on lawnmower.

One baby has been hospitalised due to whooping cough in Tairāwhiti since November.

Due to the pipe’s size it could take 24 hours to restore water to large parts of the West.