“No excuses here”: The punishments facing Optus after outage impacts Triple Zero

Across the country, things are happening at a local level that have an impact nationally. Here’s the stories you might not hear about in the traditional media.

A family’s prized garden on Victoria’s Bass Coast has been shredded by a rabbit invasion.

As the Gippsland Monitor’s Jacob Wallace reports, Harold and Maureen Jackson estimate the damage is up to $20,000, with rabbits digging warrens, devouring plants, and even damaging fences.

The local council is now investigating population control measures for rabbits, feral cats and deer.

Experts warn the population is thriving thanks to year-round green grass, and efforts must include destroying warrens, not just culling rabbits.

At the Bass Coast Shire council meeting last Tuesday, Bauer brought a motion to have council staff provide a report on possible eradication and population control options regarding rabbits, feral cats and deer.

“They are everywhere, the rabbits are borrowing under people’s homes, they’re digging up everybody’s gardens,” he said. “The damage they’re doing to native flora is horrendous.”

Read that story by clicking below 👇

Western Victoria is set to host the state’s biggest-ever energy storage project, powering hundreds of thousands of homes and creating local jobs.

As the West Vic Brolga’s Zara Cuthbertson reports, Pacific Green’s $1.3 billion Portland Energy Park will house four 250-megawatt battery “parks” capable of powering 345,000 homes during peak demand, while also stabilising energy prices and supporting more wind and solar.

Construction will create 300 jobs, with 60 ongoing positions once the park is operational.

Victorian Energy Minister Lily D’Ambrosio said the facility will “soak up cheap renewable power during the day and deliver it when demand peaks — slashing energy bills across the state.”

Read that story by clicking below 👇

The North Shore Lorikeet’s Huw Bradshaw reports from outside the PM’s pad in Kirribilli today, from a “sleep-in” staged by young Aussies claiming Labor is snoozing on climate action.

Huw reports about 35 protestors from the Australian Youth Climate Coalition used a mattress, pillows, and cardboard cutouts of PM Albanese and Environment Minister Murray Watt to dramatise their point: the government is “in bed with fossil fuels.”

Members of the protest warned that current emission reduction targets — 62 to 70% by 2035 — are insufficient, predicting more extreme heat, uninsured homes, and a future Gen Z doesn’t deserve to inherit.

Read that story by clicking below 👇

For the last year, University of the Sunshine Coast’s Dr Hugo Lassauce has been part of a leopard shark monitoring program at Abore Reef, off New Caledonia.

His work, now published in the Journal of Ethology, captured endangered Indo-Pacific leopard sharks mating in the wild: a rare “threesome” involving two males and a female.

His article says the footage reveals key behaviours and underscores the importance of protecting these critical breeding sites.

Check out some of that footage below.