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1 week ago | 
abc.net.au | Geraden Cann
An Australian team attempting to grow plants on the moon is finalising a prototype designed to carry an assortment of plants and seeds to the lunar surface. If the plants and seeds survive the journey, the team is hoping they will be able to thrive on the moon's surface. The project, which is being headed by Australian company Lunaria One, will hitch a ride on the exterior of a lander built by USA-based Intuitive Machines, and is currently scheduled to launch in March or April 2026.
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2 weeks ago | 
abc.net.au | Geraden Cann
A survivor of sexual abuse at a Catholic school in Victoria has won a claim against his ex-lawyers, after suing the law firm for negligence. The survivor was abused at Monivae College in Hamilton in the late 1970s by two Catholic brothers and was originally represented in his lawsuit against the Catholic order by Waller Legal in 2015. He first settled his claim against the Order of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart (MSC) for $140,000 in February 2017.
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2 weeks ago | 
abc.net.au | Geraden Cann
Last year more than 1,700 orders for involuntary electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) were approved by tribunals across Australia. Some advocates are raising questions about consent, with many of those treated being admitted to hospital involuntarily. Psychiatrists say those receiving mandatory ECT are often not well enough to give consent, and benefit from it.
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2 weeks ago | 
abc.net.au | Geraden Cann
Rebecca* remembers fighting her clinical team all the way to the theatre, shouting the electroconvulsive therapy she was about to receive was against her will. "I felt completely helpless, that my body wasn’t my own. I felt like I was in a movie," she said.
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3 weeks ago | 
abc.net.au | Geraden Cann
An international student agency that collapsed in late February may have been trading while insolvent for more than a year, the liquidator believes. In a statutory report to creditors, liquidator Joshua Taylor estimated GrowPro Experience Pty Ltd owed more than $2.74 million to creditors, including roughly $450,000 to the Australian Tax Office. His report contained preliminary findings and noted further investigations were required.
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1 month ago | 
abc.net.au | Geraden Cann
A serial groper who sexually assaulted 17 women and attempted to sexually assault another at a Melbourne nightclub has avoided jail time. David Maria Anthony Rayan, 34, was facing up to 10 years in prison for the sexual assaults, which took place at Revolver nightclub on Chapel Street, Prahran, over three nights in late-2023. Mr Rayan pleaded guilty to the charges and today received a two-year community corrections order in the Victorian County Court.
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2 months ago | 
abc.net.au | Geraden Cann
Abhinav Shrivastava's parents were early birds — academics who got up at 4am to start working. But he took after his uncles, photojournalists who thrived in the hours the world went quiet, and routinely went to bed at 4am. "My mother tried to make me wake up really early in the morning and do my studies … it never worked well for me," Mr Shrivastava said. It took time for his parents to accept his clock ran differently, but the clincher came when he was 13 years old.
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2 months ago | 
abc.net.au | Geraden Cann |Madi Chwasta
In an Australian first, a woman from Brisbane has unknowingly given birth to a baby whose genetics belong to strangers. The error was discovered in February, with Monash IVF blaming human error on the mix-up. The baby is now believed to be a toddler. While experts are saying this case is "unprecedented" in Australia, it's happened multiple times in the US, with cases hitting the headlines as early as 1999. It's led to questions about whether stricter regulations need to be enforced here.
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Mar 17, 2025 | 
abc.net.au | Geraden Cann
The city streets change at around 11pm, Abdullah Farzad says. Roads choked by traffic become open avenues, and noises hidden during the day emerge. Lonely footsteps on pavements, the closing of unseen doors, the gentle ticking of Farzad's bike chain as he makes his deliveries. Seven days a week, from early afternoon through to 6am, Farzad can be found cycling around Melbourne, glimpsed as a silhouette passing illuminated shopfronts as he delivers Uber Eats orders.
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Mar 16, 2025 | 
abc.net.au | Geraden Cann
A liquidator is investigating whether a failed international student agency improperly transferred funds out of Australia in the weeks before its collapse. GrowPro Experience, a Spain-based company which helps arrange global study for international students, was put into administration earlier this year. Its collapse has left hundreds of students at risk of losing years of savings and the opportunity to study in overseas destinations, including Australia.
