IN-Focus

23 June, 2015. 11:06 ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact VICTORIAN POLICE HAVE warned partygoers that drugs will run their lives, but only if they catch them with drugs on their person. As the city gears up for the annual blues festival, Melbourne revellers have been put on notice by police to behave and not to do drugs. "We've given drug users plenty of warning,"...

21 June, 2015. 15:06 ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact NATHAN DELANEY'S STORY begins with the 2010-11 Queensland floods, when he was 14 years old, which rendered much of the state unemployed and caused a massive humanitarian crisis. By the time he was 15, he was homeless and alone, a starving orphan at a time and place when starving orphans tended not to make it. "Hunger is...

19 June, 2015. 15:06 ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact FRESH FROM HIS Thursday night appearance on Q&A, controversial Reverend Fred Nile has said he "emphatically believes in the great Australian traditions" while spruiking the dangers of allowing homosexuality to fester and grow in a modern Christian society. The NSW state MP, a Christian Democrat, said a number of business owners in...

18 June, 2015. 15:30 INGRID DOULTON | Equally Important Writer | Contact EACH YEAR THOUSANDS of young men pursue careers in professional amateur porn, chasing dreams of glamour, money, fame, self-empowerment, and great sex. But as the performers profiled in Big Dicks Wanted discover, the reality may be something else entirely. Directed by Betoota local Brett Pearson produced by Sigmund Remienko, this intimate documentary premiered at the Betoota Film Festival...

9 January, 2016. 15:07 ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact IT'S A CRITICAL decision made by thousands of Australian men preparing for a night out. To wash the bed sheets or not? A Catch-22 because in ever-increasing numbers, young men are venturing out into the evening - planning to "just have a couple with the boys" before being home in bed before MasterChef is over. It's...

12 May, 2015. 14:06 ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact THE FIVE FINALISTS of the inaugural "best dressed freedom fighter" have been announced at a gala event overnight in the Somali capital, Mogadishu. The celebration of conflict fashion was hosted by the International Freedom Fighters' Guild (IFFG), which is also classified as a terrorist organisation by the United States. Judges whittled down over...

  CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | [email protected] A MELBOURNE WOMAN who accidentally swallowed an appetiser containing gluten is calling for the resignation of medical staff after she was refused treatment at the Melbourne Mater Hospital overnight. Adrienne Prescott, 36, who describes herself as “seriously sensitive to gluten” - had been attending a private function when she mistakenly ate a smoked salmon canapé which may have contained...

9 April, 2015. 15:35 CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | [email protected] After being held for six days without charge a Newtown man has been released in what amounted to a case of mistaken identity. The 25 year old Newtown barista, who cannot be named by order of the court, received a public apology from the Australian Federal Police (AFP) yesterday over being mistaken for...

31 March, 2016. 17:35 CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | Contact After having returned from their first ever Bluesfest two days ago, Bruce and Barb Houston are still puzzled as to what on earth happened on the last night of the festival. The married couple from Toowoomba, Queensland endured a peculiar "dizzy-spell" when they decided to share their first cigarette since they both quit smoking in 1992. "I...

8 June, 2015. 17:10 ALEXUS COBETT | NSW | Contact A prominent Sydney cruise company is making tens of thousands of dollars a month offering a special ‘out-of-sight’ package on the outskirts of Sydney Harbour. But where are they going?  They aren't going anywhere. Just 200 nautical miles away from land, into The Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), an area beyond and adjacent to the territorial Australian sea. The post-Martin-Place-siege tourism...