A multinational company that owns household name products found in virtually all Australian homes has been named and shamed for avoiding $138 million worth of tax.

Reckitt Benckiser (now known as RB), which sells a range of brand names including Vanish, Dettol, Nurofen, Clearasil and Durex, made the Netherlands its regional hub for Australia, as part of a restructure three years ago.

The company is exempt from paying tax on 75 percent of profits in the Netherlands, meaning the effective tax rate works out as a low 7 percent.

The ‘Making Tax Vanish’ report published by Oxfam today, exposes flaws in the Australian tax system that allows multinational companies like RB to systematically avoid paying a large amount of the tax that Australian companies have to pay.

“I think ordinary Australians are increasingly impatient with multinational companies and their practices,” Oxfam CEO Dr Helen Szoke said.

“We see many multinational like RB that have products that are very familiar to us - products like Vanish and Nurofen. Given we are buying those products, we are supporting their profits and their bottom line, we would have an expectation that they should be paying tax.

“Ordinary Australians are really saying if we are held to account in terms of our taxation, why wouldn’t multinational companies also be held to account?”

The report comes as the Australian government toughens laws on corporate tax avoidance as part of its “Earned here, Taxed here” crackdown.

The Labor party has pledged go further, introducing public country-by-country reporting for corporations with more than $1 billion in global revenue.

Tax avoidance is not illegal but it means Australian taxpayers miss out on funding for essential public services.

The $138 million that would have been paid by RB in Australia at a 30 percent tax rate between 2013 and 2015, for example, could have been used for:

- More than 144,000 emergency ward patient admissions

- Funding for more than 11,000 secondary school students

- Providing 3,000 people with a disability with individualised supports in the first year of the NDIS

Oxfam says it supports the Australian government’s steps to curb corporate tax abuse – but  calls for further reforms to prevent other common measures that result in avoided tax. It estimates Australian taxpayers miss out on up to $6 billion a year in tax avoided by multinationals.

Today, RB said it supported Oxfam’s call for greater corporate tax transparency but rejected suggestions its decision to locate its regional business headquarters in the Netherlands was driven principally by tax avoidance.

“As Oxfam recognises, RB’s tax policy is totally legal and the norm for the majority of global businesses,” the company said.

Globally, RB was found to have avoided $729 million in tax over the four years from 2012 to 2015 through its use of regional hubs.

The Netherlands accounted for $622 million of the total.

The AFL and all 18 clubs will urge fans to sign up as organ donors in a new campaign to lift donor rates involving signing up quickly online.

The Organ and Tissue Authority has launched a new online organ donor registration process on its donatelife website.

People can now quickly register to become donors, using a mobile phone or any other device to do so.

The AFL and its players will promote the message to sign up to the online donor registration campaign during DonateLife Week, between July 30 and August 6, which falls across Round 20 of the 2017 season.

Last year 1713 Australians received a transplant, involving 503 deceased and 267 living organ donors and their families.

That is a record high but the numbers are still low with 1400 Australians waiting for a life-saving transplant, said Aged Care and Indigenous Minister Ken Wyatt.

Perth woman and mother of two Michelle Clarke would be blind without the corneal transplants she received in 1994 and 1995.

Unfortunately the transplants have a finite life and her eyesight is deteriorating rapidly, due to the progressive eye disease Keratoconus.

She is again on the wait list for new corneal transplants.

"It was life changing, it's everything and a window to my world, without the corneas I would be blind," she told AAP.

"I wouldn't be able to drive, see my kids, work, I wouldn' be able to do anything.

"Everyone should put themselves down as a donor, to sign up is so easy with the new registry and you can save someone's life."

The number of Australians willing to become an organ and tissue donor is 67 per cent, but the number of registered donors is only 33 per cent, says the Organ and Tissue Authority.

The WA Bone and Tissue Bank PlusLife's managing director Anne Cowie said there was a significant lack of awareness about the value of donating human tissue - as well as organs - which had a negative impact on a family's willingness to consent to donating.

WA Opposition Leader Mike Nahan has defended the Liberal Party's new website calling on whistleblowers to dob in dodgy public servants and politicians as legal and appropriate in a democracy.

However, an expert in whistleblower protection laws has warned that going to Dr Nahan rather than "proper channels" such as the police would theoretically not be legally protected under the public interest disclosure act.

The Liberals have faced criticism over the wawhistleblowers.com website and its simple appearance, including claims that it would be vulnerable to cyber criminals who could access it.

But Dr Nahan said it was protected by encryption, and he would refer any examples of illegal behaviour to police or the Corruption and Crime Commission.

"It's not a flash website, it doesn't have all the bells and whistles, but it's functional, relevant, encrypted and to the point," he said.

"The leader of the opposition is the major conduit for whistleblowers to hold government to account, it's one of our major functions, and this is just a tool to do it that is encrypted and protected."

Griffith University public policy professor AJ Brown warned people to be careful using the site, especially if they were public servants armed with confidential and sensitive whistleblower allegations about illegal behaviour.

In other states there was protection for going to MPs, but in WA there was not, he said.

"What are my protections if anybody came after me for providing this information?" he told ABC radio.

"If you're a public official in Western Australia and you have got concerns about most of the things listed on that website and you want to raise them with somebody, you won't get legal protection from defamation or a confidentiality breach or whatever under the legislation ... if you use this website."

The Labor government referred the site to the state solicitor's office to check its legality, which Dr Nahan cited as proof it was important and relevant.

The wawhistleblowers.com site, which first appeared on Tuesday, calls on people to make submissions about public servants they see engaging in misconduct including corruption, wasting taxpayer money and gross mismanagement.

Malaysia hopes that suspects in the July 2014 downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 to face charges in the Netherlands should be known by the end of the year, its transport minister, Liow Tiong Lai, says.

The Boeing 777 was shot down over eastern Ukrainian territory held by pro-Russia separatists fighting Ukrainian government forces, by a Russian-made Buk missile, the Dutch Safety Board concluded in an October 2015 report.

All 298 people on board, including 38 Australian citizens or residents, were killed.

The Netherlands foreign ministry announced last week that any suspects identified in bringing down the aircraft will be tried in a Dutch court and under Dutch law.

"Hopefully end of the year or early next year, we can get a decision on who we can actually charge in court," Liow told reporters at an MH17 memorial service in Putrajaya, Malaysia's administrative capital on Thursday.

About 90 family members of 43 Malaysians killed in the crash attended the service, where they were briefed on the latest developments in the investigation.

A Dutch-led team of investigators from Australia, Belgium, Malaysia, and Ukraine, concluded in September that the rocket was fired from territory in eastern Ukraine held by pro-Russian separatists.

That finding contradicts Russia's suggestion that the aircraft was brought down by Ukraine's military, not the separatists.

Authorities urged the people responsible for launching the Buk missile to come forward, Liow said, adding that the investigators' conclusions were sound.

"We are confident that we will be able to identify the criminals responsible and that we will be able to bring them to court," he said.

Victoria Legal Aid has revealed it will review its processes after admitting human error was to blame for discrepancies in legal documents in the case of a domestic violence offender convicted of assaulting and threatening to kill his ex-wife and daughter.

The statement comes 24 hours after it originally told 9NEWS that it could not comment on the case because of privacy laws.

The man used Legal Aid lawyers to apply from prison to have his daughter placed on a Family Law Watch List, which is essentially a list enforced by Australian Federal Police that prevents children leaving the country.

It is designed for parents who fear their children are at risk of being kidnapped.

The child was the subject of an interim order that was approved by the Federal Circuit Court despite no apparent background checks being carried out on the offender and the fact there were major discrepancies contained in documents lodged by a Legal Aid lawyer on his behalf.

These discrepancies centred around two documents.

In a Notice of Risk application, the offender was asked if a child party to the proceedings had been abused - his lawyer answered no.

That is despite the man being convicted for assaulting his daughter and threatening to kill her.

He was also asked if there had been family violence by a party to the proceedings or any other person who is relevant to the proceedings.

Again his application said no. That is despite him being convicted for family violence related offences that relate specifically to his ex-wife and daughter.

In his affidavit, which accompanied the application, the man declared he was in prison, having been convicted of family violence offences, but said he could not recall the exact charges.

This apparent discrepancy between his affidavit and his application did not prevent the interim order being made. 9NEWS raised this matter with Victoria Legal Aid almost a week ago.

Yesterday, the organisation told 9NEWS privacy laws prevented it confirming whether the man was a client, whether it had been made aware of any discrepancies, and whether or not an investigation had been launched.

Now Victoria Legal Aid has confirmed there will be a review.

It also admitted the discrepancies were significant and a human error on behalf of Victoria Legal Aid.

"It has been brought to our attention that a document filed by Victoria Legal Aid on behalf of a client contained a significant mistake, which we are taking steps to correct," Nicole Rich, the organisation's Executive Director Family, Youth and Children’s Law, said.

"This was an instance of human error, and we take full responsibility for that.

"We are grateful that this was brought to our attention so we can rectify the mistake and the matter can proceed as planned.

"We are amending the error and are in the process of filing a revised document with the Court.

"We agree that the Judge requires full and accurate information to make a decision in the best interests of the child in any family law matter.

"We will also review our own internal processes to help prevent the risk of future document errors of this sort."

It has been an exhaustive legal process for the mother at the centre of this case.

The man who bashed her was jailed earlier this year for assaulting and threatening to kill his ex-wife and daughter. The woman suffered broken ribs.

To compound her physical and emotional pain, she has been paying tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees, while her abusive ex-husband was granted Legal Aid.

The taxpayer is paying for his legal fights in court, as he continues to try and restrict the movement of his ex-wife and the child he assaulted.

Despite the discrepancies in the documents filed with the Federal Circuit Court as part of the watch list application, Victoria Legal Aid has already determined that it will continue to represent the offender.

The investigation could have resulted in his legal aid funding being withdrawn.

"We have reviewed our decision to act in this matter and remain satisfied that it is appropriate and that the inaccurate disclosure contained in the document does not affect that assessment," 9NEWS was told in a statement.

The order that the daughter was placed on is a procedural matter put in place in cases like this until a court can hear the case in full and a judge determine the outcome.

The Australian Federal Police does not approve watch list applications it polices them. Orders and interim orders are only approved by courts.

While new papers are lodged with the Federal Circuit Court for a judge to determine the outcome of the airport watch list application, it might not be the end of the matter for the offender.

There can be serious legal consequences for knowingly swearing a false affidavit, or making a false declaration.

Former prime minister John Howard insists Australia can trust Donald Trump, even though the US president's style of leadership is "unusual".

Real estate mogul Mr Trump has come under scrutiny since he was elected last year, but Mr Howard says we shouldn't be so quick to judge.

"The style of President Trump is unusual," Mr Howard said at a United States Studies Centre event at the University of Sydney tonight.

"I accept that some of his style is provocative, but in the end it's what he does that matters."

Mr Howard warned against a "rush to judgment ... a rush to condemn" Mr Trump and was generally cautious in his assessment of the US leader.

When asked on Mr Trump's decision to withdraw the US from the Paris Climate Agreement, Mr Howard admitted he himself had "become increasingly more of a sceptic on climate change".

On the domestic front, Mr Howard said there would always be a place for conservatives in the Liberal Party, despite Malcolm Turnbull's appeal to the "sensible centre".

Mr Howard said the party is made up of both classical liberal and conservative traditions.

"Let me say to people in this country who regard themselves as conservative, you are always welcome in the Liberal party," Mr Howard said.

"The Liberal party and the National party are the natural and most productive homes for conservatives in this country."

It comes amid a war of words between Mr Turnbull and his predecessor Tony Abbott about the definition of the Liberal Party.

Mr Turnbull declared the Liberal party was not a conservative one and was instead "the sensible centre".

He noted Liberal founder Sir Robert Menzies "went to great pains not to call his new political party consolidating the centre right of Australian politics 'conservative' but rather the Liberal Party, which he firmly anchored in the centre of Australian politics".

"The sensible centre was the place to be. It remains the place to be," he told a London think-tank this week.

After a public backlash, Mr Turnbull said he had deliberately used the phrase "sensible centre" coined by Mr Abbott, and believed most Liberal Party members - including himself - embraced both the terms liberal and conservative.

"They are brought together and indeed they are shared by most of us, we share both traditions, they are not exclusive," Mr Turnbull said.

Mr Abbott recently vowed to be a strong conservative voice, and former Liberal senator Cory Bernardi split earlier this year to set up his own Australian Conservatives party.

However, supporters were warned to stay away from "alternative conservative configurations" by Mr Howard, who said joining such groups would "end in tears".

People living near a massive Melbourne recycling plant blaze are being told to evacuate due to toxic smoke blanketing the suburb.

The blaze broke out at the Coolaroo SKM Recycling factory on Thursday morning after firefighters extinguished a smaller blaze at the site on Wednesday night.

Emergency services issued an evacuation warning for the suburb of Dallas at 8.30pm on Thursday night, with very poor air quality levels detected by the Environment Protection Authority.

People are being advised to collect their medicines, pets and belongings and securely lock their houses before leaving.

Emergency services will shortly be door knocking the area to provide further information and support, and if residents do not wish to leave, they should contact 9205 2670 to register their details.

Factory staff and nearby businesses were earlier evacuated and a community relief centre established in Broadmeadows, after smoke poured across Melbourne's north.

"We're saying it could go up to three days to put the fire out completely," MFB deputy chief officer Ken Brown told 3AW.

"What we're trying to do over the next 24 hours is try and get the smoke down ... and then we can fully extinguish this fire."

Mr Brown also said it was the fourth time the factory had caught fire in recent months, with other blazes in February, June and on Wednesday night.

He said firefighters were working with the council and business owners to find out why the fires were starting and how to stop them.

"It's a mixture of cardboard, paper and plastic and they're ground up into fine pieces of stockpile ready for the recycling process," he said.

"They burn rapidly, they burn deep-seated and they're very hard to extinguish."

Clarissa Garrow, who works directly across the road from the fire, said the blaze was "insane".

"No one can get in and no one can get out," she earlier told AAP.

"Ash and papers are flying everywhere. This is a regular thing, on my first day there was a fire there."

The blaze was thought to have started in a pile of recycled materials outside the Maffra Street factory shortly before 9am.

DALLAS STREETS WHICH SHOULD EVACUATE

* Barry Road between Dallas Drive and Doy Street.

* Washington Street between King Street and Doy Street.

* Edmund Street between King Street and Doy Street.

* Doy Street between Barry Road and Edmund Street.

* Dallas Drive to Sale Court, including Sale Court.

People living near a massive Melbourne recycling plant blaze are being told to evacuate due to toxic smoke blanketing the suburb.

The blaze broke out at the Coolaroo SKM Recycling factory this morning after firefighters extinguished a smaller blaze at the site on Wednesday night.

Emergency services issued an evacuation warning for the suburb of Dallas at 8.30pm, with very poor air quality levels detected by the Environment Protection Authority.

People are being advised to collect their medicines, pets and belongings and securely lock their houses before leaving.

Emergency services will shortly be door knocking the area to provide further information and support, and if residents do not wish to leave, they should contact 9205 2670 to register their details.

Factory staff and nearby businesses were earlier evacuated and a community relief centre established in Broadmeadows, after smoke poured across Melbourne's north.

"We're saying it could go up to three days to put the fire out completely," MFB deputy chief officer Ken Brown told 3AW.

"What we're trying to do over the next 24 hours is try and get the smoke down ... and then we can fully extinguish this fire."

Mr Brown also said it was the fourth time the factory had caught fire in recent months, with other blazes in February, June and on Wednesday night.

He said firefighters were working with the council and business owners to find out why the fires were starting and how to stop them.

"It's a mixture of cardboard, paper and plastic and they're ground up into fine pieces of stockpile ready for the recycling process," he said.

"They burn rapidly, they burn deep-seated and they're very hard to extinguish."

Clarissa Garrow, who works directly across the road from the fire, said the blaze was "insane".

"No one can get in and no one can get out," she earlier told AAP.

"Ash and papers are flying everywhere. This is a regular thing, on my first day there was a fire there."

The blaze was thought to have started in a pile of recycled materials outside the Maffra Street factory shortly before 9am.

DALLAS STREETS WHICH SHOULD EVACUATE

* Barry Road between Dallas Drive and Doy Street.

* Washington Street between King Street and Doy Street.

* Edmund Street between King Street and Doy Street.

* Doy Street between Barry Road and Edmund Street.

* Dallas Drive to Sale Court, including Sale Court.

Australian professional boxer and swimsuit model Lauryn Eagle has allegedly been caught driving under the influence of drugs in south Sydney.

Ms Eagle allegedly returned a positive result for methamphetamine, or ice, at a random drug test in Peakhurst about 10am on Wednesday and was arrested, The Daily Telegraph has reported.

The 29-year-old was taken to Kogarah Police Station for further testing and was prohibited from driving for 24 hours, police told AAP.

The British royal family's archives department has told a UK inquiry it has no relevant documents on the sexual abuse of child migrants sent to Australia.

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse, sitting in London, asked for documentation from the Royal Archives because of royal patronage and funding of the child migration charity, the Fairbridge Society.

The society is at the centre of multiple claims of sexual abuse of child migrants at its Australian farm schools from the 1940s to the 1970s.

The inquiry has heard that many of the more than 3000 Fairbridge children sent to Australia were sexually abused as well as being regularly beaten and humiliated, poorly fed and clothed and used as virtual slave labour on farms.

On Thursday, inquiry deputy counsel Henrietta Hill, QC, told the inquiry of the Royal Archives' response to the documentation request.

The inquiry had asked the archives if it held documentation on the sufficiency of care for children migrated to Australia by the Fairbridge Society and whether such migration should continue.

"There is no material in the archive in either category," was the archive's response, Ms Hill said.

The inquiry also asked for documentation on the proposal to rename the Fairbridge farm school at Molong the Queen Elizabeth School and on the Queen donating to the school - which was not renamed.

Again the Royal Archives said they had no relevant documentation.

The inquiry also asked for information on former Australian governor-general Sir William Slim who died in 1970 but has since been accused by three former Fairbridge farm boys of sexually abusing them in NSW in the 1950s.

Sir William's family has denied the allegations.

The Royal Archives said it did not hold relevant material on him but the National Archives in Australia might have.

The inquiry also asked for relevant information on the Duke of Gloucester, the uncle of Queen Elizabeth, who was patron of the Fairbridge Society, but the archive again came up blank.

On Monday, Dame Martina Milburn, the chief executive of The Prince's Trust, appeared before the inquiry and apologised on behalf of the trust for the sexual abuse suffered by Fairbridge Society child migrants.

She told the inquiry the Prince's Trust, set up by Prince Charles in 1976 as a youth charity, had in 2012 absorbed the Fairbridge Society but had "not been told the truth" about the society's child sexual abuse issue.

Three Arab-Israeli gunmen have opened fire at police near Jerusalem's holiest site, killling two Israeli policemen before security forces killed the attackers.

Israeli authorities shut the area after the attacks - the most serious incident in years close to the highly sensitive compound, which is holy to both Muslims and Jews.

The closure stopped Muslims gathering there for Friday prayers, drawing a call for resisitance from Palestinian leaders.

The gunmen arrived at the sacred site, known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as Temple Mount, and walked towards one of the Old City gates nearby, police spokeswoman Luba Simri said.

"When they saw policemen they shot towards them and then escaped towards one of the mosques in the Temple Mount compound," Simri said. "A chase ensued and the three terrorists were killed by police."

She said three firearms were found on their bodies. The Shin Bet Israeli internal security service said the three gunmen were Arab citizens of Israel.

There was no immediate comment from the Palestinan Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank. No group claimed responsibility, though the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, praised the attack.

"Hamas lauds the heroic operation in Jerusalem," Hamas spokesman Abdel-Latif al-Qanoua said in a statement.

Mobile phone video footage aired by Israeli media showed several policemen chasing a man and shooting him down at the site, which is a popular place for foreign tourists to visit. Israeli authorities are still working to identify the attackers, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.

The Greens Senator Scott Ludlam has not lived in New Zealand since he was three, but the fact that he continued to hold dual citizenship has ended his near decade-long political career.

The party's co-deputy leader was in New York last week addressing a UN conference on banning nuclear weapons, when his office was notified about the dual citizenship.

Under section 44 of the constitution, that makes him ineligible to hold elected office.

"Someone had done some digging for whatever reason," Senator Ludlam said, adding that he understood the person was an interested community member.

"I apologise unreservedly for this mistake."

He has chosen to resign rather than try to fight what he said was a ridiculous oversight and his fault.

He said that when he became an Australian citizen in his mid-teens he assumed he had given up his New Zealand citizenship.

"I could have dug my heels in I guess but it creates a messy, protracted dispute when that section of the constitution is crystal clear and has been tested before ... it's not something I particularly want to put myself or my staff through," he told reporters.

A nine-year senator never being eligible in the first place is believed to be unprecedented and the Department of Finance could pursue him over taxpayer salaries and allowances provided over that time.

However such debt was waived for Rod Culleton and John Day, who were both disqualified as senators this year.

Senator Ludlam took a couple of months off at the end of 2016 to deal with depression and anxiety.

However he was philosophical and positive on Friday, describing the decision as a far simpler situation than last year's.

"It is still settling in a little bit, it has been an incredible run and I have enjoyed every minute of it and I think probably when it all goes quiet or when they ring the bells on my colleagues in August and I'm not there it is going to settle in," he said.

He said he "would find some other way of stirring up trouble" but it was too soon to contemplate a comeback.

His biggest highlight was getting a nuclear waste dump "off the shoulders of old Aboriginal women in the NT".

"In my inaugural speech in September 2008 I said I wanted to be a part of a movement that turned the ship and I know it can be hard to tell at times but I feel like we are a part of doing that and we have done that," he said.

Greens leader Richard Di Natale said he was devastated at the news, but Senator Ludlam's decision to deal with the issue directly and immediately showed his integrity and character.

"Scott has been an outstanding member of the parliament and of the Greens," he said in a statement.

University student Jordon Steele-John, who has cerebral palsy, has been touted as the frontrunner to take the vacant seat.

"Like everyone else in the party I'm going to be spending the next week in sad shock and/or swearing loudly into a pillow," the 22-year-old posted on Facebook.

https://twitter.com/SenatorLudlam/status/885713829610405893

A video of US President Donald Trump is going viral after he commented on the French First Lady’s body during a visit to Paris.

The exchange between Mr Trump and Brigitte Macron was filmed as the pair and their partners toured the museums at Les Invalides in Paris.

The visit was livestreamed on President Emmanuel Macron’s official Facebook page.

“You’re in such good shape,” Mr Trump is seen saying in the clip, gesturing to Mrs Macron’s body, before turning to her husband.

“She’s in such good physical shape,” he repeats.

“Beautiful.”

The clip quickly made the rounds on social media, with many condemning the president’s behaviour.

https://twitter.com/MatthewDicks/status/885604225731964929

https://twitter.com/GracyGoodbye/status/885626256418635776

https://twitter.com/RedHotNRanting/status/885626158720614405

https://twitter.com/ChloeJeffreys/status/885624857211224064

https://twitter.com/EKaschak/status/885623232258330627

Mr Trump and his wife Melania are in France to attend Bastille Day at Mr Macron’s invitation.

The holiday is on July 14, celebrating a key event of the French Revolution. 

Mr Trump has made headlines several times for his comments about women’s bodies.

Earlier this month he took to Twitter to mock US television host Mika Brzezinski, saying she was “bleeding badly from a face-lift” when he last saw her.

During his 2016 presidential campaign he criticised the facial features of Carly Fiorina, who was his opponent at the time.

“Look at that face,” he said during an interview with Rolling Stone.

"Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president?!”

Mr Trump has also gotten himself in hot water many times for his comments about Rosie O’Donnell.

It started in 2006 during an interview with Entertainment Tonight.

“How does she even get on television?” he said.

“If I were running The View, I'd fire Rosie. I'd look her right in that fat, ugly face of hers and say, 'Rosie, you're fired.'”

During an election debate on Fox News last year, mediator Megyn Kelly grilled Mr Trump, claiming he frequently insults them.

“Only Rosie O’Donnell,” he retorted. 

The CEO of a Sydney company has faced court accused of raping a woman on a boat in Sydney's East.

Santosh Devaraj appeared in Downing Centre Local Court on a single count of sexual intercourse without consent.

The 39-year-old is accused of having sex with the woman without her consent after she accompanied him onto the boat which was docked at Rose Bay Marina between 10pm on January 24 and 5am the following day.

The married Indian immigrant founded the company Secure Logic Group.

In a bio it is described as a "major supplier of cyber security services to Government and corporate clients in Australia and the Asia Pacific region."

In 2015 the firm signed a deal with the New South Wales Government to introduce the electronic voting system - I Vote.

Late today he released a statement to Nine News which said "Mr Deveraj vehemently denies the charges and will defend them vigorously. "

The case will return to court in September, however he will apply to have his bail varied before then.

In the meantime he is required to report to police twice a week and remain in the country.

It has been billed a "transformative" transport project for Western Sydney, but the billion-dollar Parramatta light rail network is about to change its course, leaving one Sydney suburb in the lurch.

The route for stage two of the rail project is nearly finalised and it is expected the stretch from Olympic Park to Strathfield will be scrapped, 9NEWS understands.

"You have residents who want to sell, residents who want to stay and they have no idea what is happening. This has been going on for too long," Shadow transport minister Jodi McKay said.

The Strathfield stop has been deemed too expensive and unnecessary, with the route likely to instead service growing areas without existing public transport.

Suburbs such as Wentworth Point, Silverwater and Newington are being considered before feeding into Olympic Park.

"This is really disappointing, and of course, we have no confirmation of the stops for the Metro West," Ms McKay said.

"We are in a holding pattern once again."

9NEWS can reveal the final business case for stage one of the route has been given the green light by a cabinet committee made up of the NSW premier and senior ministers.

Construction is expected to start next year.

"It is a mega project that is going to change not only the way the CBD runs, but all of the suburbs," Parramatta MP George Lee said.

The first stage will see the line run from Westmead Hospital to Carlingford with 16 proposed stops.

"It's not just about transport. It’s about transforming Parramatta and its surrounds," Mr Lee said.

A finalised route is expected to be handed down by the end of the year, with the Parramatta MP saying he will lobby to build a crucial missing link from Carlingford to Epping.

President Donald Trump has watched US and French soldiers march together through the Paris sunshine in a double celebration marking 100 years since the United States entered World War One and France's annual Bastille Day holiday.

The occasion, also featuring a bi-national fly-past of fighter jets symbolising military cooperation in the Middle East and elsewhere, followed a day of talks with French President Emmanuel Macron, a first ladies' tour of Paris, and a dinner for the four at a restaurant in the Eiffel Tower.

"Great evening with President @EmmanuelMacron & Mrs. Macron. Went to Eiffel Tower for dinner. Relationship with France stronger than ever," Trump wrote in a tweet.

The ceremonies bring to an end a visit Macron needs as a boost to France's standing on the world stage - one which could also help a US leader left short of international friends by his stance on free trade and climate change.

Trump, also dogged at home by an investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 US election, appeared on Thursday to leave open the door for more talks on the Paris accord which he pulled the United States out of earlier this year.

For France, this year's Bastille Day has an additional poignancy as the first anniversary of one of the deadliest Islamist militant attacks of the past few years.

After the parade, his first as President, Macron will head for the Mediterranean city of Nice, where he will join a commemoration for the 86 people who died when a Tunisian man drove a truck at a crowd on the waterfront a year ago.

If you have a mobile phone but don't want to be locked into payment plans, there is another option.

Prepaid deals are soaring in popularity thanks to new features and a recent survey has found supermarkets are leading the way, with prices starting from as little as $15.

Glenn Wilson had previously been a fan of mobile plans, but has saved money on prepaid.

"It was nice and easy, I knew how many calls I'd get and everything like that," he told 9NEWS.  

But prices doubled at the end of his plan and he switched to pre-paid, saving himself $375 a year.

The freedom of prepaid was a big drawcard, Harrison Astbury from financial comparison site Canstar Blue told 9NEWS.

"There's no commitments, there's no contracts and they love the fact that if you run out of calls texts and data there's no extra fees or penalties," he said.

"There definitely is a rise in supermarket phone plans – Woolies, Coles and ALDI all offer prepaid phone plans and all are very competitive."

Canstar Blue has crunched the numbers on prepaid phone deals – considering value for money, coverage and ease of recharge – and for the third year, running ALDImobile has come out on top.

The ALDI Super Pack is $249 for 42GB of data that lasts a year.

After ALDI, Amaysim came in second with a prepaid deal of $25 for 2GB of data a month.

They were followed by Optus, Telstra, Virgin Mobile and Vodafone – all offering $30 monthly prepaid deals with 3GB of data.

TPG also offers 3GB for $29.99 a month, which is on special for $15.

Other things to consider if you're going pre-paid including providing your own phone, with second-hand handsets an option.

Some providers have also combatted the problem of remembering to recharge credit by offering an auto-renew option.

In some cases, data expires every month, even if you don't use it all. Look for data rollover, like Mr Wilson did with his $15 ALDI Pay As You Go offer.

"It makes a huge difference, I'm on a limited income, a lot of people are like that," Mr Wilson said.

For more information, visit the Canstar Blue website. 

Father of one Jeffrey Smith was swaying, his 11-year-old daughter holding him up, when police spotted the pair at a West Gosford intersection on the NSW Central Coast.

Moments earlier, the 50-year-old had clipped a car on the Central Coast Highway, abandoned his vehicle at the local Caltex service station and fled on foot, with his daughter in tow. 

As officers closed in, he slurred "yep, I was driving, you got me." 

Back at Gosford police station, after initially refusing a breath test, the Point Clarke man blew .277 - which is nearly six times the legal limit. 

Today, Smith was convicted of high-range drink driving, negligent driving, refusing to submit to a breath test and not passing on his particulars to another driver. 

In the Gosford Local Court, he was sentenced to 12 months' jail, to be served by way of an intensive correction order. 

Smith was also fined one thousand dollars and handed a nine-month mandatory interlock period. 

Earlier, the father arrived at court with a jacket over his head, lashing out at the waiting media. 

Cameraman David Cleverly sustained a bloodied lip as he was knocked backwards. 

The court heard Smith had consumed seven stubbies of beer over a 12-hour drinking session that began at 9am.

He also consumed "two large nips" mate's moonshine - a concoction of home brew rum. 

His lawyer telling the court "something's happened with rum".

"He can't recall anything until he was arrested." 

Going on to say Smith could not remember getting behind the wheel or the crash that night in January of this year. 

"He's normally the kind of bloke who would take keys off someone." 

Despite this, the court heard 13 years ago Smith was sentenced for a similar drink driving offence, and had in fact four previous drink driving offences on his record.

Australians are taking part in a worldwide trial of a radiation therapy for primary liver cancer aimed at helping to reduce collateral tissue damage.

Mother-of-two Leanne Gusse was 48 when cancerous tumours in her liver were discovered.

"I was just beside myself, at the time I wanted to reach out and say to him this can't be happening to me," Ms Gusse told 9NEWS.

"The five-year survival is very poor, about 10 percent for this patient, and we have been looking at other techniques and other ways of improving this," Dr Pirooz Poursolton from Macquarie University Hospital said.

In the new treatment, round resin beads a third of the width of a human hair are administered internally to attack the lesions.

The patient is awake as a tiny catheter passes through the groin's main artery  to the liver, where millions of microspheres are released into the tumour's blood supply  and emit radiation.

"That has the potential to maximise the benefit of the anti-cancer therapy and minimise the side effects because we leave the rest of the body out of this treatment," Dr Poursolton said.

While the spheres remain in the liver, the effect of the radiation wanes after a few weeks.

"Because I was radioactive I had to be away from everybody so not in contact with the kids,” Ms Gusse said.

Ms Gusse is the first patient in the Asia Pacific region to take part in the phase three trial, which is looking to recruit 160 people worldwide.

In follow up blood tests, Ms Gusse’s cancer markers had drastically reduced.

She's now undergoing chemotherapy to beat the disease.

"For me I'm not ready to go anywhere just yet," Ms Gusse said.

A Melbourne shop attendant has taken matters into her own hands and fought off a knife-wielding bandit who tried to jump the counter.

CCTV shows the 28-year-old woman, known as Jenny, fighting back after the armed attacker tried to push his way behind the counter of the Hallam tobacconist, grabbing his arm as he held the knife.

“Just want to make some difficulties for him, because I don’t want him to get money so easy, he will repeat to other shops,” Jenny told 9NEWS.

“I can tell he's very nervous. He's not ready to use the knife. He just show the knife and put back to the pocket, so I change my mind, I decide not give him the money.”

The man had threatened Jenny multiple times after barging in and demanding cash and cigarettes.

He was handed about $2000 when he tried to force his way through to get more.

While police commended the woman’s bravery they said people should ensure they put their safety first.

“The female victim was very brave, but we do ask that people put their safety first as well,” Detective Senior Constable Nicole Sparks said.

After robbing the shop, the man ran down an alleyway where he was chased by a passerby who Jenny had asked for help.

The attacker is believed to be Caucasian, approximately 20-25 years old and was wearing a black hoodie that was pulled over his head.