Latest news with #NewSouthWales
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Disgraced cricket star Stuart MacGill opens up about his struggles after being convicted of dealing cocaine - and why he's jobless and worried for his kids
Former Australian cricketer Stuart MacGill has opened up about how his life has changed since his legal troubles began, revealing that he cannot find work and is worried about the impact of the scandal on his children. In May, the 54-year-old former leg-spinner was found guilty of taking part in supplying drugs for a deal between his regular dealer and his brother-in-law in April 2021. Jurors found him not guilty of taking part in a large commercial drug supply but found him guilty of the lesser charge of supplying an indictable quantity of cocaine. In his first interview since the high-profile court case, MacGill admits he has been unable to find full-time work and that he has become reclusive and 'doesn't open the curtains too much' these days. 'I am very lucky because depression has never been a big thing for me,' he told the Howie Games podcast. 'I get anxious. I won't lie about that. I get very anxious. The former Test cricket star, who played 44 matches and claimed 208 wickets, says he leads a quieter life than he used to 'People talk about the half-full half-empty situation - well, I've always said I'm neither of them, I'm completely empty. 'And the reason I say that is because if today is the worst day of your life, tomorrow is going to be slightly fuller. ' MacGill, who played 44 Tests for Australia and took 208 scalps, says he is drawing on techniques from his playing days to get his life back on track. 'If you hit rock bottom there is sunshine ahead,' MacGill said. 'If anything particularly bothers me, I just don't think about it. I learned that through playing Test cricket. 'If you have a bad day, don't buy a paper. If you have a good day, buy every paper in the stand.' The cricket great said he worries about the stress his recent legal troubles have placed on his children. 'My kids have had to put up with it,' he said. The Test great (pictured with Joe Root) said it's easy for him to shut the media off, but it's harder for his kids 'I can just turn the media off but... it is very difficult for kids to turn social media off. 'I don't care what people are saying about me, but I do care what was happening to the kids and I know it has been very difficult for them.' MacGill also confessed he's been impacted mentally by his inability to find full-time employment, although he has got some work as a cricket coach. 'I'm doing my coaching but other than that I'm not really working much which is a pain because I have a pretty active mind and trying to shut that off is hard work,' he said. 'Lots of TV. But I don't mind my own company, which is a good thing.' 'I get lonely sometimes, but I think that's happened to a lot of people since Covid... 'My network used to be a big part of who I was. 'I knew a lot of people and I have closed that right down since I have needed to manage my own environment a little bit more carefully.'
BBC News
2 hours ago
- Health
- BBC News
Vape ban Australia: Fewer school-age children vaping, study says
School-age children in Australia are vaping less, research suggests, a year after a government ban on disposable vapes came into effect. Vaping rates among 14 to 17 year olds fell from 17.5% at the start of 2023 to 14.6% in April this year, according to the latest update from Cancer Council Australia's nationwide study Generation survey also found rates for people aged over 15 reduced by more than a Health Minister Mark Butler said vaping rates for young Australians "have now turned the corner", adding that officials have seized more than 10 million illegal vapes in the past year. "Our education and prevention campaigns as well as support to deter people from taking up vaping and smoking or to quit are making a difference," he said in a laws to stop single-use vapes from being made, imported, advertised and supplied in Australia were introduced in July 2024. Nicotine vapes can now only be legally purchased with a prescription at pharmacies. However, a black market for nicotine vapes has been thriving in the country for UK similarly banned the sale of disposable vapes from June this are considered safer than normal cigarettes because they do not contain harmful tobacco - but health experts advise that they are not risk-free and the long-term implications of using them are not yet clear. Australian authorities - like those in the UK - were particularly concerned about the uptake of vapes by youth, with Mr Butler arguing the products were creating a new generation of nicotine latest Generation Vape survey found that 85.4% of young people - from a pool of about 3,000 children aged between 14 to 17 - had never than a third of those teenagers expressed an interest in vaping, which the Cancer Council says represents a drop in curiosity about the towards vaping among school-age children are changing too, the researchers said, pointing to interviews conducted in the study where many current or former vapers said they felt a sense of shame or embarrassment about their vape fewer teenagers are reporting that they're able to buy their vapes themselves, however, tobacconists and vape shops remain a key source of vape sales, despite the new to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on Wednesday, Mr Butler said he is confident the "peak of vaping" is behind Australia."I know this is a really, really tough fight and we've got a lot more to do, not just in the area of vaping, but illicit tobacco as well," he use remains Australia's leading cause of preventable death - despite some of the strongest anti-smoking laws in the world - and kills more than 24,000 people each year.
ABC News
3 hours ago
- ABC News
Inmate Dillon Mitcherson charged with escaping from Cooma Correctional Centre
An inmate has been charged with escaping from a correctional facility in southern New South Wales on Tuesday afternoon. Police were called to Cooma Correctional Centre about 4:30pm on Tuesday to investigate reports of an escapee. A manhunt to locate prisoner Dillon Mitcherson began that afternoon, with assistance from the police dog unit. The 28-year-old was arrested less than 1 kilometre away at a service station on Sharp Street in Cooma in the early hours of Wednesday morning, following an eight-hour search. The Western Sydney man was charged with an inmate escaping or attempting to escape from lawful custody and having goods in personal custody suspected of being stolen. He is due to face court on Wednesday. Cooma Correctional Centre is a minimum and medium-security prison located in the Snowy Monaro region of southern NSW.
News.com.au
4 hours ago
- Sport
- News.com.au
The ‘bulls*** excuses' behind Buddy Franklin's GSW Giants betrayal
It was the trade bombshell that rocked the AFL to its core. At the end of the 2013 season, the football world expected Lance Franklin to take his talents to New South Wales and join AFL expansion side GWS on a monster deal that would put the expansion club on the map. But they were only half right. Buddy did head north but in a move still seen as one of the wildest in AFL history, he had secretly agreed to sign with Sydney on a massive nine-year deal worth $10m. The beauty of the deal was that only a handful of people knew what was really happening – and they all ensured the secret never slipped out. But through the Code Sports Dealmaker series, it can now be revealed that a series of 'bullsh** excuses' did tip one rival player manager off and he ensured his client cashed in. Prominent player manager Anthony McConville cracked the case through a process of elimination. He had been working away on what should have been a regular contract for Sydney's reigning premiership ruckman Shane Mumford. But every time McConville tried to sit down with the Swans' general manager of football Dean Moore, all he received was the player manager's version of a 'don't argue' rebuff. 'I knew Dean (Moore) wasn't keen to do a deal,' McConville told Code Sports as part of its Dealmakers Series. 'I was ringing him every second week and he would make up every bulls*** excuse under the sun. He was giving me the stiff arm. 'I knew mid-season something was going on. I was doing the numbers. I knew exactly what Mummy was earning. I knew there was nearly $2m (the Swans) were banking. 'I said to a couple of close confidants, 'Don't be surprised if there is a backflip here … don't be surprised if he (Franklin) ends up in Sydney.' McConville was right and Buddy's move meant the Giants now had a wheelbarrow full of cash to splash and Mumford got his slice. He joined the Giants on a three-year-deal and went on to play 116 games with the club.
ABC News
7 hours ago
- Health
- ABC News
Melbourne woman's body the second to be cryogenically frozen by Southern Cryonics
In a nondescript facility near Holbrook in New South Wales, a woman's body has been cryogenically frozen in the hope that science will one day revive her. Her body is one of two that now lie inside the Southern Cryonics facility, suspended in liquid nitrogen at around -200 degrees Celsius. On July 4, the Melbourne woman died in hospital from chronic illness. Within minutes, Southern Cryonics staff waiting in Melbourne initiated the "cooling process", packing her body in iced water for transport to a funeral home. There, equipped with 250 kilograms of specialist tools, chemicals and cooling agents, a doctor and two clinical perfusionists from a company called Australian Blood Management began a further cooling process lasting six hours. The woman's body was then encased in its final resting place — a cryogenic chamber filled with liquid nitrogen at Holbrook. So far, more than 600 people around the world have undergone the radical procedure. Cryonics is high on spectacle, but critically short on scientific support. RMIT cell and tissue cryopreservation expert Saffron Bryant said despite the excitement surrounding cryonics, the science was far from catching up. Dr Bryant said the challenge was in the freezing process itself because when water inside cells turned to ice it expanded and caused damage. To mitigate that damage, scientists use cryoprotective agents — special chemicals that reduce ice formation — but it is a different story for whole organs. "Organs are made up of lots of different types of cells," Dr Bryant. "They're different sizes and they have different shapes, behave differently, and need different cryoprotectants, so you can't cryopreserve them all in the same way." She pointed out that if the technology had been perfected, we would already be using it to solve real-world problems like the organ donor shortage. Many cryonics enthusiasts were inspired by Robert Ettinger, an American academic known as the "father of cryonics". His 1962 book The Prospect of Immortality, he proposed that death might one day be reversible. It is the same book that former marketing specialist Peter Tsolakides — now the founder of Southern Cryonics — read as a teenager. Two years ago, 35 founding members invested between $50,000 and $70,000 each to establish the facility. Today, Southern Cryonics has 32 active "subscribers" who pay an annual fee of $350, and have signed up for the suspension procedure costing about $170,000. Members sign an agreement that details the terms and conditions of their cryonic suspension. They are also encouraged to sign a religious objection to autopsy form, which requests that an autopsy is not carried out to "avoid destructive procedures and consequent delays" in the suspension process. Southern Cryonics is equipped to hold up to 40 bodies. "We have members ranging from about 15 years old up to about 95, and we range from doctors to bus drivers," Mr Tsolakides said. "Most of the people want to live very long lives, not necessarily be immortal. "They're also interested in seeing what the future is". There are no specific laws relating to cryonics in Australia. Legally, a cryogenically frozen body is considered the same as the remains of any other dead person, and Southern Cryonics is classified as a cemetery on its Greater Hume Council development application. There are operational risks to be considered by those who wish to be frozen. However, Mr Tsolakides said the facility was relatively protected. He said the cryogenic chambers relied on top-ups of liquid nitrogen that arrived periodically by truck from multiple suppliers. The chambers each hold a two-month supply of liquid nitrogen, and a maintenance person checks the levels a few times a week. The suspension agreement, which clients must sign, specifies that in events such as deregistration, insolvency, or cryonic suspension or revival becoming illegal, Southern Cryonics may cease the suspension, and "dispose of the patient's body by burial, cremation or transfer of the body to a responsible person." Health experts have previously raised ethical concerns about the cryonics sector, describing it as "Star Trek in play". However, Mr Tsolakides said he hoped that, given enough time, science would meet him halfway. "Let's say that it [cryonic revival] is possible but very unlikely — say it's 10 per cent possible," he said. "You got 10 per cent possibility of living an extremely long life versus being buried underground or burned. Which one would you choose?"
