Speak out Increased awareness about family violence in recent months has encouraged more victims to speak up, Tasmania Police says.

MLCs to resolve pay fight The Upper House will determine if Tasmanian MPs receive a 10.5 per cent pay rise when it sits next month, after a disallowance motion passed the House of Assembly.

Medical trust charity ball to get wild The Clifford Craig Medical Trust is inviting guests to venture into the jungle for its 2016 charity ball.

Strategy for future of AFL A motion put forward by Alderman Robin McKendrick will see the City of Launceston prepare a strategy to address the future of AFL in the North of the state.

Bumper crop ready for Rio Tasmania is in line for a record contingent at this year’s Paralympic Games.

Welcome to a new day. Get your weather update and national news snapshot here. 

► BALLARAT: Police and family are desperately searching for 79-year-old Marian Rance who was last seen at the Ballarat Base Hospital on Monday evening. Marian is believed to have left the hospital at 8.30pm on Monday night wearing a blue jacket, dark pants, white scarf and a straw hat. Read more.

► BENDIGO: The head of the company which wants to restart gold mining in Bendigo says groundwater rising through the city’s network of abandoned and disused mines is the state government’s responsibility. GBM Gold chief executive officer John Harrison said the city’s modern phase of mining had not contributed to the problem, which will lead to water laced with arsenic and rotten egg gas spilling into the city’s waterways – if nothing is done. Read more.

► CANBERRA: Police say it could be several days before a man suspected of bashing his former partner to death with a cricket bat is released from Canberra Hospital. Stephen Boyd, who is a suspect in the death of Tina Kontozis in her Bundeena home on Sunday, hit his head on the steering wheel when his car hit an embankment during a police chase on Monday, NSW Police said. Mr Boyd was arrested, and taken from Queanbeyan Police Station to Queanbeyan Hospital on Monday night. He was transferred to Canberra Hospital on Tuesday morning for treatment of a broken jaw and neck injury.

► COORONG: Coorong fishermen express grave fears for their future cohabitation with long-nosed fur seals with “five men on suicide watch”. Southern Fishermen’s Association president Garry Hera-Singh shared his fears for the mental health of local fishermen and their families. “Two men are on high risk suicide watch and three on medium risk,” he said. “I call one man in particular every day to make sure he’s still getting by because he is in a lot of debt.”

► GEORGETOWN: Beryl lives a life of luxury, flitting between snoozing in the living room and eating mangoes with dad in the backyard. Beryl is an eight-month-old Brahman calf. Sally Webster was in the cattle yard at her 2000-head cattle property near Georgetown, north Queensland, when she spotted the newborn. Read more.

► GREENFIELDS: Transgender Greenfields resident Natalie Carroll-Smith, 22, has spoken out about the difficulties facing people like her looking for work and social acceptance. Formerly known as Nathan, Ms Carroll-Smith openly voiced her desire to become a woman last year, and said she had faced ridicule and prejudice since. “I lost swarms of friends and family,” she said. “Social acceptance has become a hurdle and you don’t necessarily have the opportunities other people have.” Read more.

► HOBART: The CSIRO will set up a national climate research centre in Hobart, but up to 35 jobs will be cut from the organisation’s Tasmanian operations. CSIRO CEO Larry Marshall told ABC Radio he was unable to specify exactly how many Tasmanian jobs would be lost as part of a plan to cut 275 staff nationally, but said it would be less than 35. His message differed from Premier Will Hodgman, who told Parliament he has been advised staff reductions in the state would be limited to 10-15 staff, due to be offset as the new centre is established. Read more.

► ILLAWARRA: To the outside world, "John" came across as a loving husband and father – someone who worked hard to provide for his family and always showed a kindness to others. His stepdaughter saw an entirely different side, being sexually abused by him from the age of eight until she was 26. It would take another 19 years for it to be reported to police in 2011, but in the meantime, "John" turned his attention to his natural granddaughter. Read more.

► LAMBTON: Police hunting three men who bashed a security guard as they attempted to rob him of bank takings at Lambton have released an image of one of the bogan bandits. The 45-year-old guard pulled his gun and shot at his attackers after he suffered facial and head injuries when set to with batons on December 19, 2014 on Alma Lane. Detectives have released the image of one of the suspects, showing a “mullet-style haircut”, he was aged in his early 20s and was about 180cm tall. Read more.

► WANGARATTA: IAN Thomas – the man accused of murdering his parents on the family farm near Wangaratta – has given a graphic account of how he found his mother lying dead in a shed before confronting his father who was pointing a shotgun at him. Giving evidence in his defence on Tuesday, Thomas told a Supreme Court jury he had been out drinking on his own in bushland when he returned to the farm to find his mother's body covered in a drop sheet at about 8.30pm on April 21, 2013. Read more.

National News

► The CSIRO laboratory credited with "inventing Wi-Fi" is facing job cuts that threaten its commercial capabilities, according to scientists who work there. The Marsfield lab in north-west Sydney is being restructured as part of the merger between CSIRO's digital productivity unit and NICTA, the National Information Communications Technology Australia to form Data61, a new CSIRO business unit. The merger was announced last year and is separate to the broader CSIRO restructure announced in February by chief executive Larry Marshall. Read more.

► Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull offered no modelling, only "common sense" to justify his negative gearing policy, telling the ABC's 7.30 host Leigh Sales that figures showing top earners had the most to gain were "beside the point". Sales asked what modelling the Prime Minister had to support his claim that Labor's negative gearing reforms would "take a sledgehammer" to property prices. "This is a matter of common sense," Mr Turnbull answered. Read more.

► An emergency contraceptive that works up to five days after unprotected sex has been launched by Australia's sole supplier of medical abortion drug RU486. The EllaOne pill, from non-profit pharmaceutical group MS Health, is available from Wednesday. While the group recommends that women using the drug take it "as soon as possible" after unprotected sex, it said it was effective for up to five days, the maximum time sperm can survive in a body after intercourse. This is in contrast to commonly used emergency contraceptive pills, which are recommended to be taken within three days of unprotected sex. Read more.

► Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has announced all 12 of Australia's next fleet of submarines will be built in Adelaide from local steel, with France winning the hard-fought global race for the $50 billion contract. Mr Turnbull said in Adelaide on Tuesday morning that the decades-long program would create about 2800 direct jobs and help Australia transition to a 21st century economy. Read more.

► South Sudan's rebel leader has returned to the capital after weeks of delays, marking a major step towards peace and the formation of a transitional government. Riek Machar's arrival in Juba is the first time the former Vice-President has returned since fleeing at the beginning of the country's civil war, two and a half years ago. Doves were released at the airport when Machar, dressed in a casual shirt, disembarked a UN flight that had left from Gambella in Ethiopia. Read more.

► Bangkok: One of Australia's longest-held kidnap victims has dismissed claims the beheading of a Canadian hostage by Islamic militants in the southern Philippines was an act of terrorism. Warren Rodwell told Fairfax Media the hostage-takers who recently declared allegiance to Islamic State killed 68 year-old John Ridsdel because a deadline to pay a ransom was not met. "After having issued a final ultimatum all credibility would have been lost if the decapitation was not carried out," said Mr Rodwell, who was held captive for almost 15 months by the Abu Sayyaf, the same group that had been holding Mr Ridsdel and three other hostages captive since September. Read more.

► Austin, Texas: Boaty McBoatface has a lot to answer for. After a school board in the city of Austin, Texas, decided to change the name of a primary school from a Confederate hero, it asked the public to make suggestions. The name of the controversial Republican front runner, Donald Trump, was the most popular suggestion. But Trump was not the most controversial. Adolf Hitler, as in the "Adolf Hitler School for Friendship and Tolerance", was among the most snarky and controversial suggestion. Read more.

On this day

2014: A tornado outbreak over much of the eastern United States kills 35 people.

2006: Construction begins on the Freedom Tower (later renamed One World Trade Center) in New York City.

1994: South African general election: The first democratic general election in South Africa, in which black citizens could vote. The Interim Constitution comes into force.

1992: The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, comprising Serbia and Montenegro, is proclaimed.

1963: Russell T Davies, Welsh screenwriter and producer who brought Doctor Who back to TV as the show's chief writer in show-runner, was born.

1950: Apartheid: In South Africa, the Group Areas Act is passed formally segregating races.

1904: The Australian Labor Party becomes the first such party to gain national government, under Chris Watson.

* Information sourced from Wikipedia.

Allan Justin has a hell of a short game and plays golf twice a week, which is not bad for a guy with no legs.

The avid golfer didn’t pick up a club for three years following a workplace accident, in 2006, until he started attending a golf day for people with lost limbs, in a wheelchair.

Relocating from Ballarat to Thurgoona after the death of his wife, Ruby, Mr Justin has become a regular at the Jindera Golf Club where he won the latest men’s monthly medal.

These days Mr Justin doesn’t let his disability get him down, since he is more focused on dropping his golf handicap.

Prior to losing his legs, he had dropped to a 14 handicap. Read more.