PM eyes second power cable Increasing wind generation and exporting it through a second Basslink would be a “big economic opportunity” for Tasmania, according to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

United front on gun laws Both federal political leaders committed to ensuring Australia’s gun laws were as tough as they could be as the nation remembered the 1996 Port Arthur massacre.

Port Arthur’s beauty will always ache Port Arthur’s beauty will always be an aching and haunting one because of the overlaying tragedies that occurred in the area, Governor Kate Warner says.

Boag’s spills caustic soda into drain About 1600 litres of a caustic soda solution was discharged from Boag’s Brewery into a Launceston stormwater drain earlier this month. 

Tassie hit Launceston twins Kade and Jake Kolodjashnij will re-unite at opposite ends of the ground for the first time in an AFL premiership match on Saturday night.

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

► ALBION PARK: An Albion Park man who used the family computer to download and store child pornography has claimed he was not sexually aroused by the material and only had it to satisfy his thrill of doing something illegal. Matthew Johnston, 24, was caught with more than 2,000 images of videos of child abuse material spread between his mobile phone and the hard drive linked to the family Asus computer when police raided his home on December 15 last year. Read more.

► CANBERRA: Supporters of a future high-speed rail link from Canberra to Sydney have proposed a station be built near Exhibition Park to connect with the planned Gungahlin tram line. Ahead of the federal and ACT elections in July and October, members of the Bullet Train for Australia and Like Canberra groups want a high speed rail precinct built between Exhibition Park and Mitchell, linking to Canberra Airport through a second stage of light rail. Read more.

► HAY: A former Riverina man has been sentenced to at least 12 months behind bars for his role in a tri-state drug trafficking operation. Steven Bruce Congdon, 26, was arrested in Adelaide during a sting by SA Police as their NSW counterparts conducted their own raids across the border. Congdon, from Hay, was among six people arrested in Adelaide at the same time as a light plane loaded with drugs was intercepted in Deniliquin and three properties in Hay were subjected to search warrants by NSW Police. Read more.

► LAUNCESTON: RSPCA Tasmania is urging people to dispose of illegal leg-hold traps still in their possession. Chester the cat had his leg amputated due to the extensive damage caused by the illegal trap he got caught in over the long weekend. RSPCA Launceston manager Lorraine Hamilton said people need to ensure they do not have any of these traps lying around at the back of their sheds. “Apart from being illegal, it is a very cruel thing to do to an animal,” Ms Hamilton said. Read more.

► KEMPSEY: Kempsey-based Australian Solar Timbers (AST) director Douglas Head was downcast but determined after having to lay-off 18 timber processing workers. Mr Head said the 97-year-old independent company had no choice as it was effectively being locked-out from a guaranteed supply of desirable hardwood species under an agreement between Forestry Corporation and Boral. Read more.

► MANDURAH: Mandurah detectives raided a house in Secret Harbour this morning, charging a couple with various offences and seizing methamphetamine, ecstasy and cannabis worth as much as $100,000 off the streets. Detectives also said they were concerned an 11-year-old girl also lived at the property, although she was not at the home when it was raided. Police confiscated about 6 ounces of methamphetamine, about 1.5 kilograms of cannabis and between 150-200 ecstasy pills. Read more.

► MOREE: The colleague of slain environment officer Glen Turner has told how he pleaded in vain with gunman Ian Turnbull to put down his gun and let him seek medical help. On Thursday, Robert Strange told the NSW Supreme Court he and Mr Turner had stopped outside a property in Croppa Creek, near Moree, to take photographic evidence of stacks of burning vegetation, on the afternoon of July 29, 2014. Mr Strange said a car pulled up behind them and Mr Turnbull, 81, got out and pointed a rifle at Mr Turner. Read more.

► PORT STEPHENS: For the past six to eight weeks a Grey Nurse Shark has been laboring its way through the waters of Port Stephens with a length of rope wrapped around its tail. Let’s Go Adventures dive instructor Simon Macks spotted the shark near Broughton Island on Monday. “We’ve been seeing this shark for six to eight weeks now,” Mr Macks, a diver since 1986, said. Read more.

► MOUNT ISA: DESPITE $50 million being spent to maintain the Mount Isa line, another train derailed on Sunday April 24 totaling to three derailments in the last six months. At approximately 12.25pm on Sunday April 24, one wagon of a freight train carrying zinc derailed at Nelia, between Julia Creek and Maxwelton on the Mount Isa line. The train was hauling 93 wagons, of which one derailed but remained upright. Read more.

National News

► James Packer's $1.5 billion tower should be knocked back, the City of Sydney Council's chief planner said on Thursday, arguing the private structure would "dominate and overwhelm" the long-held vision for the Barangaroo site. Delivering a scathing critique of a process that could yet see the tower occupy key foreshore publicly owned land at Barangaroo, the City of Sydney's Graham Jahn said it was "neither necessary nor is it an obligation" that the Crown complex be allowed to make such a dramatic intrusion on the foreshore. Read more.

► The Productivity Commission has recommended the free import of books, the free use of copyrighted material and much tighter restrictions on the granting and use of patents, under reforms it says could save consumers up to $1 billion a year. Consumers should also have a legislated right to defeat internet geoblocks set by such companies as Amazon, it says. Read more.

► Australia pledged an extra $450 million in sweeteners to Papua New Guinea to settle refugees – but most of the money is yet to be spent and could evaporate with the closure of the Manus Island detention centre. The inducements Australia offered in 2013 included an expansive new hospital, the deployment of 50 Australian police to bolster the local force, roadworks, and upgrades to the PNG university and law courts buildings. Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has conceded the future of this additional aid to PNG must now be re-negotiated. Read more.

► Live online betting during sports will remain illegal and loopholes being exploited by bookmakers will be closed, the Turnbull government has said, a move major sports say is a missed opportunity to boost sports integrity. In a bid to stop Australians punting with illegal offshore betting websites, the government also wants to introduce "disruption" tactics, including blocking foreign bookmakers' websites and working with banks and credit card providers to stop payments. Read more.

► Jakarta: Bali nine member Michael Czugaj is among 63 prisoners who have been transferred to a remote jail in East Java after prison authorities said they caught him with traces of the drug ice in Bali's Kerobokan jail. The shock move comes two days before the first anniversary of the execution of eight drug offenders in Indonesia, including Bali nine co-ordinators Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan. Read more.

► Philippines: He vowed to pardon himself for murder, joked about his penis, said he would kill his own children if he caught them with drugs and took a new swipe at Australia over its policy on the South China Sea. Provincial crime-fighting politician Rodrigo Duterte continues to widen his lead with a profanity-laced campaign to be elected president of the Philippines at elections on May 9, polls show. The chilling picture emerging in the majority Catholic nation of 100 million people is of a ruthless candidate who through bluster and one-liners is attempting to establish a dictatorship 30 years after a people power revolution overthrew the corrupt regime of Ferdinand Marcos. Read more.

► Just when you thought you had most of the threats from climate change covered. We are looking on now as warming oceans stress the world's coral reefs, prompting them to turn white, including our Great Barrier Reef. We also know that our oceans have become about 30 per cent more acidic since pre-industrial times as they absorb the billions of tonnes a year of carbon dioxide released from our burning of fossil fuels and forests, making it harder for shellfish and crabs to form shells. Read more.

On this day

2015: A baseball game between the Baltimore Orioles and the Chicago White Sox sets the all-time low attendance mark for Major League Baseball. Zero fans were in attendance for the game, as the stadium was officially closed to the public due to the 2015 Baltimore protests.

2011: The Wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton takes place at Westminster Abbey in London.

1992: Los Angeles riots: Riots in Los Angeles, following the acquittal of police officers charged with excessive force in the beating of Rodney King. Over the next three days 53 people are killed and hundreds of buildings are destroyed.

1968: The controversial musical Hair, a product of the hippie counter-culture and sexual revolution of the 1960s, opens at the Biltmore Theatre on Broadway, with its song becoming anthems of the anti-Vietnam War movement.

1967: After refusing induction into the United States Army the day before (citing religious reasons), Muhammad Ali is stripped of his boxing title.

1945: The Dachau concentration camp is liberated by United States troops.

* Information sourced from Wikipedia.

Leukaemia is something you wouldn’t wish upon your worst enemy, let alone a student in year two.

But his battle hasn’t dulled Robin Mataora’s spirit. 

Diagnosed with the disease before he’d even reached primary school, Robin’s life has always been an uphill battle.

He and his family hoped they were out of the woods when he went into remission just before entering kindergarten. 

This wasn’t to be.

Three weeks ago he was told the cancer was back.

He’s been in and out of hospital since. Read more.