RUSH HOUR: Global warming probably ‘good’

TONY Abbott has given a speech in London, saying climate change police is akin to primitive people who “once killed goats to appease the volcano gods”.

• News crew saves lost woman
• Global warming probably “good”
• Hackers steal defence data
• Snake tries to bit catcher
• Manhunt for Melbourne driver
• At least one cyclone for QLD
• Autistic boy strapped to chair
• Xenophon’s baaaaaaad idea

Live: Rush Hour

On news.com.au today, forecasters say “at least one potentially devastating cyclone” will hit Queensland this coming season. A mother has confronted her son’s school after finding out he was spending hours a day strapped to a chair, and SA senator Nick Xenophon has been spotted chasing sheep around in California. As you do.

8:35am

News crew saves lost woman

A Channel Nine news crew has rescued a women lost in dense WA bushland for 25 hours with her three golden retrievers.

Journalist Hannah Sinclair and her cameraman were near Scott River, south of the Margeret River wine region, when she woman flagged them down.

She had injured her leg, but she made it out of the bush onto a roadside.

The cameraman gave her water before the pair drove her and her dogs to find help.

She said she’d made herself a bed and shelter for the night, but just as she laid down the search helicopter flew overhead, and she was unable to attract its attention.

It’s possible snuggling with her three dogs saved her life, as temperatures plunged below five degrees overnight.

8:10am

Abbott says global warming probably “good”

Former Primer Minister Tony Abbott has delivered a speech in London saying climate change is “probably doing good”.

In a speech to the climate-sceptic Global Warming Policy Foundation think tank, he said policy to combat it were akin to primitive people who “once killed goats to appease the volcano gods”.

He said extreme weather events were not getting worse, but that there was more damage simply because there is “more to destroy”.

“Beware the pronouncement, ‘the science is settled’,” he said.

“It’s the spirit of the Inquisition, the thought-police down the ages.”

Mr Abbott’s wideranging speech also warned against waning Western moral supremacy and Christian values.

You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it believe in climate change. Picture: Rick Rycroft (File)

7:45am

Hackers steal defence data

The Federal Government is expected to today admit cyber thieves hacked into the computer system of a national security contractor.

ABC News reports the intruders had access to the IT network for long periods of time last year, and stole large amounts of data.

Assistant Minister for Cyber Security Dan Tehan said it was unclear who launched the incursion, and that it could be a foreign government.

“It could have been a state actor, it could have been cyber criminals, and that’s why it was taken so seriously,” he said.

“We’re not 100 per cent sure, and that’s one of the difficulties of this area.”

Mr Tehan said the business now has “proper cyber security protections” in place.

7:20am

Snake tries to bite catcher

I’m going to start this update by saying no-one was hurt in the making of this video, but it’s not for the faint-hearted.

Snake catcher Stuart McKenzie, from Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, was called to a home to deal with a large — and angry — carpet python.

The animal measured almost three and a half metres, which Mr McKenzie says is “the biggest carpet python I have ever caught”.

Footage uploaded to YouTube shows the animal poised, ready to strike.

“Easy big boy. You are not happy about me, are ya? It’s crazy hey. He does not want me to touch him at all,” he said, moments before the snake struck out.

Luckily, it missed — and was safely relocated some time later.

Click play if you dare.

6:55am

Manhunt for Melbourne driver

A manhunt is currently underway in Melbourne, as police look for a man who hit and killed a woman while driving a stolen car.

The woman was driving south along Warrigul Road in Oakleigh and attempting to make a right-hand turn when a white Lexus came racing the other way.

Police say initially the driver of the stolen vehicle did get out, but then he ran away from the scene as other arrived to help.

An off-duty nurse was among the people working to save her, but sadly by the time paramedics arrived she was unable to be saved.

Police say he’s aged in his 20s or 30s, and about 180cm tall.

#BREAKING | A Melbourne woman has died after she was hit by a stolen car.#sun7 | https://t.co/y3zqLOvE25 pic.twitter.com/VsL1plTVaz

— Sunrise (@sunriseon7) October 9, 2017

6:30am

At least one cyclone for QLD

Queensland is facing a “typical Australian summer” with at least one potentially devastating cyclone predicted to cross the coast.

An average storm season is expected for the sunshine state, with four cyclones expected to form in eastern waters, said the Bureau of Meteorology’s Victoria Dodds.

However, one of those is predicted to make landfall.

Ms Dodds warned Queenslanders not to let their guard down.

“It’s that one tropical storm as we saw in severe Tropical Cyclone Debbie that can cause major disruption and devastation for communities, so we can never be complacent.”

- Christine Flatley, AAP

Forecasters predict at least one cyclone will make landfall in Queensland this year.

6:05am

Autistic boy strapped to chair

A NSW mother has confronted her son’s school after finding out the boy, who has autism, was spending hours a day strapped to a chair.

Georgina Maker-North told ABC’s 7:30 she was “gobsmacked” about the school’s treatment of seven year old Thomas, who is non-verbal.

She said when she demanded answers, the school asked if her son would prefer a chair that was “more aesthetically pleasing”.

When she complained to the NSW Education Department, she was told there was evidence to support some of the allegations and that ‘action had been taken’.

Thomas’s case is one of nearly 250 complaints about mistreatment of children with disabilities in NSW state schools in the past two years.

Thomas, who has an intellectual disability, was strapped to a chair. Picture: 7:30

5:45am

Xenophon’s baaaaaaad idea

Nick Xenophon’s latest political stunt has turned to chaos after the controversial senator was forced to chase stray sheep through suburbs north of Los Angeles.

Mr Xenophon staged a protest with a flock of sheep to back a small Aussie businessman locked in a “David versus Goliath battle” with a US shoe giant over Ugg boots.

The South Australian — who last week announced he would resign from federal politics to run for state parliament — set up a pen of sheep this morning outside the Californian headquarters of Deckers Outdoor Corporation, which claims to have the global rights to the Ugg boot name.

Deckers is based in Santa Barbara county just north of LA.

Senator Xenophon weighed in to support Australian Ugg boot manufacturer Eddie Oygur, who Deckers is suing for millions of dollars for alleged breach of trademark.

— by Claire Bickers

Deckers even spook Maddison's Farm Friendz.Flock takes off onto road when police ask to remove them.Happy ending!Maddison rounded them up! pic.twitter.com/1QeodzmaOs

— Nick Xenophon (@Nick_Xenophon) October 8, 2017