Distilleries and brewers are warning of a hit to Australia’s hospitality sector and local tourism unless the federal government freezes the twice-yearly tax hike on beer and spirits.

It comes after The Daily Telegraph revealed the Western Parkland City Authority (WPCA) was sitting on $500 million in unspent grants and had only managed to start work on a visitors’ centre that has been dismissed as a “shed with a fancy pergola’’.

Victorian GPs in training can apply for $40,000 in incentives from today, putting the South Australian government under pressure to match it or risk a brain drain of young doctors.

It is an unusually busy time in the medical room at West Lakes with more Crows players suffering injuries.