Aldi offering customers free groceries, three women dead in horror bus crash: Australia news live

Just the news you were all looking for I bet. Millions of Aussies are set to shiver through another arctic week as a cold mass positions itself over much of the country.

Colder and drier air is expected to spread across much of Australia this week, with both maximum and minimum temperatures forecast to fall “well below average”.

Temperatures across southeastern Australia are expected to drop 2-6C below average.

Read more here.

Former Home and Away star Orpheus Pledger has admitted dragging a woman by the hair and stomping on her head.

The 31-year-old faced Melbourne Magistrates Court on Monday via video link, pleading guilty to repeatedly assaulting the woman in March.

He was bailed on April 22 on the condition he undergo a court-ordered mental health assessment but he absconded from the hospital the next morning.

A warrant was issued for his arrest but he continued to evade police until he was remanded in custody on April 25.

Pledger appeared on Home and Away between 2016 and 2019.

Shortly after midnight on March 1, Pledger kicked and punched the victim in the face after she raised concerns about his drug use and declining mental health.

He then assaulted the same woman about 1.35am on March 25, dragging her by the hair and stomping on her face.

The victim had called triple zero when he arrived at the property and police reached the house at 1.50am to find her lying on the floor in pain.

She was taken to hospital with multiple bruises and cuts to her face and neck, with the marks matching the sole of Pledger's shoe.

There were no excuses for his actions but Pledger's mental health had declined and use of methamphetamine increased after he was rejected from a role in the US television series The 100, Pledger's lawyer Jasper MacCuspie said.

His lack of work strained his relationship with the woman and led to the assaults, the lawyer said.

"He certainly feels terrible about what has happened and the impact it has had on (the woman)," Mr MacCuspie told the court.

Read more here.

- AAP

Ambulance bosses are reminding residents to avoid trivial Triple-0 calls after the most common unnecessary calls were revealed.

In NSW last year, more than 500 people called the emergency line complaining of constipation, the Daily Telegraph reported.

There were 186 people ringing about a toothache, while three people called up about having hiccups.

“We all just need to remember that if you call them when you’re constipated or you’ve got a grazed knee, you might be slowing them down from getting to a child who isn’t breathing or a family member having a heart attack,” Health Services Union NSW secretary Gerard Hayes said.

Is this Australia's luckiest man?

A Brisbane lottery player has won his second multi-million dollar prize in less than a year.

“I can’t believe it’s happened again,” he said after scooping $3.7 million in the Saturday Gold Lotto. Earlier this year, he won $2.8 million in a separate draw.

Save some for the rest of us, will you.

Four men have died after drinking from bottles found at sea.

The fishermen were on a trip off the coast of Sri Lanka when they consumed the unknown liquid. It's understood the men thought the bottles contained alcohol.

A further two have been left critically ill as the navy provides medical assistance to those onboard the fishing vessel.

Read more here.

Melbourne is once again the only state and territory capital where house prices dropped in the last month.

CoreLogic’s latest Home Value Index (HVI) showed values dropped by 0.2 per cent for Victoria's capital, with Perth and Adelaide closing in on Melbourne's median home price with a monthly rise of 2.0 per cent and 1.7 per cent respectively.

Sydney is the only city with a median home price above $1 million, with Brisbane and Canberra above $800,000.

Read more here.

Authorities on the Spanish island of Tenerife have called off the search for missing British teenager Jay Slater.

While his case remains open, police said it had ended it's 13-day search for the 19-year-old after finding no trace of the teen.

Slater's family have vowed to remain on the island until he is found, and funds from a GoFundMe page that had raised more than $60,000 were used to bring relatives to the island.

Slater's disappearance after a music festival has gripped the UK and millions more around the worldhas sparked a slew of conspiracies online about what has happened to him.

Read more here.

Senator Jacqui Lambie says the tax cuts issued today are just not needed for people like herself.

Those earning more than $200,000 were given a tax cut, and while it's not as much as first outlined, she believes it's "mind blowing" the rich were getting relief as the rest of the country struggles.

“People like us didn’t need a tax cut. Okay?,’’ she told Nine.

“Paying that forward and making sure those people who are really doing it tough, we could have actually given a lot more tax cuts and [Labor] decided not to do that."

Amid a gruelling cost-of-living crisis, budget supermarket Aldi is offering Aussies a chance of winning free groceries for a year.

Five people will get their shopping covered for 12 months while one lucky winner will get groceries for three years.

So what do shoppers have to do to win? Simply show your love for Aldi on social media using the hashtag #ALDIcore.

The supermarket suggested getting an Aldi tattoo or having an Aldi-themed wedding were examples of how a shopper can show how "hardcore" they are. More information is available here.

Police have issued an update on the three people who died in a horror Queensland bus crash on Sunday, revealing the victims were all women.

"Three passengers on the bus died at the scene, including a woman in her thirties, a woman in her twenties and a 56-year-old Townsville woman," police said.

The Greyhound service was en route to Townsville from Brisbane when it was involved in a crash with a caravan at Gumlu.

“This is a tragic incident and our deepest sympathies go out to those involved and their families and friends," Greyhound Australia CEO Dan Smith said.

Read more here.