The Indian High Commission said it is in contact with the family and is offering all possible assistance.

Indian woman found dead: A delayed piece of information from the Indian High Commission in Canberra, Australia, said on Friday that an Indian national was killed in a flooding incident in Queensland as wild weather lashed the region with heavy rain and thunderstorms.

The Indian High Commission expressed its condolences and said it is maintaining contact with the family and providing all possible assistance.

“Heartbreaking tragedy in Australia: An Indian national lost his life in a flooding incident near Mount Isa, Queensland. Deepest condolences to the family of the deceased. The mission team will contact us for any necessary assistance,” the Indian High Commission wrote on X.

While further details are awaited, the name of the victim has not been released by the mission.

Local media reported that a 28-year-old woman was found dead in a partially submerged car in floodwaters in Queensland on Friday.

Speaking of the region's weather, Australia's Bureau of Meteorology has issued a severe thunderstorm warning for parts of south-east Queensland, including heavy rain warnings in Logan, Redland City and parts of Brisbane.

According to the agency's latest update, a severe thunderstorm was likely to produce heavy rainfall that could lead to flash flooding in some parts of the state.

(With IANS inputs)

By Brittany Chain, Political Correspondent for Daily Mail Australia

Published: 8:40 PM EST, February 16, 2024 | Updated: 9:27 PM EST, February 16, 2024

By David Southwell for Daily Mail Australia

Published: 06:09 EST, February 15, 2024 | Updated: 07:52 EST, February 15, 2024

EXCLUSIVE

The ex-wife of former Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has broken her silence after Daily Mail Australia published a video of her ex-husband lying on a footpath in Canberra and mumbling profanities.

Bomb video showed Joyce, 56, talking on the phone as he lay on the footpath in the suburb of Braddon at about 11.26pm on Wednesday.

During the incident – which Joyce now blames on a combination of alcohol and medication – he could be heard saying 'dead f***ing c***'.

He had fallen from a planter to the ground, 'rolled' and continued his conversation with his wife Vikki Campion, while a passer-by filmed the bizarre scene on their mobile phone.

Natalie Abberfield, the mother of Barnaby's four adult daughters, said Monday of her ex-husband: “I hope he's doing well.”

'I'm not going to say more. It's his private life. I'm not in his life anymore.'

Asked to comment on the medication Joyce was taking, Mrs Abberfield said: 'I don't know – and if I did I wouldn't tell you!'

Peter Campion, Barnaby's father-in-law, called the politician a “shocker” for sticking to his medication.

'He's working on something. I know when it comes to medicine he's a shocker.

'Vikki is always at him to take them, but he doesn't.

“He forgets to take them, forgets to stay the course of whatever he's on.”

Mr Campion said he did not think Joyce was taking blood pressure medication. 'You mean the red face? No, that's something different.

'He even turns red when he's not excited. He's not an alcoholic.'

Mr Campion then made a surprising suggestion for all politicians working in Parliament House in Canberra.

While he was careful to note that his son-in-law's incident had occurred “after” Parliament had risen and was outside the building, he suggested that politicians should be “breathed upon entry” every day.

“That's what they do in the mines,” Mr Campion said. “They should pass a law requiring drug and alcohol testing in every department.

'It's a serious place. They pass laws.”

Joyce said on Monday morning he drank alcohol after Parliament rose at 10pm, telling Natalie Barr on Sunrise: 'Look, I've obviously made a big mistake. There's no excuse for it.

'There's a reason. And it was a very eventful walk home, wasn't it?

'I'm taking a prescription drug and they say certain things can happen to you if you drink [on it], and they were absolutely 100 percent right. They did that.'

Mr Joyce responded to suggestions from some that he should resign or be reprimanded as a result of his actions by saying it was “not really my decision.”

“I'm not going to get into a long dialogue about what other people might want to do,” he said.

Last weekend, Mr Campion revealed to Daily Mail Australia that Joyce had “really bad family news” on the day he lay down.

'He has already lost a brother cancer, that's where you should start. “He had very bad similar news, which is not for me to reveal, but of the same magnitude and which affected him deeply,” he said.

Mr Campion lives in north Queensland and is a former candidate for Clive Palmer's United Australia Party in Bob Katter's federal seat of Kennedy.

He plans to stand again in the Queensland state election later this year. This time he will be active in the state seat of Cook, which occupies the Gulf of Carpentaria.

He agreed with his daughter Vikki's sentiment that instead of filming Joyce, the person who did so should have helped the MP.

“That's what Barnaby would have done.”

He said Vikki and Joyce's sons, Sebastian and Tom, would remain in Tamworth for the duration of the term, now that the older boy had started nursery school.

The retired firefighter said it had been an eventful few days for his family, with his Labrador cross-breed Doggo recovering after nearly dying from a red-bellied black snakebite.

Mr Campion and his wife have started a GoFundMe page for Doggo.

EXCLUSIVE

Bizarre footage shows Nationals frontbencher Barnaby Joyce lying on a footpath in Canberra late at night while mumbling 'dead f***ing c**t' into his phone.

Daily Mail Australia has exclusively obtained a video of the former deputy prime minister, 56, lying in Londsale Street, in the suburb of Braddon, at 11.36pm on Wednesday.

Sources say he had been sitting on a large potted plant while having an animated conversation, when he fell off, 'rolled around' and continued his call.

In the video, Joyce was seen lying on the sidewalk with his legs up and his jacket wide open.

He wore the same blue and white tie worn earlier that day during Question Time at Parliament House.

Much of the conversation was hushed, but the swear words were clear.

Sources close to Joyce explained that the call was likely to his new wife, Vikki Campion.

About an hour after publication, Ms Campion told the media he was not referring to her when he called someone a 'dead f***ing c**t'.

“I think that's what he called himself, he likes to flog himself,” she said.

Joyce described the scene as “very embarrassing” in a statement to Daily Mail Australia on Friday.

“I was walking back to my accommodation when Parliament got up at 10pm,” he said.

'While I was on the phone, I sat on the edge of a planter, fell over, kept talking on the phone and very animatedly referred to myself as having fallen.

“I got up and walked home.”

The couple married in November in a bush bash-style wedding at his family's estate in Woolbrook, in the NSW Northern Tablelands.

Joyce did not ask any questions in the House of Representatives on Wednesday.

On Thursday he spoke to conservative commentator Andrew Bolt about how he thinks the Australian Defense Force should purchase more drones.

Earlier this week he addressed an anti-renewable energy rally outside Parliament House.

It's not the first time Joyce's bizarre antics have attracted public attention.

During Question Time in 2021, he appeared to slur his words while answering a question about building infrastructure in regional NSW.

He decided to attack then opposition leader Anthony Albanese with a bizarre reference to The Aviator, a 2004 Hollywood film about American pilot Howard Hughes.

“Now, I, I, I love it, I love going to the movies and I can't help but again, I can't help but always think of Howard Hughes, Howard Hughes the aviator,” he said.

“But Howard Hughes, the aviator, but the Labor Party, got Albo the advocate, the great, the great advocate, the man of the big ideas, the man of the big ideas, straight from the billiard room.”

Albanese said Joyce's comments had “nothing to do with the question.”

Later that year he seemed to use a word that didn't exist.

Joyce tried to discipline Labor members for making 'despicable' mocking comments about some of his MPs.

“I would perhaps like to draw some attention to some of the demeaning scorn that has been leveled in the room at an individual who has been a very accomplished businessman and who has stood behind the great city of Gladstone,” he said.

“There is a condescending smile on the member for Flynn.

“There's a condescending smile on the people of the great city of Gladstone and the people of Central Queensland.

Viewers on social media wondered why he used a made-up word.

Hansard, the written record of parliament's proceedings and debates, has released a transcript of his speech which claims Joyce said 'mocking' rather than 'dishonouring'.

Mr Joyce's video comes after heightened scrutiny of parliamentary norms and workplace culture in the nation's capital in recent years.

According to the Standards Code for Parliamentarians, members have a 'shared responsibility to ensure that the Commonwealth's parliamentary workplaces meet the highest standards of integrity, dignity, security and mutual respect'.

The Code and Standards apply to all duties performed during Members' employment, including at social events, during work travel and outside normal business hours.

“Alcohol is not an excuse for violating this code or the standards,” the code says.

Do you know more? Email charlotte.karp@mailonline.com

By Eliza Mcphee for Daily Mail Australia

Published: 9:55 PM EST, January 25, 2024 | Updated: 1:58 PM EST, January 26, 2024

By Freddy Pawle for Daily Mail Australia

Published: 11:02 PM EST, January 6, 2024 | Updated: 11:02 PM EST, January 6, 2024

A chef who was arrested after his female colleague was stabbed to death at the National Zoo & Aquarium in Canberra has been charged with murder.

Jude Wijesinghe, 29, was taken to hospital and arrested after his colleague Tshewang Choden was found dead in a storage room on Monday afternoon. She is a Bhutanese national.

Police were called to Yarralumla Zoo about 12.50pm and found the woman’s body in a storage area behind a commercial kitchen.

It is believed she was stabbed with a knife before her suspected attacker tried to harm himself.

ATC Policing confirmed on Tuesday afternoon that Wijesinghe had been charged with murder.

‘ACT Police homicide detectives today charged a 29-year-old man with one count of murder at a bedside hearing following an incident at the National Zoo & Aquarium yesterday.

‘The man was refused bail and will appear in court on April 4, 2023.’

Wijesinghe was arrested at the scene and taken to hospital under police guard to be treated for ‘significant’ self-inflicted injuries.

The cook’s shocked neighbors said police stormed an Oaks Estate unit complex at around 2pm before spending around eight-eight hours searching Wijesinghe’s unit.

The privately owned apartment complex consists of more than twenty single bedrooms. Residents called Wijesinghe a ‘good neighbor’.

“He’s been here about one to two years,” one resident said. ‘Before that, a group of boys lived there.

‘You would never know [he would be accused of something like this]. I was shocked.’

Neighbors said that, as far as they knew, Wijesinghe was single and that they had never seen a woman enter his apartment.

“I can’t believe it,” said one. “It’s all a bit of a shock.”

According to social media, Wijesinghe has worked as a chef across Australia since migrating from Sri Lanka.

He was sous chef at Jamala Wildlife Lodge, part of the National Zoo & Aquarium.

Photos on his social media show him as a gym and motorcycle enthusiast.

He also has a separate online blog account dedicated to his culinary work, with images of dishes he cooks on the job.

Wijesinghe studied cooking in Melbourne for a few years and graduated in 2019 before moving to Canberra two years later.

Visitors unaware of the stabbing arrived at the zoo Tuesday morning to find it closed.

While police confirmed that Wijesinghe and the dead woman were co-workers at the zoo, detectives had yet to determine whether they were in a romantic relationship.

ACT Policing Detective Chief Inspector Hall O’Meagher said on Monday that police were called after witnesses heard “loud screaming”.

‘An autopsy is yet to be carried out, but at this stage we believe [the victim] died because he was stabbed with a knife.

‘The knife was found at the scene.

“The man was taken to hospital to be treated for what appears to be self-inflicted injuries and is in stable condition.”

Chief Inspector O’Meagher could not confirm whether Wijesinghe was known to police but said investigators were working to find out more about the couple’s background and a murder investigation had been launched.

He said police did not believe there were any direct witnesses to the disturbance, but that there were people in the area at the time who spoke to officers.

Chief Inspector O’Meagher stressed that police did not believe there was any ongoing threat to the public and offered his condolences to the woman’s loved ones.

“Our thoughts are with the victim’s family and friends and the zoo staff,” he said.

The zoo was closed in the wake of the tragedy, with police seen talking to drivers as they left the car park.

Visitors were only allowed to leave if they gave their telephone number to the officers.

A zoo visitor told Daily Mail Australia: ‘Staff did everything as if nothing had happened to keep visitors unaware and safe.’

‘[Police] stopped us as we were leaving and asked if we had seen anything.

“I told them I had no idea what I was about to experience and they said, ‘Don’t worry, if you had witnessed the incident you would know.'”

The woman said she later learned of the tragedy when a friend showed her a news article.

“Both me and my brother were in shock,” she said.

‘My brother was very upset. It was very frightening to hear that something had happened, especially so close to Christmas.

‘Our thoughts are with her family. At this point, no one should have to experience a situation like this happening to them or their family.”

Anyone with information that could assist police is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000, or via the Crime Stoppers ACT website and quote reference 7623644.

For confidential support, please contact LIFELINE 24/7 on 13 11 14 or 1800 RESPECT

• Donald Morley is charged in the death of his wife
• Entered a guilty plea on Friday
• The sentencing date could be set next week
• 1800RESPECT, Lifeline on 13 11 14

By Kylie Stevens for Daily Mail Australia

Published: 05:34 EST, December 1, 2023 | Updated: 11:10 EST, December 1, 2023

Music lovers have dusted off their party gear and traveled to Canberra for Spilled Milk, but it could be a wet start to the summer festival season, with storms expected to dampen festivities into the evening.

The one-day festival runs from 11am to 11pm on Saturday with more than 40 artists, including Post Malone, Lime Cordiale and Peach PRC, performing on five stages.

Other artist highlights include Dom Dolla, Cub Sport, Lastlings, Aitch, Pacific Avenue and Ocean Alley.

Thousands of attendees were all smiles as they entered the highly anticipated annual festival in Canberra’s Exhibition Park.

However, some may regret choosing fashion over function as heavy thunderstorms are expected to hit the city after 5:45 p.m.

The Bureau of Meteorology warned that large hailstones, damaging winds, flash flooding and lightning could hamper the event.

‘Stay indoors, away from windows,’ the ACT State Emergency Service warned,

“Never drive, walk or ride through floodwaters.”

Festival goers will have access to free pill testing for the first time this decade.

The service, run by Pill Testing Australia, allows visitors to test for deadly ingredients in medicines before taking them.

Pill tests were last available at Groovin the Moo in 2019.

That year, seven cases of deadly ingredients were discovered and all participants threw away the dangerous pills.

The ACT Government’s pill testing site at the City Community Health Centre, CANtest, has also extended its weekend hours.

It was open Friday from 4:00 PM to 9:00 PM and Saturday from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM.

Pill Testing Australia announced free testing at Spilled Milk online on Friday.

“We are heading to Spilled Milk Canberra to offer free pill testing services to customers,” it said.

‘We are the only organization to have offered pill testing services at Australian festivals and are able to do this thanks to our incredibly dedicated team of qualified health, medical and analytical volunteers.

‘We rely on generous donations from the public to provide this free service.’

Canberra is the first of the Spilled Milk festivals with events in Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia over the next two weekends.

Spilled Milk heads to the Gold Coast on Sunday, where festivals will take over the city’s sporting precinct from 10:30am to 10:30pm.

Organizers will get just five days’ rest before heading to Victoria Park in Ballarat, about 115km northwest of Melbourne, on Saturday, December 2.

The final festival ends on Sunday December 3 in Perth.

Tickets for the Gold Coast and Ballarat events are sold out.