australian man overboard cruise ship

Body found in search for passenger overboard on Pacific Adventure cruise ship due to arrive in Sydney

A body has been found in a large search operation off the coast of Sydney after a man was reported missing off a cruise ship early Monday.

About 10:30am, officers from the Police Marine Area Command retrieved a body from the water. 

The alarm was raised on the P&O vessel Pacific Adventure about 4am when it was about 10 nautical miles, or 18 kilometres, off Sydney Heads.

The ship was due to dock at White Bay Terminal a few hours later but that was delayed as the search was underway.

NSW Police Marine Commander Joseph McNulty earlier said police were hopeful because one of three emergency life rings that had been deployed had not been retrieved, fuelling hope the man may have latched onto it. 

Swells of 4 to 5 metres hindered efforts of rescue teams, which searched a 60-square-nautical-mile area and used infrared technology to search for the man's heat signature. 

A second cruise ship which was in the area has also joined the search. 

Both ships tried to lower life boats in to the water but had to abort due to the rough conditions. 

Family being cared for onboard

At least three police vessels and a number of tug boats were deployed in the search, alongside the Toll rescue helicopter. 

In a statement, P&O said there were more than 2,600 guests still on board the ship, which has now been cleared to return to port in Sydney. 

"Pacific Adventure's next voyage due to depart White Bay this afternoon has been delayed, with the ship expected to leave later tonight on a four-night voyage to Queensland," it said. 

"We thank guests for their care, understanding and patience on what's been a distressing day for guests and crew.

"Our thoughts are with the family of the guest at this difficult time."

Police have launched an investigation into the death and will prepare a report for the coroner. 

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'Beautiful and gentle soul' who fell off cruise ship identified as search to find him suspended

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Search suspended for cruise ship passenger who fell overboard off Hawaii

Coast Guard crews have suspended the search for an Australian cruise ship passenger off the coast of Hawaii following a report of a person overboard, officials said Thursday.

“After reviewing all relevant information of the case and discussing it with the next of kin, the Coast Guard has made the difficult decision to suspend the active search for the passenger aboard the Quantum of the Seas,” said Kevin Cooper, a search and rescue mission coordinator for the Joint Rescue Coordination Center Honolulu. 

The cruise ship Quantum of the Seas reported a person overboard at 11:03 p.m. Tuesday local time to the Joint Rescue Coordination Center Honolulu, the Coast Guard said in a news release Wednesday. 

“The crew of the cruise ship remained on scene to search for approximately two hours, deploying six life rings,” the release said. 

On Wednesday, an air search with the Coast Guard Air Station Barbers Point C-130 Hercules aircrew launched at 7 a.m. and arrived on scene at 9 a.m. local time, searching about 500 miles south of Kailua-Kona, Big Island.

After six hours the crew returned to the air station for fuel replenishment. Officials said said Thursday that the search had been suspended.

A spokesperson for Royal Caribbean confirmed that a passenger went overboard.

"The ship’s crew immediately launched a search and rescue operation and is working closely with local authorities," the spokesperson said.

The sprawling cruise ship has 16 decks and fits 4,905 guests and 1,500 crew members, according to its website . 

Quantum of the Seas departed Brisbane, Australia, on April 12 and is scheduled to arrive in Honolulu on Friday.

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Girlfriend shares heart-breaking confession after Australian man Warwick Tollemache fell overboard cruise ship

The “devastated” girlfriend of Brisbane man Warwick Tollemache, who fell overboard a cruise ship near Hawaiian waters, has shared a heart-breaking admission after the search for her "kind, beautiful, and gentle" partner was suspended.

The heartbroken girlfriend of the Australian man who went overboard a cruise ship has shared a devastating confession.

Thirty-five-year-old Warwick Tollemache was on board the Quantum of the Seas on route to Honolulu when he fell and went missing near Hawaiian waters on Tuesday evening (local time).

A search was immediately conducted, involving the United States Coast Guards and Navy, but was called off on Thursday when they failed to locate him.

He is presumed dead by his family, but his girlfriend still holds out slight hope.

Brisbane woman Celina La Roche told the Courier Mail she has been dating Mr Tollemache “on and off” for six years and was crushed that the search for him was suspended.

“They should have kept looking – I don’t understand why they stopped the search,” she said on Friday.

“I’m just devastated.”

The US Coast Guard in a statement confirmed they made the “difficult decision” to end the search after discussions with the next of kin.  

In a heart-breaking admission, Ms La Roche revealed she was meant to go on the cruise with him, but work got in the way.

He went with his mother, Mandy, instead.

“We were talking in the morning (before the tragedy), we were making plans for another trip,” Ms La Roche said.

“I was still hoping until I heard they’d stopped the search and now… he could still be alive in the middle of nowhere.

“I won’t have closure personally until they find him. He knows how to float in water, we did it together when we were snorkelling.

“But his mum told me straight away, ‘He’s gone,’ so I just thought, ‘That’s it, he’s dead’.”

In a statement to social media, Mr Tollemache’s mother Mandy remembered him as a “gentle soul”.

“Our family is heartbroken at the loss of our beloved Warwick,” she wrote.

“He was a kind, beautiful, and gentle soul who was adored by everyone who knew him. He will be deeply missed.

“We kindly ask for privacy during this difficult time. Thank you for your understanding.”

Royal Caribbean Cruises, who operate the cruise ship, said their “thoughts and deepest sympathies” were with his loved ones.

“While on its trans-pacific sailing, a guest onboard Quantum of the Seas went overboard,” it said in an earlier statement.

“The ship's crew immediately launched a search and rescue operation and worked closely with local authorities.

“Out of respect for the family, we will not share further details about this unfortunate event. Our thoughts and deepest sympathies are with his loved ones at this time.”

While it is still unknown how Mr Tollemache fell, passenger Ken Carcas told Sky News Australia that, according to multiple passengers, “two crew saw him go overboard".

"A lady heard a scream, went out onto the balcony and saw him drop past, hit the tender below and fall into the water," he said on Thursday.

He added the captain immediately alerted crews of the incident and begun the search.

The cruise ship Quantum of the Seas will arrive at the final stop of Honolulu on Friday, after departing from Brisbane more than two weeks ago on April 12.

The tragedy came just hours after the death of a woman on board the same cruise, who suffered a medical emergency, in an unrelated incident. 

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Authorities search for Australian man who went overboard a Royal Caribbean cruise ship as the boat crossed the Pacific in the dark

• The Coast Guard is searching for a man believed to have gone overboard a cruise ship this week.
• The Quantum of the Seas stayed on the scene for two hours searching before having to refuel.
• Insider previously reported that man overboard incidents are relatively rare.

The US Coast Guard is still searching for an Australian passenger believed to have gone overboard a Royal Caribbean cruise ship hundreds of miles from Hawaii on Tuesday night.

In a Wednesday statement , the Coast Guard said crews were looking for the man about 500 miles south of Kailua Kona, Big Island. Officials first received a call from the Quantum of the Seas cruise ship about a man overboard at 11:03 p.m. on Tuesday.

As of Thursday afternoon, he had been missing for more than 36 hours.

The cruise ship stayed on the scene to look for the man for about two hours, deploying six life rings during the search, before it had to resume its journey to refuel, according to the Coast Guard statement. 

The search for the overboard man resumed Wednesday morning as a Coast Guard helicopter conducted a six-hour aerial search in the area, but failed to locate the missing man.

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Officials continued their search on Thursday.

Royal Caribbean did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment but confirmed in a statement to Nine News that a passenger on board the Quantum of the Seas was missing. 

The ship departed from Brisbane, Australia, on April 12 and is scheduled to dock at its final port stop in Honolulu on Friday.

Another passenger on board the ship told Nine News that she was in bed when she heard an alert call over the cruise ship's PA system. Other cruise goers described a "somber" mood on board as the ship sailed on, according to the outlet. 

As Insider reported last year, overboard incidents remain a rarity on cruise ships , and the statistical chances of ending up in the water are slim — they just tend to make headline-grabbing news when they do occur.

"The vast majority of cases are either reckless behavior or some form of intentional act, Brian Salerno, the senior vice president for Maritime policy at Cruise Lines International Association, also known as CLIA, told  The New York Times last year. "People don't just inadvertently fall over the side of a ship."

It is still unclear how the man fell overboard this week.

In 2019, the most recent year of pre-COVID data, 25 people went overboard according to a 2020 CLIA report, including both passengers and crew members. Compared to the  more than 13.7 million passengers who boarded a cruise in the US alone that same year, the likelihood of going overboard clocks in at less than 0.000001%.

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Australian man falls overboard from cruise ship en route to hawaii.

Australian man missing after going overboard from a cruise ship

UPDATE: The man who fell overboard has been identified by his family. Read more here.

EARLIER : There are grave fears for an Australian man missing from a Royal Caribbean cruise ship en route to Hawaii, as the United States Coast Guard prepares to resume a search at first light.

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Australian man missing after going overboard from a cruise ship.

The passenger went overboard on the Quantum of the Seas in the Pacific Ocean about 800km south of Kailua-Kona, on the west coast of O’ahu also known as Big Island, at 11.03pm on Tuesday (Wednesday night AEST).

The cruise company has now confirmed a woman died from a medical episode just hours before the man disappeared.

There were unconfirmed reports the woman was the man’s partner. However, Royal Caribbean has quashed the claims, saying the incidents were not connected.

The ship had departed Brisbane on April 12 for a two-week cruise to the Hawaiian Islands before tragedy struck with a huge air and sea search so far failing to find any trace of the missing man.

Ivan Rukavina, from Melbourne, who is currently on the cruise, told 7NEWS.com.au he heard “Oscar Oscar Oscar” over the ships’ loudspeaker — a code meaning man overboard.

Rukavina claims the man fell from the 15th-floor balcony, about 20m above his room and directly above the main pool area.

Rukavina said it would not have been hard to jump over the ship’s glass railing.

“If he’s jumped off mid-ship ... he would have been sucked in by the motors,” he said.

Following the incident, crew members attempted to lower lifeboats into the water.

Rukavina said crew were “frantically” trying to get the lights on the lifeboats to work.

“I heard someone say ‘there’s no lights’,” he said.

All passengers were told to go back to their rooms so crew could conduct a head count.

Meanwhile, a search and rescue effort took place for about 2½ hours, before the cruise resumed its trip towards Honolulu.

Rukavina said the US Coast Guard had now taken over search efforts to locate the man.

Petty officer Ryan Fisher said the coast guard’s C130 Hercules aircraft dropped tracking buoys during the search to “get a better idea of what the surface ocean currents are”.

“The temperature of the water ... sea state, location, all of these factors can really play a part in the length of time someone is able to tread the water or survive,” he told 7NEWS.

“As of right now, the main concern is just dedicating as much resources as we can.”

The search will resume on Friday, Fisher added, and a safety broadcast was continuing to go out to mariners in the area urging them to keep a lookout for the man.

Rukavina said it was unclear whether the man was travelling alone or with family.

“It’s sad for their family,” he said.

“It’s a bit disturbing, to be honest.”

‘Heard a scream’

Ken, another passenger on board the ship, told 7NEWS.com.au he and his wife were awake at the time of the incident, and saw the lifeboats and search lights being used.

He said he’d heard from multiple passengers that two members of the crew saw the man go overboard.

“A lady heard a scream, went out on to the balcony and saw him drop past, hit the tender below and fall into the water,” Ken said.

He added the crew had dealt with the situation in a “very professional and respectful way”.

“The captain ... hung around as long as (he) could before being told by the US Coast Guard to resume course.”

Ken could not confirm whether an earlier medical incident was linked to the man going overboard.

He said the mood on the boat on Thursday morning was “very sombre”.

The deck area where the man is believed to have gone overboard has now been taped off.

In a speech addressing passengers on Thursday morning, the captain said his “deepest sympathies and thoughts” were with the man’s family.

“We’ll do our best to provide assistance and support to the family (and) out of respect we will not provide any other details,” the captain said.

Quantum of the Seas is on a 16-night cruise scheduled to conclude in Honolulu, Hawaii on April 28.

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Search suspended for man overboard on cruise ship hundreds of miles away from Hawaii

The Australian man had been missing since Tuesday night.

The U.S. Coast Guard said Thursday it has suspended its search for a cruise ship passenger from Australia who went overboard a few hundred miles off the coast of Hawaii.

The incident occurred at approximately 11:03 p.m. Tuesday night, when the Joint Rescue Coordination Center Honolulu received a report from the Quantum of the Seas cruise ship that a man had gone overboard about 500 miles south of Kailua Kona, Big Island, according to the Coast Guard.

MORE: FBI investigating 'suspicious death' of woman on Carnival cruise ship

The cruise ship's crew searched for approximately two hours, deploying six life rings, the Coast Guard said.

A Coast Guard Air Station Barbers Point C-130 Hercules aircrew launched at 7 a.m. on Wednesday morning and arrived on the scene at approximately 9 a.m. but did not have any luck finding the missing man after completing five searches.

The search resumed Thursday morning, before the Coast Guard announced it has suspended the active search later that day.

"After reviewing all relevant information of the case and discussing with our Australian consulate counterparts as well as with the next of kin, the Coast Guard has made the difficult decision to suspend the active search for the passenger aboard the Quantum of the Seas," Kevin Cooper, a search and rescue mission coordinator for the Joint Rescue Coordination Center Honolulu, said in a statement.

MORE: Fisherman missing after going overboard while hooking 'huge' tuna on fishing trip

Quantum of the Seas departed from Brisbane, Australia, on April 12 and is scheduled to arrive in Honolulu on April 28.

Royal Caribbean -- who operates Quantum of the Seas -- also released a statement on Wednesday confirming the missing passenger.

MORE: 9-year-old boy missing after falling off pontoon boat, being hit by propeller

"While on its trans-pacific sailing, a guest onboard Quantum of the Seas went overboard," Royal Caribbean said. "The ship's crew immediately launched a search and rescue operation and is working closely with local authorities."

Authorities did not give any further details on how the man may have ended up going overboard.

ABC News' Clara McMichael contributed to this report.

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ABC News Live

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US Coast Guard suspends search for Australian who fell overboard cruise ship in Hawaiian waters

An aerial search for the man reported missing from the cruise ship travelling near Hawaiian Islands has been called off for the day.

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An urgent appeal has been made to ships in the Pacific Ocean to assist in the desperate search for an Australian man who fell off a Hawaii-bound cruise ship as the aerial search is halted.

The man was holidaying on the Royal Caribbean cruise ship “Quantum of the Seas” before the nightmare unfolded overnight 1400 kilometres south of Hawaii.

The ship departed from a Brisbane port on April 12 and was sailing through the Pacific Ocean near the island of Honolulu when the man was reported missing,two days prior to its arrival in Hawaii.

“The ship‘s crew immediately launched a search and rescue operation and is working closely with local authorities,” Quantum of the Seas said in a statement on Thursday.

The cruise ship stayed in the area for a couple of hours before handing over the search to an aerial search team.

While the US Coast Guard has been combing the area, it has now also issued an Urgent Marine Information Broadcast, alerting all vessels south of Hawaii to help look for the man.

The Coast Guard also called the US Navy for aid after it was forced to turn back its C-130 Hercules to Hawaii to refuel, halting its six-hour search.

Cruise passenger Georgina Thompson described the harrowing moment she realised something had gone wrong.

“We were in bed and we heard it come over the PA system someone singing out “Oscar, Oscar, Oscar” and then that's when everything started to happen,” she told the Today show.

She said her husband got out of bed and went out to the deck where he saw massive lights shining onto the ocean and multiple small boats.

“We didn’t know at that time what was going on,” she said.

“It lit up the whole ocean.”

Ms Thompson said the mood on-board the cruise ship was “sombre” on Thursday morning, as passengers discussed the shocking news over breakfast.

The cruise ship has now set sail for the Hawaiian Islands where they are due to arrive on Friday.

Authorities have reportedly confirmed to 9 News that the aircraft will continue its search for the man at dawn.

The identity of the man is not yet known, nor how he fell overboard.

DFAT has been contacted for comment.

Rescuers battled freezing temperatures and heavy rainfall as they searched for a lost bushwalker, who was miraculously found uninjured.

The most powerful solar storm in more than two decades, which can cause power outages and disrupt other tech, has struck Earth.

A zoo in China was accused of attempting to deceive visitors, forcing it to defend a strange “panda” exhibit.

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‘Lower the temperature’ on protests at university campuses, education minister says

The education minister was also asked about the pro-Palestine encampments taking place across Australian universities, and whether they should be allowed to continue for as long as students are willing to man them.

He told ABC RN that protests will always be a part of democracy, but said “we’ve just got to lower the temperature”.

There’s always going to be protests in a democracy, that’s part of being a democracy. What there’s no place for is hate or violence or prejudice or discrimination and certainly no place [for] antisemitism or Islamophobia – whether it’s on our university campuses or anywhere else in the country. What I’d say is that we’ve just got to lower the temperature. You know, what’s happening on the other side of the world is trying to pull our country apart. We’ve got to work together – whether it’s politicians or religious leaders or community leaders, whether it’s the media, or student representatives – to work to keep our country together, not let it get pulled apart.

Placement payment for student teachers and nurses not meant to be a wage, Clare says

ABC RN host Sally Sara noted that the government’s own economic inclusion advisory committee found payments like Austudy and Abstudy are too low and can’t be lived on . Why not tie placement payments to the minimum wage, she asked?

The education minister, Jason Clare , said this measure was not designed to be a wage but “a bit of extra financial support”. He said:

There’ll be a lot of people who will still be able to work at the same time as they’re doing [placements]. But there are people who can’t [and] this will provide that bit of extra help to pay the bills, put food on the table, pay for transport, sometimes the relocation costs that come with prac. The commonwealth government hasn’t done this before. This is the first time that this has happened. It’s happened in the in response to calls from students – both teaching students and nursing students and social work students – across the country, and it’s come out of the work for the universities accord team that heard loud and clear that there is placement poverty in this country. If we want more people to finish their teaching and nursing degrees – if we want to get more people teaching our kids, helping us when we’re sick, working in domestic violence refuges – [then] this is part of the way to do it.

Education minister on new placement payments for student teachers and nurses

As Paul Karp reported this morning, student teachers, nurses, midwives and social workers will receive a weekly payment of $320 during their mandatory placements under a new cost-of-living measure in the May budget.

The education minister, Jason Clare , was on ABC RN earlier to discuss the measure. Asked about any means testing model for the payment, he said:

Teaching students do about 600 hours as part of their degree in a classroom, nurses do about 800 hours in a hospital, and sometimes they’ve got to give up their part-time job to do [this] … We’ll work with unions as well as the university sector to make sure that we sharpen and define the means testing model that we’ll put in legislation to make sure that we’re giving this to the people who need it the most.

He flagged a means test could look at students who still live at home versus living independently, as well as those already receiving financial supports or students who work more than 15 hours a week.

Clare said he met a nursing student in Sydney last week who said the payment would mean “the difference between paying for parking at the hospital or paying for food that she wants to eat every night”.

New direct flight between Australia and Palau

A new direct flight between Australia and Palau has been announced today, with the first flight to depart this month.

The non-stop flights will go between Brisbane and Koror, Palau and “help create new opportunities for regional tourism and trade”, a statement from foreign minister Penny Wong and Palau president Surangel Whipps said.

Palau is a tiny country of over 500 islands in the Pacific, with a population of about 20,000 people.

Nauru Airlines will operate the flight until 31 October this year, with eligible Australian, Pacific and Asian airlines invited to participate in a tender to operate the route through to October 2025.

The route compliments the “Island Hopper” flight between Brisbane, Nauru, Tarawa, Majuro, Pohnpei and Koror.

Wong said in a statement:

Australia has heard the calls from Pacific leaders for deeper connections and easier movement around the region, and is working to improve access, mobility, and migration opportunities.

Calls for 'substantial increase' to jobseeker and youth allowance

A group of women and non-binary people from civil society have written to the prime minister, Anthony Albanese , seeking a “substantial increase” in jobseeker and youth allowance.

It notes that this was the priority recommendation of the government’s own Economic Inclusions Advisory Committee, quoting chair Jenny Macklin who said: “Women escaping violence also need to know that there will be a decent social security net for them.”

The letter said:

The current social security safety net cannot be described as “decent” nor safe. The JobSeeker Payment is just $55 a day. Youth Allowance is even less at $45 a day. Around 500,000 women receive these payments. While the government’s restoration of Parenting Payment Single to 82,000 single parents whose youngest child is aged between 8 and 14 was most welcome, there remain large numbers of women of all ages in receipt of JobSeeker and other working-age payments that are simply not enough to cover basic costs. Fixing the adequacy of Jobseeker and Youth Allowance to deliver basic economic security for women cannot wait.

The letter is signed by Macklin, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander commissioner June Oscar , sex discrimination commissioner Anna Cody , single mothers advocate Terese Edwards, former NSW women’s minister Verity Firth , unionists Emeline Gaske and Correna Haythorpe and former independent MP Cathy McGowan .

Unlike last year’s letter coordinated by the Australian Council of Social Services, this does not appear to include current Labor MPs.

David McBride sentencing hearing to take place today

The sentencing hearing for military whistleblower David McBride will take place today.

McBride pleaded guilty to stealing commonwealth information and passing that on to journalists at the ABC, who used the material as the basis for an investigative series exposing war crimes in Afghanistan, titled The Afghan Files .

You can read the background below:

A rally is due to take place this morning, with a number of McBride’s supporters speaking. Saffrine Duggan, the wife of Dan Duggan , said in a statement:

In Australia we pride ourselves on transparent government and the right to a fair hearing in court. Situations like David’s and Dan’s, where Australians are being used as political scapegoats, cannot stand. It’s time for the prime minister and politicians in Canberra to prove the value of Australian citizenship and our nation’s sovereignty. I am horrified at this prosecution of both David and of my husband, Dan, and the damage it is doing to them and to their loved ones. We won’t give up, let’s stand together for justice.

Police search for man overboard cruise ship off Sydney

NSW police are leading a search in waters off Sydney after reports a person went overboard off a cruise ship early this morning.

Police said emergency services received reports a person had gone overboard off a ship 10 nautical miles (around 19km) off Sydney Heads just after 4am.

NSW police marine area command have deployed a number of resources to search for the person and are leading the coordination of the water search.

The P&O Pacific Adventure was due to dock in Sydney Harbour at 6am this morning.

P&O said in a statement that the ship – carrying 2,600 guests – was taking part in the search and rescue operation along with other nearby vessels, deployed to the area by AMSA’s joint rescue coordination centre.

The family of this guest is being cared for by our onboard team while every effort is being made to find them. Pacific Adventure’s arrival into White Bay Terminal this morning has been delayed while the search continues.

The flight radar shows a rescue helicopter sweeping a section of the ocean. The Marine Traffic map shows the cruise ship is continuing search efforts.

More on the NSW government’s $230m domestic and family violence package

In a first for the state, $38m will go towards funding a dedicated primary prevention strategy . $48m will fund the Staying Home Leaving Violence program , helping women and their children to remain safe in their homes after leaving a violent relationship.

Offender transformation programs will receive $2.1m and $48m will go towards early intervention , including funding for workers who support children affected by family violence.

Bail laws – blamed in part for the death of Forbes woman M olly Ticehurst – are part of its focus, with $45m earmarked to improve bail laws and justice system responses.

The state’s attorney general, Michael Daley , said the funds would “[ensure] we are reviewing domestic violence supports and systems from every angle”.

NSW needs a coordinated approach across multiple fronts to disrupt domestic violence – that is what this suite of funding initiatives is designed to achieve.

NSW minister for the prevention of domestic violence and sexual assault, Jodie Harrison , said:

There is no shying away from the horrendous statistics, and the tragic stories behind each one of those statistics.

NSW government unveils $230m emergency package for victim-survivors

The NSW government has today committed to an emergency $230m package to support the victim-survivors of domestic, family and sexual violence.

The new funding will cover four years of new programs and extensions of existing programs, and is informed by the lived experience of victim-survivors and leaders from the domestic family and sexual violence sector who met with the state cabinet last week.

The premier, Chris Minns , said in a statement:

Too many lives have been lost and too many families have been broken because of domestic and family violence. It is a blight in our communities, and it is a problem that deserves our government’s concerted attention and response. We are listening to leaders, organisations, victim-survivors, and communities from across NSW to drive solutions. Domestic, family, and sexual violence is preventable; we cannot accept the status quo. This funding announcement is an important step to doing better, to recognising that domestic violence supports need to be applied not just from a crisis response perspective, but with an eye to disrupting the cycle of domestic and family violence early and permanently.

And happy Monday – great to be with you for a new week on the Australian news live blog. I’m Emily Wind , and I’ll take you through our rolling coverage today.

Making news overnight: The NSW government has announced the details of its emergency $230m package to support the victim-survivors of domestic, family and sexual violence. The new funding will cover four years of new programs and extensions of existing programs and follows a dedicated cabinet meeting last week . More on this soon from Daisy Dumas .

NSW police are leading a search in waters off Sydney after reports a person went overboard off a cruise ship around 4am today.

The sentencing hearing for military whistleblower David McBride will take place today. McBride pleaded guilty to stealing commonwealth information and passing that on to journalists at the ABC, who used the material as the basis for an investigative series exposing war crimes in Afghanistan, titled The Afghan Files.

A group of women and non-binary people from civil society have written to the prime minister, Anthony Albanese , seeking a “substantial increase” in jobseeker and youth allowance. The letter states jobseeker and other working-age payments “are simply not [earning] enough to cover basic costs”. Paul Karp will bring us more on this shortly.

And Mexican authorities have said the bodies believed to be two missing Australian brothers show they may have been killed with gunshots. You can read the entire story below:

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