PM

Our Japan correspondent Rachel Mealey joins PM from Fukushima. She says the earthquake was not as severe at the 2011 quake that caused a massive tsunami and large loss of life. The tsunami warnings have been downgraded and lifted throughout the day, and people have been returning home. Information on any possible impacts on the already crippled Fukushima nuclear reactors is yet to be released.

US President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to pull out of the world's largest trade deal - the Trans-Pacific Partnership - of which Australia is a partner. Japan's Prime Minister says a TPP without the US is meaningless. But is it dead? Two Australian trade experts are divided over the trade deal's future.

A fight over water has emerged in Canberra today. Labor accused the Prime Minister of being weak by letting his Deputy Barnaby Joyce take water from Murray-Darling Basin that was intended to be used for the environment. But the Government has rejected that suggestion, saying it's committed to the basin plan, and that it will do the right thing by the environment and farmers.

Labor's taken aim at unity in the coalition after several Nationals senators abstained from voting in a motion to end a ban on the Adler shotgun last night. The Prime Minister says their absence from the vote is excusable, but the Opposition Leader's claiming cabinet unity has been compromised and is demanding the Nationals front benchers be disciplined.

Independent Senators Nick Xenophon and Derryn Hinch secured whistleblower amendments in return for supporting the Government's Registered Organisations Bill. The greater protections afforded to whistleblowers within unions and employer organisations, could be extended to corporations and the public sector within 18 months.

The UN's humanitarian chief Stephen O'Brien has told a session of the Security Council there are now nearly one million civilians under siege across Syria, more than double at the same time last year. He says it's a deliberate military tactic to starve and deny people medical assistance. At the same session, the US Ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power, has singled out 13 Syrian government military and prison officers accused of targeting civilians. Syria and its ally Russia have hit back, accusing the UN and US of demonising Syria and of being hypocritical by failing to mention war crimes by terrorists.

New South Wales Police are appealing to the community to report suspected cases of domestic violence to crime stoppers, citing an apparent 40 per cent increase in the rate of domestic violence-related homicides this year. There have been 32 murders related to domestic violence across the state so far in 2016, compared with 23 at the same time last year. But a top criminologist says police are misusing the statistics, and there is no overall upwards trend in domestic violence.

The Defence Department has failed to slow down legal proceedings against it over contaminated groundwater near one of its New South Wales bases, just north of Newcastle. Residents near the RAAF base at Williamtown have launched a class action to seek compensation for their declining property values.

An Aboriginal frontline service hosted a rally outside NT Parliament house on Tuesday, calling on the NT government to guarantee their future once and for all. Police, business owners and the entire community at large depend on Larrakia Nation, which among other things is the primary on-call service to go and pick up problem drunks and move them on.

Industry Super has hit back at comments made by Financial Services Minister Kelly O'Dwyer about standards of governance within the industry. Kelly O'Dwyer drew laughter from the crowd at a superannuation conference when she claimed that superannuation funds were not governed at the same standards as banks and life insurance companies. The Minister told the superannuation conference that she wasn't going to wait for a review of the industry, originally due to report back in April. Industry Super says it was a missed opportunity to promote infrastructure investment in the sector.