The World Today

A mother who lost her son to suicide has told a mental health in Victoria last night the community is losing its fight against depression. Hundreds of people turned out to the event in bayside Melbourne suburb of Mornington, where a high rate of depressive symptoms has been recorded.

The Master Builders Association has appointed its first female chief executive in its 127 year history. Denita Wawn will replace veteran chief executive Wilhelm Harnisch who retires after 15 years. Master Builders announced Mrs Wawn's appointment to coincide with International Women's Day.

The CEO of the Westpac Bank has been grilled by a parliamentary committee as to why the bank isn't prepared to 'name and shame' senior executives who breach the rules. Westpac has had quite a few run-ins with the financial services watchdog in recent months, but no one in management has been named publicly. Westpac is the latest bank to front the Economics Committee, as Australia's top banker's are held to account about everything from employee misconduct to credit card fees.

A Senate inquiry has been told by both the Australian Council of Social Service and the Community and Public Sector Union that Centrelink's so-called robo-debt recovery scheme should be stopped immediately. The Senate Committee was told 200,000 people have been contacted by the scheme and many have been left distressed and under pressure to repay a debt they do not owe. ACOSS gave evidence debt collectors contracted by Centrelink appear to be using tactics that breach consumer law.

A new survey has revealed that most Australian parents want children who aren't fully vaccinated kept out of kindergarten and childcare. The new national child health poll shows more than 70 per cent of mums and dads have a tough attitude to people who refuse to immunise their children.

NSW and Federal health officials are scrambling to work out how a man was able to deceive the health system for more than a decade by masquerading as a doctor without proper registration. The so-called fake doctor is accused of allegedly stealing the name and medical qualifications of another doctor in India before moving to Australia.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has been told there are national inconsistencies in the rules determining who is legally required to report children at risk of harm. In some states and territories, adults who have regular contact with children are still not considered mandatory reporters.

Enemies of the United States are no doubt poring over the contents of a massive CIA leak today, and learning a lot about its methods. Wikileaks has released a trove of hacking tools used by the Agency, giving it the dramatic title, 'Vault 7'. It apparently reveals how the CIA breaks into phones, communication apps and other electronic devices. Experts say the leak may aid America's opponents and weaken its own capacities.

Facial recognition technology is a step closer to wider use, with a trial underway in Queensland. The Toowoomba Regional Council is using the software, which can analyse images recorded by existing CCTV cameras. It says the trial is only monitoring a library, but privacy advocates are alarmed by the development. They fear it will lead to bigger databanks of personal information. Similar software is planned for passport processing and is already used by Northern Territory police.

A national breakdown of school results shows a lack of improvement in numeracy and literacy levels of some high school level students. The data has been released today on the MySchool website, the one-stop online portal for parents to monitor schools' performance. One former Victorian school leader who resigned over a NAPLAN controversy, thinks the flat line trend points to a need to lift both teaching and student standards.