A toddler has been left with severe head and neck injuries after she was mauled by a dog on the northern Gold Coast.

Queensland Health has offered to pay its own doctors and medical staff thousands of extra dollars a day to work short stints at under-pressure regional maternity units in a bid to plug a dire shortage.

The state government’s excuse not to ban mobile phones in schools has fallen apart after the chair of a taskforce whose report is being relied on to slap down the move said a ban was now urgently needed.

And an eight-year-old boy who was told he could ride his scooter to the end of the beach took the prompt from his dad literally, heading off on a 13km odyssey and sparking a frantic search.

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