IN-Focus

ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact A young man with genetic muscle tone in the 11th percentile has actually weighed up getting cricket spikes today despite the majority of his fourth grade fixtures taking place on artificial turf wickets. It was a fleeting thought, said 28-year-old Turner James, who had to clarify that his name wasn't backwards on the...

ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact A Betoota Ponds man said he can't help but shake his head and laugh whenever he gets a text message to his Android burner phone, even when the content is rather serious. Speaking to our reporter this afternoon, Nathan Pooley explained that his mother had been in touch this morning because the police had been...

ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact Opposition leader Peter Dutton has admitted this week that perhaps he was wrong to suggest settling Lebanese Muslims here was a mistake. That he might've been wrong to suggest that Melbourne was being held ransom by African gangs. Also, that walking out on the formal apology to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, particularly...

ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact A former security guard at Betoota Heights Stockland revealed to The Advocate that he frequently witnessed people shoplifting from the supermarket. However, he admitted to turning a blind eye due to his personal convictions. He believes that both Coles and Woolworths mistreat farmers and customers alike. One particular incident stands out in the man's memory,...

ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact The Australian women's rugby union team has criticised the code's governing body this week after they treated the "wives and girlfriends" of the Wallabies World Cup Squad to a weekend in Sydney to farewell the boys before they headed off the France in the front of a Qantas jet. Known as the Wallaroos, the...

ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact A recent poll has shown that the overwhelming majority of real Tasmanians don't want to bring back the thylacine from extinction; the polar opposite of sentiment on the mainland. The thought of reviving the land-based apex predator is surprisingly unpopular with people who have to live on the island according to locals who have spoke...

ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact As the cost of living crisis gets worse and ordinary people begin struggle to make ends meet, the nation's flag carrier is force feeding audiences around the country a reality that most can only dream of. Millions were glued to TV screen around the county last night as the Matildas went down to Poms in...

ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact American actor and businessman Mark Wahlberg has told The Advocate that if he was on the Malaysia Airlines flight out of Sydney Airport yesterday that it never would've had to make that U-turn over Northern NSW after a disgruntled passenger started making threats. But as the 52-year-old lives full-time in Los Angeles and only ever...

ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact Colourful Nationals identity Barnaby Joyce has distanced himself this morning from party leader David Littleproud after he told viewers of ABC's Insiders this weekend that he didn't support a public holiday should the Matildas win the FIFA World Cup later this month. Mr Joyce told The Advocate that he wants "a full calendar week" of...

ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact Local city worker Darren van der Merwe reportedly consumed a grand total of two schooners of heavy at the Dodo Internet after-work drinks yesterday, and immediately transformed into a walking, talking National Geographic documentary about his adventures back home in his native South Africa. Eyewitness accounts confirm that after only a few sips of his...