The Federal Government hopes to start phasing in plain packaging for cigarettes from January next year. The Health Minister will release the draft legislation today. Nicola Roxon says the plan is to make cigarette packs as ugly as possible. Tobacco companies have already spent millions of dollars fighting the proposal.

 

The Federal Government is having trouble convincing the West Australian Nationals MP Tony Crook to support a bill to limit the amount of money players can spend on poker machines. Independent MP Andrew Wilkie says the legislation is crucial to his ongoing support for the Government. But the independently minded Nationals MP says he's concerned the bill could put his state's ban on poker machines in pubs and clubs at risk.

 

Workers at Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant have finally managed to plug the leak that has been spewing highly radioactive water into the sea. They've used chemicals to solidify the soil around the cracks. Officials are now concerned about a build-up of hydrogen gas in one of the reactors.