State of the Nation | Saturday, June 24, 2017

► NSW: In sporting parlance, nobody digs deeper than parents helping their kids chase their athletic dreams. The mums and dads may not be the ones ‘giving 110 per cent’ on the pitch, but they’re paying a tidy sum to keep their kids registered and kitted with the latest gear. The NSW government will lighten the load from January 1, 2018, offering $100 rebates for parents to enroll their kids in sports. Read more.

► BALLARAT, VIC: For many victims of sexual abuse, the thought of visiting St Patrick’s College remains a deeply painful one. On Tuesday afternoon the College will take the momentous step of officially apologising to those victims as part of the school’s journey to providing practical support to victims at the Sturt Street campus. Read more.

► BURNIE, TAS: “Looking at this makes me want to be sick.” Those were the words of Emma-Jo Alison Mason, 28, of Burnie, after her employer confronted her with incriminating evidence. On Friday, Ms Mason pleaded guilty in the Hobart Supreme Court to counts of stealing, forgery and inserting false information as data. Read more.

► NEWCASTLE, NSW: Newcastle is a construction zone, with more than $1.6 billion worth of development set to change the city’s skyline. Construction activity in the city centre has ramped up in recent months as work on the light rail network coincides with a number of major projects. Nearly $900 million worth of construction is already underway. Developers say the activity taking place is “unprecedented” in Newcastle’s history. Read more.

► MALLEE, VIC: Member for Mallee Andrew Broad has billed taxpayers more than $2300 for three charter flights on the day of the federal election last year. Mr Broad chartered a small plane and pilot to take him from Mildura to Stawell, and then to Horsham followed by a flight back to Mildura on July 2. Read more.

► NT: A new partnership is spreading an anti violence message in Northern Territory prisons. Northern Territory Correctional Services and CatholicCare NT launched the No More campaign, aimed at reducing family and domestic violence in Katherine. Read more.

► WOLLONGONG, NSW: A man has been found guilty of burning down a Coniston house so his ex-wife wouldn’t get it in their divorce. Krste Kovacevski claimed he still owned the Coniston home in the early hours of August 4 last year, as he poured fuel through its rooms, dropped a lit piece of paper, and retreated to his granny flat to watch it burn. But on Friday a Wollongong magistrate ruled otherwise: Kovacevski destroyed the uninsured, owned-outright home after losing it in divorce proceedings. Read more.

► Two young Melbourne men who pleaded guilty to separate terror-related offences will spend more time behind bars, after the Court of Appeal agreed their original sentences were too lenient.

► German discount supermarket Aldi has amassed a property portfolio worth close to $2 billion in Australia, providing it with security of tenure and significant capital gains. Aldi is one of the country's biggest retailers, with $10 billion in annual sales from its 469 stores.

► Victoria Police has taken the extraordinary step of immediately cancelling all fines issued by speed and red-light cameras hit by a computer virus. Acting Deputy Commissioner Ross Guenther made the announcement on Friday afternoon. About 55 cameras were affected by the the WannaCry ransomware virus between June 6 and June 22.

► BRITAIN: 'Independence day' in the UK, exactly a year since Britain voted to leave the European Union, has been greeted with bitter howls and smug celebration, showing the wounds left by the Brexit referendum are still raw. A year ago on Friday, the country divided itself almost down the middle, pitting old against young, city against country and the well-educated versus the less-educated. Narrowly, but not so narrowly as to be contestable, Britain voted Leave.

June 24, 2010: The world's longest professional match in history was won at Wimbledon. The Isner–Mahut match was a first round men's singles match, in which the American 23rd seed John Isner played French qualifier Nicolas Mahut. It started at 6.13pm on June 22. It continued on and off for the next two days. The final set alone lasted 8 hours, 11 minutes - longer than the previous longest match - before  Isner won. In total, the match took 11 hours, 5 minutes of play over three days, with a final score of 6–4, 3–6, 6–7(7–9), 7–6(7–3), 70–68 for a total of 183 games. It is the longest match in history, measured both by time and number of games.

If not for Eggy Morrison, Bendigo’s longest serving copper may never have joined the police force.

“He was an oddball at school, a year or two older than me, turned up at the mardi gras day at the end of the school year when I was in form 4 at Colac, in uniform,” sergeant Mark Holloway says.

“He was one of those kids you didn’t talk to, he was a bit rough.”

Though they only spoke for a short time that night, the 15-year-old’s interest was piqued. Read more.