Received

Brittany Higgins has reached a confidential settlement with the Commonwealth after the former political staffer's claims of sexual assault at Parliament House.

Lawyer Noor Blumer, acting for Ms Higgins, issued a brief statement on Tuesday.

"At a mediation held today, the Commonwealth and Ms Higgins settled her claims," Ms Blumer said.

"At the request of Ms Higgins, the parties have agreed that the terms of the settlement are confidential."

Earlier in December, Ms Higgins' civil action named three respondents in her action: Senators Linda Reynolds and Michaelia Cash as well as the Commonwealth. Senator Reynolds is since believed to have been removed from the claim.

The documents set out Ms Higgins' intention to sue for sexual harassment, sex discrimination, disability discrimination, negligence and victimisation.

At the time, the claim was expected to be worth about $3 million, including $2.5 million for future economic loss, past economic loss approaching $100,000 and general damages of $100,000.

None of those figures were mentioned on Tuesday.

"The parties welcome the fact of the settlement," Ms Blumer said.

Ms Higgins alleges she was raped in 2019 by Bruce Lehrmann inside Senator Reynolds' ministerial office, for whom they both worked as staffers.

Mr Lehrmann has consistently denied the allegation. His trial in the ACT Supreme Court was derailed by juror misconduct. Prosecutors decided not to pursue further action.

Following the 2019 federal election, Ms Higgins moved to the office of then-employment minister Michaelia Cash to work as a media advisor.

Mr Lehrmann is also considering an insurance claim and defamation action.

© AAP 2022

The brothers who staged a deadly ambush that claimed the lives of two police officers at a remote Queensland property were living off-grid and have been linked to fringe online conspiracy groups.

Nathaniel and Gareth Train died in a gunfight with heavily armed police at their Wieambilla property in the western Darling Downs region on Monday night.

The pair, along with Gareth's wife Stacey, ambushed and shot dead constables Matthew Arnold, 26, and Rachel McCrow, 29, before killing 58-year-old neighbour Alan Dare when he came to help.

NSW Police last week launched a public appeal to find Nathaniel Train, 46, a former school principal who was last seen at his Dubbo home on December 16, 2021.

He cut contact with his family in early October and was reported missing on December 4 this year after going to live with his brother and sister-in-law at their Wieambilla home.

Both Nathaniel and Stacey Train previously worked in the Queensland education system before the 46-year-old moved interstate.

He worked as executive principal at Walgett Community College Primary School, but the NSW Department of Education said he hadn't been employed in the state's education system since August 2021 and he officially left employment in March.

While at the school in northern NSW, he sent 16 emails over two weeks about problems there and the need for assistance, the state's parliament heard in May.

Nathaniel Train then seemed to disappear, cutting off contact with loved ones before returning to Queensland.

Stacey Train held a senior teaching post at Tara Shire State College before she resigned in December 2021.

Queensland Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll said NSW police had asked local officers to check on Nathaniel Train at the isolated Wieambilla property.

"That person had been missing for up to about 12 months, but people had been in contact with him," she told reporters.

"However, that contact was lost in recent days, and they just wanted to check on that missing person."

A series of posts under the name of Gareth Train appear on conspiracy theory forums and include references to anti-vaccine sentiments and claims high-profile shootings were hoaxes or false-flag operations.

One post refers to "black op police'' and urges people to prepare themselves.

"Has reading anything from the 1901 constitution or quoting common law to the black op police with the guns helped anyone in Victoria and their rights," a post from a user named Gareth Train said.

© AAP 2022

Former foreign minister Marise Payne has told a royal commission into robodebt she doesn't know how early concerns over the scheme's legality were left out of later policy documents.

Senator Payne was human services minister at the time the program was formulated, working under then social services minister Scott Morrison.

She appeared as a witness before the commission in Brisbane on Tuesday.

Senator Payne was asked if potential savings to the federal budget, combined with the difficulty of passing legislation, could have been reasons for the legal issues being omitted.

"How did the identification of the problem ... drop off the radar by the time it seems (cabinet) considered the proposal?" senior counsel assisting, Justin Greggery, KC, asked Senator Payne.

"I don't know the answer to that question, and I say that in all transparency," she replied.

"There is an expectation, however, that when agencies advise you, on the face of a brief, that they are working together to address these issues."

Asked who held responsibility for advancing the concerns, Senator Payne said ministers were always "ultimately responsible", but must receive advice from their departments.

Early ministerial briefings from the Department of Human Services about the scheme suggested using Australian Taxation Office data as an alternative to the "cumbersome" method of cross-checking income declared by customers.

The briefings suggested "income averaging" as a way of arriving at fortnightly rates from annual tax data, resulting in $1.2 billion being saved from more efficiently identifying welfare discrepancies.

It was laid out in drafts about the proposed changes viewed by Senator Payne that "some of the options ... would need legislative and/or policy changes".

It was also noted that advice had been sought from the Department of Social Services, which advised "some proposals will come under significant scrutiny as not being consistent with the overall beneficial nature of social security law".

Those legal concerns were not reflected in later government policy proposals, resulting in the scheme being implemented regardless, with ultimately disastrous results.

More than 381,000 people were wrongly pursued for welfare debts totalling more than $750 million, with several victims taking their own lives because of the distress it caused.

Commissioner Catherine Holmes questioned Senator Payne if, in viewing the draft briefings, she would have asked her department what the possible legislative changes were.

"I think at the stage at which the process was ... (I would) not necessarily have asked for specifics at that point, no," she said.

Also appearing at the commission on Tuesday was former Centrelink compliance officer Colleen Taylor.

Ms Taylor flagged issues with the robodebt scheme internally with Centrelink and says she received mixed responses from senior staff.

Her concerns included the increased reliance on ATO data to identify discrepancies, despite the method being highly unreliable.

"There was lots of reasons you could explain what the discrepancy was," Ms Taylor said.

She described what was being done at the time as a form of "stealing", and said she ultimately chose to retire after becoming frustrated by the lack of response.

"We were a compliance unit, the whole point of our unit was to make sure people were doing the right thing, and here we were doing the wrong thing," Ms Taylor said.

© AAP 2022