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Australian Owen Wright's quest to avoid the World Surf League's mid-season cut has continued with the Olympic bronze medallist reaching the quarter-finals of the Bells Beach Pro.

Wright came out on top in a tense round-of-16 heat against Nat Young in pumping conditions on Friday, putting together a two-wave total of 16.40 out of 20 to eliminate the American (15.77) and reach the last eight.

It's already the 32-year-old's best result of 2022 as he quests to improve his lowly ranking before the tour field is cut to 24 after the next stop of the year at Margaret River, WA.

Coming into Bells in equal 31st on the rankings, Wright got off to a fast start with an 8.67 on just his second wave of the heat.

He and fellow goofy-footer Young traded blows in a high-scoring contest, Young's 8.10 on his third wave setting up a tense finish to the half-hour heat.

Wright fired back with a 7.73 on his fifth wave, leaving Young needing an 8.31 to take the lead and the American was unable to find that score allowing the Australian to advance.

Wright is one of eight Australians left in the men's draw, including three-time world champion Mick Fanning.

The 40-year-old, who has come out of retirement to chase a fifth Bells crown as a wildcard, reached the last 16 after eliminating world No.1 Kanoa Igarashi in an upset on Thursday.

Fanning will face compatriot Callum Robson for a spot in the quarter-finals.

That's one of two all-Australian clashes in the round-of-16 with Merewether giant-killer Jackson Baker taking on top-ranked Aussie man Ethan Ewing.

Other Australians still in the competition included Morgan Cibilic, taking on 2019 Bells winner John John Florence, while Connor O'Leary is up against Brazil's Filipe Toledo.

With light off-shore winds and waves up to 3.5 metres, conditions are expected to be good enough for organisers to potentially even run the men's or women's quarter-finals later in the day.

© AAP 2022

Image: https://pixabay.com/photos/surfing-wollongong-shellharbour-4791216/ (free image - for illustration purposes only)

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Leaders have entered into a campaigning detente for Good Friday but are expected to be on the road again for Easter Saturday.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Labor leader Anthony Albanese are due to attend church services, with limited official campaign events to take place.

The leaders are expected to then rejoin the hustings on Saturday before breaking again for Easter Sunday.

Mr Morrison and Mr Albanese have also confirmed they will go head-to-head on Wednesday in their first debate of the election campaign.

The leaders will face questions from audience members in Brisbane in what is being billed as a "people's forum" of undecided voters hosted by Sky News and the Courier Mail.

It comes after the prime minister cancelled a planned speech at a defence conference in Tasmania on Thursday afternoon after a car in his security detail crashed and rolled en route to the event.

Mr Morrison wasn't involved in the crash and four police officers were taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

The driver of the other vehicle involved was unhurt.

The prime minister is under pressure over his captain's pick for the seat of Warringah Katherine Deves, who was forced to apologise after a clip of her comparing her activism to Nazi resistance resurfaced.

Ms Deves founded the lobby group Save Women's Sport, which aims to stop trans-women from participating in women's sports.

"Many people would say to themselves ... oh I would have been part of the French Resistance, the underground," she said on a YouTube podcast in February 2021.

"When all of this was happening and no one was speaking out, I thought 'this is it', this is the moment in my life when I am going to have to stand up and say something."

Ms Deves recently deleted her Twitter account after she came under fire for anti-trans posts, including claiming "half of all males with trans identities are sex offenders" and claiming transgender children were "surgically mutilated and sterilised".

While standing by the substance of her comments, she told Nine Newspapers, "In my dedication to fighting for the rights of women and girls, my language has on occasion been unacceptable".

"It has hurt people, and detracted from my arguments. I apologise for such language and the hurt that I have caused."

Mr Morrison was also under fire on Thursday when reporters pushed him on failing to introduce integrity commission legislation to parliament in the last term of government, despite promising to do so at the 2019 election.

Mr Morrison denies breaking his promise, saying the government had detailed legislation but didn't introduce it because Labor said it wouldn't support it.

"Our proposal is there, it is clear, it is detailed. On many pieces of legislation, I don't go through theatrical exercises in the Parliament. What I do as a seek to have legislation passed," he said.

Meanwhile, Mr Albanese was forced to clarify his party's border policy after saying boat turnbacks would mean there wouldn't be a need for offshore processing.

Mr Albanese said he supported boat turnbacks and the preference was not to have people in offshore detention.

"At the moment, there aren't people who have gone into offshore detention in recent times because the boats have been turned back. It's been effective," he said.

But the opposition leader reiterated his support for offshore detention.

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Image: Dietmar Rabich / Wikimedia Commons / “Canberra (AU), Parliament House -- 2019 -- 1746” / CC BY-SA 4.0

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The foster mother of missing boy William Tyrrell has been charged with lying to the NSW Crime Commission.

The 56-year-old woman has been ordered to appear in court by Strike Force detectives who allege she knowingly lied in a hearing, NSW Police told AAP on Thursday.

"On Tuesday 12 April, Strike Force Rosann detectives issued a future court attendance notice to a 56-year-old woman for knowingly giving false or misleading evidence at a hearing," NSW Police said in a statement.

"She remains before the courts.

"Investigations under Strike Force Rosann are continuing."

The charges relate to evidence the foster mother gave at a hearing before the NSW Crime Commission, and are not related to the operations of NSW Police.

The foster mother will appear in the Downing Centre Local Court on May 24.

William Tyrrell was three when he disappeared from his foster grandmother's home in Kendall, on the NSW Mid North Coast in 2014.

In a separate case, the foster mother and foster father were charged with one count of common assault against a child last November.

The charge did not relate to William.

Evidence related to the prosecution of the parents has not been published under a gag order seeking to protect the administration of justice.

The identities of the foster parents and the child that is the subject of the charge cannot be revealed for legal reasons.

Lawyers representing the parents entered a not guilty plea in December.

© AAP 2022

Image Credit: AAP Image/Mick Tsikas

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Sally Fitzgibbons left it until the final minutes of her third-round heat at Bells Beach to snag a win that has kept the Australian star's hopes of avoiding the WSL's mid-season cut alive.

Sitting 17th after three events, the veteran surfer faces the prospect of an early off-season if she's unable to enter the top 10 after the next event at Margaret River.

Olympian Fitzgibbons stormed through Tuesday's Rip Curl Pro elimination heat in fine form, but was facing an early exit against Malia Manuel on Wednesday.

Twice the Hawaiian edged ahead but a 6.10 on Fitzgibbons' final wave was enough to move clear and then cling to a 12.93 to 12.60 lead in the last five minutes, securing a quarter-final against American Courtney Conlogue.

"You feel the pressure, but I've taken steps to (arrive here) ... relaxed, surfing free and bringing my best," Fitzgibbons, a two-time Bells champion said.

"Which is hard with pressure mounting on your head. When those results aren't coming easy you start to question things, but it's cool to come out the other side."

She isn't the only one alive and chasing a points boost, compatriots Steph Gilmore (14th), Tyler Wright (seventh) and Bronte Macaulay (18th) all winning their heats on Wednesday.

Macaulay scored 15.66 to blow by in-form Brazilian Tatiana Weston-Webb, before Wright linked 8.17 and 9.07 rides to blitz Hawaii's Gabriela Bryan and Gilmore fought from behind to beat Australian rookie India Robinson 14.9 to 13.23.

Seven-times world champion Gilmore will face five-times champion Carissa Moore in a blockbuster quarter-final while Macaulay will surf against Wright.

Robinson (eighth) and Wright are the only two Australian women currently in the top 10, but a host of upsets on the Victorian Surf Coast are leaving the door open for movement before competition heads west.

After a long absence from the tour due to illness, two-time world champion Wright has no plans to slide out of the equation.

"It's the only event I want to win. This event is special," she said after her impressive heat win.

"That was really fun and really special. It's been four years since I surfed out here and a long time since I've felt like I've surfed like myself.

"I'm starting to get glimpses of that, so it's quite emotional for me.

"I look down at my body and it feels like my body; it's powerful, strong and connected."

Ten Australian men remain in the round-of-32 that could resume on Thursday.

© AAP 2022

Image: Hpeterswald, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons