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Australian news: federal and state politics, the economy, courts, weather and the stories that matter across the country.
2067 articles · page 12 of 44
The gap in health spending between metropolitan and rural Australia has blown out to $9.23 billion, an increase of almost $2.7 billion in two years, according to a report warning that millions of country residents face chronic doctor shortages and poorer health outcomes.
· 4 sourcesThe federal government has announced consultation on reforms that could see perpetrators of financial abuse held liable for tax and social security debts they create as a form of coercive control, with courts potentially given greater flexibility to transfer such debts to the abusive spouse in family law proceedings.
· 2 sourcesA mother charged over the alleged criminal neglect of a baby boy found dead inside a motel room in Adelaide had previously been reported missing in New South Wales five years ago with another child, police have said.
The Northern Territory government will permanently legalise pepper spray for self-defence and allow 16- and 17-year-olds to buy and carry it with parental authorisation, following a trial that Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro said had a "99 per cent success rate."
The NSW Supreme Court jury trying former Sydney police officer Beau Lamarre-Condon has been told he previously visited the Bungonia farm where he allegedly tried to sink the bodies of Jesse Baird and Luke Davies in a dam, months before the couple were killed.
Radio station 2GB has recorded an interview between breakfast host Ben Fordham and Ben Roberts-Smith ahead of the former commando's landmark trial on five charges of the war crime of murder, with lawyers reviewing the material before it goes to air.
Council red tape is stymieing the right to protest in Australia, a report has found, after Bathurst regional council told a protest organiser she needed a $20m public liability insurance policy to hold a rally in a park. The report, released on Wednesday and co-authored by the Australian Democracy Network and Deakin University's Centre for Law as Protection, also raised concerns about the power of some councils to fine public gatherings held without a permit.
· 2 sourcesThe family of Jayda Allen Bonner, the 21-year-old Yagera woman found dead in a Carlton apartment complex on Saturday, say they are "absolutely crushed and shattered" by her death as a 31-year-old man faces court charged with her murder.
· 7 sourcesOne Nation NSW leader Mike Newman briefly crashed question time on Wednesday before being escorted from parliament, as Premier Chris Minns stepped up pressure on the populist party to have its policies costed and warned they risked fuelling inflation.
· 3 sourcesTwo men have been seriously injured after armed fighting broke out in the remote Northern Territory community of Palumpa, 350 kilometres southwest of Darwin, while violent unrest in the nearby troubled community of Wadeye has flared up again, with police arresting a 20-year-old man arrested in connection with the Palumpa incident.
The IMF's latest World Economic Outlook, released on Tuesday under the title "Resilience Under Strain, Urgent Choices", has slightly downgraded Australia's growth forecasts for the next two years while still expecting inflation to fall below 3% by next year. Writing in The Guardian's Grogonomics column, Greg Jericho argues the choices the IMF wants made are ones a government hoping to win an election would likely ignore.
· 2 sourcesTest cricket great Steve Waugh has urged Australia’s selectors to stop “messing around” and give the batting order consistency, days after the team crushed South Africa by 214 runs in Durban to open the three-match series. Waugh’s call comes as captain Pat Cummins indicated the side may reshuffle its top seven for the second Test starting Sunday in Gqeberha.
· 6 sourcesFormer federal treasurer Josh Frydenberg has again been asked whether he will stand at the next federal election, this time by ABC journalist Leigh Sales, at the Sydney launch of his memoir. The question was held until the closing minutes of the event, and the column reporting the exchange is headlined around his answer: 'Next year'.
· 3 sourcesRedlands mayor Jos Mitchell is on the verge of being removed from office after councillors voted against her extended medical leave, setting up a likely vacancy at the next council meeting.
· 3 sourcesSBS's youth-focused current affairs program The Feed will host a debate between three childfree advocates and three conservative commentators, prompted by Australia's declining birth rate. The participants will discuss the question: 'Why are more people choosing a childfree life, and should having kids still be a priority?'
· 3 sourcesThe A-League Men season begins this weekend after a five-month off-season, with the competition's 12 teams set to play 26 regular-season games each. While that total exceeds the AFL (23), NRL (24) and Super Rugby Pacific (14), critics argue the season is too short by global standards, potentially stifling the development of Australian players.
· 3 sourcesTreasurer Jim Chalmers has denied being overruled by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese over the government's handling of a ban on credit card payments to the Australian Taxation Office, after the prime minister's remarks suggested he alone had acted on a business lobbyist's complaint.
· 4 sourcesThe High Court of Australia has ruled in favour of a Queensland prisoner seeking to freeze her eggs while incarcerated, quashing a 2024 decision by Queensland Corrective Services (QCS) that automatically refused her application because the procedure was deemed prohibited assisted reproductive technology.
· 7 sourcesAustralian footballers Gianni Stensness and Nestory Irankunda produced standout moments in a Champions League match against Bayern Munich, with Stensness scoring the opening goal and Irankunda setting up Luis Suarez.
· 4 sourcesThe Federal Court has overturned a Commonwealth heritage protection order that halted the $1.3 billion McPhillamys gold mine in central west New South Wales, finding that former environment minister Tanya Plibersek's decision-making was procedurally flawed. Justice James Stellios ruled on Wednesday that the declaration under Section 10 of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act was invalid and must be reconsidered by the current minister, Murray Watt.
· 8 sourcesThe AFL's trade deadline day is underway on October 14, with Essendon pushing to land a star premiership Lion from Brisbane and live coverage tracking the fallout of the Pullman hotel police investigation, including Nick Blakey's expected move to the Kangaroos.
· 3 sourcesAdvocates are urging Australia Post to keep licensed post offices alive in regional towns as a Senate inquiry into its retail network prepares to report this month, with warnings that aging licensees and changing community needs are putting the outlets at risk.
· 2 sourcesSteven Miles has declared he will continue as Queensland opposition leader, saying none of his colleagues have asked him to consider stepping aside, after new polling showed fewer than one in four voters in must-win seats rate his performance as good. The former premier spoke outside Parliament House on Wednesday following the release of exclusive Resolve Political Monitor data.
· 10 sourcesMichelin Guide inspectors have been dining anonymously in restaurants across South Australia, putting the state in contention for the country's first Michelin Star. The state government footed the bill for the guide's local arrival, a deal Tourism Minister Emily Bourke says will help create a tourism destination and put South Australia on the world map.
Labor will introduce a gas reservation scheme bill requiring a fifth of Australia's gas to stay onshore, prompting a Greens attack that the country is giving away billions in resource wealth. The move came as the prime minister said he had intervened in the ATO credit card ban and Treasurer Jim Chalmers warned against mocking One Nation supporters.
· 3 sourcesThe Matildas lead Haiti 2-1 at half-time in their international friendly in Chambly, France, with newcomer Leticia McKenna scoring both Australian goals on her first start for the side.
· 3 sourcesThe Greens will refer Labor's bill imposing a 30 per cent minimum tax on discretionary trusts to a Senate inquiry, demanding the government close what they describe as a loophole that would let parents pay private school fees through trusts without incurring the new tax, after Treasurer Jim Chalmers introduced the legislation to parliament on Wednesday.
· 5 sourcesRugby Australia has renamed its annual community volunteer award in honour of Peter Meagher, the long-serving Randwick club stalwart who was one of 15 people killed in last year's Bondi terror attack.
· 3 sourcesFourteen federal agencies that failed to meet their outsourcing reduction targets quietly expanded their contractor and consultancy deals by tens of millions of dollars, a Canberra Times analysis reveals, with mandatory reduction targets now scrapped entirely from 2026-27.
Older Australians receiving home care no longer pay anything towards personal care services such as showering, dressing and hygiene, under a rule change that took effect from October 1. The change applies regardless of means and could save eligible seniors thousands of dollars.
A confidential ministerial briefing note obtained through parliament reveals that about $600 million a year would be needed to fix New South Wales' shortfall of frontline public mental health staff, with an additional $700 million required for infrastructure – estimates NSW Health warned could cause reputational damage to the Minns government if made public.
Sexual assault and family violence against Australian children rose significantly between 2014 and 2024, with rates accelerating sharply after 2021, according to University of Sydney research published in the journal JAMA Network Open.
· 2 sourcesAustralian news outlets have reported that the country is projected to face a major rise in unemployment, though the source, scale and timing of the forecast have not yet been published.
· 3 sourcesWildlife rescuers across New South Wales and parts of Victoria are responding to a mass starvation event among grey-headed flying foxes, with vulnerable bats arriving exhausted, emaciated and unable to fly back to their camps.
· 2 sourcesThe AFL has ordered its official gambling partner, Sportsbet, to stop using players in AI-generated social media content without their permission, and to delete videos that depicted AFL stars reciting lines from movies, television shows and speeches.
· 2 sourcesPat Cummins has indicated Matt Renshaw could move back up the batting order for the second Test after the left-hander produced a career-best 190 and 82 in a 214-run demolition of South Africa in Durban. Josh Hazlewood's six-wicket haul sealed the win, and Cummins praised the team's flexibility as they prepare for the next match in Gqeberha from Sunday.
· 8 sourcesSeveral Australian news outlets, including the Sydney Morning Herald and Brisbane Times, have published headlines indicating an Australian defector is under investigation, but the accompanying reports contain no substantive details about the individual, the nature of the investigation, or the circumstances.
· 3 sourcesTens of thousands of year 12 students across New South Wales sat their first HSC exam on Tuesday, facing an English paper that asked them to examine 'assumptions about human strength and vulnerability.' While some students reported feeling the question was fair, others described it as challenging, with one Reddit user warning it could 'kick most people in the ass.'
· 2 sourcesSchool leavers hoping to study in Sydney next year are being urged to accept any university offer they receive, as a new federal funding regime passed by parliament this week tightens entry at some of the city's most popular universities.
· 3 sourcesPrime Minister Anthony Albanese's government is seeking advice on how to stop Australians from watching the planned livestream of a US firing squad execution, after the eSafety Commission said it lacks the power to proactively prevent the broadcast. Mr Albanese labelled the proposed stream 'completely abhorrent' as pressure mounted across the political divide for the government to block it.
· 4 sourcesA dying Queensland plumber has been awarded Australia's largest-ever asbestosis compensation payout, receiving $1,897,000 plus legal costs after decades of exposure to asbestos while working at the Mackay Harbour Board.
· 4 sourcesTreasurer Jim Chalmers has forecast a year of economic turmoil and warned progressives not to sneer at supporters of One Nation, as Labor prepares to introduce its 30 per cent tax on trusts and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese moves to steady nervous backbenchers.
· 4 sourcesAn analysis of Australia's declining fertility rate, published across the Nine network's major mastheads, examines how falling birth rates are reshaping family life and what the trend means for the country's not-too-distant future.
· 4 sourcesFormer AFL prospect Jake Calvert has been charged with 232 counts of making false documents as part of a police taskforce investigation into the distribution of hundreds of fake building qualifications across Victoria's Big Build projects, sparking opposition calls for a broadened royal commission.
· 4 sourcesThe University of Newcastle researcher who led a cannabis-based cancer study has lost his case before the Fair Work Commission and been terminated for research misconduct, following revelations that women's cells were used in mice experiments without patient consent. The research centre he directed has been shut down, all samples and data destroyed, staff lost their jobs, PhD students abandoned their studies, and the university has had to repay donors.
· 4 sourcesA police officer has told a coronial inquest that Queensland child safety staff were determined to send Elizabeth Struhs home to her parents in 2019 despite concerns raised by hospital doctors, and that their decision could not be changed once made. Elizabeth, then aged six, died at home in Toowoomba on 7 January 2022 after her parents, members of a religious sect known as the Saints, withdrew the insulin she needed for type 1 diabetes.
The City of Stirling has unveiled plans for two vacant parcels of land at Scarborough Beach, with one site set aside for public use and the other to go to market as a low-scale, hospitality-led development.
· 3 sourcesWallabies star Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii has voiced his hope that Mark Nawaqanitawase will rejoin the national team as early as next month on the spring tour, but the winger's return remains contingent on negotiations between Rugby Australia and his new Japanese club, Panasonic Saitama Wild Knights.
· 3 sources