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2086 articles · page 15 of 44
With fewer than 50 days until Victorians cast their votes, the state election is shaping up as a proxy war with national consequences, as One Nation's rising influence collides with the Liberal Party's identity crisis and Labor's fight to convince voters it offers change.
Victorian Opposition Leader Jess Wilson's plan to fund 25,000 additional elective surgeries by winding up state-owned investment company Breakthrough Victoria has left an $880 million hole in Coalition costings, according to a Parliamentary Budget Office analysis, as a letter to The Age draws comparisons to the privatisation era of former premier Jeff Kennett.
· 2 sourcesDomestic violence victim-survivor advocates are warning that federal government and opposition proposals to crack down on visa overstayers will embolden abusers who weaponise Australia's migration system, including through threats of deportation, visa cancellation and detention.
The Minns government has announced a significant shake-up of NSW lobbying laws, extending disclosure rules to local councils for the first time and formally making the NSW Electoral Commission the regulator for lobbyists with new investigative powers, but the reforms have already been criticised as a watered-down response to the Operation Rosny corruption inquiry.
· 2 sourcesSara Qalandari has been her family’s carer since she was 10, and at 25 she says the role is forcing her to choose between caring for her brother and her dream of becoming a doctor. She is one of an estimated 40,000 young carers in Western Australia, and her advocacy for a university pathway for carers has so far brought little response from politicians.
· 4 sourcesCourt documents have revealed that The Australian's Shadow of Doubt podcast delayed by 10 months the Victorian sex offence trial of William "Rob" Gilfillan, a former physical education teacher already serving a 48-year jail term for abusing his daughter.
· 2 sourcesPauline Hanson's One Nation has promised to push Australia's net overseas migration below zero for three years, a policy economists say the country has never attempted by design. The party says its plan would cut rents, but the economists behind the research it relies on warn of significant costs to exports and government revenue.
· 3 sourcesThe Greens will demand a private right for Australians to sue big tech companies over online harm as one of three tests for backing the government's Digital Duty of Care laws, which are due to be introduced to federal parliament this week. Labor is simultaneously preparing to drop a ministerial power to designate new categories of harm, which critics said gave Communications Minister Anika Wells too much authority.
· 11 sourcesA photo review of Pizza Elettrica, a pizza parlour styled with kitschy 1980s suburban touches, was published on October 11 across the Brisbane Times, WA Today and Sydney Morning Herald. The 15-photo gallery, shot by Bonnie Savage, includes the 'Jupiter' pizza with tomato, mozzarella, 'nduja, stracciatella, basil, hot honey and pecorino.
· 3 sourcesSydney Morning Herald's Column 8 returns with reader anecdotes spanning a Vegemite delivery to a grateful Australian Navy warship in San Diego, a reflection on the Chelsea restaurant's clientele in the 1970s, and a complaint about the word 'versing' during rugby league coverage.
· 3 sourcesTwo suspected gunmen are on the run after firing at least two shots at a home in Adelaide's inner northwest in the early hours of Sunday, with an 18-year-old resident later charged over allegedly breaching a weapons prohibition order.
ABC News has reported the weekend's AFLW results, noting the Kangaroos got past the Dockers while the Blues and Hawks tasted victory.
Day four of the first Test in Durban began with Australia firmly in control, resuming at 0/33 with a lead of 139 runs after a dominant bowling display on day three. Recalled opener Nic Maddinson (17 not out) and Travis Head (10 not out) were at the crease, with Maddinson looking to make amends for a disappointing first innings.
· 4 sourcesThe latest federal opinion polls show the governing Labor Party and the Greens making marginal gains, while support for One Nation has declined from its mid-year peak. However, the surveys also reveal that 46% of voters hold the federal government primarily responsible for rising cost-of-living pressures, a six-point increase since March.
· 4 sourcesPremier Roger Cook has defended his government's cost-of-living measures after a new report found poverty in Western Australia has risen sharply since 2021, drawing a sharp rebuke from opposition leader Basil Zempilas who said 'what they're doing isn't working.'
· 3 sourcesThe family of Melbourne hiker Jordan Yap has confirmed the 30-year-old has been found dead in Peru, weeks after he failed to return from a solo hike in the remote Huayhuash mountain range. His body was located in the Mitucocha Lagoon area, a high-altitude lake north of Lima.
· 6 sourcesThe Conservative Political Action Conference in Brisbane brought together Australia's conservative right for a spectacle of Trump impersonators, opera singers and Barnaby Joyce holding up Roman coins, but beneath the pageantry lay a serious debate about how to unify a splintered opposition to defeat Labor at the next election.
· 2 sourcesBrisbane Roar have turned to Europe-trained recruits in their bid to revive the club's fortunes, with former Paris Saint-Germain academy product Virgiliu Postolachi the most prominent of the new arrivals.
· 3 sourcesThe average price of a pint of beer in Australia has risen from $9.96 to $13.76 since January 2020, with Melbourne drinkers paying the most and Perth drinkers the least for several popular brands, according to exclusive data from payments company Square.
· 3 sourcesCurtin University vice-chancellor Harlene Hayne has called the Western Australian government's plan to merge three public universities a 'solution looking for a problem', as the government officially announced it would proceed with a business case. The proposal to amalgamate Curtin, Murdoch and the University of Western Australia (UWA) into a single mega-university of about 120,000 students has drawn sharp opposition from all three institutions.
· 8 sourcesWallabies flyhalf Ben Donaldson says kicking accuracy will be a priority ahead of the second Bledisloe Cup clash, after Australia lost the crucial aerial contest 8-3 against the All Blacks at Eden Park.
· 6 sourcesVictoria Cross recipient Ben Roberts-Smith, who faces five charges of war crime murder, was among about 600 veterans at a national commemoration in Canberra marking 25 years since the beginning of Australia's longest war. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese led tributes to the more than 35,000 Australians who served in Afghanistan, honouring the 47 personnel who died and their families.
· 8 sourcesHome Affairs Minister Tony Burke has challenged the Coalition to explain how it will pay the billions needed for its plan to remove over 400,000 migrants on bridging visas, as the government\'s own billion-dollar-plus National Security Office Precinct takes shape in Canberra.
· 6 sourcesDay three of the first Test at Kingsmead saw South Africa resume their chase of Australia's first-innings total of 390, reaching 1-49 at the morning drinks break with Aiden Markram on 28 and David Bedingham on 21. The home side resumed on 1-27 after Australian centurion Matt Renshaw had anchored the tourists' innings on day two.
· 6 sourcesThe Wallabies will be without centre Len Ikitau for the second Bledisloe Cup match against the All Blacks in Sydney this Saturday, after he failed a head injury assessment during the heavy 50-19 defeat in Auckland. Backrower Rob Valetini will also face no disciplinary action over a hip-drop tackle that injured All Blacks winger Leroy Carter, because World Rugby's ban on the technique has a three-week delay and does not yet apply.
· 3 sourcesSouth Australian police are investigating the death of an infant. Authorities have confirmed the investigation is underway but have not released further details.
· 3 sourcesAustralia leads the world in per capita rooftop solar generation, and new figures show the boom is still accelerating, with 2026 on track to be a record year and a western Melbourne postcode home to more panels than anywhere else in the country.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese wants universal childcare to be his political legacy, alongside Medicare and the National Disability Insurance Scheme, saying it should be as natural as public school. But the government has yet to settle how the system would be funded or structured, as families report childcare fees swallowing pay rises and the intergenerational report warns deaths will outnumber births in Australia by the 2060s.
· 2 sourcesAustralian universities are filling just two-thirds of their international student places this year, with regional campuses particularly struggling, prompting warnings that financial deficits could force cuts to domestic teaching and research programs.
· 2 sourcesPauline Hanson and Angus Taylor shared a stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Brisbane on Saturday, where the One Nation leader repeatedly criticised the Coalition but signalled she was open to working with the Liberals to defeat Labor. Hanson said any cooperation was 'up to Angus Taylor', as the conference crowd appeared to treat her as the de facto opposition leader.
· 2 sourcesWalkley Award-winning journalist Marc Fennell has thrown himself into the manosphere for The State of Man, a three-part documentary series that sees him get his testosterone tested, put on boxing gloves, take part in the controversial Enhanced Games and fire a gun with a millionaire influencer. Fennell says he noticed conversations about men and masculinity online had turned darker, with content increasingly focused on money, dominating women and changing standards for male bodies.
· 3 sourcesEliud Kipchoge, the dual Olympic gold medallist and two-time world record holder, ended a three-year win drought at the Melbourne Marathon on Sunday, finishing in a race-record time of 2:09.08. The 42-year-old Kenyan icon promptly declared the new course the 'best ever' and celebrated a first win after a long stretch without a victory.
· 11 sourcesAfter days of rain and a period of Sorry Business following the funeral of Kumanjayi Little Baby, a mentoring group has taken men from Alice Springs into the East MacDonnell ranges to walk songlines and ceremony on Country, in a community push to address the complex causes behind extreme rates of domestic, family and sexual violence in the central desert town.
· 4 sourcesBevan Warner, who replaced Chris Field as Western Australia's Ombudsman in May 2025, says his focus is squarely on Western Australia as the office rebuilds from a corruption scandal that saw his predecessor resign. Warner has visited 16 regions in his first 12 months, and says he has no plans to travel overseas without the premier's approval.
· 3 sourcesA 29-year-old Perth man has been charged with the murder of his twin brother, who was found dead in the backyard of their Orelia home.
· 3 sourcesThe Wallabies have extended their winless run at Auckland's Eden Park to 40 years, squandering a dominant opening in a Bledisloe Cup Test before bombing under a high-ball blitz, according to columnist Peter FitzSimons.
· 3 sourcesWA Police are searching a section of the Swan River at Attadale for missing 38-year-old Alice Jane Bowden, after her car was found abandoned on Burke Drive on Saturday morning.
· 3 sourcesA landscaper employed at Cranbrook School in Sydney's eastern suburbs has been charged with possessing child abuse material following an Australian Federal Police investigation prompted by two reports from the US National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children.
· 4 sourcesA Supreme Court jury has awarded more than $2.2 million to Greg Barclay, a survivor of historical clerical abuse at the former St Colman's College in Shepparton, rejecting aggressive claims by the Marist Brothers' legal team that he was a 'money-grubber' whose testimony had the 'credibility of a $3 note'.
· 4 sourcesJamie Mott rode Attrition to a half-neck victory in the $2 million Hill Stakes at Rosehill on Saturday, securing his first career win in Sydney. Mott was vindicated after backing the Mitch Freedman-trained seven-year-old to beat race favourite Lindermann.
· 3 sourcesRachel King has emerged as a serious contender to win this year's Cox Plate, a feat that would make her the first woman to take Australia's weight-for-age championship. The 36-year-old Sydney jockey became the first woman to win the Group 1 Caulfield Guineas on Saturday, riding favourite Warwoven for trainer Bjorn Baker.
· 3 sourcesMatt Renshaw's masterful 190 guided Australia to 390 all out on day two of the Durban Test against South Africa, with the Proteas resuming day three at 1-27. The innings came amid ongoing pressure on veteran Marnus Labuschagne, who fell for 37, and against a backdrop of civil unrest kilometres from the ground.
· 5 sourcesTriple Eight Race Engineering holds the lead at the Bathurst 1000 after Will Brown stormed from fifth to first during the opening round of pit stops, overhauling pole-sitter Zach Bates and early leader Aaron Seton. The move reshuffled the front of the field on lap 25, with Brown's co-driver Scott Pye now in position to chase the Peter Brock Trophy.
· 14 sourcesArchbishop Timothy Costelloe, president of the Australian Bishops Conference, has acknowledged an eight-year delay in bringing former Broome bishop Christopher Alan Saunders to justice over allegations he sexually abused two young Indigenous men, while defending the church's decision to let police take the lead.
A 28-year-old woman has spoken out about the horrific aftermath of a brief relationship: her adored Staffordshire cross, Indie, was killed by a man she had dated for less than a year, as revenge for her ending the relationship.
· 4 sourcesAustralian Rugby Commission executive chairman Peter V'landys has thrown his support behind Perth Bears coach Mal Meninga and assistant Ben Gardiner, saying he is confident they will work well together when the NRL expansion club begins its inaugural pre-season next month. The show of confidence comes after chief executive Anthony De Ceglie resigned on Friday night after losing the support of the club's board.
· 4 sourcesNRL clubs are gearing up for the November 1 free-agency period, with the new PNG Chiefs franchise entering the market armed with tax-free dollars and some of the game's biggest names potentially available. Penrith star Nathan Cleary is the most sought-after signature, while Sydney Roosters half Sam Walker has indicated he wants to stay put but remains a target if negotiations stall.
· 3 sourcesPrime Minister Anthony Albanese has waded back into alternative media, appearing in a scripted comedy sketch with the duo Swag on the Beat, after his earlier appearance on the satirical Bush Deep podcast provoked a backlash over a crude remark about Kylie Minogue.
· 3 sources