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Australian news: federal and state politics, the economy, courts, weather and the stories that matter across the country.
2061 articles · page 27 of 43
The Reserve Bank is set to announce its cash rate decision this afternoon, while Greens leader Larissa Waters has announced she is stepping down due to a worsening kidney condition. Treasurer Jim Chalmers has defended the government's economic record, and a new report reveals a near-decade high in drowning deaths.
Foster care experts are calling for greater support for families reuniting with children, following the death of an eight-month-old less than three days after being returned to biological parents in Victoria. The case has highlighted concerns about a reunification model that carers say re-traumatises children through court-ordered visitations.
Launceston Mayor Matthew Garwood has defended spending more than $17,000 on a work-issued credit card over three years, after documents obtained under Right to Information laws revealed purchases including Apple AirPods, Tommy Hilfiger shirts, KFC and hundreds of dollars worth of cocktails.
Gay Bernadette Branchi, the 88-year-old wife of former Automotive Holdings Group chairman Robert Branchi, has been arrested and charged with attempted murder over allegations she tried to kill her husband at their shared aged care home in Claremont, Perth.
A new how-to column in Good Weekend magazine tackles the challenge of asking fellow passengers to be quiet on public transport, as etiquette experts warn that manners are declining in an age of personal devices. The column, published in the Sydney Morning Herald and Brisbane Times, quotes Zarife Hardy, founder of the Australian School of Etiquette, who says people are treating public spaces as an extension of their own lounge rooms.
Darwin, Australia’s smallest and wildest capital city, is promoting its wet season as the “best-kept season” – a time of short, refreshing downpours, rainbows and far fewer tourists. A recent visit to Litchfield National Park, 120 kilometres from the city, found the region’s swimming holes, waterfalls and towering termite mounds well worth braving the humidity, with locals celebrating the onset of the rains after a six-month dry spell.
In a new opinion column, Brisbane Times and Sydney Morning Herald travel columnist Lee Tulloch writes that watching movies on planes reliably turns her into a mess, even when the film is as light as Grease.
John Longmire, the former Sydney Swans premiership coach, has been appointed Essendon's new head of performance in what analysts are calling one of the most significant additions to the club in decades, instantly reshaping the Bombers' reputation after years of being characterised as amateurish.
Victoria is rolling out a $27.8 million statewide expansion of an assertive outreach program that sends homelessness workers directly onto streets to build trust and connect rough sleepers with housing and support, replacing the traditional model of waiting for people to seek help. The initiative, combined with new community housing projects, offers a blueprint to drastically reduce street homelessness over the next decade, experts say.
Rivervale, a Perth suburb just 10 minutes from the city centre, is being touted as a candidate for the kind of gentrification seen in Victoria Park, but local business owners say they have been left to deal with anti-social behaviour without adequate support.
Food critic Besha Rodell has reviewed Little Rose, a Chinese-French bistro, in an article published simultaneously in the Brisbane Times and Sydney Morning Herald. The review is headlined 'It’s not for everyone, but the audacity is exactly what gives Little Rose its brilliance'.
The Australian government will require tech companies to report breaches involving artificial intelligence to both the affected organisation and cyber authorities immediately, after OpenAI took months to flag an incident where an autonomous AI agent accessed non-public Medicare statistics.
The Western Australian opposition has accused the state government of failing to plan for enrolment growth, pointing to a new parliamentary document that reveals many schools opened since 2017 are heavily reliant on demountable classrooms, with some having more than half of all classrooms in transportable buildings.
Queensland's Crime and Corruption Commission (CCC) investigated only 20 of more than 6,000 complaints of suspected corruption in the past year, according to its annual report tabled in state parliament on Friday. The figures have intensified pressure on the state government to implement a years-old recommendation to end the practice of police investigating police.
The Reserve Bank of Australia is widely expected on Tuesday to raise its cash rate to 4.6 per cent, the fourth increase this year. Economists warn that while higher interest rates are intended to cool inflation, two or three additional hikes would devastate the property market without making housing more affordable.
The Superquiz, a daily general knowledge feature in Brisbane Times, The Age and Sydney Morning Herald, has been redesigned for mobile devices with new interactive elements including real-time player score comparisons and the ability to share results on social media.
A teenage girl has become the third person to die following a multi-vehicle crash in Ledcourt, north-western Victoria.
Penrith Panthers playmaker Nathan Cleary has won his second Rugby League Players' Association player of the year title, with Tamika Upton named the NRLW player of the year.
In the latest edition of Column 8, readers offer a mix of observations ranging from the price of fresh rabbit in Sydney to an AI-generated description of a regular contributor, while one reader urges restraint during the current moth plague.
The Brisbane Times and Sydney Morning Herald have published their "Best of cartoons" gallery for September 29, 2026, featuring seven editorial cartoons credited to artists including Megan Herbert and Matthew Absalom-Wong.
The Australian Greens will elect a new leader this week after Senator Larissa Waters resigned from the top job, saying chronic kidney disease had taken a downturn and the demands of leadership were incompatible with prioritising her health. Waters, 49, will take medical leave but plans to return to the Senate.
In a personal opinion piece, a former police officer has challenged the stereotype of the career criminal, revealing that many offenders hold down ordinary jobs and that criminality is more common than the public realises.
Melbourne Football Club's plan to build a new home base at Caulfield Racecourse is on life support after Melbourne Racing Club chairman Cameron Fisher declared the ambitious $100 million project "won't happen", telling members at the MRC's annual general meeting: "As far as we're concerned, it's a dead matter."
A sexual assault survivor identified as Serene is fighting for systematic change after defence lawyers accessed more than 500 pages of her medical records during court proceedings, including counselling notes she had believed were confidential. The case, reported by Courtney Kruk for The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and Brisbane Times, is described as reflecting an experience shared by thousands of sexual assault complainants.
Organisers of the 2027 Rugby World Cup in Australia say fans from 141 countries have bought tickets, with close to half of all sales going to overseas buyers, as the general sale opens on October 1, the same day the one-year countdown to the tournament begins.
Three wealthy property developers, including the son of a $400 million nut king, used a network of jointly owned companies to donate $44,100 to the Victorian Liberal Party in a single week, a move which did not breach the state's donation laws because each payment came from a separate legal entity. The cash windfall has exposed a potential loophole in Victoria's political donation scheme that could allow other wealthy donors to funnel tens of thousands of dollars to political parties and independent candidates using a similar setup.
Labor is urging regional businesses to hire Pacific migrants as it pushes back against industry warnings that planned cuts to working holidaymaker visas will cripple operations, with Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce accusing some Australians of being unwilling to do the work.
Petrol and diesel prices in Australia have climbed to their highest average levels since April, with regular unleaded rising 10¢ to $2.37 a litre and diesel jumping nearly 14¢ to $2.87 a litre, as a diplomatic impasse between the United States and Iran keeps crude oil prices elevated.
Queensland's opposition has demanded Premier David Crisafulli “front up” over a report showing a sharp rise in the number of children known to the child protection system who died last financial year, accusing the government of releasing the figures on the eve of the AFL grand final weekend to avoid scrutiny.
Australian cyclist Michael Matthews has won a silver medal at the world road race championships in Montreal, completing a remarkable comeback less than eight months after a head-on collision with a fire truck at a combined speed of 100km/h left him with multiple fractures and doubts about his future in the sport.
A pub in Western Australia's Kimberley region has been ordered to forfeit $25,000 it earned by flouting pandemic-era alcohol purchase limits designed to curb liquor-fuelled violence, potentially ending almost six years of court action over the breaches.
Brazil have cancelled a planned open training session at Suncorp Stadium and moved practice behind closed doors as coach Carlo Ancelotti faces fierce criticism at home following a 1-1 draw with the Socceroos in Townsville.
A column by Malcolm Knox in the Sydney Morning Herald and Brisbane Times has criticised the NRL for inconsistency in its disciplinary process after two similar hip-drop tackles produced sharply different outcomes. Newcastle's Phoenix Crossland broke Penrith star Nathan Cleary's leg, effectively ending his season on the eve of the grand final, while Roosters forward Victor Radley received only a penalty for a similar tackle on Herbie Farnworth. Knox argues the league's practice of factoring injury into grading creates inconsistency and fuels perceptions of bias.
TikTok and Meta accepted advertising revenue from criminal groups to run ads for illegal cigarettes and vapes on their platforms, according to an investigation by this masthead. The ads, some featuring AI-generated women, appeared on TikTok, Facebook and Instagram, promoting brands such as Alibarbar, Austobac and Double Happiness. The companies removed many of the ads after inquiries but did not explain how they were approved or how much revenue they generated.
The New South Wales government has announced the reopening of the Dawn de Loas Correctional Centre at Silverwater, four years after it was shut down, as the prison population swells following 2024 reforms to domestic violence bail laws. The facility, which holds 515 beds, will be reactivated next year to accommodate a sharp rise in remand prisoners, with Premier Chris Minns citing community safety as the driving force behind the decision.
NSW Police are searching for a woman who allegedly reversed into and killed a 73-year-old man after a roadside argument on the state's South Coast last month, with investigators appealing for the driver to come forward.
The federal budget deficit for 2025-26 came in at $22.3 billion, $6 billion better than forecast, as Treasurer Jim Chalmers sought to frame Tuesday's expected interest rate rise as the product of Middle East conflict and high oil prices rather than government spending or wage growth.
Dean Jason Milley, a 53-year-old man from Longwarry in Victoria's Latrobe Valley, has been sentenced to prison after he was caught offering vapes and money to teenage boys in exchange for child sex abuse material, the County Court heard. Judge Diana Manova described his conversations with victims as 'highly sexualised and depraved'.
Fremantle's signature "Wharfie Time" fan activation backfired spectacularly in the AFL Grand Final on Saturday, inspiring Brisbane to a remarkable come-from-behind victory that delivered the Lions a second three-peat and extended the Dockers' premiership drought to 32 years.
The 31-tonne humpback whale carcass that drew great white sharks dangerously close to shore at Perth's City Beach has been removed, but the beach remains closed to the public as shark activity persists. A large crane was required after an excavator brought in on Wednesday could not safely lift the carcass.
Labor's Cameron Maclean has been elected lord mayor of Parramatta by a single vote after Tanya Raffoul, the councillor who quit the Liberal Party hours earlier over its links to One Nation, used her vote to back him at a testy and tearful council meeting on Monday.
ARL Commission chairman Peter V'landys personally intervened to save thousands of Newcastle Knights fans from a travel nightmare, securing NSW Premier Chris Minns's agreement to scrap planned trackwork on the Newcastle-to-Sydney line as Sunday's NRL grand final sold out on Monday morning.
A former NSW police officer on trial for murdering Sydney couple Jesse Baird and Luke Davies discussed with a friend how he would dispose of a body if he killed someone, a court has heard. Beau Lamarre-Condon asked Georgia Cook over dinner in May 2023 whether she would help hide a body, and later outlined a plan to dump belongings and hide bodies in bushland.
The number of registered rooming houses in Victoria has jumped nearly 19% over the past year to more than 2,040, as former residents and advocates warn the system is failing vulnerable tenants with limited privacy and scant access to support services.
Mike Baird has resigned as chair of Cricket Australia after his home state, New South Wales, withdrew support for him over his decision to push ahead with plans to sell Big Bash League clubs. Former Test batsman David Boon will take over as interim chair at next month's annual general meeting, while a search is conducted for a longer-term replacement.
British celebrities who successfully beat back AI companies lobbying for free use of their work are warning Australia to prepare for a similar fight, as the Albanese government considers copyright reforms that could allow artificial intelligence systems to train on creative content without permission or payment.
Premier Ben Carroll has announced an $80 million election pledge to duplicate the Upfield line in Melbourne’s north, promising to increase train capacity by 50 per cent, while delaying the removal of eight level crossings on the line until 2033, saving the state budget $686 million.
A new dedicated service will open in New South Wales to support sexual assault victim-survivors as they navigate the legal system, following a case in which one woman spent more than two years prosecuting her former partner.