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Sydney is expected to reach 33°C in what would be the warmest start to spring since records began at the city's Observatory Hill station in 1858, with a total fire ban in place across Greater Sydney as extreme fire danger is exacerbated by hot and windy conditions. Meanwhile, snow has been forecast for parts of southern New South Wales.
Australia’s property market is undergoing a rare price correction this winter, with most capital cities recording declines in house prices as rising interest rates and less favourable tax settings for investors accelerate the downturn, according to data from Cotality. Sydney has led the fall, and analysts expect the weakness to persist as higher inflation may trigger further rate hikes.
Housing affordability in Australia has plunged to its lowest level on record, with a household earning the median income of about $125,000 a year able to afford only 12 per cent of homes sold nationally in the last financial year, according to new data from realestate.com.au. Despite recent falls in property values, three interest rate rises by the Reserve Bank of Australia this year have deepened the affordability crisis, reversing a marginal improvement seen in 2025.
Former Queensland Police Commissioner Steve Gollschewski has died aged 67 after a battle with lung cancer. The career officer, who served nearly five decades in law enforcement, oversaw the state's policing response to the COVID-19 pandemic and numerous natural disasters before retiring in early 2026. He passed away surrounded by family, the Queensland Police Service has confirmed.
The Northern Territory coroner has found ambulance delays contributed to the deaths of two Darwin patients earlier this year, with one man waiting six hours for help after collapsing at home and an elderly woman left on a nursing home floor for more than four hours with broken ribs and a collapsed lung.
A former Uber driver has been sentenced to 12 months in prison for indecently assaulting a female passenger who was intoxicated and vulnerable, with a magistrate saying the driver showed no remorse and failed to accept the guilty verdict.
Alan Boulton, a 76-year-old former deputy president of the Fair Work Commission and former Monash University lecturer, has pleaded guilty to two counts of possessing child abuse material following an incident in which inappropriate images were inadvertently displayed during a lecture in Melbourne's CBD.
Major Australian alpine resorts are shutting their ski operations up to a month early, with seven resorts either already closed or set to stop lifts this weekend, after a winter that broke multiple heat records and saw limited snowfalls washed away by rain, operators have confirmed.
Charles Perrottet has denied asking his brother, then-premier Dominic Perrottet, to appoint a cabinet minister to benefit property developer Jean Nassif, the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) has heard.
The Northern Territory government has rejected criticism from independent justice experts who suspended their participation in a key advisory panel, with the attorney general declaring there will be 'no more coddling criminals, no more talk-fests, and no more identity politics' after the experts accused the government of failing to engage in genuine dialogue and collaboration.
Daniel Billings has been sentenced to 28 years in prison for the murder of his ex-girlfriend Molly Ticehurst, as the court heard he was 'jubilant' and photographed after the frenzied stabbing, and later phoned a woman he met on Tinder to confess.
Premier Ben Carroll has continued his purge of senior public servants linked to the previous Labor government, with the secretary of the Department of Education vacating his position after an IBAC report criticised his role in a backroom pay deal for firefighters.
Electric vehicle sales in Australia exceeded petrol cars for the first time in August, with more than 27,000 EVs sold – a new monthly record – as soaring fuel prices and government policies accelerated a shift toward cleaner transport.
A Toowoomba creative is pushing back against the rise of AI-generated imagery by offering to design posters for small businesses and community groups at little or no cost, saying the technology is flooding social media with 'homogeneous' and 'soulless' content.
Australia's housing affordability crisis is so deeply entrenched that it will take the better part of a generation to fix, NAB chief economist Sally Auld has told a Senate inquiry, warning that forecast price declines of about 7 per cent across capital cities will not address the underlying problem.
Veteran talkback host Ray Hadley took the witness box in Alan Jones’s indecent assault and sexual touching trial, with the court hearing accounts of a tearful disclosure, a secret contract, and decades of professional animosity between the two radio personalities.
Australia's Bureau of Meteorology has warned that the growing El Niño to Australia's east is already breaking heat records, with Pacific ocean temperature changes exceeding 2°C in six months, and forecasts showing it will likely easily surpass previous events, as separate research suggests climate change has dramatically shortened the odds of the event reaching record extremes.
Helen Paterson, an associate professor in forensic psychology at the University of Sydney, has been awarded a prestigious Eureka prize for her research on the memory accuracy of domestic violence survivors, advancing how police and courts understand statements from victims of repeated abuse.
Hawthorn has silenced the home crowd at Optus Stadium, jumping out to an early lead in their AFL qualifying final against Fremantle on Thursday night. Rain in Perth has hampered the Dockers' tall forwards, while the Hawks have been efficient in attack, with Jack Gunston marking and kicking a goal to push the lead to four goals early in the second term.
Daily updates from Australian news outlets report that more than 1,200 people have died in a disaster in Nepal and Tibet, with 38 Australians unaccounted for. Separately, Treasurer Jim Chalmers has conceded that Labor policies have contributed to falling house values.
The Tasmanian government is pursuing builder Hansen Yuncken to recover over $1 million spent on catering for Risdon Prison inmates after the facility's new $20 million kitchen was forced to close just months after opening due to a slippery floor, with meals now being flown in from Victoria.
Former union chief John Setka faces fresh charges for allegedly breaching court orders, while separate court documents reveal that sacked CFMEU delegate and former bikie Tyrone Bell allegedly faked his qualifications to work as a safety adviser for a major construction company, earning $424,000.
For the first time in two decades, hundreds of doctors at two of regional Victoria's largest hospitals have stopped work, walking off the job for four hours to protest poor working conditions and a year-long deadlock in enterprise bargaining negotiations with the state government.
Western Australian consumer protection officers executed a search warrant at Ideal Realty in Willetton on Thursday, following allegations that its owners used a shell company to purchase a client's home without informing the seller of their interest in the transaction.
Two energy infrastructure companies are pushing ahead with major pipeline projects to supply gas from the Northern Territory's Beetaloo Basin to Australia's east coast, as first gas from the basin flowed into the NT power grid earlier this week at a ceremony where NT Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro declared the resource could provide "more gas than this country will ever know what to do with."
Charles Perrottet, brother of former New South Wales premier Dominic Perrottet, has repeatedly denied taking payments from property developer Jean Nassif to secure political outcomes, telling the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) he cannot explain a message sent after a Nassif development was refused that read: 'Charles fucked this whole thing.'
A 53-year-old man from the New South Wales Snowy Mountains region has faced court over allegations he threatened federal Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek in a Facebook post, with the Australian Federal Police charging him with using a carriage service to make a threat to kill or cause serious harm.
A six-week-old Aboriginal girl died in an unsafe sleeping environment in overcrowded housing in Alice Springs after her mother was evicted from crisis accommodation and forced to live with relatives who had previously assaulted her, Northern Territory Coroner Elisabeth Armitage has found.
A fire gutted Tungatinah Power Station in Tasmania's Central Highlands overnight Wednesday, destroying the fifth-largest hydroelectric facility in the state, but officials said the network remains secure due to lower industrial demand and contingency plans including the Tamar Valley gas generator.
A Queensland coroner has found that six-year-old Brisbane boy Connor Dean died from scurvy — a vitamin C deficiency disease commonly known as 'sailor's disease' and historically associated with the convict era — after suffering a cardiac arrest under general anaesthetic at Queensland Children's Hospital in 2024.
The father of murdered childcare worker Molly Ticehurst confronted her killer in the NSW Supreme Court on Thursday, telling him "I hope that every night Molly's screams keep you awake" as victim impact statements were delivered two years after her death.
Deputy Queensland Coroner Stephanie Gallagher has found scurvy – severe vitamin C deficiency – to be the “most likely underlying factor” in the death of a six-year-old boy with Down syndrome at the Queensland Children’s Hospital in August 2024.
Australia's newly established national environmental protection agency has approved its first coal project, granting an extension for the Saraji open-cut mine in Queensland to operate until 2055, a decision that has angered climate groups and sparked debate over the country's fossil fuel exports.
Former radio host Ray Hadley has been excused from the witness box after a third day of testimony in Alan Jones's indecent assault and sexual touching trial, during which the court heard of their 'tumultuous' relationship and text messages in which Hadley called Jones 'a parasite' and said he 'needs to be destroyed'.
Women and girls in South Australia are resorting to using socks as sanitary pads, wearing tampons for more than two days and stealing products from supermarkets, according to social workers and teachers who say the problem is widespread but largely invisible. With 66 per cent of people who menstruate struggling to afford period products in the state at some point, frontline workers are calling for systemic change.
Opposition leader Angus Taylor has unveiled a policy to cut tobacco excise by 80 per cent, reducing the tax on a standard pack of 20 cigarettes from $30 to about $6, with the aim of disrupting the illegal tobacco trade. Separately, the federal government has announced $2 million in funding for an online register that records racist incidents against First Nations people, following evidence from a parliamentary racism inquiry that racism is pervasive across the country.
A late-night fire has severely damaged the Tungatinah hydro power station in Tasmania's Central Highlands, prompting an investigation but no immediate threat to the state's energy supply, according to the utility operator.
A new survey from the Centre for Independent Studies (CIS) has found that Australian teachers lose, on average, one third of lesson time to student misbehaviour — a finding the report’s author calls a ‘crisis’. Teachers reported losing 9 minutes out of every 30 minutes of teaching time to low-level disruptive behaviour, translating to roughly 12 weeks of learning lost per year.
ABC Investigations has discovered audio published by Kremlin-controlled TV network RT that claims to capture accused Russian spies Kira and Igor Korolev speaking from behind bars in Queensland. The recordings, which the ABC cannot independently verify, include the couple criticising Australian life and discussing their arrest and ongoing criminal case.
A newly announced Senate inquiry will allow Australians affected by the contaminated blood scandal that infected thousands with HIV and hepatitis C from the 1970s to the 1990s to give evidence and discuss compensation. The inquiry, welcomed by victims and their families, will examine the circumstances that led to infected blood entering Australia’s blood supply over decades.
Northern Territory Indigenous traditional owners, frustrated by collapsed mining companies leaving behind unrehabilitated sites, are threatening to begin negotiating rehabilitation guarantees as a condition for allowing new mines. The move follows the discovery that the NT government holds only a $6.2 million rehabilitation bond for the Nathan River Resources iron ore mine, which went into receivership in May owing $360 million.
Chairs of key federal parliamentary committees have warned that an influx of AI-generated material is introducing incorrect and hallucinated information into Australian policymaking, urging MPs to scrutinise the veracity of submissions. The warnings follow a Guardian Australia analysis which found that some committee reports have cited submissions where the majority of sources appear to be AI-generated hallucinations, with invented studies attributed to real academics.
Senior Liberal frontbencher and Manly MP James Griffin has announced he will not contest the next state election, dealing a significant blow to the Coalition’s hopes of retaining the marginal seat.
Majid Alibadi, a senior figure in Kaz Hamad's tobacco wars syndicate The Commission, has become the first of its top-ranked lieutenants to be sentenced to prison.
Former Australian prime minister Paul Keating has spoken of a private meeting with Queen Elizabeth II at Balmoral Castle, as a major new biography of his life and political career goes on sale.
The AFL has abandoned its Opening Round experiment after three seasons, reverting to a traditional nine-game first round in 2027 as the league adjusts to a later season start caused by the MCG hosting the 150th anniversary Ashes Test.
Western Australia Police are dropping hundreds of seatbelt fines generated by controversial AI-assisted traffic cameras, citing insufficient evidence that drivers knew passengers were not properly fastened. The Department of Transport introduced the cameras in October last year, leading to more than 81,000 seatbelt-related infringements, each carrying a $550 fine and four demerit points.
The Western Australian government is pushing for the state's two remaining privately-owned coal mines – Griffin Coal and Premier Coal – to merge into a single entity that would supply the private Bluewaters power station, as the government sticks to its 2030 deadline to retire all state-owned coal-fired power plants.