Home

Former Australian bishop charged with historical sex offenses

A senior Australian Catholic clergyman has been charged with historical sex offenses allegedly committed while he was serving as the bishop of Broome, a remote diocese in Western Australia.

Emeritus Bishop Christopher Saunders was arrested on Wednesday at his home in Broome, where…[Read more]

Sydney asbestos scare: How a mulch discovery has sent a city scrambling

In January, an Australian child innocently brought home a couple of handfuls of garden mulch from near a playground in Sydney’s inner west.

Looking at the mulch, the child’s parent was horrified to spot what looked like chunks of bonded asbestos.

Their call to authorities…[Read more]

Police banned from Sydney Mardi Gras after gay couple murder case

A decision to uninvite police from Sydney’s iconic Mardi Gras parade this weekend has divided Australians.

Organisers said the call was made to give the LGBT community “space to grieve”, after a New South Wales Police officer was charged with murdering a gay couple last…[Read more]

Former politician became foreign agent, nation’s spy boss says

A former Australian politician “sold out” the country to a foreign spy network, the nation’s intelligence chief has alleged in a speech.

Outlining the activities of the group dubbed the “A-Team”, Mike Burgess claimed the MP had offered it access to the then-prime minister’s…[Read more]

Australia jails first student for a school shooting

A teenager has become the first student to be jailed for carrying out a school shooting in Australia.

The 15-year-old from Perth fired three shots with two rifles at the Atlantis Beach Baptist College last May.

Staff and students were left cowering in cupboards and under desks before police…[Read more]

Elite Sydney school says sexism, bullying claims ‘unfounded’ after ABC program

Parents from the prestigious Sydney boy’s school Cranbrook School have refused to speak to the media after “devastating’ allegations of sexism were revealed on ABC’s Four Corners last night.
Former teachers described the prestigious school based in Sydney’s Rose Bay a…[Read more]

What is ‘whole of nation’ foreign policy and what does it mean for Australians?

A key phrase in foreign affairs at the moment is taking a “whole of nation” approach. It has been cropping up in government documents such as the Defence Strategic Review and International Development Policy.

But what exactly does it mean?

A new report to be launche…[Read more]

2024 is a huge year for the Olympics – and it’s not just about the Paris games

2024 is a leap year, and in the world of international sport it means something very exciting: it’s an Olympic year. For Australians, there is growing excitement about the 2032 games to be held in Brisbane. And between those four-yearly stints, there is also the winte…[Read more]

Australia’s shot-hole borer beetle invasion has begun, but we don’t need to chop down every tree under attack

A new pest attacking Perth’s trees threatens to spread across Australia, damaging crops and native forests as well as our urban forest. To control its spread, the Western Australian government is chopping down hundreds of estab…[Read more]

Earth’s early evolution: fresh insights from rocks formed 3.5 billion years ago

Our Earth is around 4.5 billion years old. Way back in its earliest years, vast oceans dominated. There were frequent volcanic eruptions and, because there was no free oxygen in the atmosphere, there was no ozone layer. It was a dynamic and evolving p…[Read more]

Earth’s early evolution: fresh insights from rocks formed 3.5 billion years ago

Our Earth is around 4.5 billion years old. Way back in its earliest years, vast oceans dominated. There were frequent volcanic eruptions and, because there was no free oxygen in the atmosphere, there was no ozone layer. It was a dynamic and evolving p…[Read more]

Mascot Towers apartment owners in Sydney close to securing millions in payout from NSW government and banks

Apartment owners who bought into the uninhabitable Mascot Towers in Sydney are on the brink of securing a multi-million-dollar payout from the New South Wales government, almost five years after their ordeal began.

Residents of the…[Read more]

Outgoing ATO boss says getting rid of work-related tax deductions would be a ‘big step’

New Zealand banned work-related expense deductions while also implementing tax cuts, and if Australia did the same that could simplify the tax system, according to outgoing tax commissioner Chris Jordan.

But Mr Jordan noted that “Australians love their…[Read more]

Linda Burney attacks Closing the Gap with new $707m remote jobs program

The federal government will invest $707m in a new jobs program for remote Australia that it says will deliver 3000 jobs and better living conditions for Indigenous Australians over the next three years.

The program replaces the former government’s Community Development P…[Read more]

‘Didn’t want the public to see’: James Paterson says govt was forced to ‘cough up’ documents on freed immigration detainees

Shadow home affairs minister James Paterson says the government has been forced to “cough up” documentation it “didn’t want the public to see” following controversy surrounding the release of 149 detainees into the c…[Read more]

The year the Australian Dream died

At the age of 31, Justin Dowswell never imagined he’d be living in a shared room in his childhood home.

He had a full-time, well-paying job in Sydney, and had rented for a decade before an unprecedented housing crisis forced him to upend his life and move back in with his parents, two hours away.

“It’s…[Read more]

Australia Day: The ‘quiet rebranding’ of a controversial national holiday

On 26 January every year – which marks the 1788 landing of Britain’s First Fleet in Sydney Cove – two competing stories about Australia are told.

One is of nation-building and achievement; the other is of the displacement and dispossession of Aboriginal and Torres Strait…[Read more]

Captain Cook’s statue vandalised in Melbourne on the eve of Australia Day

A century-old Captain James Cook statue has been cut down and a Queen Victoria monument covered in red paint in an apparent protest in Australia.

The late-night vandalism occurred in Melbourne on the eve of Australia Day and is under police investigation.

The holiday on…[Read more]

Jim Chalmers defends Albanese government’s revised stage three tax cuts

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has defended the Albanese government’s revised stage three tax cuts, which critics say do not address the issue of bracket creep.

Treasury modelling shows that over the next 10 years, the extra bracket creep will result in the government raking in an…[Read more]

Cricket Australia ends up mentioning Australia Day at the Gabba Test on Friday against the West Indies

Cricket Australia opted for mentioning Australia Day at the Gabba on Friday after a couple of days of tossing up the idea, though Indigenous culture was the main focal point in the pre-match welcome.

After a tense interview on 2GB with Ben…[Read more]