Sydney news

A medicinal cannabis industry could boost South Australia's Riverland, struggling fruit growers say, as they urge the Federal Government to consider creating an opportunity for them.

The AFL Players Association confirms all 34 past and present Essendon players will appeal the Court of Arbitration of Sport's (CAS) judgement over the 2012 supplements program.

The head of the NSW corruption watchdog and the person appointed to oversee it, who have been engaged in a bitter dispute, are set to face questioning by state MPs today.

Federal Defence Minister Marise Payne tells a Senate Estimates committee that the evaluation process for offshore patrol vessels (OPVs) did not require that they were built in Adelaide.

The University of Newcastle is confident a new support program will drastically improve educational outcomes for refugee students.

With a single photo of his seven-year-old son holding a severed head, Khaled Sharrouf has shot to global infamy.

The $750,000 Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) facility will be located at the University of Tasmania's Australian Maritime College.

The University of Newcastle says $19 million in funding will be used to help people in remote areas access mental health services.

A day after Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull delivered his first Closing the Gap report, an Indigenous anti-gambling campaigner says a specialised program is making in-roads.

Tara Nettleton, the wife of Australian Islamic State fighter Khaled Sharrouf, dies in Syria from complications after an appendix operation, leaving her five children and a grandchild stranded according to their grandmother.

Six people are charged with murder following an investigation into the disappearance of Cory Breton and Iuliana Triscaru in Logan, south of Brisbane.

A rule that prevented both females in a same sex relationship from being recognised on their children's birth certificates will change in South Australia after passage of a bill through both houses of State Parliament.

New South Wales education officials have suspended their investigation into claims a Hunter boy with autism was locked in a cupboard, pending a police probe.

Tara Sharrouf, the wife of Australian Islamic State fighter Khaled Sharrouf, dies in Syria from complications after an appendix operation, leaving her five children and a grandchild stranded.

The Queensland Government issues a stop work order for three inner Brisbane houses facing demolition because the city council did not list them as being of heritage value.

The Australian Rugby Union will consider all optons in an effort to keep stars like David Pocock playing at home.

Fourteen men and three women will face court after NSW Police raid the homes of alleged Rebels motorcycle gang members on the Central Coast.

Two police officers are injured when their vehicle is deliberately rammed head-on by a four-wheel drive with stolen plates in the early morning in Lalor, Melbourne.

A rule which prevented same-sex parents from both being recognised on their children's birth certificates will change in South Australia after passage of a bill through both houses of State Parliament.

Disability radio station Radio 1RPH may have to cut services after the ACT Government's decision to not commit recurring funding for the organisation.

Unrest over the state of accommodation in Northern Territory Aboriginal town camps is spreading, with legal action underway and a call for a parliamentary inquiry from angry residents.

A pledge to sell off the port of Fremantle this year by West Australian Treasurer Mike Nahan is labelled "desperate" by the State Opposition.

Locking graziers out of national parks will cripple graziers and increase the risk of bushfires, one Central Queensland grazing family believes.

Homicide detectives arrest three men in a targeted motorway intercept as part of their investigation into the disappearance of two people south of Brisbane.

A man who sexually assaulted young girls at an Aboriginal community in the Kimberley is sentenced to 11 years in prison.

Sex and the City star Kristin Davis weighs in on Australia's response to the global asylum seeker crisis, her role as a public figure in helping those in need, and a rumours of a third feature film.

Former NSW Labor MP Eddie Obeid acted in the interests of himself and his family when he approached a senior official over leases at Sydney's Circular Quay, the Supreme Court in Sydney is told.

Deputy PM Warren Truss is expected to announce his retirement from politics as early as tomorrow, ending months of speculation about his future. Trade Minister Andrew Robb has also confirmed his resignation. Catch up on the latest development with the ABC's politics blog.

Grand Hotel owners Ken and Frankie Smith say the "time is right" to hand over control of their century-old Boulder pub.

Federal Trade Minister Andrew Robb will retire from politics at this year's election, with Nationals LeaderWarren Trussalso expected to announce his retirement.

A former Brisbane Boys' College student who says he suffered sustained and violent bullying is seeking $600,000 in damages from the school.

Queensland greyhound trainer Tom Noble pleads guilty to 15 charges of animal cruelty in the Ipswich Magistrates Court, west of Brisbane.

A Darwin real estate agency defends its residential tenancy application form requiring applicants to state whether they are Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, a refugee, and what languages they speak at home other than English.

A 3.5-metre crocodile with a taste for cattle and dogs is removed from a Northern Territory cattle station.

The opening of the Perth International Arts Festival is set to celebrate Western Australia's rich and complex history and Indigenous culture.

Methamphetamine with a street value of tens of millions of dollars is confiscated from a Perth hotel room in a police raidone of two major drug seizures in a matter of hours.

A group of New South Wales Nationals MPs break government ranks over the state's liquor laws, which they say unfairly affect people in the bush.

A Bendigo woman who disappeared under suspicious circumstances has been called a "doting" mother of four and may have met with foul play, police say.

The WA Government assures the football community arrangements for distributing money raised at the new Perth Stadium will give football "the opportunity" to generate sufficient revenue to grow the game.

A mango producer in Western Australia's remote east Kimberley region says the industry needs a 'drastic' review.

A truck driver thought to have been incinerated in a fiery crash in western Victoria has been found injured but alive the next day in a shed near the accident scene.

A commercial fisher in central Queensland says the State Government's net-free bans are crippling the local seafood industry.

A senior detective tells a royal commission he believed government carer Shannon McCoole had an "unhealthy sexual interest in children" but there was insufficient evidence to warrant a police investigation.

Two of the Limestone Coast's most unique sinkholes are being used for police diver training.

The Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce defends his decision to enlist a National Party colleague to investigate co-operatives.

Former Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner is now Chairman of the Essendon Football Club and has written a novel.Co-host Lyn Allison, former Democrats leader, devotes her time to community organisations, ecology and photography.And Paul Strangio has been studying early Australian Prime Ministers.

At age 54, boxing priest Father Dave Smith will make his professional comeback 20 years after his last bout to become Australia's oldest ever pro fighter.

A long-time Darwin store owner is seeing the effects of the city's slowing construction industry and hears of the toll it is taking on people pleading for work.

A doctor accused of killing her husband with a hammer was forced to watch as he had a sexual encounter with a 17-year-old girl, a Supreme Court jury hears.

A pregnant Queensland woman has tested positive to Zika virus after returning from overseas, Queensland Health confirms.