Sydney news

Queensland Opposition health spokesman John-Paul Langbroek issues a late-night apology for making a "light-hearted" rude hand gesture in State Parliament this week.

It looks like meat, it smells like meat, it cooks like meat and it bleeds like meat, but this burger is entirely plant-based.

The body of a 63-year-old woman is found in a caravan gutted by fire on South Australia's Yorke Peninsula.

An intruder who fell through the roof of an Adelaide business he was allegedly breaking into is taken to hospital with minor injuries.

A man and a woman are arrested after an early-morning police pursuit across Melbourne's south-east, with the pair chased out to the Yarra Ranges before being spotted by the air wing in the CBD.

New South Wales should have invested in upgrades to the Menindee Lakes and other measures to ensure water security to Broken Hill before embarking on a new River Murray pipeline, a South Australian MP says.

The proportion of people on a low-income card has skyrocketed by up to 50 per cent in some South Australian electorates, ABS data reveals, as the state braces for more job losses and higher power prices.

Businesses in the storm-ravaged NSW town of Picton are frustrated at delays and differences in the way insurance companies are processing their claims for damage.

At the bottom of a high-rise Victorian public housing block, one man is working to help his community feel more connected. On any given day you'll find Hamid Ali fixing computers, running the local men's shed, or arranging services for about 4,000 residents.

A dog specially trained to detect bodies is called into the search for Trevor Foster, who was swept away by floodwaters in Tasmania's Central Highlands more than a week ago.

Ed, 22, and Matthew, 23 (no voting preference)

The rights of some of Western Australia's most vulnerable patients are being violated while the State Government considers if they should have the right to smoke, a former mental health minister says.

Administrators trying to work out what caused the financial collapse of a NSW north coast baby carrier company.

Western Australia's public health boss stands firm on why he used his special authority to give the green light to the Elizabeth Quay water park in time for opening celebrations.

More than a thousand people gather in central Melbourne for a memorial service remembering the victims of the Orlando shooting massacre.

A high-ranking Bandidos bikie gang member and an associate are charged over a brawl outside a hotel in Sydney's north-west.

The 15-year-old son of Australian boxing trainer Tommy Mercuri Senior is removed from an amateur boxing competition after the NSW Police objected because of his father's connections to an outlaw motorcycle club.

A search is suspended for a 38-year-old fisherman who failed to return home as planned from a fishing trip 35 kilometres north of Perth.

A 17-year-old boy used Facebook to threaten a mass stabbing in Sydney and say the Orlando nightclub shooting victims deserved to die, a court hears.

More than a thousand people gather in central Melbourne for a memorial service remembering the victims of the Orlando shooting massacre.

Two Perth men jailed for life over the fatal shooting of Jeremia Iskander in Wanneroo are cleared of murder following a retrial in the Supreme Court.

The number of women being appointed to the boards of Australia's top 200 listed companies has dramatically increased over the past seven years, a report finds, showing big business may finally be getting the message about gender diversity.

A man charged with the one-punch murder of a 19-year-old who was fatally injured while "acting as a mediator" during a brawl outside a bar in Diamond Creek is granted bail.

A dispute has broken out between the West Australian and Northern Territory Governments over the movement of Aboriginal people across northern Australia. The Territory's Chief Minister Adam Giles has written to WA, calling on it to take back homeless Indigenous people living on the outskirts of Darwin. WA's Premier Colin Barnett has fired back calling the letter 'misplaced'.

The organisation behind an initiative that places dogs in the homes of people living with dementia say the project is transforming lives. Aged care provider HammondCare has released an interim report into the program at an international dementia conference in Sydney.

The administrators of troubled miner and steelmaker Arrium say the business is about to break even, after finding huge cost savings. The Coalition says that's a sign Labor's $100 million assistance pledge is not needed to save the steelworks, but KordaMentha is still seeking bipartisan federal funding.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull declared today that he will keep his ministry the same if the Coalition is returned. It came after the Immigration Minister Peter Dutton confirmed there'll be 'a push from some' for Tony Abbott to be returned to the front bench, after 2 July. On another front, the Government says it's not wrong for taxpayer funds to go to a Liberal owned software company that's been a major donor to the Liberal Party.

Broken Hill warned last year that it was on the verge of running out of water and it wasn't the first time that a red flag had been raised. Drilling crews rushed in to search for, and tap, suitable underground water. Now, New South Wales Premier Mike Baird has announced the Government will spend hundreds of millions of dollars building a pipeline from the Murray River to provide Broken Hill with drinking water.

A company being prosecuted over the death of worker Jorge Castillo-Riffo at the new Royal Adelaide Hospital site is accused of trying to delay the case.

The Riverland football league looks to establish a women's senior competition after a significant interest following the creation of a national women's league.

One Canberra school invites a local kitten rescue to bring cats into the classroom in a bid to mitigate pre-exam anxiety.

Businesses are being warned to be on the lookout for counterfeit money after numerous businesses in southern Tasmania reported receiving suspect $50 notes.

The Prime Minister's lack of a similar rescue package as Labor for Arrium is proof it plans to abandon South Australia's manufacturing industry, Senator Nick Xenophon says.

More than 21 kilograms of methamphetamine is seized by police as part of an investigation into an Asian-organised crime syndicate allegedly trafficking drugs from Sydney to Perth.

A small insect is killing large tracts of gum trees in the Central West of New South Wales

A new centre focused on improving seasonal outlooks gets a large slice of Queensland budget funding aimed at helping primary producers better prepare for drought.

In 2009, only 5 per cent of directors appointed to the boards of Australia's top 200 listed companies were women, but so far this year it is now 42 per cent, a new report shows.

A conservation program aims to save the pig-nosed turtle from over-hunting in northern Australia and Papua New Guinea.

Hundreds of stolen items including motorbikes, whitegoods and furniture are discovered in Northam after being taken from homes in Perth and the Wheatbelt.

New South Wales Surf Life Saving believe a fisherman who went missing from Red Rock Headland north of Coffs Harbour on Wednesday was not wearing a life jacket.

Gold Coast police officer Rick Flori fails in his claim that he was returned to work in Surfers Paradise as payback for leaking a video of alleged police brutality.

A coroner investigating whether a woman was deliberately run over by her husband finds the possibility to be "remote", and concludes she died as a result of her own actions.

Tasmania's Opposition accuses the Government of running down the Royal Hobart Hospital's cardiothoracic service, as a private hospital prepares to open a similar service.

After helping 41 drought-stricken properties over the past 11 weeks, rural volunteer group Blazeaid wraps up one of its operations in western Queensland.

A gun instructor with TAFE Tasmania who is being investigated over an incident in which a student shot himself in the foot is charged with 16 counts of possession of unsafe firearms.

George Megalogenis, James Brown, and Ben Pobjie looking forward at what conflicts might be approaching, and back at our past through a comedic lense.

Port Macquarie's long-awaited expanded regional indoor stadium is expected to open by the start of next year.

A future LNP state government would create more than double the number of jobs promised in Labor's regional jobs package, Opposition Leader Tim Nicholls says.

Two farmers vie to become the face of Victoria's peak farm lobby group, and that is about the only thing they have in common.

Indonesia emerges as a strong export market for Australian mangoes this year, with several companies making plans for the season ahead