Sydney news

The ACT continues to perform above the national average in NAPLAN testing, with Canberra students returning the top or equal top result in 14 of the 20 year and subject categories tested.

You may feel like your job is a roller-coaster but imagine actually testing the high-speed thrill rides every day.

Four men are arrested as South Australian police target drug dealing via social media.

The Van Diemen police vessel remains in the search area for two missing fishermen overnight, with operations expected to start at first light.

Doctors and advocates raise concerns over the NSW Government's plan to review the treatment of every cancer patient in the public hospital system over the past five years in the wake of the Sydney under-dosing scandal.

Brisbane badminton player Hsuan-Yu Wendy Chen hopes long days split between weight training, fitness training, and studying tapes of her opponents will pay off at her Olympics debut this month.

Meet Alexander Prokhorov: the Australian-born pioneer of the laser and Nobel Prize winner you have probably never heard of.

The United Nations Human Rights Council is being asked to investigate the case of a man with intellectual disabilities who has been repeatedly restrained and sedated in an NT prison since 2012.

A problem with the Scamander water treatment plant on Tasmania's east coast has left the town without clean drinking water. A boil water alert is in place and tourists can't even brush their teeth in their motel rooms.

Korean cleaners working a Sydney college have been paid illegal cash wages of $15 an hour.

Jenny Kirkham's loving, caring nature gave her and enjoyment of looking after babies and the elderly.

Veteran gay rights campaigner Rodney Croome has quit as the head of the marriage equality lobby group he founded, saying it is at odds with his position on the proposed same-sex marriage plebiscite.

if you actively talk to your child about religious beliefs then you will be creating a bias in favour of religion.

NSW health minister Jillian Skinner has copped a fierce barrage of criticism as a cluster of major hospital scandals were laid bare in a single day.

Stable government via a strong majority was Malcolm Turnbull's most fundamental promise - a pledge repeated so often in the final weeks of the campaign as to suggest voters might be schmucks.

Some mistakes are inevitable, but it is the health minister's responsibility to ensure the system runs in a way that minimises the chance ofgrave errors.

A 62-year-old man from Darley has been rescued after being lost for four days in the bush near Bacchus Marsh, 65 kilometres north-west of Melbourne.

Malcolm Turnbull's most contentious investment, a failed sports media company that lost almost $100 million and sparked a conflicts of interest row, has come back to life.

A former patient of a deceased doctor accused of sexually assaulting patients is planning to sue his estate for compensation, and is looking into a claim against Cabrini Hospital and Australia's health practitioner watchdog, too. 

New South Wales has been reminded that winter is here to stay, with heavy snow and flooding hitting the state's west, closing roads and leaving several dozen people stranded.

A Ford Territory with allegedly stolen number plates rammed into a police car on early Tuesday morning, before speeding off.

A Tasmanian woman has become a mother at the age of 63, making her the oldest woman to give birth in Australia.

The popular breed has a litany of health problems - and so little genetic diversity that it's probably beyond saving.

A prominent group of disgruntled Richmond supporters are planning a bloodless coup, targeting at least five long-serving Tiger board members, including president Peggy O'Neal, in their bid to reshape the club's board and future football direction.

Richmond has told 2004 premiership coach Mark Williams that it could not guarantee him a job at Tigerland next year as the club's major football department shake-up begins.

The ACT government is to be commended for finally catching up with NSW and Victoria in abolishing the statute of limitations on cases of child sexual abuse.

Cabinet was 11 to 10 in favour of Kevin Rudd's bid to compete to be the next United Nations' secretary-general, sources have told Fairfax Media.

Hollywood may not have escaped Donald Trump's vitriol but the internet has taken revenge on Hollywood's behalf.

At times I hated my swim coach Forbes Carlile. Like generations of Sydney swimmers he and his wife Ursula taught me to swim in the backyard of their Ryde home. 

Our biggest banks move fast. Either that, or they collude. At 2.37 pm on Tuesday within minutes of the Reserve Bank cutting its cash rate to an all-time low, the Commonwealth Bank announced a completely different way of responding. Instead of passing on some of all of the cut, it would only pass on half and hand some of the rest out to customers as higher term deposit rates.

Apple used to hook you with the device and lock you in with the ecosystem. Now, the ecosystem comes first.

The Commonwealth and National Australia Banks have short-changed their mortgage holders by passing on only a fraction of the Reserve Bank's 0.25 per cent cut in interest rates, choosing instead to reward depositors by lifting the rate they offer on term deposits.

Hundreds of protesters travel from across the state and march to NSW Parliament House to campaign against the shutdown of the greyhound racing industry.

A former employee of Melbourne's Trinity Grammar School has been committed to stand trial over 41 historical sex offences against five boys.

For biologists, few phenomena are as mysterious as the female orgasm. But there is a new theory.

Western Sydney Wanderers survived an FFA Cup opening round scare after clinching an impressive comeback against Wellington Phoenix to progress to the round of 16.

A West Australian man caught in possession of hundreds of child pornography images while awaiting trial on child sexual offences is sentenced to five years in jail.

His eyes stare out innocent and sparkling in photos, but Mason Lee is dead.

A Chinese tourist avoids an immediate jail term for causing a head-on crash north of Perth which left a local man with life-threatening injuries.

Swimming's world governing body FINA has allowed Russian swimmers Vladimir Morozov and Nikita Lobintsev to compete at the Rio Olympics, TASS news agency quoted their lawyer Artyom Patsev as saying on Tuesday.

Moves to discipline police for drawing their weapons 'could backfire'.

'Mountains of protocol, administration paperwork and computer engagement'.

A controversial Australian street artist's mural of Hillary Clinton, first depicting her in revealing bathers before it was repainted as a "beautiful Muslim woman", has now been painted over in black.

The Canberra Raiders are the talk of the NRL and now they've got a television show rookie in their ranks to bolster their charge to the finals.

Raiders boss Don Furner would be disappointed if reported comments from NRL were true.

Police swooped on the notorious Gatwick Hotel after reports a man wanted over a suspected murder was spotted on the roof on Tuesday afternoon.

It sounds like the beginning of a Hollywood zombie thriller. But a bigger, less exciting horror film is also playing out as in Siberia.

Wests Tigers have already begun planning for life after Robbie Farah by identifying Daniel Mortimer as one of the men to help fill the void should the NSW hooker depart at the end of the season.

Judd risked her reputation by standing up for herself - but women around the country should be glad she did.

How’s the serenity? Not much good when two unmanned aircraft systems carrying what look like cameras are hovering above you.