Sydney news

Bumper crops emerging from the newly developed second stage of the Kimberley's Ord Irrigation Scheme.

Adelaide's annual Diwali Festival gets green light from a local council but without the requested fireworks display, which organisers say is a deal breaker.

Researchers say determining how insects smell food holds the answers to develop the next generation of environmentally-friendly repellents and pesticide technology.

A man is found dead on the roof of a house undergoing renovations in Melbourne's east.

A Launceston General Hospital unit should have fed a man with mental illness soft food after he choked on his breakfast, a coroner finds.

A report by think tank The Australia Institute criticises the New South Wales Government's decision to award a $2.3 billion dollar contract to build trains to a foreign consortium.

Adelaide's Rundle Mall is toasting 40 years as the city's shopping, social and cultural heart.

Farmers at Ouse in the Derwent Valley deserve joint state and Commonwealth disaster relief grants, the Tasmanian Flood Recovery Taskforce says.

People with dementia are among the loneliest in Australia, according to new research, and their carers also suffer many of the same issues as friends and family turn away.

Asylum seeker advocates urge state and territory governments to follow Victoria's lead in opening up TAFE places for asylum seekers.

The introduction of lockout laws has been blamed for the demise of the famous red light strip and brothels and nightclubs are moving out to be replaced by fashionable restaurants and high end property developments.

A Melbourne school for children with intellectual disabilities has been accused of leaving one of their students outside on a beanbag for more than a term as a way of dealing with his challenging behaviour.

Matt Wordsworth speaks with Tony Burke and asks him for his reaction to a $100m hole in the Federal Government's Omnibus Bill which was identified by Labor.

The first day of business in the 45th parliament goes off with a bang with calls for a Labor Senator to be stood aside and a $100m computational error in the Government's centerpiece Budget savings bill.

The Senate supports a joint motion calling on the West Australian Government to publicly release CCTV footage of an Aboriginal woman in police custody in the two days leading up to her death.

Brad Norington, journalist at The Australian newspaper and author of the book Planet Jackson, joins Leigh Sales to discuss the charges against former union boss Kathy Jackson.

A Melbourne man is charged over the theft of a pet lamb named Ralph from a Mornington Peninsula animal park.

Western Australia's highest court more than doubles the jail term imposed on a man with a history of domestic violence who used a claw hammer to assault his girlfriend, a police officer and a police dog.

Controversial research led by a team of geologists at the University of Tasmania could fundamentally change the way we view Charles Darwin's theory of evolution and help explain periods of mass extinction.

Labor Senator Sam Dastyari was only promoted to the Opposition frontbench several weeks ago, but his hold on the job is already under question after revelations a company with links to the Chinese Government paid a travel expenses bill for him.

Australia's first driverless shuttle bus is being trialled along the foreshore in South Perth, with the RAC saying they are safer than cars with drivers.

The 12.6-kilometre Moreton Bay Rail Link will open in the first week of October, announces the State Government.

A Melbourne school for children with intellectual disabilities is accused of making one of its students sit outside in a beanbag for more than an entire term as a way of dealing with his challenging behaviour.

Aboriginal elders call for change to improve the outlook for their young people in the wake of violent protests over the death of 14-year-old Elijah Doughty in WA's Goldfields.

A large crocodile taking stock from a Top End cattle station is captured by police amid fears it posed a danger to people in the area.

Two Perth brothers are sentenced to lengthy jail terms for supplying methylamphetamine, in what a judge described as a "significant" and "well-managed" drug business.

A former senior Flinders Medical Centre bureaucrat did not deliberately or knowingly deceive her bosses over a chemotherapy under-dosing scandal, a parliamentary committee in Adelaide is told.

There are fears a Sydney excavation company has supplied asbestos-laden road base to the WestConnex project, as well as the Blue Mountains National Park and many private homes.

Punk spoken word performer and writer Henry Rollins with Dick Diver's Steph Hughes.

A Western Australian man is taken to hospital by ambulance and requires surgery after an argument allegedly leads to her injuring his scrotum.

After yesterday's largely ceremonial opening, the 45th Parliament got down to business today. At Question Time, promises from Parliament's leaders to work together for the common good were put to their first serious test.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has heard harrowing details about the dark past of the Maitland-Newcastle Catholic Diocese in New South Wales. Catholic priest Vincent Ryan was the focus of the first day of a highly-anticipated public hearing.

Three people are charged in relation to the death of Logan woman Sabrina Bremer, whose burnt body was spotted on the side of a road in northern NSW.

A Canberra man whose DNA was allegedly found inside the nappy of a two-year-old girl strenuously denies molesting the child, and describes his life since the allegations were made as a "nightmare".

Often cast as the villain - what's a spotted hyena really like?

A former South Adelaide Football Club player accused of rape goes on trial in the District Court.

Socceroos coach Ange Postecoglou is bullish on Australia's prospects of opening its World Cup qualifying group with a win.

An Indigenous foundation has rejected a donation from Labor senator Sam Dastyari, in the wake of concerns about funds he accepted from China-linked interests to repay a debt. Catch up on what else happened on the first sitting day here.

Winter Wonderlights delivered a Christmas in July present to Ballarat tourism, with a 50 per cent increase in visitors to the region during the coldest month of the year.

A remote, Indigenous community in far north Queensland has been mange-free for six months with the help of remote area vets.

Tasmanian growers who supply McCain Foods care calling for a $30 per tonne price rise this year.

More than 30 healthy Tasmanian devils are released into the wild in the state's north to trial a vaccine against a contagious cancer.

Playing with matches and experimenting with fire are all part of a day of environmental education for a group of year nine students.

A 16-year-old girl manages to fight off a man who attacked her from behind and sexually assaulted her in Melbourne's south-eastern suburbs.

Charges against a 55-year-old man accused of unlawfully killing a teenager whose death sparked a riot in Kalgoorlie yesterday could be upgraded, West Australian police say.

The British backpacker who died after a stabbing attack in north Queensland will be nominated for a bravery award for trying to protect fellow backpacker Mia Ayliffe-Chung, whose family spoke for the first time today.

Artwork depicting the likes of AFL superstars Cyril Rioli, Robert Murphy and Brent Harvey will form part of an exhibition in Mildura.

AFL icon Leigh Matthews will present the Jock McHale medal to this year's premiership coach.

Kathy Jackson, the former head of the Health Services Union, faces 70 counts of theft and deception-related offences, as part of an ongoing investigation, the AFP says.

High demand from Italy has a central Queensland crocodile farm trucking in thousands of crocodiles from Arnhem Land.