Sydney news

Amended trading hours will see 21 regional areas in Queensland banned from applying to have big supermarkets open on Sundays for the next five years, and shopping centres opening an hour later.

A Jewish community leader says "symbols of hate" spray-painted in a playground have not been removed, three months after they were reported to the ACT Government.

More than 120 family daycare providers in NSW are forced to close after a joint federal-state government crackdown finds they have been ripping off the taxpayer-funded system by claiming subsidies for children who lived overseas, and in some cases did not even exist.

More needs to be done to protect hospital staff, writes Melbourne neurosurgeon Dr Michael Wong, who was stabbed 14 times in a hospital foyer in 2014.

A 30-megawatt battery to bolster South Australia's power supply network is to be built on Yorke Peninsula, at a cost of about $30 million.

Backpackers continue to flock to North Queensland's Burdekin region in search of jobs, a year on from the shocking deaths of two young farm workers.

A group of young people in the remote NT community of Belyuen make a hip hop video encouraging each other to reach out and seek help in a bid to stave off violence and drug and alcohol abuse.

ALP backbencher and former police minister Jo-Ann Miller compares her own government to the Bjelke-Petersen era, saying the Queensland Premier backed former Ipswich mayor Paul Pisasale despite knowing of corruption allegations.

Parole laws in the Northern Territory are relaxed in an attempt to prevent people from being re-incarcerated for certain breaches.

Multi-ARIA-winning record producer Mark Opitz joins the Australian National University's School of Music, with staff and students saying they are excited to learn from an Australian rock music icon.

Victoria is underprepared for its booming population and needs to embrace higher density living if it is to keep up with demand for new homes, the Urban Development Institute of Australia says.

Clive Palmer says he does not "hide assets" and has only sold one property in the last six months, adding that suggestions he could dispose of assets to avoid a court judgment are "absurd in the extreme".

Queensland Rail opens the doors on its ever-expanding lost property department - which took in more than 18,000 items in the past year ranging from phones, wallets and keys to camping equipment, boat motors and false teeth.

Mining entrepreneur Andrew Forrest makes what the ARU labels a "generous" financial offer to retain the Western Force in the Super Rugby competitionbut the bid is knocked back.

Across Australia there are cases of wombats scratching themselves to death because of mange, a skin disease caused by mites. But a new chemical treatment is providing fresh hope.

Mining billionaire Andrew Forrest makes an "unprecedented financial offer" to the ARU to retain the Western Force in the Super Rugby competitionbut the bid is knocked back.

The greens at Sydney's Waverley Bowling Club will remain open as members claim victory in a David versus Goliath battle to stave off redevelopment at their headquarters.

Social Services Minister Christian Porter and the Shadow Human Services Minister Linda Burney join 7.30 to discuss the Federal Government's controversial trial to drug test welfare recipients.

Two years after being found by the side of the road, Edward the emu has no intention of leaving Rocky the dogjust yet.

A jury finds a man deliberately endangered the lives of the occupants of a house he demolished with a bulldozer during a destructive rampage in the NSW Hunter Valley.

Simon Frost, the state director of the Victorian Liberal Party, resigns after taking a senior job in the Turnbull Government, a move that could inflame factional infighting ahead of the 2018 state election.

Two brothers, Mohammad Alibassi and Khalid Alibassi, who raped Canberra sex workers are each sentenced to jail.

Inmates at one of Perth's biggest jails are being denied "dignity and privacy" in a facility so overcrowded that a toilet is being used as a temporary holding cell for prisoners, a new report finds.

Western Australia's largest pork producer plans to operate its four piggeries in the state on 100 per cent renewable energy.

Simon Frost, the state director of the Victorian Liberal Party, is set to resign after taking a senior job in the Turnbull Government, a move that could inflame factional infighting ahead of the 2018 state election.

Two of five teenagers facing manslaughter charges over an Adelaide woman's road death last Sunday are remanded in custody, as three others are rearrested outside the Youth Court.

A jury finds a man deliberately endangered the lives of the occupants of a house he demolished with a bulldozer during a destructive rampage in the NSW Hunter Valley.

The NRL minor premiership secured, Melbourne Storm are on target to replicate their 2007 achievement of 44 competition points in a season.

The dual citizenship cases of several federal MPs needs to be dealt with "as quickly as possible" by the High Court, the solicitor-general says in documents to the court that also confirm ministers Barnaby Joyce and Matt Canavan will admit they were elected as dual nationals.

Students at a remote high school in Western Australia have set their sights on international competition, after successfully pulling off some eye-opening scientific research.

A 77-year-old woman who died of hypothermia in a shipping container in Tasmania required a high level of care, a court hears.

The Navy failed in its duty of care for recruits who were abused at the former HMAS Leeuwin base in Fremantle, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse finds.

Reports that Crown Prince Frederik was turned away from Brisbane nightclub Jade Buddha on Friday night are "not correct", Queensland Police Commissioner Ian Stewart says.

Leah Jeffries is one of a growing number of young women pursuing the sport, which will feature for the first time at the 2020 Olympics.

Inmates at one of Perth's biggest jails are being denied "dignity and privacy" in a facility so overcrowded that a toilet is being used as a holding cell for prisoners, a new report finds.

More than 100 people rally outside the Department of Veterans' Affairs in Melbourne to call for a royal commission into the department, in response to the rising tide of veterans committing suicide.

Residents whose homes were damaged or destroyed by fire at the weekend are offered a place to stay on Richard Branson's Makepeace Island off Noosa.

Nine tap dancing noses give bemused onlookers at the Sydney Opera House a preview of what is to come next year for Opera Australia.

Goats inspired goat yoga, viral mashup videos and Instagram accounts boasting hundreds of thousands of followers, and they look adorable in jumpers.

A second Melbourne council has been stripped of its power to hold citizenship ceremonies after voting to dump Australia Day celebrations, after federal and state politicians labelled the council's decision "a great shame".

A post-mortem will be conducted after an Indigenous man dies at an Adelaide watch house overnight.

We may not get another premier from seventh, but the race for the AFL flag remains wide open, writes Andrew McGarry.

Deputy Labor leader Tanya Plibersek says calls for her colleagues to release documents to support their citizenship status are "a bridge too far", despite similar demands from her own party.

We may not get another premier from seventh, but the race for the AFL flag remains wide open, writes Andrew McGarry.

Taylah Hocking, who was drunk and texting when her car hit and killed her mother's best friend in Central Victoria last year, is sentenced to three years in a youth detention centre.

Neither Barnaby Joyce nor Matt Canavan will contest that they are dual citizens by law, Solicitor-General Stephen Donaghue says in documents submitted to the High Court.

The family of a 70-year-old woman found dead at Kew on Monday appeal for privacy to deal with the "tragic matter" which happened in the company of a person she considered a friend.

Following months of supply issues with Australian juicing oranges, the peak citrus body warns of more turbulent times as Valencia production slides.

More than a century ago the biggest thing to hit a small rural NSW community was the discovery of a large piece of space rock, but to this day, mystery surrounds the Molong meteorite.

The crossbench senator suggests he will support the Federal Government's plan to drug test new welfare recipients, potentially giving the Coalition the numbers in the Senate.