A “business as usual” response to climate change will cost Australia at least $29 billion a year, according to a new study. The World Wide Fund for Nature report projected that Australia’s economy will be the fifth worst-affected over the next three …

Indigenous Affairs Minister Ken Wyatt has acknowledged failures to meet targets to address Indigenous childhood mortality, life expectancy, school attendance and employment, as detailed in the 2020 Closing the Gap report to be released today. Wyatt told …

Economists are confident that the coronavirus and bushfire crises mean the Morrison government’s optimistic forecast of a budget surplus will not come to pass. Former Reserve Bank of Australia board member Bob Gregory told The Sydney Morning …

The heaviest downpour in decades has prompted evacuations in Sydney, as New South Wales suffers flash flooding and mass blackouts. In the most severe rains for coastal NSW since 1998, thousands were ordered to evacuate from low-lying suburbs, with the …

Heavy rainfall has brought relief to communities ravaged by fires and drought in Queensland and New South Wales. The downpour reduced the number of active fires in New South Wales by almost one-third in a day, according to the NSW Rural Fire Service. …

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton says remote area mining camps and hotels are being identified to potentially quarantine more evacuees from the coronavirus outbreak in China. Dutton said he worried “whether we face the prospect of trying to assist …

Prime Minister Scott Morrison is set to announce a rejigged cabinet today, following the resignation of two Nationals ministers in as many days. Vacancies have been created after Bridget McKenzie gave up the agriculture portfolio on Sunday in response …

The Nationals and the Greens will determine their respective leaders in party meetings today, on the first sitting day of Federal Parliament in 2020. Former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce says he “will put my hand up” to challenge Deputy Prime …

Australian travellers are being evacuated by plane this morning from the central Chinese city of Wuhan for a two-week quarantine stay on Christmas Island. On Sunday a Qantas flight operated by a volunteer crew, left Sydney for Wuhan in Hubei province, …