Australia could still avoid a recession despite fresh forecasts providing a grim backdrop for the upcoming budget, the Treasurer says. The International Monetary Fund slashed the outlook for the Australian economy overnight and warned the chances of a global hard landing and inflation remaining higher for longer, have risen. Jim Chalmers said while Australia was not immune from the global ...

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is being urged to cut spending to “very costly” major projects across Australia if the government hopes to curb spiralling debt ahead of May’s federal budget. The Grattan Institute has issued several recommendations to slash projects like Victoria’s Suburban Railway Loop and increase taxes, amid concerns Australia faces 25 years of budget deficits. In October’s budget, ...

Jim Chalmers has promised not to reverse a Morrison-era twist on the Goods and Services Tax despite taxpayers being slugged $10bn over the next two years to top up payments to Western Australia. A Commonwealth Grants Commission report revealed the estimated cost of the former Coalition government’s GST distribution deal will be $4.4bn this financial year and rise to $5.6bn ...

NSW Minister for multiculturalism Mark Coure said the more young people are empowered to retain or learn a second or third language, the more benefits there will be for them in the future The NSW Government is investing in the future of language learning in NSW, by providing the NSW Federation of Community Language Schools $400,000 in funding. The NSW ...

electionPolitical strategist Kosmos Samaras looks at the impact unaffordable house prices and high rents in Sydney may have on the upcoming NSW state election NSW is the biggest democratic jurisdiction in the country. It has been shaped by an unprecedented housing boom that has transformed Sydney, its capital city, both socially and politically. So, what does it all mean for ...

Nadi, Fiji: A key Pacific nation has indicated early support for the AUKUS deal after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese used a stopover in Fiji to press the case for his plan for nuclear-powered submarines. The day after both Indonesia and Malaysia aired concerns at the sweeping plan, Albanese met Fijian counterpart Sitiveni Rabuka on Wednesday to assure him the pact ...

The worst roads in NSW have been named and shamed after almost 30,000 people voted to rank them on their condition, congestion and safety. Pothole-ridden and car-clogged Parramatta Road at Auburn was rated the worst because of its condition and congestion, drawing almost 500 votes. The NRMA’s Rate Your Roads survey was launched at the end of last year and ...

One of the country’s wealthiest and most successful businessmen claims wealthy Australians “can and should” pay more tax, after the federal government announced people with more than $3 million in superannuation would lose tax concessions. Australians with more than $3 million in their superannuation accounts will now have their concessional tax rate doubled from July 1, 2025, in a move ...

Lebanon’s commercial banks do not have enough liquidity to pay back depositors, the secretary general of the country’s banking association said on Wednesday in a letter that laid out the banks’ positions. The letter was signed by the Association of the Banks of Lebanon (ABL)’s Fadi Khalaf and served as the introduction to the ABL’s monthly report. Khalaf said it ...

A man has been arrested over the collision of a passenger and a freight train in central Greece that has killed at least 43 people and injured dozens, the government and police sources say. The 59-year-old station master of a train station in the city of Larissa testified before a prosecutor and was arrested, a government official said. A police ...