The absolute front line in battling inflation in Australia is – as new treasurer Jim Chalmers knows only too desperately well – keeping a lid on wage increases. That’s, across the public sector, both federal and even more the much bigger state bureaucracies; across the – now quite small – unionised private sector; and all the rest of those private ...

A push for nurses and midwives to be granted the power to hand out medical ‘abortion pills’ is gaining traction with a major medical firm lobbying for the move. MS Health, a subsidiary of MSI Australia and the company that imports the drug known as RU486, hope the move will make the pills more accessible. Currently only 10 per cent ...

Anthony Albanese has stopped short of calling for Australians to work from home if they can, as the chief medical officer, Paul Kelly, advised in the face of the rising Covid wave, saying the nation needed a “balance” to also consider the interests of business. Despite numerous questions across a radio interview and a press conference about the latest recommendation ...

Australia is being urged to do more to tackle climate change with Fiji’s Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama revealing he has urged Anthony Albanese to “go further” for the Pacific region. The push comes as leaders head into their final day of the Pacific Island Forum, where they will have frank, closed-door discussions over climate change and regional security issues. Australia’s ...

Australia’s much touted free trade deal with the UK promising Aussies cheap cars, clothes and booze is set to be derailed with a British parliamentary committee labelling it hasty, lacking and done in secret. The ambitious deal, which had cricket great Sir Ian Botham as its public face, was supposed to unlock more than $A18 billion in bilateral trade and ...

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has called on Greens leader Adam Bandt to “reconsider his position” on removing the Australian flag from his press conferences. Labor Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has rebuked Greens leader Adam Bandt for his position on the Australian flag and called for him to “reconsider”. Mr Bandt had the Australian flag removed from the background of his ...

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has urged the Tasmanian government to “get on with” developing prime land on Hobart’s waterfront that he poured tens of millions of dollars into when he was last in government a decade ago. The federal and state Labor governments signed an agreement to develop Macquarie Point in 2012, with Mr Albanese, then the infrastructure minister, committing ...

A fresh review into the Chinese ownership of the Port of Darwin will be conducted, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said, amid ongoing calls from defence experts for the lease to be terminated on national security grounds. The port’s Chinese owner, Landbridge, is facing fresh uncertainty after a Defence Department review commissioned by the Morrison government last year reportedly found no ...

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has responded to Tanya Plibersek’s sledge against Coalition leader-in-waiting Peter Dutton, saying he was ‘dead serious’ in wanting a change in Australia’s political discourse. LISTEN NOW Senior fedral Labor MP Tanya Plibersek has made a stunning sledge at the appearance of Coalition leader-in-waiting Peter Dutton, comparing him to a Harry Potter villain. With Queensland-based Mr Dutton ...

As China pursues Pacific-wide security pact, foreign minister says ‘after a lost decade we’ve got a lot of work to do to regain Australia’s position’ Australia has responded to reports that China is pursuing a Pacific-wide security pact with almost a dozen nations, stating that while Beijing’s intentions were clear “so too are the intentions of the new Australian government” ...