Not since MC Hammer was top of the pops has inflation been so rampant, with a growing sense that U Can’t Touch This or that in the fresh food aisles without breaking the household budget. Not since MC Hammer was top of the pops has inflation been so rampant, with a growing sense that U Can’t Touch This or that ...

Earlier this month The Australian’s Chris Kenny posed the question: Have we hit Peak Stupid? Our colleague Robert Gottliebsen indirectly answered him on Monday and it was with a two-letter word, not a three-letter one. Kenny posed the question in relation to climate and Covid-19 and mostly climate. Here was the Prime Minister telling people, Kenny highlighted, with a straight ...

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 ...

Telstra and Westpac have advised staff to work from home if they can following national health advice recommending that employers make changes to limit the spread of Covid during the winter wave of infections. On Tuesday, the chief medical officer, Prof Paul Kelly, said the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee (AHPPC) – comprised of all state and territory chief health ...

Last week it was reported that in early July an Australian warship had been closely followed by a Chinese guided-missile destroyer, a nuclear-powered attack submarine and multiple military aircraft as it travelled through the East China Sea. This incident followed a confrontation on 26 May, when an Australian maritime surveillance plane was dangerously intercepted by a Chinese fighter over the ...

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 ...

Cafe culture may be part of the Australian way of life, but rising costs are encouraging more people to try perfecting their coffee-making skills at home. A new study by Nespresso shows 73 per cent of Australians are making coffee at home with 63 per cent of those claiming it’s to save money. Nespresso coffee ambassador and former barista Mitch ...

Acting radio host Chris Smith has taken a subtle stab at Ray Hadley over their Coral Princess dispute, labelling the ordeal as “disgraceful alarmism”.On 2GB this morning, Smith hit back at criticism over comments he made on-air on Wednesday that attempted to downplay the severity of the cruise ship’s Covid outbreak and “keep things in perspective”. He appeared to serve ...

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 ...