National News
Australian governments need to rethink ban on commercial surrogacy
Rachel Browne, Alexandra Back 7:24pm Australian governments need to rethink bans on commercial surrogacy, experts say following reports an Australian couple abandoned a baby in Thailand.
Unions returning to 'bad old days of lawlessness', says Eric Abetz
Anna Patty Workplace Editor 6:17pm Anna Patty
Debra Byrne makes social media plea for witnesses to alleged sex assault
CAROLINE ZIELINSKI 4:11pm Queen of pop and long-time Australian actor Debra Byrne has taken to social media to appeal for witnesses who may have seen an alleged sexual assault during the filming of a Young Talent Time clip.
Remembering the first angry shot of World War I ... on a Melbourne bay
Jamie Duncan One hundred years ago the war to end all wars began - at the bottom of the world. An Australian soldier fired the British Empire's first shot of World War I - not on the battlefields of Europe but from a bleak, wind-swept gun emplacement south of Melbourne.
The Zone: making a superannuation future
MICHAEL SHORT 12:15am One of the greatest battles in post-industrial economic and social history, the conflict between labour and capital over the sharing of profits, is effectively over, at least here in Australia.
Hot button
MICHAEL SHORT 12:15am The previous guest was Neen Weir, an activist for HIV-positive children who argues Australia should, like most other industrialised nations, change its immigration rules to facilitate adoption of HIV children from Asia and Africa. As many as 200,000 children are dying needlessly each year - and ignorance and fear are the killers, not HIV, Weir argues. She has established a website - superkidsglobal.com - to help create awareness. Below are excerpts of her chat session:
Cash savings at their lowest as households struggle to save, says report
ESTHER HAN 12:15am An increasing number of Australian households are failing to set aside cash each month, a new report shows, with just under a quarter saying they could not raise $3000 in an emergency.
Cowra breakout survivor pays his respects
MICHAEL GORDON For Teruo Murakami, this may well be his final mission and, unlike the one he has travelled from Japan to remember, it is one he is performing solo.
Gammy's Australian parents 'too old' to take him, mother told
LINDSAY MURDOCH 12:44am The Thai surrogate mother of abandoned baby Gammy says his Australian biological parents told her they could not take him because they are too old to care for twins.
Chris Soteriou speaks of the night he was nearly murdered by his wife and her lover on Sunday Night
ESTHER HAN Chris Soteriou speaks of the night he was nearly murdered by his wife and her lover.
Labor women up ante on affirmative action target to 50 per cent
PRIMROSE RIORDAN Labor women have unanimously passed a motion to overhaul lift the party's affirmative action policy and up the target to 50 percent on Sunday.
Plot to murder judges foiled by police
Two men have been arrested over an alleged imminent plot to murder two South Australian judges, destroy the judges' homes and that of a senior police officer.
A faithful son of the church: former Sydney Archbishop Edward Clancy dies
Kerry Myers Edward "Ted" Clancy was unarguably a true and faithful son of the church.
Former Catholic Archbishop of Sydney Edward Clancy dies
The former Catholic Archbishop of Sydney Cardinal Edward Clancy has died at the age of 90.
Russian lizard sex research out of this world
Andrew Masterson Any sentence containing the words Russian, space, lizard and sex is bound to have a certain currency. Even the oddest experiemnts have a purpose.
How the nation will commemorate WWI
Tim Barlass It's a letter which must be repeated hundreds of times within the military records of the Australian War Memorial. In neat handwriting dated April 4, 1921 it is the letter from a mourning mother asking the Defence Department for a memorial scroll for a son who died from his injuries in the First World War.
No safe level of missing school, study finds
Amy McNeilage and Timna Jacks Missing just one day of school has negative consequences for a student’s academic achievement, the first major study linking poor attendance to lower NAPLAN results has found.
Ouch, that's expensive! The lowdown on the high cost of surgical specialists
DAN HARRISON Are surgeons fees a reasonable reflection of skills and professionalism or are they extortionate and unethical? Dan Harrison takes a patient look at operational matters.
Tony Abbott's paid parental leave scheme deferred with no due date in sight
LATIKA BOURKE Legislation for Tony Abbott’s prized $5.5 billion paid parental leave scheme has been quietly shelved and is unlikely to be put to the parliament this calendar year
World War I anniversary: A century on, we still remember them
PETER FITZSIMONS When it came to bloodshed in the Great War, our nation received more than a mere baptism, we damn near drowned in it – most infamously, in one 12-hour period at Fromelles, when we lost 2500 men, killed, as part of 60,000 sacrificed over four years in that war.
Tamils secretly flown to Nauru had only recently arrived in India: lawyers
KIRSTY NEEDHAM Tamil asylum seekers sent to Nauru by the Australian government had only recently arrived in India and had no work, schooling or residency rights there, lawyers claim.
2014 a year of extremes in air safety
JULIE POWER As Australia prepares for a national day of mourning for those lost on MH17, a safety network says 2014 has been a year of air safety extremes.
The Zone transcript: Gordon Hagart
Michael Short: Gordon Hagart, a very warm welcome to The Zone and thank you very much for your time.
