Latest National news
Mike Baird challenges Abbott to do more to aid Syrian refugees now
Kirsty Needham 6:39 PM NSW Premier Mike Baird has challenged Prime Minister Tony Abbott to do more to help Syrian refugees, saying "stopping the boats can't be where this ends".
'UNSW is drunk': university's Facebook page hacked
![UNSW The University of New South Wales website which would appear to have been hacked](/web/20150905085358im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/j/f/s/n/c/image.related.thumbnail.90x60.gjfsz2.png/1441437329346.jpg)
Harriet Alexander 5:15 PM UNSW staff are scrambling to contain an embarrassing outbreak of undergraduate humour, after the university's Facebook page was hacked on its annual open day.
Peter Greste meets the letter writers who helped set him free
![Peter Greste: said the letters gave him a reason to get up every morning.](/web/20150905085358im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/j/a/v/n/e/image.related.thumbnail.90x60.gjfs57.png/1441418578192.jpg)
Kirsty Needham 12:02 PM Peter Greste has urged the Australians who wrote letters to him in prison to show the same support to his colleagues who remain behind bars, Mohammed Fahmy and Beher Mohamed.
More than money needed to reduce growing healthcare burden
![For one woman, a television news crew arrived before a long overdue ambulance.](/web/20150905085358im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/j/5/5/h/9/image.related.thumbnail.90x60.gjejyb.png/1441382907846.png)
Amy Corderoy 11:09 PM Ambos compare the shortage to a chess set, but the crisis in the state's healthcare is no game.
ABC boss Mark Scott's wife and Wenona principal Dr Briony Scott diagnosed with lung cancer
![Wenona principal Briony Scott, who is married to ABC managing director Mark Scott, has been diagnosed with lung cancer.](/web/20150905085358im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/1/0/f/z/a/m/image.related.thumbnail.90x60.gjfo8q.png/1441366900664.jpg)
Kate Aubusson 9:41 PM The wife of ABC managing director Mark Scott, Dr Briony Scott, has been diagnosed with lung cancer.
Australians' wellbeing stagnant for two years
![Most of the plunge was driven by tumbling prices of iron ore and oil, with other base metals and rural export prices also declining.](/web/20150905085358im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/j/6/j/2/v/image.related.thumbnail.90x60.gjeuwu.png/1441360670703.jpg)
Matt Wade 12:15 AM Australia's collective wellbeing has not improved for two years as the economy lumbers in the aftermath of the mining boom.
Police union in disarray after botched election
![Dennis Gellatly, CEO of the Australian Federal Police Association, says he is 'happy to bring in mediators to go through everything'.](/web/20150905085358im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/j/f/e/e/r/image.related.thumbnail.90x60.gjf2jh.png/1441358249735.jpg)
Scott Hannaford 11:30 PM The chief executive of the Australian Federal Police Association has called for a complete review of the union's operations after a botched election process saw some members sent incorrect ballot papers.
Battlelines drawn as Border Force prepares to vote
![A screenshot of the electronic polling booth on Friday morning.](/web/20150905085358im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/j/e/x/v/b/image.related.thumbnail.90x60.gjexix.png/1441336571036.jpg)
Noel Towell If the Australian Border Force can afford $10 million in uniforms and branding it can afford a better pay offers, say unions.
Victoria and New South Wales strike disability scheme breakthrough
![The full rollout of the NDIS in Victoria is now assured.](/web/20150905085358im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/1/m/b/d/r/m/image.related.thumbnail.90x60.gjfgew.png/1441382673580.jpg)
Josh Gordon, Benjamin Preiss Victoria has reached a landmark agreement with Canberra to permanently fund the national disability insurance scheme, quashing lingering doubts it could be delayed by the cash-strapped Abbott government to help repair the budget.
Capoeira kicks off expanded Brazil ties
![Capoeira.](/web/20150905085358im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/j/f/3/x/9/image.related.thumbnail.90x60.gjejeq.png/1441350160031.jpg)
Michael Koziol As the capoeira dancers cavort and whirl to the sound of the berimbau for the upcoming celebrations of everything Brazilian, the relationship between Australia and South America's largest country is reaching new heights.
Risk of recession put at 50 per cent
![Warwick McKibbin](/web/20150905085358im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/j/f/a/5/t/image.related.thumbnail.90x60.gjffwv.png/1441401337297.jpg)
Jessica Irvine 12:15 AM There is a 50 per cent chance Australia will slide into recession in the coming year, according to respected economist and former Reserve Bank board member Warwick McKibbin.
Storm clouds on the economic horizon
![Jessica Irvine](/web/20150905085358im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/1/m/f/s/h/q/image.related.thumbnail.90x60.gjf44n.png/1441401337706.jpg)
Jessica Irvine 8:00 PM Anyone aged under 40 in Australia today has never experienced a recession in their working lifetime. But our record-breaking run is in peril.
Shots of krump culture
![UGround Kills Off, 2014: krump dancer UGround wins a dance battle.](/web/20150905085358im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/j/e/p/3/b/image.related.thumbnail.90x60.gjep49.png/1441345409941.jpg)
Ella Rubeli Photographer Rachel Main's new exhibition reveals the lives and moves behind the subculture of krump dancing.
Bowness Prize finalists announced
!['Twenty minutes apart', 2015, from the series 'In the lake'. Bowness photography prize finalist, 2015.](/web/20150905085358im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/j/e/o/e/t/image.related.thumbnail.90x60.gjezx1.png/1441345116460.jpg)
The prestigious William and Winifred Bowness Photography prize has announced a shortlist of 47 finalists. The $25,000 contemporary prize attracted 696 entrants.
Hospital chaos: 'They couldn't handle the patients'
![SMH Kim Hilton at her Plumpton Home, she was forced to wait 24 hours in Blacktown ED for a hospital bed while suffering acute Pain from a Gallbladder problem.3rd August 2015 Photo by Louise Kennerley SMH Kim Hilton at her Plumpton Home, she was forced to wait 24 hours in Blacktown ED for a hospital bed while suffering acute Pain from a Gallbladder problem.3rd August 2015 Photo by Louise Kennerley](/web/20150905085358im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/j/e/n/h/o/image.related.thumbnail.90x60.gjeus2.png/1441382839060.jpg)
Harriet Alexander An acutely ill woman was forced to wait more than 24 hours in an emergency department and had morphine administered in a hallway because no beds were available.
Energy emissions rebound, led by power sector
![Coal-fired power plants contributed to a 3.3 per cent jump in emissions in the first year after the carbon price ended.](/web/20150905085358im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/j/f/2/7/p/image.related.thumbnail.90x60.gjf0gw.png/1441337492600.jpg)
Peter Hannam Australia's greenhouse gas emissions from energy use jumped by almost 10 million tonnes in the first year after the end of the carbon price, making it harder for the Abbott government to meet its goals of reducing carbon pollution.
Education for disabled 'like winning the lottery'
![Alex Baltins and her son Sebastian,5, who has autism, is high functioning and requires support at school.](/web/20150905085358im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/j/d/y/c/3/image.related.thumbnail.90x60.gjd3nl.png/1441261328624.jpg)
Rachel Browne Like most parents, Alex Baltins wanted to find the best school for her son before he started kindergarten.
Fels to lead 7-Eleven pay inquiry
![The former competition watchdog says 7-Eleven's model sets franchisees up to fail.](/web/20150905085358im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/1/m/l/6/1/f/image.related.thumbnail.90x60.gjehxu.png/1441326837263.jpg)
Adele Ferguson and Sarah Danckert One of 7-Eleven's most savage critics, former ACCC tsar Allan Fels, will spearhead a company-funded investigation into the widespread exploitation of thousands of workers in the convenience store giant's franchise network.
Bad bosses ending public service careers
![When bosses are bad, they are often bad enough to drive their workers to make career decisions and it is a problem that needs to be tackled, according to the Public Service Commission.](/web/20150905085358im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/i/e/l/7/l/image.related.thumbnail.90x60.gje8f6.png/1441286438253.jpg)
Noel Towell Why having a bad boss is not a good career move in the public service.
Sex sites off limits, public service love rats warned
![Public Service Commissioner John Lloyd has laid down the law on the use of Commonwealth government email addresses to create accounts on the cheating site.](/web/20150905085358im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/j/3/h/2/r/image.related.thumbnail.90x60.gjec7u.png/1440716778461.jpg)
Noel Towell Marriage vows are one thing, but the public service Code of Conduct, that's serious.
Auditor-General review of football federation payment 'begs questions'
![Former FIFA president Jack Warner.](/web/20150905085358im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/h/v/k/6/z/image.related.thumbnail.90x60.gjep84.png/1441284297666.jpg)
Richard Baker, Nick McKenzie Football Federation Australia used an account containing Commonwealth funds to pay a $500,000 "stadium re-development" payment to a Caribbean bank account controlled by allegedly corrupt former FIFA boss Jack Warner, according to a review by the Auditor-General.
The picture that moved a world: why it took little Aylan to make us notice
![Aylan Kurdi, left, with his brother Galip. Both drowned in their family's attempt to reach Greece.](/web/20150905085358im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/j/e/8/a/d/image.related.thumbnail.90x60.gjebs5.png/1441367928594.jpg)
Rick Feneley Confronting images have helped change history before. Now an image of a drowned boy is opening the world's eyes to the global refugee crisis.
A trip to the hospital quad ward ensured Victorians got seatbelts
![Professor Peter Joubert.](/web/20150905085358im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/j/e/l/x/q/image.related.thumbnail.90x60.gjepk3.png/1441271067691.jpg)
Glen Kile Peter Joubert was a brilliant engineer whose passion for safety helped make seatbelts compulsory.
Shear-shy sheep sets unofficial world record
![Chris the sheep lugged around more than 40 kilograms of wool before undergoing a major shearing operation on Thursday.](/web/20150905085358im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/j/d/k/n/v/image.related.thumbnail.90x60.gjeg6u.png/1441333765744.jpg)
Phillip Thomson, Emma Kelly, Alexandra Back and Katie Burgess The world's media have been clamouring to hear more of the merino from Mulligan's Flat that was found carrying a massive 40.45-kilogram fleece on its back.
Khmer Rouge 'first lady' cursed accusers to hell
![Ieng Thirith](/web/20150905085358im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/j/6/5/3/x/image.related.thumbnail.90x60.gjen2i.png/1441267475409.jpg)
Thomas Fuller Ieng Thirith was the sister-in-law and close collaborator of the genocidal Cambodian leader Pol Pot.
A career in colour: photographer Harry Gruyaert
![Boom, Belgium, 1988.](/web/20150905085358im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/j/e/e/0/6/image.related.thumbnail.90x60.gjedqi.png/1441268401429.jpg)
Ella Rubeli Belgian photographer Harry Gruyaert was one of the first of the European street photographers to take colour film seriously. In the early 1970s, when colour photography was associated with advertising, Gruyaert disregarded the convention and captured scenes of the Parisienne streets around him in vibrant, explosive colour.
Making museums autism friendly
![Lots to see at the Melbourne Museum.](/web/20150905085358im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/1/m/p/e/t/a/image.related.thumbnail.90x60.gje1t0.png/1441242753645.jpg)
Peter Barrett 12:15 AM An innovation at Melbourne Museum is opening new doors for children on the autism spectrum.
Comedian Danny McGinlay brings something to new to Bulldogs banners: humour
![Bit of a laugh: Comedian Danny McGinlay is spicing up the banners for the Bulldogs.](/web/20150905085358im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/j/e/g/p/g/image.related.thumbnail.90x60.gje1ay.png/1441384390182.jpg)
Dugald Jellie 12:15 AM 'It didn't even rhyme,' he says of the particularly terrible banner that started him on the path to write his team's run-through banners every week.
Anti-abortion protesters claim victory at closure
![Right-to-life demonstrators block the doorway of the Preterm Clinic in Cooper Street, Surry Hills on May 28, 1985.](/web/20150905085358im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/j/e/f/m/x/image.related.thumbnail.90x60.gjef38.png/1441261893433.jpg)
Harriet Alexander When Preterm first opened in 1974, its first opponents were illegal abortionists.