• 9 mins ago

Malcolm Turnbull has emerged from high-level talks in the US capital, increasingly hopeful that a final defeat for Islamic State forces in Syria is nearing.

• EXCLUSIVE
• 11 mins ago

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's promise of a "civil" debate over same-sex marriage is unravelling, with a group behind an anti-equality smear sheet distributed in suburban Sydney revealed as members of the Liberal Party.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics has blamed the media for the failure of its census hotline and blamed an overseas denial of service attack for the failure of its census website in a strongly worded submission to a Senate inquiry that also attempts to deflect blame for the overwhelming of its website on its contractor IBM.

Monday looms as D-Day for the Turnbull government's precarious plebiscite on same-sex marriage, with the Coalition and Labor to sit down in Brisbane for talks.

The Turnbull government could face a fierce battle with the Senate, as well as the states and territories, as it seeks to replace Labor's Gonski agreements with a new school funding model.

What if I told you we could have marriage equality and free nuggets?

Bob Carr has blasted suggestions he is inappropriately supportive of the Chinese government as a war of words escalates between the former foreign minister and United States-friendly interests in Australia.

Clive Palmer's political party has applied to be deregistered in Queensland, bringing an end to the short-lived Palmer United Party experiment.

Labor frontbencher Richard Marles has linked a recent poll showing strong support for a ban on Muslim immigration with the conduct of Immigration Minister Peter Dutton, who this year said refugees "would be taking Australian jobs" and "languish in unemployment queues".

Pauline Hanson said she believes the number of people who agree with her call for a ban on Muslim immigration to be much higher than 49 per cent, claiming respondents would have been "in fear to answer the question" honestly.

Incoming Reserve Bank chief Philip Lowe has appealed to the Turnbull government to help him out with economic management by borrowing big for infrastructure, saying there's only so much further cuts in interest rates can do.

An extraordinary row between the country's most senior legal figures has reached boiling point after the Solicitor-General released documents suggesting Attorney-General George Brandis misled Parliament.

Victoria must get all the funds it is entitled to from the Turnbull government for the sale of the Port of Melbourne, despite Treasurer Tim Pallas' "buffoonery", Opposition Leader Matthew Guy says.

The first Muslim woman elected to federal Parliament, Anne Aly, has declared that a poll showing half of respondents want to ban Muslim immigration doesn't reflect the true feelings and reality of mainstream Australia.

Campaigners against same sex marriage are using the image of the late anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela and pushing the false claim that marriage equality will trigger the "compulsory" adoption of the Safe Schools program in all Australian schools.

A moderate Malcolm Turnbull has emerged onto the world stage as both the great optimist and the great multi-lateralist, celebrating global progress in securing higher living standards while praising the usually maligned United Nations for successes on climate change, arms control, and refugee assistance.

• ANALYSIS

The battle pitching Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull and relentless ambition has returned for yet another episode.

One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts has accused commentator Waleed Aly of condoning terrorism in a live television interview on The Project that appeared to leave the show's hosts fuming.

Malcolm Turnbull has described Labor's botched management of the people smuggling challenge under Kevin Rudd's leadership as his "legacy of shame" and the worst policy failure in the country's history.

Australia has become "a nation that can no longer house its own children", Labor treasury spokesman Chris Bowen says, with soaring prices cutting young people out of the housing market and affordability in crisis.

The Turnbull Government will push the states to introduce targets aimed at reducing spiraling Indigenous incarceration levels in a clear demonstration of willingness to improve relations with Aboriginal leaders.

The MS-13 and Barrio 18 gangs are famed for the creepy tattoos. That and the sheer savagery of their violence towards rivals and innocent civilians.

No vote at the agency where 20 per cent of public servants are bargaining reps.

It is time to end years of rancorous debate about about whether the federal government should fund the final years of the Gonski deals and begin work on a new school funding model, according to the Turnbull government.

The government has poured water on speculation that Australia's newly announced acceptance of Central American refugees will form part of a people swap arrangement with the United States.

Australian families are paying up to $400 more a month for private health insurance than consumers in comparable countries like Britain and New Zealand.

US President Barack Obama has hit back strongly at rising anti-immigration sentiment across America, Europe, and Australia, as a new poll found half of all Australians want to ban Muslim immigration.

It is a custom-made warship without guns, pimped out with bigger engines and a long-distance fuel tank.

• EXCLUSIVE

Tony Abbott and Julie Bishop are more popular with voters than Malcolm Turnbull in the NSW seat of Orange, according to leaked polling obtained by Fairfax Media.