Australia has lost in its claim that an international commission has no jurisdiction to hear a complaint by East Timor in the bitter dispute over undersea oil and gas riches.

• EXCLUSIVE

Three federal politicians promise to release the information under parliamentary privilege.

High-level talks between the government and the opposition have achieved nothing but animosity.

Stephen Conroy finishes his 20-year Senate career on Friday, but has one piece of unfinished business.

Indigenous Australians are losing 2.3 times the number of healthy years to death and disease than their non-Indigenous counterparts, according to new research by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.

Former Abbott and Howard government minister Ian Macfarlane has been confirmed as the new chief executive of the Queensland Resources Council, in a move foreshadowed by former prime minister Tony Abbott in May.

A Western Australian Coalition MP says he charged taxpayers thousands for travel to his own wedding in Melbourne by mistake.

Scrapping public funding for both sides of the proposed same-sex marriage plebiscite would be a "necessary step" to win Labor's support - but still may not be enough, shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus says.

• EXCLUSIVE

George Brandis tells Fairfax Media that same-sex marriage law changes could be delayed many years if the plebiscite is not held.

• EXCLUSIVE

Just one electorate in the country has a majority of voters opposed to same-sex marriage, according to research that suggests MPs and public debate are significantly trailing voters in backing change.

Australians will save hundreds of dollars a year on more affordable medicines from October 1. A person with diabetes, osteoporosis, high blood pressure and gastric reflux would, for example, save $35 a month and $410 a year, for example.

Public support for world-leading, federal government-level action on climate change has bounced back, according to a new poll, as people perceive environmental impacts around them and support a larger role for renewable energy production.

A special anti-corruption team has been assigned to investigate claims of dodgy political donations that have embroiled Turnbull government MP Stuart Robert and a shadowy Liberal fundraising body he controls.

The Nelson Mandela Foundation has hit out at Liberal Party members who used the anti-apartheid icon's image on leaflets that make false claims about the dangers of same-sex marriage.

Pauline Hanson says she would be prepared to put aside her personal opposition to same-sex marriage and vote for it in the Senate - but only if the Australian people vote in favour of it at a plebiscite.

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 Labor Party has installed Victorian party boss, Noah Carroll, as its next national secretary, replacing George Wright.

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

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.

• EXCLUSIVE

Disgraced former federal MP Craig Thomson is quietly running a migrant worker placement business from his home on the NSW central coast, raising questions about possible loopholes in sponsored migration schemes.

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.

She is probably the most powerful woman in the country that you've never heard of. And that is exactly the way she likes it.

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.

Both sides of the gay marriage debate are targeting corporate Australia, for finance or favours. But advocates say it is a "myth" that big business would fund the "yes" campaign.

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.