• EXCLUSIVE

The Department of Education has been ordered to hand over documents relating to a controversial $2 million government grant awarded to a trades training school linked to former Family First senator Bob Day.

The Federal Government had consigning the mighty Murray to a "certain slow death" by reneging on a promise to increase environmental water flows, South Australia's environment minister Ian Hunter said on Friday morning.

The outgoing Human Rights Commission president spoke at a conference in Sydney on Friday.

A former SAS trooper has broken down during a Senate inquiry as he told of his brother's attempted suicide and levelled allegations of impropriety at the Australian Defence Force.

An unlikely alliance has been forged, with Victorian and NSW Education Ministers from the opposite sides of politics banding together to fight Turnbull government changes to school funding.

Former Liberal leader John Hewson has accused the Coalition of "cheap political arse-covering" over attempts to link Malcolm Fraser's 1970s immigration policies to gang activity and Islamic radicalisation.

A former union official and his niece have been charged with close to $440,000 in alleged fraud offences.

Australia is responsible for the "damage" inflicted on asylum seekers and refugees in offshore detention, with the "cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment" resulting from its "punitive" attitude towards boat arrivals, according to a United Nations investigation.

After a week of rhetoric from Bill Shorten about the need to protect Australian jobs, he Opposition Leader has criticised Malcolm Turnbull and Immigration Minister Peter Dutton over the number of foreigners allowed into Australia with work rights.

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Donald Trump must be fairly chuffed with his reception Down Under.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has blamed perceived mistakes by former Liberal prime minister Malcolm Fraser for Australia's struggle with foreign fighters travelling to international conflict zones.

The Turnbull government's plan to cut company taxes is set to be delayed until 2017, with a pair of union busting bills, backpacker tax and superannuation changes to take centre stage in the final two weeks of parliament.

A record 1.1 million workers want more hours but can't get them.

There is a new, dangerous Aboriginal culture emerging and it puts women and children at risk of assault, says Marcia Langton.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull says the world must embrace free trade, not retreat from it, in a major economic speech that sharply contrasts with the more isolationist rhetoric of US president-elect Donald Trump.

The leadership of the RSL in NSW is facing the threat of removal, with a number of sub-branches in the state working to sack the entire state council over its handling of the consultancy fee payments scandal.

Former Queensland Premier Campbell Newman has shrugged off the significance of a meeting with One Nation's chief adviser.

Survivors of child sexual abuse and their advocates have called on the federal government to speed up consultation and development of a compensation scheme.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was able to call President-elect Donald Trump before many other world leaders after Greg "The Shark" Norman was persuaded to pass on his golfing buddy's personal mobile number.

"Populist anti-business sentiment" that is restricting the ability of the federal government to pass policy could have "devastating" consequences, according to outgoing Business Council of Australia president Catherine Livingstone.

f you think it's a long time since you got your last pay rise, you are right. The Bureau of Statistics says over the past four years the average wait has climbed from 12 months to 14 months – the longest on record.

"This is an informal agreement between our two countries, not a treaty. So those 1800 people, you better get them on airplanes."

Former prime minister Tony Abbott has described Donald Trump's surprise victory in the US presidential election as "the revenge of the deplorables" and says it will put contentious global issues such as climate change into "better perspective".

• EXCLUSIVE

The extension of the second highest tax threshold from $80,000 to $87,000 to give middle-income families relief, along with cuts to some family tax benefits, has backfired, leaving many poorer families worse off, according to independent analysis.

The Productivity Commission says overall Indigenous wellbeing will not improve without better policy evaluation, as the latest Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage report reveals soaring rates of incarceration and self-harm in Aboriginal communities.

The Turnbull government will reduce the amount of a time foreign workers on 457 visas can stay in Australia following their employment, in a bid to tip the scales back in favour of Australian jobseekers.

Australia's most senior public servant, Martin Parkinson, has taken a veiled swipe at the short-sightedness of Donald Trump's pledge to tear up the Trans-Pacific Partnership and scale back the United States' economic leadership in Asia.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has confirmed Australian Human Rights Commission president Gillian Triggs will be replaced with a new commissioner when her term expires next year.

A national plan to compensate victims of institutional child sexual abuse looks to be in doubt as states and territories withheld their support for the Turnbull government plan, raising questions about the efficacy of an opt-in national redress system.