The latest retail trade figures from the Bureau of Statistics showed that sales were flat in October. Other data showed that company profits were down 13 per cent, seasonally adjusted in the September quarter from the same time a year ago. Despite the poor trading conditions for retailers, some nich...

The implementation of the National Disability Insurance Scheme is facing criticism today from the people it is designed to help. Today the Prime Minister Julia Gillard was heckled in Sydney by a woman in a wheelchair who said financial support for people with disabilities was discriminatory. While a...

There'll be no fourth free to air commercial television station for Australians but they will get more Australian drama The Federal Government late this afternoon released its initial response to the convergence review.

Google is a search engine whose name has already entered the language as a verb. Google's multi-billion dollar success has relied on backing a vision of the future, and the company's still investing heavily. So what will the future of Google look like?

Victoria's inquiry into child abuse has been told Cardinal George Pell showed a sociopathic lack of empathy for a family whose two daughters were raped by a Catholic priest.

One of the economic world's most conse rvative agencies has joined what it calls an unprecedented consensus among scientists, to warn that climate change is on course for catastrophic levels this century. The bank president Jim Yong Kim warns that 'time is very, very short' to address a crisis that ...

The Coalition's discussion paper puts forward a handful of cyber safety concepts to combat the threats the online world poses to children, including a children's e-safety commissioner and take-down rights.

The Government is pushing ahead with its plan to force single mothers off parenting payments and onto the dole once the youngest child turns eight. The policy comes into force on the first of January.

If there was a catalyst for the royal commission into child sexual abuse it was the sheer weight of horror stories emerging from Newcastle and the Hunter Valley. Bishop Bill Wright, the Catholic Bishop of the Diocese of Maitland and Newcastle, says he doesn't know why his district harboured so much ...

It's not the royal commission sought by many abuse victims but today the New South Wales Premier Barry O'Farrell announced a commission of public inquiry into police claims of a cover-up of child sex sex abuse investigations involving Catholic clergy.

In China a meeting is underway that will usher in a new team of leaders to rule over a quarter of the world's population. And today the Communist Party Congress opened with a speech from outgoing president Hu Jintao.