• 57 mins ago

Nightmare before Christmas for thousands of ATO casuals.

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Australia's last four treasurers have predicted a return to surplus 12 times but so far none have delivered.

Christmas has come early for politicians and their staff with millions of dollars being spent on new offices and more staff.

France's defence minister has renewed suggestions that revelations of a major data breach in its submarine program were the work of malicious foreign or commercial rivals.

Western Australian Senator Rod Culleton has resigned from his position in Pauline Hanson's One Nation party.

An Australian university professor has reportedly been held for five months in a Turkish jail without charge as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan continues a purge of alleged opponents.

Australia could lose its prized AAA credit rating as early as Monday afternoon as Treasurer Scott Morrison prepares to hand down a mid-year budget update likely to show little improvement for deficit projections.

The Turnbull government will use its mid-year economic update to announce a new round of funding for a controversial program designed to lure high achieving university graduates into teaching.

In a passionate speech marking the 25th anniversary of the Australian Republican Movement, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has reaffirmed his support for an Australian republic.

Women will have been able to vote in federal elections for 144 years before they make up half of the nation's Parliament.

A new power station for south western Victoria will be among the offers to multinational Alcoa when federal and Victorian industry ministers Greg Hunt and Wade Noonan fly to New York on Monday.

After his former Labor comrade Stephen Conroy landed a lucrative job lobbying for the interests of bookmakers, former MP Kelvin Thomson has joined the other side of the debate.

The Federal Court has found Peter Dutton unreasonably delayed making decisions on applications for citizenship by refugees in a landmark ruling that has implications for thousands of would-be citizens.

The federal government is set to ratify an extradition treaty with China after a joint parliamentary committee recommended formalising the pact despite opposition from Labor and widespread concerns in the legal community.

Australia Post is shaping up as one of the big winners of Christmas 2016, according to chief executive Ahmed Fahour, with parcel volumes booming as Aussies turn to online shopping this year.

Crossbench powerbroker Nick Xenophon said federal Parliament could learn lessons from other jurisdictions and establish an effective anti-corruption body - "the sooner we do it, the better."

Labor slammed the parliamentary inquiry as a "waste of taxpayers' money" that has produced a toothless report.

• EXCLUSIVE

The Australian Tax Office spent $150,000 on a leadership conference for its technology team just weeks before a major crash brought down the agency's website and internal systems for days.

Labor frontbencher Terri Butler has settled a defamation lawsuit with Queensland law student Calum Thwaites over what some described as her "racist smear" on national television.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has called for Australians to "rise up" to defend the Christian holiday against what he labelled "political correctness gone mad".

• EXCLUSIVE

There is majority support in Parliament for a republic, new figures from the Australian Republican Movement show.

The Defence Industry Minister issued a stern warning to his colleagues engaging in Cabinet reshuffle speculation.

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Universities face losing access to government funding and loans unless they come clean to prospective students about the true entry requirements.

Two Liberal MPs who lost their seats at the federal election and a former Labor speaker are among those tapped for plum positions in George Brandis's latest round of appointments.

The Federal Government's child dental scheme will survive, but in a watered-down state that will only provide $700 every two years in treatment to children in low income families.

More than 1200 square kilometres around Shelburne Bay near the tip of Cape York Peninsula, including the only untouched area of pure-white sand dunes in Australia, has been handed back to the Wuthathi Indigenous people

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has accused Beijing of "creating an environment of tension and mistrust" after new satellite images showed China appears to have placed weapons on all seven of its artificial islands in the South China Sea.

"It is one of the lowest acts I can recall hearing about or seeing in Australian politics".

Pathologists say they're being driven to the wall as the Turnbull government delays its solution to the rent wars between doctors and pathologist tenants.