Labor has joined calls for Centrelink's automated welfare debt recovery processes to be halted, amid reports low-income Australians are wrongly receiving letters of demand for thousands of dollars in possible over payments.

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Friends and allies of opposition leader Bill Shorten will face court on criminal charges after an alleged politically motivated vandalism spree on the morning of the federal election

Faysal Ishak Ahmed was told there was no bed for him at Manus Island detention centre's medical clinic just five days before he died after collapsing, hitting his head and suffering a seizure.

Former prime minister Bob Hawke believes he has the recipe to fix the nation – think big, get better candidates, abolish state governments 

Australia's spending on foreign aid is at its lowest level in eight years, with planned increases by 2020 still below commitments from the Rudd and Gillard governments more than a decade earlier.

A long-term critic of the Rudd-Swan GFC stimulus package was paid more than $16,000 to deliver a paper which found it was counterproductive.

The government has accused Labor of running a scare campaign about pension changes.

Taxpayers have paid nearly $3.5 million in two years for a controversial program which gives Australia's major political parties cash for overseas study tours, networking and training events.

Australian voters could soon use pens to vote at federal elections, as part of a plan to replace traditional ballot box pencils.

Three weeks after putting in his Medicare claim and hearing nothing, and with more medical expenses on the way, Barry picked up the phone and called the helpline.

The detainees on Manus Island began to fear the worst when Australian Border Force officials began asking if anyone had contact details for the family of a young Sudanese refugee.

For the first time more Australians support decriminalising the use of marijuana than those who back retaining its classification as an illicit drug, a survey conducted over three decades has found.

It's the one thing Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten can wholeheartedly agree on.

People trust the ABC more than any other news source and would like to see it given more money and protected from political interference, research shows.

Besieged senator Rod Culleton has been declared bankrupt after a Federal Court hearing in Perth, jeopardising his position in the Senate.

Australians could have their private phone and email records used against them in civil litigation cases, with the federal government considering relaxing data retention laws.

The government has confirmed Australia's greenhouse gas emissions are rising, and projected that it will not get near its 2030 climate target under current policies.

When the soot settled and the melted rubber had set, it wasn't police chatter or tension which greeted the morning, but cicadas.

The head of the Australian Christian Lobby is doubling down on his scepticism of the ACT police declaration that a van explosion outside the conservative group's Canberra headquarters was not politically motivated.

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Internal tensions within the Greens have boiled over, with members of the hard left of the party grouped around NSW Senator Lee Rhiannon forming their own faction dedicated to the "fight to bring about the end of capitalism".

Liberal party stalwart and former Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett does not believe that his party is in a "panic" about One Nation andt has predicted closer alignment with the party in parliament.

A Turnbull government minister has accused the ABC of running "fake news" but failed to produce any evidence of his claims.

ACL boss says the van attack was an attempt to intimidate, but concedes the motivation for the attack is still not clear.

Nationals MP George Christensen reveals he is considering his future amid further speculation Cory Bernardi is preparing to breakaway from the Liberals.

Banning regular unleaded petrol would dramatically improve quality but likely lead to substantial price hikes for motorists.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has overturned a controversial decision by regions minister Fiona Nash to make Mandurah and the Peel region a suburb of Perth, after intense lobbying by Canning MP Andrew Hastie.

Families of passengers who were on board say decision to end the search in the face of game-changing new evidence is "another kick in the guts".

Australia's peak body for architects wants controversial plans to build a new 2.6-metre fence around Parliament House put on hold and reviewed immediately.

The RSL has widened the scope of investigations into alleged financial misconduct that flourished for years in the league's NSW leadership.