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One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has distanced herself from a potential party candidate, after he was involved in a scuffle with rogue West Australian senator Rod Culleton.

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Centrelink has faced a storm of criticism over its automated data-matching system, which has hit almost 170,000 people with notices that they owe the agency money.

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Centrelink's contentious debt recovery system is making some of the targeted people feel suicidal, independent MP Andrew Wilkie has claimed.

Barnaby Joyce has a blunt view on whether former prime minister Tony Abbott is being helpful in speaking out on a range of issues over summer.

Kevin Rudd went around senior US officials in an attempt to secure a meeting with then US secretary of state Hillary Clinton, newly released emails have shown.

The Australian Medical Association has weighed in to the heated politics of Australia's gun laws, saying ownership restrictions should be tightened in 2017 and a real-time national firearms register established. 

WA Senator Rod Culleton has been injured during an altercation outside a Perth court building.

 Three more asylum seekers on Manus Island have been charged with public drunkenness and resisting arrest after an incident on Monday night.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has expanded on his call for the citizenship test to be revamped with a boosted focus on social integration and Australian values rather than being a "trivia" quiz on history and government.

The federal government says Centrelink's controversial new automated debt recovery methods are "working incredibly well" and only attracting a tiny number of complaints.

The Turnbull government may be looking at ways to get more regional and rural Australians into private health cover, but the nation's peak medical body says the priority should be more access to medical services, and more support and infrastructure for bush doctors.

Taxpayers billed $1 million for five months of "agile coaching".

Two of the Coalition's leading conservatives have been named as "special guests" at a $150-per-head dinner being held by anti-Islamic group, the Q Society of Australia.

Manus Island MP Ronny Knight has declared that two asylum seekers who say they were bashed by police and PNG immigration officials on New Year's Eve "deserved what they got".

Low-income Australians receiving housing support and other welfare services have joined summer criticism of Centrelink, as the agency faces sustained questions about its new automated debt recovery processes.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has quickly dismissed a pair of contentious suggestions on Middle East relations from former prime minister Tony Abbott.

Refugee advocates have called on the Turnbull government to urgently address the alleged bashing of two Iranian asylum seekers on Manus Island.

Former prime minister Tony Abbott has called for Australia's $40 million in aid to Palestine to be cut, citing concerns over the use of the funding, and joined calls for the Australian embassy to be moved to Jerusalem.

Doctors and health experts have criticised a government review of vehicle emissions and air pollution for underreporting the health risks, sidelining the Minister for Health, and potentially putting thousands of Australians' lives at risk.

A trickle of boats from Indochina changed Australian refugee policy for good.

John Howard ended up selling the controversial property barely a year after he officially opened it.

The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet backed the idea; the Treasury didn't.

Labor has doubled down on its opposition to Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, a day after the Turnbull government broke with the Obama administration over a controversial UN resolution.

• EXCLUSIVE

Faysal Ishak Ahmed carried a deep secret and a burning fear during his years in detention on Manus Island, long before he became the fourth asylum seeker to die after seeking protection in Australia and being sent to Papua New Guinea.

Former prime minister tells folk festival the community must "make a bloody noise" to effect action on climate change, rather than leaving it in the hands of politicians.

Complaints to the Australian Taxation Office have increased by more than 40 per cent in three years, amid thousands of job losses and serious IT system failures.

Liberal senator Cory Bernardi has taken aim at ally Tony Abbott over his censure of "rebellious" colleagues looking to "do a Trump" in Australia, accusing his former leader of "talking up division" and backing "the horse named self-interest".

Australia has broken ranks with the United States and New Zealand over Israel, indicating that it would most likely have opposed the UN Security Council resolution condemning its settlements on Palestinian land.

The federal government spent a record amount on digital advertising in Australia last financial year, second only to television advertising.