Immigration Minister also backs the wearing of Islamic dress in public.

"I have taken out insurance just to not encourage anymore fights. I have amended my signature!"

• EXCLUSIVE

The multibillion Melbourne Metro rail project will boost the Australian economy the nation's top infrastructure advisers have declared, placing pressure on the Turnbull government to boost funding to Victorian major projects.

Peter Stephenson has become the first member of the scandal-plagued state council to bow to pressure and stand aside.

'What we are doing is wrong,' says insider.

The United Nations has expressed "grave concern" over the treatment of two asylum seekers who say they were savagely beaten by Papua New Guinea police and immigration officials on Manus Island before being arrested on New Year's Eve.

"Never said we were invited, just that we had 'invitations' and 'were gifted tickets'," Malcolm Roberts said. "'Received' an invite and 'invited' are very different things."

Transport Minister Darren Chester says the underwater search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 could be re-established but only if compelling new information came to light that pinpointed the location of the aircraft.

Police officers from the NSW fraud squad have attended the Sydney headquarters of the RSL as the leadership crisis at the venerated organisation descended to a new low, with RSL chief executive Glenn Kolomeitz saying he did not know whether he still had a job.

The last time Greg Hunt saw his mother before she died, she was in a mental health institution.

One Nation senator Brian Burston has labelled Centrelink's contentious debt-recovery system "malicious and bordering on the criminal", adding Pauline Hanson's party to the chorus of concern surrounding the automated clawback.

Centrelink accused of monstering its workers with threats in a bid to keep its secrets.

Turnbull government frontbencher Greg Hunt will take on the key cabinet portfolio of health in a limited reshuffle announced by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Wednesday.

A disillusioned Australian public believes the system is rigged against ordinary people and wants a strong leader to wrest power back from the elites, a survey has found.

"The decision to suspend the underwater search has not been taken lightly nor without sadness."

Former One Nation senator Rod Culleton's woes have shown no sign of abating, with the Queensland Police Service confirming it was still dealing with allegations he attempted to pervert the course of justice and threatened a Cairns magistrate.

After poaching one of his state MPs in her bid for Queensland domination, Pauline Hanson has some advice for Malcolm Turnbull on how to fix his government – bring Tony Abbott back to the cabinet.

Government looking to claw back more than $2 billion from Australia's parents, pensioners and disabled.

Senior Australian politicians have been caught up in a massive global data breach affecting Yahoo internet services, with experts warning the stolen information could be used to blackmail victims.

Billions of taxpayer dollars were handed to the private contractors running Australia's offshore detention centres without adequate authorisation or value-for-money assessments, the Commonwealth auditor has found.

Former Labor senator Anne McEwen has lost a bid to introduce new evidence her legal team said would cast doubt on the ability of the Family First Party to replace resigned senator Bob Day with another Family First candidate.

Nine directors have been formally accused of working against the interests of members by engaging in a cover-up.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has schooled Andrew Laming on the importance of teachers, in the wake of the backbencher's ill-advised social media post questioning teachers' work ethic -  after his daughter delivered her own assessment over the comments.

Fairfield City Council, which welcomed 3000 humanitarian arrivals last year, has been told to expect the same again.

Japan was caught killing a whale deep inside Antarctic waters declared by Australia to be a protected whale sanctuary.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull could wait until Wednesday to reveal the shape of his rejigged cabinet as he weighs up whether to return the post of cabinet secretary to an unelected member of the government.

Staffer claims Donald Trump knows Pauline Hanson is a "big supporter" of the President-elect.

Centrelink public servants forced to compete against colleagues to process the most debt notices, Tasmanian independent alleges.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has distanced the Turnbull government from a communique agreed by senior ministers and diplomats of 70 nations, including Australia, concerning a pathway to peace between Israel and Palestine.