Peta Donald is an ABC reporter in the Canberra press gallery, filing to AM, The World Today and PM on ABC radio. She's also worked for radio and TV news, 7.30, Lateline, Radio Australia and the former Australia Network. Peta began her career with the ABC in Alice Springs, and has also worked in Darwin and Sydney. She has worked for UNICEF in India and hails from Wagga Wagga, NSW. Follow Peta on Twitter @PetaDonaldABC.
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| UpdatedA diverse alliance of industry, community and environmental groups is calling for a new bipartisan approach to energy policy.
Topics: environment, government-and-politics, federal-government, environmental-policy, federal-parliament, business-economics-and-finance, australia
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| UpdatedIndustry Minister Greg Hunt is a front-runner for the role of health minister after the resignation of Sussan Ley, the ABC understands, with Arthur Sinodinos expected to step into Mr Hunt's role.
Topics: government-and-politics, federal-government, health, health-policy
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| UpdatedTreasurer Scott Morrison says yesterday's budget update bolsters the Government's case for the corporate tax rate to be cut to 25 per cent, but the Opposition says it will stand firm against the proposal saying they "simply can't be afforded".
Topics: budget, federal-government, scott-morrison, chris-bowen, tax, australia
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| UpdatedFederal Treasurer Scott Morrison is today expected to unveil a mid-year budget update with a deeper deficit than forecast in the May budget, with one economist predicting a blow out to $40 billion.
Topics: budget, government-and-politics, economic-trends, business-economics-and-finance, australia
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Employment Minister Michaelia Cash is in the midst of a round of last-minute negotiations to try to pass two highly symbolic industrial relations bills before the end of the year.
Topics: government-and-politics, laws, industrial-relations, parliament, federal-parliament, australia
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Asylum seekers who were sent back to Vietnam during the federal election campaign have been jailed in their home country, a Melbourne-based Vietnamese advocacy group says.
Topics: immigration, refugees, federal-government, parliament, federal-parliament, government-and-politics, australia, vietnam
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| UpdatedAustralia is on the brink of signing a breakthrough deal with the United States which will see almost 1,300 asylum seekers on Manus Island and Nauru found to be refugees resettled in America.
Topics: immigration, refugees, foreign-affairs, world-politics, federal-government, australia, united-states
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| UpdatedA peak women's legal group will use today's national summit on family violence to push for an end to victims being directly cross-examined in court by their ex-partners.
Topics: government-and-politics, federal-government, domestic-violence, family-and-children, family-law, law-crime-and-justice, australia
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| UpdatedThe debate over changing the definition of marriage to include Australians in same-sex relationships has struck a political impasse, with yesterday's talks between the Attorney-General and his Labor counterpart failing to agree to anything.
Topics: federal-parliament, gays-and-lesbians, australia
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| UpdatedSenior Labor frontbencher Tony Burke brushes off a call for his colleague Sam Dastyari to provide a more detailed explanation about a donation he accepted from a group with links to the Chinese Government.
Topics: federal-government, government-and-politics, australia
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| UpdatedTreasurer Scott Morrison will try to resolve differences over the Liberal party's superannuation policy while Labor will debate whether to support the proposed abolition of its Australian Renewable Energy Agency when parliamentarians return to Canberra today.
Topics: federal-parliament, australia
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| UpdatedSenator Sarah Hanson-Young criticises the move by Greens leader Richard Di Natale to dump her from the high profile immigration portfolio, saying she did not understand the decision.
Topics: greens, government-and-politics, immigration, sarah-hanson-young, richard-di-natale, australia
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| UpdatedShadow Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus says he expects all senators to uphold Labor's claim of parliamentary privilege over thousands of documents sought by the Australian Federal Police in search of evidence Labor staffers leaked confidential NBN documents.
Topics: police, federal-government, wireless-communication, political-parties
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| UpdatedThe Federal Opposition rejects a request to allow 'pairing' of votes in the new Parliament, adding an extra degree of difficulty for the Government, which holds a one-seat majority.
Topics: federal-government, federal-parliament, australia
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| UpdatedNewly elected senator Malcolm Roberts denies being a member of a controversial anti-government movement based in the United States and Canada, after a series of letters railing against orthodox climate science appear to link him to the group.
Topics: federal-parliament, government-and-politics, qld, australia
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| UpdatedIndigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion concedes he received an official brief about abuse claims in the Northern Territory's juvenile detention centres last year, despite early denials he had been told.
Topics: youth, law-crime-and-justice, indigenous-policy, indigenous-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander, prisons-and-punishment, federal-government, nt
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| UpdatedPrime Minister Malcolm Turnbull responds to concerns about youth detention and child protection outside the Northern Territory, promising to put the issue on the agenda at the next COAG meeting.
Topics: youth, law-crime-and-justice, prisons-and-punishment, government-and-politics, royal-commissions, nt, australia
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| UpdatedMalcolm Turnbull says he's confident laws to allow same-sex marriage would "sail through" Parliament if a majority of Australians voted for it in a plebiscite.
Topics: community-and-society, gays-and-lesbians, government-and-politics, federal-government, federal-elections, elections, australia
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| UpdatedFormer prime minister Tony Abbott takes aim at Malcolm Turnbull for saying it is fair to describe Australia's colonisation as an invasion, and does not rule out returning to the Coalition frontbench.
Topics: government-and-politics, federal-government, elections, federal-elections, abbott-tony, person, indigenous-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander, australia
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| UpdatedLabor brushes off a Coalition attack over its change of position on a corporate tax cut after Malcolm Turnbull labels Bill Shorten the "most anti-business Labor leader in Australia".
Topics: federal-election, tax, federal-elections, government-and-politics, australia
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| UpdatedThe Coalition faces renewed criticism of claims that its proposed changes to superannuation will only leave the top 4 per cent of wealthy Australians worse off, after Deputy Liberal leader Julie Bishop struggled to explain the policy yesterday.
Topics: superannuation, federal-government, federal-elections, liberals, alp, bishop-julie, australia
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| UpdatedThe Maritime Union of Australia calls moves to disendorse the Labor candidate in the Perth seat of Fremantle "an absolute disgrace and a nonsense" after claims he failed to reveal prior convictions, including one for assaulting a police officer.
Topics: states-and-territories, unions, bill-shorten, federal-election, fremantle-6160
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| UpdatedLabor releases a seat-by-seat breakdown of its key election promise to pump an extra $4.5 billion into schools in 2018-19.
Topics: government-and-politics, elections, federal-elections, education
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| UpdatedPrime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten will both campaign in Queensland today, on the first full day of the marathon eight-week federal election campaign.
Topics: government-and-politics, elections, federal-elections, bill-shorten, turnbull-malcolm, political-parties, alp, liberals, qld
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| UpdatedMichaelia Cash says the first stage of the Government's new youth employment plan will be compulsory after five months of a job-seeker receiving welfare payments.
Topics: government-and-politics, federal-parliament, federal-government, social-policy, budget, australia