Politics

Australia Post chairman John Stanhope admits it was a mistake to try and hide its director's $5.6 million pay packet from the public to avoid media scrutiny and reputation damage.

A media war is set to break out between the union movement and employer groups in the wake of last week's decision to lower Sunday penalty rates for some workers.

Nationals MP Andrew Broad and Labor MP Pat Conroy are launching a new inquiry into modernising the power grid.

The Government's privacy watchdog wants answers from bureaucrats who leaked a Centrelink client's personal details to a journalist in a bid to counter her public criticisms.

The Queensland Government scraps its appeal against a Federal Court ruling that police were racist in their response to riots sparked by the death in custody of Cameron Doomadgee on Palm Island in 2004.

Former New South Wales premier Mike Baird is moving back to banking, as the National Australia Bank's chief customer officer for corporate and institutional banking.

Penalty rates and politicians' entitlements were hot topics on Monday's Q&A as the panel show hit the road and broadcast from Melbourne this week.

Question Time has kicked off with Labor taking aim at Liberal MP Ann Sudmalis, who described penalty rates cut as a "gift" for young people. Follow live.

After years of delays and cost blow-outs, the controversial Joint Strike Fighter has arrived on Australian soil for the first time.

Later today a parliamentary report into the Racial Discrimination Act is set to be handed down, with Coalition backbenchers hoping it recommends changes to section 18C.

Penalty rates and politicians' entitlements were hot topics on Monday's Q&A as the panel show hits the road and broadcasts from Melbourne this week.

Labor, the Greens and crossbench Senators Nick Xenophon and Derryn Hinch write a letter to Senator Brandis asking him to address what they describe as an "inconsistency" between his previous statements on the matter and comments from his WA counterpart Michael Mischin.

The Australian Workers Union is urging Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to "act decisively and rationally in the national interest" to ensure a portion of Australia's natural gas is quarantined for domestic use.

Beverley O'Connor speaks to Monash University's Professor Sarah Joseph about Australia's bid for a seat on the United Nation's Human Rights Council.

Beverley O'Connor speaks to Paul Haenle, the director of the Carnegie-Tsinghua Centre for Global Policy and a former China director on the US National Security Council, about the importance of Washington's relationship with allies like Australia.

After years of delays and cost blow-outs, the controversial Joint Strike Fighter arrives on Australian soil for the first time.

Immigration department secretary Michael Pezzullo rejects claims of unlawful and inappropriate personal searches at international airports, calling the allegations published by the National Audit Office "unworldly".

An historic inquiry into child sexual abuse in Britain will hear that up to 60 per cent of the child migrants sent to Fairbridge farms in Australia were sexually abused.

Those who publicly criticise Centrelink's automated debt recovery program could have their personal information released to correct the record, the Department of Human Services says.

Florence Northern has been using home care for three years after suffering a fall while getting out of bed — and now changes to the way it is funded could benefit her and thousands of other older Australians.

There is "significant anecdotal evidence" of trauma to frontline personnel caused by having to retrieve bodies of asylum seekers killed trying to reach Australia by boat, the Border Force chief tells a Senate estimates hearing.

Refugees on Manus Island and Nauru have not yet been through vetting processes to determine whether they can resettle in the US, the Immigration Department tells a Senate committee.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull blames poor polling on an "outburst" by his predecessor Tony Abbott late last week, which is being roundly condemned by cabinet ministers.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten have swapped insults over penalty rates, with both parties accusing the other of hypocrisy.

Malcolm Turnbull is facing not just the expected sniping from the sidelines but growing discontent from the political middle as tax reform and renewable energy policy go nowhere, writes Ian Verrender.