• EXCLUSIVE

The Coalition government is considering the creation of a new affordable housing finance corporation to kick-start tens of millions of dollars in investment in community housing, in one of several major initiatives being examined for the federal budget.

Pauline Hanson acknowledged there was no test for vaccine allergies, as she had claimed on the ABC.

Labor front bencher Kate Ellis is set to quit politics at the next election, after more than a decade in federal parliament.

The Nationals have called for a ban on political donations to exempt any individuals or entities with "a genuine involvement" in Australia and the national interest.

Chinese warships have carried out naval drills in Australia's maritime backyard for the third time in three years in a move that experts say strengthens the case for greater co-operation with Indonesia.

Over the past three years, almost all of the world's reefs have experienced summertime heat stress.

Papua New Guinea has made an extraordinary demand of Australian taxpayers: a surprise request for Canberra to provide a direct annual gift of $550 million.

They are only starting to gain a foothold in the Australian market, but could batteries provide a near overnight solution to the energy woes that have hit South Australia and risk spreading east?

Former prime minister John Howard wasn't rattled despite needing to be "rescued by police" from angry union protesters rallying in Sydney's CBD against cuts to penalty rates.

The sector that has the most to gain from funding changes under the Omnibus bill has slammed the government's bill as unfair. "We just don't believe that it's necessary to predicate investment in early childhood eduction through savings in other areas," the Senate committee hearing into the Omninbus bill has been told.

The widening gap between rich and poor in Australia should be viewed as a new form of "systemic risk" endangering billions of dollars tied up in long term resources projects, the nation's big miners will be told on Friday.

Malcolm Turnbull has called urgent crisis talks with Australia's east coast gas companies after the energy market regulator warned of looming shortages that could lead to widespread blackouts as early as next year.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton, seen as the chief government backer of a proposal to create a super-sized homeland security department, has articulated the intelligence-sharing rationale for the United States making a similar change and said Australia must continue to have a modern system that strives for "world's best practice".

University students on youth allowance "would struggle to pay the rent" and "feed themselves" under changes to the federal government's omnibus bill, a senate committee has heard, after being stripped of their income for five weeks between leaving university and finding paid employment.

Declaring that Australia is in the midst of an energy crisis, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has said he will call together the chief executives of east coast gas companies to address the threat to their customers.

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has admitted she was wrong to suggest parents subject their children to a non-existent test for allergies to vaccinations.

Australia's original climate change-focused think-tank and lobby group will shut after it failed to replace the multi-million-dollar bequest it relied on.

Tax Office distances itself from Centrelink's robo-debt debacle

Boris Johnson tweets what Julie Bishop won't say.

• ANALYSIS

The implosion of One Nation's Western Australian branch days before the state's election is no real surprise. This is not just because we have seen this party self-immolate before, but because the tensions have been escalating throughout the campaign.

• EXCLUSIVE

New laws that would allow the Veterans Affairs Department to reveal personal information about veterans in the "public interest" will be subjected to a fresh privacy probe after a backlash by ex-services groups.

They were heralded just months ago as "the only people" Pauline Hanson could trust in Western Australia.

So much for axing the tax: a growing crisis in the electricity market has led to wholesale power prices more than doubling in a year, and rising to at least twice what they were under the controversial Labor-Greens carbon price.

Scientists have confirmed what anyone who lived through the past summer know to be true - climate change is driving hotter and longer summers that are becoming "the new normal", according to scientists, with worse to come unless tough action is taken.

The great bulk of Australia's largest listed companies are failing to disclose their exposures to climate change.

Eric isn't the only Abetz in politics. His brother, Peter, is a state MP but struggling to keep his once-safe seat.

The shared home ownership scheme being watched with interest by the federal government has put more than 100,0000 people into homes in the past decade.

A radical reorganisation of national security agencies, such as the creation of a US-style department of homeland security is not necessary because existing arrangements are working well, experts and former officials say.

Trade Minister Steve Ciobo has apologised for spruiking increased flights between Australia and Indonesia on the 10th anniversary of the fatal Garuda crash which claimed the lives of 21 people including five Australians.