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The brutal murder of Iranian asylum seeker Reza Barati at the Manus Island detention camp has been dramatised in a new play staged in the Iranian capital Tehran.

Cuts to Sunday penalty rates for low-paid workers could blow a $650 million hole in the federal government's budget bottom line, according to the Australian Institute.

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Bookmaker Tom Waterhouse is at the centre of a bitter dispute in the online gambling sector over how much ground the industry should give up to resuscitate its public image.

The Greens are pushing for a new public authority to take responsibility for Australia's beleaguered electricity system out of politicians' hands.

Nearly half of all Liberals and 55 per cent of Labor MPs have previously worked as political advisers or government staffers.

Coca Cola, Glaxo Smith Kline that have instituted the clean tech energy programme have had their profits climb and businesses expand while those that did not institute the program in the sample have stagnated.

Australia and China found unprecedented common ground during Chinese Premier Li Keqiang's visit to Australia this week.

Women make up 45 per cent of executives at the ABC, while just 12 per cent of senior staff come from non-English speaking backgrounds.

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There is a growing sense around the halls of power that Malcolm Turnbull is finally starting to get somewhere, writes Mark Kenny.

Defence Industry Minister Christopher Pyne has cited the uncertainty about Donald Trump's foreign policy as one reason why Australia needs to bolster its home-grown defence industry.

Local beef producers have won unfettered access to the giant Chinese domestic market for the first time, in a commercial breakthrough that gives Australia a unique level of entree denied to all other countries until now. But the resolution of Australia's beef over beef exports came with a gentle reminder to Canberra, and other regional neighbours, that China will not back down on the South China Sea and regards its outposts in international waters as its sovereign territory.

The Turnbull government has hand-balled responsibility for protecting people facing big pay cuts on Sundays and public holidays to the Fair Work Commission, effectively guaranteeing Labor and the union movement will mount a ferocious industrial relations campaign all the way until the next election.

A China-Australia extradition treaty 10 years in the making looks set to be killed off in the Senate next week with Labor, the Greens and the crossbench expected to team up to stop ratification.

Australia has taken a lone stand as the only country in its neighbourhood to boycott negotiations for a new global treaty to ban nuclear weapons.

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Farmers battling drought are set to be  among the big winners in the 2017 budget, with the Coalition poised to announce a $4.5 billion regional investment corporation in May.

Politicians normally avoid airing their dirty linen in public but for Australia's longest governing leader, it was actually a laundry incident that nearly brought him undone.

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Australian firms have secured contracts to supply military equipment to Saudi Arabia, an autocracy accused of ongoing war crimes in a conflict that has killed more than 10,000 civilians.

Treasurer Scott Morrison has urged financial regulators to crackdown on investor loans, warning restrictions have "worn off," allowing investors to storm back into the market hurting housing affordability levels and promoting surging household debt.

Attorney-General George Brandis has warned that the Islamic State group may scatter and form a "diaspora" caliphate around the world, including South-East Asia after its defeat in the Middle East.

A major Liberal party benefactor will continue to withhold hundreds of thousands of dollars to the cash-strapped party, with Michael Kroger set to remain president of the party.

Pauline Hanson has compared Islam to a disease Australians need to vaccinate themselves against, a comment described by the deputy prime minister as "bat poo crazy".

"It's very, very clear that we do not approve the changes," Gillian Triggs told the inquiry.

The Turnbull government is aiming to use the successful passage of its childcare reforms, which redistribute subsidies from wealthy to low-income families, as a springboard to overhaul the way schools are funded. 

When NSW couple Edna and Bill Williams were told how much they'd be expected to pay for their private health insurance next year - $17,594 - they were so shocked they couldn't sleep for three nights.

""Inciting hatred against any part of the Australian community is always dangerous," Malcolm Turnbull said.

"I get a travel allowance, others get penalty rates – it's part of the package."

New study from the University of Adelaide has found that after accounting for house prices, suburbs in Adelaide with shared home ownership schemes have 8 per cent higher levels of home ownership than near identical suburbs in NSW and Victoria

Calls for an extraordinary government intervention to keep the ailing Hazelwood coal power plant open have been rejected by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who said its closure would not affect electricity security.

A leading national business group has called on Canberra and Victoria to consider an unprecedented "emergency intervention" to keep the Hazelwood coal power plant running.