• Inside Story
• 33 mins ago

At 8.40am on Tuesday, just minutes after Julie Bishop had publicly backed a China extradition treaty and walked into a meeting of the leadership group, Bill Shorten rang Malcolm Turnbull.

NSW and Victoria risk falling behind a soaring tourism market, new government figures show, after the east coast states experienced only a quarter of the growth in tourism numbers of the Northern Territory and half that of WA.

Retailers are asking for the minimum wage to be increased by less than the inflation rate a month after winning a reduction in Sunday penalty rates.

Union-dominated super funds would lose their special status under a draft Productivity Commission recommendation that would delink superannuation from awards and allocate new workers to default funds only once.

• COMMENT

The non-profit industry funds want you to think there's nothing wrong. They are most often the funds new employees are defaulted into and they perform the best, on average far better than their for-profit competitors.

A Turnbull government plan to ratify the China-Australia extradition treaty has collapsed, with mounting opposition from the Coalition backbench causing the government to withdraw the treaty from Parliament.

• EXCLUSIVE

Australia's Minister for International Development has fired a warning shot to the region.

Scrapping the GST on tampons would show voters the Liberal party cares about women, according to the Liberal Women's Council Victoria.

Politicians will face stricter tests before they can charge taxpayers for travel expenses under a new tranche of Turnbull government changes in legislation to be introduced next week.

Australia goes to extraordinary lengths to make sure its name stays off Trump's naughty list.

• ANALYSIS

The government says it supports an extradition treaty with Beijing because it will ensure Chinese criminals are sent back to China, where they belong. And it maintains that righteous enthusiasm right up until suddenly, it's gone.And so, another column in the facade of orderly, government, topples to populist whimsy.Cory Bernardi's power as a rookie independent, just got a pretty big kick-along. The government's prestige, not so much.

The law aims to recoup revenue from some of the nation's biggest companies including Apple, BHP Billiton, Chevron and Crown.

​Greens senators have come to the defence of Adam Bandt, slammed for politicising Cyclone Debbie after linking burning coal and extreme weather events.

In her strongest remarks yet on Donald Trump, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said the US President is "driving an economic nationalist agenda", indicating his policies are considered an economic threat to Australia.

• EXCLUSIVE

"This will be giving a free ticket to racism and telling the whole world we don't care about minorities".

Myanmar's military chief has warned against UN intervention in his country, declaring more than one million Rohingya Muslims in western Rakhine state as "Bengali" interlopers.

Even government MPs say they are "deeply unimpressed" with the Immigration Department.

Senior Tax Office officials have revealed they sought legal advice after hearing "bureaucratic whispers" George Brandis would attempt to shut the ATO out of the Bell Group litigation.

• EXCLUSIVE

Two Australian children face being separated from their parents after the Turnbull government made final moves to deport the couple.

The Greens MP Adam Bandt has linked the fatal Cyclone Debbie raging across northern Queensland to a proposed new coal-fired power plant saying more people will suffer.

• EXCLUSIVE

Malcolm Turnbull has refused to rule out further regulating electricity prices to get a better deal for consumers as energy retailers declared his new inquiry will "bust the myth" there is any price-gouging in the market.

• EXCLUSIVE

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and Justice Minister Michael Keenan have moved to quell a backbench revolt over a China-Australia extradition treaty.

The federal government could secure three crucial votes from the Nick Xenophon Team for its company tax cut plan, but only if it adopts a politically contentious emissions intensity scheme for the electricity sector.

Public service at risk of making the same old mistakes, says opposition.

Are you a 'staff substitute', 'contractor' or 'service provider'? Your job may depend on the answer.

Tax fights involving Amazon and Chevron will have major implications for other companies in long-running disputes.

The federal government has offered to open access to protected forests and review the status of an endangered native possum as part of an appeal to save Victoria's Heyfield timber mill from closing.

Australian combat aircraft were not involved in an airstrike against Islamic State militants that allegedly killed at least dozens of civilians in the Iraqi city of Mosul, Defence Minister Marise Payne has said.

Incoming ABC chairman Justin Milne says he has deep respect for Malcolm Turnbull but his longstanding friendship with the Prime Minister will have "zero impact" on his role at the public broadcaster.