'Cruel and immoral': One million homes left empty across Australia

Australia has 200,000 more homes sitting empty than it had a decade ago, new figures show, despite the country grappling with a housing supply shortage.

'We might wake up and find the peasants are revolting'

"Every now and then I just wonder whether this was a gathering of the Ancien regime and that we are all eating cake at Marie Antoinette's party," says Varghese. "One day we might wake up and find the peasants are revolting."

Time to rethink compulsory voting, says Australian-US research institute

A leading Australian think tank has called for a national debate about compulsory voting, saying it is part of the reason for our current political gridlock.

Home loans to investors fall to lowest level in 12 months

Tough new regulations are pushing investors out of the housing market and allowing first-home buyers to creep back in, figures show.

Census 2016: Life in Australia's oldest and youngest towns

• EXCLUSIVE

There are no hills in Tea Gardens, barely a single two-storey house and only 67 babies.

Australia falls behind Cameroon, Burkina Faso on tax

Australia is set to become the world's largest exporter of gas but its level of resource tax transparency falls behind Burkina Faso, Cameroon and Mongolia, a new global report has found, as the country forfeits billions of dollars in tax to multinational mining giants.

Warning of 'significant damage' to Australian economy if PRRT is replaced

The author of a landmark report into Australia's petroleum tax regime has warned replacing the existing tax would have damaging consequences despite claims Australia is missing out on billions of dollars in tax from multinational gas exporters.

'It's a national disgrace': Federal government slammed on gas tax

The federal government has been accused of abandoning tax reform of the $200 billion gas export industry after it failed to consider replacing a regime that allowed some multinationals to never pay a cent in tax for the Australian resources they extract.

Universities attack government funding cuts after Gonski 2.0 delivers schools boon

The university sector has attacked the government for pushing through the biggest set of school funding reforms in a generation while slashing funding to their institutions and hiking student fees.