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NSW to offer $25,000 grant for first home buyers
The move comes as Sydney house prices skyrocket and younger generations struggle to get a foothold in the market.
‘With COVID we have a plan’: Housing back at top of Sydney’s worry list
For Sydneysider Craig Storkey, housing affordability, especially for his children, is a priority.
Exclusive
Tourism
From Botany Bay to Illawarra: NSW’s first major multi-day hiking path
NSW will join other states in promoting multi-day walks in popular national parks, with the government tipping in $80 million to ease access to destinations with a growing global profile.
Opinion
Immigration
Walk a mile in their shoes, but don’t be a sucker
Letting the Biloela family stay in Australia, simply because they are here already, is the politics of proximity winning out over principle.
Amanda Vanstone
Former Howard government minister
Peta Credlin receives Queen’s Birthday gong for work with Tony Abbott
Peta Credlin, the chief of staff when Tony Abbott was prime minister, is among a record number of women receiving Order of Australia honours.
Exclusive
Coronavirus pandemic
Leading Australian CEO says border bans forced her to quit global role
The CEO of a high-powered eco-investment firm, Fiona Reynolds, has resigned so she can see her family. “Australia’s not changing anything, so what am I going to do?”
Breaking
Victoria
Victoria records two new local cases of COVID-19
There were two new local cases of COVID-19 reported in Victoria in the past day and four in hotel quarantine.
‘Chic grandma’: Crochet is back, and there’s nothing nanna about it
Whether it’s a bucket hat or a full look, crochet is the haute hobby taking over our Instagram feeds this season.
‘Apocalyptic, surreal’ pandemic time capsule note discovered on plane
If you are here to pick up the plane “then the light must be at the end of the tunnel,” wrote one pilot.
‘I’ll be back’: Israel approves coalition, ending Netanyahu’s 12-year reign
For the first time in 12 years, Israeli lawmakers have voted to install a government led by someone other than Benjamin Netanyahu.
Exclusive
Nuix investigation
Nuix CFO poised to step down as fallout from scandal continues
Nuix’s financial chief has cleared his desk at its Sydney head office and has not been seen there since.
After meeting, Joe Biden says Queen ‘reminded me of my mother’
The US President later revealed that the Queen asked him about Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping during his visit to Windsor Castle.
As Tokyo looms, does the shoe still fit athletics?
In the same way that the Beijing Olympics at the height of swimming’s super suit era tore up the sport’s record books, Tokyo is shaping as the Games where celebrated times in distance running will go to die.
England’s Ashes plans in tatters after brutal wake-up call
Unless there is rapid improvement, England will lose to India and go to Australia on the back of three consecutive series defeats.
Roosters skipper Cordner to retire over concussion concerns
Australian and NSW captain Boyd Cordner will become the second Roosters player this year to hang up the boots due to repeated head knocks.
Sydney
Water watchdog has big Riverina irrigator in its sights over diversion
One of Australia’s largest private irrigators is being investigated over the conversion of part of a wetland swamp into a dam that has diverted water from a major creek system to supply nearby farms.
NSW budget boost to help children and women escape violence
Services helping women and children experiencing domestic and sexual violence will be given a funding boost in the state budget.
‘Unacceptable’ rates of avoidable hospital visits for people with intellectual disability
People with intellectual disability in NSW are up to eight times as likely to be sent to hospital with conditions that could be managed in primary care compared with the general population.
Exclusive
ICAC
Whistleblower protection laws on their 27th draft after seven years
Under existing laws, people who are legally obliged to front ICAC are protected from any criminal or civil liability, but the same protections do not apply to those who voluntarily give evidence.
NSW to spend $250 million building and upgrading Aboriginal housing
The NSW budget will provide for 250 new homes and renovate a further 7000 for Indigenous families.
QUEEN’S BIRTHDAY HONOURS
‘Mentor and role model’: Former Justice Patricia Bergin honoured
Retired NSW Supreme Court judge Patricia Bergin has received an Order of Australia for her service to the legal profession.
Former Fairfax journalist Lindsay Murdoch honoured with OAM
Murdoch, who spent 25 years as a foreign correspondent for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, said he was “pretty chuffed” by the award.
Politics
Australian frigates to join Britain in naval exercises in Indo-Pacific
Prime Minister Scott Morrison discussed the deeper military cooperation with United States President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson at the Group of 7 summit in Britain.
Business
Opinion
Research
Economists are slowly revealing the weaknesses of their ‘rational’ theories
Advances in digitisation and the information revolution have made it much easier to analyse behaviour. And for economists, the results are surprising.
Ross Gittins
Economics Editor
World
G7 offers rebuke to China over Beijing’s economic coercion campaign against Australia
US President Joe Biden also says Beijing must “act more responsibly in terms of international norms, human rights and transparency”.
Opinion
Photograph of Biloela sisters shows power of an image over words
Sean Kelly
Columnist and former adviser to Labor prime ministers Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard.
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Property bydomain
The tiny town with no pub, no cafe, just homemade casserole
It’s a blink-and-you-miss-it-town of fewer than 300 people. There’s no pub and no cafe, but what it lacks in places it makes up for in people.
Historic Sydney home sells for $6.6m after passing in at auction
The home in Burwood in Sydney's west sold for $300,000 above the price it was passed in at and also set a sales record for the suburb.
Life & Culture
Half yearly report card: The best movies of 2021 so far
Film critics Sandra Hall, Jake Wilson and Paul Byrnes share their top films from the year to date.
Sport
Exclusive
NRL 2021
NRL Player Poll 2021: Tedesco dethroned as the game’s best player
In a survey the Rugby League Players Association forbade its members from answering, the Herald polled 100 players from across the NRL to get their responses to a range of topics.
‘She won’t have it her own way’: Titmus fires warning shot to Ledecky
When Ariarne Titmus beat Katie Ledecky in 2019, most Americans wrote it off as an anomaly. Now, Titmus has unleashed another thunderous swim.
Roosters skipper Cordner retires due to concussion concerns
Australian and NSW captain Boyd Cordner will become the second Roosters player this year to hang up the boots due to repeated head knocks.
Record-breaking Kaylee McKeown puts world on notice ahead of Tokyo
The 19-year-old set Australia’s first female individual world record since 2016 as she torched the 100m backstroke field, while Emily Seebohm made her fourth Olympic Games.
England’s Ashes plans in tatters after brutal wake-up call
Unless there is rapid improvement, England will lose to India and go to Australia on the back of three consecutive series defeats.
Updated
French Open
Djokovic comes from two sets down to beat Tsitsipas in French Open final
The 22-year-old Greek looked poised in his first grand slam final, going two sets up before it all fell apart against the world No.1.
Rennie wants to see Wallabies’ ‘dark side’ against France
Lalakai Foketi, Andrew Kellaway and Michael Wells are the bolters in a 38-man Wallabies squad for next month’s three-Test series against France.
Have Your Say
Robertson the biggest hard-luck story in Rennie’s Wallabies squad
The Wallabies aren’t short of loosehead options but Tom Robertson has been a major reason why the Western Force have given opposition packs so little this season.