Politics
Victoria
Exclusive
Local council
Cash for access: Councillors ask corruption watchdog to investigate scheme
Most Port Phillip councillors want IBAC to investigate a donation scheme set up to fund a community group that financially backs two of their colleagues.
- by Annika Smethurst and Kieran Rooney
Latest
Victorian politicians get 3.5 per cent pay rise
Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan will earn almost half a million dollars a year as MPs in the state received their second 3.5 per cent pay rise in two years.
- by Rachel Eddie
Exclusive
Victorian budget
Births, Deaths and Marriages Registry makes millions from increasing certificate fees in cost-of-living crisis
The Greens will introduce a bill in the next sitting week in an attempt to block further privatisation of government services.
- by Broede Carmody
Exclusive
Biodiversity
Measures meant to protect our last grasslands are seeing them trashed
Thirty-six conservation areas in Melbourne’s growth corridor contain some of the last intact grasslands in Australia, but just three are in good health.
- by Adam Carey
Here’s what you’ll be paying more for from today
Water bills, car registration and a levy on ride-share and taxi trips are among the areas hit with price rises.
- by Broede Carmody and Kieran Rooney
Miscalculation leaves Melton $224m short for roads, kindergartens, bridges, bike trails
Home prices in Melbourne’s outer west will rise by as much as $25,000 as developers look to pass on an increased levy for infrastructure in emerging suburbs.
- by Adam Carey
Exclusive
Education
The 164-year-old school hamstrung by rent brawl between a charity and the government
The Victorian College for the Deaf says its St Kilda Road home is dilapidated and needs capital works, but the purchasing power of a $10 million government grant has eroded over four years.
- by Robyn Grace and Noel Towell
Exclusive
Legal Cannabis
Amnesty plea to allow medicinal cannabis users behind the wheel
A growing number of Victorians have been prescribed the treatment, but risk breaking the law if they use it.
- by Kieran Rooney
The inside story of Labor’s sudden change of heart on pill testing
Under Daniel Andrews, pill testing was a non-starter. Jacinta Allan made it permanent within months. Summer overdoses were a big reason why.
- by Rachel Eddie
Perspective
World politics
Riding chill streets, listening for the lessons of Zen on a motorcycle
The first rule of riding a motorcycle is look where you want to go. Could it be a metaphor for life?
- by Tony Wright
Airport prepares fight after mediator backs skyrail for Tullamarine
An underground station should not be built at Melbourne Airport unless the airport operators show it makes commercial sense, a federal report has found.
- by Kieran Rooney and Patrick Hatch