Australia’s weather is influenced by many climate drivers. El Niño and La Niña have perhaps the strongest influence on year-to-year climate variability in Australia. They are a part of a natural cycle known as the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and are associated with a sustained period (many months) of warming (El Niño) or cooling (La Niña) in the central and eastern tropical Pacific. The ENSO …

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has put housing and health on the agenda as he prepares to host a national cabinet meeting with a difference. State and territory leaders will join Mr Albanese for a dinner in Queensland on Thursday night, ahead of Friday’s meeting. It will mark the first national cabinet where every mainland state’s first minister is a Labor …

Independent Senator Lidia Thorpe has broken her silence after a video emerged of her engaged in some spirited, early-morning badinage with patrons outside a Melbourne gentleman’s club. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese questioned Ms Thorpe’s mental wellbeing after an incident in which she delivered a serve to a group of men standing outside Maxine’s, an adult entertainment venue in Melbourne’s Brunswick. …

Wages for temporary skilled migrants in Australia will be raised by about $16,000 from July 1, and thousands will be eligible for permanent residency by the end of the year. Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil announced the major policy reforms in her National Press Club address on Thursday as part of her overhaul of the  migration system. “These two changes …

The National Defence Statement 2023 is nothing if not predictable, going all the way with the USA, quickly rubber stamping the nuclear-powered submarines in particular, and AUKUS in general. The review’s outcome was set before it started by the politics of Labor signing up in a matter of hours to carry Scott Morrison’s Anglophone burden. Paul Keating’s charge remains unanswered …

The Greens will use their balance of power to block the government’s signature $10 billion housing package unless it agrees to enforce a national rent freeze. Leader Adam Bandt will use a National Press Club address on Wednesday to push for support for renters in the May budget. Mr Bandt says a two-year rent freeze is not only legal but …

Anthony Albanese has made special mention of Indigenous troops who fought for their country in his first Anzac Day address as Prime Minister. On the 108th anniversary of the landings at Gallipoli during World War I, thousands of Australians gathered at services across the country early on Tuesday. Mr Albanese led tributes at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra where …

Benched Victorian MP Moira Deeming has walked back her condemnation of the organisers of a controversial anti-trans rally while planning her return to the Liberals. Ms Deeming was suspended for attending the rally that was crashed by neo-Nazis. On Monday night she accepted her nine-month suspension after describing her rally attendance as an “error of judgement”. Ms Deeming said she looked …

Chris Minns has been sworn in as NSW’s 47th premier, as Labor’s hopes for a majority government waning as counting continues in nail-biter electorates. Labor needs 47 seats to have a lower house majority but was stuck on 45 late on Monday as the Coalition pushed ahead in eight of the seats still in doubt. Liberal candidates leapfrogged Labor’s early …

Labor’s “new working class” were critical to the party’s New South Wales election victory, a former Labor strategist says. Analysis of census data showed the largest proportion of public sector workers live in west and south-west Sydney, and the Central Coast. Commenting on the party’s wins in the seats of Camden, Parramatta, Riverstone, Penrith and East Hills on Saturday night, Kos …