It was always Australia’s preference to get three second-hand submarines, a senior defence official has revealed in Senate estimates, as the government faces pressure to renegotiate the AUKUS pact. The revelation casts a new light on changes to the agreement over the weekend, under which Australia will buy three used Virginia-class submarines rather than two used and one new. Defence …

Australia’s housing market has continued to lose momentum, with national home values flatlining in May as higher interest rates, weak confidence and proposed property tax changes weigh on demand. According to new Cotality data, Sydney and Melbourne led the weakness, with dwelling values falling 0.9 per cent and 0.8 per cent respectively in May. Values also slipped in Canberra, down …

Sometimes, when the online abuse for being a young, African-born, Muslim mayor gets brutal, Mohamed Semra turns to the lesson he learnt on the back of a donkey in Sudan. He was just 10, a city kid from Melbourne on his first trip back to the country his mother fled with her six children when Mohamed was three. His family …

In the first full budget since Labor’s landslide election victory last year, the government is putting some money back in workers’ pockets and increasing taxes on investors. Treasurer Jim Chalmers is selling it as a big reform budget that will tip the scales to make the tax system fairer for young Australians. But the war in Iran and the global …

In the wake of three Australian women linked to the Islamic State (IS) group being arrested upon arriving home last week, the initial reaction from inside the Syrian refugee camp where they had lived for years has been one of anger and frustration. After IS’s so-called caliphate was defeated in 2019 by a US-led coalition, many foreign-born wives and their …

Following One Nation’s extraordinary victory at the Farrer by-election last night, the party’s leader Pauline Hanson has taunted critics who said she could never break into the mainstream. One Nation has won Farrer in a landslide victory, decimating the Liberal and National vote, and claiming the first lower house win for the conservative party since Senator Hanson first entered parliament in …

A tax shake-up is coming. Next week’s federal budget will include changes to the capital gains tax, negative gearing and the rules for trust funds. All three were part of Labor’s 2019 election campaign. Back then, it argued that the tax concessions were unfair and benefited “the top end of town”. This time, the Albanese government will frame it as …

Flights have been booked for families linked to Islamic State fighters returning from Syria to Australia, with women in the group facing arrest and investigation when they touch down. The group of four women, along with nine children and grandchildren, left Syria’s Al Roj refugee camp in late April, but their path from Syria to Australia has remained uncertain. The …

Elevated interest rates have trimmed the borrowing capacity of prospective home buyers, as many agents report the housing market is beginning to level out. The Reserve Bank lifted interest rates by 0.25 percentage points to 4.35 per cent on Tuesday, leaving the cash rate at its highest level since February 2025. Property data firm Cotality shows demand is softening and growth is slowing …

The Reserve Bank has increased interest rates by 0.25 percentage points. The new cash rate target is 4.35 per cent, up from 4.1 per cent. Interest rates have now returned to the level they were in February 2025 before the RBA began its rate-cutting cycle last year, so last year’s policy easing has been fully unwound. Today’s decision follows last …