The first group of Australian women and children held in a detention camp in north-east Syria since the fall of the Islamic State (IS) group in 2019 is en route to Sydney. The ABC can reveal four women and 13 children were taken from the camp on Thursday afternoon and made the 30 kilometre trip to the Iraq border before boarding a …

Greens senator Lidia Thorpe has resigned as the party’s deputy leader in the Senate. The ABC revealed earlier today that Senator Thorpe “briefly dated” the ex-president of the Victorian Rebels outlaw motorcycle gang, Dean Martin, while sitting on a parliamentary law enforcement committee. Senator Thorpe acknowledged she did not disclose the relationship to Mr Bandt. Within an hour of the ABC’s report, …

Disadvantaged and vulnerable people “bore the brunt” of Australia’s COVID-19 pandemic response, according to a report. The privately funded review has condemned Australia’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, arguing that government health measures and policies lacked transparency and further entrenched existing inequalities. “Governments and public servants were making decisions in a fog of uncertainty,” the review said. “But, looking back, we are …

After a brief flirtation with pruning stage 3 tax cuts, Jim Chalmers has reverted this week to playing down expectations for his first budget. “It won’t be fancy, it won’t be flashy,” the treasurer insists, sounding like someone about to serve up a sensible meal. That means little of the candy that voters have become accustomed to in recent budgets: tax cuts, …

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is standing by his decision to reverse a Morrison-era policy recognising West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, but concedes it could have been handled better. Labor promised at the election to reverse Australia’s recognition of West Jerusalem as Israel’s official capital, but the policy change was announced on Tuesday, a holy holiday for Jewish people. …

Liberal Senator Michaelia Cash has denied that allegations one of her staff members had sexually assaulted another would have been “politically embarrassing” while giving evidence in the trial of Bruce Lehrmann today. Mr Lehrmann is accused of raping Brittany Higgins inside Parliament House after a drunken night out with colleagues. He has pleaded not guilty. Ms Higgins worked for Senator Cash from …

Australia’s economic outlook faces downgrades in the Albanese Government’s first budget next week, with Treasurer Jim Chalmers cautioning the global economy is treading an “increasingly perilous path”. Fresh from meetings in Washington DC with the International Monetary Fund and G20 finance ministers, Mr Chalmers echoed warnings from leading economists that the risk many of our key trading partners could face recessions was …

Doctors are abusing the $28 billion Medicare system, at times putting patients at risk, billing dead people and falsifying patient records, all to boost profits. A joint investigation by ABC’s 7.30 program, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age has uncovered flaws in Medicare’s systems that make it easy to rort and almost impossible to detect fraud, incorrect payments and errors. …

Unions NSW has publicly declared it will campaign against the Perrottet government to address growing anger amongst workers across the state. Secretary of Unions NSW, Mark Morey, told the ALP’s state conference in Sydney, union members are now on a campaign footing for the next 160 days in the lead up to the March state election. Mr Morey said workers were “very outraged” by …

The Reserve Bank of Australia has increased the cash rate by 0.25 of a percentage point. That means the cash rate is now 2.6 per cent. It is the sixth month in a row the RBA has lifted its cash rate target, but the first time since the first move in May that rates have risen less than 0.5 of a percentage point. If you’re on a variable rate, your …