The agency that runs the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) has defended hiring nearly 2,000 new employees last year despite major changes being rolled out to rein in the program’s cost. The NDIA grew its workforce by 1,925 new positions in 2025, accounting for nearly 70 per cent of all new hires to the Commonwealth public service last year. Data …

Social worker Sam Clark and his partner have accepted that they will have to move away from their community to be able to buy a home. The couple have been monitoring the market over the past few years and want to buy soon, but cannot afford anything on the Sunshine Coast, where they have been living for the past five …

Hanwright — the beginning of the saga Old school chums Lang Hancock and Peter Wright formed a business partnership in the 1930s centred on prospecting, which according to legend was sealed by a handshake. Peter Wright and Lang Hancock in the 1960s. (ABC News) Mr Wright was the reserved accountant, Mr Hancock the brash prospector and pastoralist, and together they would …

Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull says the Liberals must find votes in the centre rather than “chasing One Nation down that right wing populist burrow”. Mr Turnbull has lamented his old party’s shift to the right since he left politics, saying it has stopped talking policy and become preoccupied with culture wars. He said on Friday the bid to stop …

US President Donald Trump has singled out Australia while accusing a string of allies of failing to help secure the Strait of Hormuz amid the ongoing conflict with Iran. “Australia was not great. I was a little surprised by Australia,” the US president told a lengthy cabinet meeting in Washington. The criticism, which Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has brushed off, came …

Panic took hold in a section of a Canberra shopping centre on Friday evening after a group of teenagers brandished knives and a hammer. ACT police were called to the Canberra Centre, one of the city’s major shopping centres, about 6:20pm after reports of youths involved in a disturbance. One witness told the ABC he saw four or five young …

Bondi hero Ahmed Al Ahmed has been awarded a key to the city and a lifetime beach parking pass for his bravery during the December 14 terror attack. The 43-year-old went viral after footage showed him sneaking up behind one of the two gunmen shooting at attendees of a Jewish event and wrestling a long-barrelled gun away from him. He …

Fuel companies will soon face bigger fines for ripping off motorists,  as senior government figures distance themselves from secret advice suggesting a $40 cap at the petrol pump to combat shortages. Legislation doubling fines for false and misleading conduct and cartel behaviour to a maximum of $100 million has been introduced into parliament. While the bill applies across all areas …

Two teenage boys are facing a string of terrorism charges over separate incidents, including one involving the alleged importation of an ISIS flag. Police charged a 17-year-old boy on Tuesday with allegedly collecting manuals, guides and material promoting ISIS-inspired terrorism. An investigation was launched after intelligence indicated an ISIS flag, destined for an inner city Melbourne address, was imported into …

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been booed and heckled at Australia’s biggest mosque on one of the most important dates on the Islamic calendar, with police removing one protester. Thousands of people lined the streets surrounding Lakemba Mosque in Sydney’s west on Friday morning as they took part in morning prayers ahead of Eid al-Fitr celebrations. Albanese was invited to …