Victoria’s gambling regulator has been criticised for failing to hand down a harsher punishment to Crown after it was found to have tampered with poker machines to boost profits at its Melbourne casino. Crown was fined $300,000 by the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation (VCGLR) for disabling certain buttons on 17 of its 2628 poker machines so punters …

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is angry over royal commission revelations and wants bankers and financial advisers to be forced to give plain language advice to their customers and have their conversations recorded. “Banks and financial advisers have a solemn duty to put the interests of their clients and customers first,” Turnbull said in Sydney on Saturday. Over the past two …

Prolonged ocean warming events, known as marine heatwaves, take a significant toll on the complex ecosystem of the Great Barrier Reef. This is according to a new study on the impacts of the 2016 marine heatwave, published in Nature. In surveying the 3,863 individual reefs that make up the system off Australia’s north-east coast, scientists found that 29% of communities …

Australia’s largest lender collected fees from customers it knew had died, a major inquiry has heard. Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) told a public hearing that some of its financial planners had billed services to deceased clients. In one case, an adviser collected fees from a former client for more than a decade. Australia is holding a royal commission – …

Just as the US capital was about to be convulsed by the departure of yet another senior figure in the Trump administration, Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop took a phone call. It was from a figure described as “someone in the US Government close to the White House”. The informant wanted Australia to know what Secretary of State Rex Tillerson …

John Roberts has reached his 60s and has decided it’s time to trade in the family home for the apartment lifestyle. “I have quite a bit of what I call memorabilia, my wife calls it something else I won’t mention,” he joked. “You do have to get rid of a lot of stuff that you accumulate over the time.” As …

Eleven Asia-Pacific countries have just signed the trade pact formerly known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Although the US pulled out last year, the deal was salvaged by the remaining members, who signed it at a ceremony in the Chilean city of Santiago. Chilean foreign minister Heraldo Munoz said the agreement was a strong signal “against protectionist pressures, in favour of …

Which is simply to say that given Trump’s penchant for unpredictable speech and behaviour, the fact that the meeting between these two leaders went off without a hitch seems like an accomplishment in its own right. With previous US administrations this would not even have been a question due to the resilience and importance of the broad and deep relationship …

Michael McCormack is the new National party leader and Australia’s deputy prime minister, replacing Barnaby Joyce. He is from Wagga Wagga in New South Wales’ Riverina region, and first entered parliament in 2010. From a homophobic editorial to his role in the bungled census of 2016, here are a few things you should know about the new Nationals leader

In an effort to fight an invasive fish species in Australia, the government is planning on releasing the herpes virus into its waterways, hoping it will wipe out the common carp. However, several scientists are questioning this method saying the species-specific virus may not be effective against the fish and also poses a serious risk to global food security. Australia has long been trying to control …