Former New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern says we need to radically re-think our ideas about what makes a successful political leader. “I want to bring into question those old assumptions about the character traits we want in politics,” Ms Ardern tells 7.30 in her first Australian TV interview about her new memoir, A Different Kind of Power. “People are …

When Kirsty Clarke sits down at her desk each morning, in the bowels of the Australian Federal Police’s Canberra headquarters, she faces an excruciating dilemma: which child to rescue from horrific sexual exploitation first? The mother-of-two is a member of the AFP’s little-known Victim Identification Team, whose job it is to locate perpetrators and the children they abuse in sexual …

Taxpayers have been urged to check for any lost or unclaimed superannuation, as the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) revealed it is holding $17.8 billion worth of unclaimed funds. The ATO also warned people who have already retired, that they too could be in for a retirement savings boost, with $471 million of that unclaimed super being held on behalf of people aged 65 plus. …

Paris will get back just a fraction of a multi-billion-dollar contract torn up by Canberra Australia has agreed to shell out $589 million (AU$835 million) in compensation to French shipbuilder Naval Group after killing a major submarine deal last year as part of the AUKUS pact with the United States and Britain, in the latest effort to smooth over the …

Prime minister-elect Anthony Albanese is a politician moulded by his humble start to life as the only child of a single mother who raised him on a pension in gritty inner-Sydney suburbia. He is also a hero of multicultural Australia, describing himself as the only candidate with a “non-Anglo-Celtic name” to run for prime minister in the 121 years the …

Scott Morrison and his government enter the new year with a fresh iteration of their “women problem” — the multiple high-profile female independents contesting a number of Liberal seats. It’s not that the next parliament is likely to see a big influx of new lower house crossbenchers. ABC election analyst Antony Green points out that, to win, independents in these seats …

When the premier of Australia’s biggest state warns the country that things are going to get much worse before they get better, we should thank her for her honesty and urge our national political leaders to take note. In many ways Premier Gladys Berejiklian has no alternative but to face the facts of her own lethal misjudgments since June; she …

A Sydney man has allegedly been caught after twice trying to cross the Queensland border with 145kg of cannabis worth $1.2 million. The 48-year-old was trying to drive his van through through a border checkpoint on Griffith St, Coolangatta, about 8.50pm on Thursday when police realised he had already tried to cross over earlier in the day. He told them …

In their first press conference since seizing control of the Afghan capital, the Taliban have assured women their rights would be respected “within the limits of Islam”. They said women will have a right to education and work, but exactly what life will look like under a new Taliban government is unclear. Many Afghan women are terrified of a return of the repressive laws that were imposed under …

A group of apartment buyers are pleading with the NSW government to help break their contracts after purchasing off-the-plan units in a Parramatta development where defects were recently discovered. NSW Fair Trading issued developer Hassall Developments with a Prohibition Order in early July, demanding the company rectify a number of defects in its Imperial Towers development in Hassall Street, Parramatta. Many buyers had …