Renting and buying in the Harbour City has never been less affordable, but the solutions to the deepening crisis could be staring us right in the face. The world’s largest cities all tackle high housing costs and land shortages, but urban planners say Sydney is stuck in the past and unwilling to try proven solutions. Rents are at record highs, …

Two new polls suggest the NSW Coalition government has closed the gap on Labor, putting the state on track for minority government. The Newspoll survey of 1014 voters published in The Australian on Monday showed primary support for Labor has fallen by four percentage points since September to 36 per cent, while the Coalition has gained two points to 37 per cent. …

US authorities say the virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic most likely leaked out of a Chinese research laboratory. In an about-face on previous stances, the US Energy Department said new intelligence prompted it to conclude an accidental leak from a Wuhan lab – not as part of a weapons program – probably led to the global pandemic. The Wall …

The referendum for an Indigenous Voice to Parliament is the ‘last roll of the dice’ for structural reform in this country, Uluru Dialogue co-chair Pat Anderson says. The referendum, slated to be held in the second half of this year, will ask Australians whether Indigenous recognition should be enshrined in the nation’s constitution. Aunty Pat, who is on the referendum …

Twitter Inc has laid off at least 200 employees, or about 10 per cent of its workforce, the New York Times reports, in its latest round of job cuts since Elon Musk took over the micro-blogging site in October. The layoffs on Saturday night impacted product managers, data scientists and engineers who worked on machine learning and site reliability, which helps keep …

China says it seeks dialogue and peace for Ukraine despite US warnings that it might be considering weapons supplies for its ally Russia’s invasion. Air raid sirens blared in the capital Kyiv and other cities overnight and a Russian missile killed one person in the western town of Khmelnitskyi, Mayor Oleksandr Symshyshyn said on the Telegram messaging app on Monday. The …

Former Coalition human services minister and conservative stalwart Alan Tudge bid an emotional farewell to politics on Thursday and quietly left behind him an existential question for the Liberal Party. Mr Tudge – whose resignation is effective next week – had become entwined with a public perception that the Liberal Party had condoned the mistreatment of women after his affair with an …

There are fears of a “secondary disaster” in Turkey and Syria as hundreds of thousands of homeless earthquake victims are forced to live without shelter, water, fuel and electricity. The death toll jumped again to 20,000 — surpassing the Fukushima earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster in Japan in 2011. The World Health Organisation warned that survivors could lose their lives …

The total death toll from the earthquakes that struck southwest Turkey and northern Syria on Monday has climbed to above 20,000, a tally that is expected to rise as crews comb the rubble of thousands of toppled buildings. Turkey’s disaster agency raised the country’s confirmed death toll on Thursday night to 17,406, while the number of lives lost in neighbouring Syria stood …

Search and rescue operations in southern Turkey and northern Syria have entered their third day as the death toll surpassed 17000  amid a warning from the World Health Organization that time was running out to save those still trapped under earthquake-toppled buildings. Those efforts – buoyed by an array of international pledges to provide engineers, emergency responders and search dogs – …