Australia’s open-door policy to New Zealanders will add an extra $543m to the cost of the NDIS over the next four years alone. The mother of a baby girl abandoned in Sydney was known to the family who discovered the newborn. Company behind the iconic Hills hoist goes into administration. The RACQ motoring body is threatening to ditch insurance cover for more than a million motorists across Queensland. Australia Post will lift its prices for a slew of mostly business delivery services. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information ..read more

Decorated soldier Ben Roberts-Smith will appeal against a civil court judgment that found he murdered innocent civilians in Afghanistan. Police allege a Sydney father accused of stabbing his toddler son to death fatally attacked the child in a fit of rage. A shocking new study has found unstable housing can shave years off Australians’ lives. A second teacher in Adelaide's northeastern suburbs has been arrested and charged with aggravated indecent assault. Queensland’s new legislation to tackle youth crime is doing little to deter young offenders. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy inform ..read more

The RBA governor says Australians will have to get a housemate or stay at home with mum and dad as rents continue to soar. Ominous social media post made by an SA man accused of killing his partner. The QLD government will look to cut ties with professional services and consultancy giant PwC. Ben Roberts-Smith’s defamation judgement to be handed down. Record high indexation of university debt takes effect. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information ..read more

The country’s biggest public health campaign to combat vaping will be launched in Victoria today.  A “crackdown” on taxi drivers breaking the law has failed to stop rampant fixed fare price gouging with Thursday nights the hot spot for Sydneysiders to get scammed.  Just one of Labor’s 66 election promises worth $140 million to Queensland sporting and community groups have reached a funding agreement, while only five are even being assessed.  Popular not-for-profit the YMCA has been caught underpaying staff with hundreds of employees left more than $1m out of pocket.  A teen ..read more

Anthony Albanese has sounded the alarm of the state of the nation’s early childhood, disability, veterans and aged care systems, signalling fixing them will be a major focus of his prime ministership.  Ex-NRL coach Daniel Anderson has no recollection of the shocking bodysurfing accident that almost killed him and has left him a quadriplegic.  Queensland children aged four and under will be given state-funded swimming lessons just weeks after the government finalised its audit into swim education in schools.  Four teenage school friends have died in a horrific road accident on a ..read more

Police allege the encounter between an officer with a taser and a great-grandmother with a knife all played out within one minute.  A LAB analysis of “lolly” flavoured vapes widely sold in Queensland has revealed the devices are filled with a toxic cocktail of chemicals including arsenic, formaldehyde and lead.  Lawyers for the First Nations families at the centre of the Hawthorn racism scandal have recommended a settlement to the AFL which could end the long and damaging saga.   Fearful frontline health workers are urgently calling for help almost 30 times a day on average ..read more

From her powerhouse vocals and rise to popularity as a black female solo artist, she also became a symbol of resilience after leaving her abusive ex-husband Ike and clawing her way back to the top to becoming one of the best-selling artists of all time.    A heritage building in Sydney’s CBD has gone up in flames and dramatically collapsed, firefighters have dodged falling debris and a car was set alight in one of the biggest building fires in recent memory.  Victorian households on basic energy deals will see their bills soar by an average of $352 - or 25 per cent - next financ ..read more

Great-grandmother Clare Nowland  passed away in hospital last night, one week after she was tasered by a NSW Police officer in her Cooma nursing home.  The former NSW multiculturalism minister has been forced into an apology after making a comment  about a Vietnamese-Australian MP, which has been labelled “offensive” and “racist”.  A Centrelink worker stabbed in a bloody ambush in Melbourne is planning to launch legal action against the welfare agency for failing to protect her.  All parents at an Adelaide Hills school were only notified yesterday that a student who al ..read more

The Australian sex offender, who enjoyed a decades-long career in showbiz until his arrest on indecent assault charges in 2013, died after a battle with neck cancer.  New data shows School-childrens’ lives are being put at risk by thousands of dangerous drivers who speed and run red lights at traffic intersections in school zones.  Firefighters are furious after their commissioner didn’t attend a state memorial service honouring Izabella “Izzy” Nash, who died in a fire earlier this month – the first such tragedy in nearly 30 years.  AN emotional Damien Hardwick walked away from ..read more

Sydney’s housing crisis is ­driving a wave of “working homeless” – residents who can’t find or afford a home despite holding a job – with the situation so bad an encampment of tents and car-sleepers has emerged in the heart of Anthony Albanese’s inner-west electorate.  A man has been shot dead in Sydney’s western suburbs and two burnt out cars have been found nearby, in the latest suspected gangland hit to rock the city’s streets.  A man who was shot dead by police in front of his family in an inner Brisbane suburb was released from hospital the day before, following a mental he ..read more