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Arts elite attacks Australian PM Rudd over images

The handpicked cultural advisers of prime minister Kevin Rudd have confronted him over his attack on Bill Henson's photographs of naked teenagers, and have warned that the Melbourne artist potential prosecution damages the Australia's cultural reputation.

Justice for Australia's Stolen Generations

One of the tens of thousands of indigenous Australians known as the Stolen Generations, Debra Hocking reflects on being forcibly removed from her family and enduring years of abuse as a result, before campaigning for a formal apology from the government.

Riding on a sheep's back - PETA versus Australian wool

In recent months, PETA's campaigning has induced dozens of retailers to boycott or phase out Australian wool in protest at the controversial practice of "mulesing", a grim operation which involves cutting away swathes of skin around the backsides of Merino sheep.

Of dogs and blogs - the generational rift in Victoria's Liberals

The 'Ted Baillieu Must Go' blog that attacked the leader of Victoria's opposition Liberals has shown that his opponents are less defined by belonging to a party faction than by their younger age and the new methods they use to make themselves heard.

Hatchets are buried as the chainsaws fall silent in Australian native forest

The last of the chainsaws are due to fall silent as the final licence to log in the Otways expires, ending years of bitter confrontations between loggers and conservationists in the native forest 100 miles south-west of Melbourne.

‘Captain Sniffy’ and Western Australia’s blokey blokes

The addition to a welter of oafish indiscretions of sexist overtone by Western Australia's opposition leader Troy Buswell says plenty about the Liberal Party there, and adds to a lingering suspicions about the place that despite marketing itself as the State of Excitement is too often too willing to conduct itself as the State of Excess.

Costa, New South Wales Labor's good cop, bad cop or true blue?

New South Wales Treasurer Michael Costa's bully-boy tactics may have hurt Labor but not the Premier or the state government plan's to sell-off its power industry.

Australian Climate Change Minister’s dose of shock therapy

As she draws up detailed plans to reduce carbon emissions, Penny Wong, the Australian Climate Change Minister, faces fierce arguments from fossil fuel companies that are on a collision course with the latest scientific predictions on global warming.

Victorian Premier Brumby fades to brown

Premier John Brumby has a vision for Melbourne in a climate-changed age, but sustainability experts fear that it is too wedded to coal and cars to match the scale of the environmental problem.

Australia’s great budget expectations

There's a lot for the Wayne Swan to worry about, as getting his first budget right is vital for the Australian economy, crucial politically for the new Rudd Government and critical for the Treasurer personally.

Missing couple show up at news conference into their disappearance

An Australian couple who went on a last-minute vacation arrived home on the weekend as police and reporters were preparing to hold a news conference about their suspicious disappearance. William and Heather Ostell found police searching their Melbourne home when they pulled into the driveway on Sunday. Australia's Herald Sun newspaper reported police were in the process of ripping up a backyard deck to search for the couple's bodies.

Australians taken hostage in China

Ten Australians, who were taken hostage in China, have been released. Australia s Foreign Affairs department has confirmed ten Australians were travelling on a tourist bus in China s western province of Xian when they were taken hostage by a Chinese man.

Australia builds Antarctic ice runway

The A319-115LR (the 'LR' stands for Long Range) can fly 7,500 miles, sufficient to go from Hobart to the Wilkins Runway and back a total distance of 4,965 miles without refueling. The flight each way takes about 4.5 hours, depending on the winds. The twin-engine jet is configured so that it can transport up to 40 passengers and 6.5 tons of cargo. After landing, it spends two to three hours on the ground before returning to Australia.

Australia apology to Aborigines

Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin said the apology would be the first item of business when the new legislature convened on 13 February.

The Orstrahyun: Australia 'locked out' of huge new East Asian Free Trade Union on orders of China

Alexander Downer has, by now, learned that Australia has been locked out of joining a vast new ASEAN nations free trade and energy union. And China demanded Australia be excluded. Downer is at the East Asia Summit, where he laughingly claimed he would be trying to get a last minute climate change related 'breakthrough agreement' from developing countries like China, Indonesia, Vietnam and The Philippines. Good luck with that...