Major investigation reveals serious problems with a federal grants program to help communities recover from natural disasters.

Shares push higher through the afternoon, led by banks and defensive stocks

Asher Keddie, Germaine Greer and Alan Jones are among those who have thrown their support behind two Australians facing the death penalty in Indonesia, in a powerful star-filled video calling for mercy.

Analysis: The Prime Minister has not given you a Christmas bonus by scrapping his widely disliked GP co-payment plan – he's given himself one.

Westpac has become the latest big listed company - and the first bank - to be targeted by a shareholder campaign on business lobby groups amid Australia's long-running and vexed climate policy debate.