User Articles

Echidna digs in to help island wildlife back from blaze

Rangers are over the moon after an echidna was spotted on an island where wildlife was mostly destroyed by a devastating bushfire more than a decade ago. After a devastating bushfire in 2014, the Pakana Rangers thought Clarke Island, off Tasmania’s coast, was mostly devoid of life. Then an echidna was captured on a camera set up to monitor wildlife on Clarke Island, also known by its indigenous name Lungtalanana, sending them “through the roof happy” according to ranger supervisor Kulai Sculthorpe.

AAP Newswire

Economy

Unemployment rate lowest since Whitlam

Unemployment has been lower under Anthony Albanese’s government than any prime minister since Gough Whitlam, with more promising jobs data expected. Australian Bureau of Statistics figures are tipped to show the jobless rate holding at 4.1 per cent in February. While above the 3.4 per cent low recorded in October 2022, that’s still well below the historical average of 6.3 per cent since 1972.

AAP Newswire

Retail

19 Mar 2025

Online shopping continues to boom

Australians are buying more than ever online, but cost-of-living pressures are resulting in smaller checkout bundles. Australians spent a record $69 billion online last year, up 12 per cent from the year before, according to Australia Post’s yearly ecommerce report. The report found 9.8 million households shopped online in 2024, up 2.3 per cent on the year before, eclipsing the number of households counted in the 2021 Census.

AAP Newswire

19 Mar 2025

Government

17 Mar 2025

Cyclone deals blow to federal budget

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has confirmed a budget deficit after posting two surpluses as he announces more cyclone-aftermath support. An additional $1.2 billion will go toward disaster payments and rebuilding local communities and forms part of a broader $13.5 billion natural disaster response package in the budget. The treasurer announced a $1000 disaster recovery payment would be extended to more Queensland and NSW localities hit by ex-tropical cyclone Alfred.

AAP Newswire

17 Mar 2025

USA

16 Mar 2025

Tariffs should be a ‘wake-up call’

Australia is being urged to reconsider its relationship with the US after Donald Trump imposed hefty tariffs on all trading partners. The US president has flagged further trade measures, putting more pressure on the federal government after Australia failed to secure an exemption from his 25 per cent tariffs on steel and aluminium. Greens leader Adam Bandt does not believe retaliatory tariffs would be the right response, but warned the nation should not be “hitching Australia’s wagon” to Trump.

AAP Newswire

16 Mar 2025

Weather

Major cities and inland to swelter in sharp heatwave

Australia’s east coast will swelter through a summer-like heatwave with some areas to notch record-breaking temperatures. Parts of NSW, Victoria and South Australia could feel temperatures up to 12C above the March average in what’s shaping as a hot weekend.

AAP Newswire

Ukraine

Ceasefire first call amid Ukraine peacekeeping push

A guaranteed ceasefire will need to be in place before Australia considers sending personnel to Ukraine, the country’s ambassador says. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will join a phone hook-up of world leaders about peacekeeping efforts as part of a coalition of the willing. The phone call was set up by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, with leaders from Germany, Italy, New Zealand, the EU and Canada to also take part.

AAP Newswire

Trade

Beef and wine producers told ‘we have your back’

Australians have been urged to come together and support homegrown industries as US President Donald Trump threatens hefty tariffs on more goods. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced $750 million in federal funding to develop new technologies for lower emissions and better productivity in Australian metals manufacturing. The package provides some relief for the industry after America’s 25 per cent tariffs on steel and aluminium came into effect, aiming to ensure it remains internationally competitive.

AAP Newswire

Politics

Cyclone response helps Albanese bridge gap on Dutton

The Prime Minister’s handling of Tropical Cyclone Alfred has seen him draw level with Peter Dutton for voter satisfaction for the first time in a year. The latest YouGov polling, provided to AAP, showed Labor consolidating its lead over the opposition, ahead 51 to 49 per cent on a two-party preferred basis.

AAP Newswire

Science

12 Mar 2025

World-first success for artificial heart patient

In a process labelled as an unmitigated success, an Australian patient has become the first in the world to leave hospital after an artificial heart transplant. Almost two decades after his father died from heart failure, Daniel Timms has helped to transform treatment for patients across the globe. His invention, the BiVACOR Total Artificial Heart, recently marked an important milestone when an Australian recipient became the first in the world to be discharged from hospital.

AAP Newswire

12 Mar 2025

Agriculture

Farmers count the cost of heavy rain

Heavy rain has dealt vegetable farmers another “kick in the guts” after successive floods and storms, but growers are determined to sow their winter crops. Ex-tropical cyclone Alfred dumped hundreds of millimetres of rain across the Lockyer Valley in southeast Queensland from Sunday, inundating the towns of Laidley and Grantham. Farmers near Laidley Creek, which peaked above a minor flood level of five metres, were in for a rough ride, Lockyer Valley Growers Association president Michael Sippel said.

AAP Newswire

USA

Trump-Turnbull spat overshadows tariff relief talk

Australia’s chances of a US tariff exemption hang in the balance as tensions continue to flare between Donald Trump and Malcolm Turnbull. The US president and former Liberal prime minister launched a war of words days before Trump’s 25 per cent tariffs on steel and aluminium imports take effect on Wednesday. While some are concerned the stoush could jeopardise Australia’s attempts to negotiate an exemption, former ambassador to the US Arthur Sinodinos brushed off the criticism.

AAP Newswire

Disaster

‘I would be dead’: Mum’s fateful call amid storm

When power was finally restored to her storm-hit home, Renata Brunton opted not to return straight away. The decision may have saved her life. Soon afterwards a giant tree landed in her bedroom, destroying her family’s Gold Coast home in the wake of ex-tropical cyclone Alfred. “I am just glad I wasn’t there because I would be dead right now,“ Ms Brunton said.

AAP Newswire

USA

Trump rips into ‘weak and ineffective’ Turnbull

US President Donald Trump has launched a scathing attack against former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull as he weighs up whether to give Australia an exemption from tariffs on steel and aluminium. In a late-night spray on Truth Social, Trump slammed Turnbull. “Malcolm Turnbull, the former Prime Minister of Australia who was always leading that wonderful country from “behind,“ never understood what was going on in China, nor did he have the capacity to do so,“ the president wrote.

AAP Newswire

Weather

Flood, dam-spill fears after Alfred

Wading through hip-height waters, Stephen Luke rescued a woman after she drove into flooding near his home. After going to bed, he woke to find a foot of water through his home’s bottom floor with rubbish strewn around from toppled bins. Luke’s first flooding experience has certainly been eventful.

AAP Newswire

Economy

Voters abandoning hope for future

Australians are losing hope in the future as economic and housing burdens weigh on their minds. Though inflation has declined and unemployment remains low, one in three Australians have reported financial stress and a similar proportion believed their lives have worsened over the past year, pushing life satisfaction to its lowest levels since the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, the latest Australian National University election monitoring survey found.

AAP Newswire