Federal and state politics, policy, and governance
A bipartisan group of 70 US lawmakers has called on the DHS inspector general to investigate whether ICE illegally purchased Americans' location data without warrants, reigniting a surveillance oversight battle.
Aisha Khoury A review of Australia's 2022 data-sharing law finds it has produced just one dataset in three years, as agencies quietly bypass it in favour of their own systems.
Riley Fitzgerald 
Prime Minister Albanese has held emergency talks with UAE leadership as 115,000 Australians remain stranded across the Middle East following the closure of regional airspace.
Grace Okonkwo 
Brisbane's food truck programme has surged from 13 to over 100 approved sites, but vendors warn the council's tiered permit system is tilting the playing field.
Meg Hadley 
Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan is pushing mandatory work-from-home rights for all businesses, inviting a potential High Court challenge before the November 2026 state election.
Riley Fitzgerald 
Mosque memorials for Iran's slain supreme leader divide Australian politicians and communities, raising untested questions under new hate speech laws.
Daniel Kovac 
NSW's new regional rail fleet is more than three years late and $800m over budget, still in testing with no confirmed service date.
Daniel Kovac 
OpenAI is amending its Pentagon AI contract after CEO Sam Altman admitted the deal looked 'opportunistic and sloppy', sparking a public furore over surveillance and autonomous weapons.
Sophia Vargas 
A $1.3 million repair job on a 100-metre bridge in West Perth has stretched on for two years, closing a key lane into the CBD the whole time.
Yuki Tamura 
ICE and CBP have spent at least $515 million on products from four tech giants, according to Wired. Now employees are pushing back.
Darren Ong 
Queensland's opposition is questioning how contracts on the flagship Wave rail project were awarded to consultants who recently left a separate government body.
Tanya Birch 
Victoria accounts for 47% of Australia's suppression orders, and a former judge says mental health-based orders are the biggest threat to the court system.
Meg Hadley 
Scientists are furious after reforms meant to cut research grant wait times produced the opposite result, with approval blowouts now stretching into 2027.
James Callahan 
Australia endorsed the US-Israeli strikes on Iran within hours, yet declined to address questions of legality — a posture that critics say falls short of the moment.
Marcus Ashbrook 
BHP has frozen new investment in Queensland, blasting the state's coal royalty regime as the long-running dispute between the mining giant and Brisbane intensifies.
James Callahan 
Australia's Temporary Graduate visa fee has doubled to $4,600 from 1 March, with the sector warning the abrupt change risks deterring skilled graduates.
Tanya Birch 
Gold Coast Council has trialled an e-bike ban at two parks after footage of a Palm Beach sporting complex being vandalised went viral, as Queensland's death toll from e-mobility incidents hits 14.
Megan Torres 
A secret Liberal Party review, now leaked, reveals senior figures blamed each other for 2025's historic defeat while showing little personal accountability.
Rachel Thornbury 
A Queensland mayor has gone public after refusing to sign her council CEO's contract, calling for an independent investigation into alleged conflicts of interest.
Sophia Vargas 
NSW Premier Chris Minns called mosque mourning services for Ayatollah Khamenei 'atrocious', but critics question whether politicians should dictate who communities grieve.
Riley Fitzgerald