Australians will vote on Saturday in the first general election since brutal party infighting ousted the nation’s fourth leader in a decade. PM Scott Morrison says he has united his conservative government in the nine months since he replaced Malcolm Turnbull. Labor opposition leader Bill Shorten has pressed his case with stark policy alternatives. Australia […]

Former Australian prime minister and Labor Party leader Bob Hawke, who dominated the country’s politics in the 1980s, has died at the age of 89. The charismatic politician, renowned for his love of beer and cricket, served from 1983 to 1991 and is credited with modernising the economy. He was the centre-left Labor Party’s longest-serving […]

In 1952, Bob Hawke had an experience that led him to abandon his Christian faith. The university student was attending a Christmas Eve party at a mansion in India at the end of the World Christian Youth Congress when he looked out towards the front gates and saw a group of starving people watching the […]

In a vast, sparsely populated land like Australia, overseeing an election is a massive logistical effort… particularly when you have compulsory voting. The task is greater than ever ahead of Saturday’s general election because a record 96.8% of eligible voters have enrolled to cast a ballot. Most Australians will vote in cities and regional centres, […]

Australia will go to the polls on 18 May at a time when many Australians have big questions about their country and who leads it. Here’s a visual look at some key issues and themes which could shape the outcome. Who’s in charge? It’s only a mild overstatement to suggest that Australia has adopted a […]

A man in Australia has scooped a $1m (£536,000) lottery prize after dreaming the winning numbers 13 years ago. The man, who wishes to remain anonymous, said he had dreamt the numbers one night and had been playing them ever since. He said: “I checked my ticket online and discovered the news. I thought one […]

Australians vote in a general election on 18 May and rarely, if ever, has campaigning in the nation been splashed with so much cash. So, asks the BBC’s Phil Mercer in Sydney, what will be its effect? A controversial mining tycoon with a penchant for dinosaurs and ambitions to build a replica of the Titanic […]

Want Australia news in your inbox? Sign up here for the Australia Letter. MASIG ISLAND, Australia — Every weekend, Yessie Mosby visits the sandy, washed-out graves of his ancestors to gather their scattered bones. Their shallow burial place, just yards from the shore of Masig Island, north of mainland Australia, has been eroded by rising […]

Australia’s latest A$50 note comes with a big blunder hidden in the small print – a somewhat embarrassing typo. The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) spelled “responsibility” as “responsibilty” on millions of the new yellow notes. The RBA confirmed the typo on Thursday and said the error would be fixed in future print runs. But […]

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has joked that her partner’s marriage proposal was an intimate moment with just the two of them, a police protection officer, a couple of locals and a dog that tried to eat chocolate her partner had brought with him. Ms Ardern (38) said she was taken by surprise by […]