As farming groups lobby the Federal Government to take action on soaring water prices, water brokers warn some irrigators will be worse off if the Government intervenes in the trade.

Emergency warnings for bushfires burning near Darwin have been downgraded as fire crews battle to prevent the further spread of fire.

Authorities are warning WA residents to prepare emergency kits for up to five days and to avoid "last minute" preparations, despite below-average cyclone predictions for the 201920 season.

The debt-laden Gunner Government has spent almost $170 million on unbudgeted policy changes including $12 million for a grandstand at the Fannie Bay racecourse in the two months after its May Budget was handed down.

Northern Territory Police send in reinforcements after a woman is shot with a crossbow during a violent outbreak in a remote Arnhem Land community

The country's top emergency officials today warned of the dangers of the impending bushfire season, but despite all the uniforms, the stern tone and sincerity of the warnings, many of us won't take action.

Australia's consumer affairs ministers agree to consider laws boosting people's ability to repair their phones and other electronic goods, rather than send them to the dump.

If you were to ask someone to name the best wine regions in the country, they would probably say the Hunter or the Barossa Valley but there is a new competitor on the scene.

There are warnings for consumers and farmers that Australia's biggest food bowl, the Murray-Darling Basin, is bracing for a grim end to the year.

Forty years after the Vietnam War, two Canberra veterans have developed digital maps to help locate some 300,000 Vietnamese war dead still missing in action.

It may be convenient, but public health experts warn of the danger of convenient alcohol-delivery services to those who may be vulnerable.

Wang Yiwei says it's in Australia's national interest for the US-Chinese trade war to be de-escalated.

More than 16 years on from the bushfires that killed four people and destroyed hundreds of homes, the ACT Rural Fire Service warns the community is becoming "complacent" as memories of the territory's darkest day fade.

Firefighting experts and senior scientists tell Background Briefing they're concerned the Federal Government is refusing to guarantee funding for the only national research body for bushfires beyond 2021.

A former public servant, jailed for almost 20 years for killing one of Australia's top police officers, is awarded more than $7 million after he was found not guilty of the crime.

The ACT's top law officer says federal police should not waste their time chasing Canberrans who use small amounts of cannabis as he urges Christian Porter not to interfere with new laws.

Celebrated children's writer and novelist Gail Jones takes out two of six Prime Minister's Literary Awards, worth a total of $480,000.

The sexual assault, and her future brother-in-law's warning that she not tell anyone, left her with an eating disorder and post traumatic stress disorder.

The ACT Government is hitting back at warnings from the United Nations that legalising cannabis will breach international law, telling the body to instead focus on the United States and Canada.

A North Queensland Cowboys feeder club hopes its American import is more than your average Joe when he trots out for his first QRL game this weekend.

Drought has collided with high demand for soybeans, lifting prices by around $500 a tonne, prompting warnings of a price hike for soymilk, tofu and tempeh.

A 10-year-old boy writes to Queensland's Environment Minister pleading with authorities not to remove a giant crocodile that has been sunning itself on a creek bank.

Health professionals who say they have seen an increase in the number of "very young children" under the influence of solvents and inhalants warn the consequences of their actions are irreversible.

Fire ants are spreading into new areas across south-east Queensland according to a Biosecurity Queensland insider who says the war to eradicate the potential killers is all but lost, a claim vehemently denied by the man tasked with stopping the spread.

An elderly Australian war veteran remembers helping to clean up in Japan after the atomic bombs.

The Raiders miss the chance to move up into third place by narrowly losing to the Warriors, while the Bulldogs knock off the Broncos and the Dragons pile even more pain on the Titans.

After a police car is pelted with bottles, a senior officer says Gold Coast industrial estates are increasingly becoming gathering places for illegal car hoons.

A Gold Coast man acquitted of murdering a woman he met on Tinder says he has "no ethical obligation" to reveal details of his past online, after a feminist group began a campaign against him.

About 34,000 troops from several countries are playing out high-end war games in a mammoth training exercise designed to improve military cooperation.

The misuse of pesticides on Australian farms is threatening overseas markets, according to industry group Pulse Australia.

As Stanthorpe faces running dry within months the local council discusses its options with the Queensland Government and gets set to impose heavy water restrictions.

Consumer groups are warning borrowers that two related short-term money-lending companies that have charged fees of up to almost 1,000 per cent of the initial loan, and are being investigated by ASIC, are now operating under a new name.

The Queensland Government is expected to pass a bill today to introduce new mandatory farm run-off regulations to protect the reef, despite opposition from agricultural groups.

The rate of deliberately lit fires escalates rapidly during the school holiday period, according to an expert in arson investigations, as Queensland authorities reveal action has been taken against 21 juveniles and nine adults in recent weeks.

People living close to the beach admit to being a "little bit blas" about the threat of bushfires, but a forced evacuation during the recent Sunshine Coast emergency has changed their mindset.