The ACT becomes the first Australian jurisdiction to legalise the possession, use and cultivation of small amounts of cannabis.

A judge has delivered a scathing assessment of two police officers who dragged a man from a car and threatened to arrest him "for being a smart-arse", saying their conduct was in "dramatic disproportion" to the situation.

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.

If Morrison had a message for farmers, announcing it on a Friday afternoon amid football finals, school holidays and long weekends is not how you'd typically deliver it, writes Kath Sullivan.

Haider Ali, 37, is returned to Australia to face court after he fled the country while on trial for sexual offences two years ago.

Several hundred online enthusiasts generate thousands of leads for investigators after a single day of competitive 'ethical hacking' across Australia.

Peter Forster-Jones is sentenced to jail over the 2016 murder of Eden Waugh at his home in Canberra's north, in what the judge called a "callous" act.

This startled eastern grey kangaroo was a bit miffed when two police officers on a jetski tried to haul it back on to the shore of Lake Burley Griffin.

It's impossible to count the millions spent on Australia's biggest police hunt, two trials, two High Court challenges, a judicial inquiry and 19 years of imprisonment.

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

Last year, Nigel Shedden got married to wife Belinda and together they moved into their dream home. Today, the couple are living with Mr Shedden's mother, and the home they spent 18 months building has been sold.

Australia is set to become only the second country in the world to have a dedicated national women's baseball competition.

Policeman-turned-lawyer David Healey's mental health was shattered by a rocket blast in Afghanistan. He now helps other traumatised cops fight for compensation.

Up to one in three Australian women have experienced birth trauma and one in 10 women emerge from childbirth with post-traumatic stress disorder, prompting calls for a major shake-up of the maternity system.

Chinese telco giant Huawei urges the Federal Government to reconsider its ban on the company providing equipment to Australia's 5G mobile network, describing claims it answers to Beijing as "unfounded attacks and smears".

The Australian Bureau of Statistics won't ask you about your sexual orientation in the 2021 census. But that won't stop it from trying to figure it out anyway.

The call comes as a probe into complaints handling and treatment of small business proposed better access to review schemes and beefed up compensation for taxpayers wrongly targeted by the ATO.

Steve Smith played every shot in the book and then some from outside the coaching manuals as his unbeaten 80 helped Australia to a seven-wicket win over Pakistan in their Twenty20 clash in Canberra.

What do John Farnham, Olivia Newton-John and Savage Garden all have in common? Apart from producing bona-fide pop bangers, they've all just been added to the official Sounds of Australia archive.

A decade of dry conditions and lower rainfall has left parts of northern Australia facing an early and "above normal" bushfire risk in parts of northern Queensland and the Northern Territory.

Rape victims are being made to wait for hours in the clothes they were assaulted in before being examined, or sometimes not examined at all, a damning auditor-general report reveals, highlighting the lack of qualified staff.

New research finds each feral cat in Australia will kill 740 animals a year. Together with their domesticated cousins, cats are killing about three million animals a day.

A leg wound that became infected after a fall eventually claimed the life of Bertha Aalberts, but her Melbourne nursing home had no record of the injury's severity, a Cairns hearing of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety is told.

Letters of solidarity and more than 400 Aboriginal 'passports' will be delivered to Manus Island refugees as a group of boats set sail for Papua New Guinea.

New laws are before Queensland Parliament to protect the Great Barrier Reef from harmful nutrient and sediment run-off, with a voluntary scheme not working fast enough according to the Environment Minister.

Health authorities urge more than 500 patients of a dental clinic in Far North Queensland to be tested for HIV and hepatitis as the clinic is investigated over its infection control practices.

They travelled across the world in the 1950s and '60s to build a new life cutting cane in the steamy paddocks of north Queensland. Now Basques return to learn the story of their ancestors.

The 7-metre boat left Badu Island on Wednesday afternoon bound for Dauan island, just south of Papua New Guinea, with two men, two women and a nine-year-old boy on board, but it never arrived.

Lego is being used in both informal and clinical sessions to improve the communication and cooperation skills of children with autism.

An ominous drone photo of sharks circling a whale beached near Albany in WA snaps top prize at this year's Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year awards, with the photographer saying the scene was "unreal".

People in parts of tropical Far North Queensland wake to early-morning frost as the region experiences its coldest August night in more than 60 years.

Myanmar's national sport is similar to volleyball but players use their feet instead of their hands. The game is now being regularly played in Australia by Karen refugees.

A potential vaccine for streptococcal infections is being tipped as a game changer in remote communities after a recent outbreak was detected in Cape York.

Locals in far-north Queensland say it's "ludicrous" to install an Optus satellite small cell service in a remote Telstra-dominated area.

The manager of Australia's best-known locally produced tea brand says there is a real shift in the climate on its plantations in Queensland's far north.

Stakeholders call for an overhaul of the government's $5 billion fund that promised to turn northern Australia into an economic powerhouse.

The swimming pool is more than just a place to take a quick dip, as these seven watering holes around the country celebrate.

It's estimated that African swine fever has killed 25 per cent of the world's pig population. The deadly disease has now reached Timor-Leste, about 650 kilometres from Darwin.

Queensland's youngest gorge has been bridged entirely with glass, providing tourists with 360-degree views of an ancient oasis.

A research trip to far north Queensland was supposed to find dozens of Australia's endangered sawfish but they didn't find a single one.

A year after her murder, Toyah Cordingley's name still hangs in shop windows, on posters strung up on trees, and stickers on car bumpers in nearly every street in Cairns.