The Local Government Advisory Board says its decision to terminate the proposed merger of four Western Australian Wheatbelt shires was driven in part by financial concerns, a lack of common goals and the community's reaction.

The Mayor of Albany has scoffed at reports the city is considering spending millions of dollars on a prime vacant site in the central business district.

The Auditor General has found the Water Corporation is losing billions of litres of water more than it should each year, mainly due to leaking pipes. In his report, tabled in Parliament today, Colin Murphy says about 30 billion litres of water was lost each year, ten billion more than what is considered acceptable. The agency will also have to fork out tens of millions of dollars to replace ageing pipes in the network.

A Chinese mining giant is being accused of underestimating the impact a proposed open cut mine will have on groundwater on the New South Wales Liverpool Plains.

A report into hazing at the University of New England finds female students were pressured into sexual acts, "slapped on the arse" by a line of men before entering a party and told to lock their doors at night.

The Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses has collated data from official stewards' documents and found 122 horses died in the past year.

For the first time in about a fortnight Tasmania has had no new positive coronavirus tests, but the Premier says that's no reason to relax while warning parents to supervise children not at school.

Coronavirus has forced some dramatic changes to how the ABC keeps the public informed, from home-based broadcasting to webcam interviews and recruiting people featured in a story to help film it on their mobile phone.

Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie says it won't "go down well" for the Coalition if she has to beg for the release of the year-old report into whether Tasmanian war hero Teddy Sheean deserves a Victoria Cross.

Conservationists are alarmed about the amount of vegetation to be cleared for Snowy 2.0, but Snowy Hydro says the benefits outweigh their concerns.

Sonny Bill Williams reportedly signs a $10m deal with the Toronto Wolfpack. Here's what you need to know about rugby league's "wild and wacky" upstarts.

Rugby Australia boss Raelene Castle dismisses reports that the organisation paid $8 million to Israel Folau to settle a lawsuit over the former Wallaby's dismissal.

Cardinal Pell said in a statement yesterday that he was "surprised" by some of the views of the royal commission about his actions, and that "these views are not supported by evidence".

The trial of a man accused of murdering a Victorian grandmother is aborted after a local TV news bulletin broadcast inaccurate information, and details that had not been heard by the jury.

Chris Buckley spent 76 days in Wuhan during the coronavirus crisis reporting for the New York Times. He now joins an increasingly large group of foreign journalists asked to leave the country he's spent years covering.

Four parachutists were forced to make an emergency jump from a light plane over a popular skydiving region south of Adelaide earlier this year when the engine cut out, according to an Australian Transport Safety Bureau report.

A congestion charge for driving in the CBD during peak hour is once again being pushed, and a new report says it would be easy, cheap and speed up traffic across all major cities.

Almost a decade ago, Charles Brice was thrown from a motorbike in a trail-riding accident, and spent more than a year in rehab. This week, he completed a 300-kilometre road trip from the crash site.

Police investigate another report of a man impersonating a police officer in Adelaide, this time pulling over a driver and taking several items of cutlery.

A man who has previously claimed he is the nephew of rock legend Jimmy Barnes pleads guilty to assaulting two journalists outside an Adelaide court.

A Victorian driver allegedly tests positive to methamphetamine after his truck ran out of fuel on the South Eastern Freeway, causing traffic delays. It coincides with a report showing 60 per cent of trucks are failing safety inspections.

ABC News reporter James Hancock reports from the scene of a fatal stabbing on the Mornington Peninsula, south-east of Melbourne.

A former Australia Zoo big cat keeper says an elusive population of wild pumas and panthers reportedly seen in the Australian wilderness could be long-escaped animals from travelling circuses, or former military mascots.

Two Labor MPs are still waiting to get offices within their electorates more than a year after the state election, with one labelling the delay as a "clamp down on democracy".