Even compared to some of the success stories around the globe, Australia still has a relatively flat curve. Here are the approaches being taken by the other "first movers".

A new report has found climate change is having some unexpected consequences for people living in the Asia Pacific region.

Thousands gathered in Sydney to demand climate change action in the midst of a devastating bushfire season.

This season's bushfires have "rewritten the rule book" as ecologists fear more than 80 per cent of the world heritage-listed Blue Mountains have been lost.

As a new year of tertiary education gets underway and Australia recovers from a summer of bushfires, Australian universities have told SBS News there has been increasing interest in their environment courses. Here, three students share their motivations.

TWO more Melbourne real estate agencies have been punished for underquoting, with one caught telling a client the practice was “just a little (marketing) ploy” to “get people through the door”.

A WOMAN is dead after a truck failed to stop at a red light and ploughed into the back of her stationary motorcycle in Melbourne’s outer east.

With tourism ground to a halt, industry experts say Cairns will be one of the regions hardest hit by coronavirus, estimating it is on track to lose $500 million in visitor spending by April.

Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton reveals theoretical modelling which suggests 36,000 people could have been killed by coronavirus in Victoria if no physical-distancing measures were put in place.

The modelling predicts more than a quarter of a million jobs could be lost in Victoria due to the coronavirus pandemic in what Premier Daniel Andrews says is the perhaps the "biggest economic and employment challenge" in the state's history.

A new report has ranked disdain for scientific knowledge as one of humanity's biggest threats, alongside climate change, nuclear war, and artificial intelligence.

The company behind the Spirit of Tasmania ferry service says its ships will no longer be docking at Station Pier in Port Melbourne, and will instead move to Corio Quay, north of Geelong.

While the price of petrol falls to the lowest point in a generation in Brisbane, service stations are charging 30 per cent more in north Queensland and 75 per cent more in Mt Isa, with a federal MP raising accusations of collusion.

An ANU demographer is "concerned" the coronavirus pandemic will result in an accelerated reduced birthrate and a decline in future taxpayers, affecting Australia's socioeconomic future.

Thousands of mum-and-dad investors are being caught out by insurance companies refusing to cover them when they cut rent for tenants under financial stress due to coronavirus restrictions.

Hundreds of thousands of employers who registered interest in JobKeeper have not signed up for the payment, citing ineligible workers, confusing rules and cashflow problems.

Samuel Clarke knows withdrawing his retirement savings early is not ideal, but he says the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent loss of business has left him no option.

Australia's electricity grid operator wants the authority to remotely switch off new rooftop solar systems in SA in order to manage their "invisible and uncontrolled" growth.

Children in SA will soon be able to return to playgrounds and in NSW, real estate watchers could be heading to open homes and auctions as soon as next weekend, as some state governments announce further easing of restrictions. These are the key coronavirus developments from today.

After two months in almost total lockdown, 4.5 million Italians are allowed to return to work today as the country with the second-highest coronavirus death toll begins to wind back some restrictions.

Westpac joins ANZ in deferring its interim dividend as it braces for the financial impact of COVID-19, but mounting issues around money laundering and tax reporting may cost it almost as much.

The financial regulator has asked ME Bank to explain why it has taken cash from accounts linked to its customers' home loans to reduce the risk of mortgage default.

Work begins on the Gold Coast's $1 billion Pacific Motorway upgrade, with promises it will benefit motorists and the economy.

A peak industry body says South Australia's 12-day stretch without any new coronavirus cases has created a "high level of expectation" that pubs will reopen.

Just weeks after Virgin Australia goes into voluntary administration, UK-based Virgin Atlantic is forced to lay off thousands of workers as the coronavirus pandemic takes a heavy toll.

Fewer than 250 people have been on the International Space Station but Mission Impossible actor Tom Cruise looks set to become one of them, in part to "inspire a new generation of engineers and scientists".

Whether or not employers can demand eligible JobKeeper workers do extra shifts to meet the $1,500-a-fortnight payment is causing confusion and chaos in the hospitality industry.

Almost 7,000 square kilometres of land will be released for coal and gas exploration in central and north Queensland as part of measures to ensure the survival of the resources sector through the coronavirus pandemic, the State Government says.

Australia's largest organic edible hemp crop is being harvested in Victoria's north west with agronomists talking up its food and fibre potential.

The collective European economy will contract by 7.7 per cent this year and debt will skyrocket, with Italy, Greece, Spain and Portugal among the hardest hit by the economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

Premier Daniel Andrews defends the work of contact tracers as 13 more coronavirus cases are linked to a cluster at Cedar Meats in Melbourne's west.

Logic suggests a coronavirus slump may provide a window of opportunity for first homebuyers to enter the market. But a new report suggests the opposite may be true.

CBA says today's closure of 114 branches nationwide is temporary and due to a massive increase in online and telephone banking.

Premier Daniel Andrews says his Government will explain changes to the state's coronavirus restrictions on Monday, after the National Cabinet agrees to a three-step process of lifting restrictions to create a "COVID-safe economy".

Australian shares rise, including Macquarie Group, despite slashing its dividend. The Australian Banking Association say a further 100,000 loans were deferred over the past week.

Anthony Lynham is under pressure from the Opposition to "fall on his sword" over the latest mining disaster, which saw four men critically injured in an underground blast at Anglo American's coal mine in central Queensland.