Australia and New Zealand

A housing expert has warned property markets could be “fragmented” next year amid a country-wide rebound of house prices, as a new report tips prices to rise up to 4 per cent alone.PropTrack’s latest Property Market Outlook report, released…

The Australian share market soared on Wednesday with the benchmark posting its biggest daily gain in more than a year on hopes that the Reserve Bank is done raising rates. The benchmark S & P/ASX200 index vaulted 1.7 per cent, or 116.8…

A bombshell report has found Victoria’s public sector is ruled by a “culture of fear” and a “creeping politicisation”, with the Ombudsman noting “cracks” are appearing in the pillars “upholding responsible government”.Ombudsman Deborah…

Days before she died, Peta Murphy had a question.Surrounded by her Labor colleagues last Tuesday, she rose to her feet in the House of Representatives and asked the Housing Minister about the party’s shared equity scheme. It would turn out…

A political headache over the detention of non-citizens is one step closer to being resolved after the Senate pushed through new laws earlier than expected. The tough laws would hand courts the power to re-detain the worst offenders…

A Federal Court action has been launched against Woolworths on behalf of around 1400 night shift employees who allege they were moved to day shifts without notice, resulting in a pay cut of up to $30,000 for some affected workers.The action…

Westpac customers have been left unable to access their money after a mass outage of the bank’s online systems. The bank began reporting issues about 9pm Monday, with mobile and online banking impacted by the outage. “We’re aware that…

It was a positive start to the week for the Australian share market which rallied on Monday as investors raised their bets that the Federal Reserve and other central banks had finished raising interest rates.Josh Gilbert, market analyst at…

“Used and let down” paramedics have written to NSW Premier Chris Minns, urging his government to honour an election promise to drastically improve pay and conditions.More than 1900 NSW paramedics have pledged to boycott renewing their…

A top weapons manufacturer has argued that Australia’s defence industry is far too reliant on the UK and the US for munitions, declaring that the government must overhaul its defence strategy to favour local procurement. NIOA Group chief…