Recent content by ABC News

What would make you fall so much in love with an Australian city that you would move halfway across the world, from the heartland of classical music, to lead its orchestra? That's the question Jaime Martín, the chief conductor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO), answered ahead of his...

One of Australia's most prolific paedophile priests has died in prison. In 2008, John Sidney Denham was charged by the nation's first police strike dedicated to targeting abuse by members of the clergy. Much of Denham's abuse occurred at a school formerly known as St Pius X in Newcastle...

Perth public transport users will be able to use their phones and bank cards to pay for tickets by the end of the year, Transport Minister Rita Saffitoti says, after extensive delays in getting the new technology online. The project is more than a year behind schedule and Ms Saffioti revealed...

Betty Gregory is living life to the fullest. The great-grandmother kicked off her 94th birthday celebrations on Wednesday by jumping out of a plane 3,600 metres over the Gold Coast surf. It is not the first time Ms Gregory has been airborne. "I did my first jump on my 80th birthday and...

Tens of thousands of identity documents are reported lost in the Australian post each year, according to government figures obtained by 7.30. The data shows around 3,200 Australian passports were reported "lost in the post" over the past three years after being sent via registered mail. More...

The head of a major independent supermarket chain is considering closing down stores in Victoria, warning retail workers are facing unprecedented levels of violence and aggressive behaviour on an almost daily basis. Ritchies IGA chief executive Fred Harrison said retail crime in Victoria had...

Australia's medicines regulator has not investigated the safety of most medicinal cannabis products despite receiving hundreds of "adverse event" reports ranging from coughing to psychosis in the past three years. The ABC can reveal there were 615 reports made to the Therapeutic Goods...

Kerrie Bennett admits she does not do retirement well. From dawn until dusk, she runs a camp of volunteers aged between 20 and 90 in the middle of outback Queensland. "I just didn't enjoy retirement as much as I thought I would," she said. "My son thought mum was just going to be an old...

In 2010, a 1 kilometre-long stretch of road in Darwin's north was earmarked for improved pedestrian infrastructure, to support the construction of hundreds of new houses. A Northern Territory government planning document for then-vacant northern blocks on Boulter Road said future residential...

Wheeling a recycling bin to the curb can be a mundane weekly chore for many Australians, but for residents in remote regions across outback Queensland, those mainstream recycling services do not exist. To combat the growing need and demand for recycling in the state's North West, a...

Labor's landmark aged care reforms have fallen short of the vision for the sector laid out in the 2021 royal commission and may fail to deliver on their promise to contain taxpayers costs, according to the sector watchdog. Inspector-General Natalie Siegel-Brown said the Albanese government had...

Sharon Farrow doesn't need much. Since she packed up her Hervey Bay home five years ago, it's just her, her cat Sapphire and her pink-striped van Millie on the open road. Sharon gave up the comforts of a house with four walls after her husband, Dale, died. "He was sick for two years. And...

Western Australia's state-based home battery rebate and loan scheme is drawing widespread criticism, with some installers now advising customers to avoid it altogether. The scheme's bottlenecks mean some WA customers are likely to face delays in having their battery installed, which could mean...

The planned sale of Western Australia's biggest insurer RACWA to an east-coast based industry giant has raised major alarm bells at Australia's competition watchdog. In a deal worth about $1.3 billion, RACWA plans to sell its entire insurance operations to the Sydney-based IAG. The...

Mary Baker never anticipated she would see herself in a fabricated advertisement spruiking weight-loss medication. But she did, after receiving a message from a former colleague. "… I've just seen this picture, is this you?" the message read. "Do you know they're using it?" The Facebook...