• Australian icons in global top-100

  The Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, ANZ Bank and Woolworths all made the Brandz Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands list, compiled by global market research firm Millward Brown and commissioned by marketing giant WPP. The rankings are based on the views of potential and current buyers of a brand as well as financial data to calculate the brand's overall ...

• Gillard back to chat to western Sydney

  Prime Minister Julia Gillard is back in the crucial Western Sydney heartland as she makes herself available for a public forum.Ms Gillard and her ministers first had a community cabinet meeting before registered members of the public walked through passed through tight security at the Regents Park Christian School, in the safe Labor seat of Blaxland.Outside the about 100 activists gathered in ...

• Graziers gain park access

  Greens say forget starving North Qld cattle "As the dire animal welfare situation facing our graziers worsens, the Newman Government will give them a lifeline by allowing temporary access for cattle to suitable state land," Mr Dickson said. "We won't stand by and watch while graziers are forced to destroy their own stock when we have land and feed available. "This is a ...

• Lamb exports hit record high

  WIDESPREAD dry conditions have bolstered Australian lamb exports to a record high of $271 million for the first quarter of 2013. According to Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data this record was up 9 per cent on the first quarter of 2012 and 20pc on the five year average. Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) reported the surge in first quarter lamb exports was underpinned by deteriorating ...

• England banned from talking Ashes

  England might be overwhelming favourites to win the Ashes series, but the latest directive from coach Andy Flower suggests the champions aren't feeling as comfortable as the bookies. The England press is reporting that Flower has banned his players talking about the Ashes until after the Champions Trophy is finished. Gagging his players ahead of such a highly anticipated series indicates ...

• Roosters want to have NRLs top defence

  The Sydney Roosters are aiming to become the NRL's top defensive unit within three years - but insist they haven't earned the tag just yet. The Roosters' premiership charge is being built on a ferocious defensive mentality, which was on display in the past fortnight in victories over Manly and North Queensland in which they conceded just one try in each game. Through 10 rounds, ...

• AFL grand final helps Hannebery improve

  Sydney midfielder Dan Hannebery credits last year's AFL grand final as the tonic that helped lay the platform for his breakthrough 2013 campaign. Hannebery has been one of the Swans' best over the opening eight rounds and is running second overall in the AFL coaches' player of the year award. The 2010 Rising Star winner, who copped a hard tag for the first time in his AFL career ...

• New Commodore important for Holden

  THE latest Commodore is key for Holden in Australia, with the local boss hopeful the new car will show to Australians it is world ...

• Bullet train party on track for polls

  The Australian Electoral Commission has cleared the Bullet Train for Australia federal party's application for registration.Party president Tim Bohm says the party is made up of real people "who have no idea how to run a federal political campaign"."We'll have no spin, no lies, no career politicians, no shenanigans and no bulls**t. Just Bullet," he said in a ...

• Man charged over fatal motorbike crash

  A 63-year-old Stirling man has been charged with dangerous driving occasioning death following a Major Crash investigation.About 5.30am on May 10, a 74-year-old man was riding his Honda motorcycle south on Fitzgerald Street when it collided with a Daewoo sedan being driven north along the same road.Police will allege it was the 63-year-old man who was driving the Daewoo when the crash occurred ...

• Vietnam name to go on Roll of Honour

  MORE than 40 years after he died in Vietnam, the name of Private Dal Abbott is to be finally listed on the Australian War Memorial's Roll of Honour. Although there's long been a place for his name, the 21-year-old national serviceman, killed in the Battle of Fire Support Base Coral in 1968, has never been included with the 102,000 other Australians on the roll of honour. Veterans from ...

• Australian icons rank among worlds top-100 brands

  The Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, ANZ Bank and Woolworths all made the Brandz Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands list, compiled by global market research firm Millward Brown and commissioned by marketing giant WPP. The rankings are based on the views of potential and current buyers of a brand as well as financial data to calculate the brand's overall ...

• Govt supports equal pay for retail workers

  The federal government has given its backing to a union campaign for equal pay for young retail workers, saying it won't have a detrimental impact on youth employment. The Shop Distributive and Allied Employees' Association (SDA) last month launched a claim for 20-year-olds to be paid the same rate as 21-year-olds, as a first step to having all those aged over 18 paid the adult rate. ...

• CTP changes to cut off medical treatment

  People injured in road accidents will be cut off from treatment after five years under NSW government changes to CTP, the state opposition ...

• England swing catches Aussie Ashes eyes

  Michael Clarke doesn't want his team losing focus and getting too engaged in England's series with New Zealand, but it seems the swing and seam at Lord's was too obvious to ignore.Stuart Broad's ominous second-innings spell in the first Test against the Black Caps might have left a few of Clarke's top order allies shaking in their boots.But at least Australia's ...

• CITIC Pacific loses royalty fight against Australian tycoon

  The Supreme Court of Western Australia on Tuesday ruled in favour of Clive Palmer's interpretation that a royalty is due when the iron ore is ...

• David Warner could still captain Australia despite Twitter rant says Michael Clarke

  Australia Australia captain Michael Clarke has thrown his support behind embattled opener David Warner, saying he could still lead the team despite facing a disciplinary hearing over a Twitter rant.Warner is due to appear at Cricket Australia later today (Wednesday) over an alleged code of conduct breach after a heated social media tirade at two of the country's top cricket writers.He ...

• Stabbed Bomber lucky not to be worse off

  Essendon's Nathan Lovett-Murray is fortunate to have escaped serious injury when stabbed in what the AFL club says was an unprovoked attack. Lovett-Murray had surgery on Wednesday to repair the bicep muscle in his right arm after Tuesday night's domestic altercation. AFL talent manager Chris Johnson fears the stabbing of the 30-year-old will cast a negative slant on this ...

• Naitanui AFL trade not an option Eagles

  West Coast coach John Worsfold says there's zero chance of a rival AFL side poaching Nic Naitanui while the star ruckman is still contracted to the Eagles. Outgoing Greater Western Sydney coach Kevin Sheedy rocked the boat earlier this week when he claimed he would trade an entire year of draft picks to snare Naitanui. Sheedy won't have the chance to test the waters on that front ...

• Qld premier at odds with Abbott on rail

  A major Brisbane rail project has divided conservative politics, with Queensland's Liberal National premier expressing disappointment at the federal coalition's reluctance to back it. Queensland has rebuffed the federal Labor government's offer of $715 million for the $4.4 billion Cross River Rail project, made in last week's budget. It wants the commonwealth to fund half ...

• Farmers call for minimum wage increase

  An increase in the national minimum wage would help the struggling farming industry to attract entry level workers, Australia's peak farmers group says. In annual consultations with Fair Work Australia on Wednesday, the National Farmers' Federation (NFF) called for a $9 increase in the weekly minimum wage, which is currently $606.40 for full-time employees. This increase would ...

• Broker convicted of insider trading

  The former head of stockbroking firm Lonsec has been fined $30,000 for insider trading. Norman John Graham of Barwon Heads in Victoria was convicted of two counts of insider trading in the County Court of Victoria on Wednesday. Graham, 53, sold 200,000 shares in listed company Clean Seas Tuna on behalf of two clients when he knew the company was going to announce a loss of more that $10 ...

• Chinalco Yunnan shares jump

  Shares in explorer Chinalco Yunnan Copper (CYU) have jumped after the company announced positive drilling results from a project in Queensland. Shares in the copper explorer closed at 7.0 cents, up more than 16 per cent or one cent, following positive results from its Blue Caesar prospect in north-west Queensland. Meanwhile, new managing director Paul Williams says the company is looking to ...

• Ten injured in Vic army base vehicle crash

  A collision between two armoured vehicles during a training exercise at a Victorian army base has left 10 soldiers injured. Three soldiers were seriously injured when one of the Australian Light Armoured Vehicles (ASLAVs)collided with the rear of another at the Puckapunyal Army Base in central Victoria. The crash occurred on a dirt training track during a training exercise at about 10.30am ...

• Internet job ads fall 3.6pc in April

  Job advertisements on the internet fell by 3.6 per cent in April, federal government figures show. The Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations internet vacancy index fell to a seasonally adjusted 61.6 points in the month, and was 24.1 per cent lower than a year earlier. All eight occupational groups monitored by the department rose in March. The biggest monthly fall was ...

• $A lower on consumer sentiment figures

  The Australian dollar has dropped back below 98 US cents following disappointing consumer sentiment figures. At 1700 AEST on Wednesday, the currency was trading at 97.82 US cents, down from 98.17 cents on Tuesday. The Australian dollar fell following the release of the Westpac/Melbourne Institute May consumer sentiment survey, which showed pessimists among respondents outweighing the number of ...

• Home truths spark Lions AFL turnaround

  The focus might be on Brisbane coach Michael Voss but Lions co-captain Jed Adcock said senior players had felt the pressure, prompting an honesty session that might yet turn their AFL season around. Players did their best to end speculation that off-contract Voss had until round 15 to secure his job by upsetting Essendon last round. However, Adcock credited a player heart-to-heart weeks ...

• Phil Hughes to meet Ashes mentor

  Phil Hughes says the English county mentor who reinvented him as a Test batsman will play a key role in his Ashes preparation. Hughes credits Worcestershire coach Steve Rhodes with breathing new life into his career in 2012 after he was dumped from the Test side midway through the 2011/12 summer. The 24-year-old says Rhodes helped him believe in himself again after three years of slipping in ...

• Hockey puts ATO set-up on notice

  The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) looks set for a major shake-up should the coalition win power in September, with its policeman functions to be split from its tax administration. Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey, in his budget reply speech before the September 14 election, said a parliamentary committee would also be set up to conduct regular public hearings of the tax commissioner, similar to ...

• Coalition puts own spin on Gonski

  The federal coalition has committed to bringing in its own version of "Gonski" school funding reform should it win office in September. Opposition education spokesman Christopher Pyne made the pledge in letters sent to state and territory leaders outlining the coalition's approach to school funding. However, Mr Pyne's stance has been seized on by unions and Labor as a ...

• Man charged over WA road death

  A 63-YEAR-OLD man who crashed into and killed a 74-year-old man in Perth has been charged with dangerous driving occasioning ...

• WA wont rule out public sector job cuts

  WESTERN Australia's post-election austerity mode will include a review of the public sector, with Premier Colin Barnett refusing to rule out job ...

• People urged to dob in illegal gun owners

  PEOPLE too afraid to tell police who's been shooting at them or their homes should call Crime Stoppers and anonymously dob in troublemakers, the federal government ...

• Injured Qld boy wakes from coma

  The hospital where five-year-old Patrick O'Sullivan has remained in a coma since the accident on Sunday revealed the news in a brief statement late on Wednesday."Patrick O'Sullivan is in a stable condition waking from a coma at Mater Children's Hospital," the Mater statement read.Patrick's school principal told ABC Radio she'd heard on Wednesday afternoon ...

• Adding up the claims on school funding

  AS the prime minister moves her post-budget focus to sealing a deal on school funding, both sides of politics are claiming the other is fiddling the ...

• Provocation laws to be changed in NSW

  MEN who kill their wives in fits of jealousy won't be able to get off the hook using the partial defence of provocation but it will remain open to battered ...

• Waste-to-energy plant gets green light

  HOUSEHOLD rubbish will be converted into electricity after the final environmental approvals were made for the State's first large scale waste-to-energy ...

• Gas leak forces evacuation in WA

  AUTHORITIES have taken less than two hours to make safe an area impacted by a gas main rupture in Western Australia's South West ...

• Superman label off limits for fitness firm

  Now a judge has ruled an Australian fitness company can not register the trademark "Superman Workout" for its services.Last July, a delegate of the Registrar of Trade Marks allowed Cheqout Pty to register the Superman Workout trademark for its fitness classes, despite DC Comics' opposition.The registrar ruled the Superman trademark wasn't likely to deceive or confuse ...

• More doubts about hunting in NSW parks

  A SHOOTING incident at a rural NSW property has raised more doubts about how the state government can safely roll out hunting in national parks, conservationists ...

• 10000 wild horses to be culled in NT

  UP to 10,000 wild horses in central Australia will be culled in what officials say is a humane response to an environmental ...

• Questions raised about NSW PIC decision

  SERIOUS questions have been raised by a police watchdog decision not to investigate claims a top officer and former NSW MP Richard Torbay secretly visited a prisoner, a parliamentary committee ...

• Levy to pay for Sydney casino regulation

  A levy will be imposed on Sydney's Star casino to help cover the cost of monitoring and regulating its operations.Taxpayers currently bear much of the cost of maintaining the casino regulatory regime in NSW, Hospitality Minister George Souris says.He has introduced legislation to amend the Casino Control Act 1992 to allow a casino supervisory levy to be imposed on the casino operator to ...

• Worker injured in Vic power station fall

  A WORKER has suffered serious head injuries after falling several metres at a Victorian power station. The man in his 40s was flown by air ambulance to The Alfred hospital after the 2.3m fall at the Hazelwood Power Station in Victoria's Latrobe Valley about 2.15pm (AEST) on Wednesday, Ambulance Victoria said. WorkSafe is on the scene investigating the ...

• Tas policeman cleared over shooting death

  A TASMANIAN police officer used reasonable force when he shot dead a man in the state's north in 2010, a coroner has found. Constable Ian Fraser Blake shot 21-year-old Nicholas Martin Whiteley at Westbury after a violent struggle, Coroner Robert Pearce said in handing down his findings. Whiteley had attacked Const Blake, who attended the dead man's home to help a former partner remove ...

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