(AAP) New data suggests there is a great risk Australia will follow the world's leading economies into recession in the first six months of next year.

(AAP) Non-government schools say Labor's planned national curriculum will stifle innovation, result in up to 50 per cent of current courses being scrapped and potentially prohibit the teaching of i

Gunns' controversial pulp mill project in Tasmania appears dead, one of its biggest supporters, former premier Paul Lennon says.

The sketchiest of preparations means the Socceroos are relying on the groundwork already laid in their World Cup qualifying campaign when they meet Bahrain on Wednesday night (0200 Thursday AEDT).

Public school teachers across NSW will walk off the job for two hours on Wednesday morning to attend planned stopwork meetings.

The operator of 43 childcare centres in NSW, CFK Childcare Centres Ltd, has gone into voluntary administration due to a failed asset sell-off to ABC Learning Centres Ltd.

Soldiers, prisoners, the Red Cross and more than 1,000 volunteers have joined forces to clean up the devastation left by Brisbane's worst storm in 25 years, amid warnings of more dangerous weather.

Victorian Premier John Brumby says the federal government should not offer NSW any "one-off payments" to help dig it out of its current financial strife.

More than 400 local mayors and shire presidents left Canberra with a Christmas present of a one-off funding grant and newfound respect from the federal government after a two-day summit.

More than half of all adults in Britain fear the nation's children are beginning to
behave like animals, a new survey has revealed.