(AAP) With the fight for maternity leave virtually won, the next challenge is to end the artificial division between working and stay-at-home mums, ACTU president Sharan Burrow says.

(AAP) Australians have taken a surprisingly sanguine approach to their superannuation savings in the face of the global financial market turmoil, says the boss of the nation's largest super fund.

(AAP) Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan has been accused of going soft on banks for not demanding they pass on in full an expected official rate cut next week.

(AAP) Agribusiness AWB Ltd said on Wednesday all three class actions against the company in the United States arising from the United Nations oil-for-food kickbacks scandal had now been dismissed.<

(AAP) A former James Hardie official has admitted data presented to the directors of the building products company about its asbestos-related compensation liabilities may have been misleading.

North Korea should be "open, honest and up front" about its nuclear program, and allow United Nations inspectors to return to the country, Foreign Minister Stephen Smith says.

A NSW Supreme Court trial of 10 former directors and executives of building product company James Hardie has heard the company's estimates of its asbestos compensation liabilities were sound.

The federal government says it's looking forward to a "fantastic" debate over the design of a taxpayer-funded parental leave scheme, but there are already signs it could prove to be fantastically d

Federal Climate Change Minister Penny Wong says economic responsibility must be considered in responding to Professor Ross Garnaut's call for Australia to push for a global climate deal, which woul

AAP - Independent expert Grant Samuel says the current upheaval in global financial markets makes it "extremely difficult" to make short-term estimates of the key value drivers for takeover target