The federal government has unveiled an historic agreement with mining magnate Gina Rinehart to import overseas workers to fill jobs in her iron ore project in Western Australia. The enterprise migration agreement (EMA) will be first used at the mining magnate’s $6.5 billion Roy Hill project, allowing Hancock Prospecting to bring in 1700 migrant workers on a temporary basis. Union leaders today... 

A man walks past a Malaysian Islamic bank The government of the Australian state of New South Wales, home to the country’s financial capital Sydney, has put the introduction of the Islamic financial system on its agenda. A delegation, led by New South Wales Premier Barry O’Farrell and including financial services professionals will travel to Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, to discuss regulatory... 

Australia will become the first major economy in the developed world to record a surplus since the start of the global financial crisis. Julia Gillard, the prime minister, has pinned her political future on a “Robin Hood” budget which includes sweeping handouts worth more than £3 billion to reverse her dwindling public support. Relying on extra revenues from mining companies, the Government... 

Koala populations in parts of the country face a ‘serious threat’ from urban expansion and climate change, government says. The Australian government has listed the koala as a threatened species in parts of the country for the first time, admitting that the species faces a “serious threat” from factors such as urban expansion and climate change. Koala populations in Queensland,... 

Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney, said Jews were intellectually and morally inferior during a TV debate with atheist Richard Dawkins Australia’s most senior-ranked Catholic official has risked an international backlash by claiming that Jews are ‘intellectually and morally inferior’. Cardinal George Pell said ‘the little Jewish people’ were shepherds who lacked... 

US Marines Corps About 200 United States Marines have arrived in Australia for a six-month deployment in the Northern Territory, as part of plans to expand the US military presence in the Asia-Pacific. According to a US Marine Corps spokesman, the first of 2,500 Marines, who entered the northern Australian city of Darwin late Tuesday, are expected to engage in exercises with the Australian Defense... 

Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Bob Carr Australia has joined the list of countries that have warned the Israeli regime against any military strike on Iran, a report says. According to Israeli Haaretz newspaper, Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Bob Carr, in a phone conversation with his Israeli counterpart Avigdor Lieberman, has voiced Canberra’s opposition to an attack on Iran. “More and... 

Australia’s ruling Labor party is reeling from a devastating loss in a state election in Queensland, increasing the pressure of Julia Gillard, the prime minister. The extent of the loss – which left Labor with just seven seats, down from 51 – surprised Ms Gillard, who pledged to listen to the message from the state’s electorate. The outgoing premier, Anna Bligh, who was the first woman... 

Recession continues in Europe and Japan. The USA remains in the state of political uncertainty on the threshold of presidential election. What about the Green Continent, Australia? Lost between two oceans, Australia was increasing its economic potential while the northern hemisphere was suffering from the consequences of economic and financial storms. Australia managed to double its GDP from 1998... 

Following the call by ethicists for after-birth abortions and the press explosion surrounding the “Euthanasia Coaster“, new legislation from Australia is now paving the way for children of any age to consent to sterilization — without parental consent. That’s right, if a psychiatrist determines that a child under the age of 18 years is ‘sufficiently mature’, they will be sterilized... 

Australians build up a levee to prevent flood waters in the New South Wales town of Charleville on February 4, 2012. Nearly 9,000 people have been ordered to leave their homes in Australia’s flood-stricken south, where the military has joined emergency services to evacuate the residents. Days of heavy rain have caused flooding across three Australian states of New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria... 

A paper published in the Journal of Medical Ethics argues that abortion should be extended to make the killing of newborn babies permissible, even if the baby is perfectly healthy, in a shocking example of how the medical establishment is still dominated by a vicious mindset. The paper is authored by Alberto Giubilini of Monash University in Melbourne and Francesca Minerva at the Centre for Applied... 

A three-dimensional image of a single-atom transistor Scientists have built a one-atom nano-transistor by placing a tiny phosphorous atom within atomic scale electrodes all within a silicon crystal. Physicists from the ARC Center for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology at the University of New South Wales in Australia used a scanning tunneling microscope to manipulate atoms on the surface... 

Associate Professor Kourosh Kalantar-Zadeh (L) and Professor Michael Strano have discovered a new power source through nanotechnology. Australian professor Michael Strano and Iranian associate professor Kourosh Kalantar-Zadeh have discovered a new power source for energy storage and power generation. Associate Professor Kalantar-Zadeh, from the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at RMIT... 

The unassuming painkiller aspirin may hold the key to combating cancer as scientists in Australia have uncovered its ability to halt the spread of tumors. This groundbreaking discovery sheds light on the mysterious mechanism through which the widely available over-the-counter drug effectively inhibits the progression of the disease, potentially paving the way for transformative treatments and, ultimately,...