The Latest Breaking News from Tanya Plibersek

Health Minister Mark Butler has ordered his department to examine claims the Medicare system was being rorted by billions of dollars each year.

Hundreds of thousands of dollars will be spent helping local businesses eliminate single-use plastics to keep some of Australia's most iconic beaches clean.

Tanya Plibersek says 2024 deadline is ‘challenging’ as NSW and Victoria expected to ask for exemptions from commitments

Australia's water minister has hinted major water-savings deadlines in the Murray-Darling Basin Plan could be extended beyond 2024, as New South Wales claims it has won a commitment for "greater flexibility" to deliver one of the country's biggest environmental reforms.

The Commonwealth government has been advised to reject a controversial coal seam gas project in Queensland, which poses risks to endangered turtle species.

A new set of faces at the Basin Ministerial Council will debate the final stages of water recovery today.

An independent expert report found Santos’ proposed releases could have ‘major impacts’ in the Dawson River

NSW and Victoria to ask federal water minister for exemptions to their commitments, while irrigators want focus on gains made

Much has been said about the speech in the decade since Julia Gillard rose to her feet to deliver it, but what does it mean to those now inside the building? To those who've watched the political world change around them, and those just entering it for the first time?

Newcastle Herald readers have their say

Australia’s dire and shameful conservation record is well established. The world’s highest number of recent mammal extinctions – 39 since colonisation. Ecosystems collapsing from the north to the south, across our lands and waters. Even species that have survived so far are at risk, as the sad list of threatened…