ABC radio news and current affairs afternoon program reporting on Australia and the world.

The CEO of the Sydney Swans, Matthew Pavlich says the AFL club is "shocked and disappointed" by an alleged incident involving several players in Melbourne overnight.

An interim report from the Productivity Commission has found that Western Australia's GST deal has been a big mistake that has cost taxpayers billions of dollars.

Taxpayers are to fund a $2.5 billion bailout of Australia's largest aluminium smelter at Tomago in New South Wales.

The Independent MP Andrew Wilkie has referred the Labor Government's handling of its gambling ad reforms to the National Anti-Corruption Commission.

The Reserve Bank has decided to leave interest rates on hold today, but the Governor is warning that inflation is still too high and if it does not come down another rate rise is inevitable.

The federal government body responsible for controlling air traffic in Australia has apologised for a near miss involving Jetstar and Qatar airways planes on the tarmac at Sydney airport.

Victoria is the first state to require poultry producers to keep their birds indoors as the H5 bird flu crisis worsens in Australia.

The Albanese government is facing a battle to get its gambling ad reforms through parliament with the Greens and the Coalition refusing to back the legislation in its current form.

Today's NAPLAN results are raising concerns for educators and parents with the latest figures showing a third of Australian students are not meeting expectations in literacy and numeracy.

At a Senate inquiry, gambling industry representatives have rejected allegations that problem gamblers have been offered drugs and sex workers to lure them into betting more.

A cluster of dead and sick birds found in South Australia is being described by the federal government as the nation's first "mass mortality bird flu event."

The US President, Donald Trump, is heralding a breakthrough in the peace process in Gaza, announcing that Hamas has agreed to disarm and hand over security control of the strip to an international force.

Australia's communications watchdog, ACMA, is suing Optus after last year's mass network outage that left customers unable to make emergency calls.

Today's inflation figures have come in below forecast but economists are divided over the prospect of a rate rise at the Reserve Bank's August meeting.

Victoria has a new Premier after Jacinta Allan resigned to make way for her deputy Ben Carroll, who immediately announced a Royal Commission into the construction sector.

The Federal Government is declaring the test of the new national emergency alert system a success after millions of mobile phones across the country turned into sirens this afternoon.

The United States has raised the tariff on Australian goods from 10 to 12.5 per cent on the basis the nation is not doing enough to counter modern slavery, a claim the Federal Government rejects.

In his speech to the ALP's 50th National Conference in Adelaide, the Prime Minister has attacked the credibility of One Nation and the Federal Opposition.

Organisations that work with migrants are concerned a new national emergency alert system will not be understood by people who cannot speak English.

In Darwin protesters have gathered outside the Northern Territory Parliament calling for new child protection laws to be rejected.Â

The former attorney-general Mark Dreyfus has called for buffer zones to be set up, banning protests around synagogues and Jewish schools.

Telstra executives have admitted that last week's national outage could have been prevented at a Senate inquiry on triple zero service outages today.

One of the biggest strikes in Western Australia's iron ore industry this century is underway at BHP's operations at Port Hedland.

After years of procrastinating over the regulation of Artificial Intelligence, the Prime Minister has announced the introduction of mandatory standards for AI.

At the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion, students and academics have told the inquiry institutions are failing to act on antisemitism complaints.

The adored New Zealand actor Sam Neill, who starred in films including My Brilliant Career, Jurassic Park and The Piano has died at the age of 78.

The head of Telstra has apologised for Wednesday's outages in its mobile and internet networks as the ABC reveals the company was warned months ago that its systems were vulnerable.

Australia has signed a new agreement to export uranium to India during a visit to Melbourne by the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

A five hour Telstra outage has caused major disruptions across the country impacting transport systems, businesses and banks, some customers were also unable to make emergency phone calls.

The Prime Minister has described China's missile test in the Pacific as "provocative" and says he has raised his concerns with the Chinese government.

China has tested a ballistic missile in the Pacific Ocean, just as Australia and Fiji sign a new defence pact.

Authorities believe that the H5 strain of bird flu may have reached New South Wales, with a giant petrel found near Hawks Nest on the state's mid-north coast suspected to have the virus.

The Federal Government's long-awaited bill to reform gambling advertising has been introduced to parliament, but critics argue it does not go far enough.

The Federal Opposition is seizing on new figures showing house prices are dropping to put pressure on the government.

At the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion, social media companies have been criticised for their weak responses to online posts targeting inquiry witnesses.

The Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion today heard evidence that fake A.I images and social media are being used to spread racial hatred.

The nation is celebrating after the Socceroos made it through to the knock-out round of the World Cup with a draw against Paraguay.

It is feared thousands of people may have died after two earthquakes struck the north of Venezuela.

Economists think another interest rate rise is likely in August, after a key inflation figure from the Bureau of Statistics came in higher than expected today.

The Federal Government's proposed tax changes are expected to pass parliament on Thursday, after the Greens agreed to support the measures with some amendments.

Authorities have confirmed that a second sick bird found on a remote beach in Western Australia has tested positive for a deadly strain of bird flu.

The Federal Government has confirmed that a suspected case of the H5 bird flu strain has been detected in Western Australia.