Government

Federal Labor's promise to deliver a budget surplus in 2012/13 has again come under fire after it announced plans to spend $4 billion on dental health care reforms.

Company profits are down but still not the horror story expected due to a spate of under-promising and over-delivering in the profit-reporting season.

Foreign Minister Bob Carr says he's comfortable sharing a conference stage with a Congolese minister who has been probed by French authorities for alleged human rights abuses.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says the federal government is "wrong-headed" to link its emissions trading scheme (ETS) to Europe's carbon market.

The federal government's dumping of the carbon floor price is a cruel hoax for consumers, the opposition says.

Treasurer Wayne Swan insists the Labor government will return the budget to surplus next year despite falling commodity prices.

Figures this week will shed some light on a much talked about question - the timing of the peak in the resources investment boom.

The 15 per cent domestic gas reservation policy remains a point of contention among Western Australian businesses, with local industrial users claiming a small but significant victory from the late

The state government must quickly tell runners injured in the 2011 Kimberley Ultramarathon if they will receive ex-gratia payments, the opposition says.

The federal government say Australia's price of carbon from 2015 will be linked to the European Union emissions trading scheme (ETS).

The number of apprentices completing their trades training in Australia is a national disgrace, Federal Skills Minister Chris Evans says.

Environment Minister Bill Marmion has and allocated $17.2 million to the Waste Authority for the first year of a proposal designed to improve recycling rates.

The mining boom - or at least investment in it - will peak in 2014, but the non-resources sector will then drive growth, a report has found.

Up to a dozen enterprise migration agreements (EMAs) are expected to be inked by the federal government, Special Minister of State Gary Gray says.

BHP Billiton's decision to shelve two high profile projects has not changed the central bank's upbeat view about the economic outlook.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard says she never personally benefited from a union fund which she helped set up for free, and off the books, when she was a lawyer 17 years ago.

The top brass of the Reserve Bank of Australia will face further grillings about scandals involving its note-making companies when they appear before a powerful parliamentary committee.

Debate has continued apace regarding the health of the mining industry, with federal cabinet ministers voicing contradicting views, the federal opposition saying project investment cuts are a sign

The Western Australian Greens are appealing to the state's fisheries minister to stop a Dutch super-trawler "pillaging" coastal waters, as their federal counterparts try to thwart it in the Senate.

The number of jobs advertised on the internet has hit its lowest level since late 2009.The seasonally adjusted count of internet vacancies index fell by 7,347 to 191,265 in July.

Treasurer Wayne Swan is trying to bully the mining states into freezing royalties to make up for falling commodities prices, Premier Colin Barnett says.

Australian economic conditions are expected to stay subdued for the rest of the year, although they will improve slowly.

Lax security has allowed some Australian employees to fleece their bosses to the tune of $398 million, according to a recent study.

Treasurer Wayne Swan says the federal government will make room in the budget for its spending priorities and will still return a surplus.

Australian Greens leader Christine Milne has told business groups to stop complaining every time the federal government tries to drum up extra tax.

A stabilising Chinese economy and tentative signs of an improvement in the non-mining sectors of the local economy were behind the Reserve Bank of Australia's decision to keep the cash rate at 3.5

The cost of electricity is shaping up as a key election issue in Western Australia, with Labor unveiling a $630 million, three-year plan to reduce bills.

The federal opposition has seized on a survey which suggests half of small businesses are already feeling the effects of Labor's carbon tax.

A man who jumped the fence of Premier Colin Barnett's home and chained himself to the front gate is being removed by police.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard says the federal budget will return to surplus as planned, despite the additional cost of its new asylum seeker measures.

Jobs and growth pressures in Western Australia are expected to be the focus of a community cabinet meeting in Perth on September 5.

Australia's two-decade long economic expansion is at risk unless productivity growth returns to its long term average, according to a new report.