Since Annie Withrow gave birth to her first child last year, she has been anxiously waiting to introduce him to her parents, but hopes this might happen in 2021 are becoming more and more remote.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg unveiled a big-spending budget on Tuesday aimed at rebuilding the economy amid the coronavirus pandemic, as Victoria recorded its first locally-acquired case in 73 days.

Emgality, a drug which could previously cost up to $6800 a year, will instead cost $41.30 a script.

The potential dual probe into the transaction between Murray River Council and Murray River Energy has been slated just weeks after the state’s council watchdog confirmed it would launch a full-blown investigation.

Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine partner BioNTech has announced it will build a huge new mRNA vaccine plant in Singapore, while Novavax, which is making 51 million doses for Australia, has again delayed production.

A friend of the woman who accused Christian Porter of rape has made a court bid to stop one of his barristers from acting for him in his defamation case against the ABC.

A woman who inflicted a life-changing head injury on a three-year-old boy could soon be deported to China with her partner. Their child, taken at birth, lives there with grandparents.

Beenleigh, Cleveland and Gold Coast line trains are suspended, while Ferny Grove trains are delayed.

A Melbourne accountant who lent thousands of dollars to Ellie Price before she was killed has denied being her pimp or sugar daddy, maintaining they were close friends.

For the first time in living memory, many of us in the aged-care sector are looking forward with a great deal of hope.

Police arrived at Kings Cross Road just before 2pm where the man, believed to be in his 30s, was found unresponsive in a basement.

William Houston’s prison term has been extended for abusing two boys at Geelong’s St Augustine’s boys’ home more than 50 years ago, in crimes a judge labelled perverse and depraved.

A former Roads and Maritime Services employee accused of rigging $41 million worth of NSW government contracts in return for lavish kickbacks said he got swept up in a network of corruption.

Just over half of a $73 million funding program to curb coastal erosion and restore estuaries has been dished out over the past five years.

Today on Please Explain, Tory Maguire is joined by chief political correspondent David Crowe and senior economics correspondent Shane Wright for their insights into the 2021 federal budget.

The federal budget brings a series of incremental measures framed around supporting home ownership.

The Victorian Department of Health confirmed the genomic sequencing results on Wednesday, as the AFL stepped in to help trace football fans who may have shared a train with the infected man.

The ward, which was the source of two recent south-east Queensland virus clusters, has partially reopened to help deal with recent bed shortages.

Police said the 53-year-old woman was found collapsed inside the Taigum home by a relative.

Queensland Police recruiters used “misleading and vague” statements while hundreds of men missed out on jobs with the service because of gender targets, the crime watchdog says.

The 30-year-old had absconded from hospital in February 2018 and was restrained at Camperdown by multiple police who were attempting to take him back.

The NSW government has confirmed a station for its flagship Metro West rail line will be built on a Pyrmont site owned by gambling giant The Star.

The ratios, which were introduced in 2016, set minimum numbers of nurses per shift, and research carried out since their introduction shows clear benefits for patients.

The probe will want to get to the bottom of the departure of Mick Connolly as chief casino officer, an affair that is linked directly to the exclusive reports on this masthead.

The Health Department has refuted claims by a former hotel quarantine security guard and denied that a quarantine guest could have been left forgotten for three months at Perth’s InterContinental Hotel late last year.

The Tomorrow Today Foundation has provided life-changing programs in Benalla but its leaders fear it may not survive without state government funding.

As much as 100 millimetres of rain and large hail were forecast, with inland areas battered overnight by hail the size of golf balls.

Victorian universities slashed staff last year in anticipation of long-term decline in international student revenue, with insecure workers taking the worst hit.

How long the state government can remain impervious to the normal rules of politics is not clear but the labour movement in Victoria is set to put it to the test.

Australia’s national interests are better served by having more Chinese-speakers yet exchange programs and courses are hanging in the balance.

This week’s budget announcement on international students is in line with a 25-year march towards becoming a guest-worker country.

The announcement makes a mockery of the government’s much praised new energy law.

A story about bushfires, the climate crisis, logging and contested science that shines a light on the very difficult climate choices we now face.

Australian honey producers are concerned about an attempt by NZ beekeepers to prevent them from marketing their products as “manuka”.

Planning Minister Rob Stokes has warned Sydney risks being enslaved to cars as he becomes the third senior minister to offer a view on how best to spur the take-up of electric vehicles.

Prominent Melbourne brothers, Aloke and Aakash Kumar sued for defamation over Facebook posts that accused them of raising fake member fees.

Housing Minister Richard Wynne says finding the right properties is an ongoing challenge, particularly in regional areas.

Plans to turn the heritage-listed church into a private residence are being resisted by architecture enthusiasts.

Six days after being taken into police custody, Aboriginal man Sony Ray Austin’s spinal cord was severed and he was rendered a quadriplegic.

When it comes to the budget, the devil is in the detail.

We are watching the growth of government on a scale we haven’t seen since the middle of last century. This time, though, things are different.

Nimbin festival opens, former US Cabinet members indicted and ‘lucid manifesto of goonery’.

Trivia buffs: test your knowledge with today’s interactive superquiz and target.

A slew of photos originally uploaded online of the former MP standing alongside Premier Gladys Berejiklian and Nationals leader John Barilaro were quietly taken down overnight

A cross-section of everyday Victorians share their thoughts on Tuesday’s federal budget, with aged care, childcare and debt dominating the discussion.

Sydneysiders have given their verdicts on Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s budget, which splashed cash on families and aged care.

After the COVID-inspired and socially-distanced non-event that was Budget 2020, the political crowd and bandwagoners were out in force for Budget 2021

While readers keep trawling for fish puns.

With employers warning of labour shortages while the country’s borders are closed, the government is under pressure to do more to help people who have been out of work for at least 12 months.

Donna O’Neill has seen many of her female colleagues’ careers held back because the high cost of child care. She wants that to change.