Policeman-turned-lawyer David Healey's mental health was shattered by a rocket blast in Afghanistan. He now helps other traumatised cops fight for compensation.

A week ahead of the first hearings of the Disability Royal Commission in Townsville, a new survey of families of children with disability finds nearly no progress has been made on improving access to inclusive education.

The ACT Government is hitting back at warnings from the United Nations that legalising cannabis will breach international law, telling the body to instead focus on the United States and Canada.

Australian scientists have weighed Greenland's ice cap melt using satellite technology and their findings are not good.

Up to one in three Australian women have experienced birth trauma and one in 10 women emerge from childbirth with post-traumatic stress disorder, prompting calls for a major shake-up of the maternity system.

If you've been avoiding your local library because you are yet to return that dog-eared book by your bedside, the ACT Government has good news for you.

Chinese telco giant Huawei urges the Federal Government to reconsider its ban on the company providing equipment to Australia's 5G mobile network, describing claims it answers to Beijing as "unfounded attacks and smears".

More than a dozen live venues and nightclubs across Canberra shut down in the 2018 financial year, but the Government hopes a new plan to make a racket will turn that trend around.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics won't ask you about your sexual orientation in the 2021 census. But that won't stop it from trying to figure it out anyway.

When Sue Owen's hair fell out, she honed her skills in tying head scarves and "funking up" turbans. She now makes sure other patients "look fabulous".

Disability royal commission chair Ronald Sackville said commentators were discouraging people from telling their stories to the commission, but critics say the real discouragement is the absence of appropriate supports.

The call comes as a probe into complaints handling and treatment of small business proposed better access to review schemes and beefed up compensation for taxpayers wrongly targeted by the ATO.

When Farishta Arzoo moved to Australia she had to overcome significant obstacles learning English, starting a TAFE course and setting up a new life. Now she's gearing up to face her greatest physical challenge yet running a marathon.

Steve Smith played every shot in the book and then some from outside the coaching manuals as his unbeaten 80 helped Australia to a seven-wicket win over Pakistan in their Twenty20 clash in Canberra.

Comcare covered 973 massages for a former Sydney Symphony Orchestra violinist before deciding to cut support. But their decision to cease funding has been overturned, with the Administration Appeals Tribunal ruling that massage is a "reasonable" medical treatment.

What do John Farnham, Olivia Newton-John and Savage Garden all have in common? Apart from producing bona-fide pop bangers, they've all just been added to the official Sounds of Australia archive.

Murray River water destined for Adelaide will be reallocated to farmers upstream so they can grow feed for their livestock, as part of a federal drought stimulus package announced today.

A decade of dry conditions and lower rainfall has left parts of northern Australia facing an early and "above normal" bushfire risk in parts of northern Queensland and the Northern Territory.

Rape victims are being made to wait for hours in the clothes they were assaulted in before being examined, or sometimes not examined at all, a damning auditor-general report reveals, highlighting the lack of qualified staff.

To encourage more migrants to work in regions, the Government is relaxing long-held restrictions on temporary workers.

New research finds each feral cat in Australia will kill 740 animals a year. Together with their domesticated cousins, cats are killing about three million animals a day.

Letters of solidarity and more than 400 Aboriginal 'passports' will be delivered to Manus Island refugees as a group of boats set sail for Papua New Guinea.

The team at Neville's Garden Site: Phil Creaser, Karen Roberts, Liz Price, Sue Hand, Kenny Travouillon, Dr Mike Archer, Arthur White, and John Scan

A large fossil of Riversleigh snake vertebrae that are 19 million years old

Police have released new images of a fugitive's tools in a fresh appeal for information to find one of the country's most wanted, on the run for nine years.

Queensland's Native Mounted Police massacred thousands of Indigenous people on the colonial frontier, and most of its troopers were Indigenous themselves. It's a difficult legacy for their descendants to come to terms with.

Polystyrene balls were strewn across three bays on a pristine north Queensland island after coming in with the tide from an unknown source, forcing locals into action with vacuums and dustpans.

Running outside and swimming in the ocean is a rare luxury for eight students who lived through the terror of the tsunami that hit the Fukushima nuclear plant in 2011.

Workplace Health and Safety is investigating after a crane comes into contact with powerlines in Far North Queensland, injuring two people and killing one.

Health authorities urge more than 500 patients of a dental clinic in Far North Queensland to be tested for HIV and hepatitis as the clinic is investigated over its infection control practices.

They travelled across the world in the 1950s and '60s to build a new life cutting cane in the steamy paddocks of north Queensland. Now Basques return to learn the story of their ancestors.

There are concerns, and equally hopes, that an extension to a ban on live sheep exports and cruelty charges against a live exporter are eroding the livestock exporting industry.

Lego is being used in both informal and clinical sessions to improve the communication and cooperation skills of children with autism.

After staging an against-the-odds survival after a boat capsize in remote far north Queensland waters, one man is issuing a stern warning to fellow fishermen.

Dark-coloured jerseys could lead to poor performance, increased rates of injury, and even jeopardise the careers of young rugby league players, researchers say.

An ominous drone photo of sharks circling a whale beached near Albany in WA snaps top prize at this year's Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year awards, with the photographer saying the scene was "unreal".

A court releases the video of a police interview that shows the murder confession of Matthew White, who strangled Cooktown woman Donna Steele in a botched extortion bid and has been sentenced to life in jail.

Myanmar's national sport is similar to volleyball but players use their feet instead of their hands. The game is now being regularly played in Australia by Karen refugees.

Cardwell residents band together to save a large tree that arborists have declared unsafe due to beach erosion during the recent heavy wet season.