It's a topic that hasn't gathered much attention on the campaign trail, but based on the large number of questions we received through You Ask, We Answer, waste and recycling is something many voters are concerned about. So do the parties have a plan? And is it enough to make a difference?

It felt as if the winds of change were blowing through the Catholic Church after the royal commission. But a new defence has rejected some of its key findings in relation to one of its most notorious paedophile priests, writes Louise Milligan.

The disgraced Cardinal faces claims he knew of child sex abuse by notorious paedophile Edward "Ted" Dowlan and was involved in moving him from school to school, allowing the abuse to continue.

Budget cuts, funding freezes, and tight rental markets put pressure on homeless services as more people end up on the street.

A judge says Victorian paedophile priest Robert Claffey "mocked" his priestly authority to access and abuse children, while sentencing him to more jail time.

Australians' taste in beer is evolving and craft brands are on the rise, but that also means the nation's country pubs are changing.

The ABC understands the Victorian Department of Corrections considers the Hopkins Correctional Centre in Ararat, 200 kilometres west of Melbourne, to be the most appropriate place to send the high-profile cleric.

Around one person dies on Victoria's rail lines every week, with most long-term train drivers experiencing at least one fatality in their career.

The Lions miss out on the AFL minor premiership to the Cats following their loss to the third-placed Tigers, the Bulldogs earn a return to finals action, while the Power defeat the Dockers to end their season on a winning note.

A contentious highway upgrade again comes under scrutiny after revelations a land deal was struck between Victoria's roads department and the former Aboriginal cultural heritage authority which approved the development.

Twenty years ago, cats and dogs in RSPCA animal shelters had a good chance of being put down. Today, it's a different story.

A child abuse survivor says the priest who assaulted him did so in the 'welcoming' home of another clergyman. His claim comes amid new allegations that paedophiles acted in concert within the Catholic Church.

Ride Like a Girl's real strength is it never lets anything get in the way of telling the superb true story at its heart.

A ratepayers advocacy group says a damning report into the risk of corruption within local government in Victoria highlights the need for greater scrutiny of regional councils.

Translated by Yoko Ishiguro

Imagine your town is suddenly enclosed in a gigantic snow globe (without the snow) - no warning, no explanation, and no escape.

There have already been a few accounts published over the last few years of soldiers who become attached to the animals they rescue. This is one of the better ones.

Rob Minshull produces Weekends with Warren and is an avid reader

Rob Minshull produces Weekends with Warren and is an avid reader.

Making the right choice in life is never straightforward but is one of the main reasons we find ourselves and each other so fascinating. Three Dollars is the story of Eddie Harnovey, a honest, compassionate man with a brilliant wife, Tanya, and a beautiful, if possibly epileptic, daughter Abbey. Eddie's life revolves around work and the three women in his life; the third is Amanda, a childhood sweetheart who re-appears in his life with mathematical precision every nine-and-a-half years. Eddie has a lovely house in the suburbs, he has a strong moral conscience, he's intelligent and witty, and the world around him is falling apart. On the brink of bankruptcy with just $3 to his name, has he made the wrong choices?Perhaps a large part of the answer lies in the speed with which we live our lives. It is easy to feel sympathy for Eddie as he bemoans the pace of change: "Everything happens too quickly to be understood while it is happening. Analysis is impossible until the event is over."A more likely cause of Eddie's predicament may lie in the fact that his wife is about to lose her teaching position at the university and Eddie, an engineer working for the Department of Environment, has been asked by his wife's former lover to falsify a report to allow a smelting plant to be built by Amanda's father.The depth of these relationships is explored with insight and great wit, unpicking those worries that come to us at night while, like Eddie, we lie and notice (and usually ignore) the cracks and flaking of paint on the bedroom ceiling. For Eddie, it is a time to rank debts and what has become the persistence and tyranny of the day-to-day struggle to financially survive.Three Dollars was written in 1998, but set in the times of Australia's introduction to what the surely misnamed 'economic rationalism'. The obsession with material goods and the soulless never-ending pursuit of profit are both a target for Eddie's scorn as well as a source of hilarious black comedy. Written with great humour and prose which at times may seem just a little too deliberate, Three Dollars is as pertinent today as it was in the 1990s.There are times, however, when the characters' tendency to editorialise or sermonise is a touch overwhelming, even if the sentiments seem sound or relevant to Australian politics today. Take this monologue from Eddie's wife, Tanya:"People's fear of change and their despair at the lack of certainty in any area of their lives, particularly where the social and the personal meet, that is with respect to their jobs and income, if it lasts long enough, will lead them to abandon reason, to be suspicious of it and to look for scapegoats and simplistic solutions. The wisdom or correctness of a government's decision will scarcely be discussed but instead attention will be focused on the strength with which the decision was made, the apparent certainty, the conviction with which it was implemented."Admittedly, Tanya is a university politics lecturer, but the moral hectoring in the novel can easily distract from the plot and soon become tiring.Ignoring the occasional sermon, however, Three Dollars an entertaining read, beautifully written and extremely funny. It sat on my bookshelf for over a decade and was rescued only because the mixed reviews for Perlman's latest novel, The Street Sweeper, made me curious. No ambiguity about Three Dollars though: compelling, dramatic and a disconcertingly humorous reflection of the way so many of us live our lives. In 2005, Three Dollars was made into an Australian movie, starring David Wenham. A superb interpretation of the novel, both film and book are highly recommended.

Set in San Francisco in the desolate aftermath of World War Terminus, the enjoyable science fiction novel 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?' follows the journey of two humans who remain on Earth instead of undertaking the more usual interplanetary emigration.

Eva Hornung

Andy Griffiths

Mark Haddon

Ruby J Murray

Tony Mulvihill has only one secret for training a good working dog, a lesson he learned 30 years ago from an Oregon buckaroo.

The dishevelled older man on a city street is no longer accurate as a homeless stereotype with women, youth and regional families falling below the poverty line.

Police seize more than $140 million worth of cocaine stashed in the arm of an excavator that was destined for a business in a small NSW town.

An inmate from a prison once touted as housing criminals with "no escape risk" is on the run after he fled into bushland while on a work assignment.

It is 30 years since Qantas's bold, record-holding 747 jumbo's continuous flight from London to Sydney in what was a marathon journey featuring specially-made fuel and covert planning.

St George Illawarra player Jack de Belin has withdrawn his legal challenge to the NRL's no-fault stand down policy, with his lawyers telling a Federal Court in Sydney there was "no utility" in proceeding.

Australia has an extensive list of previously banned books that were once considered "obscene" and a threat to the country's morals and literary standards.

Daniel Mansbridge was seven kilometres into a 1,000-kilometre charity ride for children's cancer when he was knocked off his bicycle and bashed by a group of teenagers.

They've battled gale-force winds, cold winter nights, and drunks serenading them with Billy Joel classics at three in the morning. But two young medicos are determined to keep sleeping out in their scrubs to draw attention to the detention of asylum seekers.

Newly retired NRL star Sam Burgess will appear in court in December over an alleged incident at a residence near Bowral earlier this month.

The CEO of Greyhound Racing NSW has vowed to "move heaven and earth" to ensure racing goes ahead at the Dapto Dogs tonight, following yesterday's shock announcement the track would close.

The University of Adelaide says the departures of chancellor Kevin Scarce and vice-chancellor Peter Rathjen have nothing to do with its finances despite admitting it is facing a budget shortfall of $100 million.

We checked whether every member of Federal Parliament had downloaded the COVIDSafe tracing app. Find out whether your local member has or not.

As most of the world struggles to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, one country which should have been vulnerable is keeping deaths and case numbers extremely low.

Celebrities, cooks and internationally renowned performers offer online masterclasses, as those in coronavirus isolation look to upskill.

When the coronavirus pandemic began, London-based events planner Ali Lord decided the best place to be was at her parents' cattle station, so she packed up her laptop and reconnected it 17 days later, after an epic commute.