It's an unlikely setting for the final chapter of an international diplomatic scandal, but Darwin's waste dump holds an extraordinary secret beneath the surface.

A politician opposed to the decriminalisation of sex work in the Northern Territory claims he has been "censored" by a parliamentary scrutiny committee which agreed to accept evidence from sex workers behind closed doors because of concerns about stigma and discrimination.

Manal Aqrawe is a doctor with more than 20 years of experience, but she can't get a job in Australia even outside medicine. Her story is sobering, but far from isolated.

With 11 voyages and 300,000 recorded observations under his belt, population ecologist Eric Woehler has dedicated his life to building a dataset to help monitor and track bird populations in a changing world.

One week after the end of the Uluru climb, Parks Australia has flagged the first fee increase at the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park in more than a decade and tourism operators could be the big losers.

Previous attempts to reform Question Time have largely fizzled out, but with public faith in politics in a tailspin, both major parties now seem serious about an overhaul of Parliament's most theatrical hour.

Directors of building companies responsible for substandard works in Canberra could be held personally responsible for defects, under new laws proposed by the ACT Government.

A Victorian man who sent 52 packages filled with asbestos to embassies in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra has been sentenced to one year in prison.

Forty years after the Vietnam War, two Canberra veterans have developed digital maps to help locate some 300,000 Vietnamese war dead still missing in action.

The ACT's WorkSafe commissioner says a fine of $180,000, delivered to a developer responsible for safety breaches that saw a 16-year-old student break his neck on a construction site, is inadequate.

A deadly pig disease that has decimated herds across Asia has spread closer to Australia with the Philippines confirming it has tested positive to African swine fever.

The first milestone in the Federal Government's review of drone noise vindicates community complaints that the unmanned delivery vehicles are loud and obtrusive.

The new energy storage will help the ACT avoid blackouts and meet its commitment to renewable electricity.

Angus Taylor downplayed the risk to Australian oil reserves in the aftermath of the drone attack on the world's largest oil refinery.

Political pressure is mounting on the Member for Chisholm about her alleged links to the Chinese Government.

Former Canberra taxi driver Neelander Sirohi loses a racial discrimination case he launched after he was expelled from a sex offender's course while serving time for raping a vulnerable woman in 2013.

The Secretary of the Department of Home Affairs tells the Senate Intelligence Committee that he's never handed over classified information to the press.

From marking out garden beds to meeting the Queen, there is one man who has been planting tulips at Floriade for 32 years and he's showing no signs of slowing down.

A parliamentary inquiry into how Canberra schools handle bullying complaints reveals tragic stories of desperate parents and students, prompting a raft of recommendations.

Disability advocate Christina Ryan says she was subjected to a "dehumanising" and excessive security check at Parliament House, where she has been hundreds of times before.

The ACT becomes the first Australian jurisdiction to legalise the possession, use and cultivation of small amounts of cannabis.

They completed less than two in three peak services, but electric buses are still a "viable alternative" for Canberra according to the ACT's Transport Minister.

Of the almost 3,000 magpie attacks reported in Australia this year, only one was in Tasmania. So why are these notoriously angry birds so much more relaxed on the Apple Isle?

A historic train carriage is destroyed in a suspicious fire at the Canberra Railway Museum, just hours before its reopening. The 1930s passenger carriage was gutted in the blaze and two adjacent cars were also damaged.

An early tackle by Cooper Cronk is deemed a professional foul, resulting in a penalty for the Raiders and a controversial sin bin for Cronk.

Firefighting experts and senior scientists tell Background Briefing they're concerned the Federal Government is refusing to guarantee funding for the only national research body for bushfires beyond 2021.

Victorian prosecutors say there is no justification for the High Court to grant special leave for Cardinal George Pell to appeal against his child sexual abuse convictions.

If Morrison had a message for farmers, announcing it on a Friday afternoon amid football finals, school holidays and long weekends is not how you'd typically deliver it, writes Kath Sullivan.

Haider Ali, 37, is returned to Australia to face court after he fled the country while on trial for sexual offences two years ago.

Several hundred online enthusiasts generate thousands of leads for investigators after a single day of competitive 'ethical hacking' across Australia.

As it marks 90 years embedded in the Canberra community, the YWCA looks back on its role as an organisation aimed at empowering women, from early karate lessons that scandalised to advocating leadership roles for women today.

It's impossible to count the millions spent on Australia's biggest police hunt, two trials, two High Court challenges, a judicial inquiry and 19 years of imprisonment.

Celebrated children's writer and novelist Gail Jones takes out two of six Prime Minister's Literary Awards, worth a total of $480,000.

Last year, Nigel Shedden got married to wife Belinda and together they moved into their dream home. Today, the couple are living with Mr Shedden's mother, and the home they spent 18 months building has been sold.

Despite his home being raided four years ago, Roger Uren has now been arrested and charged with breaching national secrecy rules.

Australia is set to become only the second country in the world to have a dedicated national women's baseball competition.

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.

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".

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.

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.

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.

A Snowy Mountains RSL wants charges laid against the local council, which it has accused of desecrating part of a war memorial that a historian says has "state significance".

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.

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.