News

The Abbott government insists it will honour its election promise to stop asylum seekers arriving by boat despite Indonesian opposition to its controversial plan to turn back vessels.

Environment Minister Greg Hunt has abolished the Climate Commission and begun work on getting rid of the Climate Change Authority, in what has been described as a black day in the fight against global warming in Australia.

Sydney radio station 2Day FM is seeking to prevent the media watchdog from finding it committed a criminal offence last year.

Tony Abbott sacked three department heads within minutes of being sworn in as prime minister but one of the nation's most influential public servants, Martin Parkinson, defied speculation and retained his job.

Liberal frontbencher Sophie Mirabella has lost her Victorian seat of Indi to grassroots independent Cathy McGowan.

A plaque stolen from the Australian War Memorial at Hyde Park corner in London has been recovered by Metropolitan Police and will be restored in time for Remembrance Day on 11 November.

TNT Multimedia, publisher of TNT Magazine, has been put into administration.

Bill Shorten may have the majority support of the ALP caucus for the party's federal leadership but he's going to have a tough fight winning over NSW rank and file members.

Anthony Albanese and Bill Shorten have begun their leadership pitch to Labor members voting in a historic ballot.

Far from the vibrant nightlight and lazy days of Lagos, ERIN SOMERVILLE experiences the true heart of Portugal with a Medieval Market in cobblestoned Obidos.

View the digital edition of this week’s FREE Australian Times newspaper, available every Tuesday across London.

POSTCARDS FROM AUSTRALIA | An inland detour takes us through a part of Australia we rarely see - with long sweeping valleys and row-upon-row of vineyards - as we drive from Maryborough to Toowoomba.

Dozens of special-edition London cabs have arrived in Fremantle, Perth to be trialled for use on Australian roads.

Prime Minister-elect Tony Abbott has tried to head off accusations the coalition government has gone backwards by not being able to appoint more than one woman to cabinet.

Prime Minister-elect Tony Abbott has announced his new cabinet and ministry line-up in Canberra, and has come under fire for including only one woman — Julie Bishop — on the team.

Australian man Tom Denniss has become the fastest person to circumnavigate the world on foot after running on average a marathon a day, every day, for 622 days. The 26,000 km charity run raised money for Oxfam.

Labor’s rank and file will help choose the party leader in Canberra with Anthony Albanese standing against Bill Shorten.

A British-Australian man, Gary Tweddle, who went missing in the Blue Mountains has been farewelled at a service in Sydney, with his father paying tribute to those who searched for him.

The grumpy-looking and rarely seen deep-sea blobfish, found off the coast of Australia, has been crowned the world’s ugliest animal in a competition to raise awareness of aesthetically challenged animals facing extinction.

An 80-year-old Australian tourist has had a miraculous escape after falling 30 meters off a cliff path in Cornwall before becoming entangled in brambles.

TRAVEL | As Ron Howard’s new Formula 1 film Rush hits UK cinemas, LARA BRUNT channels her inner Chris Hemsworth and takes a spin around the world’s most infamous racetrack - the Nürburgring in Germany.

The Liberal candidate dubbed the “Where’s Wally” of the 2013 Australian election, Jaymes Diaz, has made a surprise appearance on the ABC’s comedy sketch program The Hamster Decides.

A confusing name, a donkey vote and a complicated deal through the preference whisperer can help you become a senator no-one’s heard of.

The tightness of the contest in the Victorian seat of Indi between independent Cathy McGowan and sitting MP Sophie Mirabella has led Mirabella to exclude herself from the first Abbott ministry.

Former union boss Bill Shorten will stand for the Labor leadership but he could still face a challenge from Anthony Albanese.

A strategy to stop asylum seeker boat arrivals is at the top of Tony Abbott’s to-do list for next week after his ministry is sworn in.

PNG police and villagers are hunting bandits who attacked an Australian tourist trekking group on a track in the country’s north.

Tony Abbott’s government has been accused of pettiness after incoming foreign minister Julie Bishop axed a plum posting as Australia's next consul-general in New York for former Labor premier Steve Bracks.

ELECTION13 | Australian politicians have called for reforms to the electoral system after Saturday's election saw several candidates from fringe parties elected as the result of complex preference arrangements.

Former Australian prime minister Julia Gillard will give candid interviews with author Dr Anne Summers in front of live audiences in Sydney and Melbourne, with both shows selling out.

A British inquest into the death of a nurse who took her own life after receiving a prank call from two Australian radio DJs has been delayed again.

View the digital edition of this week’s FREE Australian Times newspaper, available every Tuesday across London.

On a weekend where the rest of England decided to escape to Europe, ALEX IVETT dares to do Devon instead, and experiences first-hand what a weekend in the English countryside can really offer.

Australia House has traditionally attracted one of the largest turnouts for Australians voting overseas, and in this year’s federal election it was no different.

Australia’s incoming prime minister Tony Abbott has spent the first working day of his government getting things in order, as Labor looks for a leader.

An inquiry into child sex allegations involving the Australian Catholic Church has heard it was considered possible to cure pedophile priests with counselling.

ELECTION13 | Queensland entrepreneur Clive Palmer is expected to win the Sunshine Coast electorate of Farifax, with several other Palmer United Party members highly likely to take positions in parliament.

Julian Assange believes his political party has performed well in the Senate race despite failing to get anyone elected.

Shorten indicates he would not run for the Labor leadership if Anthony Albanese wants the top job, in a bid to avoid more disunity and party destabilisation.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has quit the leadership of the Labor party after Saturday’s election defeat.

Tony Abbott has received a rapturous reception as he stepped up to the podium to make his acceptance speech in the Australian federal election.

A smiling Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has conceded defeat in the Australian federal election but says Labor fought the good fight.

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With one day left for London Aussies to cast their votes at Australia House, an exit poll conducted by Australian Times shows a swing towards the coalition in the 2013 election, despite Labor leading on a two party preferred basis.

AUSTRALIAN ELECTION 13 | As voters prepare to go to the polls, Tony Abbott’s Liberal-National coalition looks set to defeat Kevin Rudd’s Labor government.

Don MacLeod, the Australian man who saved Kiwi Ryan Blair from a six-metre crocodile that had stalked him for a fortnight on Western Australia's West Governor Island, has plenty of similar tales.

Young Australians are being urged to vote in the Australian federal election. Prepolling facilities are open for Australian expats in London at Australia House.

The Coalition have backflipped on plans to implement an online internet filter across Australia, with opposition communications spokesman Malcolm Turnbull stating the original policy released on Thursday advocating a UK-style ‘opt-out’ system was incorrect and had been ‘poorly worded’.

ELECTION13 | Federal candidates in Treasurer Chris Bowen's electorate of McMahon have been linked to both corrupt detective Roger Rogerson and political assassin Phuong Ngo as the election campaign turns negative.

AUSTRALIAN ELECTION 13 | As the federal election looms, we look at the top five quotes that have shaped the political careers of the two leaders who will go head to head in a bid to lead the nation: Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and his challenger Tony Abbott.