POLITICS & POLICY

Prime Minister Tony Abbott's satisfaction rating has declined in the recent Newspoll survey with personal support falling from 46 per cent to 44 per cent. In contrast, Australia Labour Party and Opposition leader Bill Shorten rose to 33 per cent. According to survey, Labour's primary vote has also increased from 32 to 35 per cent while support for the Coalition dropped to 43 per cent from 45 per cent. The Coalition leads Labour 52 per cent to 48 per cent as the preferred party.

If New Zealand has the notorious group Roast Busters, their counterpart in Australia is the Knights of the Jedi Council, made up of 17 soldiers who allegedly spread through the Internet images of unsuspecting naked women and then challenge members of the council to have sex with these females.

Bell FX Currency Outlook: The Australian Dollar has held up well overnight despite some USD strength.

The already high-tech Australian passport - which features facial recognition technology since 2005 - would be brought to another higher level in the future with the inclusion of voice recognition and eye scanning technologies.

An Indonesian international law expert warned on Monday that if the letter of Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott would not satisfy Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the next step in the worsening diplomatic crisis between the two nations could be Jakarta expelling Aussie diplomats.

New Zealanders launched a protest against the deep-sea oil drilling of Anadarko Petroleum off the North Island's west coast. Protest boats closed in on the Anadarko's drilling vessel, the Noble Bob Douglas. Over 3,000 New Zealanders went to the beaches from Muriwai to Wanganui to protest deep-sea oil drilling in the nation's waters.

Majority of Australians want the carbon tax repealed but don't want Prime Minister Tony Abbott's direct action plan as an alternative policy. In a new poll, 57 per cent of Australians rejects Labour's carbon tax law and only 12 per cent believes in Mr Abbott's policy.

Groups with different ideological beliefs saw a blessing in disguise amidst the AU-Indo feud

Climate change negotiators representing 195 countries have reached an agreement to some provisions on the climate pact to fight global warming.

Mark Textor, the political adviser of Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who has worsened the already bad ties between Australia and Indonesia due to his tweets, had quit Twitter.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has bowed down to pressure and admitted on Saturday to have written a letter to Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in a bid to settle the diplomatic row between the two countries.

Australia is beginning to feel the wrath of Indonesia, following the diplomatic fallout due to leaks provided by National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden that Canberra wiretapped the phone of Indonesia President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

The Labour party has accused the New Zealand government of deliberately withholding information about the risks of deep-sea oil drilling off the Kaikoura coast. According to Labour leader David Cunliffe, documents have surfaced indicating Environment Minister Amy Adams had secretly kept the risks from going public to protect Anadarko's proposed oil-drilling site.

Australian Immigration Minister Scott Morrison may land in some legal trouble with his aggressive policy to stop asylum-seeking-people through boats. The Australian Medical Association (AMA) of the Northern Territory (NT) says Mr Morrison is guilty of child abuse and is proposing to report him to the Department of Child Protection.

Indonesians expressed their outrage over claims that Australia had been spying on the Indonesian government. Prime Minister Tony Abbott has refused to apologise to Indonesia in the heat of the spying scandal. The Twitter hashtag #GanyangAustralia became the Indonesians’ online crusade against Australia. The hashtag, when translated, means “Crush Australia.”

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbot had to distance himself from his Liberal Party ally Mark Textor following the adviser's insensitive comments on the Indonesian foreign minister, multiple sources reported on Thursday.

Tasmania becomes the third Australian jurisdiction to decriminalise abortion.

Mark Textor, the campaign strategist of Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, sparked a Twitter outrage among Indonesian because he described Indonesia Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa as a look-alike of a 1970s Filipino porn star.

There is a stronger push for Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott to apologise to Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono for eavesdropping on his phone calls.

Diplomatic row between Indonesia and Australia following the spying scandal took a turn for the worst, after an Australian flag was burnt in the city of Yogyakarta and hardline “Red and White Brigade” organised a protest outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta. In a related incident Anonymous Indonesia and hacker group in the country, claimed credit for attacks that briefly shutting down the Australian Federal Police site and affected the Australian Reserve Bank.

Bell FX Currency Outlook: Fed minutes indicate a likely tapering in coming months.

There's news of reportedly "malevolent" shysters who are damaging the country in more ways than one and blaming Australia's Tony Abbott for it.

Member-nations of the G20 may be saying goodbye to hopes of ever having a strong and effective action plan against climate change when Australia takes over the leadership in December. International observers find no evidence that the country is taking the global issue of climate change seriously.

Australia and U.S. enters an agreement for U.S. Marines to train in Australia’s top-end

Senator Mike Duffy and Nigel Wright are accused of bribery and fraud by the RCMP.

The diplomatic relations between Australia and Indonesia further worsened on Thursday as Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono announced the suspension of cooperation on people smuggling and military cooperation over the spying row.

Bad luck continues to hound the infamous Ford brothers in Toronto as they lost a TV show just one day after the programme's debut. Sun News Network cancelled Ford Nation, which was hosted by Mayor Rob Ford and his brother Councillor Doug Ford.

As the diplomatic war of words between Indonesia and Australia surges, NewsCorp Australia reveals how Mr Howard reacted to revelations made by the Indonesian spymaster General Abdullah Mahmud Hendropriyono.

Australia's reputation as a valuable force in developing an international climate policy has been trashed largely due to its poor ranking in the recent climate change performance index and its inability to send a representative for the United Nations' climate change talks in Warsaw, Poland. Australia's Prime Minister Tony Abbott has refused to support the green climate fund supported by the United Nations.