* 39-year-old will bat in fifth Ashes Test in Sydney * Australian played 87 Tests, scoring 6,207 runs to date Usman Khawaja has announced he will retire from international cricket, saying the fifth Ashes Test in Sydney will be his last. Khawaja’s future in Test cricket has been one of the hottest topics of this summer’s Ashes series, after he turned 39 last month. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Guidance distributed to MPs seeks to pre-empt questions about plan’s compatibility with Paris agreement, indicating opposition is aware of potential breach

Nationals and Liberals agree on new emissions plan after joint party room as opposition leader promises new immigration policy within weeks A future Coalition government would strip emissions reductions from the objectives of the electricity market operator, focusing instead on lowering consumer power prices, and track cuts achieved by similar nations to form Australia’s carbon targets. Coalition MPs endorsed the plan in a special party room meeting on Sunday afternoon, days after conservative Liberals engineered moves to drop net zero by 2050 policies to match their junior partner, the Nationals. Continue reading...

Sussan Ley appears to have given up trying to meet voters where they are, instead allowing conservative MPs to dictate policy to keep her job – and keep the Coalition together * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Six months ago on Thursday, the new Liberal leader, Sussan Ley, stood in the opposition party room at Parliament House and promised the Coalition would meet voters “where they are”. Six months on – and after another messy few weeks for the Liberals and Nationals – Ley was back in the same spot confirming the Liberals had dumped support for net zero emissions by 2050. Continue reading...