With political stalwart Bill Shorten set to step away from parliament in the coming days, WA MP Anne Aly has been named junior NDIS minister alongside Amanda Rishworth.
A Telethon Kids Institute program supporting about 700 Western Australian families is set to receive three years of funding valued at $13.8m from the National Disability Insurance Agency.
The federal budget has significantly expanded a Telethon Kids Institute-led early intervention scheme to treat autism, devoting more than $22 million to boost the pilot program.
Consumer sentiment is still very low although mortgage holders have curiously regained some confidence ahead of the Reserve Bank's next cash rate decision.
National Disability Insurance Scheme Minister Bill Shorten says the agency's chief will step down ahead of a new head being confirmed in the coming months.
WA appears set for a political makeover at the next federal election, with tax reform, integrity measures and action on climate change confronting whichever party forms government.
Labor has hit out at a federal government proposal to give aged care workers a $800 bonus, calling the boost a "sugar hit" which ignored other problems.
A report launched as part of a campaign by Australia's peak disability services sector body has assumed a multiplier of 2.25 for the $23 billion spent annually through the NDIS.
Bill Shorten insists he has no interest in returning to the leadership of the Labor party, dismissing a story that he has been discussing this issue with colleagues as "boring" and unsourced.
Greg Hunt has fiercely defended Australia's sluggish vaccine rollout in a series of heated interviews, with the federal government under fire over the Victorian lockdown.
Manufacturing jobs will be at the heart of Labor's attempt to defeat Scott Morrison with a $15 billion plan designed to drive investment in the sector.
Christian Porter was Premier Colin Barnett's heir-apparent when he announced in mid 2013 that he intended to quit WA politics for the federal arena. He clearly had bigger fish to fry.
Madeleine King has taken on the resources portfolio in the opposition's frontbench reshuffle as Anthony Albanese has made the bold assertion he will win the next federal election.
OPINION: Premier Mark McGowan, most Labor Party MPs, and many Liberals as well, are keen for the contentious voluntary assisted dying (VAD) legislation to be passed within the next fortnight, but for significantly different reasons.
Labor has walked away from its planned major redistribution of income, and sought to clarify confusion over coal mining that cost it at the last federal poll.
If elected prime minister Bill Shorten will promptly scrap the coalition's "insipid" wage submission and ask the industrial umpire to raise award wages.
Opinion: While politicians are showering favoured industries in cash this federal election, voters should remember the recent train wreck of Carnegie Clean Energy as a reminder that subsidies for businesses can flop badly.
The federal Labor opposition needs to lock down the details of its emissions policy before the impact will be clear, according to Woodside chief executive Peter Coleman, but the ability to buy international offsets will be key to keeping the cost of carbon reduction low.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has promised 1000 shipbuilding jobs at Henderson, and opposition leader Bill Shorten has pledged $75 million towards mining exploration, ahead of their debate tonight in Perth.
Labor leader Bill Shorten says Department of Treasury costings showing his tax plan will cost an extra $38.7 billion a year for the next decade are wrong.
Scott Morrison has put the economy at the centre of his pitch to voters, saying they need to keep him as prime minister because "now is not the time to turn back" to Labor, after he announced a May 18 date for the federal election.
Battling Western Australians may shift their votes from the Liberal Party of Australia to the Australia Labor Party at the looming election, wooed by Labor's policies on wage growth and penalty rates.
