SYDNEY (AAP) - Prime Minister Julia Gillard remains confident she can turn around public and industry opinion in favour of a price on carbon, once the final details are revealed.

Qantas Airways Ltd says passenger numbers in March grew 4.8 per cent to 3.74 million as travel in the month was hit by the Christchurch and Japanese earthquakes.

SYDNEY (AAP) - An honest government would use next week's budget to demonstrate how the troubled national broadband network (NBN) would be delivered and at what cost, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott

SYDNEY (AAP) - Damage from a freak tornado that blasted its way through a shopping mall in Auckland is likely to run into tens of millions of dollars.

SYDNEY (AAP) - Fairfax Media Ltd has agreed to work with the publisher's senior subeditors on possible alternatives to outsourcing its subediting work, a union says.

Teen pop sensation Justin Bieber met bullied Sydney teen Casey Heynes at his concert in Melbourne on Monday night.

Former Manly, NSW and Australian player Noel Cleal believes the club must do all it can to retain coach Des Hasler.

SYDNEY (AAP) - The Western Force aim to atone for last month's "kick in the backside" when they confront the NSW Waratahs in Saturday night's Super Rugby clash at the Sydney Football Stadium.

SYDNEY (AAP) - The first female speaker has been elected to NSW parliament as 114 mostly coalition members were sworn in during the first sitting since the landslide state election.

St Kilda's early-season woes have continued, with full-back Zac Dawson failing at the AFL tribunal to have his one-match ban downgraded.