Coastal Shield: where the $9bn will go
Forty-one flood-risk districts are ranked for early works. We chart where the barriers, pumps and raised levees will go — and when.
Tuition-free degrees: what changes for students in 2027
Who pays nothing, who still pays, and what happens to loans already on the books — the Higher Education Access Act, explained.
Coastal Shield bill clears final vote, sending $9bn to flood defences
Ministers hail a “generational upgrade” to sea walls, pumping stations and river barriers after the longest sitting in the Assembly’s modern history. Opposition parties back the plan but demand quarterly spending audits.
Electoral commission proposes ranked ballots for city councils
Voters would number candidates in order of preference under the biggest change to local elections in forty years. Ministers have six months to respond.
Assembly approves tuition-free degrees at public universities from 2027
The Higher Education Access Act passes 214–96 after a marathon overnight sitting, ending two decades of fee rises and reshaping how Coravia pays for its universities.
High Court sets October date for landmark data-privacy challenge
Judges will test whether the national identity database’s data-sharing rules breach the constitution’s privacy clause — a first for Coravian law.
Emergency wards to gain 4,000 extra nurses under winter plan
A $520m package funds recruitment, retention bonuses and 900 returning nurses — but unions say rosters, not headlines, will decide the winter.
Ethics panel clears deputy speaker after eight-month inquiry
The Assembly’s standards committee finds “no breach of the code” over undeclared hospitality, but recommends tightening the disclosure rules it says are “written for another era”.
Aldenne farmers ask where Coastal Shield leaves the valley
Inland communities on the flood-prone lower river say the bill’s coastal focus risks leaving upstream defences to a later parliament.
Drought relief package for Aldenne farmers passes first reading
$480m in emergency support clears its first hurdle as the valley records its driest summer in six decades.