Daily Telegraph News & Politics

Children aged between 10 and 13 wanting   flashy items – and notoriety – are behind a worrying spike in robberies and thefts, police say. Politicians from across Australia’s major parties have been accused of recklessly spending taxpayer dollars on chauffeur-driven cars with some MPs clocking $20,000 in just three months. Australian Open tennis action will blast into life   almost a full week early in Melbourne with fans for the first time able to snap up bargain tickets to see the   world’s best tennis stars go head-to-head in charity matches. The full scale of major road and rail project cost blowouts will be revealed to Queenslanders twice a year, in a dramatic repudiation of former transport minister Mark Bailey’s penchant for hiding billions of dollars in overruns. A man accused of a horror stabbing attack on two women he did not know, killing one and leaving the other in critical condition, has flagged a potential mental health defence to the charges in his first court appearance. See omnystudio.com/lis