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Private contractors running immigration processing centres on Manus Island and Nauru have be paid billions of dollars of public money without proper oversight by the Immigration Department: that's the damning finding of a report by the Australian National Audit Office. The report says more than $2 billion was paid to contractors between 2012 and 2016, either without appropriate authorisation, or with no departmental record of who had authorised it. Our reporter in Canberra Peta Donald spoke to the Greens Immigration spokesman Nick McKim.

The entire RSL New South Wales state council is facing possible expulsion from the league, over charges levelled by the organisation's national leadership. For months, the League's New South Wales branch has been embroiled in multiple financial scandals, including revelations that former state President Don Rowe withdrew more than $200,000 cash on a corporate credit card. Today, the RSL National Board has formally accused the New South Wales branch of working against the League and bringing it into disrepute, by covering up Mr Rowe's conduct.

The former detective chief inspector whose whistleblowing sparked the Royal Commission into child sexual abuse says the police force should apologise now to the victims it failed. Australia's police commissioners are currently considering making an apology to victims of child sex abuse, but they say any apology wouldn't be made until the royal commission's final report, due mid December 2017. Peter Fox says there's no reason to delay, and if police commissioners are sincere the apology should be made now.

Malcolm Turnbull has continued his attack on the Opposition Leader today, saying that Bill Shorten's trade policies are stuck in the 1950s. But while the Prime Minister kept the focus on trade and Bill Shorten's reluctance to commit to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, Labor turned its attention to Centrelink's debt recovery efforts. Budget papers reveal that the welfare agency will soon start targeting aged-pensioners and people on disability support payments who may have been paid more than they're entitled to.

Older Australians living in nursing homes have some of the highest rates of depression and anxiety, and now aged care providers are calling on the Government to help them deal with it. Most nursing home residents have been excluded from Medicare-funded psychological treatment available to the wider community. Now those responsible for their care have backed demands from seniors' advocates and health workers for an end to the inequity.

The West Australian Government has approved its third uranium mine in a month, despite the state's environmental watchdog recommending against the proposal. The Minerals Council of Australia has backed the move, saying projects need to be ready for improved uranium market conditions. But environmental groups say the approval sets a dangerous precedent.

Some new research on who controls money within marriages has revealed some disturbing insights into patterns of financial abuse within Australian families.

The investigation into migration, money and families, has provided a detailed snapshot of how some husbands coercively control their wives' finances, denying them any say or access to their own money. And the pattern cut across cultural, education and socio-economic divides.

Equine Veterinarians Australia says the prosecution of three Queensland vets over how they handled cases of hendra virus has discouraged younger vets from specialising in the field. As Kallee Buchanan reports, vets have been shocked by the court cases.

An Australian woman and her three adult sons have had a lucky escape after spending the night lost on a mountain in the Japanese Alps. The ski town of Nozawa Onsen is a popular destination for Australian tourists at this time of year, upwards of 50,000 people make the annual pilgrimage north each year in search of 'powder' snow. This family may not have been so lucky had it not been for the mother's appeal for help on social media which reportedly said 'I'm skiing and I got lost.'

'Aussie jobs' is the mantra from both of the major parties today, as Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten begin the political year in earnest. The Prime Minister says one of the best ways to create jobs is through increased international trade, and is pushing for the Senate to ratify the Trans-Pacific Partnership as soon as possible. But Bill Shorten argues it's a waste of time because President-elect Donald Trump has sworn to rip up the TPP as soon as he gets into office, which will leave the deal in tatters.