PM

Newly released data from the child abuse Royal Commission has revealed some staggering figures on the number of complaints lodged against the Catholic Church in the Newcastle-Hunter region. The previously unpublished information shows more than $25 million in compensation to victims. One payout was $3 million.

Car loan provider BMW Australia Finance will refund millions of dollars to customers in what's believed Australia's largest ever consumer pay-back scheme. The company has agreed to pay $77 million after an investigation by the corporate watchdog discovered serious problems with its lending practices.

The Federal Government has admitted some of the concerns in scathing report about its Community Development Program were 'quite legitimate'. The Australian National University study said the scheme's work requirements were higher than other work-for-the-dole programs and financial penalties for breaches were crippling some families. The Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion rejected many of the report's findings but said changes would quickly be introduced to Parliament next year.

In India, a much loved and controversial female movie star turned political leader has died, triggered enormous outpourings of emotion. Sixty-eight-year-old Jayalalithaa Jayaraman was admired for giving up acting to navigate southern India's treacherous politics, becoming a six-time leader of the southern state of Tamil Nadu. But critics say the cult of personality she built also enabled corruption and have left a potentially damaging leadership void.

Tomorrow will mark 75 years since Japan staged a surprise attack on the US naval base in Pearl Harbour - an action the then US President Roosevelt described as a 'day of infamy', and prompting him to declare war on Japan. Now Shinzo Abe will become the first sitting Japanese Prime Minister to visit the site of the bombings and pay his respects to all those who died in World War Two. He'll join President Obama at the memorial in Hawaii. The two leaders hope to book-end 2016 as a year of significant progress in reconciling their difficult histories.

Jobs and economic stimulus. That's the mantra politicians from both sides have touted in Townsville today, as they announced more detail for the proposed Adani coal mine. Townsville is the regional headquarters, but other north Queensland regional centres are assured they'll also benefit from a jobs boost. As Katherine Gregory reports, some experts question the economic viability of the project and discount the jobs growth forecast.

A brain tumour survivor will lead a new parliamentary committee into rare cancer survival rates. Labor Senator for Tasmania, Catryna Bilyk, has spoken out about her experience where she had two benign tumours removed just months before she was due to take office in 2008. The committee has been welcomed by medical groups, who say funding for rare cancers needs to be overhauled.

When is a tribunal not really a tribunal, but an ombudsman instead? The Financial Services Minister Kelly O'Dwyer says that when the Prime Minister promised a tribunal to deal with consumer complaints against the banks, he was in fact talking about a small 't' tribunal, or an ombudsman. An independent expert panel, set up by the government, has recommended establishing a new ombudsman, to deal with complaints in a timely way, backed by an industry-funded system of compensation. Coalition MP Warren Entsch is critical, saying a new ombudsman will not do.

There are growing concerns tonight about the economic implications of Italy's referendum result for the European Union. The win of the "no" vote is another example of a populist victory, but economists argue the associated rejection of austerity and economic reform has potential to derail an already fragile euro-zone.

Voters in Austria rejected the idea of electing the EU's first far-right head of state since World War Two. Alexander Van der Bellen, who ran as a centre-left independent candidate, defeated the far-right Freedom party challenger, Norbert Hofer, in the country's presidential election at the weekend. The original vote took place in May, but was annulled by the constitutional court due to voting irregularities. The newly elected Alexander Van der Bellen said his victory sent a signal of hope to all the capitals of the European Union.