Last Top Stories: Ballarat breakfast report, Saturday August 1, 2015

Ballarat breakfast report, Saturday August 1, 2015

Emergency services experienced a quiet Friday night, with police, fire and ambulance not responding to any jobs of significance. Can you believe it has been one year since the city was blanketed in snow? Relive the magic in our gallery below: WEATHER. >> view original

Former Ballarat Bishop Ronald Mulkearns to appear at royal commission in Melbourne

A former bishop described as "pivotal" to the failure to prevent decades of widespread child sexual abuse at Catholic schools in Ballarat will appear before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. The commission ... >> view original

Flying rats target Ballarat

Australia's ever-lasting Indian or Common Myna problem appears to be growing – and the pests are heading straight for Ballarat. Just as Sesame Street's Big Bird frightened this reporter as a toddler, Ballarat residents could shortly be subjected to a ... >> view original

Grant to boost reading skills of Ballarat children

More than 200 Ballarat children will receive an age appropriate book every month for the next five years courtesy of a significant grant from Perpetual Private Impact Philanthropy. The funding will support United Way Ballarat's Imagination Library ... >> view original

Ballarat Police launch Facebook page

The creation of the Ballarat police Facebook page comes three years after the program was launched in Victoria. Two years ago, former police and emergency services minister Kim Wells announced an expansion of the Eyewatch initiative to include Bendigo, ... >> view original

Non-banks set to boom thanks to APRA crackdown on property investors

It has emerged the housing investor loan market is expanding even faster than thought. Rob Homer. by Clancy Yeates and Shaun Drummond. Smaller mortgage lenders are queuing up to take a bigger slice of the the big banks' hefty profits from home loans, ... >> view original

Uber fights tax office over GST demands

Uber, the popular ride-sharing service rapidly eroding the value of taxi plates, will fight a tax office ruling requiring Uber drivers to collect GST, accusing the ATO of “clearly and unfairly targeting” its drivers. Uber filed an application with the ... >> view original

Bigger than expected falls in Perth's median house price in June quarter

Perth's median house price has taken its biggest tumble in nearly two years, according to the latest data from the Real Estate Institute of Western Australia (REIWA). Figures show the median house price fell by $20,000 or 3.6 per cent in the June ... >> view original

Trade Minister Andrew Robb says the TPP is on the cusp of being signed. Photo ...

Australia and 11 other nations have failed to clinch an ambitious Pacific free trade deal, with medicines, cars and dairy emerging as key sticking points. Trade Minister Andrew Robb had hoped to finally conclude the long-running Trans-Pacific ... >> view original

ANZ sacks trader over code of conduct breach

ANZ Bank has sacked one of seven traders stood down late last year as part of an ongoing corporate watchdog investigation into manipulation of the Australian bank bill swap rate. In November last year ANZ (ANZ) stood down seven traders on full pay in ... >> view original