A Senate committee examining the government's decision to award $443.3 million to the Great Barrier Reef Foundation has recommended unspent funds from the controversial grant be returned to the commonwealth and reserved for future reef projects.

The committee chair, Peter Whish-Wison says “this grant was a desperate attempt to cover up this government’s legacy of reef mismanagement, years of chronic underfunding and disregard for climate change.”

Attacks by an aggressive goanna have landed a man and the paramedic who came to help him in a Queensland hospital.

This marks the second goanna attack in the state's south-east in the past three weeks, after what has been described as a savage goanna attacked and eight-year old girl while she walked through a South Stradbroke Island campground.

In the most recent incident, the man suffered deep cuts and scratches to his leg after he was attacked on his property.

A record six Chinese companies were delisted from the Australian Securities Exchange last year, with controversial health firm Traditional Therapy Clinics the latest to be removed.

The delistings in 2018 came in the same year that no new Chinese companies were listed on the ASX and a whole lot more that applied to be listed were rejected.

Most of the delistings have been as a result of  poor reporting and other governance issues.

With a federal election on the horizon, there are fears among Australian start-ups that the tech industry is "going backwards" politically.

It was not long ago that Australians were promised an "ideas boom" on bus stop ads across the country as part of the Government's innovation agenda, but today that enthusiasm is harder to find.

Ashik Ahmed, chief executive of the workplace software company Deputy, says, ever since former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull left, here has been no interest shown at all.

New data has revealed that Germany's economy narrowly avoided falling into recession during the final three months of last year.

Europe's largest economy registered zero growth during the fourth quarter of 2018, according to the country's Federal Statistics Office.

Reasons for slower growth last year include a slowdown in the global economy and a weaker car sector, with German consumers less willing to buy new cars amid confusion over new emission standards.

NASA is accelerating plans to return Americans to the Moon, and this time, the US space agency says it will be there to stay.

Jim Bridenstine, NASA's administrator, told reporters that the agency plans to speed up plans backed by President Donald Trump to return to the moon, by taking bids from private companies.

NASA plans to build a small space station, dubbed Gateway, in the Moon's orbit by 2026. It will serve as a way-station for trips to and from the lunar surface, but will not be permanently crewed like the International Space Station.