A new report reveals Uber X drivers in Australia are working for half the minimum wage for transport workers.

The Australian Institute Centre for future work has calculated the average income for employees across six cities is less than $15 an hour.

Director Jim Stanford calculated through his model that Uber X drivers make approximately $7 from a projected $20 drive.

Australia and East Timor are set to sign a historic maritime border treaty, at the United Nations in New York.

The treaty will define the barrier between the two countries in line with international law, instead of at the edge of Australia’s continent.

The border will divide the Greater Sunshine gas field, estimated to be worth fifty three billion dollars, with eighty percent of the field falling in East Timor’s economic zone.

North Korea is open to relinquishing their nuclear weapons if they begin direct talks with the US.

Kim Jong-Un is willing to freeze the nuclear and missile programmes, after a visit from senior South Korean politicians.

The North Korean leader is set to meet South Korea’s President Moon in late April for the first summit in more than a decade.

More than thirty people are dead after a Russian military transport plane crashed in Syria.

Technical malfunctions are thought to have caused of the crash, but a special commission is being launched to investigate.

The crash follows air strikes and a suspected chlorine attack, which have intensified fragile conditions in the region.

A NAPLAN report reveals no improvement in decades of results, sparking calls for a review of the testing.

The report by researcher John Ainley analyses ten years of NAPLAN data showing no change in maths and reading amongst students.

Children from disadvantaged families, regional areas and those with learning difficulties are struggling the most to improve literacy and numeracy calling for possible reviews by the New South Wales Education Standards Authority.

Queensland marriage laws are being amended to allow people to change their gender without having to divorce their partner.

Under section 22 of the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act, Queenslanders, who have undergone sex reassignment surgery, have to divorce their partner to have their gender legally recognised.

By the ninth of December, it will be illegal to refuse to change a person’s gender based on marriage.

Thousands of ‘work for dole’ recipients are being threatened with an eight week Centrelink payment cut off.

Federal Labor spokesperson, Pat Dodson says more than 90% of the 15000 people affected are Indigenous.

The program has forced those unemployed in remote areas to work three times longer than other job seekers to keep their payments.