It's official: The 2019 Federal Election will be held on May 18. If you're not partial to democracy sausages and would prefer to avoid the crowds on election day, it's possible to cast your vote early. Here are the details.

The NSW state election will take place on Saturday, 23 March. If you're not partial to democracy sausages and would prefer to avoid the polling booth crowds you may be able to vote online instead. Intrigued? Here's everything you need to cast a digital vote in the NSW state election.

You’re forgiven for being confused. Newspapers need to economise on words. Television and radio reporters need to economise on seconds. So they use shorthand: words like “dividend imputation”, “franking credits”, and yes, “retiree tax”.

Which is fine if you already know what they mean, and pretty fine if you don’t, because you probably don’t need to. They speed things along. Until now.

Newly-minted US Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was a bartender when she pulled together a scrappy populist campaign and stunned the political world by unseating a powerful incumbent Democrat.

Her combination of charisma and radical politics has triggered the right wing and is striking fear into the Democratic Party establishment, with whom she's already pledged to do battle. This is her story.

Besides telling you how to hack your life, we here at Lifehacker love to help you understand the world around you, whether you’re puzzling over an obscure feature of your computer or a big political issue in the news. Here are some of our best explainers from 2018.

As the end of the year draws nearer, reports of scams have increased with scammers using increasingly sophisticated methods to part the unaware from their money. Recent scam reports take advantage of seasonal trends, with an uptick in scams impersonating the ATO or appearing to be about a package delivery. Here's all the dodgy emails and phone calls to look out for.

Can we stop being mad at plastic straws for a minute? Some folks are saying plastic straws are stupid and useless while others make the point that I'm disabled and I need these to drink.

What if the fate of the ocean doesn't hinge on plastic straws at all? Because the largest source of garbage plastic in the ocean is fishing waste.

After the American Civil War, the United States’ Constitution gained several amendments. The 14th amendment granted citizenship to anyone born in the country, regardless of their parents' nationality. Now, US President Trump has said he believes he can overturn the 14th amendment’s key provision by executive order.

Here's what you need to know about “birthright citizenship” law - both in America and Down Under.

If, as predicted, the Morrison government loses the Wentworth byelection, it will have a minority on the floor of the lower house. Although the Coalition would have 75 members and the non-government parties and independents would have 75 members, the Coalition supplies the Speaker (who only votes when a vote is tied). This would leave the Coalition with 74 on the floor of the house, with the possibility of 75 votes opposing it.

Welcome to the start of Daylight Saving Time — the "spring forward", so to speak — but who came up with this bizarre practice? And why? Who should you blame for losing an hour of your glorious weekend?

Scott Morrison is an intriguing - and polarising - figure in the Liberal Party. He has been described as relentless, ambitious, and hard-line, although these labels only give us some clues to his personal politics, and ultimately his political agenda. He's what you need to know about Australia's 30th Prime Minister.

A “spill” for most people would be something to clear up, but what is happening today behind closed doors is something quite different. So how does the process of a leadership challenge work? Monash’s Zareh Ghazarian takes a look at the process behind the current leadership crisis.

Storing medical information is tricky business. If you don't have faith in the government's My Health Record (a reasonable position to have), there are a variety of ways to store your secure data while letting others access it in case of emergencies.

Benjamin Bathurst was a British diplomat who disappeared without a trace in Germany in 1809. In a day and age when sophisticated forensics didn't exist, this might not sound too mysterious - especially during the Napoleonic Wars when murders, robberies and assassinations were common.

However, his disappearance was so notably sudden that many attributed it to a supernatural cause, even suggesting that he had hopped between dimensions. No, really.

Oh dear.

It will benefit some, sure. But the privacy risks far outweigh the benefits for most.

The National Broadband Network (NBN) should be built and fully operational by 2022, having cost about $50 billion. The question will then be whether the government should retain the NBN or sell it off?

Earlier in the week, US President Donald Trump was blasted by multiple commentators for “treasonous” behaviour, after siding with the Kremlin over his own government agencies. These are obviously very serious charges - but how closely does his behaviour meet the legal definition of 'treason' under US law? Let's find out...

The My Health Record opt-out period begins this week, and you have until October 15 to pull your records out of the scheme. But should you? Here are some compelling reasons to keep your records where they are.