The Latest Breaking News from Sharon Claydon

Six weeks out from the government's first budget, Labor has committed publicly to all the hydrogen funding promised for Newcastle.

Hunter Labor MPs have hit back at claims the government is refusing to release details of the Coalition government's plans to announce $250million in funding for the establishment of a container terminal at the Port of Newcastle.

"My title is Deputy Speaker. I don't need a Mr, a Mrs, a Madam; it's just Deputy Speaker."

The Newcastle MP is only the third woman to win the role.

The federal government has labelled the Morrison government's plans to spend $250million to establish a container terminal at the port of Newcastle as a 'cruel hoax', as it comes under pressure to financially support the project.

"It is our intention to honour those commitments as soon as humanly possible," Sharon Claydon says.

The Greens have signalled their intention to become a serious contender for the Seat of Newcastle in coming elections.

Labor is poised to form government despite winning only 31 per cent of the primary vote.

Eight voters at Cooks Hill City Scout Group Hall in Wickham unknowingly cast informal votes after they were given ballot papers from Paterson, rather than for their Newcastle electorate.

If politics is about change, then Newcastle must be a political town, with the reworking of the city's face and character in recent years, to the point that it barely resembles the place in that 1970s hit, "The Newcastle Song", but one thing that hasn't changed in more than a…

The political love-in for hydrogen continued on Thursday when Labor announced a $16 million commitment to build an energy research and testing centre at University of Newcastle.