Sydney central business district

Sydney Hospital is a major hospital in Australia, located on Macquarie Street in the Sydney central business district. It is the oldest hospital in Australia, dating back to 1788, and has been at its current location since 1811. It first received the name Sydney Hospital in 1881. Currently the hospital comprises 113 inpatient beds. There are about 400 staff members. Specialist services attract patients from all over New South Wales. It specialises in ophthalmology and hand surgery and is a referral hospital for patients requiring these services. It also houses a rudimentary 6-bed Emergency Department. Sydney Hospital became a teaching hospital of the University of Sydney in 1909. Sydney Hospital is associated with Sydney Medical School of the University of Sydney through the Discipline of Clinical Ophthalmology and Eye Health and Save Sight Institute. It is also the location of a number of research institutes associated with the University, including the Heart Research Institute, the Centenary Institute for Cancer Medicine and Cell Biology, the Kanematsu Memorial Institute of Pathology and the General Endocrinology Group.

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) is Australia's central bank and banknote issuing authority. It has had this role since 14 January 1960, when the Reserve Bank Act 1959 removed the central banking functions from the Commonwealth Bank.The bank has the responsibility of providing services to the Government of Australia in addition to also providing services to other central banks and official institutions. It currently consists of the Payments System Board, which governs the payments system policy of the bank, and the Reserve Bank Board, which governs all other monetary and banking policies of the bank.Both boards consist of members of both the bank, the Treasury, other Australian government agencies, and leaders of other institutions that are part of the economy. The structure of the Reserve Bank Board has remained consistent ever since 1951, with the exception of the change in the number of members of the board. The governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia is appointed by the Treasurer and chairs both the Payment Systems and Reserve Bank Boards and when there are disagreements between both boards, the governor resolves them.From the middle of the 19th century into the 1890s, the prospects for the forming of a national bank grew. In 1911, the Commonwealth Bank was established, but did not have the authority to print notes, which was a power that was still reserved to the Treasury. A movement toward reestablishing the gold standard occurred after World War I, with John Garvan leading various boards in contracting the money supply on the route to doing so, and the gold standard was instituted for both the British pound sterling and the Australian pound in 1925.During the Great Depression, the Australian pound became devalued, no longer worth the same as the pound sterling, and formally departed from the gold standard with the Commonwealth Bank Act of 1932. Legislation in 1945 led to regulation of private banks which Herbert Coombs was opposed to, and when he became governor in 1949, he gave them more overall control over their institutions. When the monetary authorities implemented the advice of Coombs to have a flexible interest rate, it allowed the bank to rely more on open market operations. In 1980 the issue of short-term government bonds – Treasury notes of 13 and 26 weeks duration – changed from a tap system, in which the price was set, to a tender system in which the volume of stock was set and the price determined by the market. Soon afterwards the tender system was extended to the issue of longer-term government bonds. The float of the Australian dollar happened in 1983, around the same period of time that the financial system in Australia was deregulated. Administration of the banks was transferred in 1998 from the bank to the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority and the Payments System Board was created, while the bank was given power within the board in the same year. The current governor of the Reserve Bank is Philip Lowe, who succeeded Glenn Stevens as governor on 18 September 2016.In May 2022, the bank increased the nation's interest rates for the first time in more than a decade. This move was designed to combat the inflation, right before the election that is heavily focused on increased costs of living.

Reserve Bank of Australia Building is a heritage-listed bank building at 65 Martin Place, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It was added to the Australian Commonwealth Heritage List on 22 June 2004.

St Stephen's Uniting Church is a heritage-listed Uniting Church located at 197 Macquarie Street, in the Sydney central business district, in the City of Sydney local government area of New South Wales, Australia. Developed initially as St Stephen's Presbyterian Church, it was designed by Finlay Munro Jnr and John Reid and built from 1935 to 1937 by Kell & Rigby. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 3 September 2004.

The Parliament of New South Wales is a bicameral legislature in the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW), consisting of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly (lower house) and the New South Wales Legislative Council (upper house). Each house is directly elected by the people of New South Wales at elections held approximately every four years. The Parliament derives its authority from the queen of Australia, Queen Elizabeth II, represented by the governor of New South Wales, who chairs the Executive Council of New South Wales. The parliament shares law making powers with the Australian Federal (or Commonwealth) Parliament. The New South Wales Parliament follows the Westminster parliamentary traditions of dress, Green–Red chamber colours and protocol.It is located in Parliament House on Macquarie Street, Sydney.

The Sydney Mint in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, is the oldest surviving public building in the Sydney central business district. Built between 1811 and 1816 as the southern wing of the Sydney Hospital, it was then known as the Rum Hospital. In 1854 a mint was established on the site with the hospital building used to house mint staff as well as providing a residence for the Deputy Mint Master. A coining factory was built at the rear. Both of these structures have exceptional heritage significance and have been associated with major events in the colonial history of New South Wales. Located in Sydney's central business district at 10 Macquarie Street, it is near many other famous Australian historical buildings including Hyde Park Barracks, St James' Church and Parliament House. The building is now the head office of the Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales and is listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register. Sections of the building are open to the public.

The Federal Court of Australia is an Australian superior court of record which has jurisdiction to deal with most civil disputes governed by federal law (with the exception of family law matters), along with some summary (less serious) and indictable (more serious) criminal matters. Cases are heard at first instance by single judges. The court includes an appeal division referred to as the Full Court comprising three judges, the only avenue of appeal from which lies to the High Court of Australia. In the Australian court hierarchy, the Federal Court occupies a position equivalent to the supreme courts of each of the states and territories. In relation to the other courts in the federal stream, it is equal to the Family Court of Australia, and superior to the Federal Circuit Court. It was established in 1976 by the Federal Court of Australia Act. The Chief Justice of the Federal Court is James Allsop.

The Court of Disputed Returns in New South Wales is a court within the Australian court hierarchy established initially in 1928 pursuant to the Parliamentary Electorates and Elections Amendment Act, and since 2017 pursuant to the Electoral Act 2017. The jurisdiction of the Court is exercised by the Supreme Court of New South Wales and the Court considers petitions concerning the validity of any election or return under the Act. The Court is concerned with elections held for the New South Wales Parliament and local government elections within the state. The Court may also consider questions respecting the qualifications of a member of the Legislative Assembly or the Legislative Council, or respecting a vacancy in either, but only if that question was referred by either the Assembly or the Council. The Court may declare that any person was not qualified to be a member of parliament, declare that any person was not capable of sitting as a member of parliament, or to declare that there is a vacancy.

The New South Wales Court of Appeal, part of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, is the highest court for civil matters and has appellate jurisdiction in the Australian state of New South Wales.

The Supreme Court of New South Wales is the highest state court of the Australian State of New South Wales. It has unlimited jurisdiction within the state in civil matters, and hears the most serious criminal matters. Whilst the Supreme Court is the highest New South Wales court in the Australian court hierarchy, an appeal by special leave can be made to the High Court of Australia. Matters of appeal can be submitted to the New South Wales Court of Appeal and Court of Criminal Appeal, both of which are constituted by members of the Supreme Court, in the case of the Court of Appeal from those who have been commissioned as judges of appeal. The Supreme Court consists of 52 permanent judges, including the Chief Justice of New South Wales, presently Andrew Bell, the President of the Court of Appeal, 10 Judges of Appeal, the Chief Judge at Common Law, and the Chief Judge in Equity. The Supreme Court's central location is the Law Courts Building in Queen's Square, Sydney, New South Wales.

The Lindt Cafe siege was a terrorist attack that occurred on 15–16 December 2014 when a lone gunman, Man Haron Monis, held hostage ten customers and eight employees of a Lindt chocolate café in the APA Building in Martin Place, Sydney, Australia. The Sydney siege led to a 16-hour standoff, after which a gunshot was heard from inside and police officers from the Tactical Operations Unit stormed the café. Hostage Tori Johnson was killed by Monis and hostage Katrina Dawson was killed by a police bullet ricochet in the subsequent raid. Monis was also killed. Three other hostages and a police officer were injured by police gunfire during the raid.Police have been criticised over their handling of the siege for not taking proactive action earlier, for the deaths of hostages at the end of the siege, and for the lack of negotiation during the siege. Hostage Marcia Mikhael called radio station 2GB during the siege and said, "They have not negotiated, they've done nothing. They have left us here to die."Early on, hostages were seen holding a Jihadist flag against the window of the café, featuring the shahādah creed. Initially, many media organisations mistook it for the flag used by the Islamic State (IS); Monis later demanded that an IS flag be brought to him. Monis also unsuccessfully demanded to speak to the Prime Minister of Australia, Tony Abbott, live on radio. Monis was described by Abbott as having indicated a "political motivation," but the eventual assessment was that the gunman was "a very unusual case—a rare mix of extremism, mental health problems and plain criminality."In the aftermath of the siege, Muslim groups issued a joint statement in which they condemned the incident, and memorial services were held in the city at the nearby St Mary's Cathedral and St James' Church. Condolence books were set up in other Lindt cafés and the community turned Martin Place into a "field of flowers." The Martin Place Lindt café was severely damaged during the police raid, closed afterwards, then renovated for reopening in March 2015.

The Law Courts Building is a building on Queen's Square in Sydney, Australia. It is the seat of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, as well as parts of the Federal Court of Australia and the High Court of Australia.