Afternoon Update: Record rent rises in capital cities, winter illness warning; and Shannen Doherty’s breast cancer spreads

Australian capital cities have once again recorded their strongest ever annual rent increases amid a rapidly worsening housing crisis. Melbourne has seen the steepest jump in median rent – an increase of 1.4% in the past month to $543. Photograph: James Ross/AAP

Good afternoon. Australia’s housing stress continues to worsen – a fact made clear by new rental data released today.

More than 40% of suburbs have recorded rental increases of 10% or more in the past year, with the national average rent now a staggering $583 a week. As I point out in the video below, that’s already above weekly welfare payments and has priced out people on minimum wage.