And that’s where we’ll leave you on this Easter Saturday, 16 April. Here’s what we learned.
Anthony Albanese has said he will legislate a national anti-corruption commission by the end of 2022 if Labor wins the election. The commitment follows Scott Morrison declaring this week he will only revive his government’s heavily criticised integrity commission proposal if Labor and the Senate are prepared to pass it unamended.
Meanwhile, Morrison has refused to disendorse controversial Liberal candidate for Warringah, Katherine Deves, despite intensifying calls from within the party for her to be dumped because of “hurtful and divisive” comments about transgender people. Deves is a “captain’s pick” by Morrison to run against the independent MP, Zali Steggall, in Tony Abbott’s former seat.
The Australian Electoral Commission has warned political parties against distributing “potentially misleading” postal vote applications, amid reports of wrong forms being distributed to voters in one division and the AEC’s purple colour being used on forms in another.
One man has died and another was seriously injured when a light plane crashed in Kununurra, in Western Australia’s remote north, this morning. The crash occurred as the pilot was attempting to land the plane at the East Kimberley Regional Airport. The cause of the crash is being investigated.
Police believe a suspected acid attack in Sydney overnight that left a woman in hospital with injuries to her face and some emergency services personnel requiring first aid was a “targeted attack”.
And at least 35 more people have died as Covid-19 cases remain high across the country.
We’ll be back with more news of the day tomorrow. See you then, and have a lovely Easter break (if you get one)!
Updated
The New South Wales government has sold off $3bn worth of social housing during its decade in power, while failing to meet its own targets for new properties.
New figures released through parliament this week show that since it was first elected in 2011, the Coalition has sold off 4,205 social housing properties across the state.
The sales have added about $3.5bn to the government’s coffers over the same period.
But while the government said all of those funds were used to prove “more, and better” social housing stock, data for new social housing constructions reveal the government has fallen well behind its own targets for new dwellings.
In 2016, the Coalition pledged to build 23,000 new social housing dwellings in the next decade as part of its Future Directions housing strategy. It committed to funding new social housing construction through the $22bn Communities Plus program.
But eight years on, with more than 50,000 people on the social housing wait list in the state, the Communities Plus program has achieved only 10% of that goal.
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