What we learned – Tuesday 16 April
And with that, we are going to put the blog to bed. Before we go, let’s recap the big headlines:
Teenager remains in custody after alleged stabbing at Sydney church
Western Sydney faith leaders back call for calm in community
Prime minister briefed by AFP following alleged stabbing incident in Wakeley
Prime minister responds to ‘very distressing’ alleged Wakeley incident
Australian National Imams Council condemns alleged stabbing incident in Wakeley
Asio head says Wakeley incident ‘does appear to be religiously motivated’
Supermarkets Senate inquiry threatens to hold Woolworths CEO in contempt
Bruce Lehrmann withdraws from ‘Restoring the Presumption of Innocence’ conference
Labor’s commitment to rewrite national environment laws further delayed
Peter Dutton says bipartisanship ‘important’ after Sydney church stabbing
ABS reveals how different generations spend their leisure time
Search for Australian-Singaporean couple in Taiwan suspended
Facebook and X ordered to remove church stabbing content
BoM declares an end to El Niño as odds tilt towards La Niña’s return
NSW knife laws may change as 16-year-old alleged attacker at Assyrian church had previous knife offence
Thank you for spending part of your day with us - we will be back tomorrow to do it all again.
Until then - Cait
Updated
Low-income households paying more than half their income on rent
Low-income households are forking out more than half of their income on rent, AAP reports.
Property data firm CoreLogic and ANZ bank found rents at the lower end of the market were rising faster than more premium offerings, with the 25th percentile rent lifting $53 a week in the past 12 months.
The Housing Affordability report for the March quarter found the 25 percentile of income earners were spending 54.3% of their income to rent in the 25th percentile of available rentals.
And while the large wage boost delivered by the Fair Work Commission in 2023 was recognised in the report, the $48-a-week pay boost for a full-time minimum-age worker was entirely eaten up by the $53-a-week rental increase over the same period.
Rents have re-accelerated in the first few months of 2024, based on CoreLogic data, suggesting there could be more financial pain to come.
Updated