Good morning. Cost of living pressures are in focus today, as the Australian Bureau of Statistics is due to reveal inflation data for the March quarter. Scott Morrison will be out campaigning in Rockhampton, Queensland, while Labor will be focusing on Sydney.
Low-income tenants have been hit hardest by soaring rent prices, which have dramatically outstripped increases to the commonwealth rent assistance (CRA) payment. Rental prices have risen by an average of 13.8% in capital cities and 20.2% in regions compared with a 4.5% increase in rent assistance. The government’s main response to questions about what it is doing to address the rental crisis has been to point to the supplementary payment made to 1.4 million welfare recipients in private rentals, at a rate of 75 cents in the dollar above a certain amount. The struggles for stable housing have been stressful for Rebecca Brown’s family of five, who had just made it home from hospital with a newborn baby when they were given an eviction notice from their long-term rental in Queensland. The family then endured 38 rejections before finding a property, only for it to go on the market.
Erwin Prayoga was 14 when he was wrongly jailed as an adult in Western Australia after arriving as an asylum seeker by boat. Shortly after, he was deported to Indonesia, where he died in agony. Using a trove of internal documents, Guardian Australia has established how police used a now discredited technique to alter the date of birth Erwin gave them, allowing them to prosecute him as an adult. Now, Erwin’s brother, Baco Ali, and advocates are demanding answers on the 14-year-old’s medical treatment and the decision to send him home to Rote Island just months before he died.
Russia’s defence ministry warned of an immediate “proportional response” if Britain continues its “direct provocation” of the Kyiv regime, after the UK armed forces minister, James Heappey, described Ukrainian strikes on Russian soil that hit supplies and disrupt logistics as “completely legitimate”. A Russian minister refused to rule out Moldova’s breakaway region Transnistria being drawn into the Ukraine war, in a potential escalation of the conflict to another European country.
Australia
Consumer inflation is tipped to hit 4.5% when the Australian Bureau of Statistics releases the March quarter consumer price inflation figures today. Cost of living pressures are being driven up by pandemic shortages, flood damage and the war in Ukraine, which the World Bank warns will increase food and energy prices for three years.
Labor has been forced to defend its plan to replace the agriculture visa announced by the federal government last year and offer more incentives to farm workers from the Pacific.
More than 120 legal, health and social services organisations have appealed to the federal government to provide urgent assistance to Aboriginal families left with no way to pay for their funerals, after their “predatory” insurer went into liquidation. A coalition of NGOs says governments knew about Youpla’s misleading conduct for decades and “did nothing to prevent it”.
Almost 200 New South Wales police officers have been investigated over alleged breaches of the force’s social media policy since the start of 2019, with 66 officers disciplined and four officers resigning after breaching the code. Documents show that 10 officers remained under active investigation last month.
The world
Twitter must comply with new content rules or face sanctions that range from fines to a total ban, the UK and EU has warned, amid concerns that hate speech will increase under the ownership of Elon Musk.
Photographs showing the torture of a woman believed to be a drug smuggler nicknamed the “Godmother of the Coke” have been added to evidence against a suspected drug kingpin in his trial for multiple murders.
An “unprecedented” and well-preserved necropolis of subterranean limestone vaults has been discovered in southern Spain, where the Phoenicians who lived on the Iberian peninsula 2,500 years ago laid their dead.
Recommended reads
You probably know Mary Coustas best as Effie, the outrageous second-generation Greek-Australian who delighted 90s audiences in TV shows like Acropolis Now. But when Coustas next gets on stage, the longtime performer will be shedding her Effie armour and doing something far more daunting – speaking about her real life as Mary. The show, fittingly, is called This Is Personal. She tells us why she’d save that trove of yellow gold in a fire, as well as the story of two other important personal belongings.
Increasingly, life-drawing classes are shaking off the tradition of fluoro-lit community halls and serious scribbling in favour of immersive evenings that rely on deep collaboration with the models. When Ted Stein was asked by an old school friend if he’d consider modelling for life-drawing classes, it didn’t take long for him to agree. Stein is transgender and never saw gender-diverse bodies when he was at art school. “I realised, how are these bodies going to make it into national art galleries if no one ever gets to draw them?”
“What is the hardest question a patient has asked you?” a medical student wonders on a ward round of dozens of patients with every manner of concern. “The question that I really struggle with is one of staggering simplicity and yet upsetting like few others. ‘Doctor, can I drink water?’” writes Ranjana Srivastava.
Listen
This election, teal independent candidates are facing off against Liberal MPs in some of Australia’s wealthiest electorates – focusing on issues such as the climate crisis and the need for a federal corruption body. One of the tightest contests is in the Sydney seat of Wentworth, where independent Allegra Spender – backed by fundraising vehicle Climate 200 – is up against the moderate Liberal MP Dave Sharma. In today’s Full Story, political reporter Josh Butler breaks down the role of the teal independents in this election, and speaks to Allegra Spender as well as voters in Wentworth about the key issues.
Full Story is Guardian Australia’s daily news podcast. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any other podcasting app.
Sport
Wimbledon officials have denied it was an act of discrimination to decline the entries of Russian and Belarusian players to the championships this year in light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a charge made against the All England Club by both the WTA and ATP tours.
In other tennis news, the WTA is still working to find a resolution to the standoff with China over the Peng Shuai issue but will not return to the country this year, Tour chief Steve Simon said.
Media roundup
Guide Dogs Victoria’s chief executive Karen Hayes has been stood down after backing the treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, in pre-election materials, reports SBS. In the NT News, a court has ruled that the details of a Darwin man’s alleged bestiality and animal cruelty are so depraved they would “offend against public decency” if published. And the Herald Sun says two Victorian candidates for Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party have been caught spreading Russian propaganda on social media, with one candidate also sharing a post suggesting the Port Arthur massacre never happened.
Coming up
Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie will address the National Press Club.
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