Australia news LIVE: Australia faces massive shortfall in houses; Dutton urged to return Liberals to centre after Aston defeat

Key posts

  • MPs call for Peter Dutton to return Liberal Party to centre
  • Nation faces shortfall of 106,000 homes as prices, demand climb
  • Donald Trump plans to make public remarks after arraignment
  • This morning’s headlines at a glance
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MPs call for Peter Dutton to return Liberal Party to centre

Frustrated Liberal MPs are urging Opposition Leader Peter Dutton to move to the political centre and refresh his shadow cabinet after the Liberal Party’s stunning byelection loss in Aston.

Dutton is not expected to face an imminent threat to his leadership following the upset result, the first time in a century a sitting government has won a seat from the opposition in a byelection. Local woman Mary Doyle won the seat in Melbourne’s outer east with a 6.4 per cent swing to Labor.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton speaks in Rowville following Aston Liberal candidate Roshena Campbell’s loss.Credit:Penny Stephens

Dutton accepted responsibility for the result and vowed to rebuild the party to make it competitive in the next federal election, but declined to outline how he would change his approach to improve the party’s performance.

More details are available here. 

Nation faces shortfall of 106,000 homes as prices, demand climb

Australia faces years of extreme rental and housing pain as the nation confronts a shortage of 106,000 dwellings by 2027 due to high-interest rates, soaring immigration and community opposition to new homes.

While new figures show dwelling values climbed 0.6 per cent in March after almost a year of falls, a report by the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation (NHFIC) forecasts Brisbane alone will be short 12,300 dwellings within five years while Sydney will be short more than 10,000.

Australia is facing a 106,000 shortfall in new dwellings over the next decade.Credit:Bloomberg

The country is already facing extreme housing pressures with rental vacancy rates in every capital at or below 1 per cent, delays and growing costs hitting the dwelling construction sector, while bad weather through 2022 slowed building periods.

More on the housing shortfall here.

Donald Trump plans to make public remarks after arraignment

Former President Donald Trump will deliver remarks on Tuesday night in Florida after his scheduled arraignment in New York on charges related to hush money payments, his campaign announced on Sunday.

Trump will hold the event at his Mar-a-Lago club after returning from Manhattan, where he is expected to turn himself in voluntarily.

Donald Trump arrives to board his plane for a trip to a campaign rally in Texas last month.Credit:AP

He is expected to be joined in Florida by supporters as he tries to project an image of strength and defiance and turn the charges into a political asset to boost his 2024 presidential campaign.

Trump is facing multiple charges of falsifying business records, including at least one felony offence, in the indictment handed up by a Manhattan grand jury last week, two people familiar with the matter have told The Associated Press.

They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss information that is not yet public because the indictment remains under seal.

Trump has denied any wrongdoing and has blasted the investigation as part of a years-long “witch hunt” aimed at damaging his candidacy.

The full story on this is available here, courtesy of international wire service AP.

This morning’s headlines at a glance

Good morning, and thanks for your company.

It’s Monday, April 3. I’m Caroline Schelle, and I’ll be anchoring our live coverage for the first half of the day.

Here’s what you need to know before we get started:

  • Australia faces a massive housing shortfall as prices rise and demand climbs.
  • A funding pledge has saved the country’s “digital memory” from closure, as it faced closure because of budget cuts.
  • The Labor government tells car markers not to import pest-ridden cars amid a backlog for new cars.
  • Opposition Leader Peter Dutton faces pressure to update the opposition front bench after the Liberal party was defeated at the Aston byelection in Melbourne’s east.
  • In Victoria, a group of federal and state MPs are working to remove the Liberal state president after the Aston loss.
  • Meanwhile, union bosses in NSW are pushing for the new government to axe the state’s most senior bureaucrats.
  • Companies are removing climate action statements from their websites following a crackdown on alleged greenwashing by national regulators
  • Former president Donald Trump plans to make public remarks after his scheduled arraignment in New York.
  • A well-known pro-Russian blogger has been killed in a bomb blast at St Petersburg.
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