Dutton’s margin in the seat of Dickson after the 2022 election is pretty narrow – just 3.4% – making it certainly winnable on paper.

But it’s important to remember that party leaders are generally harder to oust than other MPs, even when their seats are quite marginal, because of their high profiles.

Also, Dutton wasn’t Liberal leader at the last election and his profile has risen considerably since then, so the margin is probably stronger than it looks.

Having said that, John Howard lost his seat of Bennelong at the 2007 election when he was not just leader but a long-serving prime minister.

At the very least, facing a community independent would be a significant irritant to Dutton and would likely force him to spend more time campaigning in the electorate than he otherwise might.

New South Wales, the lead researcher, said:

Private rental assistance recipients are finding it increasingly difficult to secure private rental properties that conform to the eligible affordability cut-offs.

We saw that sometimes assistance products aren’t being taken up, not because they’re not needed but because of rents being too high to meet the eligibility requirements.

This raises serious questions as to the viability of private rental assistance as an alternative to social housing in jurisdictions like Australia, where the private rental sector is relatively under-regulated and volatile.

claimed $23,000 in travel expenses to fly to Tamworth to make a speech at a News Corp event where he spoke about the cost-of-living crisis. The opposition leader had a prior engagement in Canberra and couldn’t take a scheduled flight to speak at the News Corp event so he took a private jet.

In an exclusive Guardian Australia interview, the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, tells us that Dutton has forfeited his claim to the top job because refusing to name a short-term emissions reduction target shows he is not serious about addressing climate change. Albanese also talks about Palestine protests and the voice referendum and is the subject of our Full Story podcast today.

The alleged distribution of fake nude images of girls at a school in Victoria has intensified the debate about children’s access to social media. Victoria’s premier, Jacinta Allan, called out the “disgraceful” conduct yesterday and an academic at Monash University who specialises in technology-facilitated violence said tech giants should be responsible for hosting promotion of the apps. More coming up.

Australians on income support are “structurally unable to afford the basics of life”, according to a report today by Anglicare, with the average jobseeker recipient having a $135 a week on just the basic weekly cost of food, housing and transport. It underlines the parlous state of many Australians’ finances and there will be another pointer about the state of the economy this morning when the ABS releases employment figures for May.

And a new report argues that governments should partner with private landlords to help low-income families find housing, as rental assistance struggles to keep up with the market – more on that soon.

Source: theguardian.com