TRANSCRIPT:
- Labor says it's never stopped trying to talk about trade tariffs with the US;
- Canada's opposition leader loses his seat in the general election;
- Tennis doubles champion Max Purcell banned from the sport for 18 months.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says he will seek a phone call with U-S President Donald Trump on tariff negotiations should he be re-elected on May 3.
Mr Trump imposed a 10 per cent tariffs on Australian goods exported to America earlier this month.
Mr Albanese says he fully intends to continue the conversation about exemptions for Australia after Saturday.
Meanwhile Treasurer Jim Chalmers has told Nine's Today show claims that the government has not been communicating with the Trump administration are false.
"We've been engaging with American counterparts for months, speaking up for the Australian national, economic interest and standing up for Australian industries. So those discussions have been ongoing. We'll have more to say obviously at some point about engagement with the US president. The prime minister has already had two discussions with him and it wouldn't be a surprise to anyone watching your program this morning that there'll be another conversation at some stage."
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U-S President Donald Trump has celebrated the 100th day of his second term with a rally in Michigan.
He has spent much of his time at the rally in campaign mode, fixating on past grudges and grievances and attacking the mental faculties of his predecessor, Joe Biden.
Only about 4 in 10 Americans approve of how Trump is handling the presidency, and his ratings on the economy and trade are lower than that.
House Democrats and figures such as Max Stier from the Partnership for Public Service also say Trump has been doing a lot of damage to the fundamentals of American government through his tariff and immigration policies, and slew of executive orders.
But Mr Trump has told the crowd at the National Guard base the start of his presidency has gone extremely well.
"And we're here tonight in the heartland of our nation to celebrate the most successful 100 days of any administration in the history of our country, that's according to many, many people."
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Canada's opposition has not only failed to win back government - conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has lost his seat in Ontario.
Poilievre had looked certain to sweep the polls just three months ago - until Donald Trump's threats to make Canada a 51st state and impose tariffs on its neighbour created a surge of support for Mark Carney, who promised a tough response.
University of Toronto professor Robert Bothwell says the result completes a stunning turnaround for the Liberal Party.
"This is the strangest election of my lifetime. It turned not once, but twice, and in totally unexpected ways... And a party is now the government of Canada that five months ago we would have been patting down the headstone and piling on the earth and saying, ‘Go with God.'"
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The Australian Electoral Commission says it cannot explain how political parties obtain the information of voters, amid a spate of text messages being sent in the last week of the campaign.
The AEC says it does not provide this contact information.
Many of the messages to voters' phones have come from the Trumpet of Patriots, backed by mining magnate Clive Palmer.
The messages can't be opted out of because parties are exempt from the Spam and Privacy Acts.
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Worker advocates have told a New South Wales parliamentary inquiry into modern slavery many migrant workers are facing exploitative conditions.
A representative from the Employment Rights Legal Service says a worker known as Mila who was employed at a bed and breakfast worked more than 55 hours per week, but was paid only with a bed to sleep in and meals.
The legal service says Mila's case is far from isolated.
It says modern slavery complaints to federal police have risen 140 per cent since 2018.
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Fewer than one in 100 full-time workers on minimum wage can afford places to rent.
The latest Rental Affordability Snapshot from Anglicare Australia surveyed 51,000 rental listings, finding only 0.7 per cent were affordable for a person earning a full-time minimum wage, while 0.3 per cent were affordable for a person on the age pension.
Executive director Kasy Chambers says the housing crisis is the worst it's ever been, forcing families to go without essentials.
"I've just come from one of our emergency relief services, St John's here in Canberra. They're telling me it is not unusual for them to see someone who has not eaten for three or four days. They're telling me people are quite lucky if they have a car to live in. These are the kind of things that it means when we see rent that is so unaffordable."
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Dual grand slam doubles champion Max Purcell has been banned from tennis for 18 months for breaching anti-doping rules.
It's understood the 27 year old entered a voluntary provisional suspension in December after admitting to breaching the Tennis Anti-Doping Program.
He says he received I-V infusions of more than 500 millilitres twice in December 2023, after falling ill in Bali - but the limit under the World Anti-Doping Code is 100 millilitres in a 12-hour period.
