Australians returning from a cruise afflicted by a rare and deadly virus will be required to quarantine for at least three weeks.

A government-supported charter flight will carry four Australian citizens, one permanent resident and a New Zealand citizen to Australia from Tenerife, in the Canary Islands, after their voyage was marred by a hantavirus outbreak.

The MV Hondius ship docked in Tenerife on Sunday after three people died and five others were confirmed to have tested positive for the virus, which is contracted through contact with infected rodents.

Three of those returning to Australia live in NSW and two in Queensland, but all will land at the Pearce RAAF base on the outskirts of Perth before completing their quarantine next door at the Centre for National Resilience at Bullsbrook.

Though hantavirus has an incubation period of 42 days, the group will initially be required to quarantine for three weeks.

The federal government would then seek advice from chief health officers about any further arrangements, Health Minister Mark Butler said on Monday.

“Our primary responsibility is to keep our community safe and healthy,” he said.

“We also have a responsibility to those passengers, to bring them home and to protect them from any risk – no matter how small – of potentially transmitting the virus without knowing it.

“I make no apology for the fact that this is one of the stronger responses you will see around the world.”

British passengers have been taken to a facility for assessments before those who are allowed to quarantine at home are forced to self-isolate for 45 days.

Americans were given the choice of staying in a Nebraska quarantine facility or going home, where they would be monitored.

Those flying to Australia are among the last to disembark, but none are displaying symptoms of the virus. They are likely to arrive in Perth on Tuesday.

Mr Butler acknowledged the hantavirus was potentially deadly but said it did not pose the same concerns as COVID-19.

“This virus is very, very rare and cases of human-to-human transmission historically have been rarer still,” he said.

“A coronavirus-based pandemic is a very different beast to deal with than this risk.”

Their quarantine arrangements were a national decision after discussions by the Australian Health Protection Committee, comprised of state and commonwealth chief medical officers.

The federal government has also consulted with the WA, Queensland and NSW governments.

NSW Premier Chris Minns said state health officials were preparing for the travellers’ arrival.

“The risk of transmission is relatively low at this stage, certainly not comparable to the coronavirus,” Mr Minns said on Monday.

Queensland Attorney-General Deb Frecklington confirmed her state was ready to isolate the returnees and said reports from the ship had been distressing.

Medical personnel will be onboard the repatriation flight to monitor passengers throughout their journey home and secure transportation to quarantine facilities will be in place for their arrival.

Australia’s third-highest greenhouse gas-emitting state is not on track to achieve its net zero by 2050 target, according to economic modelling of a $30 billion-plus gas project.

A Deloitte report commissioned by Woodside on its proposed drilling at Browse Basin off Western Australia claims the project will deliver $147 billion in uplift to the state over its lifetime.

It also says the state will fail to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 on its current trajectory.

The project, which is undergoing environmental assessments, would support the nation’s energy transition to renewable sources, the report says.

However, with or without the project, it says renewable and energy storage would need to be deployed at rates far above what has occurred in the past for WA to reach the 2050 target.

Australia is bound by legislation to reach net zero by 2050, with the WA government recently saying the state was committed to the goal.

The project, slated to start production in 2030 and run for up to 44 years, would deliver more than $56 billion in taxes, royalties and excise, the report says.

Environmental groups were scathing of the report, with some saying it failed to paint the full picture of potential impacts.

The report notes the project’s potential impacts on domestic gas prices, contributions to decarbonisation outcomes in Asia and broader environmental considerations were outside its scope.

“This report should be read alongside complementary studies that examine these issues in greater depth to provide a more complete understanding of the project’s implications,” it reads.

Australian Conservation Foundation chief executive Adam Bandt said people and nature would pay the price if the development proceeded.

“Exported coal and gas comes back to Australia as heatwaves, bushfires, floods and coral bleaching,” he said.

A report by the Institute for Energy Economics and Finance found Browse gas would likely be four times more expensive than existing domestic gas.

The Browse fields were also “carbon dioxide-intensive”, with an average concentration higher than many other gas fields.

According to the most recent data, WA was behind Queensland and NSW for emissions in 2022/23.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hopes to wean Israel off US military support within a decade as his country pushes to ‌strengthen ties with Gulf states.

“I want to draw down to zero the American financial support, the ‌financial component of the military co-operation that we have,” Netanyahu told CBS News’ 60 Minutes program on Sunday.

Netanyahu said Israel receives about $US3.8 billion ($A5.2 billion) of US military aid a year. The US has agreed to provide a total of $US38 billion ($A52 billion) in military aid to Israel from 2018 to 2028.

But it is “absolutely” the right time to possibly reset the US-Israeli financial relationship, Netanyahu said.

“I don’t want to wait for the next Congress,” ‌he said.

“I ‌want to start now.”

Israel ⁠has long had bipartisan consensus within the US Congress for military aid, but support from ​lawmakers and the public has frayed since the outbreak of war in Gaza in October 2023. 

Sixty per cent of US adults have an unfavourable view of Israel, and 59 per cent had little or no confidence in Netanyahu to do the right thing regarding world affairs, according to a Pew survey conducted in March. 

Both percentages were up seven percentage points from a year earlier.

Netanyahu said deteriorating support for Israel in the United States “correlates almost ⁠100 per cent with the geometric rise of social media”.

He said several countries, which he ‌did not ​identify, have “basically manipulated” social media in a way that “hurt us badly”, though he personally did not believe in censorship.

Support ​for US President ‌Donald Trump, a close ally of Netanyahu, has also ebbed since the United States and Israel launched a war against Iran on ​February 28. 

The war has led to higher gasoline prices, which contributed to US inflation rising on an annualised basis in March to the highest level since May 2023.

A significant factor behind higher fuel prices has been Iran’s throttling of traffic through ​the ​Strait of Hormuz, where 20 per cent of the world’s oil ​normally passes.

Only after the war began did Israeli planners recognise Iran’s ability ‌to close the strait, Netanyahu said. 

“It took a while for them to understand how big that risk is, which they understand now,” he said.

Netanyahu declined to discuss Israel’s military plans or timetable in Iran, but he addressed the potential ramifications if Iran’s leadership changed.

“If this regime is indeed weakened or possibly toppled, I think it’s the end of Hezbollah, it’s the end of Hamas, it’s probably ​the end of the Houthis, because the whole scaffolding of the terrorist proxy network that Iran built collapses,” he said.

Asked if it ​were possible to topple the ⁠Iranian regime, Netanyahu said: “Is it possible? Yes. Is it guaranteed? No.” 

Local councils are struggling to cope with a homelessness crisis that has spread well beyond inner-city streets.

Two-thirds of Australian councils consider homelessness a significant or acute issue in their communities, up from about 10 per cent in the 2010s. 

The finding comes from a recent University of New South Wales study, which said councils had been left ill-equipped and on the front lines of a post-pandemic housing crisis.

Published in the Australian Journal of Social Issues, the study surveyed 167 councils and included case studies across metro, regional and coastal areas.

Lead researcher Andrew Clarke, from UNSW’s School of Social Sciences and City Futures Research Centre, said the geography of homelessness had changed dramatically. 

“Homelessness is no longer an issue faced by a handful of inner-city councils, it’s become a widespread challenge across Australia,” Dr Clarke said.

“The post-pandemic housing crisis has pushed homelessness into communities that haven’t historically dealt with it.”

Councils were increasingly expected to act despite having no formal responsibility for homelessness policy or service delivery, the study found. 

More than three-quarters of councils said concerns from residents, businesses and community groups were the main trigger for action.

“As homelessness has become more visible in public spaces, councils – responsible for parks, libraries and streets – are effectively on the frontline of the crisis,” Dr Clarke said. 

Among councils that considered homelessness a significant issue, 95 per cent said it had worsened over the past five years. 

About two-thirds described the increase as “substantial”. 

Regional cities reported the highest concern levels, with 88 per cent identifying homelessness as significant, acute or very acute. 

The study found councils were increasingly acting as the “eyes and ears” of local homelessness systems, with many identifying rough sleepers and linking them to support services. 

Others co-ordinated charities and agencies or helped facilitate temporary accommodation and affordable housing projects. 

Researchers said councils were also shifting away from punitive responses, such as moving homeless people on from public spaces. 

“There’s been a real cultural shift, councils want to prioritise care and co-ordination rather than compliance,” Dr Clarke said. 

But these efforts were being undermined by severe shortages of affordable and social housing, the report said.

Nearly 80 per cent of councils surveyed cited financial pressures as a major barrier, while many also pointed to staff shortages and limited legal powers. 

Local governments can play an important role in responding to homelessness, Dr Clarke said.

But lasting change would require major investment in social housing and stronger co-ordination between all levels of government.

“The takeaway is clear: councils are part of the solution, but they can’t do it without the resources and housing supply needed to back them up,” he said.

US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping will discuss Iran, ‌Taiwan, artificial intelligence and nuclear weapons as they weigh extending a critical minerals deal, according to US officials previewing Trump’s two-day visit to China this week.

The leaders of the world’s two largest economies ‌will hold their first face-to-face talks in more than six months as they try to stabilise ties strained by trade, the US and Israeli war with Iran and other areas of disagreement.

Trump will ‌arrive in Beijing on Wednesday, ahead of talks set to take place on Thursday and Friday. It will be his first trip to China since 2017.

The US and China are expected to agree to forums to facilitate mutual trade and investment, while China is expected to announce purchases related to Boeing airplanes, American agriculture and energy, the officials said.

Plans for a Board of Trade and Board of Investment may be formally announced at the meeting, but those mechanisms may need subsequent work before they can be implemented, one of the officials said.

The two countries will also discuss lengthening a ‌truce in their trade war ‌that allows rare earth minerals ⁠to flow from China to the US, though it is not yet clear if that agreement will be extended this week.

The Trump-Xi talks are also expected to veer into areas that have long been a source of US-China tension, including Iran, Taiwan and nuclear arms.

China maintains ties with Iran and remains a major consumer of its oil. 

Trump has been leaning on China to use its influence to push Tehran to make a ⁠deal with Washington and end the conflict that began when the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran in ‌February.

The Trump administration ​also has pressed China on its dealings with Russia.

“The president has spoken multiple times with General Secretary Xi Jinping about the topic of Iran and about the topic of Russia, to include the ​revenue that China ‌provides to both those regimes, as well as dual-use goods, components and parts, not to mention the potential of weapons exports,” said one of the officials.

“I expect that conversation to continue.”

Xi, meanwhile, ​is frustrated with Washington over Taiwan. 

The US remains the most important international backer and arms supplier for the democratically governed island, which Beijing claims as its own.

The Trump aides expressed increasing concern about advanced artificial intelligence models being developed ​in ​China and believed the two sides need “a channel of communication” to avoid conflicts.

“What that looks like is yet to be determined, but we want to take this ‌opportunity with the leaders meeting to open up a conversation and to see if we should establish a channel of communication on AI matters,” said one of the officials.

Washington has also long hoped to open up talks with Beijing about nuclear weapons, though China remains reluctant to discuss its arsenal. 

The coalition could be reduced to a regional remnant and Labor seats will come under threat if One Nation builds on its breakthrough by-election victory, analysts say.

David Farley will head to Canberra after the One Nation candidate scored a thumping victory in the southern NSW seat of Farrer on Saturday.

His win over community independent Michelle Milthorpe snapped 77 years of coalition rule in the electorate and marked the first time his party had won a federal lower house seat.

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson and MP Barnaby Joyce have since flagged ambition to add to their lower house total, including in urban areas such as western Sydney.

The result could be replicated in certain outer suburban seats, not just regional ones, former Labor strategist turned leading pollster Kos Samaras said.

“Seats like Lindsay (in Sydney’s west), I could see that seat could definitely become an interesting contest,” the RedBridge director told AAP.

With the Nationals allowed to run in Farrer due to Sussan Ley vacating the seat after her ousting as party leader, the Liberals’ primary vote tanked to 12.4 per cent – down more than 30 percentage points.

Mr Farley dominated outside the regional centre of Albury, where Ms Milthorpe secured the most votes.

The Liberals face the prospect of being pushed completely out of urban seats and being reduced to a rump in the regions, Mr Samaras said.

“I would say that every regional electorate that the Nats and the Liberal party hold is on the block,” he said.

“If you’re getting close to 40 per cent primary vote in Farrer, then it’s going to be a lot higher in inland electorates right across the country.”

Labor was less vulnerable to a similar reckoning, with Mr Samaras pointing out Pauline Hanson’s approval rating was minus 57 with its voters.

“It doesn’t mean Labor doesn’t have a problem,” he said.

“It will lose maybe one or two seats to One Nation.

“Seats like Hunter … that will be a threat, but it is much easier for Labor to combat One Nation because they are the contrast.”

Election analyst Ben Raue suggested it was too early to gauge how much damage One Nation could do in suburban seats, noting the next federal election was a long way off.

“Right now, if we were to have a federal election, One Nation would do quite well and win a bunch of seats,” he said.

“I don’t think this (by-election) tells us that they’re going to sweep the cities. They didn’t win Albury.”

With the coalition tacking to the right to appease defectors to One Nation, Treasurer Jim Chalmers said Labor was the last party standing in the “sensible centre”.

Shadow treasurer Tim Wilson did not shut the door on the coalition partnering with One Nation to form a minority government to defeat Labor at the next election.

Two Islamic State-linked women arrested and charged with slavery offences hours after returning from a Syrian refugee camp are seeking release into the community.

Kawsar Ahmad, 53, and Zeinab Ahmad, 31, will make an application for bail on Monday in Melbourne Magistrates Court following a brief court appearance on Friday when they were remanded in custody.

The duo were among a larger group of women and children who returned to Australia on Thursday amid chaotic airport scenes after languishing in a Syrian refugee camp for years. 

They have both been charged with several crimes against humanity and slavery offences allegedly committed in Syria.

Detectives allege Kawsar Ahmad, also known as Abbas, travelled to the region with her husband and children in 2014.

They allege she was complicit buying a female slave for $US10,000, and knowingly kept the woman in her home.

She has been charged with enslavement, possessing a slave, using a slave and slave trading.

Charge sheets released by the court allege the 53-year-old enslaved, possessed and used the slave in Mayadin, Hajin, Gharanji, Bahra, Abu Hamam, Walaa and other places in the Deir ez-Zu province of Syria between June 2017 and November 2018.

It is alleged the younger Ahmad had also knowingly kept a female slave in her Syrian home, with police charging her with enslavement and using a slave offences over the same period.

The document stated the pair’s conduct was “committed intentionally or knowingly as part of a widespread or systemic attack directed against a civil population”.

Police said the pair were detained by Kurdish forces in 2019 and held with other family members in Al Roj Internally Displaced Persons camp.

They are among three returnees charged following an almost decade-long investigation, which began after the women travelled to the Middle East with their partners who allegedly intended to fight for Islamic State.

A third woman, 32-year-old Janai Safar, who flew into Sydney, was arrested and charged with entering a prohibited area and being a member of a terrorist organisation.

She was denied bail due to the seriousness of the charges and will return before the court in July.

Labor will offer more money to states and territories as it tries to secure agreement over landmark environmental reforms, but one premier is vowing not to make it easy.

Tuesday’s federal budget will include more than $500 million in funding to implement environmental laws, which Treasurer Jim Chalmers said would help speed up approvals for housing, energy and critical minerals projects.

Passed in late 2025 after a tumultuous five-year process, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act promised to reduce layers of duplication where proponents had to secure approvals from both commonwealth and state governments.

The environmental regime would reduce compliance costs and cut red tape, making it easier and faster to build, and making Australia a more attractive place in which to invest, Dr Chalmers said.

“More efficient approvals mean projects get off the ground quicker and Australians get into homes sooner,” he said.

“This is a big investment that will make our economy more productive and will help to get crucial projects going in housing, energy and critical minerals.”

But critical bilateral agreements that will give greater powers to the states to handle the assessment and approval of both layers of regulation are yet to be signed, meaning the full benefits of the reforms have not been realised.

Part of the budget boost will go to the states to fund extra staffing and resources needed to take on the extra approvals work and help convince them to sign up.

The Albanese government has already signed a memorandum of understanding with Western Australia and is optimistic about signing bilateral agreements with other states, but negotiations have stalled with Queensland.

Premier David Crisafulli continued to call on the federal government to reverse its decision to exclude oil exploration projects from access to use a fast-tracked approvals pathway under the laws.

“Until we have that dead hand of the (act) removed, the ability to really get cracking in the Taroom Trough (oil basin) will be hindered,” he told reporters on Sunday.

The Queensland and federal governments have not been in talks about a new bilateral agreement in weeks.

The Commonwealth warns Queensland’s decision to launch a year-long state productivity inquiry into the act could further delay the implementation of the faster approvals pathway.

On Sunday, the government announced the budget would include $2 billion to help states and territories build sewers, roads and other enabling infrastructure holding up housing developments.

Centre for Independent Studies chief economist Peter Tulip said it was one of the most cost-effective ways the Commonwealth could boost supply.

“It shows the government is putting their money where their mouth is, which makes their messaging more credible,” he told AAP.

The federal budget will this week overshadow local data, with Jim Chalmers’ fifth fiscal blueprint key to future Reserve Bank interest rate calls.

The economy was already speeding above its limit before the Middle East conflict erupted in February, driving up oil prices, and the Reserve Bank is hoping the treasurer doesn’t add fuel to the inflation fire on Tuesday.

With supply constrained, a boost to demand is the last thing governor Michele Bullock needs after three straight interest rate hikes.

Oxford Economics Australia’s Harry Murphy Cruise predicts the Middle East conflict will improve the budget bottom line for this financial year by about $11 billion through higher commodity prices, income tax and GST revenue.

That will give the government a “tantalising” windfall to spend on household cost-of-living supports.

“But if they do, Australia’s burgeoning inflation problem could get much worse,” Mr Murphy Cruise said.

“Firms are already struggling to keep costs in check. If they have to compete with governments for workers and capital, prices would rise even higher.”

This makes policymaking exceptionally difficult, according to HSBC chief economist Paul Bloxham.

The Reserve Bank had been willing to wield its “blunt instrument” to drive down demand, he said, but “a surgical approach to the budget would be optimal”.

The government is yet to announce additional household supports beyond cutting fuel excise, which is expected to cost more than $2.5 billion in foregone revenue.

But there is reported speculation wage and salary earners could receive a $200 to $300 one-off “earned income offset”.

Citi economists Josh Williamson and Faraz Syed estimate this would cost $3 billion to $4.4 billion if applied to all salaried employees.

“Assuming all of this is spent, it would at most add just 0.1 per cent to yearly (headline inflation),” they said.

“The big-picture view of the expected change in the underlying cash position shows little cause for the RBA to be alarmed.”

More importantly, the duo say, will be how long the Middle East conflict and energy price shock lasts, what happens to domestic inflation expectations, and how quickly recent rate rises flow through the economy.

Extending the fuel excise cut, combined with additional tax relief or subsidies, could push up underlying inflation and create more headaches down the track.

Economists at Commonwealth Bank and ANZ think the Reserve Bank’s hiking cycle is over but NAB and Westpac expect further rises.

Westpac chief economist Luci Ellis now believes the central bank will wait to see what happens in Iran before back-to-back hikes in August and September, after previously picking a fourth straight rise in June.

Ms Bullock acknowledged on Tuesday that the hikes gave the Reserve Bank board “space” to see how the conflict played out.

But Dr Ellis expects the second-round effects of high fuel prices to be greater than Reserve Bank forecasts imply, which could result in a “wake-up call” in June and September quarter inflation data.

The federal budget and the Fair Work Commission’s annual wage review decision in June would be pivotal, she said.

Lending and wages growth data will also be released on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, investor interest on Wall Street has been piqued by gains in AI stocks and stronger-than-expected US jobs figures.

The S&P 500 climbed 0.84 per cent to end Friday at 7,398.93 points. The Nasdaq gained 1.71 per cent to 26,247.08 points and the Dow Jones rose 0.02 per cent to 49,609.16 points.

Australian share futures slid 42 points, or 0.47 per cent, to 13,148.

About $43 billion was wiped from Australian indices on Friday, as oil prices surged on the prospect of further military action between the US and Iran.

The S&P/ASX200 fell 133.7 points, down 1.51 per cent, to 8,744.4, as the broader All Ordinaries lost 126.5 points, or 1.39 per cent, to 8,980.5.

One Nation has warned it is coming for more seats as the coalition picks through the rubble of a historic by-election result.

David Farley swept to victory in the sprawling southern NSW electorate of Farrer on Saturday night, ending the coalition’s 77-year reign in the federal seat.

With more than 80 per cent of ballots counted, Mr Farley had claimed more than 57 per cent of the two-candidate-preferred vote to comfortably beat independent Michelle Milthorpe.

“One Nation has reached the end of its beginning. We’re going through the ceiling from here,” he declared on Saturday night to a room that erupted in cheers and applause.

It is One Nation’s first federal lower-house election victory since the party was founded by Pauline Hanson in 1997 and she had a message for the major parties.

“We’re coming after those other seats,” Ms Hanson said.

Former Nationals leader turned One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce also suggested the political earthquake would spread.

“Western Sydney here we come,” he said.

“Australians, they hear the rumble coming from the bush and then it arrives in the city as a bushfire.”

The by-election was triggered when long-time MP Sussan Ley resigned after being ousted as Liberal leader by Angus Taylor in February.

Support for the coalition crumbled, down to 12 per cent of the primary vote for the Liberals and less than 10 per cent for the Nationals.

Ms Ley secured more than 43 per cent of the primary vote when she won the seat a year earlier.

The Liberals must take their medicine and learn hard lessons, Liberal leader Angus Taylor said.

“For too long, we have been a party of convenience and not of conviction,” he said.

Deputy Liberal leader Jane Hume conceded trust with voters had been broken due to the coalition splitting twice and said it would take time to rebuild.

But Ms Ley said it would be wrong to attribute the result to the coalition ruptures and urged the Liberal leadership to accept the loss with humility as voters “never get it wrong”.

She parroted Mr Taylor’s catchcry of “change or die”, which he deployed after February’s leadership spill.

“Three months later, the result in Farrer demonstrates that statement to be far truer today than it ever was then,” Ms Ley said.

Labor chose not to contest the by-election.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers described the result as a “bloodbath” and said it showed the coalition would have to join One Nation to compete.

“There’s no future coalition government, I think, without One Nation in it,” he told ABC News on Sunday.

Farrer comprises more than 126,560 square kilometres and fills out the southwest corner of NSW.

Its largest population centre is Albury, which sits on the NSW-Victoria border.

The race, which became a two-way competition between a minor party and an independent, signals a broader shift in voting away from the major parties.

In the 1960s, more than 70 per cent of Australians would vote for the same party in each election.

By 2025, that number fell to just one in three, according to the Australian Election Study.

“The Australian electorate has become increasingly volatile,” the study’s chief investigator, Griffith University senior lecturer Sarah Cameron, told AAP.

“Most people aren’t feeling close to the major political parties and they’re increasingly willing to switch votes from election to election.”