Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for stronger industrial and supply chain co-operation with Vietnam and wider collaboration in emerging fields, amid heightened trade tensions prompted by hefty US tariffs.

Xi starts a three-nation tour of Southeast Asia this week, beginning with Vietnam on Monday and Tuesday, and Malaysia and Cambodia from Tuesday to Friday.

The trip aims to consolidate economic ties with some of China’s closest neighbours at a time when the world’s top two economies are locked in a tariff tussle.

The visit comes as Beijing faces 145 per cent US duties and after China hiked its levies on imports of US goods to 125 per cent on Friday, hitting back at US President Donald Trump’s decision to single out the world’s number two economy for higher duties.

Xi also urged strengthening co-ordination and co-operation through regional initiatives such as the East Asia Co-operation and the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation, the Chinese foreign ministry said, citing an article by the Chinese leader published in Vietnam media.

He called such efforts necessary to “inject more stability and positive energy into a chaotic and intertwined world”.

“There are no winners in trade wars and tariff wars, and protectionism has no way out,” Xi said, without mentioning the US specifically.

“We must firmly safeguard the multilateral trading system, maintain the stability of the global industrial and supply chains, and maintain the international environment for open co-operation,” he said.

Last week, China sought to get ahead of US negotiators, holding video calls with the EU and Malaysia, which is chairing ASEAN this year, as well as Saudi Arabia and South Africa, by way of reaching out to Gulf countries and the Group of 20 and BRICS nations.

In hope of avoiding punishing US tariffs, Vietnam is prepared to crack down on Chinese goods being shipped to the US via its territory and will tighten controls on sensitive exports to China, according to a person familiar with the matter and a government document seen by Reuters.

In the article, Xi said China welcomes more high-quality imports from Vietnam and encourages more Chinese enterprises to invest and start businesses in the Southeast Asian country.

Both countries should expand co-operation in emerging fields such as 5G, artificial intelligence and green development, the article said. 

Major parties are pressing ahead with their revamped housing policies despite concerns from economists billions of dollars will be wasted in a vote-buying exercise.

Labor will allow people to secure a mortgage with only a five per cent deposit with the government going guarantor while pledging 100,000 new homes solely for first homebuyers under a $10 billion plan.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese started Monday at a housing development project in Adelaide to spruik his policies alongside top ministers and South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas.

“These two policies will make a significant difference to increasing supply but also importantly, to getting first home buyers and particularly young Australians into their first home,” Mr Albanese told reporters.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers denied Labor’s deposit policy would encourage people to borrow more and risk defaults on their loans, leaving taxpayers potentially on the hook.

“We know from the existing program that there has been an absolutely miniscule amount of defaults on these debts,” he told ABC TV.

With housing a critical issue on voters’ minds in the run up to the May 3 polling day, the coalition announced it would allow interest payments on the first $650,000 of a mortgage for new houses to be tax deductible for first homebuyers.

That could save the average first homebuyer $10,000 a year. 

The plan has found few friends among economists, who say it would disproportionately benefit high-income earners, push house prices up by increasing demand, and blow a hole in the federal budget.

Likely to cost taxpayers $1.25 billion in forgone revenue across four years, it was not money well spent, Grattan Institute chief executive Aruna Sathanapally said.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton side-stepped economists’ concerns his tax deductibility policy would only drive up prices and disproportionately benefit higher income earners, arguing it would help boost housing supply.

“It’s going to encourage construction, which is really important,” he told Seven’s Sunrise program.

But Mr Albanese criticised the policy, saying it meant renters would be “subsidising the mortgages of homeowners across Australia” as they struggled to get into the market. 

Support for Mr Dutton and the coalition has continued to slip, according to the latest Newspoll, which also showed most voters predicted a minority Labor government.

Although the poll was taken ahead of both campaigns being officially launched on Sunday, where billions of dollars in pre-election sweeteners were unveiled.

Labor will introduce a $1000 instant tax deduction, saving people up to $320 a year and reducing the hassle of producing receipts, while the coalition promises a one-off tax offset of up to $1200.

Coalition campaign spokesman James Paterson criticised Labor’s tax cut of up to $268 in 2026/27 and $536 each financial year after, while defending the coalition’s sweetener.

 He said the one-off tax offset was timely, targeted and meaningful.

“It’s not baked into the budget forever, costing billions and billions and billions over many years but it’s going to give people much more when they actually need it,” he said.

Dr Chalmers was critical of Mr Dutton’s policies, saying they were going to “borrow and burn another $10 billion and still provide no ongoing cost-of-living help for people who are doing it tough”.

“Then he’ll claw that back with permanently higher income taxes, lower wages and secret cuts to pay for his nuclear reactors,” he said in reference to the Liberals’ pledge to repeal Labor’s tax cut.

The opposition leader will be in his home town of Brisbane, where the coalition is vying to win inner city seats back from the Greens, who are fighting strongly on housing and pro-renting measures.

Shifting demographics mean young voters, most of whom called for immediate action on affordable housing, according to Monash University research, will have more influence and outnumber older voters for the first time.

Pete Marocco, the Trump administration official who played a major role in dismantling the US Agency for International Development, has left the State Department.

President Donald Trump’s administration has moved to fire nearly all USAID staff, as billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has slashed funding and dismissed contractors across the federal bureaucracy in what it calls an attack on wasteful spending.

“Pete was brought to State with a big mission — to conduct an exhaustive review of every dollar spent on foreign assistance. He conducted that historic task and exposed egregious abuses of taxpayer dollars,” a senior administration official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

“We all expect big things are in store for Pete on his next mission,” the official said on Sunday.

Sources told Reuters that Marocco, who was the director of foreign assistance at the State Department, may have been pushed out but they declined to give further explanation.

As recently as Thursday, he held a “listening session” at the State Department with nearly two dozen experts to discuss the future of foreign assistance and seek input, according to a source familiar with the event and an invitation to the session seen by Reuters.

When he returned to the State Department less than a month ago, he said in an internal email that “I am going to return to my post as the Director of Foreign Assistance to bring value back to the American people”.

Trump has claimed without evidence that USAID was rife with fraud and run by “radical left lunatics”, while Musk falsely accused it of being a “criminal” organisation.

Trump’s administration on Tuesday moved to reinstate at least six recently cancelled US foreign aid programs for emergency food assistance.

The quick reversal of decisions made just days ago underscored the rapid-fire nature of Trump’s cuts to foreign aid.

That has led to programs being cut, restored then cut again, disrupting international humanitarian operations.

US President Donald Trump has doubled down on his latest message that the exclusion of smartphones and computers from his reciprocal tariffs on China will be short-lived, pledging a national security trade investigation into the semiconductor sector.

Those electronics “are just moving to a different Tariff ‘bucket,'” Trump said in a social media post.

 “We are taking a look at Semiconductors and the WHOLE ELECTRONICS SUPPLY CHAIN in the upcoming National Security Tariff Investigations.”

The White House had announced the exclusions from steep reciprocal tariffs on Friday.

Trump’s commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, earlier on Sunday said that critical technology products from China would face separate new duties along with semiconductors within the next two months.

The exclusions announced on Friday were seen as a big break for technology firms such as Apple and Dell Technologies that rely on imports from China.

Trump’s back-and-forth on tariffs last week triggered the wildest swings on Wall Street since the COVID pandemic of 2020. The benchmark Standard & Poor’s 500 index is down more than 10 per cent since Trump took office on January 20.

Lutnick said Trump would enact “a special focus-type of tariff” on smartphones, computers and other electronics products in a month or two, alongside sectoral tariffs targeting semiconductors and pharmaceuticals. 

The new duties would fall outside Trump’s so-called reciprocal tariffs, under which levies on Chinese imports climbed to 125 per cent last week, he said.

“He’s saying they’re exempt from the reciprocal tariffs, but they’re included in the semiconductor tariffs, which are coming in probably a month or two,” Lutnick said in an interview on ABC’s This Week, predicting that the levies would bring production of those products to the US.

“These are things that are national security, that we need to be made in America.”

Beijing increased its own tariffs on US imports to 125 per cent on Friday in response.

On Sunday, before Lutnick’s comments, China said it was evaluating the impact of the exclusions for the technology products implemented late on Friday.

“The bell on a tiger’s neck can only be untied by the person who tied it,” China’s Ministry of Commerce said.

Billionaire investor Bill Ackman, who endorsed Trump’s run for president but who has criticised the tariffs, called on him to pause the broad and steep reciprocal tariffs on China for three months, as Trump did for most countries last week.

If Trump paused Chinese tariffs for 90 days and cut them to 10 per cent temporarily, “he would achieve the same objective in causing US businesses to relocate their supply chains from China without the disruption and risk”, Ackman wrote on X.

US Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat, criticised the latest revision to Trump’s tariff plan, which economists have warned could dent economic growth and fuel inflation.

“There is no tariff policy – only chaos and corruption,” Warren said on ABC’s This Week, speaking before Trump’s latest post on social media.

In a notice to shippers late on Friday, the US Customs and Border Protection agency published a list of tariff codes excluded from the import taxes. It featured 20 product categories, including computers, laptops, disc drives, semiconductor devices, memory chips and flat panel displays.

Ray Dalio, the billionaire founder of the world’s biggest hedge fund, told NBC’s Meet the Press that he was worried about the US sliding into recession, or worse, as a result of the tariffs.

“Right now we are at a decision-making point and very close to a recession and I’m worried about something worse than a recession if this isn’t handled well,” he said.

Upstairs, Downstairs actress and co-creator Jean Marsh has died at the age of 90.

The Emmy-award winning star also co-created historical drama series The House Of Eliott. 

Her friend, director Michael Lindsay-Hogg, confirmed her death in a statement on Sunday issued through her agent.

“Jean died peacefully in bed looked after by one of her very loving carers,” he said. 

“You could say we were very close for 60 years. She was as wise and funny as anyone I ever met, as well as being very pretty and kind, and talented as both an actress and writer. 

“An instinctively empathetic person who was loved by everyone who met her. We spoke on the phone almost every day for the past 40 years.” 

She was best known for playing the role of Rose the pragmatic head house parlourmaid in the British drama television series Upstairs, Downstairs, which she co-created with Eileen Atkins. 

For her portrayal she won an Emmy at the 1976 awards ceremony in the category of outstanding lead actress in a limited series. 

Born Jean Lyndsey Torren Marsh on July 1, 1934 in Stoke Newington, north London, her mother worked in a bar and as a theatre dresser while her father was a handyman and printer’s assistant. 

She became interested in performing after taking dance and mime classes as therapy for an illness and began acting on stage, with a stint at Huddersfield Rep in the 1950s. 

It was not long before she transferred to London and at the age of 12 the actress made her West End debut in The Land Of The Christmas Stockings at The Duke of York’s Theatre. 

Her earliest screen appearances came in such TV classics as The Twilight Zone and Danger Man. 

She also appeared in Doctor Who adventures, most notably as William Hartnell’s short-lived companion Sara Kingdom. 

Her most notable films are fantasy adventure film Willow (1988), thriller Frenzy (1972), and war movie The Eagle Has Landed (1976). 

A minor stroke forced her to take a break in 2011 but she returned to work afterwards. 

She was married to Doctor Who actor Jon Pertwee for five years before their divorce in 1960 and she also had relationships with actors Kenneth Haigh, Albert Finney and Lindsay-Hogg. 

She starred in a number of other TV series including Sense And Sensibility, Hawaii Five-O and Murder, She Wrote.

US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick says smartphones, computers and some other electronics, just exempted from steep tariffs on imports from China, will face separate new duties along with semiconductors within the next two months. 

Lutnick’s comments on US broadcaster ABC flagging the coming levies on critical technology products mark the latest twist in US President Donald Trump’s tariff plans which have roiled financial markets since they were announced on what he branded “Liberation Day” on April 2. 

Late on Friday Trump’s administration granted exclusions from the steep tariffs on smartphones and a set of other electronics products, a move seen as a big break for technology firms such as Apple and Dell Technologies that rely on imports from China.

Lutnick said Trump would enact “a special focus-type of tariff” on smartphones, computers and other electronics products in a month or two, alongside sectoral tariffs targeting semiconductors and pharmaceuticals. 

He said those new levies would fall outside Trump’s so-called “reciprocal tariffs” under which levies on Chinese imports climbed to 125 per cent this week.

“He’s saying they’re exempt from the reciprocal tariffs but they’re included in the semiconductor tariffs, which are coming in probably a month or two,” Lutnick said in the interview on ABC, predicting that the levies would bring production of those products to the United States. 

“These are things that are national security, that we need to be made in America.” 

With his comments, Lutnick appeared to go beyond what was communicated on Saturday, when a White official told media that Trump would launch a new national security trade investigation into semiconductors soon that could lead to other new tariffs.

China increased its own tariffs on US imports to 125 per cent on Friday, striking against Trump’s tariffs. 

Chinese officials said on Sunday that they were evaluating the effects of the exclusions for the technology products implemented late on Friday.

“The bell on a tiger’s neck can only be untied by the person who tied it,” China’s ministry of commerce said.

Billionaire investor Bill Ackman, who endorsed Trump’s run for president but who has criticised the tariffs, on Sunday called on him to pause the broad and steep reciprocal tariffs on China for three months, as he did for most countries last week.

“If President Trump were to pause the China tariffs for 90 days and reduce them temporarily to 10 per cent, he would achieve the same objective in causing US businesses to relocate their supply chains from China without the disruption and risk to these businesses in the short term, and he would have time to negotiate a deal with China,” Ackman wrote on X.

US Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat, criticised the latest revision to Trump’s tariff plan, which economists have warned could dent economic growth and fuel inflation.

“There is no tariff policy – only chaos and corruption” Warren said on ABC’s This Week.

In a notice to shippers late on Friday, the US Customs and Border Protection agency published a list of tariff codes excluded from the import taxes. 

It featured 20 product categories, including computers, laptops, disc drives, semiconductor devices, memory chips and flat panel displays.

For the Chinese imports, the exclusion of the tech products applies only to Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which reached 125 per cent this week. 

Trump’s prior 20 per cent duties on all Chinese imports that he said were related to the fentanyl crisis remain in place.

In an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said that the United States has opened an invitation to China to negotiate but criticised its connection to the lethal fentanyl supply chain and did not include them on a list of seven entities – the United Kingdom, the European Union, India, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia and Israel – with which he said the administration was in talks.

“They’re just lining up outside the door of Jamieson Greer,” Navarro said, referring to the US trade representative.

Buoyed by official launches replete with rousing speeches and expensive policies, Labor and the coalition have a swag of big-ticket promises to sell voters as the election campaign hits full swing.

With one week of the campaign to go before early voting begins, both sides know every day is crucial.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is kicking off his week in Adelaide, where he will spruik two of Labor’s centrepiece promises announced on Sunday – an automatic $1000 deduction on tax returns and a plan to help first homebuyers into a property. 

Housing, an issue at the forefront of voters’ minds, dominated both parties’ campaign launches.

Shifting demographics mean young voters – millennials and gen Z –
will have more influence on the election result than ever, outnumbering older voters at the polls for the first time.

Research by Monash University found that three in four voters younger than 24 wanted immediate action on affordable housing.

With young voters in his sights, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton will be in Brisbane on Monday, spruiking the coalition’s plan to make interest payments on the first $650,000 of a mortgage tax deductible for first homebuyers if elected on May 3.

That could save the average first homebuyer an average of $10,000 a year. 

The plan has found few friends among economists, who say it would disproportionately benefit high-income earners, push house prices up by increasing demand, and blow a hole in the federal budget.

Likely to cost taxpayers $1.25 billion in forgone revenue across four years, it’s not money well spent, Grattan Institute chief executive Aruna Sathanapally said.

“The money will overwhelmingly flow to higher income earners because they have higher tax deductions,” Dr Sathanapally told ABC News.

“It’s not good policy.”

Labor’s housing plan was not showered in praise either.

First homebuyers would need to save up just five per cent of a deposit under Mr Albanese’s plan, presenting the same issue of increasing demand and making housing less affordable for everyone else.

But the other prong of Labor’s housing pledge – building 100,000 new homes for first homebuyers for $10 billion – got more love, as it would go some way to tackling the underlying issue of insufficient supply.

Not wanting to be outdone, both sides offered additional tax sweeteners to voters on a bad day for the budget bottom line.

The coalition promised to bring back the COVID-19-era low-and-middle-income tax offset for one more year, giving taxpayers a one-off sugar hit of up to $1200.

The Morrison-era offset, colloquially known as LMITO, was intended as a temporary measure to smooth taxpayers through the stage three tax cuts.

Steven Hamilton, an economist at the George Washington University, said the government was right to let it die because it increased the marginal tax rate, worsening incentives for people to work.

Labor’s tax deduction policy, on the other hand, got his tick of approval.

It would reduce compliance costs, benefit millions of taxpayers without making anyone worse off, make the tax system more progressive and save hundreds of millions of dollars per year in accounting and legal fees.

“A fantastic tax reform,” Professor Hamilton wrote on X.

On the east coast and in the west, Labor and the coalition are hyping up true believers as they sharpen their focus on housing and tax cuts.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese launched Labor’s official campaign in Perth, where he promised to build 100,000 homes reserved for first-time buyers only.

“This is the biggest home-building program since post-war housing,” he told party faithful and Labor luminaries on Sunday.

Australians would also be able to buy their first dwelling with a five per cent deposit, with the government guaranteeing the other 15 per cent and the help-to-buy scheme will be expanded to cover more people and properties.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton used his launch in western Sydney – where the Liberals need to pick up a slate of seats – to offer first home-buyers tax deductible mortgage interest payments on the first $650,000.

Both sides also offered more moderate tax relief measures as Labor promised a $1000 instant asset write-off, saving people up to $320, while the Liberals offered a one-off $1200 tax cut sweetener.

Famous faces on both sides were at the respective launches, with Mr Albanese embracing former Labor prime minister Julia Gillard and Mr Dutton greeting former Liberal prime ministers Scott Morrison, John Howard and Tony Abbott after his speech.

Mr Albanese cast the election as a choice between a steady hand to weather economic headwinds and a reckless Liberal government that needed to borrow its policies from the United States.

“Labor’s vision for this great country, our plan to build Australia’s future is not borrowing ideologies or copying policies from anywhere else or anyone else,” Mr Albanese said.

“It’s about building on what has always been our nation’s greatest strength, the Australian people.”

Mr Dutton centred his pitch around restoring the Australian dream of home ownership as he branded the 2025 election “a sliding doors moment for our country”.

“When Australians have heard me say that I want to be the prime minister for home ownership, for home affordability, for home accessibility, I mean it,” he said.

“Australians, let’s make sure that we can get this great country that we love back on track.”

A first-home buyer with a taxable income of $120,000 and a $650,000 mortgage at 6.1 per cent interest would be about $12,000 better off a year, the coalition said.

Under its $10 billion tax plan, eligible taxpayers earning up to $144,000 a year would be in line for a rebate when they lodge their return for the upcoming financial year.

Australians had a clear choice on housing, Treasurer Jim Chalmers said.

“Under Labor, more homes and smaller deposits, under the coalition and Peter Dutton, fewer homes and higher house prices,” he said.

Coalition campaign spokesman James Paterson said his party would help lower demand for housing and boost supply of new dwellings.

“We have some very strong policies out there to reduce demand, including immigration, because that is a driver of demand, and banning foreign investors for two years from buying Australian homes,” Senator Paterson said. 

Greens leader Adam Bandt said cracking down on investor tax handouts and capping rents were the real solutions to the nation’s housing affordability woes. 

“Labor tinkers while prices soar, the Liberals will send prices even higher,” he said.

Mr Dutton claimed his plan would do more to ease cost-of-living pain than Labor’s tax cuts of up to $268 in 2026/27 and up to $536 each financial year after but Labor hit back saying people were better with long-term relief.

The major parties decided to make things official earlier than usual in a bid to stay in public view ahead of a slew of public holidays for Easter and Anzac Day.

The election will be held on May 3.

Competing pitches to first-time home buyers and one-off tax relief have jostled for airtime at official federal election campaign launches for the major parties.

Under a Dutton coalition government, first-time buyers of newly constructed homes would be able to deduct interest payments against their taxable incomes on the first $650,000 of a mortgage.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said Australian citizens, young and old, were being locked out of housing.

“When Australians have heard me say that I want to be the prime minister for home ownership, for home affordability, for home accessibility, I mean it,” he told a campaign launch in western Sydney.

A first-home buyer with a taxable income of $120,000 and a $650,000 mortgage at 6.1 per cent interest would be about $12,000 better off a year, the coalition said.

Labor has promised to build 100,000 homes reserved for first-time buyers only.

Australians would also be able to buy their first dwelling with a five per cent deposit, with the government guaranteeing the other 15 per cent.

The Albanese government would expand the existing help-to-buy scheme by increasing property price limits to reflect the average in each state’s capital city and removing caps on places and incomes.

Australians had a clear choice on housing, Treasurer Jim Chalmers said.

“Under Labor, more homes and smaller deposits, under the coalition and Peter Dutton, fewer homes and higher house prices,” he said.

Coalition campaign spokesman James Paterson said his party would help lower demand for housing and boost supply of new dwellings.

“We have some very strong policies out there to reduce demand, including immigration, because that is a driver of demand, and banning foreign investors for two years from buying Australian homes,” Senator Paterson said. 

Greens leader Adam Bandt said cracking down on investor tax handouts and capping rents were the real solutions to the nation’s housing affordability woes. 

“Labor tinkers while prices soar, the Liberals will send prices even higher,” he said.

The opposition has also entered the field on tax relief with a one-off tax rebate of up to $1200. 

Under the coalition’s $10 billion tax plan, eligible taxpayers earning up to $144,000 a year would be in line for a rebate when they lodge their return for the upcoming financial year.

Mr Dutton claimed his plan would do more to ease cost-of-living pain than Labor’s tax cuts of up to $268 in 2026/27 and up to $536 each financial year after.

Labor ministers countered with the argument taxpayers were better off with their party’s long-term relief.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese sent Labor’s campaign down the slipway in Perth on Sunday.

He and Mr Dutton decided to make things official earlier than usual in a bid to stay in public view ahead of a slew of public holidays for Easter and Anzac Day.

Six people killed in the Bondi Junction massacre have been memorialised in a public commemoration one year on from the attack.

Marking the anniversary of the tragedy could prompt further trauma but is essential for healing, experts say.

Australia’s worst mass killing in nearly a decade took place at a Westfield shopping centre in Sydney’s east one year ago on Sunday.

Joel Cauchi, 40, killed six people and injured at least another 10, including an infant, before being shot dead by NSW Police Inspector Amy Scott minutes later.

Ashlee Good, 38, Dawn Singleton, 25, Jade Young, 47, Pikria Darchia, 55, Yixuan Cheng, 27 and security guard Faraz Tahir, 30, were killed in the attack on April 13, 2024.

Relatives and loved ones left bouquets in nearby Oxford Street Mall on Sunday, where community condolences and photos from a candlelight vigil have been included on commemorative display boards.

“We miss you, we love you and we wish you were here,” read one card at the scene on Sunday.

Insp Scott lingered before one display alongside NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb after laying flowers.

NSW Premier Chris Minns and Governor-General Sam Mostyn left bouquets along with federal Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus and other dignitaries, with the community also invited to reflect on the tragedy.

Ms Webb paid tribute to emergency services and civilians who were involved in the initial response to the attack.

“They are heroes, risking their own lives in an effort to save victims and nurse the wounded during what can only be described as a senseless tragedy,” she said in a statement.

“The memory and the trauma of this day will never be forgotten.”

Mr Minns promised an appropriate commemoration of the tragedy.

“We do need to recognise this, we can’t just sweep it under the carpet. 

“We do need to make sure those who lost their lives, and their families, know that we care about them.

“But it obviously opens wounds for those trying to repair their lives and grieve,” he told ABC News on Sunday.

People walking through Oxford Street Mall paused to watch, with some onlookers wiping away tears. 

But the ceremony was a low-key affair and the crowds did not match those drawn to the scene in the attack’s immediate aftermath.

A small floral tribute was placed inside the shops, where centre staff wore black ribbons.

The anniversary will be a raw milestone for some people and could prompt “anniversary trauma”, psychologist Maria Kangas told AAP.

“Just even the thought of the anniversary coming up this weekend could set off physiological responses in the body, like panic symptoms,” the head of Macquarie University psychological sciences said.

The event’s violent nature could cause greater stress responses than other traumatic incidents, such as natural disasters.

“Because it’s been committed by another person – a violent act that has come out of the blue, unexpected – it re-activates primal trauma fear responses in all of us,” Professor Kangas said.

“A sense of safety has been threatened.”

Commemorating the tragedy is an important part of coping, psychiatrist Ian Hickie said.

“Denial doesn’t help,” the co-director of Sydney University’s Brain and Mind Centre told AAP.

“It’s no use pretending it didn’t happen – and anniversaries can serve that useful purpose.”

An inquest will begin examining the massacre later in April.

It will probe Cauchi’s mental illness and treatment, past interactions with police, and the response from centre management and emergency services among other issues.

Lifeline 13 11 14

beyondblue 1300 22 4636