PM

In NSW, mortgage stress is the highest it's been in five years, and organisations tasked with providing shelter for those who have lost their homes say the state of housing stress is the worst they've seen.

Several New Zealand journalists were released after being detained in Fiji while attempting to interview the director of a Chinese developer accused of industrial-scale environmental destruction.

The man looking to become the 31st prime minister will shortly give what he no doubt hopes will be his last key address to the Parliament as Opposition Leader.

The major parties jostle in an effort to neutralise each other’s pre-election promises; disability groups say a multi-billion dollar underspend of NDIS funds in the budget is a “national disgrace”; and Senator Fraser Anning has been censured by the Parliament for linking the Christchurch shootings to Muslim immigration.

The major parties are jostling in an effort to neutralise each other's pre-election promises, with the Coalition quickly reversing a funding decision less than 24 hours after the budget was delivered.

Political reporter Melissa Clarke joins PM from our Parliament House studio.

Scott Morrison is emphatically defending his promised budget surplus against claims its part-built on money taken from disability services.

The Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister has all but admitted today there is no major item in the Federal budget for First Nations people. Indigenous leaders and lobby groups are outraged.

Another priority the Morrison government has identified in this year's budget is easing traffic congestion with 100 billion dollars set aside for infrastructure projects over the next decade.

As many obsessed over the federal budget last night, a Parliamentary report dropped, calling for major reform to the scheme offering redress to victims of institutional sexual abuse. The report finds the scheme in its current form is at risk of failing to deliver justice to survivors.