PM

Do you have private health insurance? Are you considering cancelling it? If you are, you're not alone. According to Western Australia's biggest private health insurance provider HBF, the number of customers with top cover has halved in the past five years and the industry expects issues around affordability are only going to get worse.

An apparent plan from a group of coalition backbenchers to cross the floor and force a vote on same sex marriage has drawn a sharp response from their conservative government colleagues. They've been warned not to risk undermining the Government and exploit its thin advantage on the floor of the House of Representatives. The Prime Minister meanwhile, is playing the issue down as he tours through Western Australia.

The Queensland Government has rejected a multi-billion dollar plan for a second casino on the Gold Coast in what some have dubbed an unprecedented move. The Premier says it's what most of the community want despite the proposal's promise of more jobs for the region. And the Australian Hotels Association says it's good news for its members in the area.

In the town of Walgett in far north-west NSW temperatures can dip to below zero in winter and climb over 50 degrees Celsius in summer, making it really expensive to heat and cool homes. An Aboriginal elders' group fears that people in poorly insulated and equipped housing are descending further into poverty. Now the big city is offering support for a brighter future.

In a bid to prevent blackouts this summer, the South Australian Government will set up two new temporary back-up power plants. The nine hybrid turbines will initially be installed at two locations in Adelaide, with a view to merge them into one permanent government-owned gas power station. The generators won't bid their energy into the wholesale power market, but instead only be fired up when power cuts are likely.

A Senate committee is now wading through 41 submissions made by the public, and organisations who want to see changes made to the remote work for the dole scheme. There are three more public hearings yet to come on the issue of the Community Development Program (CDP), to be run in Kalgoorlie, Alice Springs and Canberra.

Business PM catches you up on the most important news in business and finance.

Business PM catches you up on the most important news in business and finance.

Universities say they're being shocked into action by a report showing alarming levels of sexual harassment and assault among students. A Human Rights Commission survey of over 30,000 students found one in five experienced harassment in a university setting last year, and 1.6 per cent were sexually assaulted in 2015 and 2016. Universities are promising more support for students and better training for staff. Students say the report is long-overdue and must prompt serious changes.

Police are turning to social media app Snapchat in the effort to find missing people in Queensland. They're trying to reach a younger audience, and criminologists say it's a sign of the benefit of social media to law enforcement agencies in engaging with the community.