TRANSCRIPT
- Qantas pauses Perth to London route fearing imminent Iranian attack on Israel.
- Voting is underway in the by-election of Cook.
- Wellington is one step closer of securing the Premier's title.
Qantas has paused its Perth to London route due to expected Iranian attack on Israel.
Airline flights will now stop over in Singapore to avoid Iranian airspace amid fears that Iran will strike Israel.
It comes after US president Joe Biden said today that he expects an Iranian attack "sooner rather than later."
A Qantas spokesperson confirmed the 17 and a half hour non-stop flights were operating to a modified route due to concerns about Iranian airspace.
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Voting is underway in the by-election in the federal seat of Cook.
The Liberals are expected to retain the seat vacated by former prime minister Scott Morrison, despite authorities worried about low voter turnout.
More than 22,000 people have already voted in the South Sydney seat with former management consultant, Simon Kennedy expected to retain the blue ribbon seat for the liberals.
The Liberals will go up against the Greens and several independent parties as labor bowed out of the contest.
Ms Kennedy says he is hopeful of a win.
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The roof of a Perth shopping centre has been forced to collapse after it was hit by over 130mm of rain in less than an hour.
The damage to the Ocean Keys Shopping Centre was only part of the severe issues caused by the rainfall, with the Western Australian emergency services struggling to answer the calls for help.
A spokesperson for the W-A State Emergency Services said they had accepted at least 50 calls in the afternoon.
The Bureau of Meteorology said they had only been expecting between 10-11mm of rain in Perth on Friday [[April 12]] afternoon, but the storm was localised in the city's northern suburbs.
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Australia has a target to build 1.2 million new homes by 2029 to help solve the housing crisis, but according to the latest Essential Report, 43 per cent think that the housing system is broken.
Respondents affirmed that the system needs to be fundamentally rethought.
National campaign to fix the housing crisis, Everybody's Home spokesperson Maiy Azize has told Sky News she is concerned about about how the government will achieve its target.
"Australia doesn't have a huge problem building when costs are low, but the issue that we are seeing at the moment is that we know it's really expensive to build, w e know there are workforce issues and so we are calling on the government to actually boost their contribution to that 1.2 million. At the moment, the government is only proposing to build 30,000 homes as social housing, and if they built more, they're much more likely to achieve that target."
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Airfares have been falling as capacity recovers to pre-COVID levels for the first time.
Data from Flight Centre Global revealed that seat availability returned to more than 100 per cent of 2019 levels in April, with travellers enjoying lower airfares.
The findings were based on an analysis of the main international routes for Australian travellers, some of which saw prices fall by as much as 25 per cent.
Australia's international capacity is expected to increase from 95 per cent to 98 per cent in May, while domestic capacity has fluctuated close to 100 per cent in recent months.
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In football,
Wellington have taken another step toward securing the Premier's title in the A-League Men, after a 1-0 win over Melbourne Victory.
In a hard-fought contest, Finn Surman made the difference between the two teams, heading home a free kick in the fifth minute of injury time.
It puts the New Zealand club three points ahead of Central Coast as the Mariners head to Victoria to take on Western United later today [[3.30PM]].
Wellington manager Giancarlo Italiano says this game will be a good learning opportunity for his players ahead of the finals.
"I always believe we can find a way, even when (our) back's to the wall. I just felt like today we had, I think we had plenty of opportunity to kill the game early. I think we were a little bit naive in front of goal. I think we created a lot but I think there were big moments where we could've really punished them. And I think the good thing about is that now we can reflect over the next week and use that, use the footage (from) today to address that, coming towards the finals time."
