SBS News In Depth

In the middle of a housing and cost-of-living crisis, the Victorian government is in the process of demolishing all 44 of Melbourne's public housing towers. Despite significant pushback and a parliamentary inquiry calling for an immediate halt to works, the Victorian government is pushing ahead with the plans.

The housing crisis has seen people finding it increasingly hard to rent or buy a house in Australia's capital cities. But while most of the country has seen prices going up there's one place where prices have gone down - and that's Melbourne, where rental prices have gone down almost two percent year on year. SBS's Cameron Carr spoke to Dr Nicola Powell from Domain, to find out what's driving down prices.

In the middle of a housing and cost-of-living crisis, the Victorian government is in the process of demolishing all 44 of Melbourne's public housing towers. Despite significant pushback and a parliamentary inquiry calling for an immediate halt to works, the Victorian government is pushing ahead with the plans.

The Albanese government has amended its proposed response to the Bondi Beach shootings, splitting its wide-ranging hate speech and gun reform package in two in a bid to secure passage through Parliament. Facing resistance from both the Coalition and the Greens over the breadth and rushed nature of the laws, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has made changes in hopes of receiving support from both political groups to pass each set of reforms.

A lot of people already identify or know the problems from smoking and what it can do for your health, but not a lot of people understand that loneliness or social isolation carries around the same health risks of smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day. Tyler Prochnow is an assistant professor at Texas A&M at their School of Public Health and an expert in social connectedness, physical activity and mental health.