Australia news live updates: Scott Morrison to name new health minister; Jane Hume says Katherine Deves’ commitment is ‘admirable’

On the subject of a federal integrity commission, Payne says the Coalition has a “detailed piece of legislation”:

It has been broadly consulted, over 300 pages in detail. It provides our framework for a commonwealth integrity commission. It has been tabled in the parliament. It is there for all to see. What we have from the Opposition is a two-page summary and that’s all they’ve had for three years.

Payne has now been asked about the reported payment of more than $500,000 to Alan Tudge’s former adviser Rachelle Miller. She’s asked if the government can be transparent about the reason for the half-a-million-dollar payout.

Payne says:

I don’t know and I have no awareness of the details of these matters and it is not appropriate for me to have knowledge of these matters As I understand, through the Comcare process, it is a matter that is handled between individuals and the department itself. It is not something that involves ministers at all.

Marise Payne has told the ABC’s Insiders she does not share the views expressed by Katherine Deves about transgender and gender diverse people that have prompted calls for her to be dropped as the candidate for Warringah.

She tells host David Speers:

I don’t share Ms Deves’ comments that she has made, but importantly she has apologised and withdrawn those views and as the prime minister said yesterday, in public life, we do have to be very careful about the way we express our opinions.

But she won’t be drawn on whether Deves should be dropped as as candidate. After avoiding answering the question several times, Payne says:

It is a matter for the organisation in New South Wales. I need to get on with my job, that’s what I’m doing. I don’t agree with the remarks she made, I’ve made that explicitly clear.

NSW has reported another six Covid-19 deaths. There are 1,527 patients with Covid-19 in hospital, 64 of those in intensive care. The state recorded 9,725 cases in the past 24 hours.

Here’s a lovely story in The Advertiser, which reports the Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young has taken the weekend off from campaigning to marry Ben Oquist, the executive director of Canberra think tank the Australia Institute.

Congratulations to the happy couple!

via AAP:

The Morrison government would reintroduce parts of its scrapped industrial relations bill to parliament if reelected.

The government last year dumped its omnibus bill after failing to secure votes on parts of the legislation.

Provisions to criminalise wage theft and changes to enterprise bargaining were scrapped, as were award simplification and the ability to lock work sites into eight-year pay agreements for major projects.

But prime minister Scott Morrison has flagged the bill will be reintroduced to parliament if the Coalition wins the federal election on May 21.

“[It will ensure] that we can go forward and pursue those legislative changes that we wanted to pursue,” he told reporters in Melbourne on Saturday.

“Remember, they were the product of getting unions together, employers together, over countless numbers of hours to ensure that we can come up with practical things that would make the industrial relations system work better. And the Labor party rejected it.”

It came after Labor promised to legislate a federal anti-corruption commission by the end of the year if they win government.

My colleagues Josh Butler and Sarah Martin report this morning that the Australian Electoral Commission and Facebook have voiced alarm at a bubbling campaign from minor party candidates raising baseless claims about election fraud or ballots being altered, warning of “dangerous” voter integrity misinformation being imported from the United States.

The AEC said it has successfully applied to Facebook to take action against misinformation in the lead-up to the election, with at least five posts removed and two pages being taken down entirely.

Read the full story here:

Good morning, Lisa Cox here to take you through the morning.

We’re expecting Scott Morrison will name Anne Ruston as the future health minister if the Coalition is reelected on May 21.

Ruston, whose appointment was foreshadowed last week, would replace Greg Hunt who intends to retire from politics.

Sit back as we take you through Easter Sunday on the campaign trail.