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Treasurer Jim Chalmers will head off to Washington for key talks with world counterparts, with global financial uncertainty set to dominate discussions.

Dr Chalmers will take part in the G20 finance ministers' talks in the US, as well as taking part in the IMF World Bank meetings and central bank governors' meetings during the three-day trip.

The treasurer will also be joined at the events by Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe and Treasury secretary Steven Kennedy.

Dr Chalmers said the talks with financial heads would be critical ahead of next month's federal budget.

"There could not be a more important time to take the temperature of the global economy, as we carefully calibrate the settings of the May budget," he said.

"Global conditions have become more complex and confronting than they were even a few months ago."

Dr Chalmers will meet US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt and Ukrainian Finance Minister Sergii Marchenko.

It's expected high interest rates across the world, growing inflation and economic challenges posed by the ongoing invasion of Ukraine will dominate the talks.

"Recent tremors in global financial markets have increased uncertainty and downside risks, and the IMF is now forecasting the weakest five year period for global growth in more than three decades," Dr Chalmers said.

"In this uncertain environment, our job is to strike the right balance between dealing with our immediate challenges, preparing for the future and safeguarding our economy against global risks."

The treasurer will hand down his second budget on May 9.

© AAP 2023

Essential aged care, child care, hospitality, postal and freight workers are being priced out of the rental market across Australia with the average employee forced to spend around two thirds of their income on housing.

Since March 2020, workers on award wages had lost an average of six hours from their weekly income to rent increases, according to a new report produced by the Everybody's Home campaign.

This amounts to 37 days worth of wages every year, but child care, hospitality and meat-packing workers are losing at least 40 days worth.

The report found nurses, cleaners, aged care and postal workers were among those hit hardest by the rental crisis, spending most of their pay on housing costs.

Findings showed rising rents meant essential workers in single households were likely to be in serious financial stress, while those in coupled homes were probably financially dependent on their partner's income.

Based on the average cost of rentals in capital cities, the report found full-time workers on the lowest award wage would be left with around $20 a day after paying rent.

Meat packers and hospitality staff in capital cities are spending more than 80 per cent of their earnings just on rent.

Queensland has become one of the least affordable states for renters with the highest paid essential workers spending at least half of their incomes on rent.

In NSW and Victoria there were no affordable regions for essential workers earning award wages.

Everybody's Home spokeswoman Maiy Azize said workers in essential industries were the backbone of Australian communities, yet more and more were being pushed into serious rental stress.

"Virtually no region in Australia is affordable for our aged care workers, early childhood carers, cleaners, nurses and many other essential workers we rely on," she said.

"Our tax system is rigged against renters, driving up the cost of rent for millions of Australians and on top of that (there is) a huge shortfall of social homes for people who can't afford rent."

Everybody's Home was established by a coalition of 400 housing, homelessness and welfare organisations.

The campaign is calling on the federal government to start building 25,000 social homes every year to help with the shortfall, funded by winding back tax concessions for investors and landlords.

The Albanese government has proposed a package of housing reforms which includes a $10 billion housing future fund to finance the construction of 30,000 social and affordable rental homes over five years.

But the proposal faces a parliamentary challenge from the Greens and crossbenchers who want greater investment to meet existing housing challenges.

© AAP 2023

Sixteen people have lost their lives in accidents on Australian roads over the Easter long weekend following the death of a person in a fiery crash in Queensland's far north.

The driver in the latest tragedy died following the two-vehicle smash at Cape Cleveland in Townsville on Monday afternoon.

It is believed the vehicles were travelling along Carty Road near Goodsell Road at 1.30pm when they collided and burst into flames.

An unknown person in one of the vehicles was declared dead at the scene.

Two people travelling in the other vehicle, an 81-year-old man and a 59-year-old woman, were taken to Townsville University Hospital in a critical condition.

A driver under police guard in hospital will face court after a single-vehicle rollover in Wangaratta in northeastern Victoria.

He has been charged with culpable driving causing death, dangerous driving causing death and negligent driving causing serious injury, and also issued with a notice of immediate driving ban.

Police say one of his three male passengers died after the car overturned and ploughed into a paddock. The other two were airlifted to hospitals in Melbourne with critical injuries.

The devastating Easter toll began with seven deaths on Good Friday.

They included four adults killed in a crash in the NSW Southern Tablelands and a woman in Tasmania who was a passenger in a sedan.

A 26-year-old woman has been charged with causing death by dangerous driving after her Toyota Camry collided with a white MG near Copping, east of Hobart.

Two people were also killed in separate incidents within 24 hours in the Northern Territory, including a man involved in a collision between a motorbike and quad bike on the Finke Track, near Alice Springs.

The 27-year-old quad bike rider died at the scene, while the 24-year-old male motorbike rider has been flown interstate for treatment.

Another man died in the early hours of Saturday in a single-car rollover involving four adults near Hermannsburg, west of the Alice.

There were three more fatal accidents in regional areas of Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania on Easter Sunday, one of which involved a 16-year-old boy.

The teenager was killed early on Sunday when a Honda station wagon slammed into a tree about 75km south of Adelaide.

Early investigations into the Tasmanian crash indicate a 29-year-old woman lost control of a Mitsubishi Magna on the East Tamar Highway at Bell Bay on Sunday morning.

A 59-year-old man died in a fatal crash two hours south of Perth when a Mitsubishi Pajero left the Bussell Highway and struck a tree.

On Monday, one person died and another two were critically injured in a head-on crash south of Townsville.

Authorities arrived at Goodsell Rd, Cungulla after a sedan veered onto the other side of the road and collided with a Toyota 4WD.

The driver of the sedan died on impact with the passengers in the 4WD taken to hospital.

© AAP 2023