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At least 19 people have died after a passenger plane crashed into Lake Victoria in Tanzania while trying to land at a nearby airport, the prime minister and airline say.

Flight PW494, operated by Precision Air, hit the water during storms and heavy rain, the state Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation (TBC) reported.

Rescuers in boats rushed to the wreckage, which was almost fully submerged, to pull out trapped passengers, local authorities said.

"All Tanzanians join you in mourning these 19 people... who have lost their lives," Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa told reporters in the lakeside city of Bukoba, close to the scene of the crash.

Investigators were still looking into what happened, he added.

The plane left the commercial capital Dar es Salaam and "crash-landed" at 8.53am on Sunday as it was approaching Bukoba airport, Precision Air - Tanzania's largest privately owned airline - said in a statement.

The plane was carrying 39 passengers, including an infant, as well as four crew members, the airline added.

It initially said 26 of the 43 people on board were rescued but later said 24 survivors were reported by emergency services at the scene.

A witness told TBC he saw the plane flying unsteadily as it approached the airport in poor visibility conditions, saying it took a turn for the airport but missed and went into the lake.

Video and pictures on social media showed the plane almost fully submerged, with only its green and brown-coloured tail visible above the waterline of Lake Victoria, Africa's largest lake.

Footage from the broadcaster and onlookers showed scores of residents standing along the shoreline and others wading into the shallow waters to try to help pull the aircraft closer to the shore with ropes.

Rescue workers were initially in touch with the pilots in the cockpit, Albert Chalamila, chief administrator of Tanzania's Kagera region, told reporters.

The prime minister later said the pilots may have died.

Precision Air identified the aircraft as an ATR42-500.

The Franco-Italian manufacturer ATR did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

First introduced almost 40 years ago, the ATR42 is the smaller of two series of short-haul turboprops made by ATR, a joint-venture of Airbus and Leonardo.

The last fatal accident was in 2017, according to safety database aviation-safety.net.

Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan called for calm.

"I have received with sadness the news of the accident involving Precision Air's plane," she tweeted.

"Let's be calm at this moment when rescuers are continuing with the rescue mission while praying to God to help us."

© RAW 2022

The Albanese government is hoping to get its jam-packed workplace relations bill through the lower house after ceding some ground to business groups on multi-employer bargaining.

The 249-page Secure Jobs, Better Pay bill is expected to return to the lower house this week following meetings between Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke and business groups last week.

The bill contains changes to industrial relations laws intended to drive wages growth and improve working conditions, including expansions of multi-employer bargaining that will allow employees from multiple workforces to bargain in concert.

Business groups have raised concerns about the multi-employer bargaining changes, and have already managed to broker an agreement with the government to amend the bill so that businesses and workforces aren't roped into industrial action against their will.

But business groups want the government to go further. Business Council of Australia chief executive Jennifer Westacott welcomed the government's concessions but said big problems remained "including a lowest common denominator risk to wages and increased complexity that could delay wage increases".

Key independents, including David Pocock and Jacquie Lambie, are also concerned the bill is being rushed through without enough scrutiny.

Senator Pocock has proposed splitting the bill and solely voting on the non-controversial aspects, such as measures to improve gender pay equity, before Christmas.

But Australian Council of Trade Unions president Michele O'Neil said workers couldn't wait any longer for a pay rise, with wages stagnant for a decade and real wages going backwards for more than year.

Ms O'Neil also said business groups were trying to stop wages from rising by opposing the multi-employer bargain components of the bill.

"Nobody should be fooled by the business lobby," she wrote on Twitter.

"They oppose bargaining changes because they don't want workers to get higher wages by bargaining together."

© AAP 2022

Duran Duran has stumbled into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Freshly inducted into the Hall by Robert Downey Jr at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on Saturday night, the 1980s English stalwarts took the stage and launched into their 1981 breakthrough hit Girls on Film.

The shrieking crowd was there for it, but the music wasn't. The band was all but inaudible other than singer Simon Le Bon, whose vocals were essentially acapella.

It was a fun if inauspicious beginning to a mostly slick and often triumphant show that also saw the induction of Pat Benatar, Carly Simon and Judas Priest, with Eminem, Dolly Parton and Eurythmics still to come.

"The wonderful spontaneous world of rock 'n' roll!" the 64-year-old Le Bon shouted as the band stopped for a do-over. "We just had to prove to you that we weren't lip-synching."

They kicked back in at full volume, playing a set that included Hungry Like the Wolf and Ordinary World, quickly snapping back into what Downey called their essential quality: "CSF -- cool, sophisticated fun."

In a room full of Duran Duran stans, Le Bon and bandmates John Taylor, Roger Taylor and Nick Rhodes provided what the singer said in his acceptance speech was the essence of their job over the past 40 years: "We get to make people feel better about themselves."

Missing was original guitarist Andy Taylor, who is four years into a fight with advanced prostate cancer.

Hitmakers of the '80s defined the night, with Pat Benatar, Lionel Richie and Eurythmics accepting their places in the Hall along with Eminem and Carly Simon.

"Pat always reached into the deepest part of herself and came roaring out of the speakers," Sheryl Crowe said in her speech inducting Benatar.

"She rocked as hard as any man but still kept her identity as a woman."

Benatar took the stage and displayed that power moments later.

"We are young!" the 69-year-old sang, her long grey hair flowing as she soared through a version of 1983's Love is a Battlefield with so much improvisation that most in the crowd didn't recognise it until halfway through the first verse.

"This is the one that started it!" she said launching into the next song, 1979's Heartbreaker, as most of the audience stood and sang along.

It included a blistering solo from Neil Giraldo, Benatar's longtime musical partner, husband, co-grandparent and now fellow member of the Hall.

Carly Simon was also a notable absence among the inductees, with the ceremony coming two weeks after she lost sisters Joanna Simon and Lucy Simon, both also singers, to cancer on back-to-back days.

Carly Simon was a first-time nominee this year more than 25 years after becoming eligible.

Presenter Sara Bareilles praised the legendary singer-songwriter's "fierce intelligence and soulful vulnerability" before singing a version of her James Bond theme Nobody Does it Better in her place.

Harry Belafonte, 95, was another missing musical giant. He didn't make an appearance for his induction.

In a few cases the presenters were better known than those they inducted.

Janet Jackson appeared in a black suit with a massive pile of hair atop her head, remaking the cover of her breakthrough album Control, as she inducted the two men who made that and many other records with her, writer-producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis.

The crowd welcomed Bruce Springsteen with shouts of "Bruuuce!" as he inducted Jimmy Iovine, founder of Interscope records and the engineer on Springsteen's Born to Run album.

Judas Priest showed they could still bang their grey heads as they lit up the room with hits including Breaking the Law and Living After Midnight.

"They defined the sound we call heavy metal," Alice Cooper said, inducting the group.

© AP 2022