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Helen Howell is planning to pitch a tent outside her mother's house in Launceston if she can't find a place to live in the next month.

The 48-year-old Tasmanian has applied for 10 rentals in the past three weeks, but has found many are being snapped up even before they are open for inspection.

"We've been looking for houses flat-out. It's crazy," she told AAP.

"I've got a tent and a really good sleeping bag my brother gave me. If worst comes to worst I'll pitch a tent up across the road (from my mother's house)."

From the riverside city of Launceston to red-dirt towns in the Pilbara, a rental crunch is hitting Australia. The stress is most severe on people earning low incomes and for those who rely on welfare services.

The national vacancy rate is at multi-year lows at just 1 per cent amid a surge in rental demand, according to Domain's latest Rental Vacancy Rate report, creating a landlord's market.

Rental markets in the Tasmanian cities of Hobart and Launceston are among the most stretched, an issue Ms Howell is witnessing first-hand.

With a weekly budget of $200, Ms Howell says she visited one "absolutely horrendous" rental at the back-end of a house that was damp and had no heating.

On the other side - and end - of the country, social worker Angela Sinclair says she doesn't intend to stay in the West Australian city of Karratha long term, despite having lived there with her partner and two children for almost two years.

With few rentals available, the family pays about $750 per week for their 1960s three-bedroom, one-bathroom home.

"It's definitely nothing fancy," Ms Sinclair said.

"It's got the old-school kitchen, an electric stove and some of the cupboards are missing, so this isn't like a home you get in Perth by the beach that is newly furnished."

The prices of goods and services are also notably higher in resources towns such as Karratha, making everyday expenses a challenge, especially for those not on the high wages tied to the mining and oil and gas sectors.

"I don't think you actually understand how much that really impacts you until you're up here," Ms Sinclair said.

"It's not only the rent that is so expensive, it's the food, the daycare, everything else that comes along with that."

As international workers and travellers return to Australia en masse following the easing of COVID-19 travel restrictions, rental demand is forecast to climb in many cities, pushing up rental prices. Regional areas, which saw an influx of people during the pandemic, are reporting a similar trend.

There's no escaping the problem in the major state capitals of Sydney and Melbourne, where vacancy rates remain tight. The top of Australia doesn't offer respite either.

"The Northern Territory has a significant problem with rental unaffordability," said NT Shelter executive officer Peter McMillan.

Rents have increased by $140 per week over the past two years, with the average cost of renting a home in the NT rising from $420 per week in September 2019 to $570 per week currently, data shows.

"More and more people in the NT are experiencing rental stress," Mr McMillan said.

"There is insufficient social and affordable housing in the NT and we need to address that."

In the NT, about half of families rent, far higher than the national 30 per cent average.

Mr McMillan says it isn't just low-income earners being impacted. Professionals are also finding it difficult to secure accommodation, with some reporting it was likely to affect their ability to stay and work in the NT.

© AAP 2022

The nephew of slain gangland figure Mahmoud "Brownie" Ahmad has been shot dead at his western Sydney home in the city's second deadly gangland shooting this week.

It is the third fatal shooting in recent weeks in what police have dubbed a spate of "tit for tat" incidents in the city's southwest, starting with the murder of Mr Ahmad in late April.

Police arrived in Knox Street, Belmore, on Saturday to find the man, 23, with gunshot wounds to his torso .

Paramedics treated the man but he died at the scene. His pregnant wife was hospitalised in distress soon after the shooting.

Vehicles were found on fire a short time after the shooting in the nearby suburbs of Croydon Park and Bexley North.

Detective Chief Superintendent Darren Bennett said the victim was part of a "cabal" with Mr Ahmad.

"We are in a spate of tit-for-tat shootings around organised criminals in southwest Sydney," he said.

"We've clearly got a war of sorts in southwestern Sydney around drug supply and organised crime.

"That crosses over with inter-family relationships. You know how violent these people are."

It comes only days after two Comanchero bikies were gunned down at a western Sydney gym.

Omar Zahed, 39, was killed and his brother, Comanchero bikie boss Tarek Zahed, 41, was critically wounded at the Body Fit gym in Auburn on Tuesday night.

Mr Ahmad, 39, was publicly executed in Greenacre in April on a Wednesday night after gunmen lay in wait for him.

Police have linked the shootings and have established Strike Force Bati to investigate.

Det Bennett said unlike the previous victims, Mr Ahmad's nephew had not been warned by police he was a target with no known bounty on his head.

"But he's certainly known to us," he said.

Knox Street remains closed to traffic with police swarming the house where the shooting occurred early on Saturday morning, with a shattered front window visible.

Earlier this month police expressed concern about the 11 gangland murders in southwest Sydney in the last two years with Det Bennett saying on Saturday one was too many.

"It's unacceptable in modern society ... it's a byproduct of organised crime and part of a subculture we have in southwestern Sydney," he said.

Labor police spokesperson Walt Secord accused the government of losing control of the streets with the 13th recorded gang-related homicide this year.

"It seems the Perrottet Government is surrendering the streets of Western Sydney to criminal gangs".

Mr Secord said it was a matter of time before another innocent bystander gets shot or killed in the escalating crime gang violence.

He called for more resources to be dedicated to the police.

NSW has the fewest number of police officers in Australia, 244 per 100,000 residents, according to the budget estimates from last week.

The top 20 areas with the highest percentage of urgent calls not attended are all in the Sydney region, the majority in the city's west.

"Western Sydney residents do not feel safe walking their streets knowing that vicious gang violence could strike anywhere, anytime," Mr Secord said.

© AAP 2022

Prime Minister Scott Morrison says his leadership style will be more empathetic if re-elected, as he seeks to woo voters put off by his self-described 'bulldozer manner' in the final week of election campaigning.

On Saturday, Mr Morrison claimed Australia needed "strength and resilience" to get through the past couple of turbulent years, but acknowledged the approach he had during the pandemic would need to change.

Speaking from the Victorian seat of Deakin, held by the Liberals on a 4.8 per cent margin, the prime minister said that voters could expect a more collaborative leader should he defy polls on May 21.

"I will seek to explain my motives and my concerns, and empathise a lot more," he said.

"But I tell you what, at the end of the day, what matters most is I get the job done."

In Melbourne on Saturday, Mr Morrison urged voters to consider the optimism and opportunities that lie ahead now that the country has moved beyond the lockdown stage of the pandemic.

As part of the upbeat sentiment, he announced the expansion of a program designed to get more high school students active again.

The government's Sporting Schools program expansion would see up to 700,000 more students play sport in school, with more than $20 million being spent on the initiative.

The program, currently available for year 7 and 8 students, will be expanded into years 9 and 10.

As well as competing with Labor, the coalition must fend off high-profile independent candidates in heartland Victorian Liberal seats that are pressuring some of Mr Morrison's top colleagues, such as Treasurer Josh Frydenberg.

The prime minister faces an uphill battle to retain office, with polls indicating Labor is on track to win government on May 21.

Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese on Saturday accused the prime minister of playing short-term politics by not briefing Labor on a plan to build nuclear submarines with the help of the US and Britain until just before it was made public.

Citing a report in The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, Mr Albanese said the US had requested the Australian government secure support from both major political parties for the plans. The Labor leader said the delay showed that the prime minister is more concerned with politics than the national interest.

"When the request came in, I should have been briefed," Mr Albanese said.

The government's diplomatic credentials became a live election issue after China struck a new security pact with the Solomon Islands in a region Australia and its allies, including the US, have played a dominant role in international relations.

Separately, China has urged Australian politicians to stop being alarmist after Defence Minister Peter Dutton said a Chinese warship sighted off the West Australian coast was an "act of aggression".

Mr Morrison later clarified the ship was only sighted about 250 nautical miles off the WA coastline and it did not enter Australian waters.

The Labor leader focused his campaign on Saturday on the traditionally strong Labor platform of health, with a $750 million pledge to boost Medicare across the country to deliver better healthcare and access for patients.

The Strengthening Medicare Fund would provide $250 million a year over three years from 2023/24, and would seek to deliver more affordability for patients and provide better management for complex and chronic conditions.

Labor would also set up a strengthening Medicare taskforce that would be chaired by the health minister and bring together policy leaders in health, such as the Australian Medical Association.

A grants program of $220 million would be spent on GP clinics to upgrade systems, purchase equipment and upskill staff, with grants of $25,000 or $50,000 available for practices, depending on their size.

Mr Albanese, who campaigned on Saturday morning in Darwin, as Labor seeks to retain the Northern Territory's two federal seats, said the grants funds would make it easier for people to see a GP.

"General practice is the cornerstone of the Australian health system," he said.

"Australians trust their GPs. It's a vital relationship in ensuring all Australians get the quality healthcare they deserve."

© AAP 2022