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The cost of buying a home will be slashed by up to 40 per cent for more than 10,000 Australians under a plan to be unveiled by Labor.

The Help to Buy scheme will provide an equity contribution of as much as 40 per cent of the purchase price of a new home and up to 30 per cent for an existing dwelling.

The scheme will enable savings up to $380,000 for new homes and $285,000 for existing ones, with price caps of between $550,000 and $950,000 depending on the state and region.

The homebuyer will avoid lenders mortgage insurance but still need a two per cent deposit and qualify for a standard loan.

Australians will be able to buy an additional stake in the home, owned by the federal government, in five per cent increments or pay the government back when they sell.

The scheme is not exclusive to first home buyers but participants must be Australian citizens and live in the home for two years.

It's expected to cost taxpayers around $329 million over four years.

Leader Anthony Albanese will announce the plan at Labor's official launch in Perth on Sunday.

It's the first time a major party has launched its campaign in Western Australia since John Curtin in 1940 and aligns with a bid to pick up the key Perth seats of Pearce, Swan and Hasluck.

Labor's finance minister Katy Gallagher also flagged an upcoming announcement on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme after accusing the government of announcing its policy to slash the cost of medicines after "getting wind" of theirs.

When asked on Saturday if the opposition would make the pledge to slash medications by $10, Mr Albanese said to "watch this space".

"I don't want to make announcements here because then you might not turn up tomorrow (to the launch)," he told journalists.

A notable absentee will be education and women spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek, who will be attending the May Day March on Mr Albanese's behalf as well as launching her own campaign, in Sydney.

Mr Albanese denied the senior MP had been frozen out after failing to do anywhere near as many press conferences as her frontbench counterparts, saying Ms Plibersek was in high demand.

"Tanya Plibersek is an outstanding member of my team and no one is working harder to elect a Labour government," he said.

"She is such an extraordinary asset (and) has launched I think more campaigns than any member of the team. She's in such demand around the country."

© AAP 2022

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A British parliamentarian who had been suspended from Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Conservative Party says he has resigned after admitting he twice viewed pornography on his phone in the House of Commons "in a moment of madness".

The Conservatives suspended Neil Parish on Friday after he reported himself to parliament's standards commissioner.

Parish resigned on Saturday, having previously said he would continue as a member of parliament while an investigation was carried out.

"In the end I could see that the furore and the damage I was causing my family and my constituency association, it just wasn't worth carrying on," a tearful Parish told the BBC in an interview on Saturday.

Parish, a farmer, said the first time he had viewed the explicit material he had stumbled across it by accident when looking for tractors on a website with a similar name and had then "watched it for a bit which I shouldn't have done".

"But my crime, most biggest crime is that on another occasion I went in a second time and that was deliberate. That was sitting waiting to vote on the side of the chamber."

Asked what had been going through his mind, he described it as "a moment of madness".

Earlier this week British media had reported that a female minister said she had seen a male colleague viewing pornographic material while sitting beside her in the Commons chamber and the same MP watching pornography during a committee hearing.

"I was not proud of what I was doing," Parish said, adding that he had not intended those around him would see it.

"I am not going to defend what I did. What I did was absolutely, totally wrong... I think I must have taken complete leave of my senses."

In an interview with The Times newspaper published before his resignation, Parish's wife said she was not aware of her husband having done anything similar before and that her husband was "a lovely person".

"It was all very embarrassing," the newspaper quoted Sue Parish as saying.

"My breath was taken away, frankly."

© RAW 2022

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A NSW police officer charged over sex abuse offences allegedly committed in the workplace is one of three officers due to face court.

He is expected at Bankstown Local Court on June 16 after an investigation by the Professional Standards Command.

The alleged offences occurred between 2019 and 2020 in the workplace. The 59-year-old faces five counts of sexual touching and three counts of common assault.

The probe into the officer's conduct began in January before he was given court notice on Thursday.

Police say the senior constable's employment status is under review.

Also under review is a constable who is due to face court in Liverpool on May 25 after allegedly sending indecent material to a child.

An investigation was launched after the Professional Standards Command received information about the officer's alleged online activities.

A 46-year-old male senior constable will also face court at Parramatta on June 15, following the alleged assault of two men in custody at a northwest Sydney police station.

The officer was charged with two counts of common assault, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and intentionally choke person with recklessness.

He has been suspended with pay while his employment status is reviewed.

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A further 48 Australians have died from COVID-19, with almost 39,000 new virus cases also reported.

NSW announced 11,709 fresh infections on Saturday along with 20 fatalities.

Victoria posted 9064 cases and 19 deaths, 11 of them over several days, while Queensland recorded five deaths and 5885 new cases. There were also four fatalities in South Australia.

As the nation's health systems struggle under immense pandemic pressure, Victoria has fast-tracked paramedic recruitment.

Ambulance Victoria was called to 93,234 emergency cases between January and March this year - breaking the record set last quarter and making it the busiest in the state's history.

As demand soared, it recruited an additional 700 paramedics in 2021. Another 100 have joined the ranks so far in 2022, with 120 more to start inductions in May.

"This recruitment drive continues ... to help get more ambulances on the road and to patients quicker," Ambulance Victoria Acting CEO Libby Murphy says.

"Our lives may be returning to normal but the extraordinary strain on our hardworking paramedics and the entire health system persists."

There are currently more than 330,000 active coronavirus cases across the nation. Almost 3200 patients are in hospital care and about 140 in ICUs.

Meanwhile two non-COVID hospital wards in Tasmania have closed after positive patients were detected in one at Hobart's Repatriation Hospital and another at Royal Hobart Hospital.

The impacted wards are closed to non-COVID admissions and visitors until further notice, except on compassionate grounds, as contact tracing begins.

"Members of the public should be reassured that it is safe to attend the RHH and Repatriation Hospital as required," Acting State Health Commander Dale Webster says.

"While the incident has affected one ward in each facility, all other areas of the hospitals continue to operate."

Elsewhere, Western Australia has moved into a new phase of pandemic management.

It's scrapped quarantine for asymptomatic close contacts in line with national guidelines, dumped remaining gathering limits, abolished G2G travel passes and removed vaccine requirements for interstate travellers.

But workplace vaccination mandates remain, meaning the unvaccinated are still banned from working in most industries.

South Australia has also scrapped COVID-19 close contact isolation rules, bringing its restrictions into line with NSW, Victoria, Queensland and the ACT.

Anyone deemed a close contact no longer has to isolate at home, although they will need to take five rapid antigen tests over seven days.

They will also be required to wear masks when outside the home, are banned from visiting high-risk settings like aged care centres and must tell employers and schools they have contact with of their status.

Close contacts are urged to avoid non-essential gatherings or contact with vulnerable people and must take a PCR test if they develop symptoms and isolate until receiving the result.

LATEST 24-HOUR COVID-19 DATA:

NSW: 11,709 cases, 20 deaths, 1623 in hospital, 29 in ICU

Victoria: 9064 cases, 19 deaths, 448 in hospital, 30 in ICU

Queensland: 5885 cases, five deaths, 468 in hospital, nine in ICU

Tasmania: 1054 cases, no deaths, 41 in hospital, three in ICU

WA: 6829 cases, no deaths, 234 in hospital, eight in ICU

Northern Territory: 395 cases, no deaths, 45 in hospital, two in ICU

SA: 3097 cases, four deaths, 250 in hospital, 15 in ICU

ACT: 939 cases, no deaths, 65 in hospital, three in ICU.

© AAP 2022