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Scott Morrison has come under fire from the Greens for not doing enough on climate action, as the prime minister used the third day of the campaign to outline $250 million for two oil refineries.

Meanwhile, Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese hosed down suggestions Labor would dump a review into raising the JobSeeker allowance, but admitted government debt would be a constraint in the future.

Mr Morrison started the day in western Sydney, before moving to Geelong to announce two $125 million grants to be matched for refineries in Brisbane and Victoria to begin major construction to upgrade facilities in a bid to boost fuel security.

He has come under criticism for the large investment in oil amid a changing climate, but Mr Morrison said the government had "sensible" targets in order to reduce emissions.

"We're not going to force anybody to do something they don't want to do, we want to make sure that the consumers drive this process," the prime minister told reporters outside of Geelong on Wednesday.

"It's not our policy to go and subsidise big car companies over in Europe, that's a matter for them to get their technology and their costs down so they can offer a good deal to Australian consumers."

The move has been criticised by the Electric Vehicle Council, who said the taxpayer subsidy for oil spoke volumes of the government's priorities.

Greens leader Adam Bandt used an address at the National Press Club to hit out at the government for its inaction on climate change.

"Our enemy is the climate crisis. The enemy is fuelled by coal and gas. Mining and burning coal and gas is killing people and Liberal and Labor want more," he said.

"Liberal and Labor are backing 114 new coal and gas projects around the country."

Mr Albanese used a visit to Melbourne to launch a proposal for a trial of 50 urgent care clinics across the country, offering an alternative to busy hospital emergency departments.

The clinics would treat patients needing care for problems like broken bones, minor burns and cuts, in a bid to free up clogged emergency departments.

However, he found himself defending Labor's stance on welfare payments.

He said the party would not review raising the JobSeeker rate above the current $46 a day figure in the first year of government, but the payment amount would be re-examined each year.

However, he admitted the large levels of government debt may hamper such efforts.

"We can't do everything given the circumstances we are in," Mr Albanese said.

"If we are fortunate enough to form government, we will form government at a time where debt's heading towards $1 trillion, whereby you can't repair all of the damage."

With an integrity commission being spruiked as a key issue by independent candidates, the prime minister confirmed the coalition's model for a federal anti-corruption commission would not be changed.

"Our view has been the same: when the Labor Party is prepared to support that legislation in that form, then we will proceed with it," Mr Morrison said.

In Queensland, former coalition MP George Christensen signalled he's making a comeback ahead of the May 21 poll and joining One Nation.

Party leader Pauline Hanson said Mr Christensen would be third on One Nation's Senate ticket in Queensland.

Mr Christensen had previously announced he would be retiring from his seat of Dawson and earlier this month resigned from the LNP.

Queensland coalition senator Matt Canavan said it was a cowardly decision.

"It's desertion ... you don't go off and speak to a minor party," he told the Nine Network on Wednesday.

Mr Christensen is unlikely to pick up a Senate seat without a strong "vote below the line" campaign.

© AAP 2022

Gilbert Gottfried, the actor and legendary stand-up comic known for his raw, scorched voice and crude jokes, has died. He was 67.

Gottfried died from recurrent ventricular tachycardia due to myotonic dystrophy type II, a disorder that affects the heart, his publicist and longtime friend Glenn Schwartz said in a statement.

Gottfried was a fiercely independent and intentionally bizarre comedian's comedian, as likely to clear a room with anti-comedy as he was to kill with his jokes.

He first came to national attention with frequent appearances on MTV in its early days and with a brief stint in the cast of "Saturday Night Live" in the 1980s.

Gottfried also did frequent voice work for children's television and movies, most famously playing the parrot Iago in Disney's "Aladdin."

"Gilbert's brand of humour was brash, shocking and frequently offensive, but the man behind the jokes was anything but," Gottfried's friend and podcast co-host Frank Santopadre said in a statement.

"Those who loved and him were fortunate enough to share his orbit knew a person who was sweet, sensitive, surprisingly shy and filled with a childlike sense of playfulness and wonder."

© AP 2022

A masked gunman set off a smoke bomb and opened fire in a New York City subway car, injuring 16 people and throwing the morning commute into chaos in the latest violence in the city's transit system, officials said.

Ten people were shot in the incident, New York Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell said, without saying how the other injuries occurred.

The perpetrator was still at large, and the incident was not currently being investigated as an act of terrorism, Sewell said, but would not rule out anything as a motive.

Smoke billowed out as the train car pulled into the 36th Street station in Brooklyn's Sunset Park neighbourhood and opened its doors, video showed.

Riders trapped inside poured out, some collapsing to the ground. Images showed streaks of blood on the platform.

"This morning, as a Manhattan-bound N train waited to enter the 36th station, an individual on that train donned what appeared to be a gas mask, he then took a canister out of his bag and opened it," Sewell told a press conference.

"The train at that time began to fill with smoke. He then opened fire, striking multiple people on the subway and in the platform," Sewell added.

The suspect was reported as a black male with a heavy build, wearing a green construction-type vest and a hooded sweatshirt, Sewell said.

Outside the 36th Street station, in an area known for its thriving Chinatown and views of the Statue of Liberty, authorities shut down a dozen or so blocks and closed off the immediate area with yellow crime scene tape.

Tacho Ramos, who was working in a deli near the station, said he initially thought a fight had broken out on the train when he noticed a commotion.

"But then I saw all the police. ... This country is like that. It's crazy. Today it's New York, tomorrow it's Washington, then it's Chicago," he said.

WABC and NBC New York, citing law enforcement officials reported that the gunman had set off smoke canisters in the train. Reuters could not immediately confirm those reports.

In recent months New York has experienced a rise in gun violence in general and a spate of attacks in the city's transit system, one of the world's oldest and most extensive.

Local and federal law enforcement officials gathered at the scene, watched by small crowds of people on sidewalks huddled against buildings in a drizzle. Many officers could be seen donning heavy-duty armour and helmets.

Konrad Aderer, a commuter, was in the stairwell about to enter the 36th Street station when he saw a man with bleeding legs explaining what had happened to a worker at the station booth.

"He just said that there was a lot of people bleeding," Aderer told Fox News in a phone interview. "He took it upon himself to make sure that people were alerted, despite being injured."

© AP 2022