Thanks for joining us for today’s need to know blog. Here’s some of the day’s top headlines:

• Ash Barty has held a press conference about her shock decision to retire at 25 but fuelled more rumours about her post-tennis career. Barty said: “I’m not hiding anything, I’ve got no secrets” but also seemed to hint at a return to sport. “You have to wait and see,” she laughed. “I’m not giving you everything right now. It’s all right. You can be patient. Patience is a virtue.”

• The Morrison government has agreed to a refugee resettlement deal with New Zealand after years of resistance. Under an agreement between the two countries, 450 refugees who have been living on Nauru or are temporarily in Australia on medical grounds will be allowed to settle in New Zealand over three years at the rate of 150 per year. Labor are calling the deal a “backflip” ahead of the federal election and after the spotlight put on refugees in detention during the Novak Djokovic visa drama. Minister For Home Affairs Karen Andrews said a refugee agreement with the United States was drawing to a close and that the New Zealand arrangement was always in the works.

• Crown Resorts has escaped having the licence for its Perth casino cancelled but faces heavy oversight and tougher penalties for legal breaches, after the West Australian royal commission found that it was unfit to operate the business. In the royal commission’s final report, which was tabled in the WA Parliament today, lead commissioner Neville Owen recommended that the WA government appoint an independent monitor to oversee Crown’s practices on its path to remediation. It also recommended tougher regulation, more power for the state gaming minister and stronger penalties for breaches.

• Former South Australian independent Senator Nick Xenophon has declared he will run for the Senate at the federal election, forcing his former party colleague Rex Patrick to rethink his re-election plans. “Incredibly, it has gotten worse in Canberra. It’s nastier, full of hatred and bile that eats away at our nation’s core,” he said. “I must come back, to call them out, and to speak out on the issues that have to be tackled.”

• Prime Minister Scott Morrison has described his shock and disappointment over Hillsong founder Brian Houston’s behaviour towards women. “My first thoughts were with the victims, as they’ve been rightly described.
• Morrison has also intensified calls for Russia to be expelled from the Group of 20, saying the prospect of world leaders sitting around the table with Vladimir Putin after accusations of war crimes is a “step too far”.

• Western Australia Premier Mark McGowan has announced an easing of COVID restrictions including easing rules for checking in and increased density limits but said that masks rules remain.
• Australia is expected to announce within 48 hours a program to give elderly and vulnerable Australians a fourth dose of COVID-19 vaccine. “I’m expecting to get the advice over the course of today and will consider it and have more to say, probably, in the next 48 hours,” Health Minister Greg Hunt told reporters in Melbourne.
• An mRNA vaccine manufacturing facility in Victoria is expected to produce up to 100 million doses a year under a 10-year agreement with pharmaceutical giant Moderna. Health Minister Greg Hunt anticipates the facility, once up and running, could be used to develop a combined COVID-19 and flu vaccine.
• NSW recorded 24,803 new COVID-19 infections alongside eight more deaths. In Victoria, there were 10,259 new cases and another 11 people died.

• Labor leader Anthony Albanese unveiled a suite of measures today aimed at addressing the country’s growing tech skills shortage, with an aim of having 1.2 million Australians in tech jobs by 2030, based on free TAFE places, extra university courses and government support for growing start-ups.

• Victorian shadow treasurer David Davis has apologised for being drunk at a gala event which he was asked to leave after making some guests uncomfortable.

  “It’s clear I did the wrong thing on Saturday night and I’ve apologised for that,” the Liberal MP said.

• Madeleine Albright, the first woman to serve as US secretary of state and a grande dame of foreign policy for the Democratic Party who wrote books, served on think tank boards and warned of the risk of fascism in the Donald Trump era, has died. She was 84.