Federal Health Minister Mark Butler on Sunday said those aged 70 years and older who test positive to the virus will be able to access antivirals - Lagevrio and Paxlovid - on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme from Monday.

Access will also be expanded to people older than 50 years with two or more risk factors for severe disease and Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people older than 30 with two or more risk factors.

Anyone 18 or over and immunocompromised may also be eligible.

The increased access comes as Mr Butler warned that cases would continue to rise this winter as the nation battles a third Omicron wave this year.

Meanwhile in Western Australia, the state has no use for its new $200 million quarantine centre that was built to house returned travellers subjected to COVID restrictions.

But the removal of travel and vaccination edicts has left Premier Mark McGowan pondering what to do with the 500-bed facility built by the former Morrison government at Bullsbrook in Perth's north.

The centre is due to be handed over to the state government next month and accommodation for overseas workers are among the options being considered.

The flood crisis in NSW has led to nearly 415,000 victims receiving $340 million in disaster support from the federal government.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese triggered the federal support payments on Wednesday and people could begin claiming them on Thursday afternoon.

Flood victims have also been warned to mentally prepare themselves and support each other once they return to inundated homes.

Following the shock assassination of former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, international studies professor Craig Mark has written about Mr Abe's legacy.

Professor Mark writes that "political violence, and gun violence in general, is extremely rare in post-war Japan, so this incident has deeply shocked the Japanese public".

"The 2022 Upper House election will now remain under the shadow of one of the most disturbing events in Japan's modern political history," he writes.

Back home, Australia's jobless rate is tipped to hit its lowest level in 48 years when the Australian Bureau of Statistics releases its June labour force survey on Thursday.

CBA Group economists expect about 25,000 jobs to be added in the month, with the unemployment rate easing from 3.9 per cent to 3.8 per cent, the lowest level since August 1974.

Aussies are also being urged to help find the 2023 Australian of the Year and local heroes.

Shanna Whan, 2022 Local Hero for her work in addressing the narrative about alcohol in rural Australia, said the award has helped her "amplify our everyday work with those in the trenches in remote areas".

"Most valuable of all has been the chance to seriously put alcohol awareness on the national agenda as an urgent social issue," she said.

In the arts, Tim Guider's confronting mural highlighting debate about young Indigenous Australians held in detention has been capturing the attention of motorists in Sydney's inner west for the past month.

The work depicts an Aboriginal youth trapped in a television, symbolising slanted and racialised media coverage, with one hand extending from the old box set holding a phone to denote the power of social media.

In technology news, Australian company Advanced Navigation, founded in 2010, is reaching for the moon.

Its development of two unique autonomous motion support systems promises to win it a seat at NASA's table and supply core apparatus to its manned Luna landing scheduled in 2025, the first since 1972.

Co-founder Xavier Orr said their technology was estimated "to deliver $85 million in value for lunar missions, helping deliver heavier payloads to further advance research, exploration and commercial developments".

Did you know you can receive this daily digest by email? Sign up here

*This edition of The Informer was written by The Canberra Times reporter Toby Vue. If you'd like to show your support for the team behind The Informer, why not forward us to a friend?

THE NEWS YOU NEED TO KNOW: