In this bulletin;
- The Vatican releases the Pope's cause of death;
- Australians will begin casting votes in the federal election;
- And in football, Real Madrid players observe a minute's silence to honour Pope Francis.
***
A death certificate has confirmed head of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis, died of a stroke and irreversible heart failure.
The official certificate, which was published by the Vatican, says the pope had fallen into a coma before his death early on Monday.
It added the religious leader died at 7:35am local time in his apartment at the Santa Marta residence in the Vatican.
***
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has paid tribute to Pope Francis.
As the first Pope from the southern hemisphere, he says Pope Francis was close to — and will be mourned by — many people in Australia.
"This was a papacy of firsts, the first Pope to hail from the Americas, the first Jesuit Pope, and the first to take the name of that great champion of the poor St Francis of Assisi. Pope Francis' compassion embraced all humanity and today he will be mourned by Catholics and non Catholics alike."
***
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has also expressed his condolences to Australians of Catholic and Christian faith, following the death of the Pope Francis.
He says the 266th pontiff served God with the utmost devotion, driven by Christian values of forgiveness and mercy.
"He lived frugally and simply, above all else, he was driven by Christ's values of mercy and forgiveness. He emphasized those values in his last Christmas address, saying, and I quote 'God's mercy can do all things. It unties every knot. It tears down every wall of division. God's mercy dispels hatred and the spirit of revenge.' With God, may Pope Francis, rest in peace."
***
Political hopefuls are running out of time to unveil and sell their major policies as Australians begin to cast their votes in the federal election.
The first ballots will be cast today as early voting begins ahead of election day on 3 May.
The Coalition still has at least one major announcement to come on its defence spending allocation, while it is yet to specify what public service jobs are on the line as it aims to reduce the commonwealth payroll by 40,000 people.
Labor has seized on the Coalition not balancing its spending with enough cost-saving measures to launch attacks about what it calls "secret cuts" as it campaigns heavily on Medicare and other health initiatives.
***
Peter Dutton has vowed the Coalition will not cut Australia's annual intake of parent visas after sustained pressure to reveal where its planned cuts to permanent migration would come from.
Since Labor came to power the backlog of parent visa applications has ballooned from 120 to 150 thousand.
Despite doubling the annual intake and issuing nearly 26,000 parents visas, the average wait time remains 31 years.
Speaking to a Western Sydney forum during the campaign, the Prime Minister says he is aware of the issue.
"We need to bear in mind for many of the residents in Western Sydney, too. They don't want, people who are migrants, Mum and Dad to have no access here either."
Meanwhile, the Coalition has pledged to slash permanent migration by 25 per cent in an effort to free up housing.
Despite previously saying he’d reveal which visa categories he'd cut after the election, Mr Dutton has now ruled out reducing parent visas.
Sara: "Will you reduce parent visas?"
Dutton: "In relation to parents, I've been clear about this - it's an important part - an important part of the migration program. And we're not going to reduce those."
***
In football, Real Madrid players observed a minute's silence to mourn the death of football-mad Pope Francis.
The Argentine pope was a passionate follower of Buenos Aires club San Lorenzo and viewed football as a vehicle to educate and spread peace.
In a statement, Real Madrid says it expresses its "condolences to the whole Catholic community in the face of the loss of a historic and universal figure".
FIFA president Gianni Infantino says he is "deeply saddened" over the pope's death.
Italy's football league Serie A rescheduled four games for Wednesday.
The country's Olympic committee says a minute's silence will be observed before all sports events in the country this week.
