Federal election day 21: Shorten campaigning in SA and Morrison in WA

That's a wrap

Zoe Smith

That's all from us tonight. We'll back tomorrow with all the latest election campaign news – thanks for joining us.

Backtrack on Adani coalmine

Zoe Smith

During the 7.30 interview, Bill Shorten was forced to account for his change of view on the Adani coalmine after once saying he was a "sceptic" and "not a fan" of the Queensland project.

The Opposition Leader downplayed his own words from last April in an interview with ABC 7.30 host Leigh Sales, saying: "I think you'd be

fair enough to acknowledge that then Adani didn't get the finance but now they appear to have got the finance."

"The other thing of course is back then, they were talking about a 60 million tonne mine with 10,000 jobs.

"Now the promises have shrunk to a 10 million tonne mine."

Sales pushed the matter, asking: "You're less sceptical of it now then?"

"In terms of the commercial high jump bar, yeah, they've passed it," Mr Shorten responded.

"And the environmental one?" Sales asked.

"That will be a matter for the state and federal regulators," Mr Shorten said.

He said his view on the mine would be "based on the best science", adding he wouldn't engage in sovereign risk by axing the project if it stacked up.

– Claire Bickers

Avoiding the question of cost

Zoe Smith

During the interview, Bill Shorten was asked to "square with voters" and outline the cost of Labor's plan to slash greenhouse house emissions, but doubled down on his claim there won't be a cost.

"You and I know that the reason why the government's trying to focus on how much it might cost to put in a new renewable energy system is they're trying to distract from the fact they have no climate change policy," Mr Shorten told Sales.

– Claire Bickers

Bill Shorten has faced a grilling over superannuation, his position on
the Adani coalmine, and Labor's plan to axe tax refunds for franking
credits in a tense interview with ABC 7.30 host Leigh Sales.

The Opposition Leader also refused once again to name the cost of
Labor's policy to slash greenhouse emissions by 45 per cent while
speaking to Sales this evening.

He also rejected any possibility that Labor's plan to give childcare
workers a 20 per cent pay rise would open the floodgates to other
sectors demanding direct government intervention to get a wage boost.

But the Labor leader managed to get in a swipe about dysfunction in
Coalition ranks and the Liberal Party's preference deal with Clive
Palmer.

Asked about the Labor party's own chaotic period of leadership spills
in the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd years, he said: "For six years, we've learned
our lesson. We're not chaotic and divided."

"The other thing is if you vote for me you get a Labor Government.

"If you vote for Mr Morrison, who knows what deals he's done with
Pauline Hanson and Clive Palmer and the other assorted extremist
right-wing bar scene from Star Wars."

– Claire Bickers

Shorten cops grilling in tense interview

Zoe Smith

Bill Shorten has faced a grilling over superannuation, his position on
the Adani coalmine, and Labor's plan to axe tax refunds for franking
credits in a tense interview with ABC 7.30 host Leigh Sales.

The Opposition Leader also refused once again to name the cost of
Labor's policy to slash greenhouse emissions by 45 per cent while
speaking to Sales this evening.

He also rejected any possibility that Labor's plan to give childcare
workers a 20 per cent pay rise would open the floodgates to other
sectors demanding direct government intervention to get a wage boost.

But the Labor leader managed to get in a swipe about dysfunction in
Coalition ranks and the Liberal Party's preference deal with Clive
Palmer.

Asked about the Labor party's own chaotic period of leadership spills
in the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd years, he said: "For six years, we've learned
our lesson. We're not chaotic and divided."

"The other thing is if you vote for me you get a Labor Government.

"If you vote for Mr Morrison, who knows what deals he's done with
Pauline Hanson and Clive Palmer and the other assorted extremist
right-wing bar scene from Star Wars."

– Claire Bickers

Labor candidate in strife over rape joke

Natasha Christian

A Labor candidate for the federal election has apologised for sharing a rape joke online.

Luke Creasey, who is running for the seat of Melbourne, is also in strife for sharing pornographic material.

"It's been brought to my attention that some posts I shared on social media a number of years ago have been circulated," Mr Creasey told AAP on Wednesday.

"They were stupid, immature and in no way reflect the views I hold today. I apologise for these posts which have been removed."

Mr Creasey is the latest in a long line of candidates to come under fire for lewd posts to social media.

The seat of Melbourne is held by the Greens' Adam Bandt.

Mr Bandt said Mr Creasey had been sharing rape jokes at the same time that he was representing Melbourne's values in parliament.

"Violence against women in any circumstances is unacceptable," he told AAP in a statement.

"I think Mr Creasey needs to reconsider whether he remains as the Labor candidate."

Shorten responds to dumped candidate photo

David Mills

Bill Shorten says he wasn't aware of who Wayne Kurnoth was when they met.

The Opposition leader was caught out when a photo emerged of him with the party's dumped NT senate candidate after he earlier today said he'd never met the man.

Mr Kurnoth resigned as Labor's senate candidate on Monday over an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory he'd posted to social media.

This afternoon, a Labor spokesman said: "He was not aware who this person was, and does not remember every single person who has approached him over the years."

– Claire Bickers

Shorten talks sunshine and steel

David Mills

Picture: Kym Smith

Speaking to staff at the Whyalla Steel Works Mr Shorten said Labor considered steel an industry of national significance.

“You can't be a fully-formed economy of our nature and resources if we don't have a steel industry,” Mr Shorten said.

“A vote for Labor is a vote to keep the steel industry going.”

Earlier Mr Shorten visited the SSE Solar Farm outside the South Australia city, accompanied by Labor's climate change spokesman Mark Butler.

The pair met with Wilson Burns, of Bilson Electrical and Renewables, touring the solar farm which provides enough energy to power 3000 homes through a 5 megawatt system.

Mr Burns said renewable energy was the only policy area younger voters cared about.

"It's the only way forward really," he told Mr Shorten. "…. Once it's paid off it just keeps pushing out power.”

The solar farm has been running for 12 months and is being doubled in size.

“Renewable energy is the number one thing everyone is talking about,” Mr Burns said.

“Me, my friends, people who I'm around, everyone agrees the same on renewables,” he said.

– Pool copy by Tom McIlroy/AFR

Scott Morrison had called for stricter vetting of candidates after homophobic and racist comments by two Liberal candidates in the battleground state of Victoria threatened to derail the Coalition’s campaign.

Speaking in the the seat of Swan, which the Liberal Party holds by a margin of 3.6 per cent, Mr Morrison distanced himself from the candidate controversy, describing it as an “organisational matter”.

“For the Liberal Party, in this day and age when there is social media, multiple posting, that represents new challenges in the vetting of candidates,” Mr Morrison said.

“This is something I will be expecting the party to be working on and improving their processes.”

Asked about a Liberal candidate for the Melbourne seat of Wills who said the homosexual lifestyle was "distressingly dangerous" and had "appalling health risks", Mr Morrison said the party would “follow its processes”.

But he backed a decision to dump another Liberal candidate, Jeremy Hearn for suggested that Muslims supported "killing or enslaving" non-muslims and wanted to introduce Sharia law to Australia.

“The other individual has had their endorsement removed, as they should.”

Mr Morrison wouldn’t rule out dumping more candidates in the final weeks of the campaign.

“We will continue to take the same approach where if any issues are raised, we'll deal with them swiftly and in a professional way.”

– Annika Smethurst

Morrison responds to candidate dramas