Election 2022: Sportsbet opens betting on which words get used most in first leaders’ debate
One betting agency is offering odds on which words get used the most in tonight’s first leaders’ debate. The favourite might be a surprise.
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Expect fireworks – and a big ol’ clutch of cliches – when Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese go head to head in the leaders’ debate tonight.
Online betting agency Sportsbet is offering odds on a range of words and phrases the leaders are expected to use, with “climate change” the odds-on favourite.
They’re offering $1.25 for the word “gaffe”, $1.40 for “out of touch”, and $1.33 for a mention of Katherine Deves.
And if Hawaii gets referenced, they’re paying $1.91.
ScoMo is $1.42 to wear a blue tie, while Albo is $1.47 to wear a red tie.
The Sky News / Courier Mail Leaders’ Forum kicks off at 7pm AET
AUSTRALIANS ‘FED UP WITH WALKING ON EGG SHELLS’
Scott Morrison says Australians are ‘fed up’ with walking on eggshells surrounding sensitive issues as he again defended his controversial hand picked candidate for a key seat.
Mr Morrison is standing firm by the LNP candidate for Warringah, Katherine Deves, repeating his message again on Wednesday that he won’t allow for her to be “cancelled”.
When he received push back from reporters that it wasn’t a matter of “cancelling”, rather an issue that is directly impacting young people, Mr Morrison deflected.
“She's made a number of remarks in the past, and on a number of occasions, not in the majority, she's stepped over the line, and she's acknowledged that. To go forward as a member of parliament, that is something you need to learn,” Mr Morrison said.
“But what I won't allow, what I won't allow, is for those who are seeking to cancel Katherine simply because she has a different view to them on the issue of women and girls in sport.
“I'm not going to indulge that because you know in this country, I think Australians are getting pretty fed-up with having to walk on eggshells everyday because they may or may not say something one day that's going to upset someone.”
Mr Morrison also fended off questions about the potential mental health implications Katherine Deves’ sustained liberal candidacy could have on vulnerable trans and gender diverse youths.
Opposition leader Anthony Albanese said non-gendered sport was “not appropriate’.
He says “girls should be able to play sport against girls and boys should be able to play sport against boys”.
It comes after a radical proposal from the Northern Territory education department, which would encourage teachers to organise “non-gendered” sports teams.
The draft pitch, which has since been rejected by the NT government, would have also banned teachers from referring to children as “boys and calls” in a bid to avoid offending those who might be questioning their identity.
Mr Albanese said the concept of “non-gendered sport” is “not appropriate”.
“Girls should be able to play sport against girls and boys should be able to play sport against boys,” he said, when asked his personal opinion about transgender people playing sport.
“It is covered by the Sex Discrimination Act and sports currently are in control of this issue.”
But Mr Albanese again took aim at Scott Morrison for his support for the Liberal candidate for Warringah Katherine Deves, who has campaigned against transgender women competing in female sport.
“This is an issue about the chaos within the New South Wales branch of the Liberal party,” he said.
PEOPLE’S FORUM HAS COLOURFUL HISTORY
With Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese preparing to meet in their first debate of the election campaign, we look back how a Sky News People’s Forum can change everything.
First staged between Labor Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott in 2010, it was a chance to hear questions from voters about the issues that affected them.
Up until then, TV debates had been the property of journalists and TV personalities – with the politicians standing formally behind lecterns. At the first People’s Forum debate, Tony Abbott signalled things would be different.
The opposition leader had managed to narrow a substantial gap in the polls by the time of the 2010 election, but his own popularity had suffered.
With cost of living a major issue, Tony Abbott’s first move was to step down from the stage to be on the same level as the audience so that he would be perceived to be “with the people”.
It was a symbolic moment; the Liberal leader wanting to show undecided voters he wasn’t above them. Julia Gillard had no choice but to follow.
YOU CAN WATCH THE DEBATE HERE FROM 7PM
DEPUTY PM LINKS COAL EXPORT WITH CHINA DEFENCE
Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce says Australia needs to export “every dollop of coal” and commodities to boost its defence forces after a new threat from China.
His comments came as Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the signing of the China-Solomon Islands security deal came as no surprise, given the pressure Beijing has placed on the region.
Speaking with FiveAA radio, Mr Morrison defended his track record in the Pacific, insisting Australia remained a “priority relationship” with the Solomon Islands.
“We’ve focused very much on the Pacific because we know the risks and I think what we’re seeing there highlights those risks,” the Prime Minister said.
“The sort of pressure and influence that (China) has been seeking to exert in our region is very real.
“That’s why for many, many years now, we’ve been seeking to resist this.
“And had we not done that, then I fear we would have seen even more significant events take place.”
He defended his decision to not dispatch the Foreign Minister to the Solomon Islands when it was first warned of the nation’s security deal with China.
He said it wasn’t Australia’s place to jet in and tell the Solomons what to do.
“We’re siblings,” he said.
“There are no children and adults in that relationship. We treat the Pacific family as siblings and as family
“I know what Kevin Rudd said, he thought Foreign Ministers should be sent up there to stomp around and tell Pacific Islanders what to do.”
“That was the failed approach of the past.
“One of the things you don’t do in the Pacific is you don’t throw your weight around.”
Foreign Minister Marise Payne has also defended the decision to not travel to Solomon Islands after the security pact was leaked.
Speaking with the ABC, Senator Payne said the deal had the potential to undermine stability in the region.
But she rejected the “unfair characterisation” that she or Mr Morrison could have done more to stop the deal from going forward.
“I don’t think it recognises the sovereign decisions that governments of course make for themselves, and it also doesn’t recognise the strength and the engagement that Australia has made through the Pacific Step Up,” she said.
AUSTRALIA AT RISK OF HAVING ITS OWN ‘LITTLE CUBA’
Mr Joyce said Australia is at risk of having its “own little Cuba” off the coast.
The Deputy Prime Minister was blunt in his assessment of the deal that could lead to Beijing having a military presence 2,000km off the coast of Australia.
“That will be absolutely – that’s a very bad day for Australia,” Mr Joyce said.
“We don’t want our own little Cuba off our coast and that is not what is good for this nation, not what is good for this region.”
He continued by insisting the only way the nation could be strong and stand up to China was to “develop the Pilbara” in order “to make more money”.
“If you want to buy fighter planes or nuclear submarines, you have (to have) the cash in the bank to do it,” Mr Joyce said.
He said Australia needed to export “every dollop of coal” and commodities to strengthen its economy to boost its defence forces.
Speaking in Mackay to announce $5m for an RSL and veterans support centre, Mr Joyce said China’s agreement with the Solomon Islands was “not because they’re worried about the Antarctic or New Zealand”.
“It’s a tragedy but it is also an incredible wake-up call when we hear the agreement between the Solomons and a regime in China,” he said.
“This is an intimidatory tactic towards us to put pressure on us to drive us to a point of accepting the circumstances and the conditions that are placed on us by another country.
“We’re not going to do that.
“We have to become as strong as possible as quickly as possible.
‘NEED TO EXPORT EVERY DOLLOP OF COAL’
“It’s not just the defence force, it’s making sure you export every dollop of coal you can get on a boat so you make the money to support your defence force to support your nation.”
Anthony Albanese said he is prepared to personally visit the Solomon Islands if he becomes Prime Minister.
But he refused to answer a question about whether he would elevate the significance of a Pacific Relations portfolio.
“In the first (instance) we would have sent Penny Wong,” he said.
Speaking at TOLL’s headquarters in Brisbane’s south, the Labor leader on Wednesday morning said the Prime Minister had failed to drive diplomatic relations with the Pacific Island nation.
“What we see is a foreign policy failure on our doorstep,” he said.
“This Prime Minister is complacent. He’s always after the photo op, never there for the follow up. He never does the right planning to get ahead of issues.”
Mr Albanese said if he was to be Prime Minister, he would engage with the leadership of the Solomon Islands.
“What’s clear is we’ve dropped the ball here,” he added.
“The government was warned here.”
‘WORST POLICY FAILURE SINCE WWII’
Ms Wong, Labor’s Shadow Foreign Minister, slammed the government for overseeing the “worst foreign policy failure since World War II”.
“On Scott Morrison’s watch our region has become less secure and the risks Australia faces have become much greater.”
It comes after Liberal frontbencher Zed Seselja rushed to the region last week to hold crisis talks over the agreement.
The Chinese Government’s foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin confirmed the deal had been formalised.
“The purpose of China-Solomon security co-operation is to promote social stability and long-term peace and security in Solomon Islands, which is in line with the common interests of Solomon Islands and the South Pacific region,” Mr Wang told media on Tuesday.
An earlier leaked draft had already sparked alarm from Australia and its allies, with top US diplomats preparing to travel to the South Pacific to prevent Beijing making further inroads this week.
Solomons Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare has said his country did not intend to allow China to build a military base, but the deal is considered a serious threat to stability in the region.
Pacific Minister Zed Seselja was sent to the Solomon Islands in the middle of the federal election campaign to “respectfully” urge Mr Sogavare not to sign the deal with China.
“We have asked Solomon Islands, respectfully, to consider not signing the agreement and to consult the Pacific family in the spirit of regional openness and transparency,” Mr Seselja said in a statement last week.
The Solomons’ pivot to China has caused concern for Australia and New Zealand, which both have traditionally had more sway in the region.
The Pacific nation’s position started to soften in 2019 when it switched diplomatic recognition to Beijing from Taiwan, and the relationship was further strengthened in November 2021 when China donated anti-riot gear and offered to send police advisers during anti-Chinese violence.
US State Department spokesman Ned Price said the “broad nature” of the deal, left “open the door for the deployment of PRC military forces to the Solomon Islands”.
“We believe that signing such an agreement could increase destabilisation within the Solomon Islands and will set a concerning precedent for the wider Pacific Island region,” Mr Price said.
Australian officials have met with key White House advisors to reaffirm a “shared commitment” to the Pacific.
In a statement, the White House confirmed the Honolulu meeting between national security council advisor Kurt Campbell and assistant secretary of state Daniel Kritenbrink and officials from Australia, Japan, and New Zealand.
An official delegation from the US is set to be deployed to Honiara within the coming days.
ALBO FIRES UP OVER AGED CARE
Mr Albanese claims a government MP has declared “there are no votes” to be won in the aged care crisis.
The visibly angry Labor leader took aim at the Coalition on Wednesday in a blistering attack over the federally-run aged care sector.
“There is a crisis in this country and that’s what this election is about,” Mr Albanese said.
“This election is about whether we have a government that looks after people or whether we have Scott Morrison who goes missing unless there’s a photo op, unless there’s a campaign.
“You’ll see Scott Morrison doing photo ops every day. Good pictures, I have no doubt they’ll deliver on that. But he doesn’t deliver on his key responsibility.
“He always blamed someone else.
“The aged care crisis, of which a government member said to me ‘ah, but there aren’t any votes in it’. Well I tell you what, this needs addressing and I make no apology for addressing this.”
Mr Albanese used the outburst to spruik his party’s five point plan to fix the crisis, which includes deploying a nurse to every nursing home 24/7, offering better food and nutrition for residents and increasing wages for sector workers.
LABOR TARGETS INDUSTRIAL LAWS
Labor has gone after the federal government’s industrial relations laws, claiming if the Coalition scrapped the “better off overall test” for some businesses it would lead to pay cuts and poorer conditions for workers.
Opposition leader Anthony Albanese went on the attack on Wednesday about workers’ rights, while a series of advertising is also expected to be rolled out.
It comes after Prime Minister Scott Morrison at the weekend revealed the Coalition would revive changes to industrial relations laws if elected after its push for larger reforms were gutted in an embarrassing defeat last year.
The reforms included a two-year pause to the better off overall test for Covid-19 affected businesses trying to strike pay deals with employees.
Labor and unions had argued this would leave employees worse off.
The Fair Work Commission uses the test to compare registered agreements against proposed awards to determine whether an employee would be better off overall.
Opposition industrial relations spokesman Tony Bourke claimed Australian workers would be worse off if the Coalition revived its changes.
“By scrapping the better off overall test, Mr Morrison’s laws will allow for agreements that cut the pay and conditions of workers,” he said.
“If they abolish something called the “Better Off Overall Test”, guess what will happen? You will be worse off.”
Mr Burke said retail store managers “who work all night could cop a $10,000 a year pay cut” while “a part-time disability care employee working a Friday to Sunday shift could lose more than $14,000 a year from their take-home pay”.
“These figures come from the Government’s own online fair pay calculator,” Mr Burke said.
“The cleaners, the retail workers, the truck drivers, the childcare workers and the aged care workers who got us through the pandemic will all lose under Mr Morrison’s nasty scheme,” Mr Burke said.
“Now he’s confirmed that’s exactly what he intends to do if he’s returned to power on May 21.
“Mr Morrison’s radical laws would also make part-time work even less secure.”
He claims a butcher “working part-time, Thursday to Sunday, could lose nearly $7000 a year from their take-home pay”, while a part-time car park attendant “working only three days a week, including Saturdays and Sundays, could lose more than $13,000 a year from their take-home pay.”
ANOTHER LABOR SCARE CAMPAIGN: MORRISON
Mr Morrison has accused Labor of running another “scare campaign” over the Coalition’s industrial relations policy as he ruled out a controversial provision the government has previously pursued.
Mr Morrison said on Saturday that he was seeking the return of the dumped Omnibus Bill but on Wednesday said that a contentious provision, which allowed pandemic impacted businesses to reach agreements that aren’t subject to the Enterprise Bargaining Agreement, would not be pursued by the government.
“The pandemic has now passed. They were emergency measures that obviously no longer have an application when we are not in an economic emergency environment,” he said.
“The scare campaign Labor is seeking to run on this is not unlike what they are running on pensioners. If you don’t have an economic plan, you go and raise false scare campaigns against your opponents.”
Labor has accused the government of risking wage cuts and poor working conditions because the provision suspended the “Better Off Overall Test” (BOOT) which protected employee wages.
Mr Morrison ruled out “major changes” to the BOOT and said his party was seeking “simplification” of current industrial relations policies to make them more flexible.
“There are no major changes to the BOOT at all. Even on the Greenfields program, this is something Bill Shorten supported and Anthony Albanese does not. So, I’m not surprised that there’s another scare campaign,” he said.
“These companies can work with what is often a complex industrial relations system, which costs jobs, costs higher wages, and it costs the Australian economy.”
MORRISON VS ALBANESE TONIGHT
Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese go toe-to-toe tonight in a high-stakes, town-hall style debate as both leaders try to win over a sceptical nation.
The prime minister and opposition leader will be trying to use the crucial event for all-important campaign momentum, after the latest Newspoll nearly showed nearly 30 per cent of voters intend to support a minor party or an independent candidate rather than either major party.
After a disastrous first week of the campaign, which included repeated gaffes and policy stumbles, the event is particularly important for Mr Albanese, who is attempting to reset his pitch to the nation. The forum will see the leaders take live questions from a room of 100 undecided voters from 7pm AEST and will be broadcast live on Sky News and via News Corp websites.
Host Kieran Gilbert said the debate would be “unscripted, unpredictable and an important opportunity for our leaders to be held to account by those who count, the voters”.
Follow the debate from 7pm AEST above tonight.
NATIONAL CENTRE FOR INTELLECTUALLY DISABLED
People living with an intellectual disability will get a $28 million funding boost under a re-elected Coalition government.
The Morrison Government has pledged to establish a National Centre of Excellence in Intellectual Disability Health which will include $8m over two years to establish the centre and $20m for a round of research grants.
The new centre will identify national research and data priorities, improve health services for people with intellectual disabilities and provide online support to connect people with healthcare providers and resources.
Council of Intellectual Disability spokesman Jim Simpson welcomed the announcement.
“The National Centre on Intellectual Disability Health will be a key driver of action on the terrible health inequalities experienced by people with intellectual disability – up to 50 per cent preventable deaths and dying 27 years earlier than the general population,” Mr Simpson said.
“The funding announced by the Minister will allow the establishment of a Centre with solid foundations and for important research into practical strategies for improving health care for a very disadvantaged population. We look forward to working with the incoming Government in building on those foundations.”
Outgoing Health Minister Greg Hunt said: “Our Government is committed to improving healthcare for all Australians. When Mr Albanese and Labor were last in Government, they stopped listing essential medicines and treatments on the PBS, slashed funding for mental health support and tried to rip funding out of medical research.”
MORRISON CONTINUES TO SUPPORT DEVES
Speaking to Mix 102.3 Adelaide, the Prime Minister said the furore around Ms Deves’ anti-transgender views proved Australia needed to learn how to “disagree better”.
“I’m not going to cancel Katherine,” Mr Morrison said.
But host Ali Clarke didn’t accept his reasoning.
“Hang on, with respect, you are setting the tone here and you have picked this person to run … transgender women, transgender people with some of our most marginalised people.”
“So don’t you as the prime minister have the responsibility to set the tone for the discussion that will be respectful and meaningful and protective of some of our most marginalised?”
Mr Morrison said both he and Katherine had acknowledged some of her “thousands of comments” had gone over the line.
Meanwhile, NSW Treasurer Matt Kean has sensationally denied he is undermining Scott Morrison and Dominic Perrottet over the party’s Warringah candidate Katherine Deves, just days after calling for the party to dump her, reports The Daily Telegraph.
The Treasurer appeared to back away from demands made in the media last week demanding the Liberal Party disendorse Ms Deves over comments made regarding transwomen in sport.
Talking to Ben Fordham on 2GB on Wednesday morning, Mr Kean doubled down on his comments that Ms Deves’ language was “not acceptable”, but stopped short of echoing his earlier calls that she should be dumped.
The senior NSW Liberal also claimed that he and Premier Dominic Perrottet “are in absolute agreement that these comments are abhorrent”, despite the Premier’s comments in The Daily Telegraph today that “an insensitively expressed view should never distract us from the merits of the substantive issue”.
“The last thing I’m doing is undermining the Prime Minister or the Premier,” Mr Kean said on Wednesday.
When asked by Mr Fordham why he took “the extreme step in the middle of a federal election campaign of campaigning against an endorsed Liberal candidate”, Mr Kean said he “made no apology for respecting the pain and trauma that people who survived the Holocaust”.
ANALYSIS: ALBO SIDESTEPS DEBIT CARD QUESTIONS
Mr Albanese is known as a political street fighter not one to shy away from an attack, which is why his reluctance to be front and centre of the pensioner scare campaign is notable.
If Labor were on firmer footing with its scare campaign, claiming that the Coalition will put pensioners on a welfare management debit card, he’d be out swinging rather than standing aside for his colleague Jim Chalmers when asked about it in the past two days.
But when independent third parties like Council on the Ageing and National Seniors say its not true, and that it is just being used to “scare old people”, it’s no wonder the leader is keeping his distance, reports The Courier Mail’s Matthew Killoran
Labor’s tacticians are well aware that even calling out misinformation like this often has the impact of amplifying it, taking it from social media whisper campaigns to mainstream discussion.
HOPES OF THE TEAL INDEPENDENTS
Eating insects instead of beef, vaccinating cows by drone to produce less methane and building office blocks from timber – this is Australia in 2030 if “teal independents” hold the balance of power after the federal election.
Leading climate-focused crossbench candidates Zali Steggall and Monique Ryan want a 60 per cent cut to carbon emissions by the end of the decade in return for supporting a minority government, which betting agencies now rate as a strong 3/1 chance.
Ms Steggall’s office on Tuesday said Deloitte research had found that pursuing a “new growth pathway” could deliver 250,000 jobs – by 2070.
But top economic modeller Brian Fisher told this masthead that rapid decarbonisation would put hundreds of thousands of people out of work.
“These notions that there are all these extra jobs out there are wrongheaded,” Dr Fisher said.
In the lead up to the last election, Dr Fisher analysed Labor’s policy for a 45 per cent cut by 2030, concluding it would cost 167,000 jobs.
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