Federal election live: Albo answer leaves Grace Tame in tears; John Howard’s shock housing call; Labor taunts ‘in hiding’ ministers
Anthony Albanese opens up to Grace Tame, bringing the child abuse activist to tears with one story about his upbringing. Meanwhile, a Liberal elder denies there’s a housing crisis.
Federal Election
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On the campaign trail today: Anthony Albanese interview brings Grace Tame to tears, John Howard brushes off cost of living concerns, Jim Chalmers calls Scott Morrison a “pathological liar”, Kristina Keneally quizzed on asylum-seeker comments, and both parties rule out more fuel price relief. Read all the updates below.
WHY ALBO MADE GRACE TAME CRY
Mr Albanese sparked an emotional reaction from former Australian of the Year Grace Tame during a poignant conversation about being raised by a single mum.
Ms Tame probed Mr Albanese in an interview for InStyle Australia for an example of who shaped his “views on gender issues and policy”, with his response bringing the 27-year-old to tears, reports news.com.au
Mr Albanese shared how when his mum fell pregnant out of wedlock in 1963, it was “the fashion of the day” that babies would not be kept by either parent.
“She was going to have got the news that my father had died and then lost the baby and I was going to be adopted out,” he told Ms Tame.
“Because in 1963, when I was born, it was acceptable to be a widow but it wasn’t acceptable to be an unmarried mother.”
His mum, despite challenges that lay ahead, made the decision to give him the last name of his dad and raise him on her own. His dad told her he planned to marry someone from his Italian home town.
“Now, she was a strong woman who made the decision to have me, and to raise me by herself,” Mr Albanese said.
“She worked originally when I was a bub, cleaning office buildings at night, looking after me during the day, she then had rheumatoid arthritis and was really crippled up.”
Ms Tame said she became emotional because she respected Mr Albanese’s answer “so much”.
HOWARD BRUSHES OFF COST OF LIVING
Former prime minister John Howard said “I don’t accept” there is a housing crisis in Australia and dismissed cost of living concerns for voters – the day after inflation hit a 20-year high.
The Liberal PM was swept from office in 2007 by Kevin Rudd’s Labor Party in a campaign when the government’s economic management was heavily scrutinised.
But Mr Howard said it was difficult to draw a comparison to his loss and the current campaign, insisting the struggles of daily expenses always played a role during federal elections.
“There are cost of living pressures now, there always are cost of living pressures,” he told reporters in Brisbane on Thursday.
“I can’t remember an election campaign where the cost of living was not an issue – every single one and I’ve been in quite a few.”
The former prime minister said the government’s ability to handle the economic and health shocks of the pandemic would be keenly assessed by voters.
He said the “cold reality” was Australians were less likely to die from Covid-19 than those in the United States or United Kingdom.
“And that matters more than anything else – life is the most precious of all commodities that we have,” Mr Howard said.
“The way in which our economy has come out of it – the growth rate, comparative inflation rate and whatever happens with the interest rates (but they) are very low at the moment.”
Mr Howard also dismissed housing affordability in the context of Brisbane’s more than 30 per cent annual house price growth, according to CoreLogic, and cripplingly low rental vacancy rates of well below one per cent in most Southeast Queensland suburbs.
Instead, he blamed state and local government’s for implementing policies that drove house prices higher.
“I don’t accept there is a housing crisis,” the former prime minister said.
“The cost of housing in this country is much higher than we would like, but a lot of the reasons for housing being expensive in Australia has been baked into the system over the years.
“And may I say, because of planning and other decisions made by state and local governments to push up the cost of housing.”
Earlier, Mr Howard insisted the Coalition wouldn’t be punished by voters struggling with day-to-day costs in the upcoming federal election.
Following soaring inflation data this week, the Reserve Bank is expected to once again lift interest rates in the lead up to a federal poll, making mortgage repayments more expensive and ramping daily costs for Australian families.
“Yesterday's figure and the discussion will remind people it is a choice between the two parties on economic management,” Mr Howard told The Courier-Mail.
“I think people will think if there is a bit of inflation around it’s better to have proven economic managers in charge and not amateurs.”
LABOR CAMPAIGN HEADS OUT WEST
Anthony Albanese is set to shift Labor’s campaign west once he busts out of Covid-19 isolation on Friday, but the Opposition Leader will have to “take things easy” under medical advice.
The return of Mr Albanese also brings to an end the rolling roster of frontbenchers – including spokesman Jason Clare, treasury spokesman Jim Chalmers and foreign affairs spokeswoman Penny Wong – that have stepped up in his absence.
Notably absent from the cavalcade of frontbenchers has been education spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek.
The consistently popular Labor MP has kept her regular TV appearances but has not been present before the travelling media pack to answer questions on policy.
But Mr Clare batted away questions about Ms Plibersek’s exclusion from the roster, saying she had “a real impact” on the campaign and had been getting much larger audience coverage on shows like Sunrise.
He then turned the tables on the government, claiming numerous Coalition frontbenchers were in “witness protection” or “in hiding”.
“Can anyone find Alan Tudge? I don’t think even Scooby Doo could find Alan Tudge,” Mr Clare said.
Labor’s election campaign will effectively reboot from Friday when a Covid-free Mr Albanese is released from his Marrickville home.
The Opposition Leader, speaking on commercial radio, revealed it had been “a difficult week” but his symptoms were much milder than what others had experienced.
“My doctor tells me I have to take things easy, particularly in the first few days to not do the 16 and 20 hour days that I was doing,” Mr Albanese said.
“But it will be good to be out and about and the first thing I’m doing is heading to Western Australia where we have our campaign launch this Sunday.”
Mr Clare did not confirm if the rolling roster of frontbenchers may need to remain while Mr Albanese picks up pace post-Covid.
“Here’s a hot tip, we’re heading west, we’ve got a campaign launch on Sunday, and that is going to be a key moment… for Albo and the whole team to make the case to the Australian people,” he said.
MORRISON A ‘PATHOLOGICAL LIAR’
Labor’s Jim Chalmers has slammed the Prime Minister as a “pathological liar” while defending his own party’s baseless aged pension scare campaign.
The Opposition has been unashamedly blitzing a number of electorates with misinformation that the Coalition would extend the cashless debit card income management program to aged pensioners.
The Coalition has no such plan, nor is it in any legislation to make it happen.
But social media feeds show Labor is still going hard on the lie, despite bodies like the Council of the Ageing telling the party to stop scaring pensioners.
Labor’s candidate for Longman Rebecca Fanning had posted on her Facebook feed in recent days about how grandparents on the aged pension wouldn’t be able to withdraw enough money to give to their grandkids if they were forced onto the cashless debit card – complete with a photo of a card with $40 inserted.
Dr Chalmers, asked how Labor justified the baseless scare campaign, said the party would “abolish” the card altogether.
He also said no one trusted the government and called the Prime Minister “a pathological liar”.
“It’s the same as when they said before the 2013 election, no cuts to the pension, no cuts the ABC or health or education,” Dr Chalmers said.
“People don't believe this government for good reason. The Prime Minister is a pathological liar when it comes to these issues.”
Department of Social Services deputy secretary Liz Herfren-Webb told a recent Senate estimates hearing that there was no current laws that would allow pensioners to be put on the cashless debit card, and the prospect had never been raised with her.
“He was saying not that long ago there wouldn't be increased taxes under a Liberal-National Government,” Dr Chalmers said.
“There are increases in the Budget they handed down last month. You can't believe a word that he says.”
LABOR, LIBS RULE OUT MORE FUEL RELIEF
Scott Morrison and Labor have both ruled out an extension of the fuel excise tax cut as the PM faced questions on what the government would do to help with massive cost of living hikes hitting Australians.
On the hustings in Cairns, the Prime Minister said the current advice suggested oil prices would come down within the next six months.
As to why the measure was temporary, Mr Morrison said he couldn't just “spend money forever”.
“What we were seeking to do in the Budget was put a shield up for Australians against those higher world oil prices,” he told reporters.
“One of the hallmarks of our economic response in this pandemic is we've always designed it carefully. It's been temporary in many occasions, it's been targeted.
“You don't just spend money forever.
“What you do is you make wise investments, you make strategic interventions to ensure you can limit the impact of things that are well beyond your control."
The rising cost of living, including the prospect of home loan interest rate hikes, are expected to dominate election debates after Australia recorded its largest rise in inflation in 21 years.
Consumer prices surged by 2.1 per cent during the March quarter with the annual rise now at a more-than 20-year peak of 5.1 per cent.
The last time interest rates rose during an election campaign was in 2007 when inflation hit 3 per cent. Just under three weeks later, voters turfed John Howard from the Lodge.
Asked if was concerned about a mid-election interest rate rise, Mr Morrison said the circumstances were different.
“There's a big difference between what occurred in 2007 and where we are now,” he told Seven.
“Last time when the Reserve Bank did the rate was 6.5 per cent. Today it is 0.1 per cent. So I think the circumstances of the economic environment we are in are very different. And the pressures that are coming are not homegrown. They are external. What rate are you paying on your home loan?
“We have been a steady hand during the most immense pressures on our economy, and it's paying dividends, but it’s still tough.”
KENEALLY DENIES REFUGEE CLAIM
Opposition Immigration spokeswoman Kristina Keneally has denied she told a group of refugee activists that she would “welcome an approach… to end offshore processing” if Labor is elected after May 21.
Labor for Refugees (L4R) members were sent an update in March 2021, after the ALP held a virtual national conference, noting “Kristina stated that until Labor forms government, nothing will change”.
The update went on to say Ms Keneally indicated that “after Labor wins the election and Labor’s refugee policies have resulted in positive outcomes, Kristina would welcome an approach by L4R to end the offshore processing regime”.
But Ms Keneally, at a press conference on Thursday, said she had not seen the information referred to in the story and denied she had ever said words to the effect.
“Let me be clear our policy is operation sovereign borders (and) regional settlement,” she said.
“If you attempt to come to Australia by boat, you will not make it. You will be turned back.”
Meanwhile, it has emerged Ms Keneally has pledged just $500,000 in local funding for the Western Sydney electorate she hopes to win, lashing out when asked what projects she has promised to Fowler voters.
The outburst came after Labor defended Ms Keneally as a Western Sydney local, despite accusations from her opponents that she has abandoned the electorate to campaign across the country.
Asked specifically what she had pledged for Fowler, Ms Keneally outlined how Labor’s national policy platform would help local voters.
“If people want action on housing affordability, they need to vote Labor,” she said.
“If they want 465,000 fee-free Tafe places they need to vote Labor. If they want 20,000 more university places they need to vote Labor. If they want cheaper childcare, they need to vote Labor. If they want cheaper electricity costs, they need to vote Labor.”
She then told The Daily Telegraph in an impassioned response: “I know you’re gonna say, ‘oh gosh, is that specific to Fowler? And I say to you, hell yes it is.
“The people of Fowler in southwest Sydney have been done over by this Liberal government, and they deserve a strong and experienced voice in the heart of government and that’s what they’ll get in an Albanese Labor Government.”
Pressed on what if any local projects she had committed funding for, Ms Keneally said she had promised “half a million dollars to the Assyrian National Committee”.
“We have some more announcements coming up,” she said.
NO EARWAX DRAMAS FOR ALBO
One upside of Mr Albanese's Covid isolation is that he has avoided any potential for embarrassing food-related gaffes that have plagued his Labor leader predecessors.
First, there was Kevin Rudd seemingly eating his own earwax.
Then, in the 2016 campaign, it was Bill Shorten's confounding technique in tackling a sausage sizzle.
Taking to the FM radio airwaves on Thursday, WSFM hosts Brendan Jones and Amanda Keller (or, Jonesy and Amanda) levelled some sage advice: "just be normal, Albo!".
"Just don't go and eat your earwax or eat a sausage roll sideways or anything crazy," Keller said.
"I know how to eat a sausage roll," Mr Albanese confidently responded.
The Labor leader told the station that the first thing he will do when he is out of isolation at midnight on Thursday night will be to head to Western Australia for his campaign launch.
LABOR TARGETS TAKE HOME PAY
The Coalition has blamed the inflation hike on international factors including the Covid-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine and soaring oil prices.
But Labor’s Treasury spokesman Jim Chalmers said what was happening internationally did not explain or excuse the Coalition’s “attacks” on take home pay.
Speaking in the Liberal-held seat of Banks, Dr Chalmers said: “If (Mr Morrison) wants to talk about international comparisons, the most important comparison is real wages, Australian workers are going backwards in real wage terms faster than their counterparts in the United States,” he said.
“So if he wants to talk about what's happening around the world, remember those two points, nothing that's happened around the world explains, or excuses his attacks on take home pay.”
But Dr Chalmers also said he “would not pretend” that if Labor is elected that all of the “big entrenched challenges” would be dealt with.
He said “any responsible government” wanting to deal with cost-of-living and inflationary pressures would do so by having “an economic plan”.
He reaffirmed that Labor, if elected, would hand down another budget this election year.
“And that budget will take into consideration the existing economic conditions and will implement our plan for a better economy and a better future,” he said.
But on cost-of-living, he did not commit to extending the fuel excise which has provided immediate relief.
Dr Chalmers on Wednesday also said Labor would not be extending the low and middle income tax offset that had provided relief at tax time.
Labor’s campaign team has started another morning in Sydney spruiking its childcare policy which the opposition says will cut costs for families.
Dr Chalmers and Amanda Rishworth visited Goodstart Early Learning Centre in the Sydney suburb of Carlton, in the seat of Banks – held by the Liberals on a margin of 6.3 per cent. They joined local candidate Zhi Soon looking to unseat the Liberals’ David Coleman.
HANSON VOWS TO PREFERENCE LABOR
A furious Pauline Hanson has vowed to target Liberal moderate MPs in key seats across Australia by urging her supporters to preference Labor over some of Scott Morrison’s most vulnerable candidates.
Senator Hanson accused the Liberals of a “dirty deal with the devil” by deciding to recommend its voters give their preferences to the Jacqui Lambie Network ahead of One Nation in the Tasmanian Senate race.
The One Nation leader told The Australian her party would look to punish the Liberals via low placings on how-to-vote cards in selected marginal seats from Victoria to Queensland.
Bass MP Bridget Archer – who holds the Morrison government’s most marginal seat – and long-time Leichhardt MP Warren Entsch, who is facing a heavy push against him from the ALP, are understood to be at the top of a list of moderate Liberals Senator Hanson will now target.
“We’re not letting them get away with this dirty deal with the devil,” Senator Hanson said.
“One Nation will now look at Liberal-held seats across the country.”
While One Nation will target Liberal moderates by putting Labor above them in how to vote cards, it still plans to support Liberal conservatives and Nationals over ALP candidates.
One Nation is also set to preference Labor over MPs facing Climate 200 backed candidates such as Trent Zimmerman in North Sydney and Tim Wilson in Goldstein.
PM WARNS OF INDEPENDENTS’ DAY
Scott Morrison said he not concerned about Pauline Hanson playing politics with preferences in key senate seats in Tasmania and Queensland, urging voters not to play in to “chaos”.
The PM, who was with Mr Entsch in Cairns on Thursday, said he hoped Australians were wise enough not to vote for independents or minor parties.
“What I know is that votes for independents, at the end of the day, will just contribute to daily chaos at parliament,” Mr Morrison said.
“One of the things that has greatly assisted us as we came through this pandemic – and it might have only been a small majority that we were given at the last election – but being able to run a majority government in the midst of one of the greatest challenges that we’ve ever faced as a country, without having too go each and every day to negotiate the government’s existence with minor parties and Independents.
“That is a recipe for chaos that Australians really can’t afford. Particularly now.”
Labor’s Jim Chalmers said his party was “not doing any deals with Pauline Hanson”.
“Historically that's been one of the stands we've taken. We don't control the preferences that come to us but we don't do deals with her.
“You can't decide whether to take them. People will preference whoever they want when they get into the privacy of the polling booth,’’ Dr Chalmers told Seven.
ALBANESE TOLD TO TAKE IT EASY
Anthony Albanese is slated to return to the campaign trail on Friday, when his Covid isolation period ends.
Mr Albanese has been told to “take it easy” by his doctor once he leaves Covid-19 isolation.
The Opposition Leader, speaking on 101.7FM, said he has been told he can’t do the 16 to 20 hour days he had been doing before he caught the dreaded virus.
“But it will be good to get out and about,” he said.
“The first thing I'm doing is heading to Western Australia where we have our campaign launch this Sunday.”
AUSSIES AT BREAKING POINT: LAMBIE
Jacqui Lambie has fired a warning shot at Mr Morrison, suggesting it may be time for a change of government as people reach their “breaking point”.
“We have watched the government for nearly 10 years get their act together and it's got worse in this area,” she told Nine.
“So, honestly, maybe it is time to give somebody else a go, but something needs to happen here, because people are at breaking point.”
The Tasmanian firebrand declined to say who she was backing leading into the last weeks of the campaign, but called for a greater focus on cost of living pressures.
“I know they are throwing out spending but people are concerned about what they are paying at the supermarket,” Senator Lambie said.
“I cringe when I walk out with a bag of groceries at $70 and I thank god I don't have my teenage boys at home anymore.”
Senator Lambie added that she has real concerns for how young people who took up Commonwealth grants to help them purchase their first homes will be able to juggle the expected rise in interest rates.
“Once the interest rates go up, they go up 1 or 2 per cent, those guys will have to come up with $200 or $300 extra a fortnight,” she said.
“How do they do that when wages are not increasing at the rate inflation is. It is incredible out there.”
It comes as Labor’s treasury spokesperson Jim Chalmers warned Australians were set for a “triple whammy” of hits over the coming weeks.
“This is a triple whammy. Skyrocketing inflation, falling real wages and rising interest rates will make it that much harder for Australians who are already doing it tough enough,” he told Nine.
RYAN HITS BACK AT ‘FAKE’ ATTACK
The independent candidate hoping to topple Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has hit back at claims she’s a fake.
Mr Frydenberg has repeatedly accused Monique Ryan of being a “fake independent” given she has received the backing of Climate 200, and is running on a similar platform as other “teal” challengers.
But speaking with ABC’s RN Dr Ryan said she didn’t care what the Treasurer thought of her. “Mr Frydenberg doesn’t understand the power of the community movement that I represent,” she said.
“He can say what he likes about me … but I could no longer be complicit with the government’s inaction on climate change.”
On Wednesday, a seemingly agitated Mr Frydenberg called the transparency of Dr Ryan into question, cautioning Kooyong voters not to vote for her.
“They (the teal independents)! are running as a political party, they have no policy details, they have no costings. It’s the vibe of the thing,” Mr Frydenberg said.
Dr Ryan again declined to say who she would support in the event of a hung parliament, but insisted neither party had satisfactory policies.
“You’re comparing a bad apple with a bad orange. Neither of them are good enough,” she said.
“The power of the independents is that we can bring the major parties to the table and compel them to act on the things that matter to the electorate.”
MARINA UPGRADE TO BOOST SECURITY
Mr Morrison says upgrades to a Cairns marine precinct are “incredibly important” given the controversial new security deal between China and the Solomon Islands.
The PM announced a re-elected Coalition government would fund $24 million in critical infrastructure upgrades to the port.
He said the work – which includes additional naval certified hardstand areas and all-weather vessel servicing capabilities – was crucial in the context of the security deal.
“I think it's incredibly important, and that's why we'd already taken that action at HMAS Cairns, and HMAS Cairns has played a very important role,” he said during a visit to the precinct on Thursday.
“That was five years ago … we put that investment in, over $150m.”
The Solomons deal has stirred fears China has plans to establish a naval base in the Pacific and called the government’s foreign policy credentials into question.
But Mr Morrison said he has received assurances from his Solomon Islands counterpart, Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare, that no Chinese base would be allowed there.
The marine upgrade commitment, announced during Mr Morrison’s visit to Cairns, would complete the precinct after earlier stages of work.
Mr Morrison said the upgrade would boost jobs, support the tourism industry and strengthen Australia’s border security.
“The Cairns Marine Precinct is the place to go for maritime services and this investment will ensure it can meet the growing tourism, marine industry, and naval demand,” he said on Thursday.
“This will create hundreds of jobs during construction, and hundreds more highly-skilled jobs once it is fully operational, creating enormous and continued economic benefits for the region.”
Mr Morrison said the upgrade would also make Cairns an “even more attractive” launch pad for private and charter boats, yachts and super yachts keen to explore the region.
The work will include critical upgrades and infrastructure on the current port leasehold in the precinct. That will accommodate additional naval certified hardstand areas, all-weather vessel servicing capabilities and additional docking facilities.
PM DENIES RIFT ON CLIMATE
Mr Morrison has again slapped down concerns dissenting views within the Coalition on net zero has put the government’s climate policy at risk.
Nationals senator Matt Canavan sensationally declared the 2050 emissions reduction target was dead.
But the Prime Minister brushed aside concerns that Australia couldn't trust him to follow through on net zero.
“I’m not going to change his view on this, but his view is not policy and will not become policy,” Mr Morrison told Seven.
“The government policy has been set.
“My predecessors were unable to get it there, I’ve been able to get my party and Coalition to commit to that.”
Meanwhile, regionalisation Minister Bridget McKenzie has backed the construction of new coal-fired power stations to ensure energy supply.
During an address to the National Press Club yesterday, Senator McKenzie said it was the “government’s position” to continue to build coal-fired power stations that employ carbon capture and storage technology.
“That’s a government position, when we have carbon capture and storage technology employed, then we actually lower the emissions significantly of that type of power generation,” Senator McKenzie said.
“That is absolutely something that we continue to support. If it is going to be a coal-fired power station that is much lower in emissions because we’re employing carbon capture and storage technology then why wouldn’t we support it?”
Senator McKenzie said coal-fired power stations would continue to play an important role in Australia’s energy mix, warning energy reliability would be under threat if the industry shut down prematurely.
CANAVAN POSITION ‘WELL KNOWN’
Campaigning with Nationals MP Michelle Landry in Rockhampton on Wednesday, Mr Morrison said it was well-known Mr Canavan did not support the policy to slash Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050.
“(But) that’s not his party’s position. That’s not the Coalition’s position and it’s not the government’s position,” Mr Morrison said.
“We’re a party and a Coalition that brings people from all sorts of different perspectives.”
Former Nationals leader Michael McCormack and Ms Landry had a blunter message for Senator Canavan, saying: “Pull your head in, Matt.”
“Once you give someone a pledge that you’re going to do it, you have to stick by it … we shook hands on that and that’s what the Nationals do,” Mr McCormack said.
Asked how Australians could trust the Coalition’s position when MPs in regional seats were speaking at odds with their city colleagues, Mr Morrison said the government took its net zero commitment “very seriously”.
“(Net zero) has been an issue that has been very difficult for our side of politics,” he said.
“And as Prime Minister, I was the first leader of our party to actually get our Coalition together on the same page on this issue. That was no simple challenge.”
The escalating Coalition tension over net zero comes as a new Griffith University study finds climate change is a higher priority to Nationals voters than it is to Liberal supporters.
The survey of almost 4000 Australians found just over three in four (76 per cent) said climate change would be important to them when voting in this federal election.
Concern was highest among Greens voters (90 per cent), followed by ALP supporters (72 per cent).
But the proportion of Nationals voters who said climate change was important to their vote (54 per cent) was higher than the percentage among Liberals (45 per cent).
Lead researcher Associate Professor Kerrie Foxwell-Norton said the fact Nationals voters were taking the issue more seriously was “fascinating, but in other ways predictable”.
“Rural and regional voters have a more complex response to climate change than is often reported,” she said.
“People who live close to the land are very much to the fore of observations and experiences of climate change.”
The online survey of 3915 voters was conducted in September and October last year, before the floods and heavy rains that dominated last summer.
Concern about climate change was lowest among One Nation voters, with just one in three (33 per cent) saying it was an issue for them.
The group Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action welcomed the pushback from senior Nationals who rebuffed Senator Canavan for his comments.
Group president Jo Dodds said Mr McCormack, Darren Chester and David Littleproud had distinguished themselves for speaking out in support of net zero.
“As Michael McCormack said, ‘when country people make a deal, a deal is a deal is a deal’,” Ms Dodds said.
“Climate damage is hurting communities in regional Australia, burning down homes and destroying livelihoods. The Nationals’ commitment to net zero was a welcome first step and we are really grateful for it. We need to take the opportunities to make deep emissions reductions this decade to protect our rural communities.”
ALBO SWOONS OVER HUNKY COLLEAGUE
Anthony Albanese has conceded Labor’s Jason Clare is “certainly better looking” than he is, while batting away a question about the frontbencher’s political prowess.
Mr Clare, Labor’s campaign spokesman, has made multiple appearances front and centre of the party’s campaign amid the Opposition Leader’s Covid-19 absence.
Appearing via video link on Studio 10, Mr Albanese was asked what he thought about “chatter” on social media about how Mr Clare was “articulate and good looking” and would make a good Labor leader.
Mr Albanese said he was the “captain of a great team”.
“And Jason Clare is certainly better looking than I am,” he said.
“There is no question about that. He’s a great mate of mine. We’ve got a great team and we’re ready to form government.”
BORDER PROTECTION CONTROVERSY
Opposition immigration spokeswoman Kristina Keneally reportedly told a group of refugee activists who aim to soften Australia’s border protection policies she would “welcome an approach … to end offshore processing” if the ALP gets into power.
An update sent to Labor for Refugees (L4R) members in March 2021, after the ALP held a virtual national conference, reported “Kristina stated that until Labor forms government, nothing will change”.
The update went on to say Ms Keneally indicated that “after Labor wins the election and Labor’s refugee policies have resulted in positive outcomes, Kristina would welcome an approach by L4R to end the offshore processing regime”.
A Labor spokesman said: “Labor supports Operation Sovereign Borders – offshore processing, regional resettlement and turnbacks where safe to do so – but for years Labor has warned that Mr Morrison has put border protection on ‘set and forget’ mode.
INFLATION SURGES, RATE HIKES LOOM
Homeowners, economists and even Prime Minister Scott Morrison face an excruciating six-day wait to see whether the biggest surge in inflation since the introduction of the GST will be enough to trigger an interest rate hike by the Reserve Bank.
Consumer prices surged by 2.1 per cent during the March quarter, with the annual rise now at a more-than 20-year peak of 5.1 per cent, outstripping market expectations.
The most immediate question for borrowers and analysts is whether prices are hot enough for RBA Governor Philip Lowe and his board to announce a controversial pre-election interest rate hike next Tuesday.
Many believe the case for an immediate rate rise from the record low level of 0.1 per cent is rock solid, regardless of the timing of the May 22 federal election.
Rates were last raised in 2010, and the previous election campaign hike came in 2007, something that was seen as a definitive moment in the defeat of John Howard’s government.
LABOR VOWS OFFSHORE TAX CRACKDOWN
Labor’s signature tax crackdown would raise $1.9 billion over four years by targeting multinational companies, including firms “stashing profits in the Cayman Islands”.
Labor’s assistant treasury spokesman Andrew Leigh on Wednesday said their policy would clamp down on companies using debt to avoid paying tax, and introduce transparency measures to reveal links to tax havens – described as the “hidey holes for ill-gotten gains”.
“(Tax havens) are places where terrorists, drug runners and kidnappers store their loot. If you’re doing business in a tax haven, you’re rubbing shoulders with criminals,” Dr Leigh said.
“If you’re a cafe in Rockhampton, you’re probably not thinking about how to stash your profits off in the Cayman Island … but you’re competing in an increasingly digitised economy against multinational firms using tax havens.”
The plan outlined by Labor’s finance trio of Dr Leigh, Jim Chalmers and Katy Gallagher will put Australia in line with a global plan agreed to by nearly 140 other nations.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) “two-pillar” plan involves taxing companies in jurisdictions they offer services and imposing a global minimum tax rate of 15 per cent.
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Originally published as Federal election live: Albo answer leaves Grace Tame in tears; John Howard’s shock housing call; Labor taunts ‘in hiding’ ministers
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