Federal election 2019: Day 35 of the campaign
A baby-kissing blitz revealed future unhappy voters; Shorten labelled ‘backflip Bill’ for a series of blunders on policy; why a Liberal-voting Indian ex-pat is going to vote for Labor; and, Leaders to call ‘time’ on election: ‘no time to change’ and ‘time for change’. Day 35 of the federal election campaign.
- Miranda Devine: What’s driving Bill’s quest to be PM?
- Bolt: Why Abbott is so important to his party and country
In an increasingly uncertain election battle there’s one thing the political tragics can always rely on — the classic cliche of the baby-kissing blitz on the campaign trail.
At every opportunity, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten and Prime Minister Scott Morrison have made a beeline for the bubs — despite some obviously awkward encounters with some decidedly unimpressed infants.
Like nineteen-month-old toddler Harvey Cresswell, who quickly began bawling in the arms of Bill Shorten at an agricultural show photo opportunity in Tasmania before being hastily handed back to his dad Tim.
And despite her best efforts to avoid a close encounter with a high-profile pollie — including raising a hand and shutting her eyes — one-year-old Amalia Glastonbury was no match for the touchy-feely PM in Redcliffe in Queensland.
Political experts say politics is show business for the ugly and so the hugs and kisses with small children — a polling practice that dates back to the 19th century — help improve their chances of appearing more down-to-earth and connecting to voters.
“In essence, one reason for this is that it is humanising,” Swinburne University’s management lecturer Samuel Wilson says.
“It creates the impression that they are richly imbued with such human nature qualities as warmth and emotional responsiveness, which can help counter negative stereotypes of the social category.”
And according to La Trobe University’s Dr Kevin Brianton, baby-kissing is inescapable.
“When presented with a baby, how can they possibly refuse to kiss them? ‘Shorten or Morrison refuses to kiss baby’ would be the headline. Basically, they have no choice.”
Backflip bill in mixed messages on the hustings
Labor leader Bill Shorten has been caught out contradicting himself in a series of policy blunders and attention-grabbing comments of convenience.
On Tuesday he called for the country “to really lift itself and the political debate” just a day before saying former Liberal Prime Minister John Howard had been “disinterred” — or dug up from his grave — to hit the campaign trail.
Commentators were quick to point out that it was not the first time the Labor leader had spoken with a forked tongue — particularly by remaining silent on plans for the controversial Adani coal mine in Queensland given his party’s commitment to action on climate change.
Dr Andrew Hughes, Australian National University political marketing expert, said: “Adani is a classic point. Labor has gone very quiet on the issue because they know it will cost them votes in Queensland. They have been avoiding it.
“Here is Bill Shorten promising money on climate change but if that is true why not say Labor would do anything in its power to not push that mining contract through.
“If you are all for stopping climate change, number one would be stopping Adani.”
During the leaders’ debate a week ago Mr Shorten revealed he was “uneasy” about exiled Wallabies star Israel Folau’s job being threatened over his Christian tweets saying gays would go to hell.
But on Tuesday he used the same issue to attack Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his Christian beliefs.
“I cannot believe that the Prime Minister has not immediately said that gay people will not go to hell,” he said.
The Prime Minister immediately refuted the claim. But Dr Hughes said Mr Shorten had realised that grabbing the headlines was a way of starving his rival of oxygen.
“It is a way of getting airtime and that is more important now than the actual message,” he said.
Mr Shorten has been caught out contradicting himself on other issues throughout the campaign.
Last month a Gladstone port worker asked him if Labor could do something about cutting the tax rate for high income earners. “We’re going to look at that,” said Mr Shorten, despite Labor’s policy plan to actually increase the top tax rate from 45 per cent to 47 per cent.
“In politics now it is whatever it takes and we are seeing more and more of that,” Dr Hughes said.
In April Mr Shorten said: “We have no plans to introduce any new taxes on superannuation.” The next day he had to backtrack when it was pointed out Labor actually plans $34 billion in changes to super savings.
He also announced a plan for half of all new cars to be electric by 2030. Two weeks later that had changed to: “We’ll put in battery charging stations so that if you want to buy an electric car you’ve got somewhere to charge it.”
And a week ago he baffled economists by contradicting himself in the same sentence when he said: “Everything is going up except people’s wages; inflation is at zero per cent.”
Institute of Public Affairs policy director Gideon Rozner said: “Bill Shorten has mastered the art of flinging contradictory nonsense into the political ether — and getting away with it.
“He tells us that under his government, half of all vehicles on the market will be electric in just over a decade, but he can’t give us basic information like how long they will take to charge,” he said.
But Sydney University politics lecturer Dr Stewart Jackson said the habit of grabbing headlines and not worrying about the policy detail was “afflicting both sides of politics”. And he warned voters to pay more attention.
“The problem is that people are just listening to the top line and by the time a fact checker comes along with the truth they have tuned out.”
— Editor at Large Matthew Benns
Indian ex-pat views parent push as a poll win for Labor
Liberal supporter Samar Kohli credits Labor’s generous parental visa scheme for the Indian ex-pat’s decision to instead vote for Opposition leader Bill Shorten.
The business-owner based in the Parramatta electorate said that he wanted to bring his 65-year-old widowed mother to Australia but believed the Morrison Government was treating immigrant families like cash cows.
Mr Kohli said the existing policy to charge immigrant parents $10,000 for a five-year visa and $5000 for a three-year visa was a rort.
The new visas available to parents of permanent residents and citizens will be accepted on July 1 and under the Coalition there will be a 15,000 a year limit.
“They are telling everyone unless you can pay for a visa they can come over but if you can’t, who cares about your parents,” he said.
Labor has proposed to slash the cost of the visa if it wins Saturday’s poll and remove the cap. Under a Shorten government a five-year-visa will cost $2500 and a three-year-visa will cost $1250.
According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, the price of caring for people in hospital continually increases over the age of 40 with data from 2003 to 2013 showing that a male and female aged between 65-69 will on average cost $4000 and $3000 respectively when admitted to hospital.
Mr Kohli said Mr Shorten was trying to win immigrant votes but he didn’t believe he would follow through with the promise.
“It is the only way he can get the migrant community to vote for him,” he said. “I don’t believe he generally believes in that. I would always prefer a Liberal Government but this is the only reason why I don’t support them.”
— Campbell Gellie
Shorten will call time on the Libs
Bill Shorten will today tell Western Sydney that Saturday’s election is a “generational decision for voters” and urge them to “vote for change”, in his final major campaign address of the campaign.
Meanwhile, PM Scott Morrison, in his major address at the National Press Club in Canberra, will tell voters now is “not the time to turn back”, as both leaders embark on their final bids to win undecided voters and secure victory.
The Daily Telegraph understands Mr Shorten personally chose Bowman Hall at Blacktown to deliver today’s address — the site where Gough Whitlam made his famous “It’s Time” policy speech during the 1972 election campaign. Mr Shorten wanted to speak at “a place that means something to Labor and Australia”.
Grassroots supporters, his leadership team and Western Sydney MPs will join him at the event. He will focus heavily on climate change, and a message to “vote for change” will be a key theme of the speech.
It is understood the speech won’t heavily hark back to Whitlam, but will tell voters that their choice on Saturday is a “generational decision”.
Mr Shorten will declare that the “door stands ajar” and issue a warning that the Coalition is wrought with chaos.
He will also continue Labor’s scare campaign about the risks posed by a coalition between Mr Morrison, Clive Palmer and Pauline Hanson and urge Australians to vote for what he will call a “stable alternative”.
Meanwhile, in Canberra, Mr Morrison will say there are major risks in voting for Labor.
“Now is the time to get on and keep on with the work of building our economy by backing in the choices Australians are wanting to make every day, and to enable them to plan for their future with confidence,” Mr Morrison will say.
“Labor are proposing a big-taxing, big-spending agenda, once again at a time when Australians can least afford the bill that they will be forced to pay, not just over the next three years, but at least the next decade. This week is about focusing Australians on that choice and the price of that choice.”
While Mr Morrison will address voters from the nation’s capital, Mr Shorten will spend all of today in Sydney.
It comes as Labor will today announce a plan to offer teachers, nurses and public sector workers permanent jobs after 24 months of rolling contracts in a pledge to stem the tide of insecure work.
Labor will today promise, if elected, to provide certainty and security of employment and wages for more than half of Australia’s workers who are on a non-standard employment relationship, such as labour hire, part-time work, fixed-term contracts or casual employment. A Labor government would place a cap on the number of fixed-term contracts an employee can be offered before converting them to permanent employment.
A limit of four consecutive fixed-term contacts, with a 24-month cap, would be imposed before an employer is required to offer them a permanent part-time or full-time position.
— Anna Caldwell
Taking a home hit on axed accounts
First home buyers face an almost $400 million tax hit under Labor’s plans to scrap a scheme that lets them save for a home deposit in their superannuation accounts, the Coalition will argue today.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg will sharpen his attack on Bill Shorten’s impact on the housing market today, saying that even as Labor copied Scott Morrison’s deposit scheme on Sunday, the party was also hitting first home buyers by cutting their ability to make low-tax contributions to their deposit.
It comes as Labor accused the government of stirring a “fear campaign” over housing policy changes.
Mr Frydenberg said the tax hit to first home buyers was almost $400 million — the amount a Labor government would add to its budget bottom line by stopping first home buyers from using their super accounts to save for a deposit.
Labor’s costings show abolishing the First Home Super Saver scheme would save them $373 million.
Under the current rules, the scheme allows prospective first home buyers to contribute up to $30,000, or $60,000 for a couple. The savings are taxed at a lower rate of tax than if they were saved outside their superannuation.
Funds can only be withdrawn to go towards a first home.
Labor’s costings, released last Friday, confirmed a Bill Shorten government would scrap the scheme, which has faced criticism for having a low take-up rate.
Concessions for home buyers have come under the microscope this week after Prime Minister Morrison announced a scheme that would allow first home buyers to only need to stump up 5 per cent of a deposit — a proposal that Labor matched within hours.
However, the government has continued to mount an attack on Labor’s changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax.
“We want to make it easier, not harder, for first home buyers to get a foot in the door,” Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said.
“If Labor’s housing tax wasn’t bad enough, Bill Shorten wants to abolish a program that makes it easier for first home buyers to save for their deposit.” He called on Labor to adopt the government’s “full suite” of policies.
Shadow Treasurer Chris Bowen yesterday accused the Coalition of making up a scare campaign on Labor’s negative gearing policy.
“They’ve claimed house prices will crash, they’ve claimed that house prices will rise. They’ve claimed rents will sour. They just make it up.”
— Anna Caldwell
Migrant moves backfire on ALP
Labor’s policy to uncap parent visas for migrant families has backfired in two crucial Sydney electorates as both sides of politics wage war for the migrant vote.
Exclusive YouGov/Galaxy polling finds that almost half of voters surveyed in the knife-edge seats of Reid and Macquarie did not support Labor leader Bill Shorten’s policy of uncapping the number of visas available to parent migrants.
It can also be revealed that secret Liberal tracking polling shows support for the Labor brand has collapsed in Reid and another crucial multicultural seat of Banks following the backlash over former NSW ALP leader Michael Daley’s comments on Asian migration.
The battle for the migrant vote has dominated the Sydney election contest after Mr Daley alienated thousands of Chinese voters in the state poll by declaring Asians with PhDs were taking local jobs.
Today’s YouGov/Galaxy polling finds that Labor’s policy to uncap parent visas — a deliberate bid to recapture the migrant vote — has limited support in Reid and Macquarie. In Macquarie, a survey of 573 voters found 50 per cent did not support the policy, 25 per cent said they did and 25 per cent were uncommitted. In Reid, a survey of 577 voters found 45 per cent did not support the policy, 28 per cent did with 27 per cent uncommitted.
It comes as Prime Minister Scott Morrison rallied a Chinese community meeting at the iconic Golden Century eatery yesterday, pledging that the Coalition government would better back them while crediting immigration for Australia’s economic success.
Mr Morrison sledged Mr Daley’s controversial comments, declaring “you won’t hear from me as you heard from the NSW Labor leader recently that the Chinese or Asian people (are) taking your jobs,” he said.
“You know that it took Bill Shorten until after the election, six days before he denounced that statement.”
The Coalition’s regular tracking polling shows that in both Reid and Banks, satisfaction with the Labor brand has steadily dropped from positive territory to negative satisfaction rates since the beginning of the federal campaign.
Both marginal Sydney seats have multicultural populations and overlap with state electorates where voting was believed to have been impacted by revelations in the final week of the NSW election of Mr Daley’s comments that Asian migrants were taking local jobs.
It was revealed two weeks ago that the Labor MP in the federal seat of Macquarie attended the 2018 Politics in the Pub event where Mr Daley made his remarks about “Asians with PhDs” stealing jobs. MP Susan Templeman was in the room on the night and later praised the event on Facebook for a “fabulous full house”. Her spokesman said she did not hear Mr Daley’s comments on the night.
When asked this week, the spokesman said Ms Templeman condemned them.
— Anna Caldwell & Jack Houghton
Join the conversation
FOLLOW LIVE: Charlotte’s grieving parents back social media ban for under 16s
The parents of a Year 7 student who took her life after being bullied sent a powerful letter to a first-of-its-kind summit to combat the dangers teens face online. Follow the social media summit LIVE.
Read more
Cherry on top: Tweed mayor locks in another term
Tweed Shire Mayor Chris Cherry has retained her seat thanks to an overwhelming show of support by her fellow councillors. Here’s the details.
Read more