Federal election live: Job losses ‘nonsense’, Albo does a Shorten on the sausage
Labor leader Anthony Albanese has described warnings of a $50b hit to the economy and the loss of thousands of jobs as ‘nonsense’ as he mangled a sausage, almost Bill Shorten style, on the campaign trail.
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Prime Minister Scott Morrison has again fired a shot at China saying it ‘has form’ on ‘foreign interference’ in Australian politics, doubling down on warnings Beijing is seeking to influence the federal election.
Meanwhile, the PM has been skewered by Labor’s Bill Shorten who said he ‘couldn’t lie straight in bed’ over the disastrous Robodebt scheme.
Labor has promised to launch an inquiry into the Robodebt fiasco – a move which was blasted by Mr Morrison of being ‘disrespectful’ and acting like they ‘think they’re already in government’.
And benched MP Tanya Plibersek has shot down rumours of tension with Mr Albanese. Follow the live coverage below.
LOSS OF $50B, 4000 JOBS ‘NONSENSE, SAYS ALBO
An report into the economic cost of abolishing the construction industry watchdog has been labelled a “nonsense” by Mr Albanese.
The report by EY commissioned by Masters Builders Australia found abolishing the Australian Building and Construction Commission would deliver a $50bn hit to the economy, add to inflation and cut up to 4000 jobs a year.
There would also have significant impacts for rebuilding the post Covid-19 economy according to the report.
Mr Albanese, asked why Labor wouldn’t tweak the ABCC instead of abolishing it wholesale, rubbished the report as a “nonsense”.
“I'm prepared to take on powerful interests whether they be union officials doing the wrong thing, or whether they be lawyers doing the wrong thing,” he said.
“But … prosecuting people for having a Eureka flag on their equipment is just absurd. It is just absurd. And that's why we need strong laws, we need strong laws.”
The Courier-Mail in January revealed of the 36 cases the ABCC has before the court at the time, 14 are in Queensland, 11 of which involve the CFMEU.
CAN HE SNAG A SAUSAGE BETTER THAN SHORTEN?
He has credited a strict diet for his slimmed down figure, but Anthony Albanese couldn't resist an Aussie classic at a barbecue for Labor supporters on Saturday, hoeing into a sausage sizzle – with onions – in Cowan.
"There's no such thing as a bad sausage on a roll," the Labor leader declared.
Former Labor Leader Bill Shorten astounded Australians by tackling a sausage sizzle sideways in 2016, but Mr Albanese's approach was decidedly by-the-book, though he looks like it really mangled it.
‘Who eats a sausage like that?,’’ was the reaction to Mr Shorten’s attempt.
“Tastes like democracy,” he said outside a local public school
But his unorthodox eating method drew gasps of shock when instead of starting at the end, Mr Shorten went straight for the middle.
He was then captured turning away from the cameras as he grappled with the snag.
In contrast, Mr Albanese spruiked the benefits of the great Aussie barbecue while cooking snags and seemed to at least eat it the right way.
Mr Albanese got on the tongs before delivering a rev-up speech to supporters of Anne Aly, who holds her seat of Cowan with a margin of just 0.9 per cent.
Meanwhile, former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has arrived in Perth ahead of Labor’s campaign launch on Sunday.
Mr Rudd, according to Perth MP Patrick Gorman, helped launch Labor’s “biggest doorknock yet” on Saturday morning.
He was not at campaign trail media events with Mr Albanese on Saturday.
IS CHINA TRYING TO INTERFERE WITH AUSTRALIAN ELECTION?
Mr Morrison has doubled down on comments warning Beijing is seeking to influence the looming federal election, saying the spectre of foreign interference led to his government introducing legislation to “safeguard” the country.
The Prime Minister said he’s aware the Chinese government has sought to influence Australian politics and the government had introduced laws “to prevent it”.
“Well, we’re very aware of the influence the Chinese government seeks to have in this country. We in fact introduced laws to prevent it,” Mr Morrison told a press conference in Launceston on Saturday morning.
His comments came after Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews suggested China timed the announcement of their contentious deal with the Solomon Islands to coincide with the election campaign, alluding to an attempt to sway it.
Mr Morrison was asked today if he and Ms Andrews were “accusing Beijing of interfering in our election campaign”, but failed to provide a direct answer.
“All I’m saying is that there is form on foreign interference in Australia. There is, that’s why we introduce laws on in it and it’s why we have funded ASIO,” Mr Morrison said.
“It’s important that we counter foreign interference in our country.”
Mr Morrison was then asked what his response was to China’s vice foreign minister’s statement that Australia’s criticism of the deal amounted to “disinformation, coercion and intimidation” and an expose of “a colonial mentality”.
“The Chinese government would say that, wouldn’t they,” he responded.
SHORTEN SKEWERS SCOMO OVER ‘TRAGEDY’:
Bill Shorten has pummelled the Prime Minister over the “human tragedy” of robodebt as Labor commits to holding a royal commission into the scandal.
If elected, Labor wants to find out who was responsible for establishing the robo-debt scheme, investigate the handling of complaints and determine how much it cost taxpayers.
The unlawful program was launched in 2015 and used an automated system to determine whether a Centrelink recipient had been overpaid.
But it resulted in thousands of people being pursued for debts they did not actually owe.
The process, later deemed “unlawful” in court, caused emotional and financial stress for many Australians before it was abandoned.
It resulted in $721 million being refunded to 381,000 people who wrongly had debt collected from them, while $1.8 billion was paid to settle a class action brought by the victims.
Labor has promised to establish the royal commission by the end of the year if it is elected.
Mr Shorten joined Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese to announce the commitment in Perth on Saturday.
He was asked to respond to Scott Morrison’s claim that Labor was responsible for introducing welfare assessments, which the Prime Minister argued was the precursor to robo-debt.
“Scott Morrison couldn’t lie straight in bed,” Mr Shorten responded.
“The scheme was announced by, guess who, Scott Morrison and the government in April 2015.
“The class action, which saw the $1.8 billion settlement, was against the government for actions they took from April 2015.
“Mr Morrison has put out talking points and they are just a pack of lies.”
MORRISON TO PUSH AHEAD WITH RELIGIOUS FREEDOM BILL
Prime Minister Scott Morrison says he will be taking the religious discrimination bill “forward” but as stand-alone legislation.
The bill was earlier this year shelved after both parties voted not to debate the legislation in the Senate.
“I’ve written to religious leaders around the country. I was devastated that that wasn’t passed,” Mr Morrison said.
“What I propose to do and have made very clear is that I will take it forward. But I’ll be taking it forward as stand-alone legislation.”
In February, Mr Morrison lost control of the legislation after five of his own MPs crossed the floor to back changes from an independent.
The laws were a major election promise from 2019.
Five Liberal MPs joined Labor to back an amendment to the Sex Discrimination Act preventing religious schools from expelling gay and trans students based on their sexuality or gender.
The change prompted the Australian Christian Lobby to call for the government to pull the Bill saying the amendment “completely undermined” the legislation.
“These protections have enabled faith-based schools to teach their religion and conduct their schools according to their faith values,” ACL’s Wendy Francis said.
“The loss of this protection would outweigh any benefits that could be obtained by the Religious Discrimination Bill.”
MORRISON REVEALS SHORTEN’S BIG MISTAKE
Addressing Liberal Party faithful at a campaign launch in Launceston, Mr Morrison made a pointed dig at former Labor leader Bill Shorten.
Again portraying Labor as a risky and unknown option, he accused the party’s current leadership of secrecy following the repudiation of Labor’s 2019 campaign.
“After three years, nothing,” he said. “And we’re still waiting and somehow they believe they can just slide up to the election and hope nobody notices.”
Mr Morrison said such a strategy was a deliberate plan to blindside the voters.
“There’s another alternative. They do know but they’re not going to tell you,” he said.
“I’ll say this for Bill Shorten. He told Australians what Labor would do and then Australians told him what they thought of it.
“If Labor have learnt one lesson from the last election it’s don’t tell them what we’ll do.”
ALBANESE SHORT ON DETAIL ON COST OF LIVING
Families “will be better off under a Labor government,” Anthony Albanese has declared, but the Labor leader can’t say how much more families would have in their hip pockets if he is elected.
Despite making the rising cost of everyday essentials a central plank of its attacks against the Liberal government, Labor has been unable to outline what they would do to make groceries cheaper.
Mr Albanese, on his first outing on the hustings after leaving isolation, said he has a “range of measures” that will make life easier for families – including cheaper childcare, and lifting wages.
“We have a plan as well to take pressure off electricity prices,” he said at a Joondalup electric bus facility.
Mr Albanese was at the seat of Moore, safely held by Liberal MP Ian Goodenough, on a margin of more than 11 per cent.
His Treasury spokesman Jim Chalmers said the average Western Australian mortgage repayments would go up $94 per month if the Reserve Bank increases the official cash rate.
“This cannot be the thanks that Australians get for what they've been through throughout the pandemic, and also for the last almost a decade now of this liberal government,” he said.
He denied he was politicising the rates decision, but said an increase in rates would make life harder for families.
“We've got policies about getting power bills down, we've got policies for cheaper, more accessible health care, which is a big part of the story,” Dr Chalmers said.
“We've got policies to make childcare cheaper, we’ve got policies to get real wages moving again.”
“When families sit around the kitchen table and work out how they're going to deal with Scott Morrison's cost of living crisis, all of those things matter.”
Explained: Who’s best to get that $5 lettuce price down
BARNABY – ‘WE KNOW WHAT CHINA IS UP TO’
Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has warned Australia has got to be “as strong as possible as quickly as possible”, saying that the government knows “what China is up to”.
The Nationals leader also lashed out at Labor’s policies during the election campaign, warning that the country couldn’t defend itself “from an art gallery in Sydney”.
Speaking in Darwin on Saturday, Mr Joyce warned Northern Australia’s development was in danger from Labor, citing a so-called “carbon tax” which he claimed would cripple the resources industry.
He delivered a brutal sledge against Sydney, arguing Labor’s climate policies would whack people in the Top End.
“Maybe the Labor Party should come up with a tax that goes in the other direction because they’ve got the Harbour Bridge, they’ve got the Opera House, they’ve got the parks, they’ve got the art galleries, they’ve got all that social infrastructure,” he said.
When asked about the situation in the Solomon Islands, Mr Joyce acknowledged “how concerned people are about the issues that are happening”.
“I’m not going to talk for the issues pertinent to Solomon’s domestic policy – that is their business,” he said.
“But I’ll say quite clearly we know what China is up to, we absolutely know what China is up to, and we’ve got to make sure that we make our nation as strong as possible as quickly as possible.
“It’s no good just talking about defence, because you’ve got to talk about what pays for defence. You’ve got to talk about the economy that sits behind defence.”
Mr Joyce said developing Australia’s north was vital to national security and warned Labor’s policies would lead to an exodus from the region.
“We’ve got a real plan of how we do that, so we’re pouring billions of dollars into the alternative industries such as hydrogen,” he said.
“We need this place to become as strong as possible as quickly as possible, because we’re not going to defend the nation from an art gallery in Sydney, I can assure you of that,” he said.
Mr Joyce warned Labor’s climate policies would target nine major companies operating in the Top End, versus just one in Sydney and two in Brisbane.
“After billions and billions of dollars have been invested, they’re going to close it down,” he said.
“There’ll be lots of really cheap real estate in Darwin”.
Mr Joyce said the Coalition was planning to spend $1.5b on new infrastructure, including a new port, carbon capture and storage and clean hydrogen.
‘NONSENSE’: PLIBERSEK SNAPS BACK AT RUMOURS SHE’S BEEN BENCHED
Labor MP Tanya Plibersek has labelled claims of tensions between herself and leader Anthony Albanese as “nonsense” and said her no-show at the ALP launch in Perth was simply down to a diary clash.
The benching of Ms Plibersek during the campaign had many wondering when she fell foul of Mr Albanese but she today moved to hose down those suggestions.
“I’m representing Albanese at the May Day rally tomorrow and I have my own campaigning launch which has been planned for several weeks,” Ms Pilbersek said on Saturday while campaigning in Sydney electorate suburbs of Surry Hills and Kings Cross.
Ms Plibersek said she wouldn’t be at the Labor launch in Perth because it isn’t practical to fly to WA and back.
“It’s quite a small number of people going to the launch in Perth so it’s not a productive use of time to have everyone fly there and back,” she said.
Read the full story here.
CHALMERS REVEALS ‘BOGAN’ SIDE
Queenslander and high-ranking Labor MP Jim Chalmers has revealed his true Logan self during a trial of an electric bus at a depot in Perth.
Labor leader Anthony Albanese, along with predecessor Bill Shorten, Treasury spokesman Jim Chalmers and Finance spokeswoman Katy Gallagher, were trialling a new electric bus at the Transperth depot in Joondalup after the Opposition pledged $125m to help build 130 of the locally manufactured vehicle.
It was a blast from Labor’s campaign past during Mr Albanese’s first electorate visit since leaving Covid isolation, touring the facility in the WA seat of Moore.
Mr Shorten – who took an electric cars policy to the last election – watched on as Mr Albanese plugged a big red electric bus on to charge.
While on the bus — where only a small pool of media were allowed — a journalist queried how fast the bus could go.
“I don’t know. Let’s find out when no one’s looking, I’m from Logan, I want to drag everything,” Mr Chalmers said.
A quip was also made about whether the electric bus was “smoother than the Bill Bus” in reference to Mr Shorten’s famous campaign vehicle of 2019.
Senator Gallagher responded with “too early”.
Meanwhile, Mr Albanese has said he is “available” to debate Prime Minister Scott Morrison in Sydney on May 8 – when asked by Channel 9 if he would accept that network’s debate invitation
SCOMO BLASTS ‘DISRESPECTFUL’ LABOR OVER ROBODEBT, MYGOV
Mr Morrison has blasted Labor for ‘getting ahead of themselves’ by thinking they had already won the election and were in government.
Responding after the ALP revealed the trouble-plagued myGov web portal will be overhauled and the Robodebt fiasco that cost taxpayers $1.8bn in compensation to its victims will be the subject of a royal commission, Mr Morrison hit back.
He said the Robodebt pledge showed Labor were “getting ahead of themselves” and expected to win the election.
“They just come out and make these assertions,” he said.
“They think this election is done. Not one vote has been cast or counted and the Labor Party already thinks they’re in government.
“I have never treated the Australian government with such disrespect”.
The commission, which would be established by Labor soon after the May 21 election, will be expected to report by the end of the year.
It would be tasked with finding who was responsible for establishing Robodebt scheme and what advice and process or processes were behind its design and implementation.
It will also probe the handling of complaints against the scheme, including its legality, by Services Australia, the Department of Human Services as well as ministers.
Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese said Robodebt was a human tragedy wrought by the current government.
“Against all evidence, and all the outcry, the government insisted on using algorithms instead of people to pursue debt recovery against Australians who in many cases had no debt to pay,” he said.
The Robodebt automated debt recovery scheme, established by the Coalition, wrongly calculated debts owed by welfare recipients and automatically issued thousands of debt recovery notices to vulnerable Australians.
If it wins government, Labor will also conduct a full user audit of the myGov site – conducting an independent survey of the public to catalogue their experiences and finding out how to make it more seamless.
The supposed one-stop shop for government services such as Medicare, Centrelink, childcare payments and the Australian Taxation Office has been bedevilled by complaints over the years for its complex processes, which have left many users at risk of losing payments they are entitled to.
PM SAYS ROBODEBT PLAN ‘HYPOCRITICAL’
Mr Morrison branded Labor’s plan to hold a Robodebt royal commission unnecessary and “quite hypocritical”.
Speaking at a press conference in Launceston, Mr Morrison said there had already been numerous inquiries into the matter.
“There’s been court matters which we have fully co-operated in and some almost $750m in reimbursements have been made by the government,” he said on Saturday.
“The changes to the scheme have been put in place, the problem has been addressed.”
Mr Morrison said any inquiry would have to start with examination of income averaging, which was introduced by the Labor Party.
“I find it quite hypocritical that a scheme that the Labor Party actually introduced for income averaging in assessing people’s welfare entitlements, that they now seek to criticise the government for,” he said.
COST OF LIVING ‘CRISIS’ IN SPOTLIGHT
A single head of lettuce has emerged as a political hot potato with both Labor and the Coalition failing to explicitly outline how they would make everyday essentials cheaper as Aussie grapple with the soaring cost of living.
Opposition Treasury spokesman Jim Chalmers on Friday pointed to his party’s childcare policy as a way to give some families up to $80 a week more in their pockets next year, but couldn’t say what Labor could do in the short term to reduce the cost of goods and services.
Dr Chalmers, appearing with Home Affairs spokeswoman Kristina Keneally and Reid candidate Sally Sitou, launched a fresh attack on the government over the rate at which grocery prices have increased over the past year.
“On every shelf in every shop in every suburb is a reminder of Scott Morrison’s cost of living crisis and his failures on the economy,” Dr Chalmers said.
“Australians know that what really matters here is that it’s harder and harder for them to keep up and almost impossible to get ahead on Scott Morrison’s watch.”
In an effort to highlight the increasing cost of food, the trio visited a grocer in Homebush where an iceberg lettuce cost $4.99 and broccoli was $6.99 per kilo. Bananas cost 24 cents each.
They rolled out a new campaign poster claiming that over the past year under Mr Morrison, the price of vegetables has risen by 12.7 per cent, the price of beef is up 12.1 per cent, and the price of coffee, tea, and cocoa is up by 8.2 per cent.
The rising cost of living has been a major plank of Labor’s election platform but the Opposition has faced increasing pressure to outline how it would raise wages without adding to inflation.
Dr Chalmers pointed to Labor’s commitments to lower power prices and increase training places as a way to cut the cost of living and increase wages.
When asked whether there was anything he could do to make fruit, vegetables, and meat more affordable for Australian families, Mr Morrison said it was out of the government’s control.
“You can’t necessarily change the prices of a lettuce, but what you can do is you can halve the petrol tax, and that’s exactly what we did,” Mr Morrison said.
COST OF PRESCRIPTION MEDICINE TO BE SLASHED UNDER COALITION
The cost of buying prescription medicine will be slashed in what would be the biggest change to the affordability of medicine in 70 years, under a Coalition Government commitment.
As the election campaign heats up over cost of living, the price of PBS listed medicines will be dropped $10 to $32.50 a script in a $155 million a year package.
It would be a $120 a year saving to any one-on-one script per month, with the savings to come in from January 1 next year.
The Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) covers a huge range of common medications for blood pressure, high cholesterol, pain relief, depression, diabetes and more, with this being the first across the board price reduction in its 70 year history.
Opposition finance spokesman Katy Gallagher suggested the Coalition announced its plan because it “got wind” of Labor’s plan.
The timing of the Coalition’s announcement comes a day before Labor’s official campaign launch in Perth on Sunday, which is expected to focus on Labor’s health credentials.
Senator Gallagher slammed the government for the “announce and wipe, announce and wipe” stumble on the PBS policy.
“He’s (the PM) got wind of something and made another announcement,” she said.
“And we will have more to say in this space.”
Read the full story here.
CHINA LASHES PM’S ‘RED LINE’ COMMENT
China has lashed out at Prime Minister Scott Morrison for saying a military base in the Solomon Islands would be a “red line” for Australia.
China’s vice foreign minister Xie Feng demanded to know “what right” Mr Morrison had to comment on the controversial security pact between China and the Solomon Islands.
“What right do these countries have to point fingers at China? What qualifications does Australia have to draw a ‘red line’ against the Solomon Islands … and China, which is thousands of miles away?” Mr Xie said during an online event.
He slammed the West’s concern as “colonialist myths” and claimed they amounted to “disinformation, defamation, coercion and intimidation”.
Mr Morrison said Chinese influence was behind Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare’s recent criticism of the Australian government.
Mr Morrison responded that he spoke to Mr Sogavare the day after the announcement of the AUKUS pact, and no concerns were raised then.
He blamed his counterpart’s shift in attitude to the controversial security pact recently signed between China and the Solomon Islands.
“Obviously, as time goes on, and new relationships are entered into, there’s obviously been some other influences in the perspective taken by the Solomon Islands Prime Minister,” he said. “There’s a remarkable similarities between those statements and those of the Chinese government.”
WATCHDOG AXING COULD HURT ECONOMY BY $50B
A plan by Mr Albanese to abolish the Australian Building and Construction Commission could hurt the economy by $50b, add to inflation and cost up to 4000 jobs a year, an independent report has found.
The Ernst and Young report into the costs of removing industrial relations safeguards in the sector, warned that abolishing the ABCC would severely impact housing costs, add to inflationary pressures and lead to an estimated $10b blowout in the cost of state infrastructure pipelines.
The report modelled three potential impacts ranging from a low to high range.
The high range suggested economic losses of up to $75bn by 2030, according to The Australian.
The mid-range scenario would result in a fall in the output of the construction sector of about $16.3bn by 2025 and a decline in overall economic activity of $18.4bn by 2025.
It predicts a fall in manufacturing output of $4.8bn by 2025 and $13.1bn by 2030, and a decline in services output of $5.9bn by 2025 and $19.5bn by 2030.
The flow-on effects to the broader economy would be significant, it warned, considering the key role the sector plays in the productive capacity of the economy.
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