Scott Morrison has wrapped up his day of campaigning after he dropped in to meet volunteers at CareFlight’s Darwin hangar.
With his wife Jenny by his side, he climbed into a bus and a plane parked inside the hangar.
He spoke to volunteers about how his government is investing $18 million to guarantee rescue services and emergency aeromedical services through CareFlight in the Northern Territory.
He is jumping on a plane to a mystery destination, where he will touch down at around 6.30pm eastern time.
It was only a matter of days ago that we heard the Prime Minister was going to shake off his bulldozer-like manner, but already we are seeing the pledge unravelling as the election comes down to the pointy end.
With just four days until Australians head to the polls, Scott Morrison is zipping around the nation at a breakneck pace in a frantic bid to win over voters who have yet to make up their minds.
Overnight he landed in the Top End, where he visited a display home in a newly built estate south of Darwin.
It was there in the sweltering heat of the Territory that Mr Morrison the “bulldozer” – a nickname he bestowed upon himself when he promised to soften his approach late last week – re-emerged after a sojourn that seemed not to last very long.
It began to unravel yesterday when he visited the Springfield Rise Display Village, 25km south of Brisbane. There, he was pressed on the impact of his super for housing policy on property prices.
One reporter continually tried to ask Mr Morrison about the modelling amid a barrage of questions. Mr Morrison repeatedly ignored the question. At one point the Prime Minister asked him to “calm down” several times.
In Brisbane he took only a handful of questions before walking off, leaving the press pack frustrated.
This morning in Darwin, there was a shift in tactics as the Prime Minister took more questions. However, the way he went about answering them – complete with a classic Morrison prop, which he pulled out three times in the press conference – had reporters visibly rolling their eyes.
His answers to the most simple questions spanned several minutes, and left several reporters on the travelling press pack accusing him of going off-topic or rambling to eat away at the time.
At one point towards the end of the press conference, a reporter was loudly telling him to answer a specific question on his super policy. Unphased, Mr Morrison just continued talking over him as if he couldn’t even hear the reporter who was less than two metres away.
Despite answering several more questions than yesterday, Mr Morrison cut the press conference off suddenly after a question on China.
Anthony Albanese has been chased down by reporters demanding an answer to their questions after he was quick to end his press conference on Tuesday.
Much of the Labor Leader's short press conference was taken up by Mr Albanese shutting down reporters as they attempted to ask follow up questions while he was speaking.
The whole press conference only lasted about 20 minutes, with Mr Albanese taking eight questions before ending the press conference and walking off.
Anthony Albanese’s whole press conference, including the preamble, was just 20 minutes long. Cut it short after being repeatedly pressed on the deficit question #auspol
Some members of the press pack, who clearly weren't happy with the responses they received, chased down the Labor Leader.
The media pack followed Mr Albanese, hounding him until he left the room with questions about Labor's deficits over the next four years and the proposed Pandemic Treaty to give WHO greater powers.
"We are following you for answers Mr Albanese and you are now just not giving them," one reporter said.
"You have to answer eventually."
Picture: Sky News
Western Australian Premier Mark McGowan, who appeared at the press conference with Mr Albanese, called the situation "madness".
"I am sorry, I was… I know. I will just wait until this madness finishes," he said as a journalist attempted to ask a question but was drowned out by the noise of other members of the press pack.
"Do you want to wait a minute maybe? This is very odd," Mr McGowan added.
Anthony Albanese has held a fiery press conference today, clashing with multiple journalists as they attempted to cut in while the Labor Leader was speaking.
Right off the bat Mr Albanese was shutting down members of the press pack, telling one journalist "You don't get the first question" as they attempted to cut in early.
"I'll come to you, Greg, I promise. But he got the call first, because he was quiet," he said.
Moments later, Mr Albanese was asked whether Labor's deficits over the next four years will be higher than the Morrison government's.
"We'll unveil our plans on Thursday. But…" Mr Albanese said, before the reporter attempted a follow up question.
"Hang on. You get a chance to ask a question, then we have the answer. That's the way it works, and everyone will be happier at home," the Labor Leader said.
"You're not giving us an answer," the journalist responded.
Picture: ABC News
Another reporter then asked Mr Albanese to confirm whether Labor's deficit would be higher than the Coalitions.
"Do you think it's fair for voters to go to the polls with less than 48 hours knowing what your detailed costings are," she added.
Mr Albanese responded by saying it was the way it has "always been done", including by the Liberal Party in 2010 and 2013.
The reporter then attempted to ask a follow up question, prompting Mr Albanese to say he could "do without the interjections".
"If you want to talk to each other, you can. Or we have a process whereby you ask a question and then I get to answer," he said.
"Are you finished? When you're finished, I'll answer it."
The Labor Leader continued, saying all of his party's costing would be outlined on Thursday.
"What I won't do – and you might like to consider this – is that we have a Prime Minister who isn't even giving you the respect as the national Press Gallery of appearing at the National Press Club before an election," he said.
"The first prime minister who has not done that. Who is ducking that responsibility. I will have more to say tomorrow about these issues, and then our costings will be released on Thursday."
A heated debate between two MPs has resulted in a shock comment being made in regards to late Labor senator Kimberley Kitching.
Labor's Tanya Plibersek and the Liberal Party's Jane Hume clashed when appearing on Nine's Today this morning, with things heating up even more when the topic of Senator Kitching arose.
The 52-year-old died of a suspected heart attack in March. Reports then emerged that, prior to her death, Senator Kitching had allegedly told senior party members she had been bullied by other Labor members.
Host Allison Langdon brought up the topic of Senator Kitching's death on Tuesday, suggesting Ms Plibersek "loses points" for Labor's refusal to investigate the bullying claims.
Ms Plibersek claimed a formal complaint had not been made, saying if it had then it would be "thoroughly, independently investigated".
Ms Hume immediately fired back, pointing out Senator Kitching had died and can not longer make a complaint.
Picture: Today/Channel 9
"She did apparently make a complaint before she died," Ms Hume said.
Ms Plibersek repeated her claims that an investigation would be carried out if a formal complaint was made, prompting a shock response from Ms Hume.
"Dead women tell no tales," the Liberal MP said.
"Jane, I don't think you should be saying things like that," Ms Plibersek responded, adding it was in "very poor taste" and that they were "grieving a colleague".
"I know, I am too – she was my friend," Ms Hume replied.
Anthony Albanese started his day by addressing business leaders at a breakfast event in Perth’s Crown building.
There was a rather ominous omen as we walked in – the words “no escape” were written on one of the building’s internal doors. Easily the most sinister “no exit” message I’ve seen.
The Labor leader’s speech earned polite attention from most of the folks in the crowd, though we did spot the occasional pair of drooping eyelids, and one or two people appeared to be taking power naps.
The speech itself was essentially just his usual talking points stitched together, with a few WA references sprinkled in. First Queensland, now WA – there have been a great many appeals to parochialism in Mr Albanese’s words lately.
The Labor leader did make one announcement: $50 million in federal funding, to be matched by the same amount from the McGowan state government, for an Aboriginal Cultural Centre in Perth.
“This has the potential to be an important place to celebrate First Nations cultures,” he said.
“To recognise that our continent is home to the oldest continuous culture on earth. A place for learning and sharing.”
Picture: Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images
After the speech, Mr Albanese sat down for a Q&A segment with The West Australian’s political editor, Lanai Scarr.
She asked whether Mr Albanese was “still kicking” himself for forgetting the unemployment rate and RBA cash rate during his first press conference of the campaign.
“I'm human. And one of the things that it allowed me to do was to admit I’m not a perfect, and I had an issue with with memory recall. What I didn’t do was blame someone else,” he said.
“I didn’t respond like my opponent, I think, would have. Even on Saturday, he was blaming the Health Department for the failure to order enough vaccines.”
Scarr asked how Mr Albanese could convince voters he wouldn’t suffer similar errors as prime minister, should he win.
“Will I make a mistake in the rest of my life? Probably. The point is how do you respond? That's the key. Everyone makes mistakes. What’s important is how you respond to it,” he replied.
Scott Morrison has been asked about his intentions if he loses in recent days. Mr Albanese got his turn this morning. Scarr asked whether he thought he’d deserve “a second term as opposition leader” in the event of a defeat.
“I'm not planning for anything other than trying to win on Saturday,” he said.
(The obvious answer is no and everyone knows it, but for whatever reason politicians never want to answer questions like this.)
Mr Albanese again confirmed Labor would release its policy costings on Thursday, just two days before the election. He argued that was in line with the Coalition’s timetable when it was in opposition in 2013.
The main feature of Mr Albanese’s performance, though, was just how many times he mentioned and praised Premier Mark McGowan. Clearly he’s hoping some of Mr McGowan’s popularity in WA will rub off on him.
The Premier will be joining Mr Albanese later this morning, as he did yesterday, so you can expect him to get a question or two at the daily press conference.
A shock new poll has predicted that popular NSW Liberal Andrew Constance’s switch to federal politics is set to end in tears, with Labor to retain the seat of Gilmore.
According to the uComm poll, Mr Constance, who quit the NSW parliament last year, is languishing on a primary vote of just 34.1 per cent in his bid for the federal seat south of Sydney. On a two-party preferred basis he is behind 43:57 to Labor’s Fiona Phillips.
The major poll looked at five crucial marginal seats impacted by fires and flood, with some surprising results. And while voters in those areas indicated that they would be swayed by those candidates with strong climate policies, it wasn’t all bad news for the Coalition.
The results did suggest Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s hopes of repeating his 2019 strategy of taking some unexpected seats from Labor could be paying dividends.
For example, Labor’s Kristy McBain is in trouble in the seat of Eden-Monaro in the south of NSW, with the pollsters predicting that Dr Jerry Nockles could pick up the seat from Labor.
The uComm poll suggests it’s neck and neck in the seat though, with sitting member Ms McBain behind 49:51 on a two party preferred basis.
She’s on a primary vote of 39 per cent – more than her challenger Dr Nockles – but he’s being assisted by preference flows from One Nation and Clive Palmer’s UAP.
'You're way off': ScoMo grilled on disability housing
Scott Morrison has faced a barrage of questions on Nine's Today Extra this morning, with host Sylvia Jeffreys refusing to let the Prime Minister dodge her question.
Appearing on the program on Tuesday, Mr Morrison was asked about disability housing and his government's previous promise to get young people out of aged care facilities.
"Last year your government made a commitment that nobody by the age 45 would be living in aged care by 2022 and no-one under the age of 65 by 2025," Jeffreys said.
"Over the last financial year, only 72 young people, that's 72 out of 3500, were moved out of aged care and into specialist disability accommodation. Are you happy with that number?"
Mr Morrison pointed out there had been "more in the years" prior, claiming his government had been making progress on their goal.
"It is not an easy thing to achieve, particularly when you're trying to do that in the middle of a pandemic which I'm sure you'd appreciate. Many of the things we were seeking -," the PM said, before Jeffreys cut in to point out he was "way off" meeting those targets.
The Prime Minister attempted to keep speaking but the Today Extra host refused to let up.
Jeffreys: "Sorry to interrupt those targets…sorry to interrupt – but 72 individuals out of 3500 who would like to be moved out of aged care and into specialist accommodation, which is available, you can't be happy with that progress?"
Morrison: "Well, not all that specialist accommodation is available. And that's part of the challenge."
Jeffreys: "There is a 40 per cent vacancy rate."
Morrison: "What we have-"
Jeffreys: "There is a 40 per cent vacancy rate across all SDAs (specialist disability accommodation)."
Morrison: "We'll be ensuring we double down to meet those targets. It is difficult to move people from one place to another. And it is an important goal for the government and we'll continue to pursue it very enthusiastically."
'Lost touch': PM fires up over home scheme backlash
Scott Morrison has hit back at Labor's criticism of his government's new homebuyers scheme, accusing them of "losing touch completely" with Australian families.
The Coalition’s new Super Home Buyer Scheme allowed first home buyers to as 40 per cent or up to $50,000 of their retirement investment to purchase a home.
The scheme has been criticised over how it could impact the retirement plans and future security of millions of Australians.
Speaking from the electorate of Lingiari in the Northern Territory on Tuesday, Mr Morrison blasted Labor’s Penny Wong for suggesting the scheme was a "gamble'.
Picture: ABC News
"I was disappointed yesterday when I heard Penny Wong talk about this policy as saying people would take a gamble on their house," the Prime Minister said.
"A gamble? The most important investment you make in your entire life, as a family, is owning your own home. If Labor thinks that's a gamble, then they have lost touch completely with the aspirations and goals of Australian families who their first objective is to ensure that they can own a home.
"The advantage of this policy is it not only helps Australians get into their own home, but it also preserves their retirement savings for the future. And that's the big difference with this policy."
A move from the Morrison Government to have Former Prime Minister John Howard robocall voters has not been received well by some Aussies, with multiple people taking to social media to complain.
2GB's Ben Fordham revealed on Tuesday that Mr Howard had added his voice to the Liberal Party's campaign, playing the pre-recorded call on air.
"Hello, it is John Howard calling from Sydney for the Liberal Party. Your choice at this election is important because there is a lot at stake," Mr Howard says on the call.
"The pandemic has presented the most serious health and economic challenge in living memory. However, the Liberal Government has seen Australia emerge stronger than most countries. Just as we are turning a corner, now is not the time to risk change."
Mr Howard claimed Mr Albanese has not presented a "credible alternative" and warned a vote for an Independent candidate could result in a hung Parliament and be "disastrous for our country".
"I ask you to vote Liberal to deliver a strong economy and a stronger future for our wonderful country. Thank you so much for your time," he said.
It appears not everyone is happy about receiving a call from the former PM, with many taking to Twitter to complain.
Just received a robocall from John Howard and the 16 yo said, ‘what’s grandad going on about? He doesn’t sound well.’
John Howard is robocalling Hughes (curious, when the Liberal candidate called him “out of touch” when he was Prime Minister) and the LNP is spilling pork all over the place down here. Millions.
PANICKED is a word that comes to mind.
I shall press on, then. It’s working.
— Georgia Steele for Hughes (@steele4hughes) May 16, 2022
