Election 2022: Waleed loses it over word Liberal MP won't say

The Project host Waleed Aly couldn't contain his laughter during an interview with a Liberal MP as the guest tried everything to dodge saying one word.

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April 27, 2022 - 6:45PM

Hockey unleashes over 'corrupt' Solomon officials (Sunrise)

Welcome to week three of the federal election campaign, with Australians heading to the polls on May 21.

The campaign continues to be dominated by national security concerns, with experts warning Chinese warships could be deployed to the Solomon Islands on Australia's doorstep within weeks after Beijing signed a controversial security deal with Honiara.

Labor unveiled its Pacific policy on Tuesday outlining its "comprehensive plan" for the region, while today millions of low-income Australians will receive a $250 cost-of-living bonus unveiled in last month's federal budget full of pre-election handouts.

Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese enjoys a comfortable lead over Prime Minister Scott Morrison, with the latest Newspoll showing Labor ahead of the Coalition 53-47 on a two-party-preferred basis, unchanged from the last two Newspolls conducted since the election was called.

Follow along for all the latest updates.

Updates

Waleed cracks up as Liberal MP dodges one word

Rohan Smith

We'll end the day with a lighthearted exchange between The Project host Waleed Aly and Liberal MP for Goldstein Tim Wilson.

Wilson, who is the Assistant Minister to the Minister for Industry, Energy and Emissions Reduction, was asked straight out by hosts whether comments from Nationals Senator Matt Canavan would cost the government its chances of being re-elected.

Canavan on Tuesday broke ranks with his Coalition colleagues to declare the Morrison Government's emissions reduction target "dead".

"Has Matt Canavan cost you your job?" host Georgie Tunny asked Wilson.

Wilson said the focus, "very clearly", is for the Morrison Government to "get Australia to net zero by 2050, if not earlier.

He said other countries were doing a "backslide" and "loosening their commitments" on emission reductions but the Morrison Government is "focused on getting on with the job".

"But surely a vote for you is a vote for Matt Canavan?" Tunny asked again.

Wilson said he had not "spoken to the Senator", which led Aly to interject.

Through laughter, he challenged Wilson: "Come on, mate. We've asked you about 12 times about Matt Canavan and you won't even say his name."

Wilson then made up for it.

"No, no, no. Matt. I know Matt, you know Matt. I haven't spoken to him today."

It's been a tough couple of days for Coalition members campaigning in the Federal Election, with the party at odds over its Net Zero Commitment. So, could it cost them their jobs? Liberal MP, @TimWilsonMP is running again in the seat of Goldstein and joins us.#TheProjectTV pic.twitter.com/74dUenPmt3
— The Project (@theprojecttv) April 27, 2022

Deves appears to compare Dutton to Voldemort

Samantha Maiden

Liberal candidate Katherine Deves appears to have compared Defence Minister Peter Dutton with Lord Voldemort in a reference to a cruel internet meme.

Ms Deves – a self-described major fan of Harry Potter books and author J. K. Rowling – made the reference in the latest unearthed tweet to emerge.

“New Speaker of the House for Commonwealth of Australia struggles to keep order as Albo (Leader of Opposition) calls Voldemort (Minister for Defence Leader of the House) “boofhead”, she wrote.

The tweet was published on December 1, 2021. At the time she had applied to join the Liberal Party.

Shocking fresh Deves tweet. pic.twitter.com/SIKNPjApgT
— James Robertson (@jamesrob) April 27, 2022

News.com.au has contacted the Liberal Party and Ms Deves for comment.

In other new unearthed tweets she refers to surrogacy as “prostitution” and makes more references to the Holocaust.

She also reveals she’s a swinging voter who decides based on policy and described herself as “politically homeless”

In another, she opines on free market capitalism replacing the social democratic model at the end of the 1970s.

Possible leaders debate on ABC on May 9

Rohan Smith

The highly-anticipated second leaders' debate could be held on May 9 on the ABC if both the Morrison and Albanese camps agree.

The ABC's David Speers tweeted on Wednesday that the date had been put to both leaders and the public broadcaster was waiting to hear back.

Labor Leader Anthony Albanese took the honours in the first debate last week held on Sky News.

The ABC has proposed a prime time Leaders' Debate on Monday May 9, available live across the ABC main channel, news channel, radio, iView and YouTube. The ABC's Managing Director has written to both major parties, highlighting the importance of a debate on the public broadcaster.
— David Speers (@David_Speers) April 27, 2022

'Significant forces': PM addresses CPI

Ally Foster

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has addressed Australia's shock inflation figures, claiming it has been driven by forces "far away" from Australia.

Australia's Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 5.1 per cent annually, according to new data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

"We have got significant forces impacting on our economy and economies all around the world," Mr Morrison said on Wednesday afternoon in Cairns.

"That has been principally driven as we know by those big surges in petrol prices and oil prices."

Mr Morrison said on top of that Australia also continues to be plagued by supplying chain issues.

However, the PM pointed out that Australia was fairing better than a lot of other countries.

"But at the same time that we are seeing Australia 5.1 per cent, we see countries like Canada, New Zealand, UK up around 7 per cent. And the United States even higher," he said, adding there were many moving parts in Australia's economy.

"There is a choice about who Australians believe are going to be able to best able to manage to keep those pressures down on rising cost of living."

Labor slams 'unhinged' China election comments

Frank Chung

Shadow Treasurer Jim Chalmers has labelled Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews "desperate" and "unhinged" over her allegation that China was attempting to hurt the Coalition during the election with the Solomon Islands deal.

"Even by the incredibly low standards of this government, I thought what Karen Andrews said was remarkably desperate and remarkably unhinged," Mr Chalmers told reporters.

"The Australian people will determine who wins this election. They have a choice between a better future with a stronger economy under Labor or another three years of skyrocketing prices, falling real wages and all the dysfunction and drift."

Ms Andrews made the comments in an interview on Brisbane's 4BC radio this morning, suggesting the "timing of the announcement" of the deal was suspect.

"Beijing is clearly very aware we are in a federal election campaign here at the moment," she said.

"Now, why now, why right in the middle of a federal election campaign, is all of this coming to light? I mean we talk about political interference and that has many forms. So, I think we need to be aware of what Beijing is doing and what it is trying to achieve."

Senator fires up: 'You don't know my backstory, mate!'

Rohan Smith

Nationals Senator Bridget McKenzie has clashed with a reporter at the National Press Club, telling him: "You don't know my backstory, mate!"

Ms McKenzie was responding to a question from Nic Stuart from the Canberra Times when things got very awkward.

McKenzie was asked whether the Nationals would consider an energy source that did not involve mining coal, such as wind power.

She was also asked whether her party would commit to net zero emissions by 2050 or "speak out both sides of (your mouth)".

The reporter was referring to fellow Nationals Senator Matt Canavan's comments on Tuesday in which he referred to the Government's 2050 targets as "dead".

Ms McKenzie's response included a reference to "political elites and cultural elites" who "take for granted" services that "aren't able to be accessed (500km) down the road".

Bridget McKenzie at the National Press Club.

Canberra Times journalist Nicholas Stuart.

"We want to see a prosperous, safe and secure sustainable rural and regional Australia and that isn't just one policy area that we're focusing on.

"We're making sure we're going to be economically sustainable, that our people are well looked after.

"There's no conceptualisation (by) political elites and cultural elites of the realities of living in rural and regional Australia," she said.

"That's why the Nationals Party still exists … because we deliver for our regions."

Mr Stuart asked whether she was calling him "an elite".

"Sorry, am I an elite?," he asked.

"That's for you to answer. Did you want to be an elite?" Ms McKenzie asked.

Mr Stuart responded: "I'd like to be like you, with a perfect retirement plan just like you."

Ms McKenzie fired back: "You don't know my backstory, mate."

'We kept zoo animals fed, saved economy'

Frank Chung

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg insists he has no "regrets" about his handling of the economy, despite today's worst inflation figure since 2009, wages going backwards and $1 trillion in national debt.

Speaking in Melbourne to address today's 5.1 per cent annual inflation reading from the ABS, Mr Frydenberg was asked whether the Coalition could "actually claim superiority over your economic management".

The Treasurer insisted the Coalition "balanced the budget for the first time in 11 years", but then the pandemic struck and Australia was "hit by the single biggest economic shock since the Great Depression".

"And you may not have noticed but the Australian economy effectively went into hibernation in March and April last year," Mr Frydenberg said, referring to state and federal government-imposed lockdowns, restrictions and border closures that devastated businesses.

"When it did, we took steps that no previous government had taken," he said.

"We took steps to put in economic security across the economy. The net result was that instead of having an unemployment rate at 15 per cent, we have an unemployment rate today at 4 per cent."

Mr Frydenberg then went on a lengthy tangent to boast about the "more than 1000 individual decisions" – a number that would have made the Gosplan commissars proud – his government had taken to "save the economy".

"If you ask me, do I regret any of those steps we took to save the economy? I don't," he said.

"We took more than 1000 individual decisions, whether it was $18 million to underwrite domestic enrolments in universities, whether it was the work we undertook with HomeBuilder to make sure there were jobs in the construction industry and on those long supply chains, whether it was underwriting freight routes to move pharmaceuticals between [routes] because tourists weren't hopping on planes and planes [weren't] going from Melbourne to Sydney.

"Whether it was the work that we did with zoos and aquariums to feed the animals because tourists weren't going there, whether it was the cashflow boost providing more than $30 billion to small businesses to support them, the work we did with the regulator that saw $250 billion worth of loans not needing to be repaid during the heat of the crisis.

"Whether it's the other work that we have done, JobKeeper which saved more than 700,000 jobs. All the heaps of regulatory changes we undertook, right across the economy. There are enormous numbers of major decisions our government, across the complex ecosystem that makes up the economy, and the net result of that? An unemployment rate today equal lowest in 48 years, the Treasury forecasting it will have a three in front of it for the first time in years."

Scott Morrison dodges crucial tax question

Ally Foster

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has avoided revealing how much more millions of Australians will be paying in taxes when the low and middle income tax offset (LMITO) is abolished next year.

A report from Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre found all households earning less than $90,000 will pay more in tax when LMITO ends.

This is true even when the Coalition's promised stage three tax cuts come into effect in 2024-25.

This means more than 10 million households will face a tax hike from 2023.
Earlier this week, Mr Morrison promised no new taxes for the next four years if he is re-elected as Prime Minister.

When asked on Wednesday about the looming tax increase, Mr Morrison said the LMITO was always going to be a temporary measure.

"That was a temporary measure that was set out in budgets and legislation," he said from the seat of Capricornia in Rockhampton.

"We are not changing any of that legislation, we are not introducing any legislation to do that. That is a standing feature of the tax system."

The PM then sidestepped a question from news.com.au about how much more tax low and middle income earners will face on average when the LMITO is abolished.

Instead of revealing how much of a tax hike is on the cards for millions of Aussies, Mr Morrison went on to speak about his party's promise to keep tax rates low.

"What Australians will always face under our government is lower taxes," he said.
"Over the course of the next term, because of what we have already legislated… means that the highest marginal tax rate that Australians will face, 94 per cent of them, is a tax rate no higher than 30 cents in the dollar."

Mr Morrison then took a jab at Labor, claiming people earning $90,000 a year will be $50 worse off per week under an Albanese government.

"That's why I can say that under the coalition government, we can back our Lower Tax Guarantee because we have delivered lower taxes," he said.

"Labor fought us tooth and nail every step of the way, (they were) dragged kicking and screaming.

"We want to ensure that you keep more of what you earn. And the other part of our no new taxes and lower taxes guarantee, we will keep the speed limit on taxes."

Australia's inflation rate soars to 5.1 per cent

Frank Chung

Australia's inflation rate has soared to 5.1 per cent in the 12 months to the March quarter, smashing expectations.

The quarterly rise in the Consumer Price Index was 2.1 per cent, with petrol prices (up 11 per cent) and new dwellings (up 5.7 per cent) the biggest contributors, according to the ABS.

Economists had tipped the annual rate to come in at around 4.5 per cent and the quarterly rate to hit 1.6 per cent.

China deal announcement 'election interference'

Frank Chung

Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews has claimed China's security deal with the Solomon Islands was "political interference" deliberately timed to coincide with Australia's federal election campaign.

In an interview on Brisbane's 4BC radio this morning, Ms Andrews warned it was "very likely" China could station troops in the Pacific nation within the next year.

"Yes I do, I think it's likely that will be the path China will be taking in the Pacific region," she said.

"I think there's a number of things we should be looking at with what is happening for China in the region. And I think one of the things we should be at least taking notice of and paying attention to is the timing of the announcement.

Picture: CPL Brandon Grey/Australian Department of Defence via Getty Images

"Beijing is clearly very aware we are in a federal election campaign here at the moment, and now we have a significant focus on what is happening in the Pacific Islands and what China is doing.

Responding on Twitter, Shadow Defence Minister Brendan O'Connor said Ms Andrews was "so out of her depth in her security portfolio she's embarking on flights of conspiratorial fantasy".

"The government won't accept they have presided over one of the worst policy failures in the Pacific since WWII," he said. "When you mess up, fess up!"

Home Affairs Minister @karenandrewsmp is so out of depth in her security portfolio she’s embarking on flights of conspiratorial fantasy. The Govt won’t accept they have presided over one of the worst policy failures in the Pacific since WW2. When you mess up, fess up! #auspol https://t.co/tlAeMQIfTq
— Brendan O'Connor (@BOConnorMP) April 27, 2022