Welcome to week three of the federal election campaign, with Aussies set to head to the polls on May 21.
A spanner was thrown into the works yesterday when it was revealed Australia's inflation rate had gone up to a 21-year high of 5.1 per cent, with the issue suddenly emerging as a potential election gamechanger.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison - who is currently in Cairns - copped a grilling on Sunrise early on Thursday morning on that very issue, insisting he would respect the decision of the Reserve Bank to potentially announce a mid-campaign interest rate rise within days.
It comes as the rising cost of living continues to dominate the campaign, along with national security concerns and employment issues.
Meanwhile, Opposition leader Anthony Albanese remains in Sydney for his final day of isolation after contracting Covid last Thursday afternoon, and is expected to return to the campaign trail tomorrow in Perth.
The prime minister has again downplayed the controversy swirling around Liberal candidate for Warringah Katherine Deves.
Speaking to Sky News on Thursday night, Mr Morrison reiterated that he is backing her in despite her hateful comments about the trans community.
"As you know I've stood strongly to ensure Katherine continues on as our candidate," he said.
The PM told host Chris Kenny that Deves was passionate about keeping female sport for women only.
"She's talking about a very sensible issue. She's talking about women and girls in sport. That's it. I think it's very sensible and I wasn't going to stand there and let people pile on and try to cancel her.
"I think it's important the points she's making."
He said he checks in with Ms Deves "pretty regularly" and mentioned death threats the Sydney candidate says she has received.
"She's okay, but I think we need to take a bit more careful given those threats. I think it's appalling that that should be necessary. We've got to stop walking on eggshells in this country."
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has lashed out at Prime Minister Scott Morrison declaring she's been "kicked in the guts" by the Liberal Party.
After revealing One Nation will tell voters to put Labor first in the race for preferences in key battleground marginal seats, Ms Hanson lashed out at the Liberals.
She blamed their decision to put Jacqui Lambie Network ahead of One Nation in the Tasmanian senate.
News.com.au understands party polling is suggesting Senator Lambie's vote could be as high as 20 per cent in Tasmania – a huge result which helps explain why the Liberals are trying to stitch up a deal with her.
But in doing so, they've put Senator Hanson's nose out of joint. She told Sky News she made no apologies for turning on the Liberals in other seats in retaliation.
"They've reneged on their word. This is what they've done to me. I am not going to keep getting kicked in the guts by the Liberal Party,'' she said.
"I am no one's lackey. The Libs need to stand up for what their party stands for, conservative values.'
Ms Hanson announced on Thursday that the seats One Nation will preference Labor include the marginal seat of Bass in Tasmania, held by Liberal MP Bridget Archer on a razor-thin margin of 0.4 per cent.
The others are Tim Wilson in Goldstein, Trent Zimmerman in North Sydney and James Stevens in the South Australian electorate of Sturt.
She also listed independent Helen Haines in Indi in her announcement.
“The Liberals need a wake-up call and I’m more than happy to provide it,” Senator Hanson said.
“They are no longer the conservative party Australians knew.
Speaking to Sky News' Chris Kenny on Thursday night, the PM said he has bigger issues on his mind aside from preferences.
"A government that has to negotiate for its existence every single day of the week is going to make Australia weaker," Mr Morrison said.
Asked if he would speak to Ms Hanson about the matter, he said: "The party organisation negotiates preferences. I get on and do the job of prime minister."
Jacqui Lambie has fired back at Pauline Hanson in a statement, telling voters: "Pauline's got her facts wrong."
Lambie flatly rejected the suggestion made by Hanson earlier in the day that Prime Minister Scott Morrison had a done a preference deal "with the devil" that would favour the Tasmanian Senator ahead of One Nation.
"We’re not letting them get away with this dirty deal with the devil,” Senator Hanson told The Australian.
“One Nation will now look at Liberal-held seats across the country.”
Instead of talking to me about preferences, the media should be asking Scott Morrison why he is prepared to hand Jacqui Lambie the balance of power, someone who hates the Liberals and votes consistently against them. -PH
But in a statement on Thursday afternoon, Lambie hit back.
"Pauline's got her facts wrong. There's no deals done," she wrote.
"Questions about Liberal Party preferencing are for the Liberal Party to answer. Just like questions about One Nation preferencing are for One Nation to answer.
"As for us being the 'green-left', Pauline doesn't know what she's talking about. I vote with the government 50 per cent of the time. The Greens vote with the government 5 per cent of the time.
"I don't know what makes me 'green-left' other than not agreeing with Pauline all the time?"
Lambie continued: "But she's right. I don't agree that we should ban autistic children from schools, she does. I don't agree we should cut the take-home pay of low-income workers, she does. I don't agree that people in public housing are drug-addicted alcoholics like she does.
"I don't agree that the Port Arthur massacre was a government conspiracy. She thinks that."
'I don't accept it': Howard dismisses housing crisis
Former prime minister John Howard has dismissed the crippling housing crisis while speaking to reporters in Brisbane on Thursday.
As the cost of housing skyrockets, Mr Howard said, simply: “I don’t accept there is a housing crisis."
He went on: “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.”
He dismissed cost of living concerns as something has always existed.
“There are cost of living pressures now, there always are cost of living pressures.
“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.”
Mr Howard said that economy has responded well to two-and-a-years of the pandemic 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.”
His comments followed new researched reported last week that showed exactly how hard – often impossible – it can be for young people to rent in Australia's capital cities, let alone afford to buy a home.
Liberal Party MP Gladys Liu has left a Labor candidate to "debate an empty chair" by pulling out of an ABC broadcast at the last minute.
Gladys Liu, who is contesting the ultra-marginal Victorian seat of Chisolm, was expected to appear alongside Labor candidate Carina Garland in a conversation moderated live on ABC radio by host Raf Epstein.
But ABC Melbourne reports Ms Liu pulled out of the event with no explanation.
Liberal @GladysLiuMP has pulled out of our broadcast in Chisolm. We have not been told why.
ALP’s Carina Garland will be debating an empty chair.
Come along and see us at the Glen Shopping Centre.
Shadow home affairs minister Kristina Keneally has fired up when talking about the issues facing Sydneysiders, particularly those in her electorate of Fowler.
Keneally was speaking at a press conference alongside Labor MP Jason Clare on Thursday when she was asked about what she would deliver for her electorate.
"This is an area of Sydney that's got … people earning about $500 a week when the average is $660 a week and they've got the same housing costs as the rest of Sydney," she began.
"It's an area of Sydney where only 8 per cent of the population has achieved university education."
Ms Keneally went on to explain how the "housing affordability crisis" felt around the country "bites exceptionally hard in Fowler".
"So this is what I say to you. If people want action on housing affordability they need to vote Labor. 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."
She went on, appearing to talk about issues that impact all Australians rather than just those in her electorate.
"I know you're going to say, 'Oh, gosh, but is that specific to Fowler?'. And I say to you, hell yes it is because the people of Fowler in southwest Sydney have been done over by this government and they deserve a strong and experienced voice in the heart of government and that's what they'll get an Albanese government."
Shadow Treasurer Jim Chalmers has continued to rip into the PM, accusing him of being a "pathological liar".
After being asked by a reporter about Labor's policy to pay superannuation on paid parental leave and the Cashless Debit Card age pension "scare campaign", Mr Chalmers took it as an opportunity to launch into attack mode.
"It’s the same as what they said before the 2013 election – no cuts to the pension, no cuts to the ABC or health or education," he said.
"People don’t believe this Government for good reason. You know, the Prime Minister is a pathological liar when it comes to these issues.
"He was saying not that long ago there wouldn’t be increased taxes under a Liberal-National Government. There are increases in the budget they handed down last month.
"You can’t believe a word that he says. And so our commitment, our assurance to Australians is that we will abolish the Cashless Debit Card. The Prime Minister and the relevant minister, this term of the Parliament, have talked about extending it, and that’s the difference."
Shadow Treasurer Jim Chalmers has held a press conference in Sydney during Opposition leader Anthony Albanese's final day in Covid isolation.
He took the opportunity to lay into the Coalition's economic track record, and to dismiss a major LNP claim about wages.
"This Morrison government has taxed more, or borrowed more, and spent more than previous Labor government but delivered much less. That is part of their legacy," Mr Chalmers said.
"After a decade in office, this government's give to Australians is skyrocketing cost of living, falling real wages, interest rate rising and $1 trillion in public debt. "
He said the government needed a plan to address the "big entrenched challenges" facing the nation.
"The government, they say there is absolutely nothing we can do to get wages growing. That is complete and utter rubbish," he said.
"The government has admitted that stagnant wages are a deliberate design of their economic policy. Getting wages growing is a deliberate design feature of ours."
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has agreed to two more debates with Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese.
On Thursday morning, Mr Morrison confirmed he had accepted two debates with Channel Nine and Seven.
"I'm hoping Anthony has had a week of recovery from Covid. It takes a little while to get over I can attest to that personally, but he'll be rejoining the campaign trail soon," Mr Morrison said.
The PM said it was time to make up for "lost time", adding he had committed to two debates next week.
"Seven and Nine both offered me two debates next week. I'm happy to do both of them," he said.
"I said I'd do three. I've already done one.
"He said he'd debate me anywhere, anytime. So Seven and Nine. They've booked the hall and I'll be there."
The first debate between the leaders was hosted by Sky, with the 100 undecided voters in the room declaring Mr Albanese the winner.
Following the grim news yesterday that Australia's inflation rate had gone up to a 21-year high of 5.1 per cent, a brand new threat has emerged for the PM – and it could cost him dearly.
The Reserve Bank is poised to jack up the cash rate to combat rising inflation, with experts expecting a rate rise as soon as next Tuesday.
That would mean Australia would be in the very rare situation of facing an interest rate rise in the middle of an election campaign.
The last time that happened was back in 2007 – and it ended with Kevin Rudd defeating John Howard after 11 years of Coalition government.
With that precedent hanging over him, reporters have been grilling the PM today over whether he could end up meeting the same fate as Howard – although Mr Morrison has insisted he's not worried about the prospect of an interest rate rise next week, maintaining it's a matter for the Reserve Bank.
Traditionally, the RBA rarely hikes rates during election campaigns because it doesn't want the issue to become a political football and it wants to remain independent.
But with inflation surging, the RBA could face questions about why it hasn't increased rates if it holds firm next week.
"Prime Minister, in 2007 during the Howard election, rates went up. He apologised. He went on to lose the election. Will you apologise if they go up next week and will you suffer a similar fate?" Mr Morrison was asked during this morning's press conference.
"Well, look, I have been around politics a little while and I've also been around the economy a long while," Mr Morrison replied.
"And the first point to note is that in 2007 the cash rate was 6.5 per cent. Today, it is 0.1 per cent. So, I think to draw an equivalence between those two issues would be to misunderstand history. They are very different situations.
"We are in the middle of a global pandemic with a war in Europe. Those situations were not in place in 2007. I think everyone would understand that and, more importantly, I think Australians understand that. They're not ignorant of the issues that are happening around the world."
Scott Morrison is facing an ominous new threat. Picture: Sky News
Jim Chalmers declined to directly answer whether a total of forecasted $122.1bn in deficits will increase in the mid-year budget update set to be released on Wednesday.
