As it happened: Scott Morrison, Anthony Albanese defend economic records after final TV debate

That’s where we’ll leave today’s live national news coverage.

If you’re just joining us, here’s a summary of today’s major stories:

• Australia’s first-ever high commissioner to the Solomon Islands, Professor Trevor Sofield, told Prime Minister Scott Morrison he will not be voting for him on May 21 because of the way the relationship with the Pacific Islands neighbour had been “mishandled” . Earlier today, Morrison said he doesn’t agree with assurances from China’s ambassador to Australia, Xiao Qian, that Beijing’s movements in the Pacific are not a security threat. “I think it’s of great consequence ... I don’t want to give any amplification for the views of the Chinese government,” the prime minister said today in response to a report by The Australian Financial Review.

Trevor Sofield said he had insight into the way in which Australia ‘totally mishandled’ the Solomons.Credit: James Brickwood

• In a state budget address, Western Australian Premier and Treasurer Mark McGowan said other state and territory treasurers “will look like they swallowed a bumblebee” after reading his state’s budget surplus for the 2021-22 financial year. McGowan’s second budget as treasurer has seen the budget surplus revised up from $2.4 billion to an eye-watering $5.7 billion on the back of higher-than-forecast iron ore prices, property sales and payroll tax revenue.

WA Premier Mark McGowan.Credit: Flavio Brancaleone

• The Liberal MP for the Sydney seat of Reid, Fiona Martin, denied she confused her Labor rival with another Asian-Australian candidate, maintaining claims that Sally Sitou was “seat-shopping” in the inner-west electorate. Morrison has backed Martin, who told 2GB yesterday that Sitou was only running in Reid because she had been ousted by Kristina Keneally and “couldn’t run in Fowler”. Sitou says Martin is confusing her with Labor colleague Tu Le.

• A government has “every right” to say what it believes the minimum wage should be, according to Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Andrew McKellar. He spoke out after Morrison accused Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese of improperly intervening in the economy. Meanwhile, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg refused to say what his government believes the minimum wage should be, saying revealing a figure “has not been our practice and that is not our policy”.

Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry CEO Andrew McKellar says governments can release a preferred minimum wage.

• Finance Minister Simon Birmingham attacked Labor for not yet releasing its policy costings despite the Coalition having previous form in this area. When he was opposition leader, former prime minister Tony Abbott didn’t release the Coalition’s costings until two days before the 2013 federal election. There are nine days to go until election day.

Coalition campaign spokesman Simon Birmingham.Credit: James Brickwood

We’ll be back tomorrow morning with the latest news as it breaks.

Thank you for reading. Good night.

A candidate for Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party will remain on remand until at least three days before the federal election as he faces 13 charges, including using a carriage service to harass.

Ingram Spencer, the UAP candidate in the Liberal-held seat of Higgins, which covers several suburbs in Melbourne’s inner south-east, has been in custody since April 27.

Spencer was due to appear before Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Thursday, but a prison guard told magistrate David Fanning the 38-year-old had refused to come out of his cell.

“I have personally gone in there and told him he has got court,” the guard said on a video link from Melbourne Assessment Prison.

UAP candidate Ingram Spencer.Credit: LinkedIn

Prime Minister Scott Morrison is scheduled to campaign in the Coalition’s key Victorian seat on Friday.

Barring an unforeseen diary change, three sources confirmed he will appear alongside the candidate for the outer-northern seat of McEwen, Richard Welch, at the site of the Coalition’s proposed multi-billion dollar freight hub at Beveridge.

Liberal candidate for McEwen Richard Welsh.Credit: Joe Armao

Labor holds the seat by a 5 per cent margin, but the Coalition believes Labor is vulnerable and has thrown considerable resources into the McEwen campaign.

Labor campaigners believe the party will retain the seat and leader Anthony Albanese predicted a week ago that incumbent Rob Mitchell would be returned with an increased majority.

The Age reported today that federal Labor would not commit to building the Beveridge facility that a local council believes could create 20,000 jobs in the under-developed northern suburbs.

Meanwhile, United Australia Party leader Crag Kelly, who defected from the Liberal Party, will campaign in the neighbouring seat of Hawke on Friday. Clive Palmer’s party hopes to gain a significant level of support in some of Melbourne’s outer-suburban areas.

The exodus from scandal-stricken casino outfit The Star Entertainment Group has reached the boardroom, with Gerard Bradley becoming the first director to signal his exit from the company.

Bradley told the NSW government inquiry into Star’s Sydney casino licence on Thursday that he and other board members needed to take responsibility for its probity failings, which left the casino vulnerable to money laundering and criminal infiltration.

Star Entertainment Group director Gerard Bradley has left the company. Credit: Bloomberg

“I expect that I won’t remain on the board beyond a matter of months, beyond this review,” said Bradley, who has been on the board for the past nine years. “It’s clear to me that I will leave the board in the near term.”

A slew of executives from the ASX-listed Star have already resigned since the inquiry started in March, including CEO Matt Bekier, and the company has flagged “accelerated board change” as its Sydney casino licence hangs in the balance.

Bradley – a veteran director who chairs the Queensland Treasury Corporation – said that although Star management had misled him about what was really going on in the business, with the benefit of hindsight, he “clearly” should have asked more questions.

“But it’s very hard to ask questions when you aren’t aware of certain matters,” he said.

The inquiry was triggered by a series of reports by The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and 60 Minutes last year, which revealed Star was dealing with customers linked to organised crime and was failing to prevent money laundering.

The ASX 200’s retreat gathered another head of steam this afternoon as tech stocks got smashed. The market closed 1.75 per cent lower, down 123.7 points to 6,941.

The latest US inflation numbers spooked the markets and shredded tech stocks both in the US and Australia with the local tech sector dropping an incredible 8.7 per cent.

The country has recorded 55 deaths and 58,083 new cases of COVID-19.

There are now 122 people in ICU and 3,004 in hospital.

Here’s a state by state breakdown of today’s national COVID-19 update.

• NSW: 23 deaths and 12,600 cases.
• VIC: 15 deaths and 14,333 cases.
• SA: seven deaths and 4,696 cases
• WA: six deaths and 16,670 cases.
• QLD: three deaths and 7,271 cases.
• TAS: one death and 1,058 cases.
• ACT: zero deaths and 1,132 cases.
• NT: zero deaths and 323 cases.

The Liberal MP for the Sydney seat of Reid, Fiona Martin, has denied she confused her Labor rival with another Asian-Australian candidate, maintaining claims that Sally Sitou was “seat-shopping” in the inner-west electorate.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has backed Martin, who told 2GB yesterday that Sitou was only running in Reid because she had been ousted by Kristina Keneally and “couldn’t run in Fowler”.

Sitou moved to the Reid electorate in 2019, two years before Keneally became the Fowler candidate, and has never previously stood for pre-selection in the south-west Sydney federal electorate that had been held by retired MP Chris Hayes since 2005.

Sitou, who is Chinese-Australian, said Martin had either deliberately misled the public or mistaken her for Tu Le, a Vietnamese-Australian lawyer who was overlooked in favour of Keneally in Fowler last year.

Martin has denied mixing up the two women.

She doubled down in a Facebook post today, saying she was the granddaughter of Greek migrants and that Reid was the “jewel in the crown” of Australian multiculturalism.

“Our diversity is our strength. My record makes clear I would never direct a racial slur at anyone. There is no place for racism in Australia, and it should be called out,” she said in the post.

She did not clarify the claims she made about Sitou being a failed candidate in south-west Sydney, attacking Labor for distracting her instead.

“I won’t be distracted by desperate political games played by the Labor Party and its seat-shopping candidates,” she said.

Martin said her claims on 2GB were supported by a 2018 article in The Sydney Morning Herald, which reported Sitou was one of 12 candidates touted as a possibility to replace Cabramatta Labor MP Nick Lalich if he retired from state parliament.

But the article makes no mention of Fowler or Keneally, and Lalich never retired from his state seat.

The prime minister threw his support behind Martin during a press conference today.

When a reporter told Morrison that Martin’s claims didn’t add up, he replied: “I don’t accept that, because she’s made that statement, and made it very clear.”

On Twitter, Sitou said it was “frustrating and disappointing” that Morrison had “backed the inaccurate claims about me made by his candidate in Reid”.

“I’m going to spend the next nine days talking to voters about why we desperately need a change of government in this country,” she said.

Royalties from iron ore to feed the steel mills of China have allowed WA to emerge from the pandemic with a surplus while NSW and Victoria face years of growing debt.

The mines in the Pilbara will deliver WA Premier Mark McGowan $10.3 billion this financial year allowing the resources state to record a $5.7 billion surplus and cut net debt for the third year running.

Major mines in the Pilbra will deliver $10.3 billion to the WA government this financial year.Credit: WAtoday

WA is predicting its net debt will be stable at about 50 per cent of revenue for the next five years. In contrast, WA budget papers show Victoria spiralling to a 200 per cent debt to revenue ratio by 2026 and NSW reaching about 120 per cent.

The Pilbara miners - predominantly Rio Tinto, BHP, Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue and Gina Rinehart’s Roy Hill - are predicted to ship more than 850 million tonnes of iron ore in the 12 months to June 30 2022, at an average delivered price of $US139.5 a tonne.

The WA government earns more from iron ore than land tax, stamp duty and payroll tax combined.

Western Australian Premier and Treasurer Mark McGowan says other state and territory treasurers “will look like they swallowed a bumblebee” after reading his state’s budget surplus for the 2021-22 financial year.

McGowan’s second budget as Treasurer has seen the budget surplus revised up from $2.4 billion to an eye-watering $5.7 billion on the back of higher than forecast iron ore prices, property sales and payroll tax revenue.

The figure equals New South Wales’ record-breaking surplus in 2016-17 and is only bested by WA’s $5.8 billion surplus recorded in 2020-21.

McGowan talked up his government’s management of the COVID-19 pandemic, which he said had kept the entire nation afloat and was paying dividends for the state’s coffers.

Western Australia’s premier Mark McGowan is delivering his state budget speech to parliament.

You can watch live below.