Federal election 2016: Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten in Melbourne
Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce has linked the suspension of the live export industry to more asylum seekers coming to Australia by boat.
Federal election 2016 Live Coverage: And that concludes our rolling coverage of the election campaign. There are now 38 days left before the July 2 poll.
10pm:Howard’s greatest fear
Former prime minister John Howard says that his greatest fear for his grandchildren and the future of country is that “the great Australian middle class, which has held this country together for generations, will over time be eroded”.
“One of the reasons for the Trump phenomenon in the United States is because the middle class is becoming markedly poorer,” Mr Howard told Sky News’ Paul Murray, adding that the possibility of a Trump presidency concerned him.
“I think he’s too unstable to hold that high office,” he said. “I’m disappointed that the Republicans, who I feel an affinity for, haven’t been able to find somebody different.”
The former PM, who spent today on the campaign trail in the campaign battleground of Western Sydney with Liberal MP for Lindsay Fiona Scott, said he has “never lost the thirst for a political contest”.
“But others are now in charge,” he joked. “I’m just a supporting act, nothing more.”
The pair talked Liberal policy, including the party’s opposition to the Safe School program, which Mr Howard said should be “thrown in the dust bin, lock, stock and barrel”.
He talked up Turnbull’s business savvy and economic leadership, as well as criticising the “crazy” spending record of past Labor governments and saying that “if you are looking for extremists in this election you have to settle on the Greens because they are way out to the left”.
8.45pm: Xenophon defends donor actions
Independent senator Nick Xenophon has defended his actions surrounding a $175,000 donation made to his party by cashed-up retailer Ian Melrose in an interview with Leigh Sales on tonight’s 7.30 Report, writes Simone Fox Koob.
The South Australian senator said that Mr Melrose – a “lovable eccentric” - does not expect anything in return from the hefty donation, but has “approached” him on a number of issues including whistle-blower protection and East Timor.
Mr Xenophon said that the transaction had “always been a donation” and “never been a loan”.
“What I actually said was it would be nice to be able to pay that back,” he said.
He was asked whether he thought it was reasonable for the Australian Electoral Commission to investigate the donation, which was called for by the Labor party today.
“I think it’s very important the Australian Electoral Commission look at any complaint made,” he said.
8.30pm:‘NBN are protecting Turnbull’
Stephen Conroy has said that the NBN Co are trying to “protect” Malcolm Turnbull and uncover whistle-blowers, writes Simone Fox Koob.
He said he “accepted absolutely what the police say” about the AFP raids on his Melbourne office last week but believes they were carried out in an “attempt to uncover the source of a huge embarrassment to Malcolm Turnbull”.
“Let’s be very clear, the NBN Co are protecting Malcolm Turnbull and their own reputations,” Mr Conroy said on Sky TV’s The Bolt Report. “Malcolm Turnbull could end this… He could say stop it. Malcolm Turnbull received many leaks from inside the NBN that were beat up to embarrass me when I was the minister. And the NBN didn’t call in the police at any stage.
.@AustralianLabor's Stephen Conroy says NBN Co is 'protecting' @TurnbullMalcolm #ausvotes https://t.co/ZQtjldZE8s
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) May 25, 2016
“Malcolm Turnbull, someone who previously defended whistle-blowers, has, through the NBN, set the police on the whistle blowers who have embarrassed him about doubling the costs,” he said. “The key here is that this is about silencing whistle-blowers that have shown that the story being told by NBN about the cost of the rollout and speed are not true.”
It was the first time Mr Conroy has spoken publicly about the affair since it happened.
Host Andrew Bolt, Victorian Liberal Party President Michael Kroger and Mr Conroy also spoke about the political donation story swirling around independent senator Nick Xenophon, revealed by The Australian today.
“Nick has prided himself on being above politics, above all this stuff, now we find this huge donation - that’s a big donation in any sense of the word,” he said. “It’s very murky and it obviously wasn’t a loan. He’ll have to explain that to the AEC.”
Mr Conroy agreed: “The problem for Nick is he has been hoisted by his own petard … If you want to pretend to be pure, you’ve got to live up to it.”
8.20pm:‘Live cattle ban led to more boats’
The Regional Leaders’ Debate is under way in Goulburn and Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has linked the suspension of the live export industry to more asylum seekers coming to Australia by boat.
“When we close down the live animal export industry, it was around about the same time that we started seeing a lot of people arriving in boats in Australia,” he said.
Asked to clarify his comments, the agriculture minister said the ban created an ill-feeling and bad will with Indonesia.
7.40pm:Labor’s animal welfare policy
Federal Labor has vowed to create a new office to police animal welfare if elected, reports AAP.
The independent office will provide advice from issues such as kangaroo culling and puppy farms to commercial animal husbandry. The opposition would also review the nation’s animal welfare export rules and ban cosmetic testing on animals in Australia.
6.50pm:Interview to forget
Labor frontbencher David Feeney has conceded his failure to declare a $2.3 million negatively-geared property has been the opposition’s biggest campaign own-goal.
“I think unfortunately that is a trophy I managed to secure last week,” Mr Feeney told Sky News on Wednesday.
.@Feeney4Batman says his failure was the biggest 'own goal' of the election campaign so far for Labor #ausvotes https://t.co/KGxg7K4Bp9
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) May 25, 2016
Mr Feeney has been facing pressure over his omission of the property in the Melbourne seat of Batman from his parliamentary records.
He said it was a human error for which he’d endured three days of humiliation.
.@Feeney4Batman says the Coalition should cost their own policies, but is unsure of Labor's own spending #ausvotes https://t.co/FwHizhYIBP
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) May 25, 2016
Mr Feeney also seemed to stumble when asked if Labor would keep the school kids bonus, confusing it with the baby bonus.
“I’ve been a little distracted over the last few days,” he said, explaining his misunderstanding.
6.25pm:Abbott to support Jensen rival
Former prime minister Tony Abbott has landed in Perth on a low-key visit to support the new Liberal candidate for the seat of Tangney.
Former Liberal WA state director Ben Morton trounced Dennis Jensen, who is now standing as an independent, for preselection in the seat.
Dr Jensen was the first Liberal to call on Mr Abbott to quit before the unsuccessful party room spill motion in February 2015.
6pm:Feeney bungles on Bonus
The furore over the “black hole” in Labor costings looked dreadful for the government on Tuesday, but Scott Morrison and Mathias Cormann regrouped, writes David Crowe in his day 18 verdict.
Feeney interview exposes Labor’s black hole #auspol #ausvoteshttps://t.co/ot538symTU
— Liberal Party (@LiberalAus) May 25, 2016
The focus on costings is turning into a problem for Labor. Day by day, there are more questions over spending cuts that Labor opposes – as seen late on Wednesday when Feeney could not tell Sky News what the party’s policy was on the Schoolkids Bonus. This is no small matter: it is worth more than $1bn a year to families.
5.10pm:‘Let’s reform donations’
Liberal frontbencher Arthur Sinodinos has been talking to David Speers on Sky and says he will back political donation reform if the coalition is re-elected.
Senator Sinodinos was NSW Liberal party treasurer when money from banned donors was allegedly channelled through a body called the Free Enterprise Foundation before the NSW election in 2011, reports AAP. The cabinet secretary says he had no knowledge of the activity and has told the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption the same.
The foundation has denied it ever broke the law or breached regulatory requirements.
Sinodinos said he wanted changes to the system that would require real-time disclosure of donations and nationally consistent laws. Donating should also be confined to individuals.
“It’s something I will fight for within the party and the government after the election,” Senator Sinodinos said.
4.30pm:Big four banks get $3.8bn free kick
Election-related news: The big four lenders are benefiting from an up to $3.8 billion free kick from an “implicit guarantee” from taxpayers that they would be bailed out in a crisis, according to the Reserve Bank.
In the first valuation of the subsidy by an Australian regulatory body, documents released by the RBA today show that in 2013 the “total subsidy” to ANZ, Westpac, National Australia Bank and Commonwealth Bank was between $1.875bn and $3.749bn. Full story HERE.
3.50pm:Howard’s comeback in Lindsay
Former prime minister John Howard has hit the campaign trail, returning to traditional “battler” country in Sydney’s west. Mr Howard went on a walkabout through Westfield Penrith Plaza with Lindsay MP Fiona Scott, marking a political homecoming to one of the seats which helped deliver his four federal election victories. “It’s one that we captured from the Labor Party the first time when my government was elected and we held it for a long time,” Mr Howard said.
The veteran campaigner was unsurprisingly singing from the coalition’s hymn sheet in Penrith, making sure jobs and growth were never far from the conversation. It is almost 20 years ago since he claimed Liberal Jackie Kelly’s by-election victory in Lindsay attributing it to his slogan of the day — Howard’s battlers.
And on his latest return to the electorate, the 76-year-old weaved his way through cafes and shops, greeting pensioners and families with a hearty “good to see you”.
When the battlers begged for his return, he was quick to point to Malcolm Turnbull’s understanding of the economy. While polls suggest the opposition is getting some traction with voters in the early stages of a marathon campaign, Mr Howard was quick to downplay any sense of Labor’s momentum.
“What always happens in an election campaign is once the campaign starts is that a lot of people for the first time take a bit of notice of the opposition leader. I’ve been there,” Mr Howard said.
Malcolm Turnbull had been due to accompany Ms Scott on a similar visit to Westfield in Penrith two weeks ago but the walk-about was cancelled following a bruising press conference with Ms Scott, dominated by questions about who she voted for in the Liberal leadership spill.
3.25pm:Bishop turns songstress
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, campaigning in the marginal Queensland seat of Petrie, visited the BallyCara retirement village on Brisbane’s Redcliffe Peninsula today where she performed a song with the Bally Boys | WATCH
3.15pm:Cormann explains Shorten gaffe
Matthias Cormann has offerened an explanation for his ‘”caring’’ Bill Shorten gaffe this morning. The government’s campaign spokesman became confused between his leader and the Opposition Leader, telling journalists: “Bill Shorten is very caring and very much in touch and Bill Shorten every single day is promoting our national economic plan for jobs and growth, which of course is exactly what Australia needs given the continued global economic headwinds.”
This afternoon Mr Cormann has tweeted:
I was clearly feeling some sympathy for Mr Shorten this morning, given the size of his budget black hole. #illbeback #ausvotes
— Mathias Cormann (@MathiasCormann) May 25, 2016
3.05pm:ALP laughs off bank slogan threat
A Queensland bank threatening to take the federal Labor party to court over claims its motto has been copied insists it has no political motivations. Lawyers for Heritage Bank have written to both Opposition Leader Bill Shorten and the ALP asking them not to use the “putting people first” motto — adopted as a major campaign slogan for the 2016 election.
Chief executive Peter Lock said the bank had genuine concerns about the potential damage to its brand because it had trademarked the slogan since 2007.
The complaints have been laughed off by senior Labor MPs including Anthony Albanese, who described them as “absurd”. “Next thing you know, someone will try and slap a legal letter about saying ‘vote for me’,” he said in Brisbane’s north. “Labor is putting people first and I thank the bank for making sure that people are aware of our slogan and I hope they continue to make people aware of our slogan.” Mr Shorten was similarly unperturbed by the bank’s concerns. “When I get criticised by a bank, I hardly call that a remarkable event because Labor is committed to a royal commission into the banking sector,” he said. “When you hear a financial institution attacking Labor, I have to say back: Why is it that financial institutions are so desperate to avoid the public scrutiny of a banking royal commission?”
Mr Lock said the bank had no political motivations and was concerned purely with protecting its “much-loved” motto. “As an organisation, we are absolutely apolitical and we don’t seek or have any interest in being involved in the election campaign,” he said.
Mr Lock also denied reports the bank had made donations to the Liberal National Party and said it did not endorse the political inclinations of individual staff members.
2.55pm:“WorkChoices Mark II”
The Australian Council of Trade Unions has accused the corporate sector of pushing for a return to “WorkChoice-style individual contracts”. The nation’s peak business groups today threw their weight behind Malcolm Turnbull’s economic agenda today by mobilising up to 300,000 employers to fight for policies that lift growth, reshaping an election contest dominated by Labor’s spending promises on health and education. Warning that Australia is falling behind other nations on global measures of competitiveness, ACCI will call for tough action to cut red tape and more flexibility in workplace relations so that employers can negotiate individual agreements with workers without unions involved.
ACTU President Ged Kearney said the push amounted to “WorkChoices Mark II”.
“The idea of bringing back individual work contracts and stripping workers of their right to union protection is an abomination,” she said. “ACCI’s agenda is to cut unions out of the bargaining process so workers can be paid less for the benefit of business. Troublingly, ACCI has also used its plan to call for the end of penalty rates, stating that the government needs to ‘minimise inflexible requirements’ for business and remove weekend penalties.”
2.25pm:PM heads to the tropics
The Turnbull bus is departing rainy Melbourne for the warmer climes of Rockhampton, on Queensland’s central coast. Rockhampton is in the coal mining seat of Capricornia, held by backbencher Michelle Landry, who won it for the Coalition for the first time in 15 years at the 2013 election and holds it by a meagre 0.77 per cent.
A born and bred local, Ms Landry made headlines last month when she accused the Prime Minister of being “wish-washy” in his messaging on the economy, following his short-lived proposal for the state’s to collect income tax.
She ran a bookmaking business before entering politics and gained an eight per cent swing when she first stood in 2010, which wasn’t quite enough to get her over the line against longstanding Labor MP Kirsten Livermore who retired ahead of the 2013 election.
Labor’s candidate this time is local school principal Leisa Neaton, who campaigned hard on education when Bill Shorten visited the electorate a fortnight ago.
1.55pm:Turnbull defends tourism funds
🚂 Toot toot! @TurnbullMalcolm @australian #ausvotes @puffingbillyr pic.twitter.com/NkZtCZzBTj
— Rachel Baxendale (@rachelbaxendale) May 25, 2016
Malcolm Turnbull has been asked whether the government had its priorities right in committing $6.5m for a train tourist attraction, and only $10m so far for the business case for the Melbourne Metro rail tunnel.
“I think Melbourne Metro has got enormous potential but the work on it is underdone and, in particular, the opportunity for collaboration with both local government and, indeed, the private sector to ensure more of the value that is created by the uplift in property values is captured,” Mr Turnbull said.
“There’s work to be done yet on Melbourne Metro but I think it’s a very promising project and it’s certainly consistent with our concept of supporting greater mass transit in cities. “We are supporting the Sydney metro, we’ve supported a rail extension in Adelaide and, indeed, on the Gold Coast and indeed in Perth.
“I’m a train enthusiast and not just for steam trains.”
Mr Turnbull is now making his final visit on this trip to Melbourne to local business Daisy’s Garden Supplies in Ringwood, in Liberal backbencher Michael Sukkar’s seat of Deakin in Melbourne’s outer east.
The seat has been won by the party which formed government in every election since 1996, and Mr Sukkar currently holds it by 3.18 per cent.
The Prime Minister will make the visit to the garden supplies small business without the media due to time constraints.
Mr Sukkar, 34, first entered parliament at the last election, having previously worked as a lawyer.
He grew up in his electorate in the suburb of Ringwood with a Lebanese mother and a Norwegian father.
His Labor rival is legally blind disability advocate Tony Clark, who is running under the slogan, “no sight, great vision”.
Next stop for the Turnbull bus is Queensland.
1.40pm:Perth Lib candidate’s botched statement
Oops Perth Liberals.
— Patrick Gorman (@PatrickPG) May 25, 2016
Or should I say [Insert electorate] Liberals? pic.twitter.com/EWFzINdSSw
1.30pm:PM climbs out of black hole over “black hole
Malcolm Turnbull said the Labor Party, not the government, should to explain the opposition’s spending “black hole”, and refused to admit there was a problem with the Treasurer Scott Morrison declaring Labor had made $67 billion of unfunded promises yesterday morning, before admitting the figure was closer to $32 billion later in the day.
“The onus is on the Labor Party,” Mr Turnbull said.
“We have set out a budget which includes all of our revenue and expenditure, of course, over the next four years.”
“We have shown where we are going to spend money and raise it from.
“What the Labor Party is doing is every day Bill Shorten is turning the spend-o-meter as he calls it every day.
“If the Labor Party believes some of those items are not correct or they’ve changed their mind, as they appear to have done about international aid, then they should say so.”
Mr Turnbull said whichever way people looked at it, Labor had a spending black hole, and Bill Shorten could “solve the mystery” as to its size.
“They can solve all of that and demonstrate how big their black hole is, and, if they say there’s no black hole, they can demonstrate with how many new taxes or new borrowings they will fill it with.”
1.17pm:“Carolyn’s made her decision”
Mr Turnbull was asked about the resignation this morning of Liberal candidate for Whitlam, Carolyn Currie, who quit the race for the Wollongong-based seat saying she had received little support from the party and urging voters to consider the Greens.
The Prime Minister said he was sure the government would have a “great candidate flying the Liberal flag” when a replacement is found.
“She’s made her decision as she is entitled to do so but I’m totally focused on jobs and growth and our national economic plan across the country including in the Illawarra,” Mr Turnbull said.
1.15pm:Turnbull - “full steam ahead”
Malcolm Turnbull has highlighted the government’s “full steam ahead” tourism policy at Puffing Billy in the Dandenong Ranges east of Melbourne.
The PM was in the marginal seat of LaTrobe which is held by Liberal backbencher Jason Wood by 4.01 per cent.
Accompanied by Mr Wood and Tourism Minister Richard Colbeck, the Prime Minister announced a $20m package for tourism infrastructure in the Dandenongs.
This includes $6.5m for rolling stock restoration and a new discovery centre at train attraction Puffing Billy.
It also includes $1m to extend the Emerald-Cockatoo bike and pedestrian path to Gembrook, $2.5m for a Ridge Walk, which will connect Upwey and Tecoma to Montrose via Ferny Creek, Sassafras, Olinda, Mount Dandenong and Kalorama, and $10m to widen the Mount Dandenong Tourist Road.
A great train enthusiast, Mr Turnbull met schoolchildren from Birmingham Primary School in nearby Mount Evelyn aboard the train, and discussed the finer points of its engineering with the driver.
He said 6 million people visited the Dandenongs and Yarra Valley every year, and 10,500 people were employed in the local tourism sector.
Mr Turnbull said tourism was Australia’s biggest export, with 9 per cent growth last year, and particularly strong growth out of China.
He said Puffing Billy alone would surpass 415,000 visitors this year.
1.05pm:Candidates break with Labor over fuel rebate
Two Labor candidates appear to have broken from Bill Shorten’s policy of continuing the diesel fuel rebate for the mining industry, writes Sid Maher.
Janelle Saffin and Justine Elliot have appeared in a photograph holding placards which say: “I support a ban on donations from fossil fuel companies and a ban on subsidies to fossil fuel companies.”
The placard was authored by the environmental group 350.org, which has been campaigning to strip mining companies of the diesel fuel rebate.
Miners and the Productivity Commission have argued that the diesel fuel rebate is not a subsidy, and that the tax on diesel fuel is in effect a road user charge which does not apply to off-road activities such as mining.
Recently the retiring Labor resources spokesman Gary Gray told The Australian the diesel fuel rebate would remain in place for miners.
Ms Elliot and Ms Saffin are contesting seats in northern NSW where they are facing an insurgency from the Greens, who last year won the state seat of Ballina
Ms Elliot is the MP for Richmond, once regarded as Nationals heartland, while Ms Saffin is recontesting the seat of Page that she lost to the Nationals in 2013.
Greens leader Richard Di Natale welcomed the Labor candidates’ apparent support for the Greens’ policy.
1.00pm:Cormann’s gift to “caring” Shorten
Matthias Cormann accidentally praises the “caring” Opposition Leader at his daily press conference, the government’s campaign spokesman seemed to become confused between his leader and the Opposition Leader, telling journalists: “Bill Shorten is very caring and very much in touch and Bill Shorten every single day is promoting our national economic plan for jobs and growth, which of course is exactly what Australia needs given the continued global economic headwinds.”
In case you missed it @BillShortenMP has received a rousing endorsement from an unexpected source #ausvotes https://t.co/f8wfTxPVru
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) May 25, 2016
12.55pm:Shorten talks up small business
Bill Shorten has pressed the flesh with constituents in his own seat of Maribyrnong, stopping to take photos and have a chat with locals.
The opposition leader paid a visit to Sims Sports, a third generation small family business, where he has shopped for about the last 15-20 years.
He spoke briefly with manager Mark Hosford and talked up his plans to help small business.
“There wouldn’t be a parent whose boys and girls don’t play in local footy teams and netball teams who don’t come here,” Mr Shorten said. “I’m happy to give Sims a shout.
12.50pm:Peris’ chief-of-staff mulls nominating
Nova Peris’s chief-of-staff, Ursula Raymond, is considering whether to nominate to replace her boss as Labor senator for the Northern Territory.
“I am considering my option to nominate. That’s all I will say,” she told AAP.
The Darwin-born Ms Raymond has worked for the Fred Hollows Foundation, the ABC, the Northern Land Council, and has held board and management committee positions in organisations including the North Australia Aboriginal Legal Aid Service, the Danila Dilba Health Service, Karu Aboriginal & Ilander Child Care Agency, the Top End Women’s Legal Service, and Imparja Television.
12.25 pm:Shorten campaigns on home turf
Bill Shorten has taken his campaign to his own Melbourne seat of Maribyrnong after chatting with ovarian cancer survivors earlier this morning at the Queen Victoria Women’s Centre in the Melbourne electorate of Greens MP Adam Bandt.
The Opposition Leader will hit the pavements and chat to constituents by conducting another “street walk” before the campaign moves north to Darwin.
12.10pm:Turnbull channels Foyle’s War
.@TurnbullMalcolm looks like he's on the set of Foyle's War. Great series that. pic.twitter.com/v7ckH66pzv
— Sarah Martin (@msmarto) May 25, 2016
12.05pm: Labor has “excellent relations” with business
Bill Shorten has agreed with the warning sounded by outgoing Reserve Bank Governor Glenn Stevens of the pressing need for years of hard budget repair work to ensure Australia can navigate future economic challenges, writes Joe Kelly.
The Opposition Leader also defended Labor’s relations with business groups after it emerged that more than 70 industry groups would back Malcolm Turnbull’s economic agenda to stimulate jobs and growth.
“Labor has excellent relations with business, but I don’t think the price of having excellent relations with business should be to spend $50 billion of taxpayer money on a business tax cut,” he said.
“The best things I can do for business is to make sure their workforce is healthy. The best thing I can do for business is make sure they’ve got a well educated and skilled workforce.”
We’ll bring you Joe’s article in full soon.
11.40am:“Pressure” to remove Turnbull posters
The artist who created one of the most popular posters of the election campaign – a dazed Malcolm Turnbull, over the word FIZZA – says he is being pressured to take them down, writes Caroline Overington..
Sydney artist Michael Agzarian says the Australian Electoral Commission contacted him earlier this week to say that the posters were in breach of electoral law, and he could face serious penalties.
‘The guy from the AEC was really great but he said, we’ve had a complaint, this is a political poster and it has to have who authorised it, and your name and address on it, otherwise it has to come down,’’ Mr Agzarian said.
Mr Agzarian asked who had complained. “I was told it was a couple of Liberal Party people. And that makes sense because I heard privately that Malcolm Turnbull absolutely hates the posters. But I didn’t mean to be in the breach of the law. I’m an artist and it’s not something you think about, what is the electoral law?” he said.
The posters, inspired by the famous Barack Obama ‘Hope’ poster, started going up around Malcolm Turnbull’s seat of Wentworth on day one of the campaign, and have swiftly become the most swiped poster of the 2016 election.
Mr Agzarian who hails from Wagga, said: ‘The AEC is being really great, they’re saying if you put stickers on existing ones (posters) then we won’t have to take them down.’ So he went out on his bicycle last night, trying to find existing posters, ‘but I could only find about two of them. I guess they’re pretty popular.’
Mr Agzarian doesn’t live in Turnbull’s seat, so he’s never voted for him; “but the poster taps into a sentiment. I know for a fact that Turnbull used to be on the Labor side and apparently he has a social conscience but it’s very deeply buried.
“There was some hope when he was elected, a lot of promise, but it’s like what (Paul) Keating said about him: you light him up on cracker night and there’s a bit of fizz and then nothing. That’s where I got the idea from.
“The public seems to love it, and I’ve had the biggest compliment from the National Library, who said they are going to archive the posters and anything that’s written on our website www.whatafizza.com as an official part of the history of the 2016 campaign and Turnbull will probably hate that, too. It’s part of history now.’
An AEC spokesman couldn’t say who contacted the artist or why but said: ‘All political advertising has to be authorised.’
Mr Agzarian previously produced a similar poster of Tony Abbott labelled “Hopeless,” without his name and address on it. However as it wasn’t produced during an election campaign it broke no rules.
11.35am: Shorten sorry over event mix-up
Bill Shorten has apologised to a medical centre on the NSW Central Coast after a Labor campaign event never eventuated.
The Hammond Road Medical Centre in Toukley was under the impression it was hosting the opposition leader and his heath spokeswoman Catherine King last week.
Instead they went to a medical practice in Wyong, where Mr Shorten announced Labor would lift a freeze on indexed Medicare rebates.
George Fermanis, who manages the Hammond Road centre, says the clinic went to great lengths to organise the event, including catering, cancelling bookings and clearing the car park.
They expected to hold the event right up until the 10am start but were left stunned when nobody showed up.
“Nothing happened, not even a phone call or a common courtesy” Mr Fermanis told AAP.
“We are pretty pissed.
“If this is how he (Mr Shorten) feels about general practice and small business maybe he should stay on the other side.”
It is understood the clinic was never confirmed as the final location.
When asked on Wednesday whether he would apologise to the centre, Mr Shorten said the party didn’t want to inconvenience anyone.
“But I make no apology for talking about health care for the last seven days,” he told reporters in Melbourne on Wednesday.
11.20am:Peris “relaxed” over resignation
Nova Peris took to Facebook this morning to say she was “feeling relaxed”.over her decision to resign from politics
“I know the door I’ve closed behind me will now be an opened opportunity for another incredible Aboriginal women to become a Senator in the Australian Parliament,” she wrote.
Ms Peris shared a post written by husband Scott Appleton, who’s proud of her for leaving politics on her own terms.
He noted NT senate terms are three years, not six as for state senators “so she leaves after a full term at her free will, not carried out in a box like most”.
“Black white or brindle it’s hard to find anyone that has achieved more in their time at the top level of several chosen fields.
“She’s been criticised her whole life yet she’s still on the grind proving the haters wrong time and time again.” Mr Appleton pointed to emails received by Ms Peris.
“Some of the putrid emails and letters with the most vile racism I have ever seen constantly came her way yet she shrugged them off as she’s done her whole life. Black, Beautiful and Proud!”
10.52am: Shorten on company tax, super
"Labor has excellent relations with business. But I don't think the price... should be spending $50bn on company tax cuts," says Shorten.
— David Crowe (@CroweDM) May 25, 2016"Labor has excellent relations with business. But I don't think the price... should be spending $50bn on company tax cuts," says Shorten.
— David Crowe (@CroweDM) May 25, 2016
Bill Shorten talking of a "shockwave" through super. From a $1.6m cap on super? Who is Labor fighting for on this?
— David Crowe (@CroweDM) May 25, 2016
10.25am:$20m for tourism in Dandenongs
Next stop on the Turnbull bus is train tourist attraction Puffing Billy in the Dandenong Ranges, east of Melbourne.
The PM will talk up the government’s tourism policy in the marginal seat of La Trobe, which is held by Liberal backbencher Jason Wood by 4.01 per cent.
A former counter-terror policeman, Mr Wood was first elected to parliament in 2004, but lost the seat to Labor’s Laura Smyth in 2010 before winning it back at the last election.
This time Labor’s candidate is teacher Simon Curtis.
The Prime Minister will announce a $20m package for tourism infrastructure in the Dandenongs.
This includes $6.5m to upgrade Puffing Billy, $1m to extend the Emerald-Cockatoo bike and pedestrian path to Gembrook, $2.5m for a Ridge Walk, which will connect Upwey and Tecoma to Montrose via Ferny Creek, Sassafras, Olinda, Mount Dandenong and Kalorama, and $10m to widen the Mount Dandenong Tourist Road.
The government says it intends to add to the record 1 million Chinese tourists who visited Australia last year by introducing 10 year multiple entry visas for Chinese tourists, making visas available in Chinese, supporting the designation of 2017 as the Australia-China Year of Tourism, and freezing the Passenger Movement Charge tourist tax at $55 (the Coalition claims it increased by 45 per cent under Labor.
After La Trobe, Mr Turnbull will head to the neighbouring marginal seat of Deakin, which is held by Liberal backbencher Michael Sukkar by 3.18 per cent and has followed the government of the day since 1996.
A 34-year-old lawyer who first entered parliament in 2013, Mr Sukkar grew up in the electorate in the suburb of Ringwood with a Lebanese mother and a Norwegian father.
His Labor rival is legally blind disability advocate Tony Clark, who is running under the slogan, “no sight, great vision”.
10.15am:“I won’t be sacrificial lamb”
More on Carolyn Currie, the Liberal candidate for Whitlam who has resigned from the race, urging voters in the Wollongong-based seat to consider voting for the Greens.
Dr Currie, interviewed on ABC radio this morning, said she lacked the support of grassroots Liberal members in the seat and would not be a “sacrificial lamb”.
“I’m like a general with no troops and it’s very difficult for me to mount any sort of reasonable campaign with no troops,” Dr Currie said.
“(Whitlam) needs a very strong person who can unite a number of people to preserve it - possibly an independent, possibly a Green, but someone with enough leverage in what looks like being a very divided government and instrumentalise the best outcome for this area.
“I can’t offer that and I can’t be a sacrificial lamb.”
Whitlam, formerly known as Throsby, is held by opposition frontbencher Stephen Jones by a margin of 6.6 per cent.
Ex-Lib candidate Carolyn Currie: Whitlam needs a "strong person … possibly an independent, possibly a Green… I can't be a sacrificial lamb."
— Jared Owens (@jaredowens) May 25, 2016
10.10am:Oz election causes stir in US
More on that New York Times piece attacking Australia’s asylum seeker policy/
It was written by Times columnist Roger Cohen, who has penned two articles in one week focusing on Australia’s hard-line policy of offshore processing.
Cohen – who has written extensively about 1940s Germany and 1990s Yugoslavia – argues Australia has followed “textbook rules for the administering of cruelty” including the “progressive dehumanisation” of asylum-seekers.
“They are rarely visible. They are often nameless, merely given identification numbers. Women and children are vulnerable in squalid conditions where idleness and violence go hand in hand,” he wrote.
“The refugees are consistently demeaned, as when the conservative immigration minister, Peter Dutton, said this month that they could not read and would somehow contrive at once to steal Australian jobs and ‘languish in unemployment queues’ — a statement that prompted Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to call Dutton ‘outstanding,’ no less.
“This country’s history includes the long and unhappy chapter of its White Australia policy under which a vast land mass was portrayed as under threat of invasion by uncivilized “natives” from across Asia. Politicians like Dutton are playing scurrilously on similar fears.”
Cohen suggests Malcolm Turnbull, despite his reputation as a Liberal progressive, has “proved beholden to the hard-line right”.
“Clearly both he and Dutton reckon casting the marooned of Nauru and Manus Island as threats to Australia will play well with voters,” he wrote.
Cohen last week compared Australia’s fears of irregular migrants to the hysteria stoked by Donald Trump.
“I left an America raging about refugees and immigration and came to find the Australian immigration minister, Peter Dutton, fuming about ‘illiterate and innumerate’ refugees intent on taking ‘Australian jobs’,” he wrote.
10.05am:Malarndirri McCarthy nominates for Peris spot
Former Northern Territory government minister and journalist Malarndirri McCarthy has confirmed she will nominate for the senate spot to be vacated by Nova Peris.
“I have decided to throw my hat in and nominate for the NT Labor Senate spot,” Ms McCarthy posted on Facebook on Wednesday.
“I sincerely wish Nova Peris and her family all the best with her future plans. It was a privilege to cover the historic occasion of Nova & her family on her entry as the first Indigenous woman into Federal Parliament.”
Ms McCarthy is a Yanyuwa woman from Borroloola, on the Gulf of Carpentaria, and was born in Katherine.
She held the seat of Arnhem as part of the Labor NT government from 2005 to 2012, and held several portfolios, including children and families, child protection, women’s policy, senior Territorians, young Territorians, and statehood.
She was a former ABC newsreader and reporter, and most recently worked for SBS and NITV as a journalist and presenter.
“I am deeply humbled to be invited by the ALP to nominate and will respect the internal process of the NT & Federal ALP in deciding who they choose to represent the NT in the Senate,” Ms McCarthy wrote.
“Thank you to all who have encouraged me in every area of my life, in particular my beautiful sons.”
9.55am:Lib’s Whitlam candidate quits
The Liberal candidate for the safe NSW Labor seat of Whitlam has pulled out of the race, claiming her party’s branch didn’t even want to run a candidate.
Carolyn Currie compared herself to US presidential hopeful Donald Trump, telling ABC radio on Wednesday she had been left to self-fund her campaign but without the wealthy businessman’s resources.
Ms Currie also claimed Liberal Party members told her they wouldn’t be helping, adding it’s “hard leading a group of people in a dysfunctional organisation”.
Ms Currie’s page on the NW Liberals’ website is now a 404.
9.53am:Zero possession for PM
At Richmond Football Club’s Punt Road Oval, Mr Turnbull used the opportunity to highlight the $625,000 already set aside in this year’s budget for the Bachar Houli Foundation.
He and Justice Minister Michael Keenan boys who are part of the program and spoke with Mr Houli of the capacity for AFL to bring the community together.
Participants in the Houli Foundation’s program undertake skill development sessions in communication, decision making, resilience, identity and community values.
They are also encouraged to engage in the local community and promote cultural and social inclusion.
The program has already engaged more than 30 Islamic schools and organisations, with more than 10,000 players taking part.
Disappointingly it was a zero possession game for the PM, who watched on as the boys had a kick.
PM @TurnbullMalcolm congratulates first ever Muslim AFL player Bachar Houli on leadership @Richmond_FC @australian pic.twitter.com/sZDAQXBkyP
— Rachel Baxendale (@rachelbaxendale) May 24, 2016
9.40am:Pyne on Xenophon’s “glass jaw”
Industry Minister Christopher Pyne has taken aim at Nick Xenophon amid revelations the Australian Electoral Commissioner has been asked to investigate alleged illicit loans from a wealthy businessman to the independent senator.
Labor campaign director George Wright has asked the AEC to examine whether $175,000 in declared donations from spectacles retailer Ian Melrose amounted to political loans which are prohibited under federal electoral laws.
Mr Pyne, who is facing Xenophon-backed candidate Matthew Wright in his Adelaide seat of Sturt, noted the senator had previously said ‘if you give someone $1000, you support them; if you give them $100,000, you own them’.
“I’m very cautious to comment on any of this kind of story because Nick always accuses anybody then of picking on him and scrutinising him, but let’s just recap the facts,” Mr Pyne told Adelaide’s 5AA radio.
“There are revelations he’s received $175,000 from one particular businessman. When he was first questioned about this he said that they were a loan and he was going to pay it back, but he’s been further questioned about it today and he’s said it’s not a loan.
“You can imagine if this were a major party Nick would be calling for a judicial inquiry, he’d be calling for a royal commission, he’d be saying it’s the greatest scandal since Fine Cotton Affair, but I’m very cautious to criticise him because I know he’s got a glass jaw.”
9.30am: NY Times attacks Australia’s asylum seeker policy
The New York Times has run an editorial attacking Australia’s treatment of asylum seekers as a policy that follows “textbook rules for the administering of cruelty.”
Times columnist Roger Cohen reprises Immigration Minister Peter Dutton’s statement earlier this month that some refugees were illiterate and innumerate, saying it showed how “refugees are constantly demeaned.”
“By any ethical standard, the policy engages Australian responsibility for cruelty,” he writes.
9.25am:Coalition in “black hole over black hole”
The Coalition is on the back foot after independent analysts rejected the government’s claims of a “black hole” in Labor’s costings of up to $67 million.
The claim, made with fanfare yesterday by Treasurer Scott Morrison and Finance Minister Mathias Cormann, has been criticised for double-counting and including policies yet to be formally adopted by Labor.
The Australian’s economics editor David Uren today wrote that Labor’s fiscal gap was nearer to $10 billion over four years, while political editor Dennis Shanahan criticised the assault as “rubbery”.
Liberal minister Scott Ryan denied the government had overreached, saying the ALP’s fiscal gap was somewhere between $32bn and $67bn.
“Labor has not been specific enough about all their policies to provide an exact number. Some of their policies, such as higher education, don’t even have costings attached to them,” Senator Ryan told Sky News.
Labor frontbencher Ed Husic said the government’s credibility had been wounded by the “black hole in a black hole”.
“I mean it sounds like a B-grade science fiction movie; it was D-grade politics, F-grade accounting but A-plus for political desperation by the government,” Mr Husic said.
“They’ve thrown everything at us including the kitchen sink and failed.”
9.10am:PM at Punt Rd Oval
Malcolm Turnbull’s first stop in Melbourne is the Richmond Football Club’s Punt Road Oval, where the PM will meet Richmond player Bachar Houli.
Houli was the first Muslim to play at the highest level of the AFL and has set up a foundation to encourage young Australian Muslims to take up the sport.
First stop on the @TurnbullMalcolm bus is @Richmond_FC's Punt Road oval #ausvotes @australian pic.twitter.com/oDzbCE0u8a
— Rachel Baxendale (@rachelbaxendale) May 24, 2016
9.00am:Joyce - I’m Depp’s Hannibal Lecter
Barnaby Joyce says he’s become “Hannibal Lecter” for Johnny Depp after the Hollywood star used an appearance on American television to ridicule the Deputy Prime Minister as “inbred with a tomato”.
The Golden Globe-winning actor, who in April released a videotaped capitulation to Australia’s tough biosecurity laws, said he had to “giggle a bit” while filming the apology with his spouse, actress Amber Heard, who was charged with breaching quarantine.
Depp, 52, told the program he did not review the tape before submitting it “because I didn’t want to kill myself”.
“I think that the choice they made to utilise the taxpayers’ dollars to globally chase down a couple of teacup Yorkies and give them 50 hours to live; I realised the badness of my ways, so I was kind of repenting,” he told late night program Jimmy Kimmel Live.
Depp said of Mr Joyce: “He looks somehow inbred with a tomato. I mean, it’s not a criticism, I was a little worried … he might explode.”
Mr Joyce, who has previously acknowledged Depp’s performance was less than convincing, said he was “turning into his Hannibal Lecter”.
“I’m inside his head, pulling little strings and levers. Long after I’ve forgotten about him, he’s remembering me,” Mr Joyce said in Tamworth, according to the ABC.
8.55am:Lambie - “I’ll raise $100 bn”
Independent senator Jacqui Lambie has taken a swipe at Australia’s politicians as she outlines a plan to tax the “super rich” which she says will raise more than $100 billion over the next decade.
The Tasmanian politician proposes a financial transaction tax on high-speed share traders, capital gains tax on “mansions over $2 million” and an inheritance tax on estates worth more than $5 million.
“When politicians speak in Canberra’s parliament it’s not the average Australian we are hearing from anymore. It’s the voice of the people who’ve avoided paying their fair share of tax for years, the foreign interests, or those who have cosy interests with the government,” Senator Lambie told a business breakfast in her home town of Burnie on Wednesday.
8.20am:$580m package for dairy farmers
Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce has unveiled a $578.8 million support package for dairy farmers affected by the slashing of prices by processors Murray-Goulburn and Fonterra.
The plan’s key features include $555m in concessional loans and $20m to accelerate an upgrade of irrigation infrastructure in Nationals-held seat of Gippsland.
An additional $2m was dedicated to establish a commodity milk price index to improve market transparency, and an additional $1.8m to provide business advice and financial counselling.
“I was pleased to meet dairy farmers in Victoria last week and the Coalition wants to send a clear message that the Coalition stands shoulder to shoulder with them,” Mr Joyce, the Minister for Agriculture, said in a statement.
“The Coalition values the contribution our dairy farmers make to their regional communities and the nation as a whole and we are proud to support them throughout good times and bad.”
We’re giving immediate assistance to dairy farmers in crisis. #auspol #ausvotes pic.twitter.com/xchlgOvOsh
— Barnaby Joyce (@Barnaby_Joyce) May 24, 2016
Mr Joyce will tonight face Labor agriculture spokesman Joel Fitzgibbon and Greens leader Richard Di Natale at a regional leaders’ debate in Goulburn.
8.15am:Turnbull found his voice on Jones
The Prime Minister’s first interview in two years with the top-rating Alan Jones was a “brawl-free” 15 minutes, he was able to explain his key policies and mount his significant arguments against Labor. What’s more the atmosphere was friendly and entertaining which is just what Turnbull needs.
Read Dennis Shanahan’s analysis of the interview here.
8.05am: Turnbull - super changes “fair”
Malcolm Turnbull has ruled out changes to the Coalition’s contentious superannuation changes aimed at high-income earners, writes Dennis Shanahan.
The Prime Minister said the superannuation changes, which include a cap of $1.6 million in concessional savings and $500,000 cap on private contributions to concessional funds, were “fair and well targeted”.
Mr Turnbull told Alan Jones on 2GB radio that aim was to get people on middle incomes to finance their retirement and keep off the aged pension but was not about creating a wealth fund.
Backing Scott Morrison’s firm stand yesterday Mr Turnbull said the changes affected only about one per cent of the population and would “enable middle-income Australians to save money”.
Liberal MPs are facing resistance to the changes from Liberal voters and some Liberals are planning to vote against the Coalition in the Senate to block the changes in the new Senate.
8.02am:Listen to the interview
You can listen to Alan Jones’ phone interview with Malcolm Turnbull here.
8.00am:He’ll be back
Jones twice said Mr Turnbull would be back “next week” suggesting another appearance on 2GB is right around the corner.
7.52am:PM tackled on Safe Schools
Mr Turnbull was also questioned about the Safe Schools Program, with Jones raising alarm about 15-year-old students roleplaying as bisexual characters who are often drunk have engaged in unsafe sex with numerous sexual partners.
Jones asked: “Would you want your 15-year-old daughter to have to role model Kelly who says ‘I think I’m a lesbian, but I’m not sure because I’ve also been attracted to boys; I guess it gives me more choice’? I mean, someone, this seems to be endorsed by both Labor and the Coalition – shouldn’t that stuff be wiped out of the curriculum?”
Mr Turnbull replied: “Well Alan, you need to have – there is no substitute for – very active and involved and engaged parents in this area. These areas are very, very sensitive and speaking for the Coalition we believe parents should be right into it.”
Mr Turnbull’s last appearance on Jones’s program saw the then communications minister refuse the broadcaster’s insistence that he swear word-for-word a pledge supporting Tony Abbott’s 2014 budget.
Jones told his listeners Mr Turnbull had “no hope ever of being leader” while the minister castigated the broadcaster as a “bomb thrower” who was damaging the government by attacking moves to compromise on Liberal objectives.
Mr Turnbull told Jones: “Alan, the problem with you is you like dishing it out, but you don’t like taking it.”
7.45am: Turnbull defends super changes
Malcolm Turnbull has defended his controversial superannuation changes during an animated exchange with Sydney 2GB broadcaster Alan Jones — the couple’s first broadcast interview since a clash in June 2014 prompted a two-year boycott by the Prime Minister.
In the cordial phone interview, Jones this morning told the Prime Minister his proposed cap on pension assets at $1.6 million was “really toxic” and was striking at the heart of the Liberals’ constituency.
“Everyone out there, the correspondence I’m getting is frightening, and it’s from your constituency. Would you consider listening to the electorate and raising the cap of $1.6m as a first step towards accommodating these people?” the broadcaster said.
Mr Turnbull refused to cave in, quoting back to Jones his own “very eloquent” argument on 9 February that super concessions were an unsustainable charge on the budget.
“The reality is that we have to live within our means and the super concessions are very generous, they remain very generous, and what we’ve done is dial them back a bit frankly for people with very large incomes and very large super balances — people like you and me for example,” the Liberal leader said.
Jones jokingly protested: “I’m not in your league, PM. I’m not in your league.”
Mr Turnbull chuckled back: “Who knows? Who knows?”
7.30am: Jones: “How do you turn around polls?”
First question on polls - you've got until July 2 to turn it around. How do you do it? #AlanJones @2GBNews @2GB873 #ausvotes
— Olivia Leeming (@olivialeeming) May 24, 2016
7.25am:Labor stoush over motto
A legal stoush is underway over a motto being used by both federal Labor and a Queensland bank.
Lawyers representing Heritage Bank have sent Labor a cease and desist letter over their slogan “putting people first”, which the bank complains is too similar to their “people first” brand. Labor is standing firm, pointing out the bank has ties to the Coalition and arguing the majority of the bank’s customers would not think the similarity meant the bank endorsed Labor.
7.10am:Tourism central to economy
Later this morning, Malcolm Turnbull will head to the Dandenong Ranges, east of Melbourne, to talk up the government’s tourism policy in the marginal seat of La Trobe.
The seat is held by Liberal backbencher Jason Wood by 4.01 per cent.
A former counter-terror policeman, Mr Wood was first elected to parliament in 2004, but lost the seat to Labor’s Laura Smyth in 2010 before winning it back at the last election.
He gained minor notoriety in 2008 when he gave a speech to the House of Representatives making multiple references to “genetically modified orgasms”.
This time Labor’s candidate is teacher Simon Curtis.
As the Prime Minister tours La Trobe with Mr Wood, he is expected to highlight tourism as an integral part of the Coalition’s economic plan, citing an 8.7 per cent increase in international visitors in the year to March, to 7.67 million.
The government claims an 18 per cent jump in tourism exports last year, to $36.6bn, including $8.6bn from Chinese visitors alone, making it our largest services export.
Mr Turnbull will today announce a $20m package for tourism infrastructure in the Dandenongs.
This includes $6.5m to upgrade the famous Puffing Billy train attraction, $1m to extend the Emerald-Cockatoo bike and pedestrian path to Gembrook, $2.5m for a Ridge Walk, which will connect Upwey and Tecoma to Montrose via Ferny Creek, Sassafras, Olinda, Mount Dandenong and Kalorama, and $10m to widen the Mount Dandenong Tourist Road.
The government says it intends to add to the record 1 million Chinese tourists who visited Australia last year by introducing 10 year multiple entry visas for Chinese tourists, making visas available in Chinese, supporting the designation of 2017 as the Australia-China Year of Tourism, and freezing the Passenger Movement Charge tourist tax at $55 (the Coalition claims it increased by 45 per cent under Labor.
7.00am:Jones, Turnbull head to head
The interview will represent the end of a two year boycott by Turnbull, who has not appeared on Mr Jones’s show since Jones asked him to “repeat after me” his support for the Abbott-Hockey team and the 2014 budget.
Mr Turnbull replied, “Alan, I am not going to take dictation from you. I am a cabinet minister,” setting the scene for a memorably tense and highly entertaining interview.
You can relive it here:
And the second part here:
The Prime Minister is due to speak with Mr Jones just after 7am.
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