Federal Election 2016: Turnbull campaigns in Sydney, Shorten in Cairns
The Qld Senate candidate promises to be a thorn in the PM’s side after he said she was ‘not a welcome presence’ in politics.
- So what, I’m a caveman
- ‘Abbott still wants to be PM’
- Big spender: a gift for Chloe
- PM defends Bishop blunder
- Turnbull’s cancer pledge
- Bishop has ‘gotcha moment’
- Shorten’s Queensland plan
- Western Sydney ‘heart of Australia’
- Xenophon’s party a real threat
- Katter’s ‘croc shooting safaris’
- Today’s campaign schedule
Welcome to The Australian’s rolling coverage of the 24th day of the campaign. There are 32 days remaining.
Malcolm Turnbull has been in Sydney pledging $20 million to help establish the Zero Childhood Cancer Initiative. Bill Shorten started the day in Cairns, announcing a $1 billion fund for tourism operators in far North Queensland, before heading to Brisbane.
Today’s biggest talking point has been Julie Bishop’s failure to explain part of the government’s changes to superannuation on Melbourne radio - a “gotcha moment” which the PM defended.
That’s where we’ll leave our live blog for the day. Join us tomorrow for all the latest news from the campaign trail.
8pm:Labor’s rail proposal
Labor has thrown its weight behind two major rail projects, as a senior member urged the party to “reclaim the bush”.
Anthony Albanese delivered the Eddie Graham speech in Wagga Wagga tonight, honouring the late NSW Labor veteran who served as a state MP from 1941-57.
Mr Albanese said “first-rate infrastructure” was the key to tackling rural poverty and unemployment as well as driving the national economy beyond the mining boom.
While the 2016 budget allocated some funds there was still no starting date, Mr Albanese said.
“It is time to make inland rail happen. The planning has all been done. The project should be under construction,” he said. Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce earlier today visited the NSW town of Narrabri to talk up government plans to buy properties for track laying as part of the inland rail project.
7pm:Super changes strike again
Who won the day? David Crowe delivers his verdict, highlighting a policy area that continues to be problematic for the government.
6.30pm:Reprieve for Fierravanti-Wells
NSW Liberal Party heavyweights have yielded to pressure from Malcolm Turnbull, extending the parliamentary career of federal minister Concetta Fierravanti-Wells into the next parliament.
Senator Fierravanti-Wells, from the party’s conservative-right, had faced relegation to the “unwinnable” sixth position on the Coalition’s joint NSW Senate ticket to make way for newcomer Hollie Hughes who enjoyed support of the influential centre-right faction.
The NSW Liberal executive has relegated Ms Hughes to the sixth position, avoiding a damaging split that would have crippled Mr Turnbull’s authority barely one month from polling day.
The ticket runs like so:
1. Liberal Defence Minister Marise Payne
2. Liberal Cabinet Secretary Arthur Sinodinos
3. Nationals deputy leader Fiona Nash
4. Liberal minister Concetta Fierravanti-Wells
5. Nationals senator John “Wacka” Williams
6. Liberal country vice-president Hollie Hughes
7. Liberal retired major-general Jim Molan
8. Liberal Strathfield mayor Sang Ok
9. Liberal activist Sarah Richards
10. Liberal schoolteacher Vicky McGahey
Labor expects to win at least four of the 12 available Senate spots in NSW.
5.40pm:Hanson hits out at Turnbull
One Nation leader and Queensland Senate candidate Pauline Hanson has warned Malcolm Turnbull she’s going to be a “thorn in his side” after he declared she was not a “welcome presence” in Australian politics.
Calling “game on”, Ms Hanson says the Prime Minister’s “arrogance” is “beyond belief”.
“Malcolm I’ve got news for you. I think that’s what makes me so mad, they are so arrogant and their attitude. That’s why I was thrown out of the Liberal Party, because I was standing up on principle,” she says in a Facebook video.
“No actually I ended up walking back in and saying ‘I’m resigning’ because I was not going to be a ‘yes’ person to put up my hand when they told me to put up my hand. So he’s got to get the facts straight. Yeah, okay, they didn’t want me around but my final decision was I’m out of here. I’m going to be a thorn in your side, I tell you what you’re going to be so sorry I’m back in that parliament.”
5pm:An ‘important protection’
Bill Shorten has commented on the Fair Work Commission’s decision to increase the minimum wage by 2.4 per cent, saying the move has given him faith that the independent umpire won’t slash penalty rates.
“I think it is a just decision, I think it is a fair and balanced decision and I think it reinvigorates my confidence that the Fair Work Commission will see off the arguments of the far right to get rid and slash penalty rates in this country,” he said. “I think the minimum wage is one of the important protections in Australian society.
“The decision gets the balance right.”
He said under the Liberal government, wage rises had flatlined, and attacked the party for its position on penalty rates. “When you have got flat wages growth, you see that that has a negative effect on the economy from consumption through to confidence through to even revenue.”
4.25pm:Protesters target the PM
Climate change protesters have been shoved by riot squad police outside UNSW as Malcolm Turnbull exited the university. Yelling “Malcolm Turnbull get out, we know what you’re all about” and “shame Malcolm, shame”, the protesters were by pushed a number of police as the PM got into his car, apparently not fazed by what was going on. The protesters held signs that read “Vote 1 Solar for 100 per cent clean power” and “Will you commit to 100 per cent renewable power by 2030?” Photographers travelling with the PM said they were stopped from leaving the building by his security detail as the protest was happening but eventually managed to get outside to cover the event.
The Turnbull camp has landed in Brisbane, meaning both leaders are staying in the same city tonight.
4pm:A final word from Griffith
Here is @terrimbutler giving Pauline Hanson a serve over her decision to hold campaign launch in Griffith. #ausvotes pic.twitter.com/Ga6uqS3Kmc
— Sarah Martin (@msmarto) May 31, 2016
3.45pm:Coal is part of our energy mix
Still in the seat of Griffith, Mr Shorten has been asked about Labor’s support for the Adani coal mine, given Ms Butler and other Labor MPs had expressed concern about its development.
“The fact of the mater is coal is part of our energy mix going forward, that is my view that is the party’s view,” he said. “A Labor government will focus positively on renewable energy in the
future, it is not an either or.” He said if he won the election, a federal Labor government would not provide any funding for the mine, saying it “has to stand on its own merits, both commercial and scientific”.
Announcing the $1.2m funding for the football club, Mr Shorten said the “only hurdle” for the redevelopment was him winning the election. “If we win this election it is good for this club.”
Mr Shorten was also asked about Malarndirri McCarthy, the replacement senate candidate for the Northern Territory’s Nova Peris. Ms McCarthy is not enrolled to vote in the Northern Territory and is not a financial member of the Labor Party, but Mr Shorten said he was confident she would be able to represent the region well. “Malarndirri has represented the Northern Territory at the assembly level,” he said. “She’s from the Northern Territory, so yeah, I’m confident she can do that.”
3.25pm:Griffith sports boost
Mr Shorten is now at the Coorparoo AFL club in the seat of Griffith to announce $1.2m for an upgrade to the football field with Griffith MP Terri Butler. Another $50,000 will also be granted to Morningside Panthers for their sports club. Ms Butler said the club are doing well and was “robbed in the grand final last year”.
3.15pm:Joyce stands by Indo comments
Barnaby Joyce isn’t backing away from controversial comments linking Labor’s live export ban to a surge in asylum seeker boats. The deputy prime minister believes his comments were grounded by fact, pointing to threats by a senior Indonesian minister last year to release a “human tsunami” of asylum seekers in response to pressure from Canberra over the Bali Nine executions. “People can argue with me all they want but it’s going to be really hard to argue with a senior Indonesian minister,” Mr Joyce told AAP today.
The Nationals leader said he never intended — and didn’t create — a diplomatic incident with Jakarta. But he believes there’s been an over-reaction to the comments. “You can argue about the causation issue, but you can’t argue about the correlation.”
3pm:‘So what, I’m a cave man’
Crossbench senator David Leyonhjelm says he will give the government of the day “the benefit of the doubt” in passing legislation, as long as that legislation does not infringe upon the libertarian principles of his Liberal Democrat party. He has also declared it’s not his problem if contractors he and his party employ do not pay tax.
Senator Leyonhjelm said that if a signature government bill such as the business tax cuts or restoration of the Australian Building and Construction Commission did not reduce liberty or increase taxes, he was inclined to “give the government the benefit of the doubt” and pass it.
“I can tell you that (crossbench senators Jacqui) Lambie and (Glenn) Lazarus are inclined not to give the government the benefit of the doubt,” Senator Leyonhjelm told Sky News. “They’re left-leaning, Labor or Greens leaning, and there’s no goodwill there.”
Senator Leyonhjelm also confessed his party has a spy within its national executive who had repeatedly leaked information to the Liberal Party. The most recent instance involved an email from Leyonhjelm to the national executive discussing replacement options for a staff member who had resigned. “The options were to hire someone else on my staff, so the taxpayers would pay, to hire somebody as an employee of the party, or just use a contractor,” Senator Leyonhjelm said. “When we hire contractors, and this chap wouldn’t be the only contractor that my party hires, the onus to pay tax is on the contractors.
“That’s their problem, it’s not my problem,” he said. “We have other contractors working for the party, and I don’t know whether they pay tax or not. That’s their problem.”
.@DavidLeyonhjelm: @LibDems 'have a spy in our midst' #ausvotes https://t.co/JL0PhYjjTF
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) May 31, 2016
Senator Leyonhjelm said the presence of the spy was a “major concern” and he suspected the person was motivated by loyalty to the Liberal Party over the Liberal Democrats. “We don’t know who it is, at this point. We have our suspects, but that’s as far as I can go with it,” he said. “What astonishes me is that the Liberal Party are enjoying it. They are basically seeing us as bad guys because we’ve got Liberal in our name.”
Senator Leyonhjelm said he wore Opposition Leader Bill Shorten’s description of him yesterday as a “caveman”, as a badge of honour. Mr Shorten made the comments yesterday after Senator Leyonhjelm attacked Labor’s announcement of $21 million to increase the ABC’s coverage of women’s sport as “politically correct nonsense” and a “waste of our money”. “My comment to that was the ABC’s already got $1.2 billion in public funding,” Senator Leyonhjelm said this afternoon. “They should be broadcasting sport that people want to watch irrespective of gender, but if there is an argument that says, it’s sexist what they’re doing, why can’t they take $21 million and fix that. Why are we throwing $21 million of taxpayers’ money at something to feel good? We’ve got a $40 billion deficit, we’ve got a billion dollars a month in interest costs, we can’t balance our budget, neither side of politics is serious about balancing our budget, nobody’s prepared to tackle middle class welfare, and they want to throw money around on a whim, basically. It’s ridiculous. So I’m a cave man for having called him out on it.”
Senator Leyonhjelm said he was reasonably confident that he would get the “three or four per cent” required to be re-elected.
.@DavidLeyonhjelm: 'if women's sport was more popular you wouldn't have to subsidise it' #ausvotes https://t.co/hGftvXbY0s
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) May 31, 2016
2.45pm:Abbott still wants to be PM
Barnaby Joyce believes Tony Abbott still holds ambitions for the Liberal leadership. But the party has moved on, the deputy prime minister says.
“He will want to but he’ll realise he can’t,” Mr Joyce said today, when asked whether Mr Abbott still desired the prime ministership.
“To say that he doesn’t have a desire is ridiculous — to say that he can’t overcome that desire by the reality that’s just not going to happen (is another).”
The Nationals leader said that all politicians were motivated to do their best and Mr Abbott was no exception. Leadership spills don’t quell ambition and don’t result in a “physiological” change.
“Human nature being what it is, people who’ve had that desire will maintain that desire to win,” Mr Joyce said. “Tony Abbott is by nature a very competitive person.”
1.45pm:‘Our next Prime Minister’
Mr Shorten has just walked through Carindale shopping centre meeting voters and flanked by his wife, Chloe and the candidate for Bonner, Laura Fraser Hardy.
The Opposition Leader was greeted warmly by shoppers, one wishing him well “as our next Prime Minister.
Another urged him to buy a bunch of flowers from the nearby florist for his wife.
He later obliged, with his staff organising for him to buy half a dozen orange Colombian roses for $65.50.
Here is the flower moment in Carindale when @billshortenmp gives Chloe a $65.50 bunch of orange Colombian roses pic.twitter.com/5ZKWN4Qki9
— Sarah Martin (@msmarto) May 31, 2016
1.44pm:PM slams Shorten’s credentials
Malcolm Turnbull has lashed out at Bill Shorten’s economic credentials, accusing his opponent of believing the economy will stay strong without putting in “any effort”.
The Prime Minister also laughed off the Opposition Leader’s warning that the government had “endangered” the country’s AAA credit rating.
“Mr Shorten has no plan for economic growth at all ... He is declaring war on business, he is trying to suggest that somehow or other there is a conflict between a strong economy and successful businesses who are paying tax and spending money on health and schools where in fact you can’t do one without the other, every Australian understands that,” he said.
“We have set out a series of enterprise tax measures and they’re very well considered and they are targeted and prioritised on small and medium businesses and Mr Shorten’s opposing them as well. He’s taking a thoroughly anti-business approach and that can only lead to slower economic growth, a weaker economy, weaker (tax) revenues for the government ... and less money to spend.”
Mr Turnbull said it was not “fair” that Australians earning more than $180,000 would continue paying the deficit levy for 10 years under a future Labor government.
“You’re basically saying if you earn more than $180,000, half of what you earn goes to the government. That is a lot of money,” he said.
“My judgment and I think the judgement of most Australians is that you’ve got to strike a balance, so that you grow the pie and then make sure that everyone gets a fair share of it. But you’ve got to be very careful that in your efforts to go after people earning over $180,000 or going after business, which is what Mr Shorten is currently campaigning against, that you don’t end up shrinking the whole pie.
“He just assumes that without any effort on his part the economy will remain strong, that he will be able to levy higher taxes and there’ll be no reaction? He has got this view that you can increase taxes on investment, you can increase taxes on income, you can refuse to give small and medium businesses a tax cut, let alone large ones, and that that will have no effect. He’s kidding himself.”
1.35pm:Greens try to wedge Albo
The Greens are attempting to wedge Shadow Transport Minister Anthony Albanese on the issue of funding for the 33km WestConnex motorway in Sydney.
Mr Albanese is being challenged by the Greens in his inner western Sydney seat of Grayndler, where the road is unpopular, while voters in congested commuter suburbs in marginal seats further from the city say it is desperately needed.
Speaking to Alan Jones on Sydney’s 2GB earlier today, Mr Albanese Mr Albanese stuck by a claim he had earlier made, that the motorway will not get any funding from federal Labor.
But he said Labor was not in a position to stop $1.5bn and a $2bn loan already promised for the project by the Turnbull government.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten yesterday said Labor would not repudiate any WestConnex contracts and would allow the project to go ahead.
The Greens have this afternoon formally requested that federal WestConnex funding be suspended, and accused Labor of being “two-faced” on the issue.
Greens candidate for Grayndler Jim Casey said WestConnex was a major problem for many communities in his electorate.
“It is completely unacceptable for Labor to leave these communities guessing as to whether their homes will be destroyed, play fields lost and air fouled by this private tollway,” Mr Casey said.
Greens NSW Senator Lee Rhiannon accused Mr Albanese of using “weasel words”.
“While Anthony Albanese is telling the community “not one dollar from the federal Labor government” will go towards WestConnex, Shorten’s message yesterday was clear as day: Labor support WestConnex and won’t ‘repudiate any contracts, full stop’,” Senator Rhiannon said.
“Labor are pretending their hands are tied on this. The fact is that $2.3b is due to be paid after the election and Minister Fletcher has confirmed that whether the grant funding is paid is up to the government of the day.”
1.20pm:Greens-Libs ‘arrangement’
Labor backbencher Andrew Giles has launched Labor’s new website highlighting the possibility of the Greens and Liberals doing a preference deal in Melbourne this afternoon.
Mr Giles said that despite selling themselves as the progressive party, the Greens were putting at risk the election of a “progressive Bill Shorten Labor government”.
“The Greens would seemingly prefer to see their own members elected under a returned Turnbull government,” Mr Giles said.
“We know that there are arrangements in place between the Liberals and the Greens.
“We know this because the Liberal Party have told us so through (Victorian Liberal Party President) Michael Kroger.
“But Richard Di Natale hasn’t come clean. That is why today we’re putting the facts before voters.”
He said the Greens attack on progressive politics was epitomised by their campaign against Shadow Transport and Infrastructure Minister Anthony Albanese in the inner western Sydney seat of Grayndler.
Mr Giles encouraged voters in seats like Grayndler, and Batman and Wills in Melbourne’s inner north, to look hard at the priorities of the Greens.
“I think voters in those seats want a government that will invest in saving Medicare, will invest in education, will protect penalty rates,” he said.
“It’s the government of Australia that matters to those people, not the vanity project of the Greens.”
1.12pm:PM defends Bishop blunder
Malcolm Turnbull has defended his deputy Julie Bishop after she failed to explain one of the government’s key superannuation policies. Calling it a “gotcha moment”, Ms Bishop was unable to say how the transition to retirement scheme worked during an at times awkward interview on 3AW. Asked whether this was unacceptable, especially in the middle of an election campaign, the Prime Minister said super was “an area of great complexity”.
“I’m happy to explain the transition to retirement changes if you like but I think you’ll find superannuation is notoriously an area of great complexity,” he said.
“The change is simply this: that when people move generally at around 56, obviously before they get to 65, they can move into what’s called transition to retirement, which provides concessions in the way they can effectively take a pension while they’re still working.
“At the moment the earnings on the account that is part of that transition to retirement arrangement ... are not taxed and under the changes in the budget, which are designed to make super fairer and more flexible, they will be taxed at 15 per cent. It is still a very concessional rate of tax.”
1.11pm:Did Bowen contradict leader?
Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen appears to have contradicted his leader, saying the deficit levy on high-income earners will be permanent.
Earlier, Bill Shorten said a Labor government would keep the budget repair levy for at least 10 years.
The two per cent temporary levy on those earning above $180,000, introduced by the Abbott government in 2014, is legislated to end in mid-2017.
“I said on budget night that Labor would make the top marginal tax rate a permanent marginal tax rate,” Mr Bowen told reporters in Sydney today.
Tax relief across all income brackets would only be considered by a Labor government “when fiscal circumstances allow”.
1.00pm:Hanson ‘not welcome’
Malcolm Turnbull says Pauline Hanson is not welcome in Australian politics.
Ms Hanson, a populist firebrand who champions an anti-multicultural agenda, is standing for a Senate seat in Queensland.
“Pauline Hanson is not a welcome presence on the Australian political scene - remember she was chucked out of the Liberal party,” the prime minister told reporters in Sydney.
12.58pm:McCarthy seeks Peris wisdom
Malarndirri McCarthy, Labor’s candidate to take over from retiring NT Senator Nova Peris, has given a press conference in Darwin with the Labor Member for the NT seat of Lingiari, Warren Snowdon.
Ms McCarthy said she would seek Senator Peris’s wisdom on many of the issues she encountered during her three years in the job.
She also paid tribute to her rivals for the top spot on Labors NT senate ticket, Senator Peris’s chief of staff Ursula Raymond, Yothu Yindi Foundation CEO Denise Bowden, and former federal and NT ministerial staffer Cathryn Tilmouth.
“I think it shows the Australian Labor Party is definitely a party of diversity, a party that does encourage in particular Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and men to stand,” Ms McCarthy said.
Mr Snowdon congratulated Ms McCarthy, saying the party had a job ahead of it to win the election, and she would be a key component of the campaign.
Mr Snowdon holds his seat by a mere 0.88 per cent.
He thanked Ms Peris for her contribution and for calling out racism.
“I know given the now the changes which we’ve made in the party to bring more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people into the parliament, particularly into the Senate, in this case with Pat Dodson recently, there will be a very good group of people with great depth of knowledge and experience to be able to help us forge new policy directions for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people but mostly for all people,” Mr Snowdon said.
A former journalist and NT Labor minister, Ms McCarthy said she had already experienced racism in her previous roles.
“Even in my time as a Northern Territory cabinet minister, and as the member for Arnhem, I did endure in that time unfair, unnecessary accusations for being a woman, being a black woman and never ever really looked at in terms of my qualification and the skills that I brought so I’ve experienced some of that, not to the depth that Nova has and I’m conscious that stepping on the national scene that obviously it is out there and like Nova and like everyone else should in this country racism is just not on and we have to stamp it out straight away,” Ms McCarthy said.
Asked to comment on allegations children were left in dangerous and even deadly situations when she was the minister in charge of child protection in the NT government, Ms McCarthy said too many indigenous children were being removed from their families.
“Child protection is an area that shouldn’t be politicised,” she said.
“We have clearly got to do a lot more as Australians to improve the lives and first nations people and the children who are going into the system across this country.
“As the Minister for child protection, I established a board of inquiry and that board of inquiry was led by the then children’s commissioner Howard Bath.
“There are other factors that we have to consider when looking at children, homelessness, the fact there are not enough houses across the Northern Territory.
“Overcrowding is a large percentage of why there is neglect for our children.”
Ms McCarthy, who has been living in Sydney and recently resigned from a position as a journalist with SBS, said she was “enrolled nationally” when asked whether she was enrolled to vote in the Northern Territory.
She said she had originally left Borroloola, on NT’s north east coast, to move to Sydney to care for her father who was unwell.
Read more about Ms McCarthy in Amos Aikman’s article about her preselection here.
12.57pm:Bill set to walk the walk
Mr Shorten has landed in Brisbane where he is on his way to the Carindale Westfield shopping centre in the seat of Bonner to meet voters.
These shopping centre walks can throw up some surprises for politicians, so hopefully we will see some unscripted interactions to spice things up a bit.
After the shopping centre visit, Mr Shorten will go to the seat of Griffith, held by Labor’s Terri Butler on a 1.76 per cent margin for a sporting event.
But Mr Shorten won’t be taking any more questions from journalists today - these two events are all about making sure there are good pictures for the TV news.
.@billshortenmp's advisers studiously avoiding this one for shopping centre walk #ausvotes pic.twitter.com/SdWCG8hjJg
— Sarah Martin (@msmarto) May 31, 2016
12.28pm:Internship fears misplaced: Morrison
Treasurer Scott Morrison and Employment Minister Michaelia Cash have given a press conference on small business tax cuts and the government’s youth jobs program at a small business in the seat of Boothby in Adelaide’s south.
The seat is held by retiring Liberal MP Andrew Southcott by 7.12 per cent, and Liberal candidate Nicolle Flint is seeking to succeed him.
Liberal MP for the neighbouring western suburbs seat of Hindmarsh, Matt Williams, also joined Mr Morrison, Senator Cash and Ms Flint.
Mr Williams holds Hindmarsh by 1.89 per cent.
Mr Morrison said the Labor Party was opposed to the government’s PaTH youth jobs program, which involves a 4-12 week internship, because the unions were opposed to it.
“This is a plan that will actually help young people who have been unemployed for some time to get on a path to be in a job and get a path off welfare,” he said.
The Coalition's Youth Jobs PaTH is about getting them ready, giving them a go & getting them a job. pic.twitter.com/1aP0t9JwWu
— Michaelia Cash (@SenatorCash) May 31, 2016
Mr Morrison also thanked the Motor Traders Association of Australia, who have announced they will provide internships for 4,000 young people nationally.
The government has committed to funding 120,000 internships over four years.
He said fears about employers replacing employees with interns were misplaced.
“This is for new people coming on for a 12-week work experience,” Mr Morrison said.
“It is not replacing someone in a real job. It is trying to get this person in a real job. I know there are cynics and those who want to have union-run programs so they can quarantine all the cash for themselves and that is how things used to be done, but that is not getting people into jobs,” he said.
“When I was social services minister I saw what the result is if you don’t get a young person into a job.”
Mr Morrison was also asked about jobs in the steel industry, amid the liquidation of steel giant Arrium.
He said the government’s decision to bring forward $80 million of expenditure on steel with Arrium would help.
12.00pm:It’s a real battle: Albo
Let’s catch up with an interview Shadow Transport Minister Anthony Albanese gave to 2GB’s Alan Jones in Sydney earlier.
Mr Albanese said he was facing a battle with the Greens in his inner western Sydney seat of Grayndler.
“If the Liberal Party give the Greens preferences then it will be extremely tight,” he said.
The Greens hold two state seats which fall within Grayndler: Balmain and Newtown.
“On the state figures, more people voted Greens than voted Labor just last March (2015),” Mr Albanese said.
“So it’s a real battle, but I’ve represented the seat for 20 years, I’m campaigning hard, I think many people who don’t normally agree with the Labor Party, from either the Liberal Party or the Greens, this time around are coming up to me this time and saying, ‘we are voting for you in the House of Representatives because we support the work that you do’.”
Mr Albanese said that although he had openly opposed turning back boats during last year’s ALP national conference, he accepts they are now Labor policy, and supports them.
“Some of us, myself included, underestimated completely the fact that there were pull factors as well as push factors when it comes to asylum seekers,” Mr Albanese said.
“So we thought, in terms of compassionate policy, that that policy didn’t make a difference as to whether people were attracted to getting on boats. Quite clearly, it did.
“We made mistakes. I’ve said that, and I was a part of a government that did that. When you get things wrong, you’ve got to ‘fess up, Alan.
“I was the Deputy Prime Minister, of course, Alan, when we changed that policy dramatically, because we did need to do something about those circumstances.”
Mr Albanese said he did not believe people should be in indefinite detention, however.
“They can’t be there forever,” he said. “You can be tough on people smugglers without being weak on humanity.”
Mr Albanese stuck by a claim he had earlier made, that the 33km WestConnex motorway in Sydney will not get any funding from federal Labor.
But he said Labor was not in a position to stop $1.5bn and a $2bn loan already promised for the project by the Turnbull government.
“What we don’t do is rip up contracts or break agreements that are done. It is too late to do that,” Mr Albanese said.
“But my criticism has been they’ve got the planning of this project wrong,” he said.
“What you’ve had is the funding go out and then the planning underway.
“It’s extraordinary that a project where you don’t know where the route is yet, is yet to be finalised, is under construction.”
11.39am:PM’s cancer pledge
Malcolm Turnbull has toured the Children’s Cancer Institute at the University of New South Wales, attached to the Sydney Children’s Hospital, announcing $20m in funding for the Zero Childhood Cancer Initiative and telling medical researchers they’re dealing with the “frontier of science” and emotion.
The Prime Minister was shown where 25,000 cancer samples were stored for genetic analysis, enabling doctors to better target a child’s treatment.
“This is 21st century medicine,” Mr Turnbull declared.
“As you say you’re looking for the Achilles heel to better target that cancer ... As Luce and I know from our work with the hospital, with you at the (Sydney) Children’s Hospital, you deal with emotions in the raw, professor. You really do. You’re dealing at the frontier of science and at the frontier of emotion as well.”
Malcolm Turnbull met with seven-year-old Georgia Burgess, who was diagnosed with cancer at three years old, and six-year-old Lulu Demetriou, who was diagnosed with cancer when she was just eight months old.
The Prime Minister sat down to draw with the girls, colouring in a love heart with magic markers that change colours.
Lulu took a liking to him, telling him what colours to use but got annoyed when he chose the same colour twice.
“Pink! You did this colour.”
“Gosh Lulu you have obviously done this before,” he said.
He kept trying to say goodbye but Lulu wouldn’t let him go until he tried every colour.
When he finally got up, she gave him a huge hug and Mr Turnbull knelt down to hug her back.
“You’re a big hugger,” he said.
“She’s really taken a liking to you,” her mother Josi said.
“It’s mutual,” he said.
She then presented him with him one picture after another.
“That’s enough,” Josi said.
“I’ll treasure that,” he said.
“I’ll put that in my office.
“Ill have a whole gallery, a Lulu gallery.”
.@TurnbullMalcolm says one little girl, a cancer patient, gave him paintings. "She will grow up to be a great painter" #ausvotes @australian
— Rosie Lewis (@rosieslewis) May 31, 2016
“There is no better way to secure our future than by securing the health of our children,” the Prime Minister said. “Little Lulu there with all of her vitality has her whole life ahead of her. She’s given me some of her paintings. And I know that with the care she has here she will grow up to be a great painter. Not just with textas and paper but she’ll drop great things, all of these children will and the strong medicine, the great research here will enable them to do it.”
11.27am:‘Reform doesn’t end with NDIS’
Opposition families spokeswoman Jenny Macklin has pledged a range of services on top of the National Disability Insurance Scheme to help get people with disabilities into work.
Speaking at the National Disability Services conference in Canberra, Ms Macklin flagged new partnerships with not-for-profit bodies, an overhaul of Disability Employment Services and public sector employment targets if Labor wins the election.
Some 53 per cent of Australians with disabilities are in the labour force, compared with 83 per cent for those without. About 27 per cent are in fulltime work.
Disability reform doesn’t begin and end with the NDIS, Ms Macklin said.
“While the NDIS will improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of Australians with disability, many more will still need our support so they too can reach their full potential,” she said.
Under the plan, businesses will be able to access a $1 million fund to develop disability employment action plans.
Ms Macklin gave the example of Telstra, which two decades ago introduced such a plan to boost job opportunities for people with disability, set a timeline and mapped progress indicators.
A new national disability employment framework would be set up, at a cost of $5 million over two years, along similar lines to the NDIS’s key principles of individual choice and control.
“In selected trial locations, people with disability who want to work will be able to choose their own employment supports as part of their individual plan,” Ms Macklin said.
Only 3.1 per cent of Commonwealth public servants are people with disabilities.
A Labor government would work with the Australian Public Service Commission to set targets at a national and departmental level and for leadership positions.
10.56am:Bishop’s awkward interview
Julie Bishop has been unable to explain the transition to retirement aspect of the government’s changes to superannuation, in a self-described “gotcha moment” during an interview on Melbourne radio this morning.
The deputy Liberal Leader’s struggle follows Resources and Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg’s inability to answer the same question earlier this month.
Both were asked about tax changes to the “Transition to Retirement Scheme” in interviews with 3AW’s Neil Mitchell.
Mr Frydenberg said, “I’ll have to get back to you, Neil”.
Asked how the scheme worked, Ms Bishop said: “Well, Neil, this is obviously a ‘gotcha’ moment. It’s not my portfolio.”
When Mr Mitchell told Ms Bishop neither she nor Mr Frydenberg understood the scheme, which is “hitting average people, not the fat cats,” Ms Bishop responded: “I don’t accept that’s the case”.
Watch the interview below:
Ms Bishop said she believed the Coalition would win the election.
“I respect the polls, but they are very volatile at present, as one expects this far out from the campaign, and I believe that they will tighten,” she said.
“I think that people do appreciate Malcolm (Turnbull)’s qualities. I am getting very positive feedback about him.
“The message that I’m getting back from the electorate is they are engaged, they will engage more closer to the election.
“I think they are very engaged about the issue of jobs and the future, and embracing technology and innovation and creative thinking.”
Mr Mitchell interrupted Ms Bishop to ask, “What the hell is ‘innovation’?”
“If I’m sitting in my car from Cranbourne, three kids, mortgage, 70 grand a year, driving to work, what does ‘innovation’ mean to me?”
"If I'm sitting in my car in Cranbourne, driving to work, what the hell is 'innovation'?!" - Neil Mitchell asks @JulieBishopMP #ausvotes
— Rachel Baxendale (@rachelbaxendale) May 31, 2016
“It means doing things differently, more creatively, more efficiently,” Ms Bishop responded.
“They understand that you need business to flourish, you need job security, so businesses have to be nurtured and flourish, people will have jobs, and they understand that jobs are changing, that technology is changing everything we do.”
10.54am:‘Economy continuing to grow’
Treasurer Scott Morrison isn’t about to second-guess the latest growth figures other than to say the economy continues to grow in a tough environment.
Economists are putting the final touches to their growth forecasts ahead of Wednesday’s release of the March quarter national accounts.
At this stage they are forecasting annual growth rate of between 2.6-2.8 per cent - slower than the three per cent recorded over 2015.
“We are seeing our economy continuing to grow in a tough environment,” Mr Morrison told Adelaide’s 5AA radio today. “What they will underscore is it remains a very sensitive time for our economy.” The answer to those challenges was not to follow Labor’s plan of higher taxes, more spending and greater deficits and debt.
“People might like to think it might be different and pretend it might be different but when they were last in government every one remembers the chaos they wreaked,” he said.
Bill Shorten says the treasurer is already in “damage control” on the national accounts.
“I hope they’re good, but all the instinct I have ... tells me that they’re preparing us for more bad news under Liberal stewardship,” he told reporters earlier in Cairns.
10.47am:Banks press ALP over Greens
The Australian Bankers Association has called on the Labor Party to “explicitly rule” out adopting the Greens’ banking and finance policy, which would involve a royal commission to look into “breaking up the banks”. Read the full story here.
10.35am:Million dollar oyster pledge
The Coalition has announced almost $1 million to help the oyster industry combat Pacific Oyster Mortality Syndrome.
The $90 million industry employs around 2000 people, including 300 in Tasmania.
Announcing the assistance in Tasmania today, Assistant Agriculture Minister Anne Ruston and Member for Lyons, in Tasmania’s east, Eric Hutchinson, said they would provide $984,455 to support Australia Seafood Industries to continue a selective breeding resear program into the development of POMS resistant oysters.
“POMS is a significant disease and while we’re working with the industry to contain the spread, an effective long-term solution is to breed oysters that do not feel the effects of this disease,” Senator Ruston said.
The funding adds to $1.47 million of federal funding provided to the Tasmanian Government in April to deliver critical measures to manage, contain and understand the POMS incursion.
Mr Hutchinson said the recent outbreak of POMS in Tasmania was estimated to have cost the local industry more than $12 million.
“The virus is affecting six oyster growing regions in southeastern Tasmania, including Pitt Water, Pipe Clay Lagoon, Blackman Bay, Little Swanport, Dunalley Bay and Island Inlet as well as having been confirmed in a population of wild oysters in the Derwent estuary,” Mr Hutchinson said.
“Not only has the virus hit our local industry hard, it has had a broader national impact as Tasmanian hatcheries provide 90 per cent of the oyster seed Australia-wide.”
10.16am:Next stop, Brisbane
Mr Shorten has finished campaigning in Cairns for the day and is now on his way to Brisbane where he will attend a couple of events this afternoon.
His first event will be in the electorate of Bonner. It’s a Coalition seat, held by Ross Vasta on a 3.69 per cent margin, and the Labor Party is confident it can pick it up.
9.56am:‘Grab wave’ of Asian tourism
Bill Shorten insists his plan to divert $1 billion into Northern Australia tourism won’t come at the expense of vital infrastructure such as highways. The government has dismissed as “pointless rebadging” the plan to prioritise the cash from the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility to tourism facilities.
Labor supported the establishment of the $5 billion facility, but complains the government has done nothing to get it up and running.
Mr Shorten says Labor will keep investing in roads in the top half of the country but also wants to “grab the wave” of Asian tourism expected from a growing middle class.
“I reckon tourism is a jobs generator,” he told reporters in Cairns.
“This is the sort of thing we need to get things going again.” He dismissed suggestions the area would better benefit from the government’s planned corporate tax cuts and redefinition of small business from $2 million to $10 million turnover.
Labor wants to spend the cash on tourism facilities such as stadiums, convention centres, ports and airports.
“We want to see more Asian tourists coming to the north of Australia,” Mr Shorten said.
Resources Minister Josh Frydenberg says the government fund already has money for tourism infrastructure.
“It’s just a money reshuffle,” he told ABC radio.
Northern Australia Minister Matt Canavan is concerned about Labor’s “chopping and changing” after supporting the government legislation earlier in May.
“This is shifting money sideways,” he told AAP.
“I’m concerned it would be the first of many raids.” Senator Canavan concedes areas in the north, including tourism spots, are doing it tough.
But says the government has a 20 to 30 year plan to improve regions through roads and dams funding.
“They’re looking for hope and confidence over the long term,” Senator Canavan said.
Labor’s plan has no budget impact.
9.24am:Bill’s Queensland plan
Bill Shorten says his policy for boosting jobs and tourism in northern Queensland is superior to the government’s proposed corporate tax cuts.
Announcing a $1bn fund for northern Australian tourism projects this morning, Mr Shorten dismissed calls from tourism operators to support tax concessions for small businesses with turnover of less than $10m.
“Absolutely I believe our policy is superior to Mr Turnbull’s,” he said.
“This is exactly the sort of thing we need to get Australia going again. This will generate jobs in the start of all these projects and there will be jobs at the end of these projects on an ongoing basis. And it won’t cost the $50 billion tax giveaway to the big end of town to secure all these jobs.”
Mr Shorten said that despite calls from Tourism Tropical North Queensland for Labor to support the tax cuts to boost employment and confidence, he believed the “numbers don’t stack up.”
“The numbers don’t stack up in terms of the corporate tax giveaway that Mr Turnbull’s providing,” he said.
“Mr Turnbull’s trying to pretend that a $50 billion tax giveaway to the top end of town will miraculously create economic growth.
“It’s a shallow policy from a government with no real economic plan for the future.”
9.12am:Decade of deficit levy
Bill Shorten has confirmed Labor will keep the budget repair levy on high-income earners in place for at least 10 years.
The two per cent temporary levy on those earning above $180,000, introduced by the Abbott government in 2014, is legislated to end in mid-2017.
“It’s the wrong priorities in a time of tough budgetary conditions,” Mr Shorten told reporters in Cairns.
The Opposition Leader was asked about his decision to keep the marginal tax rate for high income earners at 49 per cent for the next decade, including the deficit levy.
When asked if he was providing a disincentive for hardworking Australians, Mr Shorten said he believed “all Australians work hard.”
“I don’t think it’s the case if you earn a million dollars, somehow you’re a more worthy human being than someone who earns $80,000, he said.
“We would like to help reduce the marginal rate of taxation. But you have got to do it when the Budget can afford it.”
On the deficit levy, Mr Shorten said it was a “Liberal idea” that the Labor Party was keeping because he would rather defend the interests of lower income earners than the relatively well off.
“I would love to be in a position where I could tell every Australian everything they want to hear. But that’s not the sort of leadership you will get from me.
“I will tell it straight. And I’m saying it straight right now. It’s a bad idea to give people on a million dollars a $17,000 tax cut when you’re cutting family payments for people on $60,000 a year.”
9.07am:Western Sydney ‘heart of Australia’
Bill Shorten has defended Labor’s decision to nominate western Sydney for its official campaign launch, saying the region is the “heart of Australia”.
The launch is scheduled for June 19 in the marginal Liberal seat of Lindsay, a departure from Labor’s choice of Brisbane for the previous three elections.
“Labor and Western Sydney share common values,” Mr Shorten told reporters in Cairns.
“It’s a community of 2 million people. It’s diverse. There are many great cities in Western sydney. It’s not just one homogeneous city. From Campbelltown to Liverpool right through to Bankstown, right through to Parramatta, it’s a marvellous part of Australia,” he said.
The Opposition Leader, who is hoping to snare a handful of western seats from the Coalition to form government, also said the party’s values “speak to the values of people in Western Sydney.”
“I’ve travelled extensively through my time in Western Sydney. They’re interested in good schools for their kids. They want the best in life for their kids and to give them the pest start possible. They want a Medicare system where it’s your Medicare card not your credit card
which determines the level of health care you get in Australia. They want to see real jobs through infrastructure.”
9.06am:‘A very contested election’
Labor MP Nick Champion has admitted his party is facing a tough contest against independent senator Nick Xenophon’s party in South Australia.
An analysis of Newspoll shows the Nick Xenophon Team has a primary vote of 22 per cent, just five points below Labor.
“There’s no point downplaying it, this is a very contested election in South Australia and so it should be,” Mr Champion told ABC radio.
He said he believed when voters looked at the record of Xenophon candidates on penalty rates, they may not be so enthusiastic about his party.
Innovation and Science Minister Christopher Pyne, who holds the Adelaide seat of Sturt, said the choice between the major parties and the Nick Xenophon Team came down to “stability versus instability”.
“Nick Xenophon and his candidates, almost all of whom are utterly unknown, refuse to say who they would back if they had the balance of power in the House of Representatives,” he told ABC radio.
“So a vote for NXT in the House of Representatives is a vote for instability, chaos and dysfunction and we’ve seen that movie before.”
8.58am:‘No evidence’ for croc call
A crocodile expert says there’s no evidence that Queensland’s crocodile population is out of control, following Federal MP Bob Katter’s earlier call for ‘croc shooting safaris’.
Professor Graham Webb is one of the world’s leading authorities on crocodiles, and chairs the crocodile specialist group of the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
He says croc numbers would have to be culled by something like 95 per cent to make it safe for people to go in the water in croc country, and better managing human behaviour is the answer.
“I don’t think they are out of control in Queensland, I don’t think they are out of control anywhere,” Prof Webb told ABC radio. “To make it safe to go back in the water, you’d really have to reduce the population back to where it was at pre-protection levels.” Prof Webb also rejects Mr Katter’s claims that crocs have flourished because their predators have been removed, and the ecosystem is out of kilter.
“There’s no real evidence for it. People fabricate this type of stuff.” Prof Webb says the Thornton Beach incident is a classic case of misadventure, and it’s implausible that the women were ignorant of the risks.
“To go swimming at night - in a national park everyone knows has crocodiles - is something you just don’t do.”
8.50am:What locals think of Bill
Bill Shorten has begun his press conference in Cairns after having a coffee with his environment spokesman Mark Butler and candidate Sharryn Howes.
Here’s how the locals rate his chances:
While @billshortenmp was having a coffee, @australian asked some locals how they rated his chances #ausvotes pic.twitter.com/uLqKIerprb
— Sarah Martin (@msmarto) May 30, 2016
8.25am:Who will get Senate spot?
The Liberal Party’s NSW executive meets today to decide the order of its Senate candidates, with either Assistant Immigration Minister Concetta Fierravanti-Wells or her former staffer, northern NSW disability advocate Holly Hughes set to be dropped to the unwinnable sixth spot.
Ms Hughes had won top spot before the double dissolution was called, but agreed to be relegated to second in favour of Senator Fierravanti-Wells when Malcolm Turnbull decided to dissolve both houses.
The double dissolution and negotiations between the Liberals and their Coalitions partners the Nationals now see Defence Minister Marise Payne leading the ticket, ahead of Nationals deputy leader Fiona Nash, and cabinet secretary Arthur Sinodinos.
The Liberals have agreed to give fifth spot to National John “Wacka” Williams, leaving Ms Hughes and Senator Fierravanti-Wells fighting over the fourth spot.
Mr Turnbull and Treasurer Scott Morrison are believed to favour Senator Fierravanti-Wells over Ms Hughes.
As Northern Correspondent Amos Aikman writes, the Labor Party last night selected former journalist and NT Labor minister Malarndirri McCarthy to replace Nova Peris at the top of Labor’s NT Senate ticket.
8.15am:Call for ‘croc shooting safaris’
Colourful Queensland politician Bob Katter has called for “croc shooting safaris” to help cull the species and prevent more deadly attacks on humans, writes Simone Fox Koob.
He believes crocodile numbers have reached unprecedented levels because “all of crocodile’s predators have been removed”.
“Nature has a balance and the balance is completely out of whack,” said the Federal Member for Kennedy in north Queensland. “We can put nature back in balance if we have shooting safaris.”
The comments come after NSW woman Cindy Waldron, 46, was dragged under water by a crocodile during a late-night swim in the Daintree National Park on Sunday. Her body still hasn’t been recovered.
Federal MP Warren Entsch holds the electorate where the attack occurred and said yesterday it was an entirely avoidable tragedy.
“You can’t legislate against human stupidity. If you go in swimming at 10 o’clock at night, you’re going to get consumed,” Mr Entsch said.
Mr Katter slammed Mr Entsch’s response, saying “defending crocodiles instead of people is stupid”.
“I can’t believe that Warren Entsch is attacking the people over this,” he said. “And I’d like to get Mr Entsch to swear on the bible that he hasn’t been in a river or creek in North Queensland. The crocs would take one look at him and they’d be licking their lips.”
8.05am:Today’s best opinion
• Contributing Editor Peter Van Onselen writes that Bill Shorten’s campaign has entrenched itself in an ugly class war, seeking to stoke resentment at Malcolm Turnbull’s wealth in the name of discrediting his economic agenda.
• Senior Labor figures have all but given up hope that David Feeney can defeat the Greens in his Melbourne seat of Batman and while Anthony Albanese remains favoured to hold the Sydney seat of Grayndler, party operatives would not be surprised if he also lost, writes Troy Bramston.
• Environment Editor Graham Lloyd writes that coral bleaching has created perfect conditions for a political auction of concern and funding for the Great Barrier Reef.
• Unions donate millions to Labor and the payback is clear in the party’s policies, writes Nick Cater.
• In the middle of an Australian election campaign, when you might expect some talk about vision and strategy, we have heard more about Johnny Depp’s dogs than we have heard about the shape of victory in the war on terror, writes former Chief of Army Peter Leahy.
• The transition from the mining boom to an uncertain future will require strong policy leadership, regardless of who wins the coming election. Following the first leaders’ debate we should be worried, writes former Industries Assistance Commission chairman Bill Carmichael.
8.00am:Need to know stories
While we’re waiting for today’s campaigning to kick off, here are some of today’s key political stories:
• Bill Shorten has lashed out at Labor stalwart Keith DeLacy over his criticism of the opposition’s anti-business agenda, mocking the former Queensland treasurer as a company director who wants a tax cut, as business leaders call for an end to class-war politics. On the other side of the business tax cuts debate, Treasurer Scott Morrison has redoubled his argument for $48.2 billion in cuts.
• A record 30 per cent of women have yet to decide whether they prefer Malcolm Turnbull or Bill Shorten, according to an analysis of Newspolls taken exclusively for The Australian over the past two months.
• Malcolm Turnbull has visited almost twice as many marginal government seats as Bill Shorten in the first 22 days of the campaign.
• Labor’s western Sydney heartland seat of Blaxland has almost one welfare payment made for every person living in the seat. Blaxland tops our list of seats with high levels of welfare transactions, ahead of Wakefield in SA, Hinkler in Qld, Fowler in NSW and Port Adelaide in SA. All but Hinkler are Labor-held.
• The Greens candidate for Anthony Albanese’s seat of Grayndler, Jim Casey, faces more controversy after footage emerged of him telling a 2014 pro-Palestinian rally that the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against Israel had “potential”.
• Greens leader Richard Di Natale told last night’s Q&A the problems of the Labor government under Rudd and Gillard were solely due to the division within the Labor Party, and had nothing to do with his party’s involvement.
• Eco warrior and former businessman Geoff Cousins is targeting Malcolm Turnbull in his own seat, giving the PM’s environmental policies an 11 out of 100 rating in an open letter which will appear in the local Wentworth Courier this week. Labor gets 23 and the Greens 77.
• Investors are rushing to snap up properties before the election in a bid to beat a possible Labor crackdown on negative gearing.
• Accounting giant KPMG has called for an amnesty period to allow people with low super balances to catch up and build a reasonable amount of savings before the government clamps down with its tax cap on contributions.
• Global developer and infrastructure giant Lend Lease has called for urgent industrial relations reform before the election.
• A 64-year-old man from the NSW Central Coast has been charged with allegedly posting an expletive-laden racist tirade on the Facebook page of outgoing Northern Territory Labor senator Nova Peris.
• Beyondblue chairman Jeff Kennett, one of the most influential backers of the Safe Schools program, has threatened to withdraw future financial support, unless the Marxist founder of the program Roz Ward steps down over her comments denigrating the Australian flag as “racist”.
• And finally, perceptions of Sunday night’s National Press Club debate as dull were reflected in its ratings. The debate on the ABC averaged 529,000 capital city viewers, ranking fourth in its timeslot.
7.47am:Turnbull’s cancer pledge
Malcolm Turnbull’s focus will turn to medical research today, promising to invest $20 million to help establish a national research collaboration “Zero Childhood Cancer Initiative” if he wins government. The Coalition says this will provide personalised treatment for children with high-risk cancers through groundbreaking research. About 1000 kids are diagnosed with cancer each year and of those roughly 200 children are diagnosed with cancer that have no cure or do not respond to conventional treatments.
“The Zero Childhood Cancer Initiative will be focused on children with untreatable cancers,” the Prime Minister and Health Minister Sussan Ley say in a statement. “The ultimate aim of this initiative is to push survival rates for childhood cancer up towards 100 per cent.”
The government would establish a “national network” of clinical and research collaborators in every major city to oversee the initiative.
7.10am:Shorten’s tourism boost
Bill Shorten begins his day in Cairns to announce a $1 billion fund for tourism operators in far North Queensland.
It is understood the funding will come from the government’s $5bn Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility which is available for major projects in the north from July 1 this year.
Mr Shorten is again in Leichhardt, held by the Coalition’s Warren Entsch on a 5.8 per cent margin.
6.45am:Today’s schedule
Malcolm Turnbull is campaigning in Sydney, where he and Health Minister Sussan Ley are expected to pledge $20 million to help establish the Zero Childhood Cancer Initiative, providing personalised treatments for children with untreatable cancers. The Australian’s Rosie Lewis is travelling with the Prime Minister.
Bill Shorten starts the day in Cairns, where he will announce a plan to redirect $1 billion of funding earmarked for Northern Australia infrastructure to a specific fund for tourism facilities such as airports and convention centres. He’s then headed to north to Leichhardt, which is held by the Coalition’s Warren Entsch on a 5.8 per cent margin. Our reporter Sarah Martin is travelling with the Opposition Leader.
Greens leader Richard Di Natale is in Melbourne’s north, campaigning with the party’s candidate for embattled Shadow Justice Minister David Feeney’s seat of Batman. Senator Di Natale will announce banking reform measures including the call for a Royal Commission into the banking sector.
Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce will be joined on the campaign trail by his wife, Natalie, for the first time. Mr Joyce will be in Nationals Chief Whip Mark Coulton’s very safe northwestern NSW seat of Parkes today, where he’ll talk up the government’s inland rail commitment and visit a cotton grower and processor in Narrabri.
Labor deputy leader and Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister Tanya Plibersek will today address the Lowy Institute in Sydney on the topic: “How Australia can be a better international citizen”.
Ms Plibersek’s government counterpart Julie Bishop is in Melbourne, campaigning with Liberal candidate and former Human Rights Commissioner Tim Wilson in the blue ribbon seat of Goldstein. They’ll be doing a street walk in the bayside suburb of Hampton.
Treasurer Scott Morrison and Employment Minister Michaelia Cash are in Adelaide, where they’ll be visiting a collision repairs business with Liberal Member for Hindmarsh, Matt Williams, and Liberal candidate for Boothby, Nicolle Flint. Mr Williams holds his western suburbs seat by 1.89 per cent, while Ms Flint is seeking to succeed retiring Liberal MP Andrew Southcott, who had a margin of 7.12 per cent.
Shadow Treasurer Chris Bowen is in his western Sydney seat of McMahon, and will give a press conference about “three years of economic failure” under the Turnbull-Abbott government later this morning.
Shadow Social Services Minister Jenny Macklin is in Canberra today, giving a speech to the National Disability Services Conference on “Disability at Work”.
Shadow Parliamentary Secretary Assisting with Digital Innovation and Startups, Ed Husic, is in Katoomba in the Blue Mountains today, Labor’s candidate for the local seat of Macquarie, Susan Templeman. They’ll be meeting with Blue Mountains Solar entrepreneurs to discuss hybrid solar residential systems. Macquarie is held by Liberal backbencher Louise Markus on a margin of 4.5 per cent.
Shadow Defence Minister Stephen Conroy is campaigning in the marginal Northern Territory seat of Solomon, centred on Darwin, with Labor’s candidate Luke Gosling. Solomon is held by Coalition backbencher Natasha Griggs by a mere 1.4 per cent.
A Liberal contingent including Major Projects Minister Paul Fletcher, Speaker and member for Casey Tony Smith, and former defence and social services minister Kevin Andrews is converging on backbencher Michael Sukkar’s outer eastern suburbs seat of Deakin. They’re announcing a $20 million upgrade to Canterbury Road and an $8 million investment in the Maroondah Highway/Dorset Road/Bellara Drive intersection, both of which are in Croydon. Mr Sukkar holds his seat, which has followed the government of the day since 1996, by 3.18 per cent.
Labor backbencher Andrew Giles, who holds the safe seat of Scullin in Melbourne’s northern suburbs by 14.35 per cent, will hold a doorstop in the city to launch a website highlighting a possible preference deal between the Liberals and the Greens.
Shadow Human Services Minister Doug Cameron is in Townsville today, visiting Australian Hearing’s headquarters with Labor’s candidate for Herbert, Cathy O’Toole. Government backbencher Ewen Jones holds Herbert with a 6.18 per cent margin.
One to watch:
Expect the focus to shift to low paid workers this afternoon, when the Fair Work Commission hands down its latest minimum wage ruling. The minimum wage is currently $656.90 a week or $17.29 an hour. Unions want a $30 a week increase and business and industry say the rise should be between $7.90 and $10.50 a week.
And in case you missed yesterday:
Political Correspondent David Crowe deemed yesterday’s “humdrum contest” between Turnbull and Shorten a draw. Malcolm Turnbull spent the day campaigning in Western Sydney, where he patted a rat, got ambushed by The Chaser’s Craig Reucassel with a life size Tony Abbott cut-out, caught a train and visited a school and defence manufacturer. Bill Shorten spent the day in Cairns, promoting Labor’s plan to protect the Great Barrier Reef.
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