Federal election 2016: Who won Day Nine

Bill Shorten had a difficult Monday; while Malcolm Turnbull had a spectre of his own to deal with.

Bill Shorten will not be the last politician to promise something he cannot deliver.

The Opposition Leader had a difficult Monday as he and his team tried to defend their ground against the Greens by assuring voters they could defend penalty rates.

Shorten tried to have things both ways by saying a Labor government would respect the independent regulator, the Fair Work Commission, and yet also ensure the regulator did not scale back penalty rates.

His solution was to promise a real “intervention” in the matter – by making a submission.

“I have no doubt that if we are successful on July 2, my government will further intervene in the case before the decision to strengthen, only as a government submission can, the case to defend our penalty rates,” he told reporters in Geelong.

LIVE: Federal Election 2016, Day Nine

Rarely has a piece of government paper sounded so powerful. The TV footage suggested the Shorten campaign had come to a halt, much like the Labor bus photographed wedged on a driveway in Port Macquarie.

Tough times for Bill’s bus.

This overshadowed Shorten’s $59 million election promise to support workers in the car industry.

But was it so bad that Shorten was defending penalty rates? The more the election campaign focuses on workplace relations, the more he can spook voters with the spectre of WorkChoices.

The invisible candidate

Malcolm Turnbull, meanwhile, had a spectre of his own to deal with – a missing candidate in Fremantle who has suggested in the past that legalising same sex marriage could lead to polygamy and has criticised the “divisive” idea of indigenous recognition in the constitution.

The Liberal candidate, Sherry Sufi, was nowhere near Turnbull when the Prime Minister visited the electorate on Monday. Turnbull had to curtly reject Sufi’s remarks about same sex marriage before suggesting to journalists that they ask him questions about “jobs and growth” instead.

Turnbull made a strong election pitch at the Austal shipyards in Perth: that Labor had not built a single Australian ship in its last time in power, that the company tax cuts would create jobs, that Labor was divided on asylum seeker policy and that Shorten would “sell out” to the Greens if he had a chance.

Few voters would have seen this message. For now, Turnbull is simply preparing the ground for the attack on Shorten later in the campaign.

Turnbull’s visit to a Darwin pub later on Monday, after he had flown in from Perth, may do him some good when the footage is aired, but it all depends on whether he can break the ice with ordinary voters.

Who won the day?

Monday meant little to the campaign on either side. Turnbull and Shorten fought on the same ground as usual, neither advancing or retreating. There will be more days like it ahead.

The day was a draw.

But don’t worry – there’s a rematch tomorrow.