Federal Election 2019: Campaign Day 17: Shorten in mission to hold Tasmanian seats
Labor leader also agrees preference talks with Clive Palmer might have occurred, as Scott Morrison appeals to farmers.
Hello and welcome to PoliticsNow, The Australian’s live coverage of Day 17 on the federal election campaign trail. Prime Minister Scott Morrison is in regional NSW with a multi-million dollar package to boost the agricultural sector, while Opposition Leader Bill Shorten is traversing Tasmania with pledges for tourism and the Royal Flying Doctor Service.
Greg Brown 6pm: Former rival gets job commitment — but not too much airtime
Anthony Albanese — Bill Shorten’s former leadership rival — made his first appearance with the Opposition Leader of the campaign in Tasmania today, announcing a $120 million tourism package.
Albanese — known for continuing to covet the leadership despite losing the 2013 contest with Shorten — used the press conference to ask his former rival if he could be the infrastructure minister in a Shorten government. Shorten laughed and said yes.
Shorten must have thought it was better than Albanese asking if he could have another run at the leadership given the Opposition Leader’s shaky opening to the election campaign.
Albanese even went on to talk about what a good leader Shorten was.
“I thank Bill Shorten for his support,” Albanese said.
“As the tourism shadow minister, it’s great to have a leader that is prepared to back in good ideas and good announcements like this.”
However, Shorten made sure he rushed back to the centre podium after Albanese took five questions from the press gallery in a row.
Perhaps he thought his new ally was enjoying the attention a little too much.
.@AlboMP breaks down @AustralianLabor's $120 million package for tourism in Tasmania, which includes funding for @monamuseum, Freycinet National Park and The Tahune Airwalk.
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) April 27, 2019
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5.30pm: Shorten’s awkward run-in with voter
Bill Shorten got a rude shock when he was stopped in his tracks by a punter who called him a “prick” on the streets of Hobart earlier today.
But all was forgiven when the woman admitted she had mistaken him for Scott Morrison.
“I haven’t been elected yet,” Mr Shorten said, laughing off the insult as he continued on his walk through Salamanca Markets.
AAP
5.10pm: Nats leader hoses down water inquiry push
Nationals leader Michael McCormack has dismissed fresh calls for a royal commission into the Murray-Darling Basin Plan from a former Howard government minister.
South Australian Liberal and ex-cabinet minister Amanda Vanstone wants a major inquiry into Australia’s water systems with a focus on the basin. The deputy prime minister said southern NSW irrigators were watching water flow past their farms to fulfil environmental outcomes in SA.
“You’re never going to get 100 per cent agreement on the Murray-Darling Basin Plan,” Mr McCormack said on Saturday.
He said the basin plan was an environmental document, but farming communities needed to be protected to help them produce world-leading food and fibre.
“We need to make sure that we don’t cruel our farmers because even Greenies like to eat,” he said.
“Even those people who have got no understanding of the drought, the impacts of the drought or the fact that our farmers are doing it tough.”
Mr McCormack said while blame was being thrown at NSW farmers, including the cotton industry, making wholesale changes to the plan would be a mistake.
“To put that back into the parliament would be to open it up to (Greens MP) Adam Bandt and the Greenie cronies to want even more water taken out of the system,” he said.
Ms Vanstone told The Advertiser she would be happy to see a royal commission, and that it was needed to get the water system for Australia right.
Labor leader Tanya Plibersek said the Murray-Darling Basin Plan was a solid plan but not properly implemented by the coalition government.
“I’m not surprised that Amanda Vanstone as a South Australian is very concerned about the implementation of the Murray-Darling plan because South Australia really sees the impact of this government’s mismanagement of it,” she told reporters in Sydney.
Water management continues to be a sore point for the government during the election campaign, with continued questions about $80 million spent on two water purchases in 2017.
These purchases, made during Barnaby Joyce’s time as water minister, would be the subject of a judicial inquiry if Labor wins government.
The coalition has referred water purchases under governments of both sides dating back to 2008 to the auditor-general.
AAP
4.46pm: Greens’ plan for ‘renewable energy superpower’
The Greens want to transform Australia’s energy system to renewables by 2030, with South Australia leading the way.
The party announced its climate and energy plan on Saturday, saying it would create 6580 clean energy jobs in the state.
The plan includes establishing renewable energy zones and a publicly-owned power grid.
These proposed zones would be in Roxby Downs, Broken Hill, the Riverland, and mid-northern areas of SA.
It also aims to incorporate a new public energy retailer, a shift to electric cars and phasing out of coal burning and exporting, supported by a $1 billion transition plan for workers.
Greens co-deputy leader Adam Bandt said SA could help the rest of the country transition away from coal.
“Coal is the world’s biggest cause of climate change and Australia is the world’s biggest exporter of coal with 80 per cent of it being sent overseas,” he said.
“If you don’t have a plan to phase out coal, you’re not serious about climate change.” Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said SA had the highest uptake of solar panels in the country.
“South Australians want a transition away from fossil fuels and I am fighting for them,” she said.
“The Liberal government didn’t have the guts or the vision to transform South Australia into a renewable energy superpower.”
The plan will drive Australia towards zero-net emissions by 2040 and create 180,000 new jobs nationally.
AAP
Greg Brown 2.20pm: Shorten’s pledge to Royal Flying Doctor Service
Bill Shorten has flown from Hobart to Launceston in northern Tasmania to announce a $7 million funding boost to the Royal Flying Doctor Service in Tasmania.
The city is in the electorate of Bass, held by Labor MP Ross Hart on a margin of 5.42 per cent.
A poll of 847 voters, published in the The Mercury early in the campaign showed the Liberals leading Labor 54-46 per cent on a two party preferred basis.
Labor is being challenged in the seat by Liberal candidate Bridget Archer.
Greg Brown 12.35pm: Indigenous referendum to be ‘fully formed’
Bill Shorten says a Labor referendum on the indigenous voice to parliament would be a “fully formed proposition”.
This is despite Labor’s future indigenous affairs minister (if the party wins), Pat Dodson, telling The Weekend Australian the proposal could be taken to a referendum without a fully formed model.
“What we will do is listen to the Uluru Statement from the Heart and we will argue the case for the voice,” Mr Shorten said in Hobart this morning.
“It will be a fully formed proposition.”
.@billshortenmp: I think it's long overdue for our First Australian's to be included in the nation's birth certificate, the Constitution. I think that we've left it too long.
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) April 27, 2019
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Senator Dodson told The Weekend Australian that, under a Labor government, voters could go to a referendum with guidelines on how a voice “may work”, but its final form would be decided in the parliament if the constitutional change was successful.
“You are not enshrining the model in the Constitution,’’ he said.
“Any model you come up with is always going to be subject to the parliament for modification,” Senator Dodson said. “
“So the model is simply ‘This is how it may work’. The fully legislated entity that sets the model into place is a matter for the parliament to determine. That will always be the case. So we are not entrenching a model once and for all in the Constitution.
“What people are asking for is a head of power in the Constitution that requires a voice to be set up and how you frame that is going to be critical.”
1.30pm: Coalition spends up big for farmers
Show day is always a big event in any country community, but for the people of Gilgandra in central-western NSW Saturday was bigger than usual.
When word got around their local MP, the Nationals’ Mark Coulton, would be joined by the Prime Minister, they figured history was being made. “This is the biggest thing to happen in Gilgandra,” one man said as Scott Morrison entered the showground, near the West farm (see below).
“That’s my show done, that was the best ride I got all day,” another said after shaking the Prime Minister’s hand.
If it was his intention to buck up a community suffering from drought, the smiles on most faces amidst the show bags and champion sheep fleeces indicated he did well.
A small group of protesters angry about the planned route of the inland rail followed him around, but Mr Morrison ignored them.
.@ScottMorrisonMP: The reason we stand by our farmers is that its part of the Australian way of life. It's also a very important part of our economy; 50,000 jobs have been created in agriculture since we came to govt.
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) April 27, 2019
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However, Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack did come back and listen to their concerns once the media pack had passed by.
The Prime Minister went bush with a serious message.
“We’re one whole country and we need to support each other and we need to hold together, particularly when they’re doing it tough,” Mr Morrison told reporters.
“Where ever they need us to stand with them, we will.”
Agriculture minister David Littleproud said it was important to boost people’s understanding of farming, not just to reduce the disconnect between food being grown and eaten,but also to educate the next generation to take on the work.
“Agriculture is sexy again,” he said. “Let me tell you, there’s going to be a quid to be made out here and we’re going to make it.
“The story of agriculture is a good one; it’s just add rain.”
The Coalition has promised nearly $31 million of support for agricultural show societies and programs to bring city kids to farms, and farms to city schools. It’s also offering $54.7m in extra drought assistance, including more financial counsellors — “those angels of the drought”, Mr Morrison said — to help small rural businesses.
AAP
Greg Brown 12.20pm: Labor leader backs foreign-fighters laws
Bill Shorten has taken up Scott Morrison’s test to pass the foreign fighters laws in the first week of a new parliament, in his attempt to cauterise the Prime Minister’s attempt to wedge the major parties on national security.
The Opposition Leader said there was no reason the temporary exclusion orders — that would prevent a foreign fighter returning to Australia for up to two years — would not pass in the first week of the new parliament.
.@billshortenmp on foreign fighter laws: If it wasn't because of a work-shy and lazy conservative govt these laws might already be in. We've got a govt who's organised parliament to sit 10 days in 8 months. No wonder we didn't get to it.
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) April 27, 2019
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Mr Shorten blamed the Prime Minister for the laws being stalled.
“If it wasn’t because of a work-shy and lazy conservative government, these laws might well have already been passed,” Mr Shorten said.
“But as you know, what we have got is a government in Canberra who only wants parliament to sit 10 days in eight months so no wonder we didn’t get to it.”
Greg Brown 11.30am: Shorten says Palmer talks might have happened
Bill Shorten has not denied Labor held preference discussions with Clive Palmer, but claims a deal would have only been struck if the mining magnate paid workers from his defunct Queensland Nickel refinery.
“Whether or not there were conversations, I would not sign off on any deal with Clive Palmer until he resolves the issue of the tens of millions of dollars he owes taxpayers and workers,” the Opposition Leader said in Hobart this morning.
Mr Shorten yesterday said Labor held no “formal” discussions on preferences with Mr Palmer.
The United Australia Party leader claimed this was a lie and he received a call on preferences as late as Wednesday from Labor senator Anthony Chisholm.
John Howard, meanwhile, has defended the Coalition’s agreement with Mr Palmer on his United Australia Party preferences.
Today Scott Morrison defended the coalition’s in-principle preference deal with Mr Palmer’s UAP, AAP reported.
The Prime Minister told reporters in Dubbo that “Labor and the Greens present a far bigger threat to the Australian economy, to people’s jobs, than the UAP does”.
“That’s just a simple fact,” he said on Saturday.
Nationals leader Michael McCormack said the UAP was “far closer” to the government’s supporters than Labor or the Greens.
But the Deputy Prime Minister said while the UAP would be preferenced above Labor and the Greens, their actual spot would be decided on a seat-by-seat basis.
Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese in Hobart with Mr Shorten condemned the deal, calling Mr Palmer a “tosser” and saying he should be “anathema toeveryone”.
“Scott Morrison had a choice between standing up for ripped off workers or sucking up to a tosser who ripped them off and he chose the tosser. He chose Clive Palmer,” Mr Albanese said.
Mr Palmer is set to formally announce UAP preferences on Monday, AAP said.
10.09am: Scullion slams ALP’s indigenous plan
Outgoing indigenous affairs minister Nigel Scullion says it would be the “height of stupidity” to hold a referendum for constitution recognition of Australia’s indigenous peoples without a fully formed model to vote on.
Labor senator Pat Dodson, who would be the indigenous affairs minister under a Bill Shorten-led government, says voters would be given a guide on how a so-called “voice to parliament” may work, but its final form would be decided by parliament ina referendum was successful.
Senator Scullion, who is not standing in the May 18 election, said to suggest the Australian people will support the establishment of a body in the constitution that not even Senator Dodson can explain demonstrates the “absurdity” of this proposition.
“To take a referendum to the Australian people without a clear model of what the referendum will establish is the height of stupidity,” he told AAP.
“Nonetheless, the Morrison Government remains steadfast in our commitment to recognising Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians in the Constitution.”
He said the Morrison Government accepted the bipartisan recommendations of the joint select committee and is now working to implement them to deliver a pathway to a successful referendum.
“What Senator Dodson is suggesting Labor will do if elected will set back the cause of reconciliation,” he said.
Liberal MP Julian Leeser, who helped write “a road map” for an indigenous voice, said this month Labor risked a Brexit-like failure if it rushed to a referendum.
AAP
9.50am: Vanstone calls for water royal commission
Former Liberal cabinet minister Amanda Vanstone believes a royal commission should be held into Australia’s water system with a focus on the Murray-Darling Basin and the eastern seaboard.
Ms Vanstone told The Advertiser in Adelaide she would be happy to see a royal commission, and that it was needed to get “the water system for Australia right”.
“When you start calling for a royal commission I think you’re intimating that there is something wrong,” the former South Australian senator told the podcast.
The buyback issue has dogged the government during the election campaign.
Questions have re-emerged about $80 million spent on two water purchases, with claims they were overpriced and the deals lacked transparency. These purchases, made during Barnaby Joyce’s time as water and agriculture minister, would be the subject of a federal inquiry if Labor won government.
In response to the buyback controversy, the Coalition has referred water purchases from both sides dating back to 2008 to the Auditor-General for an inquiry.
AAP
Greg Brown 9.48am: Labor is positive on Tasmanian seats
Bill Shorten has landed in Tasmania for the first time of the federal election campaign.
The Opposition Leader will start the day at the MONA museum in Hobart where he will talk up Labor’s tourism plans in the Apple Isle.
The museum is in the electorate of Clark, held by independent MP Andrew Wilkie on a margin of more than 17 per cent.
It is the only seat in Tasmania Labor does not hold, with the Liberals targeting the marginal electorates of Braddon, Lyons and Bass.
Labor strategists are confident of holding on to its four seats in the state, despite claims GetUp has not been as effective in its Tasmanian campaigning as in the 2016 election.
Rick Morton 9.42am: Shearing not quite the call for PM
Scott Morrison has visited a 600-hectare property outside Dubbo in the NSW central west where he has had a go at shearing a sheep.
The Prime Minister was reluctant at first, saying he feared the reaction of the RSPCA, but ended up having a crack and impressing the shearers on hand.
Still, it’s not quite a calling.
“I think you should stick with these guys though,” Mr Morrison said.
“I’ll stick with my job, and they can do theirs.”
The sheep and crop property is suffering from the effects of drought, and the owners Kevin and Robyn West have destocked from 900 to 400 sheep.
The Wests have recently been granted the Farmhouse Allowance under the federal government’s drought program.
7.30am: Morrison in NSW, Shorten in Tasmania
Bill Shorten is promising to splash tourism cash across Tasmania as he fights to hold on to three crucial swing seats. The Labor opposition leader is making his first federal election campaign visit to the Apple Isle on Saturday.
Labor won three Tasmanian seats from the Liberals in 2016 and is trying to retain them.
It holds the north-west seat of Braddon by a slim 1.7 per cent margin and knows the unpredictable electorates of Bass and Lyons also turn on a dime. Mr Shorten is pledging to pump $120 million into key Tasmanian tourist attractions to manage growing visitor numbers and unlock more jobs. Hobart’s famous Mona museum would be given $50m for a new convention centre, library, auditorium and playgrounds.
Tourism injects more than $3 billion into the Tasmanian economy each year, and more than 40,000 people work in the sector.
AAP
Primrose Riordan reports: Liberal Prime Minister Morrison is in Dubbo, in western NSW, on Saturday along with his coalition partner, Nationals leader Michael McCormack.
They are expected to visit a local country show to promise nearly $31m of support for agricultural show societies and ways to make sure Australian children understand where their food comes from.
The two leaders will also make a range of promises around extending support and financial counselling to drought-stricken farmers if the coalition is re-elected on May 18.
The government says too many young Australians don’t understand the food and fibre chain.
A 2011 survey of school students found three-quarters of Year 6 students thought cotton socks came from animals and nearly half didn’t know that bread, cheese and bananas came from farms.
A more recent report from the Primary Industries Education Foundation Australia, which published that survey, said the growing gap between food production and its consumption was leading to increased mistrust about the conditions in which food is produced, as well as difficulty attracting younger generations to farming.
And farmers are worried about high-profile protests by animal activists savvy in using social media to get their messages across to young people.
“We won’t allow our kids to be vulnerable to anti-farming campaigns from extremists hellbent on shutting down agriculture,” Mr Morrison and Mr McCormack said in a statement.
Dubbo is in the seat of Parkes, which Nationals MP Mark Coulton holds with a comfortable 15 per cent buffer.
Rick Morton reported yesterday: Mr Morrison barrelled into the Commercial Hotel in the NSW central west wearing an “I love Dubbo” t-shirt.
The Nationals have been ravaged at the state level by the rise of the Shooters & Fishers Party and other conservative independents.
What’s making news:
Scott Morrison vows to make stalled foreign fighter laws a key priority of a returned Coalition government, demanding they be passed by both houses within the first week of the new parliament, setting up an election clash with Bill Shorten over national security.
Labor is considering a Brexit-style referendum on an indigenous “voice to parliament”, with voters asked to endorse a proposal without a fully formed model. Labor’s Pat Dodson, set to be the indigenous affairs minister under a Shorten government, says a final form would be decided by parliament if a referendum was successful.
Paul Kelly writes: Election 2019 will decide who governs but the campaign reveals the poison now running through Australian democracy — the evidence being the effort by Clive Palmer to buy power and the business model of peddling hatred by GetUp.
Caroline Overington writes: The federal election is all over bar the shouting. Over, as in OVER. Labor has it won. The election, scheduled for May 18, is surely … well, a formality?
Former prime minister John Howard defends Scott Morrison’s preferences deal with Clive Palmer despite saying he doesn’t agree with all of the businessman’s policies.
The full identity and background of a candidate Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party has put forward to contest next month’s election remains a mystery, with the candidate refusing to disclose her employment history.
The corporate watchdog will decide whether to pursue Clive Palmer over possible criminal breaches of the law in the next term of parliament, raising the prospect the mining magnate’s nephew could be ushered into a potential Senate vacancy if he is forced to step aside.
Underdog Liberal MP Sarah Henderson is engaged in a back-from-the-dead battle to hold her ultra-marginal Victorian seat of Corangamite but Health Minister Greg Hunt is facing an increasingly difficult task of remaining in parliament.
Zali Steggall has publicly walked away from GetUp amid fallout over its ad depicting Tony Abbott as a lifesaver refusing to help a drowning man. But she seems reluctant to knock back hundreds of campaign volunteers signed up by the activist group.
A union and feminist activist who introduced Bill Shorten and Tanya Plibersek at a Labor women’s event in Melbourne, Van Badham, has a history of writing vulgar and abusive tweets, where she has attacked John Howard’s mother and then opposition leader Tony Abbott.
They’re older, poorer, crankier than most. The voters of Bluewater, north Queensland, in marginal Herbert, have walked away from the major parties and it seems to be the start of something big.
Yesterday’s blog, Day 16, is here.
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