Federal election 2019, campaign Day 29: Shorten forced to clarify immigration policy
Bill Shorten says there are “no arrangements to talk with Malaysia” after his deputy raised the failed Malaysia solution.
- Morrison to go it alone at launch
- Turnbull weighs in on climate
- Shorten ‘not across the detail’
- Clive Palmer hits out
- Labor eyes US help on refugees
Hello and welcome to PoliticsNow, The Australian’s live blog of the happenings on the election campaign hustings. Both leaders start the day in Canberra after the final leaders’ debate. There are just nine days to go until polling day.
Top story: Bill Shorten says there are “no arrangements to talk with Malaysia” after his deputy Tanya Plibersek raised Labor’s failed Malaysia solution.
Michael Roddan 6.10pm: Calls for debates to be opened up to minor parties
A federal election leaders’ debate featuring Pauline Hanson would expose One Nation as “charlatans with no policy and a platform based on hate”, according to Greens Leader Richard Di Natale.
The Greens have called for a broader suite of the political spectrum to be included in national televised debates, after Scott Morrison and Bill Shorten agreed to establish an independent umpire to put an end to jousting about leaders’ debates at the next election.
One Nation was contacted for comment.
The Prime Minister and the opposition leader have regularly traded blows over the timing and format of three televised debates during this year’s federal election campaign.
Wrapping up their final bout at the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday night, both men agreed to embrace the US system of a debates commission, in a bid to avoid any future controversies.
In the US, debate participants have needed to secure a 15 per cent share of the vote to be included in the commission’s debate, which, if adopted, would exclude minor parties such as the Greens, Palmer United Party and One Nation from the contest. The Liberal National Party in Queensland secured 8.5 per cent of the vote in 2016, while the National Party gained just 4.6 per cent of the vote – well below the 11 per cent collected by the Greens.
“Australia’s political debates should be a central part of our contest of ideas, not a tired exercise of going through the motions,” Di Natale said. “We’d clearly need to establish a threshold, and we’re open to discuss what it should be. We know that a debate with people like Pauline Hanson would expose them for what they are: charlatans with no policy and a platform based on hate,” he said.
“Morrison and Shorten were on a unity ticket several times last night, but only their final act of bipartisanship is good news. With both leaders agreeing to an independent debates commission and with no legislative hurdles in the way, we must have one assembled before the next election,” he said.
“An independent umpire would put a shot in the arm of our political debate: making sure our political leaders are asked tough questions that reflect the diversity and views of our community.”
Rosie Lewis 2.55pm: Doctors back Labor’s cancer package
Australia’s cancer doctors have rejected Scott Morrison’s claims they will charge patients higher fees under Labor’s plan for cancer specialists to bulk-bill for some services.
Private Cancer Physicians of Australia, the peak body for cancer doctors, initially warned it could not guarantee patients would be bulk-billed for specialist oncologist and surgical consultations but now it had the details it supported Labor’s $2.3 billion package.
“We believe our members would adopt the proposed $150 ‘bulk bill’ fee in the spirit of which it has been designed, that is to lower fees for our cancer patients,” PCPA president Christopher Steer said. “As anyone going through a cancer battle would know, there are significant out of pocket expenses for treatment.”
Richard Ferguson 2.35pm: Why Wong snubbed Birmingham
Labor senate leader Penny Wong says she refused to shake Trade Minister Simon Birmingham’s hand at a debate yesterday because he made a “partisan point” on Labor’s stance on China.
“I did not give a partisan answer. Senator Birmingham did not follow the same approach … it matters to us in the Labor Party,” she said.
“We (Senator Birmingham and I) have had a good relationship, we’ve had robust exchanges.
“He hasn’t asked for an apology and I wouldn’t expect it.”
Rosie Lewis 2.10pm: No big business tax deal with UAP: Morrison
Scott Morrison has given an absolute guarantee he did not discuss or strike a deal to revisit tax cuts for big business in the next term of parliament with United Australia Party leader Clive Palmer.
The Coalition and UAP have done a preference deal for the federal election.
“I can absolutely rule that out. Absolutely 100 per cent, 100 per cent rule out that we will not be increasing or reducing taxes for businesses of more than $50 million in the next term of parliament. Never had a discussion with the UAP about it. Weren’t looking to have one. They didn’t ask for one. So that is an absolute thing I can categorically, completely rule out,” the Prime Minister said.
“That’s what ruling something out looks like, Bill. You don’t say, ‘I have no plans for it’, or use some sort of mealy-mouth sort of words to get around it. That’s how you rule something out, you say ‘you’re not going to do it’.”
Mr Morrison asked Bill Shorten in the final leaders’ debate last night if he could guarantee house prices would not go down or rents go up under his plan to limit negative gearing to new dwellings.
The Opposition Leader dismissed the question as a scare campaign and said the biggest falls in house prices had happened under the government’s watch.
Rosie Lewis 2pm: Labor can’t do better on US deal: PM
Scott Morrison says the US resettlement deal for refugees on Manus Island and Nauru still has “a lot of scope” with hundreds of positions to be filled, as he mocked a future Shorten government’s ability to clinch a better agreement.
Asked if the deal for the US to take up to 1250 refugees should be extended, the Prime Minister said: “There is a lot of scope in the current deal. We are continuing to have people take up the offer to go and be relocated and resettled in the United States.
“It does strike me as strange that the Labor Party, in particular Tanya Plibersek and Bill Shorten, who have been fairly colourful in their descriptions of the Trump administration, would think that they would be in a stronger position to achieve a better arrangement. I find that a little odd.
“We’ve still got hundreds of positions that can be filled under that arrangement.”
Dennis Shanahan 1.45pm: Morrison to go it alone
No former Liberal Party Prime Ministers will be attending the Liberal Party campaign launch in Melbourne on Sunday.
Malcolm Turnbull is in New York and will not be attending, Tony Abbott will not leave campaigning in his besieged seat of Warringah as he fights off a concerted GetUp and independent campaign to remove him and John Howard, travelling back from London after attending an Order of Merit luncheon with the Queen on his way to Perth, will not attend.
Scott Morrison will have no “miserable ghosts” or star campaigners from previous eras at the launch unlike Bill Shorten who had Paul Keating, Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard sitting in the front row at the Labor launch last Sunday.
Leadership instability and Liberal disunity have been the greatest disadvantage for the Prime Minister during the campaign.
The absence of former leaders will allow the Liberals to focus on Mr Morrison in a launch which is expected to be lower key than the ALP’s Brisbane launch.
Rosie Lewis 1.20pm: Shorten forced to clarify immigration policy’
Bill Shorten has been forced to clarify Labor’s immigration policy after his deputy Tanya Plibersek raised the prospect of revisiting the Gillard government’s failed Malaysia solution when talking about third-party resettlement of refugees on Manus Island and Nauru.
The Opposition Leader, campaigning in the marginal Queensland seat of Petrie, said there were “no arrangements to talk with Malaysia’’ after a resettlement deal. However he left open the prospect of resettlement in New Zealand.
Ms Plibersek today also indicated Labor could ask the United States to take in more refugees than the 1250 agreed to from offshore processing centres, under a deal clinched between the Turnbull and Obama governments and maintained by Donald Trump.
Mr Shorten would not rule out renegotiating the detail.
“There’s no arrangements to talk with Malaysia. We’re not the government,” the Opposition Leader said.
“(The) New Zealand (deal) has been on the table for four, five years. You’ve gotta ask yourself why the government hasn’t pursued it. Do they want to prolong this issue to score political points? I know that the government wants to scare people about boats. I’m calling that out.
“The point about it is, if we’ve got people who have been in indefinite detention already for six or seven years, let’s move them on. Let’s find third-party countries, that’s all. Let’s not fall for the government’s scare campaign.
“We are committed to maintaining strong borders. We have made it clear we will do boat turn backs where the defence authorities and border security say it is safe to do it. We are committed to the view that anyone who comes by boat via a people smuggler will not be processed and settled in Australia, full stop.”
The Labor Leader was unable to say if a future Shorten government would try and close the so-called backdoor for any refugees sent from Manus Island and Nauru to New Zealand to come to Australia but insisted he would use the “same formula” as the Coalition when negotiating resettlement deals.
New Zealand has offered to take 150 refugees from Manus Island and Nauru.
“(The government) should be ashamed of themselves, signalling the people smugglers a week out from the election to try their hand. They will find us completely resolute, working with border security, exactly as we should,” Mr Shorten said.
Rosie Lewis 1pm: Boats policy under scrutiny
The Coalition has put border protection at the centre of the election campaign, which follows comments by deputy Labor leader Tanya Plibersek, with Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton claiming Labor had gone “soft on turning back boats”. Read more here
Rachel Baxendale 12.50pm: Greens candidate sees red
The Greens candidate for the inner southeastern Melbourne seat of Higgins, Jason Ball, has seized on comments made by his Liberal opponent Katie Allen, accusing her of characterising migrant groups as homophobic during a debate on ABC Radio National last night.
Dr Allen was asked about the Liberal Party’s decision not to disendorse its candidate in the northern Melbourne seat of Scullin, Gurpal Singh, after Mr Singh linked same-sex marriage to paedophilia.
“Well that candidate has unreservedly apologised, and he comes from a background where those sorts of views are more widely held,” Dr Allen said of Mr Singh, who is Indian.
“With regards to the marriage equality debate, we know for instance in Western Sydney had one of the lowest support for marriage equality because of some of the migrant populations.”
Radio National Drive host Patricia Karvelas asked Dr Allen whether it was fair to generalise about migrants having views which liken same-sex marriage to paedophilia.
“Oh, absolutely. It’s an unacceptable, completely unacceptable, but what I’m saying is when I was handing out for marriage equality, the people in Higgins who were less likely to support it often came from an Indian background, because in that culture it’s a very different situation, and often people said, ‘we are, we don’t know if we feel comfortable with it, but we want to vote Yes for our children, because our children do’,” Dr Allen said.
Mr Ball said it was “quite frankly wrong” to suggest that Mr Singh’s comments reflected “views more likely to be held by migrant communities”.
“As a gay man, I’ve had a lot of love and support from people from all walks of life,” Mr Ball said.
“Migrant communities are not homogenous. Like other sectors of society they hold a variety of different views. I’ve had support from many migrant families in my work to promote LGBTI inclusion in sport.
“It is an unfair characterisation of those diverse communities and would likely be regarded as extremely offensive to people from the Indian community who do support LGBTI Australians and their right to marry who they love.”
Higgins is considered a three-way contest between paediatrician Dr Allen, LGBTI candidate Mr Ball, and former Law Council president Fiona McLeod, who is Labor’s candidate.
It is currently held by retiring Liberal frontbencher Kelly O’Dwyer with a margin of 10.1 per cent.
Greg Brown 12.35pm: PM: we’ll win this election
Scott Morrison has assured a room of 100 retirees that he will “win the election” and protect the “quiet army” of Australians who would be raided by Bill Shorten’s tax and spend agenda.
The Prime Minister left an audience in the NSW mid north coast electorate of Cowper he was in no doubt he would defeat the Opposition Leader at the May 18 poll.
Mr Morrison told the receptive audience he would respect the savings of retirees as he lashed Labor’s planned changes to dividend imputation.
“We are going to win this election,” Mr Morrison said at a leagues club in Port Macquarie this morning.
“I think there are millions of Australian out there who between elections are not reading papers or following the political news everyday. They are too busy living their lives and fulfilling their responsibilities to others. They are caring for their parents, or they are caring for kids, or they are just being the decent, honest good hardworking Australians that they are.
“But they turn up every three years at elections and they take a good hard look at what the options are and they are doing that right now.”
Mr Morrison said he would defend “quiet army” of Australians who “don’t have time to be shouting about politics”.
“I find this right across rural and regional Australia and in the suburbs in our big cities, there is this quiet army of Australians, they are not shouty and they do not make a lot of noise,” he said.
“Do you know why? They are too busy raising kids, getting them off to school, running, small businesses, working hard, looking after grandkids, paying bills, paying taxes.”
After his speech, Mr Morrison spoke to retirees and later called out the bingo numbers.
Scott Morrison calls out the bingo numbers at a leagues club in Port Macquarie. One lady says “you’re pretty good at thisâ€. He hits back: “I’m going to stick to my current jobâ€. pic.twitter.com/5hNwuvB3KM
— Greg Brown (@gregbrown_TheOz) May 9, 2019
Joe Kelly 12.20pm: States go to war with Labor
Three state treasurers warn Bill Shorten’s negative gearing and tax changes will cost up to $1.4bn a year, and put a dent in GST revenues. Read more here
Greg Brown 11.50am: Roads warrior
Independent candidate for Cowper Rob Oakeshott has welcomed Scott Morrison to the NSW regional electorate but pressured the Coalition to commit more funding for roads in the mid-north coast.
“With a week to go before election day, it’ll be ‘balloons and baubles’ all around — but commitments on Coffs By-Pass from both Mr Morrison and Mr Shorten will be helpful,” Mr Oakeshott tweeted this morning.
He also defended a volunteer in his office who was a staffer for Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore and bragged about wanting to “bring on the chaos and instability of minority government”.
“Jack is not paid, nor are any of the 1044 on our team. Jack’s an awesome 22-year-old local who grew up around the corner, and is active and passionate about his politics. I support him,” Mr Oakeshott said.
“I have worked hard to deliver stability in parliament in an unstable decade with both major parties, at times, imploding. I have always focused on building up community, not ripping down prime ministers. That continues.”
Sid Maher 11.40am: ‘A must-win for Coalition’
Cowper is a seat Scott Morrison and his team need to win in order to retain government. Read more here
Rachel Baxendale 11.30am: Anger over Zombie campaigns
The Liberals have accused Labor and the Greens of running “zombie” campaigns for each other in the southwestern Melbourne seat Lalor after the Greens candidate there resigned.
Jay Dessi yesterday stood aside, after The Australian revealed he had joked about having sex with children and dead people, made a racist joke about an Asian friend’s eyes, posted a cartoon about oral sex and liked a post which joked about abortion and child pornography.
But Labor and Greens statewide how-to-vote cards still have Mr Dessi listed, with Labor voters told to put Member for Lalor Joanne Ryan first and Mr Dessi second, and Greens voters urged to put Mr Dessi first and Ms Ryan second.
The Australian has contacted both parties to ask whether the how-to-vote cards will be reprinted to reflect Mr Dessi’s resignation.
Dumped Labor candidate for Melbourne, Luke Creasey is also yet to update his LinkedIn page since resigning last week and is still listed as the “Labor candidate for the federal seat of Melbourne”.
Posters for Mr Creasey, whose name remains on the ballot paper as per Australian Electoral Commission protocol, also remain up around the seat of Melbourne.
A spokesman for the Victorian Greens said the party had reprinted all of their election materials for the electorate of Lalor to reflect Mr Dessi’s resignation.
Rosie Lewis 11.05am: Plibersek’s ‘policy on the run’
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has accused Tanya Plibersek of creating policy on the run after she suggested a future Shorten government would ask the United States to take in more refugees from Manus Island and Nauru.
“Tanya Plibersek hasn’t had a single briefing on national security, she is freelancing and making policy on the run in regards to border protection is exactly what Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard did when they were last in government,” Mr Dutton said.
Rosie Lewis 10.45am: Turnbull weighs in on climate
Malcolm Turnbull has again intervened in the federal election campaign, decrying the lack of bipartisanship on climate change as he praises the United Kingdom for moving away from fossil fuels.
The former prime minister is in New York and will not be at the Coalition’s campaign launch in Melbourne on Sunday.
Retweeting UK prime Minister Theresa May, who said she was proud Britain had gone a record week without using coal to generate power, Mr Turnbull said: “The UK’s political challenges are not enviable, but at least there is longstanding bipartisan support for tackling climate change and moving to net zero emissions and, in particular, away from burning fossil fuels.”
The UK’s political challenges are not enviable, but at least there is longstanding bipartisan support for tackling climate change and moving to net zero emissions and, in particular, away from burning fossil fuels. https://t.co/pAqklXHkPI
— Malcolm Turnbull (@TurnbullMalcolm) May 8, 2019
Mr Turnbull’s first election intervention was also on climate policy, after he attacked the Coalition over his signature national energy guarantee and blamed a right-wing minority in the party room for its abandonment.
He dropped the policy in a bid to hold on to power last year, before he lost the prime ministership.
Nuclear power is a major source of energy in the UK, unlike in Australia where there has never been a nuclear power station.
Wind, gas and nuclear power have taken over as the UK moves away from coal.
Richard Ferguson 10.40am: Surgical strike
Bill Shorten is back on his hospitals tour of Australia, visiting Redcliffe Hospital today in the marginal Queensland electorate of Petrie.
The Opposition Leader is promising $12.2m to upgrade the hospital’s infrastructure.
“Labor will invest $6.2 million to refurbish the ICU, improving comfort, safety and infection control so doctors and nurses can focus on caring for patients,” he said in a statement.
“Labor will also invest $6 million to provide a second CT scanner to ensure around-the-clock onsite access to this important diagnostic technology.
“The hospital currently only has one CT scanner, which is often running at full capacity. A second scanner will improve access and quality and reduce wait times.
“These new investments build on a number of commitments Labor has already made to Redcliffe Hospital.”
He has also promised $60 million for upgrades at the Royal Brisbane Women’s Hospital today.
Labor’s campaign has turned sharply back to health as its big election issue this week.
Today’s trip is Mr Shorten’s third visit to a hospital since Monday. He also visited a university school of medicine on Tuesday.
Richard Ferguson 10.30am: Labor’s attack ad
Labor has launched a new scare campaign on the Liberals’ ditched big business tax cuts.
Malcolm Turnbull and then-treasurer Scott Morrison abandoned the tax cuts in 2017 when it became clear they would not pass the senate.
Mr Morrison has also said he would not take those tax cuts to this election.
But a new ad from Bill Shorten’s team suggests he could revisit those cuts if re-elected.
“Don’t risk Scott Morrison and the Liberals giving $80 billion to the top end of the town,” the narrator says.
And in the ad, an old clip of Mr Morrison is played, defending the tax cuts.
“We’re sticking by our tax enterprise plan … we don’t flip and flop on these issues,” he said at the time.
Greg Brown 10.25am: PM heads north
Scott Morrison has arrived in the NSW mid-north coast town of Port Macquarie, in the seat of Cowper being challenged by independent candidate Rob Oakeshott.
The Prime Minister will spend the day in the northern NSW electorate which is held by outgoing Nationals MP Luke Hartsuyker, who holds the seat on a margin of 4.6 per cent.
Mr Oakeshott is running on an agenda around protecting the environment and tackling climate change.
Mr Morrison will begin the morning by appealing to the cohort of retirees in the beachside town of Port Macquarie by speaking to retirees at a local leagues club.
The Nationals candidate in the seat is solicitor Patrick Conaghan. The Nationals have held the seat, which also takes in Coffs Harbour and Kempsey, since 1963.
10.15am: The battleground seats
As Scott Morrison takes his campaign to the NSW seat of Cowper, it’s worth remembering that this is one of the electorates expected to prove key to the May 18 poll.
Robert Gottliebsen 9.50am: Pulling wood over our eyes
Australia is ripe to be taken in by Europe and America’s wood-fired carbon fakery. Read more here
Rosie Lewis 9.35am: Shots fired at Oakeshott
Scott Morrison has launched a pre-emptive strike against independent candidate Rob Oakeshott, who was a kingmaker in the Gillard government, warning now was not the time for an unstable minority government “dependent on the whims of independents”.
As he heads to the seat of Cowper today, where the National Party is fighting to retain the seat against a popular Mr Oakeshott, the Prime Minister said those who voted for the independent candidate “don’t know what you’re going to get”.
“I’ve known Rob for a long time. A very long time. I’ve spent time with him. I think this is the issue, there’s nothing personal about it, it’s just the fact that you don’t know what you’re going to get,” Mr Morrison told Triple M radio in Coffs Harbour.
“Those retirees and those who own investment properties, those who have private health insurance, they just don’t know what will happen. The only way you can be sure you don’t get Bill Shorten as prime minister is to vote for Pat Conaghan, the Nationals candidate.”
Mr Morrison said a “stable” government was critical with big challenges ahead, including trade tensions between China and the US.
“Now’s not the time to have an unstable minority government dependent on the whims of independents on each and every vote. We need to be able to have a strong government that enables us to keep Australians safe and to keep our economy strong and to prevent higher taxes holding Australians back,” he said.
The Nationals hold Cowper on a 4.6 per cent margin.
Rosie Lewis 9.10am: The Lodge or Kirribilli?
Bill Shorten says he has not decided if his family will live at Kirribilli House or the Lodge if he wins the May 18 election.
In an interview on Triple M’s Sydney radio station, the Opposition Leader also questioned if Scott Morrison was “prone to self-reflection” after he brought in a chunk of coal to the House of Representatives.
“I don’t know if he’s thought about whether it was a good idea or bad idea to bring coal in. I don’t think he second guesses himself a lot,” Mr Shorten quipped.
On where he’ll live if he takes on the top job, he responded: “I haven’t given it a lot of thought.”
And he suggested former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull might have been the person who bet $1 million on Labor winning the election.
“I don’t have $1m. I did wonder though … if it was Malcolm Turnbull? Because he did give $1.5m to the Liberal Party last time and they thanked him by giving him the boot. So he thought maybe this is a chance to recoup. We’re running at $1.23 so I think Mal might have had a lazy mil just tucked behind the couch.”
Speaking to sympathetic radio hosts, Mr Shorten also described The Daily Telegraph’s front page story about him omitting facts about his mum’s legal career as “low rent”.
“It was just next level low. My mum’s my inspiration, like a lot of us, I don’t think I was unique there. She had a very working class background but she was a real lady, she worked her way through it,” he said.
“She didn’t get to pursue her career in law until late in life. She made sacrifices for her younger siblings, she raised my brother and I. The reason why I talked about her is I think I can’t change what happened to her but I can change what happens in the future to millions of Australians who are denied a fair go.
“It’s my nuclear reactor of what drives me and I think some on the far right wing of politics just wanted to tear that down and to tackle someone’s mum is just … it’s low rent.”
Perhaps showing the powers of FM radio, Mr Shorten asked his hosts if they’d have him back on if he won the election.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to sound needy. I’m not needy,” he said.
Rosie Lewis 8.55am: Pre-poll numbers climbing
As of COB Wednesday 8 May approximately 1.4m people have cast their vote at an early voting centre for the 2019 federal election. About 237k were cast yesterday. #ausvotes #auspol
— AEC (@AusElectoralCom) May 8, 2019
Rosie Lewis 8.35am: ‘Bill is not across the detail’
You might have noticed Bill Shorten has had a lot of his frontbenchers with him at press conferences while he campaigns around the country. Scott Morrison on the other hand often appears at press conferences with his local candidate but no ministers.
Josh Frydenberg was asked on ABC radio about this stark difference: “Scott Morrison has campaigned very strongly.
“A lot of his ministers, including myself, have campaigned with him but the question has to be asked why does Bill Shorten need to surround himself always with his (shadow) ministers?
“It was shown last night in the debate, Bill Shorten is not across the detail of his super policy, he couldn’t explain the impact on housing prices and rents from his negative gearing policy and there are many unanswered questions about his unprecedented decision to use $10 billion of taxpayers money to subsidise (childcare) private sector workforce wages.”
Scott Morrison’s interpretation of the different campaign styles when asked about it last month? “Some days I’m with ministers, some days I’m not, but I don’t need to be propped up by anyone else.”
Rosie Lewis 8.20am: Lib candidate: we’ve got issues
The Liberal candidate for Higgins, Katie Allen, has conceded her party is still perceived as having members who were “homophobic, anti-women, climate change deniers”.
The former member for Higgins, cabinet minister Kelly O’Dwyer, told colleagues during a crisis meeting of Victorian Liberal MPs the party was widely regarded that way and last night her potential successor in the seat Ms Allen agreed.
Labor has been quick to point out this exchange during an ABC radio Higgins candidate debate.
ALLEN: It was not a public statement, it was an internal party discussion about concerns of what we were perceived as.
PATRICIA KARVELAS: And you’re still perceived as that, aren’t you?
ALLEN: Yes I’m happy to say that. Absolutely. And so I am putting my hand up, perceptions are not reality.
Rosie Lewis 8am: Some detail on climate policy
Tanya Plibersek says taxpayers will fork out “just over $500 million” to pay for Labor’s climate policy but the cost to business cannot be known. She did not say over what time frame the money would be spent.
Labor’s policy costings will be released tomorrow — a week earlier than usual.
“The cost to the budget is already clear, it’s just over $500 million and that’s significantly smaller than the cost to the budget of the government’s policy which is billions of dollars, including $2 billion to the Emissions Reduction Fund in the last budget. That Emissions Reduction Fund that has actually seen pollution increase,” the Deputy Labor leader said on ABC radio.
“There’s a difference between the cost to the budget and the impact on the economy. Scott Morrison’s being quite dishonest here because he keeps asking for the impact on the economy, well our impact on the economy is the same as his. Warwick McKibbin modelled this in 2015, he repeated his assertion just weeks ago that the economy will continue to grow.
“And the impact of Labor’s higher ambition for pollution reduction is the same as the government’s because we allow pollution to be reduced by purchasing offsets from overseas and the government won’t allow that.
“The impact on the budget is the same, the impact on the economy is the same, it’s continued growth of over 2 per cent, there’ll be thousands of extra jobs by investment in renewables.”
She said what businesses would pay under Labor’s plan would depend on how they reduced their pollution.
“If they use energy efficiency measures, if they buy Australian permits because we’re reinvesting in carbon farming initiatives here because that’s good for our local environment, it provides income for farmers and for indigenous communities, that’s an absolutely win-win option and we’re also allowing offsets to be purchased overseas,” she said.
“That brings down the cost to business and so the cost of implementing our policies and the government policies are the same. Warwick McKibbin said so, he said so recently.”
The Coalition has estimated the cost to business will be between $25bn and $35bn.
Labor has set a 45 per cent emissions reduction target by 2030 and is expanding the Turnbull government’s safeguard mechanism, which will force an estimated 250 businesses to cap their emissions.
Sascha O’Sullivan 7.40am: Palmer unloads on Shorten
Clive Palmer has called Bill Shorten a “bastard” on air with Alan Jones this morning.
“The Labor policy on franking credits is to put a third of our elderly investors over 65 out the door and on the street,” Mr Palmer told 2GB listeners in a rant about Mr Shorten’s plan to wind back franking credits.
“Bloody Paul Keating is the guy who said we’d have franking credits — he put the idea up and said senior citizens could rely on it and then John Howard introduced it,” Mr Palmer continued.
“These people have relied on it and some of them are in their 80s — why does Bill Shorten want to destroy these people’s lives? Why is he such a bastard to these people?” Mr Palmer asked in a tirade against Labor’s polices.
Rosie Lewis 7.20pm: Labor eyes US help on refugees
Deputy Labor leader Tanya Plibersek has suggested a Shorten government could ask the US to take more refugees from Manus Island and Nauru than the 1250 agreed to between Malcolm Turnbull and Donald Trump.
Ms Plibersek, who will be Australia’s next deputy prime minister if Bill Shorten wins the May 18 election, also raised the former Labor government’s Malaysia refugee settlement agreement as she insisted her party would work with third countries other than the US or New Zealand to get people out of offshore detention.
“We would continue to work with the United States in the hope the hope the United States would take the total number that they’ve offered and perhaps more. We’d work with New Zealand to accept their offer (which she said was to resettle 150 refugees per year),” Ms Plibersek told ABC radio.
“It is beyond me why the government has not accepted their offer before this time.
“You would recall we had when last in government an arrangement with Malaysia that the Liberals teamed up with the Greens to vote against that would have settled people in Malaysia with work rights, with education and healthcare, able to live in the community while they were assessed. There will be third country options pursued as well. We do have to get people of Manus and Nauru.”
Here’s what’s making political news in The Australian:
• Bill Shorten attempted to repel attacks over Labor’s climate change agenda last night, claiming that questions over the cost of cutting emissions were “dishonest” during an evenly matched final leaders debate.
• Dennis Shanahan says: The final leaders debate of the campaign has confirmed what was clear from the beginning of the campaign and won’t shift a vote: Scott Morrison is across detail and Bill Shorten is not.
What’s more, the Opposition Leader continues to be more emotive and vibrant, citing individual examples while the Prime Minister continues to stick to a simple, austere message of economic management for “people”.
• Liberal candidate Jacinta Price has unleashed an extraordinary attack on Greens leader Richard Di Natale, declaring he is the “epitome of racism and sexism” for standing by his indigenous candidate who called her a “coconut”.
Ms Price said if Mr Hanna were a white conservative male directing his remarks at an indigenous woman, or any woman, the Left would be “all over it like a rash — they would be jumping up and down”.
• Paul Keating’s claim that “nutters” in security agencies had damaged relations with Beijing has sparked a worsening election brawl, with the Coalition claiming the former prime minister’s views are shared by others in the ALP and Labor accusing the government of politicising the China relationship.
• Bill Shorten has expressed regret about the instability and undermining that saw Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard axed during Labor’s previous period in office as he and Scott Morrison both pledged that Australia’s revolving door of prime ministers was at an end.
• Tasmanian Labor leader Rebecca White has threatened legal action against dumped Liberal candidate Jessica Whelan over her claims that Ms White distributed a “dirt file” on her.
• Scott Morrison used former NSW Labor leader Michael Daley’s anti-Asian comments as his chief campaign weapon yesterday, as the Liberals fight to hold the marginal Sydney electorate of Reid.
• Joe Hockey has given an exclusive interview to The Australian after he announced he was calling time on his public service career and would not seek to extend his term as Australia’s ambassador to the US.
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