Federal election 2019: Campaign Day 31: ALP pledges $60m for ABC, SBS

PM says economic downgrade is consistent with Coalition predictions as Bill Shorten says it ‘makes case for us’.

Scott Morrison and Bill Shorten are now on day 31 of the election campaign.

• Lib launch about voters, not ex-PMs
• Shorten at Friends of ABC
• $75m for women in workforce
• Pre-polling nearly 2m

Hello and welcome to PoliticsNow, The Australian’s live commentary on Day 31 of the federal election campaign.

With one week left until Australians must cast their vote in the federal election, Scott Morrison and Bill Shorten have descended on Melbourne.

4.26pm: Labor accuses SA Liberal candidates of deception

South Australian Liberal candidates have been distributing flyers falsely claiming they “will deliver” the Globelink project, the state opposition leader says.

GlobeLink was a project endorsed by Liberal Premier Steven Marshall during his campaign in the state election last year.

It would establish road and rail freight corridors looping around the city and a new freight-only airport.

SA opposition leader Peter Malinauskas said the Liberals failed to allocate funding to the project in last month’s federal budget.

“Either the Liberals are deliberately misleading the people of Boothby and Mayo about their plans for Globelink, or they need to outline how much money they are committing to this project,” Mr Malinauskas said.

“The Liberals are actively campaigning on the ground about Globelink, yet there’s no money to back it up.” He said the deliberate deception showed the Liberal Party could not be trusted. The flyers were distributed across the key seats of Boothby and Mayo. Liberal MP Nicolle Flint currently holds the seat for Boothby, with a margin of 2.7 per cent.

Georgina Downer is the Liberal candidate for Mayo.

AAP

3.40pm: Campaign snapshot

WHERE THE LEADERS ARE CAMPAIGNING:

* Prime Minister Scott Morrison: Melbourne.

* Labor leader Bill Shorten: Melbourne.

WHAT THE COALITION WANTS TO TALK ABOUT: Women and sport. The prime minister has promised $75 million to help women get back into the workforce with mid-career checks. Women athletes will also get $70 million of funding including $15 million to set up a permanent home for the Matildas in Melbourne.

WHAT LABOR WANTS TO TALK ABOUT: Boosting content on the ABC and SBS. It is promising $40 million for the ABC and $20 million for SBS.

LATEST POLLS: A poll in Queensland shows support for the coalition growing since February, with Labor failing to shore up its primary vote. The coalition has a 51-49 per cent lead on a two-party preferred basis while Labor’s primary vote has slipped one percentage point to 33 per cent, according to a The Courier-Mail/YouGov Galaxy poll.

WHAT’S MAKING NEWS:

* The government and commentators still going over the entrails of Labor’s costings for its election promises released on Friday.

* The hashtags #stopadani and #climateelection were among the top 10 used on Facebook for the fourth week running, as #religiousfreedoms, #freespeech grew in popularity.

* Small business ombudsman and former ACT Liberal chief minister Kate Carnell has encouraged voters to consider voting for independent federal candidates, describing ACT independent Senate candidate Anthony Pesec on Canberra’s 2CC radio station as “pretty cool”.

THEY SAID WHAT?

“The goal is five pitches, two turf, three synthetic. The goal is to have a state of the art gymnasium. The goal is to have a sports medicine clinic and to have the proper spectator facilities.” - Treasurer Josh Frydenberg makes the funding announcement for the Matildas. TWEETED: “To make the country decent and better.” Bill Shorten tweets video of union stalwart Bill Kelty throwing his support behind the Labor leader.

AAP

Richard Ferguson 1.50pm: RBA forecasts back Labor case: Shorten

Bill Shorten says the Reserve Bank “indirectly made the case for Labor” by downgrading forecasts for economic growth this week.

“I think the RBA made the case indirectly for voting Labor,” he said in Melbourne.

“This is not the time for reckless spending of $154 billion on unaffordable tax subsidies for the property investors who make a loss, or for giving people income tax refunds when they haven’t paid any income tax.

“Now is the time for strong economic management in the interests of working and middle class people.”

Richard Ferguson 1.42pm: More childcare workers may benefit: Labor

Bill Shorten says there is room to increase the pay of more childcare workers, after revelations only 100,000 of them would receive a promised taxpayer-funded wage rise.

“When you say the number 200,000 are you including kindergarten teachers?” he responded in Melbourne.

“What we have budgeted for is for early-childhood educators who are working in childcare centres who are not qualified teachers.

“There are more. We have an envelope of funding and we’ll work that through.”

12.48pm: RBA 2018-19 forecast no surprise: Morrison

Scott Morrison has brushed aside the Reserve Bank’s latest downgrade to its economic forecasts, saying they are now consistent with his government predictions.

The central bank in its quarterly statement on monetary policy released on Friday showed it is now forecasting year-average growth for 2018-19 at 2.25 per cent.

This is down from its 2.5 per cent prediction made three months ago, but is now in line with last month’s federal budget.

“The forecast the RBA has outlined is now consistent with the forecast we had in the budget,” Mr Morrison told reporters in Melbourne on Saturday.

“We have always taken a very conservative approach when it comes to the forecast.”

AAP

Greg Brown 12.16pm: PM says Lib launch about voters

Scott Morrison says tomorrow’s Liberal Party official campaign launch “isn’t a day for party hoopla” as he bats back the significance of no former Liberal prime minister attending.

The Prime Minister said the event in Melbourne on Sunday would be about his policy agenda and people were not interested in the “rubbish” of “party festivals”.

John Howard, Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull will not attend tomorrow’s launch for the May 18 election, opening up claims the government remains divided. All of Labor’s living former prime ministers attended its launch last weekend, except Bob Hawke because of health reasons.

“It isn’t a day for party hoopla. It’s a day for me to focus directly on the future,’’ Mr Morrison said.

“These are the choices I’ve made as the leader of this party. It’s to ensure tomorrow is an opportunity to focus very much on the people who will be watching and reading about what I have to say tomorrow at home,” Mr Morrison said.

“It’s not about party festivals and slapping backs and doing all that sort of stuff. People aren’t interested in all that rubbish. What they’re interested in is their own lives.”

Scott Morrison with children at the Whitehorse Netball Association in Melbourne, where he announced a $70m sports package. Picture: Alex Coppel

12.04pm: Shorten soaks up the puppy love

Bill Shorten would have been hoping his campaign hasn’t entered its dog days as he sought out some puppy love on Saturday.

The Labor leader snuggled trainee guide dogs in Melbourne - including a five-week-old labrador puppy named after him - and kind of shook paws.

“This is as nice as it looks,” he told the waiting media as he received puppy kisses, before joking the pointy teeth gnawing on his thumb were “not as sharp as your clever questions”.

Mr Shorten has promised Guide Dogs Victoria $2 million to help it finish an upgrade of its ageing campus in Kew - in the safe Liberal seat of Kooyong held by Treasurer Josh Frydenberg - if Labor wins the May 18 election.

“Every day that one of your animals works with a person ... what you are doing is you are removing the barriers so that people with disability can have an equal go,” he told some of the volunteer puppy raisers.

“If not every Australian starts with a fair go, it’s our job to help bring them up to that standard.”

Labor leader Bill Shorten holding guide dog Bill and Senator Kristina Keneally holding guide dog Beau, at an event for Guide Dogs Victoria. Picture: Liam Kidston

The new training facility and accommodation for blind people learning to work with their new guide dogs will be the world’s first fully accessible sensory campus.

It will use lighting, scent, technology, Braille and other tactile features to aid learning for people with low vision or blindness.

AAP

Richard Ferguson 11.54am: Labor’s $40m at Friends of the ABC

Bill Shorten will announce his $40m funding boost for the ABC at a Friends of the ABC forum in Melbourne, attended by public broadcasting stalwart Kerry O’Brien.

Mr Shorten will join Mr O’Brien and former Stateline host Quentin Dempster at the event in Federation Square.

Greens leader Richard Di Natale will also speak at this leader’s forum.

The audience appeared mainly made up of older voters.

Just some good old groovin’ going on outside this Friends of the ABC rally ... #ausvotes19 pic.twitter.com/h0HWCYRgRv

— Richard Ferguson (@RichAFerguson) May 11, 2019

Labor has promised to give $40m to the ABC and $20m to SBS to boost the amount of Australian content and stories the public broadcasters screen.

The money would be used to buy extra drama, comedy, children’s documentaries and music programs.

“The ABC and SBS are at the heart of Australian culture - generations have grown up watching home-grown stories, and communities across the country rely on our trusted public broadcasters for information, education and entertainment,” Mr Shorten said in a statement earlier.

11.50am: No conflict of interest for Taylor: PM

Scott Morrison is standing by his Liberal colleague Angus Taylor after a report accused the Energy Minister of failing to disclose a company he was involved in when he entered parliament.

According to Sky News, documents show Mr Taylor was a director and 50 per cent shareholder of JRAT International until September 7, 2015, after he entered parliament at the 2013 election, but this was not disclosed on the parliamentary register.

Mr Taylor has responded: “I can confirm that between 2004 and 2015, I was a director and a shareholder in a company called JRAT International, along with an associate, Mr John Roberts.

“During this time, the company did no business, and earned no income, and I received absolutely no benefit from it.

“I acknowledge that JRAT was not among the companies I listed on my register of parliamentary interests when I joined the parliament in 2013. It should have been.

“However given this company conducted no business during the time I was associated with it, it clearly presented no possible conflict of interest during my first two years in the parliament,’’ Mr Taylor says.

The Prime Minister told reporters in Melbourne on Saturday: “There is no suggestion of a conflict of interest.

“There’s a suggestion about a disclosure and all should be properly made,” Mr Morrison said.

But shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus says every member of parliament is required to make disclosures on the register of members’ interests.

“Angus Taylor can’t get out of it, as he is scrambling to do today,” Mr Dreyfus told reporters in Melbourne.

Mr Morrison said if Labor wanted to make a fuss of a non-declaration, it should reflect on when its leader Bill Shorten forgot he received a donation from his own union when he first ran for parliament back in 2007.

“So, if the Labor Party wants to talk about those issues, they can, but I don’t intend to be distracted by them,” he said.

with AAP

Richard Ferguson 10.30am: Shorten invades Libs jewel in the crown

Bill Shorten is heading into Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s Liberal-jewel-in-the-crown Melbourne seat today.

Mr Shorten will announce $2 million this morning for Guide Dogs Victoria, which is based in Kooyong.

“For people who live with sight loss, a guide dog is just one of the ways they can receive assistance in their day to day lives,” Mr Shorten said.

“Labor’s $2 million investment will deliver the world’s first fully accessible sensory campus, bringing together paws and people to promote each other’s abilities.”

The Treasurer has spent most of the election campaigning in Kooyong - famously held by Liberal Party founder Robert Menzies - as he faces an onslaught from independent Oliver Yates, the Greens’ Julian Burnside, and Labor candidate Jana Stewart.

Bill Shorten with Bill the guide dog pic.twitter.com/RBz2QXgQwH

— Richard Ferguson (@RichAFerguson) May 11, 2019

10.23am: Greens leader replies to PM

Greens leader Richard Di Natale has hit back at Scott Morrison for suggesting his party is a greater threat to Australia than Clive Palmer.

The Prime Minister restated his view that the Greens are a greater threat to economic and national security than Mr Palmer’s United Australia Party and Pauline Hanson’s One Nation in The Weekend Australian.

He also accused Labor of moving closer to the minor party’s “extreme views”.

Senator Di Natale said Mr Morrison was out of touch.

“Scott Morrison has no plan for climate change and that is the greatest threat to our economy,” the Greens leader said in statement on Saturday.

“His criticisms of the Greens are a smoke screen for his lack of climate action and preference deals with a coal tycoon and a party of racists.”

AAP

Rachel Baxendale 10.20am: Indi’s sudden union interest

The seat of Indi, in northeast Victoria, doesn’t usually get much attention from the union movement. Labor has not held it since 1931.

But the Wangaratta Chronicle yesterday featured a front page wraparound, paid for by Trades Hall, with the headline: “Coalition candidates cause cuts and chaos”, and featuring photographs of Peter Dutton, Barnaby Joyce, Scott Morrison and Tony Abbott.

It is at least the second time Trades Hall has used this tactic in a seat in which they don’t traditionally campaign.

Last week the front page of the Mornington News screamed: “Who will Greg Hunt stab in the back next?”

The race is extremely tight in Indi, where independent former midwife and rural health expert Helen Haines is vying to succeed Cathy McGowan against Liberal engineer Steve Martin and National former mayor Mark Byatt.

The Coalition regards Indi as the only Victorian seat they have a realistic chance of regaining.

The Trades Hall advertisement plays into the factor that was arguably Ms McGowan’s biggest advantage in the 2013 and 2016 election campaigns: her Liberal opponent Sophie Mirabella’s lack of popularity.

The front-page wrap-around in the Wangaratta Chronicle.

The Trades Hall union ad.

It says the Coalition has cut “billions from schools and hospitals” (in fact funding for both has increased significantly since 2013), “cut pensions for 300,000 people, cut $1.2 billion from aged care and then tried to cut taxes to the big banks and stop a banking royal commission.”

“In fact, the only thing the Liberals and Nationals won’t cut is carbon pollution,” the ad reads.

“Indi doesn’t need another Sophie Mirabella who won’t fight back against these Liberal and National cuts.

“Use your vote to keep the Coalition out of Indi.”

The Chronicle has interestingly issued a defensive editorial, headed “Political adverts part of the game”.

The Wangaratta Chronicle's defensive editorial.

The editorial notes that there will be “another political advertisement wraparound in next Friday’s Wangaratta Chronicle for a different political party.”

“Individuals, political parties, businesses, interest groups and social movements all have the right to promote their views through advertising and it is up to the reader to judge the message and take from it whatever they will,” the editorial reads.

The Australian understands a number of Mornington Peninsula businesses told the Mornington News they would no longer advertise with them as a result of their anti-Greg Hunt Trades Hall wraparound advertisement.

Greg Brown 9.50am: $75m for women to re-enter workforce

Scott Morrison in Gladstone yesterday. Picture: Alex Coppel.

Scott Morrison has this morning arrived at netball courts in the Melbourne electorate of Deakin and announce a $75 million package to help women enter the workforce.

The Prime Minister will campaign in the electorate which Sports Minister Bridget McKenzie and local member Michael Sukkar, who holds the eastern suburbs seat on a margin of 6.4 per cent.

Under the policy, the government will provide financial support for up to 40,000 women looking to re-enter the workforce after having children through the Mid-Career Checkpoint Program. The program would help women with interview skills, computer skills and skills training.

Mr Morrison will also use the visit to the sporting facility announce a $70 million package for female athletes.

The package includes $30m in funding for an International Netball Hub and $15 million for a high performance centre for the Matildas in Melbourne.

There will also be a $10m federal government contribution to south east Queensland’s bid for the 2032 Olympics, and $11.5m of sporting infrastructure upgrades.

9.30am: Pre-polling nearly 2m

The number of people pre-polling is continuing to soar, with nearly 2m people voting early after 286 thousand voted yesterday.

According to the AEC, this compares with 1.1m voting at this stage during the 2016 election.

As of COB Friday approximately 1.93m people had cast their vote at an early voting centre for the 2019 federal election. Around 286k voted yesterday. #ausvotes #auspol

— AEC (@AusElectoralCom) May 10, 2019

Richard Ferguson 9.00am: $60m for ABC, SBS

Bill Shorten at the Cairns Aquarium in far North Queensland. Picture: Liam Kidston.

Bill Shorten will today promise to pump $60 million into the ABC and SBS, including money for a public broadcasting unit to fight “fake news”.

Labor says its public broadcasting plan spending cuts will reverse Coalition cuts and boost regional communities.

It will also redirect more than $17m in commercial broadcasting funding in the pacific back into the ABC and SBS.

“The ABC and SBS are at the heart of Australian culture — generations have grown up watching home-grown stories and communities across the country rely on our trusted public broadcasters for information, education and entertainment,” Mr Shorten said today.

“Unfortunately, the Liberals have inflicted funding cuts and ideological attacks on the ABC and SBS.

“That’s why Labor will reverse Scott Morrison’s $83.7 million cut to the ABC and invest a further $60 million to grow our public broadcasters into the future.”

The ABC will get $3m under a Labor Government to “fight disinformation and fake news” through a news literacy program.

And $10m will be put aside to focus on improving regional broadcasting.

Mr Shorten will spend the weekend campaigning in Melbourne.

He will appear tomorrow on the ABC’s Insiders program. Scott Morrison has declined to appear on both the Sunday morning political show and the ABC’s Q&A program.

7.30am: LNP regains ground

A poll in Queensland shows support for the coalition soaring since February, with Labor failing to shore up its primary vote.

The coalition has a 51-49 per cent lead on a two-party preferred basis while Labor’s primary vote has slipped one percentage point to 33 per cent, according to a The Courier-Mail/YouGov Galaxy poll.

Pauline Hanson’s One Nation is ahead of Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party. The LNP is expected to benefit from its preference deal with UAP and One Nation’s decision to put Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton and Petrie’s Luke Howarth above Labor on its how-to-vote cards, The Courier-Mail says. More women (41 per cent) plan to vote for the LNP compared to 35 per cent of men, with a similar slant for Labor (32 and 24 per cent respectively). But 17 per cent said they would vote for independents.

The poll interviewed 848 people on May 8 and 9.

AAP

What’s making news:

Bill Shorten’s pledge to deliver ­bigger budget surpluses and ­impose a new ceiling on tax ­revenue has sparked a high-stakes election battle as the campaign ­enters its final week.

Scott Morrison has warned that the Greens are a greater political threat to economic and national security than Clive Palmer and Pauline Hanson’s One Nation.

Tony Abbott’s prospects of surviving a challenge from Zali Steggall appear to have improved.

In an interview with Paul Kelly, Scott Morrison pledges to restore stability not just to the Liberal Party but to the entire political system.

Labor’s negative gearing clawback has the potential to hit mid-range income earners in the suburbs and regions harder than “silvertails” living in wealthy inner-city ­electorates.

In regional Queensland, Scott Morrison pushed coalmining and Bill Shorten spruiked Labor’s climate change credentials.

The Coalition has promised to boost student outcomes while pouring scorn on Labor’s promise of a substantial funding boost.

Paul Kelly writes: There is no mistaking Bill Shorten’s political message behind the budget plan; Labor is ready to rule.

Dennis Shanahan writes: Fortunes have shifted to and fro and Saturday is too close to call.