Federal election 2019: Campaign Day 32: Morrison announces home loan deposit scheme
PM pledges new borrowing scheme enabling first home owners to buy their first property with a deposit of down to 5 per cent.
Hello and welcome to PoliticsNow, The Australian’s live commentary on Day 32 of the federal election campaign.
With less than a week until Australians cast their votes in the federal election, both leaders are in Melbourne, with Scott Morrison launching the Liberal Party’s official campaign and Bill Shorten participating in the Mother’s Day Classic fun run.
Top story: Scott Morrison has announced a new ‘first home loan deposit scheme’.
Heidi Han 7.11pm: Candidate plays down polling
Labor candidate for Chisholm Jennifer Yang has played down an SBS audience poll placing her behind her Liberal rival Gladys Liu.
Ms Yang seized the opportunity to appear on the last SBS Mandarin Radio Saturday show before the election day, while Ms Liu withdrew unexpectedly from the on-air face-off, which was promoted as a “historical debate”.
“Poll is definitely a reference to see how we can adjust better in our strategy and communications, but we won’t weigh it too much in the process,” said Ms Yang, who trails Ms Liu 30 per cent to 48 per cent, according to the poll of nearly 400 people by SBS conducted on popular Chinese social media platform WeChat.
The Labor candidate tried to emphasise the party’s most highly-regarded policies among Chinese-Australian voters - parents’ long stay visas and changes to negative gearing.
Pressured over how to ensure their uncapped long stay parents visa won’t cost taxpayer, Ms Yang clarified that visiting parents have to pay for their own health cover and can’t access any government benefits or work during their stay, saying they were “not much different to tourists”.
Luke Griffiths 3.45pm: Greens talk up $200 power bill drop
Sarah Hanson-Young says household power bills will drop by at least $200 under her party’s energy policy.
The Greens senator announced key aspects of the policy this afternoon alongside the party’s candidate for Adelaide, Barbara Pocock.
Senator Hanson-Young said large energy companies were “gouging” consumers.
She called for a $1.2 billion fund to provide grants to homeowners to install solar panels on their properties.
Another $2.2bn fund would see battery storage systems subsidised, while small businesses would be able to access loans of up to $15,000 for storage systems.
Senator Hanson-Young called for re-regulation of the energy market, which would see “a price that matches the lowest cost energy in the country, saving households $200 per year”.
“We want to turbo charge our renewable energy production with storage options for families and small businesses,” she said.
“Our plan ensures no-one is left behind in the renewable energy revolution.”
Last month, Senator Hanson-Young called on the South Australian and federal government to jointly fund a $650 million renewable energy project that was abandoned by the private sector because “a publicly owned solar thermal plant would be a boon for jobs at a time when they are desperately needed in our state”.
Rosie Lewis 3.30pm: Labor matches home loan deposit scheme
Labor has announced it will match the Coalition’s first home deposit scheme, calling it a “desperate” attempt to try and relate to Australians struggling to get into the market.
The Coalition’s new program, announced at the Liberal Party’s campaign launch today, is aimed at assisting first home buyers by making it easier for them to purchase a property without saving for a full 20 per cent deposit.
Rosie Lewis 1.50pm: Morrison ‘underestimates preference deal damage’
Victorian Labor Premier Daniel Andrews says Scott Morrison has vastly underestimated the “damage” of the Coalition’s preference deals with the parties of Pauline Hanson and Clive Palmer in his progressive home state.
After helping launch Bill Shorten’s final week campaign rally, Mr Andrews also claimed there was a “real mood for change” in Victoria but.
“Victorians are really very concerned as I move around, particularly in multicultural communities ... to think that a vote for Scott Morrison may well actually be a vote for Scott Morrison, Pauline Hanson and Clive Palmer. As if a vote for Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull meant Scott Morrison wasn’t bad enough, we’ve now got this extremism sitting at the heart of the Liberal and National Party agenda,” Mr Andrews said.
“That does Mr Morrison and his prospects great damage in our state.”
Senior Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese, a one-time Shorten leadership rival, declared moderate Liberals like Kelly O’Dwyer, Christopher Pyne and Julie Bishop were being “run out of town”.
Victorians really can picture what good government looks like because they have it in Victoria, they don’t have it nationally.
Primrose Riordan 1pm: PM’s key points
Here is a list of the topics Scott Morrison focused on in his speech to the Coalition launch:
* Self-funded retirees which would be affected by Labor’s changes to franking credits
* Families benefiting from new medicines listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme
* Regional Australians who will benefit from grants and loans from the Future Drought Fund
* An emphasis on Coalition funding of Medicare, the National Disability Insurance Scheme, public schools, aged care and the pension.
* Women: Mr Morrison discussed Mother’s Day and also women in the Liberal Party. “The seven women in my Cabinet know, female participation is at record highs under a Liberal-National government,” he said.
* Economic management, arguing there has been “blowouts” under Labor and attacking Labor spending and Bill Shorten.
* The Coalition personal income tax cuts and new home loan scheme.
* A commitment to combat youth suicide “as a priority”
* Infrastructure spending to combat congestion and policies to freeze permanent migration.
* Despite previously acknowledging that emissions have gone up under the Coalition, Mr Morrison committed to reduce Australia’s emissions per capita by half and emissions intensity by two thirds.
* Commitments to maintain border policies and maintain funding for security agencies, as well as measures to ensure social media companies are subject to more regulation.
Mr Morrison mentioned Labor at least 15 times, and Bill Shorten nine times in his address.
.@ScottMorrisonMP: Our new first home loan deposit scheme will enable first home owners to buy their home with a deposit of down to 5%. This will make a big difference, cutting the time taken to save for a deposit by at least half and more
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) May 12, 2019
MORE: https://t.co/DhKJkyfmO3 #ausvotes pic.twitter.com/Q6dvU490te
Primrose Riordan 12.28pm: PM promises no cut to private health insurance
Scott Morrison has promised that if he is re-elected, there will be no cuts to private health insurance.
“Today I make this pledge and I challenge Bill Shorten to do the same, I make a pledge to the 13.5 million Australians with private health insurance there will be no private health insurance cuts under my government,” he said.
Joe Kelly 12.22pm: More detail on the home loan deposit scheme
Scott Morrison has used his address to the Liberal campaign launch in Melbourne to announce a new First Home Loan Deposit Scheme in a bid to neutralise Labor’s pitch to Australians struggling enter the housing market.
The Coalition’s new program is aimed at assisting first home buyers by making it easier for them to purchase a property without saving for a full 20 per cent deposit.
The new scheme will also help first home buyers save around $10,000 by not having to pay Lenders Mortgage Insurance
Under the proposal, first home owners will be able to buy their first home with a deposit of down to 5 per cent.
The Prime Minister said that the government’s National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation would be resourced to guarantee to approved applicants the additional loan amount to cover the difference between the lower deposit and the requirement to pay 20 per cent of the value of the property upfront.
Primrose Riordan 12.19pm: Morrison announces home loan scheme
Scott Morrison has announced a new ‘first home loan deposit scheme’ which will enable first home owners to buy their first home with a deposit of down to 5 per cent.
“We want to help make the dreams of first home buyers a reality.”
“This will make a big difference. Cutting the time taken to save for a deposit by at least half and more,” he said.
“This scheme will be available to buyers with an income of up to $125,000 or a couple with $200,000, where they are both first home buyers. Support would stay in place for the life of the loan and when they refinance in a few years time, when the equity increases.”
“(It) will include guarantees to approved applicants of the additional loan amount taken out by the first homebuyer to cover the difference between the lower deposit, say 5 per cent, and the 20 per cent of the value of the property.”
Rosie Lewis 12.17pm: Shorten makes final pitch
In his final pitch at the rally, Bill Shorten says:
“We all know that every vote is important, in every seat ... we understand what is at stake.
“We know what is on the line for Australia. We understand there is no second prize for Australia.”
He talks About action on climate change, cheaper childcare, better schools, hospitals TAFE and universities, secure jobs and decent wages.
“The next three years depends upon the next six days. Let us make this count, let us bring this home.”
Primrose Riordan 12.13pm: Don’t let the reckless spending start: PM
Scott Morrison has attempted to paint himself as the everyman Australian in his address to the Coalition campaign launch in which he argued his policies will maintain services for Australians and tax wealthier Australians more without what he argued was Labor’s “politics of envy”.
“My family story is not uncommon in our country. Australians quietly going about their lives with simple, decent, honest aspirations. Get an education. Get a job. Start a business,” he said after a long personal introduction via a slick video.
“Take responsibility for yourself, support others. Work hard. Deal with whatever challenges come your way. Meet someone amazing - I did - there she is, Jenny! Create a life and a family together. Work even harder to support them, and give them the choices, and hopefully, an even better life than the one that you have.”
“Save for your retirement and your future, and strive, wherever possible, to be making a contribution. Rather than taking one.”
Mr Morrison then focused on Labor and their policies.
“I say to Australians - do not allow Labor’s reckless spending to start. Vote Liberal and Nationals next Saturday,” he said.
“In our party you don’t have to hold someone down to let someone else go ahead. We believe that all Australians can succeed in this country. We don’t buy Labor’s politics of envy.”
Rosie Lewis 12.08pm: ‘Most right-wing in decades’
Now we’re onto the “rag tag extremists” of Clive Palmer and Pauline Hanson.
Bill Shorten tells the labour faithful in Moonee Ponds to imagine the most right-wing Liberal Party seen in many decades combined with Mr Palmer and Senator Hanson, suggesting One Nation could run the country’s multicultural policy and anti-vaxxers run the health policy.
“We’re already 20 per cent of the way through the new century. This country needs to do better for all Australians.”
He says he’ll choose to back in the low paid over the wealthy and to fix the intergenerational unfairness in the tax system.
On climate change action, he says “we say we can do this together for the future generations of Australia”.
“I make a choice that we treat women equally to men.”
The crowd is really getting fired up now.
Mr Shorten has undecided voters in his sights.
“There are six days to go. I can guarantee you that there are people out there who haven’t made up their mind, although clearly a lot have and we like the early voting,” he says.
“What we need to do is to explain to those people that for six years the Labor Party has learned its lessons, that we’re more united than we have been in contemporary history ... tell them that we are not a collection of individuals but we are a team.”
Rosie Lewis 11.59am: Shorten mocks PM on childcare
Bill Shorten attacks Scott Morrison and what the Coalition has to offer.
“He expects our fellow Australians to believe everything is fine as it is,” he says, as he mocks the Prime Minister on childcare, cancer treatment, climate change and other key policies.
“We are very clear, our country deserves better than the government we’ve currently got.”
He says Labor has the best set of books in this election because they won’t allow multinationals to walk out the door with taxes they should be paying in Australia.
“As we enter the last week, Labor can deliver the trifecta,” he says.
Better schools, hospitals and infrastructure, a fairer taxing system, and bigger budget surpluses into the future.
“All of this is possible if you vote for Labor, if you vote for real change.”
He also warns of a “Coalition of chaos” creeping into minority government “propped up by their unsavoury allies in the far-right”.
He calls Liberal MPs a “bunch of misfits and no hopers and lack ofvision operators” who see government as a right.
“It means three more years lost to the nation. Make no mistake, nations cannot afford to fall off the pace.”
Mr Shorten says the clearest impact of three more years of this “current Coalition of chaos”, the clearest choice at this election is it means three more years of chaos, dysfunction and denial on climate change.
“The cost of inaction grows if you have more inaction,” he declares.
He says the only way the Liberals will learn to take climate change seriously is to lose this election.
Rosie Lewis 11.47am: ‘It’s time for change’
Labor’s candidate for Higgins Fiona McCleod tells the Labor rally that party volunteers “got it done” for Daniel Andrews in November last year, when he won the state election. “Let’s get it done for Bill on May 18”
She says there are two people responsible for her standing to be elected. Her mum Maggie and Bill Shorten.
She says she read about the Labor leader in the papers, and not all of it was good. She wasn’t completely sure she wanted to stand.
Ms McLeod tells the crowd she wanted a leader someone who was authentic, warm and direct. Listens to women and works with women and wants them to flourish.
I also want the next prime minister of Australia to know he isn’t an oxygen thief, because the current bloke certainly is.
“It’s time for change,” she says, borrowing Gough Whitlam’s famous line.
The whole audience chants “time for change”.
“He’s a ripper, he’s ready and he’s here right now.”
The curtain raises and Bill Shorten is surrounded by Labor MPs and candidates with their children, including the Opposition Leader’s family.
“Wouldn’t it be great to see these faces in parliament?”
He says it would be the first federal government to have 50 per cent women.
“There are now six days to win this election, to end the chaos and change the country for the better.
“Australians are tuning in, people are making up their minds, and in the final sprint to the finish line the choice becomes clearer every day. On one hand three more years like the last six, or on the other real change for the better with a Labor government.”
Mr Shorten wishes happy Mother’s Day “to all our mums, who will always be with us”. His mother Anne died five years ago.
“Can I say a special thank you to Chloe, a wonderful mother and an amazing wife ... I’d like to give a shout out to my twin brother Robert, happy birthday too Robert.”
Bill Shorten continues,
“The choice between our united team ... and our opponents is a study in contrasts. But I cannot think of a more straight forward choice that highlights the difference that Labor is offering Tanya Plibersek as deputy prime minister of Australia, or Michael McCormack.” There’s laughter from the crowd.
He labels the $10bn suburban rail loop the “mother of all infrastructure projects”.
At long last, the Labor leader says, with a genuine partnership between state and federal Labor, a suburban rail link will be delivered.
Bill Shorten delivers one of his zingers.
“Our modest gathering is not the only gathering in town. I understand the Liberal Party launch is in town today. I am reliably informed that tens of thousands of Melbournians were too scared to go out last night in Melbourne in case they ran into Peter Dutton.”
Primrose Riordan 11.45am: Jenny Morrison shares park bench proposal story
The Liberal party has screened separate interviews with Scott Morrison and his wife Jenny.
She revealed when Mr Morrison proposed to her she did not believe it as it “so unromantic”.
Mrs Morrison said the two were walking along Macquarie Street in Sydney and he asked her to sit down on a park bench at Martin Place and said “will you marry me”.
She said she was thinking “really here?” and he told her he was serious and she agreed.
“He went to a flower vendor there and bought me a bunch of flowers,” she said.
Mr Morrison’s mother, Marion Morrison, and his wife Jenny and daughters, Abigail and Lily, introduced the Prime Minister at the launch.
“My name is Marion Morrison. And I am Scott’s mum. You already know Jenny and Abbey and Lily. And now I’d like you to welcome my son,” Mrs Morrison said.
Mr Morrison handed them flowers as he came on stage and has started off his speech my speaking about mother’s day, his mother and experiences growing up.
“Happy Mother’s Day, Mum. Happy Mother’s Day, Jen. To all of our mothers, happy Mother’s Day, wherever you are today. Today is a day when our hearts are especially focused on family. And, of course, our mothers. For some it is a very sweet memory. For some today it is a painful void for what has been lost or was sadly never there for you.”
“Mum and dad both had to work hard to give Alan and I the choices they wanted for us in life. They saved. They planned. They sacrificed,” he said.
Joe Kelly 11.40am: Labor’s agenda will suffocate the economy: Frydenberg
Back at the Liberal launch, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the election had the potential to change Australia, warning that Labor’s high taxing agenda would “suffocate the economy.”
Mr Frydenberg talked up the government’s record of economic management, saying the Coalition had delivered a “budget that is back in the black and back on track.”
“This is an election which will shape the future of our country,” he said
Mr Frydenberg said the government had been able to deliver “record spending on essential services without increasing tax.”
He warned that Labor’s $387bn in new taxes would “suffocate the economy, lead to fewer jobs, lower wages and a weaker Australian economy.”
“The Labor Party know only one answer to every question and that’s higher taxes,” he said. “Vote for Scot Morrison and the Coalition government for a stronger economy.”
Rosie Lewis 11.37am: Labor’s ‘final week’ rally begins
Victorian Labor premier Daniel Andrews has opened Labor’s rally in Moonee Ponds.
“I’m here to tell you what’s at stake at this election, why this choice matters so much and why we simply can’t have three more years like the last six. Why we all have to work so hard over the next six days to elect a Shorten Labor government,” he says.
Mr Andrews says he has a message for the “Prime Minister from Sydney for Sydney”, who he claims has short-changed Victoria. “The cuts and the chaos have got to stop.”
Mr Andrews continues,“When you’re out of touch then you are out of time. When you’re from Sydney and you’re for Sydney, you’re no good for Victoria.
“We want and we deserve a proper partner in Canberra. A real leader who builds instead of cuts. Who makes the hard decisions and doesn’t waste a moment.
We need Bill Shorten.”
The Labor premier introduces “the next member for Higgins”, the party’s candidate Fiona McLeod, to the podium.
“We need to send her to Canberra and Bill Shorten into government.”
Curtain raises at the Labor Rally to reveal .@billshortenmp and lots and lots of ladies @SkyNewsAust #AusVotes2019 #auspol pic.twitter.com/Tqi2rD8as2
— Annelise Nielsen (@annelisenews) May 12, 2019
Primrose Riordan 11.30am: Treasurer opens with Mother’s Day gag
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has joked about the decision to hold the Liberal Party launch on Mother’s Day.
“A particularly warm welcome to all the mothers in the audience, and my mum and my wife. I promised you a small intimate special event on Mother’s Day! And here we are!”
Primrose Riordan 11.21am: Henderson opens Liberal launch
Liberal MP Sarah Henderson opened the Coalition launch by wishing mothers, including her own Anne, a happy Mother’s Day.
“My late mother served as a Liberal MP in the Kennett government. She, along with my father, because my brother, sister, and me, to stand up for what we believe, to do what’s right, and take individual responsibility for our actions.”
“They taught us to live within our means and that no-one owed us a living. To work hard. They instilled in us a strong belief in family, in community, and in a fair and just society. These are my values. There Liberal values. There are party’s values.”
She also made the first mention of the day of Labor leader Bill Shorten.
“Then there’s Bill Shorten, who not even the cleaners at Cleanevent could trust. For the past two weeks on prepoll I have learned that many people in Corangamite don’t trust Bill Shorten,” she said.
Former country singer and Liberal candidate for Fenner in the ACT, Leanne Castley, has sung the national anthem at the launch followed by an address by Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack.
The Coalition has also screened two Labor attack ads at the launch following Mr McCormack’s speech.
The Nationals leader mentioning the Labor Party 12 times and Bill Shorten twice.
“The risk is real,” he said.
.@M_McCormackMP: We want to back those who work in our primary industries. Those who live off the land. The Nationals and the Liberals back all regional people and all Australians, and we do it every day. We have a plan to keep delivering.
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) May 12, 2019
MORE: https://t.co/Q5lwU97ber #ausvotes pic.twitter.com/ogVpKt0kpv
Rosie Lewis 11.17am: Shorten plans major speeches
Bill Shorten has a couple of big speeches this week, including a business breakfast address in Perth on Wednesday. Labor sources have confirmed he will also deliver a “major speech” on Thursday in Blacktown at the same venue Gough Whitlam delivered his “It’s time”
speech. The Labor leader is clearly hoping Australians will agree. Scott Morrison is locked in to address the National Press Club - a tradition in the final week of the campaign - but Mr Shorten is not confirmed.
Joe Kelly 11.16am: Libs play down small launch
The Liberal Party is playing down its campaign launch, hiring only a small room at the Melbourne convention centre with no more than 300 supporters in attendance.
No former Liberal prime ministers have attended, with Scott Morrison keen to avoid drawing attention to the party’s bitter leadership rivalries and years of internal division.
Key frontbenchers are seated in the first row including Mathias Cormann, Simon Birmingham, Marise Payne, Christian Porter, Mitch Fifield and Greg Hunt.
Liberal MP Sarah Henderson who holds the knife edge Victorian seat of Corangamite has opened the event.
Primrose Riordan 11.13am: Labor’s numbers cannot be believed: Cormann
Finance Minister Mathias Cormann has argued Labor has not factored in the impact of their policies on economic growth into their costings.
“Labor’s numbers cannot be believed. Labor has not explained, for example, the impact of their high taxing agenda on economic growth, on jobs on property values, on the cost of rents,” he told the ABC.
“There is a range of unanswered questions there. They have not included a lot of spending promises, firm spending promises that they have made in their costings.”
The finance minister argued that Labor had previously committed to increase the refugee intake, to increase foreign aid to half a per cent of gross national income and increase science funding to 3 per cent of the share of GDP by 2030. Senator Cormann said this was not properly accounted for in the costings.
Labor’s costing proposes to ramp up foreign aid by $1.6 billion over four years which would not immediately take the opposition up to the party’s platform commitment to increase foreign aid to 0.5 per cent of gross national income. However, there was no time frame on that commitment.
The Finance Minister argued it was incorrect to say the Liberal election strategy was “small target” and a referendum on Labor’s plans, but in the same answer urged voters not to take a “risk” on the “reckless agenda of Bill Shorten”.
Rosie Lewis: 11.10am: Shorten’s party spoiler
Labor will rally the party faithful in Moonee Ponds at the same time of the Coalition’s campaign launch. Labor is calling it a final week campaign rally.
.@billshortenmp will rally the party faithful in Moonee Ponds at the same time of the Coalition’s campaign launch. Labor is calling it a final week campaign rally #ausvotes pic.twitter.com/OfIXtrzs03
— Rosie Lewis (@rosieslewis) May 12, 2019
Primrose Riordan 10.30am: Negative gearing impact negligible: Shorten
Labor leader Bill Shorten said his negative gearing policy will hit house prices by between 0.3 to 1 per cent.
“What our experts say, and it’s not just the think tanks who talk to us, but even New South Wales Treasury, what they’re all saying is that our changes, in the futures prospectively, will have a minimal a negligible impact on house prices,” he told the ABC’s Insiders program.
“Treasury said - in the turnover of houses, it would have an impact between 0.3 per cent and 1 per cent. That passes the minimal test.”
The opposition leader suggested he is not interested in retaliating against The Daily Telegraph after their front page story about his mother’s life story.
“And one of the reasons why we are competitive - I wouldn’t put it any stronger than that - next Saturday, is we are respecting the intelligence of the Australian people.”
“If we want the people to trust us, we have to trust them first. That’s why we’ve outlined our policies.”
“That’s why we’ve outlined the best set of books that an Opposition has ever presented in half a century, I would submit. So when it comes to some of the personality debates, I’m not interested. I’m not running for Prime Minister to square off.”
Rosie Lewis 10.25am: Shorten heads to rally
The Bill bus is on its way to Bill Shorten’s electorate of Maribyrnong for a campaign rally, to be launched by Labor’s candidate for Higgins Fiona McLeod. The Labor leader holds his seat on a healthy margin of 10.4 per cent. This is about rallying the party faithful in a key
battleground state. There are lots of people in red T-shirts at the Clocktower Centre in the heart of Moonee Ponds, where the rally will be held.
Primrose Riordan 10.15am: Labor won’t subsidise aged care wages
Bill Shorten has now said he will not be subsidising the wages of aged care workers after hinting at assistance for them last Monday.
On Monday night Mr Shorten told ABC’s Q&A: “We’re thinking about what to do in aged care too”.
“The fact that we look after early childhood educators now does not mean that we won’t work to help aged care workforce in the future.”
Then today on the ABC’s Insiders program he said Labor would not be extending Labor’s plan for wage subsidies for early childhood workers to aged care workers but may assist them via a “different path”.
Here is the exchange:
Insiders host Barrie Cassidy: “You were already talking about subsidising wages in the private sector, in the childcare sector. If you go beyond that, that will cost more money - billions.”
Shorten: “We’re not going to...Early childhood education is important. We’ve got to keep the talented people in this profession, but the problem is - we can’t ask parents to pay more money, and we shouldn’t.”
Cassidy: “But you just said that you won’t be going beyond that. So that means that you won’t be subsidising the wages of aged-care workers in the same way?”
Shorten: “I think that we’ll end up doing different paths to lift wages in other sectors. For example...”
Cassidy: “So you will go beyond childcare?”
Shorten: “we’ll get wages moving. The solution we’re using for early childhood is unique to early childhood.”
Cassidy: “So what you’re saying is that you won’t be subsidising aged-care wages in the same way? It won’t be Government money?”
Shorten: “That’s right.”
Joe Kelly 9.55am: ‘No excuse not to build’ controversial road link
Scott Morrison has spoken on the Coalition’s $4 billion promise to help build the East West Link in a bid to ease Melbourne traffic congestion and revive the party’s vote in the battleground state.
The contract for the project was sensationally torn up by the Daniel Andrews state Labor government when it won office more than four years ago, with the move coming at a cost to taxpayers of more than $1.1 billion.
The Prime Minister said this morning that by putting $4 billion on the table there will “be no excuse to not build this critical and missing part of Melbourne’s road network.”
“We respect the Victorian government does not share this priority for residents in eastern Melbourne. That’s why we are prepared to go ahead without them, and let them press ahead with their other priorities,” Mr Morrison said.
The government argues that the project will cut travel times between the Eastern Freeway and CityLink from 27 minutes to seven minutes and bypass 23 sets of traffic lights.
Mr Morrison has also announced a maternity and wellbeing program aimed at addressing perinatal depression as part of a $36 million “mums, dads and bulbs check” to coincide with Mother’s Day.
The program would be rolled out nationally to enable parents and their new born children to access in-hospital perinatal support.
“This is a cause close to my heart that has hit close to home,” Mr Morrison said. “Rolling out this check to every new mum, dad and Bub will be a key part of the other health check ups new families go through. This check should be an expected and important part of parental health care as much as vaccinations.”
Primrose Riordan 9.48am: Sound familiar?
Labor appears to have accidentally sent out its internal “talking points” to the media this morning:
Labor's campaign team have sent their daily talking points to the media. Unclear if it was an accident #auspol #ausvotes19 pic.twitter.com/vy1OqiX6e5
— Tom McIlroy (@TomMcIlroy) May 11, 2019
Primrose Riordan 9.35am: Labor doesn’t know the cost of raising Newstart
Labor leader Bill Shorten has again conceded Labor does not know the cost of raising Newstart, which could impact any future Labor budget bottom line.
“We don’t know what that number is. And we’re going to talk to the experts,” he told the ABC’s Insiders program.
“What we’ve done is said we’re going to review Newstart, but we also have to see in the review, the whole network. Because there are other benefits that people receive. We want to see exactly what is the best way to deliver unemployment support to encourage people back into work. I’m not going to pre-empt that.”
“We’re not going to say that people on $265 a week should just be ignored because they don’t have the same political voice that the property industry has or that other invested interests have.”
“Reversing cuts to schools and hospitalsâ€
— Insiders ABC (@InsidersABC) May 11, 2019
“Provide tax cutsâ€
“Get bigger surplusesâ€@billshortenmp lays out his “magic trifecta†for Australia’s economy. #Insiders #auspol #AusVotes pic.twitter.com/gMxett4IOP
Primrose Riordan 9.28am: Treasurer addresses East West Link budget impact
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has said the $4 billion the Coalition committed today for the East West Link would hit the budget if the project is approved by the Victorian state government.
“This is money that will flow from the Commonwealth,” Mr Frydenberg said.
Here is the exchange from Sky News this morning:
Speers: : “Does that mean a smaller surplus?”
Frydenberg: “Well obviously that would mean that we would continue to have major surpluses over the years...”
Speers: “but smaller?”
Frydenberg: “If this goes ahead then (the surplus) will be reduced by $4 billion dollars over the years that the spending takes place.”
Primrose Riordan 8.50am: Frydenberg talks down underwriting coal-fired power
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has talked down the possibility of a future Liberal government underwriting a coal-fired power station as he admitted climate change was an issue in his seat of Kooyong.
Mr Frydenberg is facing a challenge from the Greens’ Julian Burnside and independent Oliver Yates.
“I’m not complacent, the fact is the Kooyong contest is tight,” he told Sky News.
He said the biggest issues in his electorate were the cost of living, congestion and climate change.
Earlier this year the Morrison government announced a “feasibility analysis” for a $2 billion Collinsville coal-fired power station - a move embraced by LNP MPs who saw it as a green light for the project.
Mr Frydenberg was then asked by Sky News’ David Speers whether the government still planned to fund the station.
Here is the full exchange:
Frydenberg: “We’ve explain what we will be underwriting as you know and they are predominately renewables, pumped hydro..”
Speers: “Coal fired power station that’s on the list?
Frydenberg: “No...well there’s one for 26 megawatts which is very small but if you’re talking about the review it’s quite a different thing. Now what that is is not a review into a coal-fired power station it’s actually a review into what [are] the baseload power needs in that part of Queensland and having been the environment and energy minister...”
Speers: “I thought it was looking specifically at a coal-fired power station?”
Frydenberg: “It’s looking at the whole suite of options.”
Speers: “It may not be a coal-fired power station?”
Frydenberg: “We have to see what the business case shows.”
Speers: “This is the Collinsville project we’re talking about?”
Frydenberg: “Yeah. Well who knows what the business case [shows]. You and I don’t know what it’s going to be. But the reality is this, with energy and climate, those two major issues, there is a transition under way in our energy sector and what we won’t do as a Coalition is compromise people’s energy bills. Now we’re eight days from the election, or seven days from the election and Bill Shorten still hasn’t explained the true cost of his climate policies.”
.@JoshFrydenberg on his Victorian seat of Kooyong: I'm not complacent and I certainly don't take my seat for granted. The contest for Kooyong is tight.
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) May 11, 2019
MORE: https://t.co/guSaoAlYe1 #SpeersOnSunday #auspol pic.twitter.com/e0jFfpyd9X
Rosie Lewis 8.30am: Labor’s rail loop pledge
Bill Shorten is promising the “single biggest federal investment in a public transport project in history”, with $10 billion for a suburban rail loop in Melbourne, on the same day the Coalition is launching its election campaign in the city.
Proving Victoria has become one of the most important battleground states, the Opposition Leader will today announce the infrastructure plan, which comes on top of $5bn already committed to the Melbourne Airport Rail Link, and pledge to work alongside Labor premier Daniel Andrews to deliver the project.
Half a dozen or more Victorian seats, mostly Liberal-held, could be in play on May 18, potentially enough to deliver Mr Shorten government.
“This election will be a choice between a united Shorten Labor government which will build the essential transport infrastructure Melbourne needs, or more of the Liberals’ cuts and chaos,” Mr Shorten said.
“We need real change, because more of the same isn’t good enough.”
The rail loop will see the construction of 12 new underground stations connecting 90 kilometres of rail between Melbourne’s suburbs, bypassing the CBD.
Construction won’t begin until 2022, when the next federal election is due.
It is estimated 400,000 passengers will use the rail loop each day and take 200,000 cars off the city’s roads.
The major funding commitment will be delivered over 15 years.
Neither Labor nor the Coalition have based their campaign headquarters in Melbourne but both leaders are kicking off the final week of the election in the city.
Scott Morrison will launch the Coalition’s campaign in a more laid back event to the Labor launch last weekend, in a city that was highly critical of Malcolm Turnbull’s ousting.
Mr Shorten will spend today - his 52nd birthday - participating in a Mother’s Day fun run and making his infrastructure announcement.
8am: Coalition promises $4bn to revive axed road project
Meanwhile Prime Minister Scott Morrison is set to promise $4 billion for the axed $7 billion East West link to connect the Eastern Freeway to CityLink.
The plan will bypass the state Andrews government, which famously tore up the East West Link contract — a 6km stretch of road linking Hoddle Street with Parkville, in 2014 at a cost of $1.1 billion.
Mr Morrison said the Coalition wants to fight congestion and help people get to and from work “sooner and safer”.
“Our investment is about standing by eastern Melburnians who want to get out of the gridlock so they can spend more time withtheir families, and so they can get to work without wasting hours each week on the road,” he told the Sunday Herald Sun.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the project would bypass 23 sets of traffic lights and slash travel times in a major improvement for Melbourne’s congested roads.
“This will be a contingent liability, contingent upon Daniel Andrews giving the approval for the project to go ahead but we’re not asking for a cent from the Victorian Labor government,” Mr Frydenberg told Sky News on Sunday.
“They’ve made it clear that they don’t prioritise this important project for the eastern suburbs of Melbourne.”
The Coalition has announced $4bn for Victoria's East-West Link.@JoshFrydenberg: It'll be contingent on @DanielAndrewsMP's approval. We're not asking for a cent from state's govt. It's clear that it doesn't prioritise this project.
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) May 11, 2019
MORE https://t.co/BRKPMsfVCO #SpeersOnSunday pic.twitter.com/HJFHz2Simk
7.30am: Coalition plan impressing Labor voters
Voters in the pivotal state of Queensland favour the Coalition’s tax plan, a new poll shows.
The YouGov/Galaxy poll, published in the Sunday Mail, asked 848 voters if they preferred Labor’s plan to increase taxes in return for more government services, or the Coalition’s position of no new taxes.
It indicated 59 per cent of Queensland voters preferred the Coalition’s tax plan to Labor’s proposal, while just 26 per cent backed Bill Shorten’s tax offering.
7am: Shortens’ plan for The Lodge
Bill Shorten plans to move his blended family into The Lodge if he wins office next week.
The Shortens — Bill, wife Chloe and their three children Georgette, Rupert and Clementine — would be the first family to take up residence in Canberra’s The Lodge in a decade, the Sunday Telegraph reports.
“The Libs are always out there saying I’m measuring up the curtains. I’m not, I’m thinking about May 18,” Mr Shorten said.
“But I do think the Prime Minister should live in The Lodge or Kirribilli.
“We are a partnership so I will have to speak with Chloe. The transition is not automatic or easy.”
Scott Morrison and his family live at Kirribilli in Sydney, with the PM using The Lodge only during sitting weeks.
6.45am: Coalition support for new mums
Scott Morrison is promising new mothers and their babies extra support as he heads into the final week of the federal election campaign.
Officially launching the Liberal Party campaign on Mother’s Day, the Prime Minister is pledging $36 million towards peri-natal depression checks in hospitals across the country.
“This is a cause close to my heart that has hit close to home,” Mr Morrison said on Sunday.
“Too many parents have suffered in silence, but we’ve got their back.”
The package is expected to support 100,000 Australians impacted by post-natal depression each year.
In a candid interview last week, Mr Morrison’s wife Jenny revealed her struggle with depression when the couple’s two daughters were very young.
“Scott went into politics as soon as my baby was born, so I’ve had 12 years nearly of him not being around and doing that alone and that was really hard and, yes, I suffered and didn’t know why,” Mrs Morrison told The Daily Telegraph.
Mr Morrison is also pledging extra funding for breastfeeding mothers and women battling breast cancer.
Morrison will be joined at today’s launch by the major women in his life - wife Jenny, daughters Lily and Abbey and his mum Marion.
AAP
6am: Shorten off and running in key battleground
Like the Prime Minister, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten will start the final week of the election campaign in the key battleground of Victoria, celebrating his birthday and Mother’s Day in Melbourne. The Labor leader will on Sunday appear on the final episode of the ABC’s Insiders program before the May 18 poll.
Mr Shorten will also participate in the Mother’s Day Classic fun run.
Scott Morrison, who will launch the Liberal Party’s official campaign in Melbourne today, has repeatedly argued his campaign launch will not be about “party hoopla”, sledging Labor’s recent launch for lauding its luminaries. Instead, he will take centre stage to “have a conversation” with voters about the direction of the country.
“It’s not about party festivals and slapping backs and doing all that sort of stuff. People aren’t interested in all that rubbish,” Mr Morrison told reporters.
Former prime ministers Malcolm Turnbull, Tony Abbott and John Howard are not expected to attend the campaign launch in Melbourne.
The Coalition is trying to sandbag a swag of outer-metropolitan Melbourne electorates come polling day, with Labor growing increasingly confident of picking up key seats next Saturday.
AAP
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