Category Archives: Australian politics

Who will win? The seats Labor and the Coalition need for victory in Australia’s 2022 federal election

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The magic number for majority government is 76 lower house seats. Here are the possible scenarios in the Australian election

With the polls tightening in the final days of the election campaign, both major parties are preparing for a tight contest on Saturday.

Labor, after carrying the scars of the 2019 loss which it was widely expected to win, is being more cautious about predicting wins from the Liberal party this time round.

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United Australia Party may have more backing than polls suggest, with voters too embarrassed to voice support, analysis shows

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Hour-long TV ads on commercial networks aired before media blackout as part of fringe party’s projected $70m 2022 federal election campaign spend

Clive Palmer’s United Australia party is burning through its projected $70m election advertising spend, including hour-long television commercials, as a data analyst warns the fringe party could have more backing than polls predict, with some voters embarrassed to voice their support.

At 9.45pm on Wednesday – hours before the blackout for election ads on broadcast media came into effect – Channel 10 ran an hour-long UAP ad which marketing analysts believe cost up to $600k but would have been discounted due to the mammoth ad spend by the party.

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Independent to lodge legal challenge after AEC anomaly prevents as many as 100,000 Covid-positive Australians from voting

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Monique Ryan says she will lodge federal court challenge as commission admits people who tested positive early this week but didn’t register for postal voting ‘may not be able to vote’

A high-profile independent candidate is taking legal action after the Australian Electoral Commission conceded an anomaly means some people – possibly in excess of 100,000 – isolating with Covid may not be able to vote in Saturday’s election

Guardian Australia understands that Monique Ryan, the teal independent candidate in Josh Frydenberg’s seat of Kooyong, will on Friday lodge an application in the federal court seeking to test the legality of a regulation that the AEC has conceded will prevent some Covid positive people in isolation on election day from being able to cast a vote.

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Australian federal election 2022 live: Plibersek says Albanese has a ‘tough job’ as polls tighten

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AEC concedes some Covid-positive Australians ‘may not be able to vote’: prime minister responds after Labor announces policy costings; Covid and illness lead to drop in working hours; nation records at least 52 Covid deaths. Follow all the day’s developments live

Scott and Jenny Morrison are visiting Whitemore in the Labor-held electorate of Lyons in Tasmania this morning.

Brian Mitchell holds Lyons on a margin of 5.2%, although his buffer was inflated by the disendorsement of his Liberal opponent mid-campaign in 2019 for anti-Islamic social media posts. Morrison is still on the offence, seeking gains to offset expected losses elsewhere.

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Assisted dying advocates shift focus to Australian government’s territory ban

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After NSW became the last state to pass euthanasia laws, advocates say they will fight to overturn ban preventing ACT and NT from passing their own laws

Advocates for voluntary assisted dying say they will turn their attention to the federal government to strike down restrictions which prevent the ACT and Northern Territory from passing laws allowing euthanasia.

The backlash comes as New South Wales became the last state to pass the laws. The historic voluntary assisted dying bill passed NSW parliament on Thursday after a months-long campaign.

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Fred Nile finds a new home among Seniors

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87-year-old NSW conservative joins the Seniors United party after his Christian Democratic party was deregistered

NSW parliament’s longest serving member, Fred Nile, has joined a new party after the Christian Democratic party he helped found was dissolved in March.

The controversial 87-year-old conservative, who insists he has no plans to retire, has joined the Seniors United party (SUP) of Australia.

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‘Please tell me he hasn’t gone to hospital’: Morrison the bulldozer knocks over a child while playing soccer

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Prime minister accidentally crashes into under-8s player Luca Fauvette during a campaign visit to the Devonport City Soccer Club in Tasmania

Scott Morrison has lived up to his self-applied moniker of “bulldozer” by crashing into a young child while playing football on the campaign trail in Tasmania.

The prime minister had the mid-match collision with the under-8s player at the Devonport City Soccer Club on Wednesday afternoon.

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Some polling stations may not open on election day due to staff shortages, AEC says

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Electoral commission urges people in potentially affected regions to access alternative voting options, and volunteer to work

The Australian Electoral Commission has said staff shortages may mean some polling stations will be unable to open for the election on Saturday.

The electoral commissioner, Tom Rogers, said the impact would be “limited” with the vast majority of Australia’s 7,000 polling stations to remain open.

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Government claims of 7% real wage rise since in office disputed – as it happened

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Katy Gallagher disputes prime minister’s claims on real wage growth; nation records at least 53 Covid deaths. This blog is now closed

National party deputy leader, David Littleproud was feeling upbeat this morning while speaking to ABC Breakfast TV:

We have achieved a lot together, in fact we have done more than any other nation in the world if you look at an economic and health front. We should be proud but we need to shift gears and make sure we look after those cost of living inflation pressures and who is best to handle that and to drive the economy and to guide the economy. I think that’s where the Australian people are looking at it when the opposition won’t tell them how much of their money they’re going to spend, they’re taking them as mugs. We got to be open and honest and transparent.

We think an upward surprise of 1% q/q growth in [today’s] WPI could be enough to get the RBA over the line for 40 basis points, though if it comes in at our forecast of 0.8% q/q that prospect will recede.

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Real incomes shrink as wages growth of 0.7% in March quarter falls behind inflation

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Labor says figures released by the ABS show gap between wage growth and cost of living increases in Australia is now the largest in more than two decades

Australian wage growth barely budged in the March quarter, with salaries increasing at less than half the headline inflation rate, stoking concerns pay packets continue to shrink in real terms.

During the first three months of 2022, the seasonally adjusted wage price index (WPI) rose 0.7% from the December quarter to be 2.4% higher than a year earlier. Economists had tipped a quarterly and yearly rise of 0.7-0.8% and 2.5%, respectively.

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Australian election 2022: from anti-vaxxers to revolutionaries, what do the minor parties running for the Senate stand for?

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Know what’s behind the innocent-sounding names of more than 30 minor and micro parties running this federal election, and find out what the lesser-known groups are after – before you cast your vote on the Senate ballot paper

The Coalition, Labor and the Greens (plus the wave of independents) are getting most of the headlines in this election. But your ballot papers will also be full of candidates representing parties you might not know much – or anything – about.

From the big-spender ads of the United Australia party and the re-election desires of One Nation, to a bunch of micro-parties representing niche interests, Australia’s democracy and elections are a rich tapestry – and it takes all types to make a campaign.

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Public sector cuts worth $3.3bn would not result in job losses, David Littleproud claims

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Nationals frontbencher describes cuts as ‘sensible management’ but unions say they will result in thousands of job losses

Nationals frontbencher David Littleproud has claimed that spending cuts imposed across the public sector to deliver $3.3bn in savings to pay for the Morrison government’s election commitments will not result in job losses.

Littleproud at first told the ABC erroneously on Wednesday morning that “governments don’t employ people, businesses do”.

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Scott Morrison tells A Current Affair ‘jobkeeper saved the country’ – as it happened

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Prime minister tells Tracy Grimshaw ‘I could have been more sensitive at times’; nation records 66 Covid deaths. This blog is now closed

Ita Buttrose:

We will retain an internal system of editorial complaint handling. We accept the recommendations, but we have amended one already. The review recommends that the ombudsman should report directly to the board. We should report to the board and the managing director, but the directors felt that this would simply be continuing the system we already have and we wanted a different more independent approach. So the ombudsman will report directly to the board and the process will be separate from editorial management.

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‘Hello it’s John Howard calling’: former PM says Liberal party asked him to ‘campaign extensively’

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The current prime minister is unpopular in city marginal seats, so the Coalition is banking on robocalls and letterbox drops from Howard to sway voters

Australians might have been sitting down for dinner about 7pm on Monday, or tuning in to the news, but for those living in marginal seats there was a chance they were interrupted – by the former prime minister John Howard.

“Hello it’s John Howard calling from Sydney for the Liberal party,” were the words voters in seats such as North Sydney, Wentworth and Hughes heard when they answered their landlines and mobile phones.

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Western Sydney’s time as a ‘stronghold’ for either major party is over, expert says

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Diversity of opinions at the ballot box in western Sydney ‘defies prediction and conventional political logic’, report says

There is a growing “electoral volatility” in western Sydney, with experts saying residents have “departed from the script” in a region which could prove critical to deciding the federal election.

A new study from the Centre for Western Sydney that analysed federal election voting patterns found a level of volatility above national trends.

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Pentecostalism and the LNP’s fight for its soul in Queensland’s Darling Downs

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The seat of Groom has been held by conservatives since federation, but Labor and independent candidates have shaken up the race this election

A bastion of conservative Christian politics, the electorate of Groom has become a frontline in the battle for the soul of the Coalition.

And while religion barely rates a mention in the official campaign for Groom, there are concerns about the rising influence of pentecostalism, which could explain why the second safest seat in the country has suddenly become seen as one to watch.

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‘Poisonous pamphlets and pork’: what messages are cutting through to voters in this messy campaign?

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Here’s what is weighing on the minds of five undecided voters before the federal election on 21 May

Undecided voters will play a key role in deciding the outcome of Saturday’s election with many waiting until the final week, days, or even hours, to make their decision.

So what in this very long, and at times messy, campaign has cut through?

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New poll predicts Allegra Spender will win Wentworth from Liberal MP Dave Sharma

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Exclusive: Spender-commissioned poll says independent will win on preference flows but is at odds with YouGov polling on the electorate

A new poll has the independent Allegra Spender on track to claim the prize blue-ribbon seat of Wentworth in Sydney’s east, with the Liberal MP Dave Sharma’s primary vote at 36%, down from 47% at the 2019 election.

Spender, who is backed by Climate 200 and is running on a platform of action on climate change and integrity in politics, has recorded a 33.3% primary vote and is now enjoying high recognition.

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Australian federal election 2022 live: Albanese calls Coalition housing scheme ‘an attack on future generations’; AEC finds signs in breach

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Anthony Albanese labels Coalition housing scheme ‘an attack on future savings’; AEC says Advance Australia ‘Greens’ signs in breach of electoral act; home price increases will be ‘marginal’ under new plan, Scott Morrison says; PM says Labor was informed about Aukus when they ‘needed to be’; NSW records four Covid deaths. Follow all the day’s news live

Labor campaign spokesperson Jason Clare has a new line.

He told ABC TV:

The next week is really important. Australians have a big choice to make this weekend. It is a choice between a better future under Labor and more Scott Morrison.

As Australians think about this, they would be thinking “Do you want to wake up on Sunday morning and roll over and see Scott Morrison?”

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Adam Bandt outlines seven demands for Labor in Greens’ balance-of-power wishlist

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Party confident of winning at least one seat in Brisbane, where it will launch its campaign on Monday

The Greens leader, Adam Bandt, will release a $173bn balance-of-power wishlist at the party’s campaign launch in Brisbane on Monday night, outlining seven key concessions it wants from Labor in the event of a minority government.

The Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, has ruled out doing any deals with the Greens to form government, while Bandt has said the party will not support the Liberals under any circumstance.

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