Can Cathy McGowan’s anointed successor keep Indi independent or will the Coalition strike back?
With the retirement of Cathy McGowan, the rural Victorian seat of Indi is once more back in play and the group of campaigners who unseated Sophie Mirabella in 2013 are now fighting to keep the seat in independent hands.
Orange spray-painted chairs adorn the verandahs outside homes across the electorate – a symbol of the battle.
Continue reading...Former PM warns electricity prices will be higher because the Coalition dumped the national energy guarantee
The former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has returned to the fray to warn dumping the national energy guarantee – a decision taken by Scott Morrison – will drive up power prices.
Turnbull took exception to a column at the weekend characterising the national energy guarantee as “Malcolm Turnbull’s Neg”, pointing out the policy had strong support within the cabinet, “including and especially the current PM and treasurer”.
Continue reading...Supporters of both Tony Abbott and Zali Steggall accuse the other side of underhand tactics
Residents in the federal seat of Warringah are complaining about telephone push polling, unwanted copies of the Daily Telegraph arriving on their lawns and election posters being defaced.
The most mysterious event in the Sydney seat, where the former prime minister Tony Abbott is fighting a challenge from the independent Zali Steggall, is the arrival of unsolicited copies of the Telegraph, which began in late March.
Continue reading...High-quality international offsets should be part of any credible policy, industry says
Business groups are defying the Morrison government’s political assault on the use of international permits, arguing a credible climate policy should include access to high-quality international offsets, because they are a key mechanism to help Australia meet its Paris target.
With climate change persisting as a significant campaign flashpoint, the chief executive of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, James Pearson, told Guardian Australia international permits were part of the toolkit for mitigating climate change in a cost-effective way.
Continue reading...Analysis from Grattan Institute says government ‘probably’ on right trajectory for next year but deficit likely later. All the day’s events, live
Does Scott Morrison think he is popular in Victoria, given he has spent two days campaigning there?
There will be two choices after May 18 - there’s myself and Bill Shorten. Both of our parties have changed our rules. Not before time, but we both have. And those rules mean that whoever you elect as prime minister on May 18 - they will be your prime minister for the next three years. So if you vote for Bill Shorten, you’ll get Bill Shorten.
And if you vote for me, and the Liberal and National parties, you will get me to serve you as your prime minister for the next three years, and to pursue the stronger economy that guarantees rely on for essential services.”
On whether Sam Dastyari has any connection to Labor’s pathology announcement:
Well, this would seem to be the suggestion today - that Sam Dastyari was on Bill Shorten’s campaign bus at the last election and the suggestion now is he’s on Bill Shorten’s gravy train when it comes to this latest announcement. Let’s just see what happens there, I suppose. I mean, I have no knowledge of that. But it’s something for Bill Shorten to explain - from the campaign bus to the gravy train - that’s quite a passage for Sam Dastyari. But, you know, if anyone was gonna be able to do it, I suspect it was him.”
Continue reading...Guardian stands by report after the candidate for Chisholm, Gladys Liu, said the report was ‘fake’ and ‘wrong’ and she had been ‘misrepresented’
The audio of an 2016 interview with Gladys Liu, now the Liberal candidate for the Melbourne seat of Chisholm, has been released after she questioned the accuracy of comments she made to the writer of a Guardian article.
Liu ran an anti-Labor campaign on WeChat, the most popular Chinese-language social media network, ahead of the 2016 election and in the July 2016 report claimed credit for helping to get then Liberal MP Julia Banks elected to parliament.
Continue reading...Labor senator launches scathing attack on home affairs minister, saying he’s the most toxic man in the Liberal party
Peter Dutton has apologised for accusing his Labor challenger, Ali France, of “using her disability as an excuse” not to move to the electorate during the campaign.
The apology came a little over an hour after a blistering attack by Labor senator Kristina Keneally, who called Dutton “mean and despicable”, a “thug”, and the “most toxic man in the Liberal party”.
Continue reading...Parke says she did not want to be a distraction during the election campaign, despite her views being ‘well known’
The Labor candidate for the West Australian seat of Curtin, Melissa Parke, has pulled out following reports that she told a public meeting last month that the way Israel treated Palestinians was “worse than the South African system of apartheid”.
Parke, formerly a federal member for Fremantle, said on Friday night that she did not want to be a distraction during the election campaign. The seat of Curtin was previously held by former Liberal party deputy leader Julie Bishop.
Continue reading...The day started with Scott Morrison talking about a $387bn Labor tax slug and ended with Bill Shorten calling a Peter Dutton jibe ‘disgusting’
Scott Morrison’s ambition to make day two of the election campaign all about a $387bn Labor tax slug has been disrupted by Treasury disavowing the number and Peter Dutton accusing his Labor opponent in Dickson of using her disability “as an excuse’’ for not moving into the electorate.
Morrison hit the hustings on Friday armed with what the government said was new Treasury numbers revealing Labor’s “tax hit on the economy” would be $387bn but, later in the day, the Treasury head Phil Gaetjens confirmed officials had costed Labor measures at the government’s request but had not provided a total, making it clear the calculation was the government’s number.
Continue reading...Day two of the 2019 Australian election campaign is under way, with an opening salvo from the government. All the day’s events, live
The AEC has laid out its plan for counting the 16 million or so votes the federal election should bring in:
Following years of planning, fine tuning and improvements to AEC systems – plus the experience gained from running nine by-elections since 2017 – the AEC expects to:
Bill Shorten and the former AMA president, Brian Owler, the Labor candidate for Bennelong, is announcing Labor’s key policy for today: $125m for cancer research.
Continue reading...Coalition says Labor promises will be funded by ‘$387bn of new taxes on your income, your house, your savings’
The first costings war of the 2019 election campaign is underway, with the Morrison government releasing what it says are new Treasury numbers concluding Labor’s “tax hit on the economy” will be $387bn, not the $200bn figure it has been spruiking in its attack lines for months.
But the shadow treasurer, Chris Bowen, blasted back before the new material was published by news outlets, declaring on social media the calculations were “dodgy” and observing that “someone” in Treasury had some explaining to do, because the department has said previously it doesn’t cost opposition policies.
Continue reading...Liberal candidates under pressure from Greens and Independents have dropped Liberal logo for ‘modern Liberal’ tag
They’re billing themselves as the Modern Liberals. Which begs the question who are the old-school Liberals?
Dave Sharma, the Liberals’ candidate for Wentworth in Sydney’s east, and Tim Wilson, the member for Goldstein, covering Melbourne’s bayside suburbs, have both begun postering their electorates with corflutes that carry the tagline, “modern Liberal”.
Continue reading...The ads use Facebook functionality to target users with an interest in particular car brands, including Toyota Hilux utes
Toyota has said that it was not consulted on a Liberal party campaign that uses targeted Facebook ads to falsely claim Bill Shorten wants to tax popular car brands including the Toyota Hilux and other utility vehicles.
“Toyota Australia were not consulted on the use of the HiLux in government materials.”
Continue reading...Advance Australia character called ‘one of the dumbest ideas I’ve seen’ and likened to anti-cancer initiative shaped like a testicle
A large-headed, orange-clad superhero designed to put pressure on progressive lobby group GetUp has instead been ridiculed for being too confusing and boosting GetUp’s image.
Captain GetUp is an initiative launched on Tuesday by rival conservative lobby group Advance Australia to attack GetUp in a range of key seats at the federal election.
Continue reading...Scott Morrison hints Coalition may try to match Bill Shorten’s $2.3bn cancer package
Labor has promised to spend $500m to cut public hospital wait times for cancer treatment.
The policy, released on Tuesday, is part of the $2.3bn cancer package unveiled by Bill Shorten in his budget reply.
Continue reading...Labor abandons Kyoto credits and highlights vehicle emissions in climate policy, as budget and election loom. All the day’s events, live
Scott Morrison finishes his press conference with an attack on the Greens, which in this political climate is an attack on Labor:
Now, the Labor party have got to apply their own rule to their own decisions. If they want to have this rule, which says minor parties should be considered separate to the mainstream parties, well it seems that the Labor party doesn’t think the Greens have these extreme views.
They’ve got to apply the same ruler to themselves. We’ve made our decisions on this. The challenge is on Labor now. Are you for national security? Are you for the US alliance? Are you for border protection? Are you against death taxes? If that’s your view, if you’re for all of those things, then by all means put the Greens ahead of the Liberal party. But if you’re not, then you shouldn’t do that.
We now need to change the national anthem. We are no longer girt by sea, apparently, because – Labor.
Scott Morrison:
The only difference, when it comes to the National Energy Guarantee in terms of what Labor are proposing, is this: the reliability energy guarantee, which was part of the Neg we brought forward at the time, that’s now happening.
That’s the important part. The bit Labor are applying to that is legislating a 45% emissions reduction target. That’s what Labor are doing. They are going to legislate that. That’s not going to reduce power prices. Labor’s Neg actually put prices not down, because they are going to legislate a reckless target that will hit wages, that will hit jobs, that will hit production.
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