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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Tory Shepherd and Amy Remeikis (earlier)

Payne says China military base in Solomons would be a ‘red line’ – as it happened

Josh Frydenberg Labor Monique Ryan China Kooyong Chris Uhlmann Daniel Hurst Scott Morrison Nine
Foreign minister Marise Payne
Foreign minister Marise Payne says ‘no additional amount of money’ would have been able to prevent the China-Solomon Islands security pact. Photograph: Evelyn Hockstein/AFP/Getty Images

What we learned today – Tuesday 26 April

Well, friends, thanks for joining us for another day in Blogland! Things got heated over climate change, tensions are still inflamed over the China-Solomons Island pact, and prime minister Scott Morrison made croissants while Labor leader Anthony Albanese copped a serving over the airwaves as he stayed in isolation. Here are today’s top headlines:

Amy Remeikis will be back with you in the morning, setting you up for another wild day in Australian news and politics with the whole Guardian Australia team. Sweet dreams!

Updated

The transcript is quite something. I couldn’t make it to the end.

In the last recorded call for assistance, she is crying so loudly that the prison officer warns her to be quiet, in case she wakes up other prisoners.

The Liberal candidate for Bennelong Simon Kennedy says he’s vaccinated, and he encourages everyone to get vaccinated, but:

Updated

This is really extraordinary stuff from Christopher Knaus and Ben Doherty. The Indonesian children jailed as adults in Australia, using deeply flawed evidence:

Clive Palmer’s company’s proposal to dig Australia’s largest thermal coalmine in central Queensland is “an attempt at financial gain” that comes with “an obscenely high cost” for future generations, First Nations people argue. Ben Smee took a look:

Katharine Murphy on the Coalition’s new attacks on the “great nothingness” of a Labor carbon tax:

They are lying, and worse, they are fully aware they are lying.

With Labor leader Anthony Albanese still in Covid isolation, other Labor leaders and luminaries were out on the hustings:

Former prime minister Kevin Rudd joins Labor’s candidate for Chisholm, Carina Garland, for a street walk in Box Hill, Melbourne.
Former prime minister Kevin Rudd joins Labor’s candidate for Chisholm, Carina Garland, for a street walk in Box Hill, Melbourne. Photograph: Joel Carrett/AAP
Labor’s member for Solomon, Luke Gosling, with senators Malarndirri McCarthy and Penny Wong during a visit to the National Critical Care And Trauma Response Centre in Darwin.
Labor’s member for Solomon, Luke Gosling, with senators Malarndirri McCarthy and Penny Wong during a visit to the National Critical Care And Trauma Response Centre in Darwin. Photograph: George Fragopoulos/AAP
Labor’s Penny Wong speaks to media at Bicentennial Park in Darwin.
Labor’s Penny Wong speaks to media at Bicentennial Park in Darwin. Photograph: George Fragopoulos/AAP

There was no shortage of material for AAP’s photographers on the road with prime minister Scott Morrison today:

Journalists look at a covered up sign during prime minister Scott Morrison’s visit to TEi engineering and steel fabrication company in Townsville.
Journalists look at a covered up sign during prime minister Scott Morrison’s visit to TEi engineering and steel fabrication company in Townsville. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP
Prime minister Scott Morrison makes croissants during a bakery visit in Townsville.
Prime minister Scott Morrison makes croissants during a bakery visit in Townsville. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP
Prime minister’s office staff block prime minister Scott Morrison from photographers during a visit to Doblo’s Fruit Market in Rockhampton.
Prime minister’s office staff block prime minister Scott Morrison from photographers during a visit to Doblo’s Fruit Market in Rockhampton. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Prime minister Scott Morrison buttered up some Macrons... ah, sorry, macarons... on the campaign trail today, while Labor leader Anthony Albanese did some croaky interviews from isolation. The China/Solomon Islands debacle continued, and new doubts were raised about the Coalition’s commitment to action on climate. Josh Butler has today’s election briefing for you:

Updated

Should I stay or should I go now? Josh Taylor on what Elon Musk’s Twitter move might mean for you:

Another area of some confusion... Labor’s Kristina Keneally said earlier that Labor would uphold Australia’s commitments to Vietnam under their changes to agricultural visas, that would now be aimed at Pacific Islander workers.

Canavan says it’s “nonsensical” to leave out southeast Asian countries, and Labor’s Murray Watt repeats Keneally’s line that the government’s program hasn’t delivered a single worker, and that there are 6,000 Pacific Islanders ready to work on Australian farms.

Updated

Canavan is asked if he’s telling voters not to trust his own government’s commitments. He says:

Don’t believe anybody who tells you they know what’s going to happen in 2050, I don’t know what’s going to happen in 2050, or 2030.

Canavan says the Paris agreement was not binding, the Coalition had no clear trajectory to net zero, countries are not living up to expectations, and there are no penalties for those who miss their targets.

“It’s a farce,” he says.

'Net zero is dead': Matt Canavan

Queensland senator Matt Canavan has made a useful contribution to the confusion over the Coalition’s climate change commitments (bunch of ‘c’s, there).

Net zero is “dead”, he has told the ABC:

Net zero is dead anyway. Boris Johnson said he is pausing it, Germany is building coal and gas infrastructure, Italy is reopening coal-fired power plants, it’s all over.

Updated

You’ve heard the politicking, the bickering and the snickering over Labor’s Pacific plan – now hear from Daniel Hurst. He’s followed the whole thing very closely and is discussing it with Jane Lee for the Campaign catchup:

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has responded to Josh Butler’s story (below) about that endorsement:

Someone please call Sam Neill!

Finally Keneally is asked whether Australia (under Labor) would join the United States, which says it would “respond” if China built a military base on Solomon Islands, and whether that was the same as the “red line” Morrison has drawn. She says:

It is not useful to forecast or hypothesise about bases that don’t exist but I do say this – we are incredibly alarmed by the government’s failure here.

We are incredibly concerned about the prospect of a military base in the Pacific islands, and we would work very closely with our counterparts [against] any attempt to do so.

Updated

“China now has a foothold in Solomon Islands,” Keneally says:

This has not been a Pacific step up, it has been a Pacific stuff up, and the consequence is that China has come and filled the void. They do not share our values and our interests.

Then she’s asked about the agricultural visa Labor has promised for Pacific workers. She says the difference between Labor’s policy and the government’s is that Labor will focus on Pacific Islander workers, instead of the broader ASEAN category. She says:

We know that from the government’s ag visa, not one worker has arrived. It is capped at 1,000 per year and it is not working, so what we are delivering is what the farmers want in terms of the visa architecture. The only thing that changes are the source countries, where the workers come from. There are 55,000 prescreened workers ready to go, ready to come to Australia.

Updated

The shadow home affairs minister, Kristina Keneally, is talking to the ABC’s Fran Kelly.

She’s talking about expanding the ABC’s reach in the Pacific, saying Australia’s regional neighbours need to “hear Australian voices and not the Chinese Communist party”. She says:

What has happened since the Morrison government cut broadcasting to Pacific nations is that China has moved in and is broadcasting in English languages on television and radio.

Labor’s plan to boost [broadcasting] by providing additional funding to the ABC is part of a whole of government approach, one that takes in economic support, climate infrastructure support, defence and strategic support, and, importantly, people-to-people connections. It is part of our whole government plan to strengthen our Pacific family.

Updated

The Liberal MP for North Sydney, Trent Zimmerman, will face Labor candidate Catherine Renshaw and independent candidate Kylea Tink in an election debate on Thursday.

Sky News will broadcast the debate at 2pm, and it will include prepared questions from locals.

Updated

Nick Evershed’s been doing some seriously funky stuff with data:

That link again:

Western Australia - A hermit kingdom one day, ditching masks the next:

The Australian Private Hospitals Association has welcomed Labor leader Anthony Albanese’s commitment to boosting the health workforce if elected.

APHA chief executive Michael Roff said the healthcare workforce shortage is the “single biggest issue facing healthcare in Australia”. But he described Albanese’s suggestion that overseas health workers could be recruited as a stopgap measure as “naive”. He said:

Australia needs a skilled migration program that encourages people to come here and make a life here, not just send them home as soon as their visa expires.

The healthcare workforce skills shortage is an international issue and if Australia wants overseas nurses to prop up the system, we need to make it worth their while to come.

Numbers from an internal survey of Australian private hospitals suggest the current workforce shortage in that sector is around 5,500 nurses. The sector urgently needs at least 1,000 skilled migrant nurses, and that is just for private hospitals, Roff said.

Roff said APHA supports a model that reinstates a pathway to permanent residency to create an added incentive to move to Australia for health workers.

Payne has called last question (which doesn’t always mean it is) and that question is about Australian man Robert Pether who is imprisoned in Iraq.

She’s asked if the government has forgotten him. Australia hasn’t forgotten him, she says. but “Australia does not have the ability to intervene in the legal processes of another country”.

Reporters squeezed in one more question on the safety of Australian diplomats. Risk assessments are done in places like Ukraine, Payne says:

We have a very small voice. We rely on other countries ... for our presence and support. We are reviewing that regularly but it’s entirely predicated on the safety.

Updated

Payne is asked (following her comments about Labor promising more aid to the Pacific) if there is “no additional amount of money that could have been provided to the Pacific that would have stopped a deal like that”.

“That’s a very simplistic way to look at this issue,” she says. “We have broad and deep security relationships.”

Prime minister Scott Morrison has been reassured that China will not establish a military base in Solomon Islands, Payne says, and “Australia remains the security partner of choice”. She’s asked if she’s “just” relying on the words of prime minister Mannaseh Sogavare. She says:

Ultimately these bilateral relationships are also country to country, minister to minister, official to official.

Morrison was “explicit” and “very clear” that if there was a military base set up, that would be a “red line”, Payne says.

Sogavare has repeated his reassurances in parliament, and to the Pacific, Payne says.

The first question is about whether the politicking about the Pacific is straining relations (I assume the questioner means with the Pacific, as opposed to the expected tensions between the government and the opposition).

That’s not how she’d characterise it, Payne says. “There are discussions that need to be had.”

She’s now asked whether Australia has become “less safe”. The government has “taken a careful and calibrated approach,” she says, “to this issue of respecting the sovereignty of Solomon Islands”.

Updated

Payne accuses Labor of ‘playing politics’ on national security

Payne says Australia already provides nearly half of development assistance to the Pacific.

She says Labor’s plans for the Pacific do not “recognise the geostrategic realities”, and accusing the opposition of “playing politics” on national security.

Updated

Deepening our relationships in the Pacific is “the right thing to do”, Payne says. “And it’s also good for Australia – a safe neighbourhood is a good place to live.”

The commonwealth funding for the region will total about $2.7bn this year, she says, before moving on to the policy Labor announced today.

“It’s our view that this is an announcement that lacks substance,” she says, adding that it’s “carbon copies” or continuations of existing policies.

Updated

Marise Payne media conference

Foreign affairs minister Marise Payne is in Sydney, and is emphasising the “rising uncertainty” in the region. She says:

Authoritarian powers are asserting themselves. We are seeing this in the travesty that is Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine ... we see it in the way that China challenges the international system of rules and laws.

Updated

While we wait for Payne, feel free to refresh yourselves on the details of Labor’s specific Pacific plans. Daniel Hurst reports:

Updated

Here’s a mid arvo reminder about just some of the ways Guardian Australia is covering this election:

Thank you, Amy Remeikis! There’ll be a lot to get through with foreign affairs minister Marise Payne – she’s normally somewhat of a reluctant holder of press conferences, but has a lot of questions to face at the moment.

Marise Payne is coming up in the next 20 minutes or so and the wonderful Tory Shepherd will take you through that.

I’ll be back early tomorrow morning – thank you to everyone who joined me today. I truly appreciate it. See you soon and please – take care of you.

Updated

You have one more week without Alan Jones on your (Facebook) streams.

Updated

Save the Children have also welcomed Labor’s Pacific aid funding pledge – but the organisation wants to see more done for other regions as well.

Acting CEO Mat Tinkler said in a statement:

It is heartening to see Labor’s pledge to direct substantial aid to the region over the next four years.

However, these commitments should not come at the expense of vulnerable children facing conflict and crisis elsewhere in the world, such as in Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen and Ukraine.

Whichever party ultimately forms government must ensure resources are invested to target the most vulnerable children and families in the Pacific over the long term.

Any new initiatives should be developed and delivered in co-ordination with Pacific nations, who are best positioned to identify areas of greatest need.

It is also calling for the party which wins government to:

  • Invest in a multi-year recovery package for our Pacific neighbours, consisting of more grant finance and ultra-concessional loans.
  • Invest $70.1m over three years in programs to support Pacific children, such as pilot child benefit payments, child disability benefit payments, and adult disability benefit payments; and commit $58.09m over three years to programs aimed at ending violence against children (EVAC).
  • Increase Australia’s climate finance commitment to $3bn over 2020-2025 and recommit to supporting the Green Climate Fund.
  • Direct a substantial proportion of funds from the Australian Infrastructure Financing Facility for the Pacific (AIFFP) into building social infrastructure, including health, education, and social protection systems.

Updated

This comes after last week’s election ads for Josh Frydenberg were revealed:

Our Pacific editor Kate Lyons has this update on how the US sees the Pacific situation in the wake of the security pact China has signed with Solomon Islands:

One of the most senior US officials in the Pacific has refused to rule out military action against Solomon Islands if it were to allow China to establish a military base there, saying that the security deal between the countries presented “potential regional security implications” for the US and other allies.

Ambassador Daniel Kritenbrink, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, was part of a high-level US delegation to the Pacific country last week.

He said the US team, which also included the National Security Council coordinator for Indo-Pacific affairs, Kurt Campbell, had a 90-minute “constructive and candid” meeting with prime minister Manasseh Sogavare in which the US team detailed concerns about its recently signed security deal with China.

“We wanted to outline for our friends in the Solomons, what our concerns are,” said Kritenbrink. “Prime minister Sogavare indicated that in the Solomon Islands’ view, the agreement they’ve concluded has solely domestic implications. But we’ve made clear that there are potential regional security implications of the agreement not just for ourselves, but for allies and partners across the region.”

The National Farmers’ Federation is not particularly happy with Labor’s ag visa announcement.

CEO Tony Mahar released this statement:

Unfortunately, Labor has today confirmed its intention to do away with the farmer-developed Ag Visa.

The NFF and our members advocated for an Ag Visa for more than five years. The Australian Labor party had a chance to demonstrate it had listened to farmers and was committed to a bright future for agriculture by backing the Ag Visa. Instead, Labor has turned its back on a chance to be part of a solution for the sector’s workforce crisis.

In tricky spin, Labor will keep the Ag Visa in name only, with the visa to be limited to workers from Pacific nations.

Pacific workers are highly valued by Australian farmers and are already well catered for by the short-term Seasonal Worker Program and the longer term Pacific Australia Labor Mobility Scheme.

... Labor should have a policy on solving the farm labour crisis – a crisis which impacts each and every Australian at the supermarket checkout. Instead, this important issue has been reduced to a footnote in its Pacific Plan to play to the politics of the moment.

Mr Albanese told the NFF National Conference two weeks ago, that Labor would have a new, better solution. Instead, today we got more of the same coupled with empty posturing.

We couldn’t be more disappointed to see months of close engagement with Labor agriculture spokesperson Julie Collins and immigration spokesperson Kristina Keneally come to this.

Neither of these representatives were a part of today’s announcement in Darwin.

Updated

Scott Morrison is having to tidy up his party’s position on climate – again – after comments from one of the LNP’s candidates.

Updated

This story from Chris Knaus and Ben Doherty is so important.

I covered some of the cases of people on these boats being sent to prison because of the mandatory sentencing laws where judges were bereft at the sentence they had to impose.

And now we can see just how many systemic failures there were – children were sent to adult prisons.

Updated

Josh Frydenberg has tried walking both sides of the fence when it comes to Katherine Deves’s comments, as AAP reports:

Frydenberg said the discussion about trans participation in sport raised “legitimate issues”.

“Some of those comments were unacceptable, they were certainly insensitive, and they were certainly inappropriate,” he said.

“I’ve made it very clear, my strong views about some of the analogies that have been used and the way that message has being communicated.

“But as to the issue of fairness in competition, I think they’re real ones.”

In terms of those “real” concerns Frydenberg raises, this piece from the Guardian’s Stephanie Convery is well worth your time if you haven’t already read it:

Updated

Labor is slowly rolling out Anthony Albanese’s radio interview transcripts from this morning. Unsurprisingly, the Ray Hadley shout-a-thon (not sure you could call it an interview) is not out yet. Sending thoughts and prayers to whoever is trying to put together that transcript.

Updated

Marise Payne has called a rare press conference for this afternoon.

The foreign minister is notoriously media shy and rarely holds press conferences herself.

Updated

SA keeps mask requirement for high schoolers as 3,463 Covid cases recorded

AAP has an update on SA Covid restrictions:

South Australian secondary students will be required to wear masks in schools for another month to try to minimise Covid-19 infections.

The state’s Emergency Management Council met on Tuesday and decided to keep mask use in place for the first four weeks of term two starting next week.

Primary school students will not be forced to wear masks but it will be recommended.

All teachers, in both primary and high schools, will be required to wear masks.

The state’s premier, Peter Malinauskas, said the decision to keep masks in place for high schools, weeks after dropping more widespread mask use, was a difficult one.

“Wearing masks for kids in schools isn’t convenient,” he told reporters on Tuesday.

“But we’ve made this decision in their best interests.”

The premier said the state government would accelerate work to check on and improve the ventilation status in all schools and was buying another 1,000 air purifiers at a cost of about $535,000.

SA also released new modelling on Tuesday which indicated the state could expect to have more than 2,000 new infections on a daily basis for some time.

It puts the daily hospitalisation rate at between 180 and 200.

That came as SA reported another 3,463 new infections along with seven more deaths.

Updated

The Australian Council of Trade Unions thinks Labor’s Pacific visa policy is a “step in the right direction”.

Michele O’Neil said in a statement:

The Morrison’s Government’s Ag Visa has no mechanisms to properly check if local workers are being given good job opportunities and training to fill genuine skill shortages or to ensure vulnerable migrant workers are being protected against exploitative employers. Labor’s alternative approach is a step in the right direction.

Exploitation of migrant workers is rife across Australia and we need a government that will fight to make our system better, not one like the Morrison Government that will further entrench worker exploitation.

Updated

Josh Butler let you know about the kerfuffle around the Kooyong debate this morning – a compromise has been reached. It will be on Sky, but in Kooyong, with the questions coming from Kooyong voters.

Cost-of-living issues have been nudged out of the election campaign lately by fears of a Chinese base in Solomon Islands 2,000km from Australia.

(Barnaby Joyce dubbed it “Australia’s Cuba” - although Havana is less than 370km from Miami, but who’s counting. Beijing can also point to a few foreign bases closer than 2,000km, for that matter.)

Anyway, the ABS will release consumer price inflation figures for the March quarter at 11.30am tomorrow. A big number would likely shift the campaign conversion, not least because markets are firming on an (unlikely, IMHO) RBA rate rise when the board meets on 3 May.

A big headline CPI figure would be one with a “5” in front of it, which we haven’t seen until just prior to the global financial crisis in 2008, although the consensus is closer to 4.5%.

Always confusingly, the numbers will also come out in quarterly terms, and then you get the trimmed mean figure which strips out the more volatile items. (Personally, I’m working on a mean, trimmed figure with limited success.)

The TM number is the one the RBA watches more closely, but the “headline” figure isn’t ignored either, since “inflationary expectations” can’t help but be stoked by what’s in headlines.

The CBA reckons the trimmed mean will land at 3.4%, well outside the 2-3% band that the RBA targets over the medium term, something we haven’t seen in more than a decade. Moody’s Analytics, meanwhile, expects a 3.1% result, just outside the band.

The RBA said in the minutes for its April board meeting on rates that it would be watching developments over “coming months”, which would seem to imply they will hold off until after the 21 May federal election before lifting the cash rate target from its record low 0.1%.

Then again, as Moody’s economist Katrina Ell notes, the RBA has had to change its signalling repeatedly since inflation started to spike at the end of 2021, in part because of eased Covid lockdowns, but also because of surging demand globally.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent sanctions – but also China’s latest zero-Covid shutdowns – suggest inflation has a way to go here and abroad. The difference is that central banks in New Zealand, the UK, the US and others have already started raising their rates. Already a climate laggard, Australia looks like it’ll be a monetary policy one too.

The property market is among the most sensitive to interest rates. We already suspect house prices are close to their peaks if not already past them in some parts of Australia.

Data out today from CoreLogic reinforces that sense. Even taking into account the reduced auction activity because of the Anzac Day long weekend, clearance rates are continuing to drop.

The real estate data group counted 1,813 homes taken to auction across the combined capital cities this week, down a bit from the 2,087 auctions a year ago.

“Of the 1,414 capital city results collected so far, 67.6% were successful, which is the lowest preliminary clearance rate recorded so far this year,” CoreLogic said.

A week early the preliminary clearance rate of 73.3% fell to to 62.4% at final figures, the lowest final clearance rate recorded all year, extending a decline tracked over the past few months.

This time last year, the rate was substantially higher across the combined capital cities at 77.2%, CoreLogic said.

Updated

The Greens also have Australia Network plans. While responding to Labor’s announcement today of $8m to the ABC to deliver Australian content to Pacific nations, Greens spokesperson for communications and media, Senator Sarah Hanson-Young. said:

What we need is a new Australia Network, fully funded, engaged, and with a purpose of connecting us as a nation to our neighbours and our region.

The Liberals under former PM Tony Abbott destroyed the Australia Network, and with it, soft diplomacy in the Pacific. They were warned the real cost of this budget cut would be much higher and now we are seeing that play out with the relationship between the Solomons and China.

Instead of broadcasting current affairs and quality Australian content, the Morrison government has been paying for “Married at First Sight” to be broadcast into the Pacific.

Labor’s commitment is welcome, but it’s tiny, modest at best, and far more is needed. We need a publicly funded Australia Network, managed by the ABC and funded properly to do the job.

The Greens have pledged that in the balance of power, we will push Labor to restore the funding cut by the Abbott government in its entirety. This means that at a minimum, $22m per annum should be restored to deliver the services properly.

Updated

Well, that didn’t take long to weaponise:

(It has since been clarified that a worker covered up the sign, not an advancer)

Updated

The view from Murph

Hello folks, I’ve been saying for the last few days that the tempo of the campaign would shift significantly after Anzac Day – that everything up until now has been practice laps.

Now that Australians have returned from their holiday break, the first many people have had for two years, both sides have moved this morning from jog to sprint.

So what’s happened? Labor today has attempted to shut down an effort by the government to weaponise its climate policy.

Ray Hadley was only too keen to help with that weaponisation effort, shouting at Anthony Albanese for a full 30 minutes.

Labor has also put out a new policy on the Pacific both to articulate a policy and compound Scott Morrison’s political woes about this new security deal between Solomon Islands and China.

Morrison has been out with his own fire blanket, heavily discounting Labor’s proposals on the Pacific. He also needed to shut down a problem the LNP’s candidate in Flynn created yesterday when he suggested Morrison’s net zero commitment was just a bunch of hot air.

Morrison tried to pretend Colin Boyce wasn’t talking about the commitment per se, only the means of implementing it.

Boyce was in fact talking about both those things.

Mapping this terrain tells you where we are now. This is trench warfare. The latest batch of opinion polls tell us the contest is stuck. The polls have tightened a bit during the transition from faux campaign to real one, but they tell us the prevailing voter sentiment is disaffection – the indicators of this are a suppressed primary vote for the major parties and a fair bit of interest in micro parties and independents.

Trench warfare is how it’s going to be from now until 21 May.

Morrison needs to try to get the campaign conversation back to the economy, but he’s currently stuck in a foreign policy cul de sac, and Labor is trying to pilot through another episode of Dumb and Dumber in relation to the climate wars. That’s your situation report.

Updated

Here is the ABC’s camera operator capturing what Sarah Martin alerted you to a little earlier this morning:

The press conference feed cuts out, but it seems like it was winding up.

Updated

Q: Just on the port of Darwin. You say that Labor sees the sovereign risk in it. Why not tear the agreement up when you get into power?

Penny Wong:

That is the sovereign risk point. The risk to sovereignty and a sovereign risk.

Q: If you tore it up, would you consider paying the NT Government back?

Wong:

These are the issues that would need to be worked through. I made the point that the Labor leader raised concerns about the sale, opposed the sale at the time, or the leasing arrangements and that the government has sat on a review.

Updated

Labor would not sign UN pledge to end coal use, Wong says

Q: I understand what you’re saying about making sure that the companies are not headed up against international partners. That doesn’t necessarily mean that they won’t be charged afterwards?

Penny Wong:

No, we’ve made that clear. The Clean Energy Regulator will work with the facility, as the BCA and others want them to, and there are a range of ways in which they can discharge their obligations and that might include technology and it might include carbon credits. We’ve been clear about that.

And the modelling, if you are asking about the modelling, which I think that you asked in Darwin – it’s the same as the government’s modelling, which is $24 a ton.

Q: Will Labor sign the UN pledge to put an end to coal? And if not, why not?

Wong:

No ... We will do the right thing, which is to put in place an economically sensible policy that delivers a reduction by 2050 of net zero. That will ensure that we create 600,000 jobs and we’ll deliver cheaper energy and bring more renewables into the system.

That is the same way and responsible way to deal with climate instead of the climate wars we’ve seen. Is there anything more on the package?

Q: Will [not signing the pledge] drive a wedge between you and the Pacific nations?

Wong:

That is the position. I’ve always been upfront with the position even from 15 years ago.

Updated

Q: There’s no coal mines in the Northern Territory. Can I just ask you about the issue of gas. Will there be carbon credits on the Beetaloo basin?

Penny Wong:

It is the same answer. The facilities are identified and the same mechanism that Tony Abbott put in place, or referenced. And implemented by the Coalition government. Supported, if I may say, by the BCA and AIG.

And the answer to your question is the same. We’re not going to make people internationally uncompetitive. We understand that and our policy reflects that.

Updated

National Covid-19 update

Here are the latest coronavirus numbers from around Australia on Tuesday, as the country records at least 50 deaths from Covid-19:

ACT

  • Deaths: 0
  • Cases: 831
  • In hospital: 69 (with 5 people in ICU)

NSW

  • Deaths: 18
  • Cases: 9,849
  • In hospital: 1,695 (with 67 people in ICU)

Northern Territory

  • Deaths: 0
  • Cases: 362
  • In hospital: 46 (with 1 person in ICU)

Queensland

  • Deaths: 1
  • Cases: 5,142
  • In hospital: 484 (with 13 people in ICU)

South Australia

  • Deaths: 7
  • Cases: 3,463
  • In hospital: 254 (with 10 people in ICU)

Tasmania

  • Deaths: 1
  • Cases: 958
  • In hospital: 38 (with 1 person in ICU)

Victoria

  • Deaths: 15
  • Cases: 9,265
  • In hospital: 455 (with 33 people in ICU)

Western Australia

  • Deaths: 8 (including 7 historical deaths)
  • Cases: 6,711
  • In hospital: 249 (with 11 people in ICU)

Updated

Q: Senator Wong, your statement said ... that not a single Australian coalmine will be impacted by the safeguard. Do you regret your comments to the Nine newspapers and the confusion that that has caused?

Pat Conroy:

I don’t regret it one iota because it’s true. And you have to look at our policy.

We have been very clear from our policy when it was released in early deals.

Fact one – we are not expanding the number of facilities being there. That’s around 250 facilities, including about 60 coalmines.

Fact two – the policy clearly stated that when the Clean Energy Regulator looked at the trajectories for each of the facilities, they would take into account two factors.

One – the available technology and emerging technology to allow that facility to reduce its emissions. And importantly, the comparative constraint that the international competitors face, so that as Penny said in her earlier answer – the coalmining industry will not suffer a disadvantage or a negative impact compared to the international competitors.

And that’s further confirmed by our independent and comprehensive economic modelling that made it very clear, that found that not a single coalmine would close early because of our policy, and not a single coalmining job would be lost because of our policy.

... If you want to talk about divisions in climate policy, we have a spectacular example happening right today between the deputy prime minister backing in his candidate in Flint saying that their net zero emissions commitment by 2050 is optional. That there’s wriggle room and it’s not binding.

Then we have the members for north Sydney and Wentworth saying that it is binding. I haven’t seen a bigger split in climate change since Malcolm Turnbull was prime minister. People should be focusing on this.

And secondly, the fear campaign by the National party on coal is an absolute disgrace. When we get people like Productivity Commission economists like Matt Canavan, from the Gold Coast, who smears coal dust on his face to go down a coalmine. It shows the disrespect for coalminers.

If they were serious about coalminers, they would support Labor’s same job, same pay. Instead of doing that, they do a dirty deal with One Nation to pass legislation that cuts coalminer wages and conditions. That’s a really important point.

Updated

Q: The AWU has raised some really significant concerns about that, about modern slavery and that. So when you talk about that ...

Pat Conroy:

What we’ve seen is abuse of all of the temporary migration schemes. One of the challenges, they’ve got differing levels of protection in them. And we’ve heard feedback from employers that the Pacific labour ones have a bit better protection than the other schemes, therefore, the scrupulous employers have been undercutting using that in their schemes and that’s why we’re so focused on lifting the standards of the schemes.

In terms of the announcement today, we have announced increased compliance activity that’s really important.

They include putting a firewall between the Department of Home Affairs and the Fair Work Ombudsman so temporary migrant workers don’t risk their visa by calling attention to abuses.

Another example that we’ve highlighted today is that we’ll work with state and territory governments and local governments around one of the most notorious abuses, which is not so much work, but workers packed 14 or 15 to a room and then wiping away their salaries with enormous rents.

So we need to increase the standards. Not only is it obviously a huge impact on those workers and those families, the misery that the exploitation causes, it causes a bad name for Australia overseas. These abuses then get relayed back to the homes of the workers and then their fellow citizens don’t come to this country.

So it’s really important that we lift the standards of these schemes. They are good schemes. Most farmers, for example, do the right thing and they value the labour. We’re going to partner with them to make sure that we have the best possible standards so that they work in the long-term interests of the farmers, the workers and the Australian national interest.

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Q: What will be your first steps if you build government to rebuild that [relationship with Pacific Island nations]? And the prime minister said last week that Australia should not be stomping around the Pacific telling people what to do. Does this approach run risk of that?

Penny Wong:

Honestly – some of the things that he says, I don’t know where to start. OK, well! I think what Mr Morrison is doing with the second part of your quote is, again, refusing to take responsibility.

Now, we recognise, as I said in my opening – this is a time where we live in a period of risk and uncertainty. And of competition. So we have to leverage our strengths. And one of those is our engagement. So if Mr Morrison wants to dismiss engagement by leader or by foreign minister, well, he can explain why that was in the interests of the country.

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Q: Will Labor require projects in the Beetaloo basin to buy carbon credits?

Penny Wong:

I answered that in Alice Springs and I think Mr Bowen has been up this morning ...

The answer is no coal project will face a carbon constraint that is beyond – that will make them internationally uncompetitive. We have always said we will ensure that, whether it is coal mines or other facilities, they will remain internationally competitive.

Updated

Penny Wong questions whether Australia ever recovered from 'lapping at the door' laughter

Q: Would Labor be prepared to work with the United States to block any attempt by China to Bold a naval base on the Solomon Islands?

Penny Wong:

I have responded to that broadly with this. We will always work with the United States to secure our region. I have said repeatedly, the US is the indispensable partner in our region and the nation when it comes to the security of the Indo-Pacific.

But what we need to understand is we can’t simply handball our mistakes to the US. The reality is this is on Australia. The Australian government, led by Mr Morrison, has left a vacuum and we have seen what has occurred as a consequence.

We will always work with our friend and ally, the United States and I refer you to the comments that Mr Campbell made.

Q: Given the importance of climate change to the Pacific Islands, should we be stopping the approval of new coal and gas projects in Australia?

Wong:

No, what we should be doing is what Labor is doing, which is sending out a clear policy, framework to reduce emissions and to a realistic pathway to get to net zero by 2050 ...

We should also be respectful. I don’t think it is respectful to joke about water lapping at the door.

I wonder if we have ever got over that, to be honest, under this government? I wonder if we have ever got over that footage and that arrogance and dismissiveness, which was then continued to be reflected and underlined in subsequent behaviour.

Updated

Q: Can I ask you a question – this package is all well and good, but it won’t reverse the deal that has already been struck between China and Solomon Islands.

Penny Wong:

No, that is right.

Q: Have you considered how a Labor government might respond, should China attempt to set up a naval base on Solomon Islands? Can you give us any insights as to how you would address that scenario?

Wong:

Let’s be clear, the prospect of a Chinese base less than 2,000km from Australia’s coastline is dramatically detrimental to Australia’s security interests.

That has occurred on Mr Morrison’s watch. Their response appears to be more chest beating. There is no point in beating your chest if you’re beaten to the punch. We will make clear, as coordinator Kurt Campbell and others have, our view about this.

But I think the other thing we have to do is to do what we are seeking to outline with this package, which is to do more work to secure the region.

Updated

Q: $525m over four years for the Pacific. Isn’t that a drop in the ocean and what is your full dollar figure for foreign aid?

Penny Wong:

I am not announcing the totality of our ODA package today. I am announcing the Pacific ODA package which is $525 million.

Labor’s Pat Conroy has this riposte to Scott Morrison’s handling of the Pacific:

We also will have a foreign minister and a Pacific minister committed to the region. Mr Morrison chose to send the foreign minister Marise Payne to a Liberal party fundraiser, instead of to the Solomon Islands.

This demonstrates the lack of commitment to the region. And let me remind people of what the leader of Fiji said about prime minister Morrison. He said Morrison’s insulting behaviour would push nations towards China.

As recently as 2019, the leader of Fiji said Scott Morrison’s insulting behaviour would push nations towards China and Mr Morrison was insulting and condescending towards Pacific Island nations.

I am proud of our package that will help improve Australia’s relationship with the Pacific and help restore and repair what we have seen, which is the greatest strategic blunder in the Pacific since World War II, which occurred under Mr Morrison’s watch.

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NSW public school teachers to go on strike next Wednesday

Public school teachers across New South Wales will strike next Wednesday as industrial relations negotiations continue with the state government over pay and conditions.

Members of the union have also been authorised to walk off school grounds if a state government MP enters them and will not introduce any of the government’s policies that were due to be implemented this term as part of the action. The NSW Teachers Federation executive met on Tuesday and voted unanimously in favour of the strike.

Federation president, Angelo Gavrielatos, issued a warning to members of the organisation on Monday to “ready itself”, insisting the premier, Dominic Perrottet, had missed an opportunity to improve conditions for teachers last term.

After the vote he said:

If we don’t pay teachers what they are worth, we won’t get the teachers we need.

Acting on uncompetitive salaries and unsustainable workloads is the only way to stop more teachers leaving and attract the people into the profession we need to fix the shortages.

The profession is now left with no alternative but to act in the interest of our students and our profession, and take industrial action. Acting on uncompetitive salaries and unsustainable workloads is the only way to stop more teachers leaving and attract the people into the profession we need to fix the shortages.

The profession is now left with no alternative but to act in the interest of our students and our profession, and take industrial action.

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Australia’s competition watchdog says Uber has agreed to pay at least $26m in penalties for misleading consumers about whether they’ll be charged a fee for cancelling a ride, and over Uber’s taxi ride estimate costs.

Under Uber’s policies, people have five minutes from the time a driver has accepted a ride to cancel it without incurring a fee. However, between December 2017 and September 2021, the ride share app warned users who went to cancel a ride that they “may be charged a small fee since your driver is already on their way” even within the five-minute window.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) says over two million Australians were shown this misleading warning.

ACCC chair, Gina Cass-Gottlieb, said:

Uber admits it misled Australian users for a number of years, and may have caused some of them to decide not to cancel their ride after receiving the cancellation warning, even though they were entitled to cancel free of charge under Uber’s own policy.

Since September last year, the message advises users they won’t be charged within the free cancellation period.

The ACCC is also taking Uber to court over its Uber Taxi ride option which it says overinflated the estimated cost, meaning the actual fare was cheaper than Uber’s lowest estimate. The ride option was only available in Sydney, and was removed in August 2020.

The ACCC says the parties have agreed to jointly seek orders, including for Uber to pay $26m in penalties. It will be for the court to decide if the penalties are appropriate.

Guardian Australia has sought comment from Uber.

Updated

On Scott Morrison’s claim that he “sent in the AFP, Labor wants to send in the ABC”, Pat Conroy says:

We have announced an Indo-Pacific broadcasting strategy that is all engineered to projecting Australian voices, values and identity into the Pacific. Filling a void that has been left because this government has abandoned the Pacific, particularly the aspects of a Pacific voice.

It will build partnerships with Pacific Island media organisations and help provide the vital training to the Pacific media that, at the moment, is going on in countries that are not friendly to Australia.

This is all about filling the void that has been occupied now by Chinese state owned television in the Pacific. This is all about filling the void that this government created when it withdrew the ABC’s short wave service that has now been reported to be filled by Chinese communist radio programs. This is a strategy to project Australian identity voices and values into the Pacific.

I will finish by talking about a couple of responses we have already seen by the prime minister. We heard a joke by the prime minister this morning about Q+A in the Solomon Islands. Can I say, unlike Mr Morrison, Labor wants Australian voices in the Pacific, not the voices of the Chinese Communist Party. Labor wants Australian voices broadcast into the Pacific, not voices of the Communist party, which is what Mr Morrison wants.

Updated

Labor press conference

Penny Wong, Brendan O’Connor and Pat Conroy are in Darwin announcing Labor’s Pacific policy.

Labor’s foreign affairs spokesperson, Penny Wong, announcing the Labor’s Pacific package in Darwin, twisted the knife:

Australians understand this is a time of risk. They understand it is a time of uncertainty and they want a government that does the work to keep them safe.

They want a leader they can trust to do the job. They got Mr Morrison. The bloke who just keeps dropping the ball. The bloke who went missing while China negotiated and signed a security deal on our doorstep, and the bloke who didn’t order enough vaccines or RATs and told us that we were at the front of the queue, the bloke who doesn’t hold a hose and the bloke who never takes responsibility.

What I would say to you and to Australians today is if elected, Labor will do the work. We understand the region is being reshaped. We know the first priority of government is to secure the nation. This means we have to secure our region. We have to build a stronger Pacific family.

This is why an Albanese Labor government will restore Australia’s place as the partner of choice in the Pacific. We will deploy and integrate all the elements of national power – defence, strategic, diplomatic and economic – and this is important: we will leverage Australia’s strength.

We understand we are in a time of competition so you have to look to your competitive advantage, the power of Australia’s voice, the power of our proximity, the power of our people-to-people relationships and the power of our economic relationships. This is how you work to secure the region and this is what this package does.

Updated

Sarah Martin has let us know about how Scott Morrison’s advancers appear to be working harder than Kris Jenner (if you know, you know):

Updated

Labor announces Pacific policy

Labor is announcing its Pacific policy – and that includes a pledge to boost foreign aid to Pacific countries and Timor-Leste by $525m over the next four years. The opposition already tipped out three parts of the plan overnight.

Here are the other planks of the plan, according to its written statement:

  • Boost Australian Official Development Assistance for Pacific countries and Timor-Leste by $525m over the next four years, to help address the decade’s worth of development gains that have been lost due to the pandemic. This will include $5m for the National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre, to strengthen regional health preparedness in the Pacific and Timor-Leste.
  • Restore Australia’s climate leadership, and listen and act on Pacific Island warnings of the existential threat of climate change. We will establish a Pacific Climate Infrastructure Financing Partnership to support climate and clean energy infrastructure projects in Pacific countries, in addition to our bid to co-host a future UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties in Australia with our Pacific partners.
  • Reinstate regular bipartisan Parliamentary Pacific visits to demonstrate to the Pacific family that stronger Pacific partnerships are in Australia’s national interest. Bipartisan visits were undertaken under Malcolm Turnbull and Julie Bishop, but have been abandoned by Scott Morrison and Marise Payne.
  • Address Pacific economic challenges and ease Australia’s agricultural worker shortages by reforming the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (Palm) Scheme’s Seasonal Worker Program (SWP) and expanding the Palm Pacific Labour Scheme (PLS). We will ensure the federal government meets upfront travel costs for Pacific workers under the Seasonal Worker Program – costs which currently have to be met by Australian farmers. This will increase the attractiveness of the Seasonal Worker Program for Australian farmers. We will make it easier for Pacific workers to fill labour shortages in Australia under the Pacific Labour Scheme by allowing participants to bring family members to live and work in Australia. We will establish a dedicated agriculture visa stream under the Palm, creating a robust and sustainable four-year visa, with portability, strong oversight mechanisms, and protections and rights for workers. These protections will be consistent with the protections under the Palm-PLS and Palm-SWP.
  • Boost our people to people links across the Pacific family by encouraging more Pacific permanent migration to Australia through a new Pacific engagement visa, modelled on New Zealand’s Pacific access resident visa.

Updated

And he calls a stop to the press conference.

Q: You made comments that a war involving Australia is most likely to be started by bits and bytes, not bullets. What did you mean by that?

Scott Morrison:

I mean cyber defences are critical to Australia’s defence.

In this year’s budget we committed almost $10bn to a program called Red Spice (which is a mix of existing programs under one umbrella). We have invested billions in building up our cyber capabilities because in any conflict, as we saw in Ukraine, the first things that happened was cyber attacks, conducted by the Russian government to undermine, whether it is powers supplies or critical infrastructure in Ukraine. In Australia, these are the things that we must continue to protect.

We introduced the critical and legislated the critical infrastructure protection bills which provides greater security to those critical assets in energy and other infrastructure. We work closely with our banking financial system to ensure their protections in working with the business community. This $10bn investment we are making in our cyber defence and offence is absolutely vital and it is a now investment. It builds in greater redundancy, it builds in greater multiple points of operations across the country, which ensures we are in a far more proactive position.

This is one of the key reasons, I must stress, why a strong economy is so, so important. Remember what happened last time Labor was in government?

It wasn’t just that electricity prices went up, it wasn’t just that they lost control of our borders, it wasn’t just that they lost control of the budget, but by not being able to control their budget, by not being able to control the borders, they cut funding in defence.

They cut funding in defence when they should have been increasing it. They didn’t commission one naval vessel the entire six years they were in office. It has been our task to rebuild, to restore our defence forces. I have been asked this question a few times over the last few days.

Forgive me for taking the opportunity to answer it, about what have been the improvements in those capabilities? That $55bn that has been spent while we have been in government over and above, by increasing the amount of investment we have made in our defence forces, 58 aircraft under the Joint Strike Fighter program of stage 2. Fourteen aircraft under the PoseidenP8, 211 Boxer vehicles, the Perigren aircraft, 12, four Arafura patrol vessels. Protected mobility vehicles which Phil knows all about, 1,100 of those vehicles for our defence forces. Two replacement vessels for our navy. Twenty-two Pacific patrol replacements. These are the boats that we are providing to ensure that we’re supporting our Pacific family. Eight new radar systems for our Anzac frigates. Base upgrade to facilities all over the country, whether it is new training facilities up in the NT or the upgrading for our air fields and other key bases.

If we weren’t running a strong economy, if we weren’t managing our finances, we couldn’t have done any of those things. That is why we say a strong economy means a stronger future and that is why you can’t risk Labor.

You can’t risk Labor because they can’t manage an economy which means it would be a weak economy. With a weak economy, the essential services that you rely on are put at risk. My message is very clear, don’t risk Labor, choose the Liberal and National candidates and LNP candidates, particularly here in Queensland, that way you can get a strong economy which means a stronger future.

Updated

Q: Your proposed integrity commission model allows the public hearings for its law enforcement division, however you have described public hearings in relation to Icac as leading to kangaroo courts. Could you confirm the Coalition’s integrity commission model going forward would include public hearings for the law enforcement division? If so, are you concerned about those hearings for law enforcement officials being a kangaroo court?

Scott Morrison doesn’t want to talk about it:

We have put in place $50m of funding to support the law enforcement integrity commission that is already in place. Our proposals for a commonwealth integrity commission are set out in 357 pages of legislation and there are $60m of support in the budget, fully funded to be there to support the work of that commission and I have addressed those issues on numerous occasions over the last couple of weeks.

The page number reference is becoming ridiculous. It says nothing about the legislation. The Twilight series is over 2,700 pages. Doesn’t mean any of them are good.

Updated

Oh and on the French president? When did he last talk to him? Doesn’t seem like he has.

Scott Morrison:

I saw him at the G20 and it hasn’t been the focus of our engagement on issues we have been dealing with. We have been focusing on things closer to home for obvious reasons.

Since I saw him there, there has been further government to government contact between officials with our mission in Paris and between our militaries as well.

What we are seeing over time is things rebuilding. Not going ahead with a contract for submarines was always going to disappoint the French government.

I totally understand that and we will continue to work each day in a professional way to ensure we restore, firstly, the government to government contacts and I am sure I look forward – I do look forward to having future discussions with President Macron and I wish him every congratulations for what is an historic victory for President Macron.

He has done – played a strong role in seeking to have a united position across Europe in dealing with the terrible situation in Ukraine and I commend him for that. I do know because we have discussed at length the challenges in the Pacific, and particularly the challenges posed by the Chinese government in the Pacific and he has a very detailed and very helpful knowledge of issues in the Pacific.

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Scott Morrison can't say what would happen if China crossed his 'red line'

Q: Following up on that question, how would you go about rebuilding trust with Emmanuel Macron if you are re-elected? Have you spoken on the phone recently? What happens if the red line you have drawn in Solomon Islands is breached? Are we talking military action, what sort of response would you have?

(You may remember it was Scott Morrison himself who set out the prospect of a “red line”.)

Scott Morrison:

It would not be responsible for me to speculate in public about what Australia, United States and others would be doing in circumstances such as that. That would not be a responsible thing to do. I am sure you understand that. I know you have to ask the question but I am sure you appreciate no responsible prime minister would go into the sort of detail you are asking for.

That would not be in Australia’s national interest to do so any more than it would be in the United States’ national interest or the interests of regional security. Let me stress what prime minister Sogavare has already communicated directly to me.

They don’t support a Chinese government military base in the Solomon Islands either. They don’t want one there.

Just like other Pacific nations don’t want those bases in their country either. Our relationship with the Solomon Islands is about them and wanting to empower them and for them to have their national security.

We don’t want to see that compromised by countries coming in from outside the region which have other agendas other than the advancement of the national security and the peace and the prosperity of those countries. That is what we do for our family members in the Pacific. We don’t believe those motives or ambitions are held by others seeking to come into our region. That is a view widely shared amongst Pacific leaders. It is not just Australia that has expressed concern about this. It is also other leaders in the Pacific. I engaged with Prime Minister Ardern about these issues regularly and she has expressed similar sentiments. On those two issues, that sets out where we are at on that.

Updated

Q: Have you called Emmanuel Macron to congratulate him on his election win? How will you mend the relationship with this incredibly important world and Pacific power and are you comfortable with one of your candidates, Simon Kennedy, addressing a conspiracy theory group in Bennelong [calling vaccines poison]?

Scott Morrison:

I am not aware of those reports and so I can’t comment on them on the latter matter.

In relation to Emmanuel Macron, President Macron, I have sent him a message of congratulations directly and I have also ensured I have sent a formal letter to him congratulating him as well.

One of the areas where we have a lot in common with France is in working together in the Pacific and we don’t to do that.

Since we made the decision, the right decision for Australia to not go ahead with the Attack Class submarines, they were not the right decision any longer for Australia. Technology and the strategic environment in which we were seeking to operate changed and we made this clear.

It is unfortunate that we couldn’t go ahead with that contract but it would have been the wrong thing to do. I have always understood while that would have been disappointing to the French government but sometimes you just have to do the right thing – all the time you always have to do what the right thing for Australia is. It was disappointing that the Labor party sought to attack Australia for that decision, rather than supporting the decision in the national interests. But when they say they don’t want to politicise national security, they tend to do it on every occasion, just like they are doing now on the Pacific and the Solomons issue.

France’s Emmanuel Macron gives a speech following his re-election at the Champs de Mars in Paris on Sunday
France’s Emmanuel Macron gives a speech following his re-election at the Champs de Mars in Paris on Sunday. Scott Morrison says he had congratulated him on his election win. Photograph: Julien Mattia/Le Pictorium Agency/Zuma/Rex/Shutterstock

Updated

Q: Can you say the government is doing enough when we have seen this deal signed between China and the Solomon Islands? You also haven’t outlined what steps Australia would take to prevent Chinese military being built on the Solomon Islands. What will you do differently? Surely the government needs to be doing more?

Scott Morrison:

And we do in our forward estimates, it shows we will keep doing more in all of the areas and lines of effort that we have in the Pacific. It is our government that turned that around. It is our government that started to seriously engage with the Pacific like few others, if any before. I note Alexander Downer’s comments and he is right about the amazing work that was done through the Ramsi project in the Solomon Islands. I have sent the AFP back into the Solomon Islands. I sent the Australian defence forces back into the Solomon Islands and they stand ready to provide further support. It was the Solomon Islands prime minister who rang me and said “Can you please send support to deal with the security situation in the Pacific?”

They did not ring the Chinese government, they rang our government and we responded and our AFP are still there. We will continue in the strong path we are but I remind you there are 20 additional countries to Australia in the Pacific Islands Forum. One of those is New Zealand. That makes 19 other Pacific island forum countries that are vulnerable to this type of pressure.

We are working with all of them. As Alexander Downer, Australia’s longest-serving foreign minister made very clear today, sovereign governments in our region can make decisions that are not in their own interests. My concern is first and foremost for Australia’s national interest but I am concerned for the Solomon Islanders. I am concerned that they can become compromised.

I am concerned about the security of the Solomon Islanders and I am also concerned about the broader regional security of all of our Pacific family which those leaders are also concerned about because that is why I have been speaking to them and they are conveying their concerns directly to prime minister Sogavare as well. I look forward to the opportunity, should we be elected, to joining them again at the Pacific Islands Forum meeting when we can talk about these issues as a family and be able to talk about the serious risks to the broader regional security that we are aware of and have been seeking to address over many years.

Updated

Q: Labor’s announcing a plan today for deeper and broader engagement in the Pacific. Is that the lesson that we need to increase the level of engagement with Pacific Islands?

Scott Morrison:

I could understand Labor’s criticisms if we hadn’t established six additional embassies, missions as they are called in the Pacific.

I could understand if Australia hadn’t moved to be the only country in the world that has embassies missions in every single one of the 20 Pacific Island forum nations. I could understand if Australia, under our government hadn’t moved to provide guardian class patrol boats to all of those Pacific Island nations to protect their fisheries and to preserve their security.

I could understand if I hadn’t been the first prime minister to go back into the Solomon Islands since Kevin Rudd (there has been a Coalition government since Kevin Rudd lost government in 2014) or more so the first one for a direct bilateral meeting with the prime minister of Vanuatu since Bob Hawke and the same when it comes to prime minister Frank Bainimarama when it comes to a direct bilateral engagement with Fiji.

I have many engagements over the course of the last three years with Pacific leaders. If we hadn’t step upped an ensured that our support in the Pacific hadn’t got to $1.8bn a year, if we hadn’t established the Pacific financing facility that is investing in projects like the electrification project or providing the additional financial support through loans and support to the Papua New Guinean government with whom I have almost constant engagement, I could understand Labor’s criticisms if none of those things had happened.

In August last year, this is what Richard Marles said about our government’s engagement in the Pacific. He said: “It would be wrong to suggest that Australia has not properly allocated resources to its relationship with the Pacific. We are genuinely present in the region,” he said, on the contrary.

I find it odd having been so adamant and supportive of what Australia was doing, what our government was doing in the Pacific, that on the eve of an election, someone who runs their speeches past the Chinese government before giving them, is now going to be critical of us. I note what they have said today. What they are effectively saying is they will keep doing what we have been doing. There is one difference. I sent in the AFP, the Labor party wants to send in the ABC when it comes to their Pacific solution. They have a Q+A solution in the Pacific, what we have is real investment in our partnerships with the region.

The Black Rock facility in Fiji is a training centre for Fijian military to be able to participate in the peace keeping operations of the United Nations. We built that facility. Frank Bainimarama, the prime minister of Fiji, was trained in Australia and so for Labor to run around and pretend that somehow there hasn’t been significant investment in training, whether it be in the defence forces, supporting with additional assets, particularly the guardian class patrol boats, investing heavily in their economic infrastructure and their economic opportunities would be - is absolutely absurd.

They are playing politics with the Pacific and the only ones who are benefitting from Labor’s attacks on the government is the Chinese government and it would seem the ABC.

*The ABC issue is about the Australia channel, which is seen as a soft power tool. Sky News has the contract now and there has been criticism of what is being shown on it.

Updated

Q: Your candidate for Flynn, not too far from here, has said there is room on your commitment to net zero. Matt Canavan, your former resources minister, has backed that in this morning on Sky News. Can you be trusted on climate change?

Scott Morrison:

Our candidate was talking about how we get there. He wasn’t talking about the commitment itself, he has clarified that. Our commitment to net zero by 2050 is a commitment of the Australian government that I made in Glasgow. It is the government’s absolute policy.

What he referred to is our pathway to it.

As technologies change and improve, we are going to get there and we will get there by the best method possible. I tell you how we won’t get there: we won’t get there by taxing Australians. We won’t get there by shutting down businesses like this and industries like this.

The carbon credits scheme that Labor has put in place, just to be clear, it not only effects the coal industry, it effects mining and oil and gas production. It effects rail freight, it effects cement production, it effects fuel refining and many other sectors are caught up in those arrangements which would see them penalised and taxed.

Our approach is to incentivise the change, our approach with the hydrogen hubs, carbon capture use and storage, $22bn of investment under the plan that Angus Taylor has put together to get us to net zero by 2050 through technology, not burden some taxes on the Australian people, which has always been Labor’s way. As you will see, Labor would govern with the Greens and it will be Greens that will be pulling Labor’s strings. They will certainly never be pulling my strings, ever.

Scott Morrison makes croissants during a visit to a bakery in Townsville on Tuesday.
Scott Morrison makes croissants during a visit to a bakery in Townsville on Tuesday. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Updated

On the South China Sea, Scott Morrison says:

We will continue to work closely with our allies and partners, ensuring that the South China Sea is free and open. We work as part of a partnership.

We work with Japan, we work with India, with European nations, UK, Germany has undertaken sales through the South China Sea as we have, 12 nautical miles is a separate issue and these are options that Australia always has.

We will work closely with our allies and partners about the best way to ensure we work together to achieve a free and open Indo-Pacific.

One of the key things there is the South China Sea code of conduct. That is a topic of, I would say, every single bilateral leaders I have had with every Asean nation.

Australia was the first country to achieve a comprehensive strategic partnership with Asean. They are the South-East Asian nations. That was before the Chinese government were able to achieve that.

A core issue in our engagement with those South-East Asian partners is about a free and open Indo-Pacific and, in particular, the Quad relationship with Australia, India, Japan and United States, a free and open Indo-Pacific is a key part of that discussion which we have led the development of, in particular in Japan, we have the reciprocal access agreement, a Status of Forces Agreement with Japan.

We are the only country in the world to have such an agreement with the Japanese government. That was a landmark agreement that took us and under my prime ministership, three years to land and we worked through three prime ministers.

Updated

As part of his introduction to his press conference, Scott Morrison continues with what has become a habit – reminding people that he speaks to international leaders and has been involved in global discussions about major events, before moving on to claims about what he thinks Labor’s policies mean.

In my recent discussion a couple of months ago now with the German chancellor and we were discussing the terrible issues in Ukraine, but after we discussed those, the first thing he wanted to talk to me about was our clean energy partnership with Germany and what we are doing in hydrogen. This is how you achieve your net zero by 2050 commitments.

You don’t do it by taxing*, as Labor is doing under their new carbon credits scheme**. You don’t do it by forcing choices. You make the investments in technology. You put the incentives in place which enables hydrogen hubs to be established, carbon capture use and storage technology to be developed.

*No one is talking taxes

**The Coalition already has a carbon credits scheme

Anthony Albanese continued his morning proof-of-life radio rounds with a combative 27-minute stoush on Ray Hadley’s 2GB program. Covering a veritable “greatest hits” roll call of past criticisms of Albanese (his unemployment rate slip-up, going to Perth while parts of Sydney flooded), Hadley also cajoled the Labor leader to follow former PM Julia Gillard’s pledge for there to be “no carbon tax under a government I lead”.

Hadley, playing the audio of Gillard’s 2010 pledge (which was broken when Labor introduced a carbon price in 2011), asked Albanese “can you say that today?”
Albanese answered “absolutely”, but Hadley pushed: “Could you say it for me so I’ve got it on record please.”

Albanese: we will have no carbon tax”.

But that wasn’t good enough for the Sydney radio shock jock, asking Albanese to repeat after him and say “there will be no carbon tax under any government I lead, ever”.

Albanese, chuckling, then answered there will be no carbon tax, ever.”

The discussion surfaced again as the Coalition claims Labor’s strengthening of the emissions safeguard mechanism – a policy enacted under Tony Abbott’s government, mind you, and which is currently already operating under Scott Morrison – was a “carbon tax”.

It isn’t a carbon tax, it’s already in place under the Coalition, and Labor’s plans would keep it applicable to the same 215 companies the Coalition does.

Elsewhere in the wide-ranging chat, Hadley accused Albanese of a “watered-down version” of Operation Sovereign Borders. The Labor leader denied this, saying that he would oversee the “same [border protection] policy as the government”, including turning back boats coming to Australia and not allowing boat arrivals to settle in Australia, instead taking them to Nauru.

Hadley played the blaring sound of a ship’s horn during the interview, to signify a boat arrival.

The 2GB host also claimed Solomon Islands PM Manasseh Sogavare would be “driving around a Ferrari in some South American country in five years”, claiming he had “his pockets lined by the Chinese”, and claimed Labor deputy leader Richard Marles wanted to have “yum cha with President Xi”.

Hadley finished the interview by thanking Albanese for his time, 27 minutes after the chat began, acknowledging the Labor leader was “still crook” from Covid.

Updated

Scott Morrison press conference

The PM is in Townsville, with an announcement on a hydrogen hub.

Herbert wasn’t considered to be in play, so Morrison turning up is interesting – seems the Coalition feels it needs to lock it down.

Updated

For those who have actual lives and missed it, Ray Hadley just spent a good portion of his phone interview with Labor leader Anthony Albanese (who is on day five of Covid isolation) yelling at him.

Josh Butler will have an update for you soon on how that played out, but essentially, Hadley has a lot of feelpinions and can’t understand why Labor isn’t adopting them as a policy platform.

No doubt a chat with Peter Dutton later in the week will help soothe Hadley’s boo-boos as usual, but for right now, Hadley is having an absolute Garfield of a morning it seems.

Updated

Ray Hadley does not seem to be particularly enjoying today.

Daniel Hurst, our foreign affairs and defence correspondent, is having an even worse time, as he has to listen and fact check what is being said.

Peter Dutton has 'cranked national security scares to 11 out of 10', says Malcolm Turnbull

On Scott Morrison’s “red line” with China talk and Peter Dutton’s language, Malcolm Turnbull is not impressed:

There has been far too much bombastic and sort of belligerent talk.

Dutton’s obviously, you know, has cranked the scares, the sort of national security scares and round the track to 11 out of 10.

OK, well, he’s done that. How has that helped us?

How’s that advanced our interests?

And how does that match with the reality of what’s going on?

I mean, wouldn’t it be better [instead of spending time] chasing headlines in tabloid newspapers and on Sky after dark? Wouldn’t it be better if you’re actually focused on putting in the hard yards and ensuring the security arrangements with China were not entered into it?

Updated

Here is the whole “this is a hose you have to hold” quote from Malcolm Turnbull:

You’ve got to essentially treat this as a human exercise, pay respect and put in the time. You can’t just you know, this is you know, this is a hose you have to hold to put it bluntly, this needs time and attention, you cannot abrogate, or step away from responsibility.

The fact is, this outcome is bad, everyone from our point of view, everyone agrees with that. Even the government, they have to take responsibility for it.

The buck stops stops with the Australian government on this because it’s adverse and contrary to what our policy objectives were.

Updated

Was it a mistake not to send Marise Payne to Solomon Islands, Malcolm Turnbull is asked.

Of course,” Turnbull says.

“Everyone has said that.

Still holed up in Marrickville on day five of his Covid isolation, Labor leader Anthony Albanese sounded croaky as he called into Perth’s 6PR radio this morning. He admitted he was still “not 100%”, but said he was “doing OK” compared with other colleagues who’ve come down with the virus.

It does make you tired, but I haven’t had any of the headaches and other symptoms,” Albanese said.

The Labor leader said he agreed with former PM Malcolm Turnbull, who this morning called Peter Dutton’s comments about preparing for war “bombastic and belligerent”.

Albanese also said it was “remarkable” that foreign affairs minister Marise Payne hadn’t been dispatched to Honiara in response to the China-Solomon Islands security pact, which has exploded as a key issue in this election campaign.

China has changed its position in the region. It’s more forward leaning, it’s seeking to increase its influence,” he said.

Albanese also talked up Labor’s Pacific policy, announced this morning, including plans for more foreign aid and “soft power” influences like training Pacific defence personnel and increasing Australian broadcasting into the region.

We need a comprehensive plan of engagement with the Pacific and we simply haven’t had it. We’ve dropped the ball and as a result, Australia is less secure,” he said.

Payne and PM Scott Morrison have already rubbished Labor’s plan, saying there was “nothing new” and claiming the Coalition was already doing most of what Labor had proposed.

Albanese is due to leave Covid isolation on Thursday evening, seven days after being diagnosed. He is currently scheduled to resume electioneering ahead of Labor’s official campaign launch in Perth on Sunday.

Anthony Albanese conducts an interview via video link on 22 April.
Anthony Albanese conducts an interview via video link on 22 April. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

Updated

Turnbull criticises 'bully-boy language' over China-Solomons pact

And on how the Pacific is being spoken about, Malcolm Turnbull says:

It’s not a question of stopping the deal. This sort of bully-boy language is really unhelpful. It may actually be part of the problem.

I mean, the way Pacific is not our backyard, it’s where we live. It’s our neighbourhood. And so you’d have to use engagement. You have to use diplomacy, you have to be persuasive. You had to go and visit these countries, get to know these leaders, spend time with them.

I mean, when I was prime minister, we had for example, a proposal from the Solomon Islands, to establish or to engage with Huawei to build a fibre-optic cable.

Now, we did not think that was a great idea, to say the least.

But I didn’t just say don’t do that. I said, Right – we’ll build one for you. We’ll take it out of the aid budget.

In other words, we provided a solution. We headed off that initiative.

Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull.
Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull. Photograph: David Caird/AAP

Updated

Malcolm Turnbull continued with his views of the security pact and the Morrison government’s role in it:

I mean, one of the key objectives, I should say, has been to ensure that Australia is the preferred security partner and that there are not security agreements or arrangements entered into with other countries from outside that outside the region and of course, China.

This is you know, this is a really unwelcome development.

The government cannot gild the lily on this. This has been a failure. This is this is an absolute failure of foreign policy.

Updated

Malcolm Turnbull lashes Peter Dutton's 'bombastic and belligerent' national security rhetoric

Malcolm Turnbull did not hold back in his criticism of Peter Dutton this morning.

The former PM, who promoted Dutton to home affairs – a precursor to his defence portfolio– had some helpful contributions to the conversation on ABC radio RN:

Well, Peter Dutton’s rhetoric is becoming more and more bombastic and belligerent.

It’s just a pity that he doesn’t match it with actual preparation and work.

It’s as though he wants to have a sensation – he thinks the object to him being the defence minister is having a sensational headline in a tabloid newspaper.”

Malcolm Turnbull and Peter Dutton.
Malcolm Turnbull and Peter Dutton. Photograph: Sean Davey/AFP/Getty Images

Updated

ACT ditches Covid close-contact isolation

Covid restrictions are relaxing in the ACT – AAP has an update on what is happening around the nation:

Household Covid-19 contact quarantine rules have been ditched in the ACT, as a leading epidemiologist warns Australia could rue further relaxing restrictions.

The seven-day mandatory isolation for close contacts was scrapped in NSW and Victoria last week, with the nation’s capital following suit on Tuesday.

Queensland’s quarantine requirements will be eased for asymptomatic close contacts from 6pm on Thursday and South Australia will from Saturday drop the need to isolate unless showing symptoms.

Despite cases stabilising or falling across the country, University of Melbourne epidemiologist Nancy Baxter said the positivity rate for PCR tests remains high at about one third.

She believes now is not the time to ease restrictions, suggesting it would be safer to do so in a few weeks to shorten the tail of the current Omicron wave.

“Covid is not going away,” Baxter told ABC TV on Tuesday. “Right now we are in the denial phase of the pandemic where we want to live like we did before.

“Over the next two years what we’re going to find is if we actually want to live well, we do have to adapt to the virus and do things a bit differently.”

School resumes for most NSW students on Wednesday, when the week-long compulsory isolation for close contacts of pupils and teachers will also be ditched.

A sign for a Covid-19 testing site is seen in the suburb of Nicholls in Canberra last December.
A sign for a Covid-19 testing site is seen in the suburb of Nicholls in Canberra last December. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

Updated

Also happening today which deserves your attention

When did foreign affairs minister Marise Payne last visit Solomon Islands?

She told Patricia Karvelas on ABC RN radio:

I was there twice in 2019 prior to Covid.

Zed Seselja and the head of the Office of the Pacific has visited.

But the foreign affairs minister has not.

Minister for foreign affairs Marise Payne.
Minister for foreign affairs Marise Payne. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Updated

Executive director of Micah Australia, Reverend Tim Costello has welcomed Labor’s commitment to increase foreign aid spending in the Pacific, as well as include extra funding for climate change adaption – and wants the Coalition to lift its own funding commitments:

We have always condemned cuts to aid as both morally and strategically wrong and we have unfortunately seen the consequences of this in both Afghanistan and Solomon Islands,” said Costello.

Last year, Australia’s aid reached a historic low of 0.21% of gross national income and it is set to fall even further this year, before dropping to just 0.18% in 2023-24.

When compared to other wealthy donor nations of the OECD, this ranks Australia 21st out of 29 countries.

This was at the same time as the Covid pandemic hit low-income countries even harder, he said.

Extreme poverty has risen by 150 million people. This year, 274 million people will need humanitarian assistance and protection.

It is clear we must return to the bi-partisan commitment that once existed from both parties, reaching an aid investment level of 0.5 per cent of our income in development cooperation and humanitarian assistance.

Reverend Tim Costello.
Reverend Tim Costello. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP


Costello wants to see “50 cents of each $100 of Australia’s national income spent on international development”.

That target is a relatively modest investment and should be enshrined in legislation so we can build true long-term partnerships in our region and help tackle the tremendous global issues of our time, including rising conflict and climate change.

Further, we call on both parties to commit to creating a safer world for all by restoring Australia’s refugee program to 20,000 places per year and increasing emergency life-saving humanitarian aid to conflict and hunger hotspots.”


Updated

Zoe Daniel is responding to claims she is a “fake” independent.

Updated

Victoria reports 15 Covid deaths and 9,265 new cases

Victoria has also reported its last 24 hours.

Updated

NSW reports 18 Covid deaths and 9,849 new infections

NSW Health has reported its covid numbers for the last 24 hours.

Updated

Tony Abbott is still in India

This is a little awkward, given the last three days of Coalition attacks.

From Daniel Hurst:

A Coalition MP praised a now contentious trip to China featuring Labor’s deputy leader, Richard Marles, as “an invaluable opportunity to have open and candid dialogue”.

The Morrison government has attempted to discredit the opposition’s claim that the major parties are united on China policy by highlighting Marles’ trip to China in 2019 and his speech to a Beijing university. Marles said at the time it would be a “profound mistake” to define China as an enemy.

But it has emerged that the Liberal National party backbencher Ted O’Brien – who joined Marles and Labor’s Tanya Plibersek on the three-day study tour organised by the China Matters thinktank – praised the 2019 trip.

'This is a hose you have to hold,' Turnbull tells government

Over on ABC radio RN, Malcom Turnbull has been unloading on the man he made home affairs minister, Peter Dutton.

I’ll bring you some more of that interview in just a moment.

Updated

Labor’s Kristina Keneally spoke to ABC News Breakfast from Brisbane, where she is asked what Labor could do differently when it comes to the Pacific:

We can’t outspend China and we can’t pretend we can. But we have natural advantages. Our shared people-to-people connections, our shared interests. We have squandered that under over the Liberals. We have stepped back. It’s not been a Pacific step-up, it’s been a Pacific stuff-up. Through the institutional support, climate infrastructure support, deepening our defence relationships, through our people-to-people relationships, through our economic support, we see this as an opportunity now to strengthen our Pacific family – for Australia to be the natural partner of choice for Pacific neighbours.

Kristina Keneally looks on as Jason Clare addresses media during a press conference in Sydney on 19 April.
Kristina Keneally looks on as Jason Clare addresses media during a press conference in Sydney on 19 April. Photograph: Dan Himbrechts/AAP

Updated

Scott Morrison is in Townsville (north Queensland) today where he will be making announcements on energy.

Updated

Given what we just heard from Scott Morrison there, it’s worth your time having a listen to climate and environment editor Adam Morton on today’s Full Story podcast examining if the policy differences between the Coalition and Labor and ultimately asking: is either party preparing enough for the transformational change ahead?

As Adam says:

Economic modelling should be used as a guide. Both sides of politics lean on it more as a forecast that will be fact ... I don’t think anybody can tell us exactly what our power bills will be in 2025, 2030, 2050 but no one disagrees that more solar and wind is good in terms of lowering prices because it is much, much cheaper to generate what’s in place.

You’ll find that here:

Updated

Scott Morrison is once again trying to bring back the past, claiming Labor has a “climate tax” when asked about Anthony Albanese coming back to the campaign trail after having Covid.

We’ve seen from from those would step up into Anthony Albanese’s position an absolute muddle. I mean, the position on on our traditional industries. I mean, we’ve heard Pat Conroy and Meryl Swanson – they’re the members up in the Hunter – saying no Australian coalmine will be impacted by their safeguards mechanism, which is effectively their carbon tax. And then we have Chris Bowen saying they will but it’s not just the coalmining industry, what they increase in prices. They’re increasing costs on traditional industries under their kind of policy is on mining, gas, oil, rail freight cement production, refinery, and sectors of that nature.

At this election, there’s a clear choice between us saying we’ll meet our commitments not through higher taxes, and not by imposing choices on people and the Labor party who want to put taxes on these activities that mean real jobs, and up there in the Hunter there are 10,000 jobs at risk from what Labor is proposing when it comes to their carbon credit scheme, which is just another carbon tax.

Here is what Jim Chalmers had to say about the carbon credit policy yesterday:

We’re not forcing any company to buy a credit. As I’ve said before, businesses and entities have options under the safeguard mechanism. The same options that they have under the government now, they will have under us. They can choose to buy a credit or they can choose to reduce their emissions below the baseline determined by the Clean Energy Regulator. Our preference is for the latter. We’ve said that repeatedly. Thanks very much.

Updated

Asked if he thinks he will win the election, Scott Morrison launches into his “it’s a choice” stump speech, and it is now so by rote, it almost sounds as though he is reading it.

He then seems to remember what he wanted to talk about and throws in, right at the end:

Just coming back from that issue on the Solomon Islands and this gives you a good idea. What they’re putting out today, the Labour party, is basically a continuation of all the things that we’re currently doing with one exception.

They think the way to solve the problem the Solomon Islands is to send in the ABC.

I mean, it’s farcical when their answer to solving the Solomon Islands problem is they have to Q + A in Honiara.

I don’t think that’s a true reflection or an understanding of the challenges that we face there. And we’ve been very focused on your investments in the Pacific to keep Australians safe. And what we’ve done around the world has been acknowledged. And when I was in the United States when I was there talking to the houses of Congress, and Covid, and their leadership.

They were amazed at the strength that our government has shown in standing up to the coercion and threats that we’ve seen from the Chinese government. No Australian government has stood up more firmly to the Chinese government’s coercion of our region and Australia than our government. And we will keep doing that with a great team in that, of course, with Peter Dutton and Marise Payne and the whole team that continues to stand up for Australia every single day.

Morrison is talking about Labor’s desire to have the ABC once again run the Australia Channel, which is seen as a key part of Australia’s “soft power” tool kit. The contract was given to Sky News, which has led to criticism over whether the channel is being used as well as it could be.

Updated

Ben Fordham points out Christine Holgate was cleared of any wrongdoing and had the authority to award the $5,000 Cartier watches as bonuses and asks Morrison to confirm that in his eyes, she didn’t do anything wrong.

Morrison does not:

I’m not going to go back over the issue other than to say this now, I still don’t think it’s a good idea for taxpayers’ money, which is what is in a government company, to be used to buy Cartier watches. I don’t agree with that the board didn’t agree with that either.

Asked about the giant bonuses Australia Post executives have received under the new CEO, which equate Fordham says, to “100 Cartier watches” in some cases, Morrison says:

Well, there are remuneration arrangements that apply to bonuses. But what we’re talking about here is taxpayers’ money being used to buy Cartier watches and I just don’t think that passes the pub test. I never thought it did.

I was simply saying at the time was there should be an inquiry into this and Ms Holgate should have stood aside while that was done and if she was cleared by that then she could have continued on in a job. That was always my position. And if that had occurred, she’d probably still be there now.

But anyway, she’s gone on to other things. I wish her well in all of that. But when you’re running a company that is owned by the government, which is all taxpayers’ money, then I think you know there are, there are judgments that you need to make about those things which also have to survive public scrutiny.

Asked if he thinks he could have toned it down, Morrison says:

Well, that’s what I’ve already said that to you, Ben.

Updated

Ben Fordham moves on to Scott Morrison’s treatment of former Australia Post CEO Christine Holgate and asks if Morrison, with hindsight, would have handled anything differently. Morrison says:

I mean, it was a very heated day in the parliament. On that occasion, we were being accused of being complicit in having taxpayers’ money used to buy Cartier watches now, I can imagine the sort of questions I would have got from you had you thought that.

And so I responded to that. And I already said that my tone on that day and the way I responded was in the heat of the parliament, and I should have been more measured on that day.

The principle though hasn’t changed. And the point about if you’re running a government company, it’s not running a private company and there are different standards that apply there. And that’s the point I was making at the time and I’m pleased to Ms Holgate has gone on to a very successful career. She’s a very capable woman, and she’s doing something she loves now and I’m quite sure she’s doing even better than she was before. So I wish her all the best.

But when you’re involved in running a government-owned company, then the scrutiny that’s applied there, that is applied to ministers of the government every day and ministers have stood aside when I’ve had inquiries put in place for them.

And that was a standard I have applied to my own ministers and and those who run government companies sign up to the same type of scrutiny.

Former Australia Post CEO Christine Holgate
Former Australia Post CEO Christine Holgate. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Updated

PM says he is 'certainly not' blocking Katherine Deves from radio interview

Asked about Katherine Deves not being allowed to appear on Sydney radio 2GB (host Ben Fordham says he has invited her, but it appears to be Liberal HQ that has stopped her).

Scott Morrison again says:

I’m certainly not doing that

But he doesn’t address the question of whether Liberal HQ is actually stopping her from speaking:

I think it’s really important that we just bring it back to the simple point she’s making about women and girls in sport. It’s very common sense. I mean, I think parents want to have this discussion in a civil way and in a respectful way, but the point she’s making a pretty obvious and what I’m surprised about is the reaction to their comments on women and girls in sport.

Updated

Scott Morrison is on Sydney radio 2GB where he is being asked how prepared Australia is for war, given Peter Dutton’s comments yesterday.

He launches into a speech on defence spending, and comparing it with Labor’s record:

What Peter was saying yesterday I think was important. Of course no one wants to see a war and no one is believing that is about to happen. I want to reassure Australians about that. We prepare for these things to ensure we can stability and peace within our region.

It seems even 2GB listeners don’t think Australia drawing a red line in the Pacific means much when it comes to China, leading Morrison to try to explain that Aukus is more than just nuclear submarines (which we won’t get for at least 20 years).

Aukus is not just about nuclear-powered submarines, Aukus is about cybersecurity and cyber defences. The first shot in any conflict is actually in bits and bytes. It’s not in bullets.

Not sure that is quite the slogan he thinks it is.

Scott Morrison at the Anzac Day parade in Darwin yesterday
Scott Morrison at the Anzac Day parade in Darwin yesterday. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Updated

The campaign in Kooyong is heating up, with treasurer Josh Frydenberg and independent challenger Monique Ryan exchanging potshots over a candidates’ debate, with each accusing the other of dodging the spotlight.

A candidates’ forum is to be held on Wednesday in Kooyong, with Ryan and several other challengers slated to attend. Frydenberg has declined. On Monday Channel Nine political editor Chris Uhlmann tweeted that his network had invited Frydenberg and Ryan to a debate to be held at Melbourne’s Docklands – about 10km outside of Kooyong.

Uhlmann later tweeted that Ryan had declined – a post retweeted by Frydenberg.

Ryan released a statement saying she would “relish the opportunity” to debate Frydenberg but was critical that Nine’s “proposed format does not involve the people of Kooyong, or give them the chance to ask questions of me or Mr Frydenberg”.

She said she would accept Nine’s invitation if the debate were held in Kooyong, with questions from locals, and accused Frydenberg of “hiding from his constituents”.

But Frydenberg quickly shot back in a Facebook post, claiming the Kooyong community debate was being hosted by a “climate activist group”, which he called a “front” for his opponents:

Participating in a debate hosted by Lighter Footprints would be akin to attending a campaign rally organised by my political opponents.

This is not to say that climate change is not a very important issue. It is. I have been a strong advocate for net zero emissions by 2050, to which our government has committed and has a plan to meet. However, it is not the only important issue at stake at the upcoming election and, therefore, should not be the only issue debated between candidates.

At this stage, it seems that while both candidates say they are keen to debate, they can’t agree on where and how to do it.

It’s all a bit ugly and silly but shows the tension in this race – where polls show Frydenberg could be in trouble. Kooyong is covered top to bottom with election posters, and residents are being bombarded with targeted social media ads from both sides.

Monique Ryan poses for a photo with her supporters
Monique Ryan poses for a photo with her supporters during an election campaign launch at Hawthorn Arts Centre in Melbourne on 10 April. Photograph: Diego Fedele/AAP

Updated

Good morning

We are almost at the halfway point of the campaign, which means things are about to get even more messy.

The latest Newspoll, first published in the Australian newspaper, shows no movement in the two-party-preferred, with Labor still leading 53 points to 47. Scott Morrison still remains the more popular leader but dissatisfaction with his leadership has also increased. The AFR Ipos poll shows an unchanged 55% to 45% two-party-preferred measure, which remains unchanged from the last poll three weeks ago. Just a reminder swings are never uniform.

Meanwhile, the “red line” the PM has declared with China (a naval base in Solomon Islands) has left people a little uncomfortable and confused, because no one knows what would actually happen if China crossed it. Red lines, combined with Peter Dutton (who claims his leadership ambitions have passed) talking about the need to prepare for war to protect peace (all on Anzac Day) has left people a little uncomfortable.

Labor has released its “how we would deal with the Pacific” policy, as Daniel Hurst maps out here.

And the election campaign rolls on. We will bring you all of it as it happens. You have Katharine Murphy, Sarah Martin, Paul Karp, Daniel Hurst and Josh Butler watching the campaign and surrounds, as well as Amy Remeikis on the blog for most of the day.

This is going to need more than coffee today.

Ready? Me either. Still, let’s get into it.

Updated

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