What we learned today, Maundy Thursday (14 April)
The first official week of the election campaign was always going to wind down early because of the Easter weekend, but a car accident involving prime minister Scott Morrison’s security detail brought a very real reason for everyone to take a breath. Here’s the wrap of today’s headlines:
- Morrison tied himself in knots trying to blame Labor for his government’s failure to fulfil an election promise on a federal integrity commission.
- Former staffer Rachelle Miller challenged Morrison to release details of a payout from workplace bullying claims.
- Both major parties earned the ire of the Australian Medical Association over their health policies.
- The jobless rate was steady at 4%.
- Liberal candidate for Warringah, Katherine Deves, was busted for more anti-trans postings.
- A Coalition pledge for native forestry was not exactly welcomed by conservationists.
- Those airport delays will keep on delaying Easter travellers.
- At least Easter will bring, among other things, the welcome resurrection of sunshine.
Trust me, even the most shellfish oyster lover will go without once they read this, from Khaled Al Khawaldeh:
On Labor’s $135m urgent care clinics policy, leader Anthony Albanese said yesterday “this has been fully costed by the Parliamentary Budget Office, the PBO”.
But according to Labor’s shadow finance minister, Katy Gallagher - that’s not quite right.
“The costing of Labor’s urgent care centre policy is based on work done by the PBO, but for the avoidance of any confusion, has not been formally costed by the PBO,” she tweeted at 5.51pm, on the night before a four-day long weekend.
Albanese had come under pressure from journalists over the cost of the policy, which was to stand up 50 new clinics running long hours across the country. Labor maintained the budget they’d allocated was sound, with Albanese rebuffing questions by maintaining the independent PBO had costed it.
But Gallagher’s tweet said it was only “based on work” by the PBO - which is a small semantic distinction, but an important policy distinction.
We’ve approached Labor’s campaign HQ, and the PBO, for comment and more information.
Coalition health minister Greg Hunt seized on it quickly, calling it “an embarrassing economic and health backflip by Anthony Albanese’s team”. He tweeted:
Turns out their rehash of Rudd’s super clinics policy is NOT costed by the PBO.
Anthony Albanese said this project was fully costed yesterday. He’s either ill-informed or not across the facts.
Hunt had already criticised the policy, claiming it was a redux of the last Labor government’s “failed super clinics policy - Labor’s worst health failure of the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd years, other than stopping the listing of medicines on the PBS”.
Expect this to be a major point of debate tomorrow.
Updated
The Australian Medical Association will meet with Labor leader Anthony Albanese to call for a funding boost, Sarah Martin reports:
Interesting distinction here from Labor senator Katy Gallagher:
The costing of Labor’s Urgent Care Centre policy is based on work done by the PBO, but for the avoidance of any confusion, has not been formally costed by the PBO.
— Katy Gallagher (@SenKatyG) April 14, 2022
All of Labor’s policies and costings will be released before the election.
Yesterday both leaders got sconed, today there were scones with butter. Here’s your Thursday election briefing:
Caitlin Cassidy wrote earlier about the University of Sydney strikes. The university has responded, with a spokesperson calling it a disappointing move:
“Students have already had a difficult couple of years, and this is unnecessary action. We are still in negotiations.
It’s been a difficult time for the higher education sector, and we still face an uncertain future. We want to make sure that we reach an agreement that enhances our sector leading wages and conditions and supports research and teaching excellence.
As part of the negotiations, the university has offered a nationally leading entitlement to 30 days gender affirmation and transition leave and a range of other enhanced leave benefits and entitlements.
We have ongoing fortnightly meetings scheduled to July and are working to reach agreement on a range of matters, some of which have not yet been raised for full discussion. While we respect the right of staff to take industrial action, we are disappointed that the NTEU has chosen prematurely to pursue unnecessary industrial action.
Our position will not be shifted by industrial action, but by good-faith negotiation at the bargaining table. On our side, we will continue to engage transparently and in good faith and keep our community updated.”
Updated
And here’s Labor leader Anthony Albanese’s day, again from AAP:
AAP is bringing you the colour from the campaign trail. Here are some highlights from prime minister Scott Morrison’s day, before it was horribly cut short:
The Campaign catchup is in! Jane Lee and Paul Karp have everything you need to know about the goings-on in Warringah:
Not election news, but perhaps it should be: one of Australia’s largest mining companies, Rio Tinto, has quit the Queensland resources industry’s lobby group after objecting to its advocacy for coal.
Rio’s Australia chief executive, Kellie Parker, said “after careful consideration” the company would not renew its membership of the Queensland Resources Council. The council is led by the former federal Liberal minister Ian Macfarlane.
Rio has previously noted the resources council’s advocacy for increased coal use was not aligned with its climate and energy policy. The company sold the last of its coal assets in 2018.
It follows Rio management supporting a shareholder activists’ resolution that called on it to suspend membership of industry associations that advocated for the development of new and expanded coal mines.
Dan Gocher, of the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility, who wrote the resolution, said the state resources council had “proven to be a consistent roadblock to climate action”:
Rio Tinto has finally acknowledged the damage and destruction of the QRC and realises it won’t ever align its advocacy with a safe climate.
It was going to be a quiet(ish) Easter even before that horrible crash:
Scott Morrison’s team has arrived in Melbourne with his campaign to recommence tomorrow. It is not expected to be a big day on the hustings given it is Good Friday. #auspol
— Greg Brown (@gregbrown_TheOz) April 14, 2022
Independent Indi MP, Helen Haines, says prime minister Scott Morrison’s take on the federal integrity commission is “not true”. She says:
That point, that the government introduced a bill and that Mr Morrison likes to say he tabled a bill is, again, not true.
An exposure draft, never introduced to the House, no opportunity to debate it, no opportunity to vote on it – and that’s a really important point so ... I don’t say things lightly, that is being slippery.
Again, a red herring to keep talking about New South Wales Icac. I got legislation that has been lauded by the legal experts across the nation as being strong, robust but having the necessary safeguards to make sure that it’s fit for purpose.
Updated
Veteran Liberal strategist Grahame Morris is shouting at clouds on the ABC.
“You can’t have Chinese women who used to be blokes up against our swimming team in the Olympics,” he says. It gets worse, but I won’t give the rest airtime.
Here’s Michael McGowan with the latest on the Liberal candidate for Warringah, Katherine Deves, who has Morris’s passionate support:
The Centre for Public Integrity has warned public trust in Australian politics is “at an all time low” heading into the federal election, and can only be restored by the establishment of a strong federal anti-corruption commission.
Prime minister Scott Morrison has been pressed today on his failure to legislate an anti-corruption commission, despite promises the Coalition would do so if it won the last election.
Anthony Whealy, a former NSW supreme court judge and Centre for Public Integrity chair, said serious integrity reforms like a federal ICAC were needed after this election to “restore faith in our democracy”.
The Centre for Public Integrity listed four crucial reforms needed to restore public trust: An anti-corruption commission, greater regulation of donations, better resourcing for existing accountability bodies, and greater checks on executive power.
Whealy said:
Public trust is at an all time low.
Scandals are occurring with no real consequence, and public money is being spent for political purposes. This election we need serious integrity reform to restore faith in our democracy.
There is currently no agency able to investigate allegations of corruption at a federal level. Despite promises made three years ago, we still don’t have a national integrity commission.
The source of over a billion dollars of political donations has been hidden from public view. Wealthy businessmen can buy elections. We need to cap donations and spending, and get real time disclosure of all donations. The audit office, the ombudsman and the ABC are being underfunded. Partisan appointments are undermining the Administrative Appeals Tribunal and the Human Rights Commission. These institutions are the foundation of our democracy and must be protected.
Ministers are increasingly making laws and spending money outside of parliament. We need to hold executive power to account. This election will be a test on integrity. We are calling on all parties to commit to the crucial reforms set out in the public integrity test.
A woman has died after being swept off rocks at Lake Macquarie this afternoon, NSW police have confirmed.
At about 12:30pm, emergency services were called to the Pink Caves south of Catherine Hill Bay after reports two women had been swept off rocks by a wave.
One of the women was washed back onto the rocks, suffering minor injuries.
NSW police said in a statement:
A 26-year-old man jumped in the water to rescue the second woman, however, he also came into trouble in the water.
Surf lifesavers rescued the pair on a jet ski and brought them to shore on Moonee Beach, further south of Pink Caves, with officers attached to Lake Macquarie and Tuggerah Lakes Police Districts commenced CPR on the woman at the beach.
NSW Ambulance paramedics arrived and continued treating her, however, she died a short time later. She is yet to be formally identified.
The second female was transported by road ambulance to John Hunter Hospital for medical assessment with bruising and abrasions.
The man was treated at the scene for minor cuts and abrasions.
A report will be prepared for the information of the coroner.
Updated
From Josh Butler:
And a note from Labor leader Anthony Albanese:
Best wishes to the @AusFedPolice and @TasmaniaPolice personnel assisting the PM who were involved in the car crash in Tasmania today. They do a fantastic job and I wish all a speedy recovery.
— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) April 14, 2022
Prime minister Scott Morrison’s personal statement on the car crash:
— Scott Morrison (@ScottMorrisonMP) April 14, 2022
And a sensible question about a federal integrity commission: Why won’t the Coalition commit to introducing a bill?
(The Coalition has an exposure draft, and says it won’t introduce legislation unless Labor says it’s on board, which is quite unusual as normally you’d test support in the parliament).
“We will assess the situation in the next parliament,” Birmingham says. He adds that they’ve done the “hard yards” on their model and would welcome Labor’s support.
Katharine Murphy has covered this issue in detail:
The ABC’s Greg Jennett says there are “pinch points” in the workforce, with staff shortages in some areas as unemployment falls.
Birmingham says that’s a good problem to have:
If you are going to have problems in an economy it is far better of having a strong labour market with strong job opportunities than it is to have the reverse. It is not that long ago when we went into the depths of Covid-19 that the forecasts were for very high rates of unemployment.
Asked if the Coalition would revisit immigration caps, Birmingham says it’s a matter of targeted migration:
Firstly, to provide incentives to get working holidaymakers, backpackers and students back to Australia sooner, knowing the contribution they make in many parts of our economy, particularly the lesser-skilled roles across the economy.
Also, within the permanent migration, to increase the number of places for skilled migrants, recognising that we had brought forward the filling of a number of partner visa categories and therefore have the ability to create more places for skilled migration, and that itself delivers a further dividend into the economy by having migrants coming into Australia, who all of the economic analysis shows provide a dividend of more likely to work, more likely to pay more taxes, more likely to create other jobs across the economy.
Updated
Simon Birmingham, Coalition campaign spokesperson and finance minister, says he understands there are no serious injuries as a result of that car accident.
He’s telling the ABC an afternoon event with prime minister Scott Morrison has been cancelled as a result of “concern and logistics”.
Updated
BREAKING: the first debate of the campaign has been confirmed on Wednesday April 20.
— Kieran Gilbert (@Kieran_Gilbert) April 14, 2022
The Sky News/ Courier Mail people's forum in Brisbane.
Scott Morrison & Anthony Albanese will face the questions of 100 undecided voters.
I'll be moderating the forum in Brisbane. #auspol
Ah, some good news from Cait Kelly (especially for NSW):
Prime Minister Scott Morrison arrives at Burnie Airport to board his plane, having cancelled his last campaign event of the day after the crash involving his security detail pic.twitter.com/mwWwe5l9mu
— Sam Clench (@SamClench) April 14, 2022
From Michael Read at the Australian Financial Review (I wrongly attributed to Andrew Tillett because he posted it and I didn’t check the byline! :
Interactions with members of the public are risky. Real people have strong opinions, and they often aren’t afraid to share them, especially when cameras are rolling.
I’m travelling with Scott Morrison and we haven’t met a real voter yet https://t.co/5Rg7hQnoEM
— Andrew Tillett (@andrewtillett) April 14, 2022
Updated
University of Sydney staff will hold a 48 hour strike, citing managerial refusal to agree to a series of demands, including gender affirmation leave in their enterprise bargaining agreement.
Some 78% of members took part in the Protected Action Ballot to authorise the strike, with 96% voting in favour of action. The strike will take place on 11 and 12 of May.
National Tertiary Education Union NSW secretary, Dr Damien Cahill, said staff had been pressing for “significant improvements” on a number of issues including job security, addressing unmanageable workloads, rights for casual staff, gender affirmation leave and a pay rise for almost a year:
Management has yet to agree to our demands, so staff have been left with no choice but to take action, and they don’t take this sort of action lightly.
The University of Sydney is structurally dependent on insecure employment. We’ve seen the devastating consequences of this throughout the pandemic.
Sydney University is a very wealthy institution, it can afford to convert significant amounts of insecure employment into ongoing jobs and at the same time give staff a fair pay rise.
NTEU national president, Dr Alison Barnes, said the University of Sydney had the “means and the power” to end the dispute:
All management has to do is meet our very reasonable demands. We want secure jobs, a fair pay rise, restrictions on workloads, rights for casuals and gender affirmation leave.
This is the beginning of what’s to come at universities across Australia if they don’t come to the negotiating table. We won’t stop fighting until our members get what they deserve.
The University of Sydney has been approached for comment.
Updated
And here’s the statement from the Tasmania Police:
Police are investigating a two-vehicle crash on the Bass Highway near Elizabeth Town this afternoon.
The crash involved an unmarked police car and a Mitsubishi Triton, which were both travelling west between Deloraine and Latrobe.
Circumstances surrounding the crash are being investigated, however initial enquiries indicate that the Triton has collided with the rear of the police vehicle, while attempting to merge.
Four police officers (a man and a woman from AFP, and two men from Tasmania Police) received non-life-threatening injuries, after their vehicle rolled down an embankment.
As is normal process for a crash involving police, the Tasmania Police Professional Standards Unit has been advised and will monitor the investigation.
Anyone who witnessed the crash is asked to contact police on 131 444. Dashcam or other footage can be submitted via the Evidence Portal.
Car crash involving prime minister Scott Morrison's security detail: Full statement
Here’s the full statement from prime minister Scott Morrison’s office on that crash:
The PM’s follow security vehicle was involved in an accident near Elizabeth Town.
The PM is not injured and was not involved in the accident.
Two Tasmanian police officers and two federal police officers from the PM’s security detail who were in the follow vehicle have been taken to hospital from the scene for further assessment. All officers were conscious when transferred. The driver of the other vehicle was not injured.
Family members of the officers have been contacted and are being kept informed of their condition.
The PM is always extremely grateful for the protection provided by his security team and extends his best wishes for their recovery and to their families.
Updated
Prime minister Scott Morrison’s afternoon events have been cancelled.
I’ll let you know any more details on that crash if I can – in the meantime, I’m not sure what happened to deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce’s press conference. I will chase that also!
Back to Birmingham, who says it’s a “great relief” and pays tribute to the “brave individuals... working in the service of our nation”.
And here’s the statement from the prime minister’s office:
#BREAKING: Four members of the Prime Minister’s security detail are in hospital after their car crashed in Elizabeth Town, Tasmania. They’re all conscious. The PM was not in the car. @10NewsFirst pic.twitter.com/wmBHKJmX1T
— Chloe Bouras (@ChloeBouras) April 14, 2022
BREAKING: PM’s security car has crashed in Tasmania near Elizabeth Town. PM was not involved in two-car crash. Four officers - two Tasmanian and Two AFP from PMs security detail hospitalised for assessment according to statement. @9NewsAUS
— Jonathan Kearsley (@jekearsley) April 14, 2022
Prime minister Scott Morrison's security detail in car crash
Sky News is reporting a car crash involving prime minister Scott Morrison’s security detail in Tasmania - no one was seriously injured.
The prime minister was not involved in the accident.
But security officers were injured, and their families have been notified.
Updated
Coalition campaign spokesperson (and finance minister) Simon Birmingham is talking to Kieran Gilbert on Sky News. He’s talking about the latest employment figures (see the details below, by Peter Hannam). Wait, breaking news interruption...
Updated
Graham Readfern has also been on a fact checking mission:
Adam Morton has had a look at this morning’s pledge from prime minister Scott Morrison on logging and (forgive me) it seems he can’t see the forest for the trees:
Some serious pressure has been brought to bear on prime minister Scott Morrison over his government’s (ditched) promise to bring in a national integrity commission – see Katharine Murphy’s note on this at about 10.30am. And here’s the video:
Thank you, Amy Remeikis! For the record, the closest I’ve ever come to being anything like a hero is that time I accidentally wore my underpants on the outside. While I’m on stupid things I’ve done, a boss once asked me if I was working Maundy Thursday. “No, Monday-Friday,” I replied, proving that my religious education was a waste of money.
We have another Barnaby Joyce press conference coming up – so brace yourself.
Because she is a hero, Tory Shepherd will be taking you through that and whatever else happens this afternoon.
Tomorrow will be more of a regular news blog, because it is Good Friday and politicians tend to shy away from campaigning on days when the country is more concerned with eating seafood and gathering with loved ones than anything else.
But we will be back with more of the campaign over the weekend and then again with a chocolate hangover on the Monday, as it picks back up at full steam. Thank you for joining me on this somewhat rollercoaster of a first campaign week. You have all helped to keep us together. Tory will keep you entertained for the next few hours and I’ll see you early on Monday. Until then – take care of you Ax
Updated
Adam Bandt and the Greens are working to keep the Jobkeeper issue in the campaign cycle:
We need to raise the rate of JobSeeker to $88 a day.
— Adam Bandt (@AdamBandt) April 14, 2022
There’s just no justification for putting anti-poverty policy at the bottom of your priority list.
It’s right. It’s necessary. The community wants it.
Murph has written up Scott Morrison’s incorrect claims on a federal Icac.
Updated
Australian airports to be swamped over Easter
AAP has an airport update:
Australian airports are experiencing their busiest day in two years as thousands of people fly out for the Easter long weekend amid chronic staff shortages.
Passengers are being asked to arrive at least two hours early for domestic flights as Sydney airport contends with about 82,000 passengers on Thursday, after a week of long queues caused by staff shortages and rusty passengers.
Almost 60,000 passengers are expected to travel through Brisbane airport on Thursday, while Melbourne airport expects about 76,000 a day over the Easter period, and Adelaide expects 25,000 on Thursday and again on Friday.
The prime minister, Scott Morrison, said it was terrific to see the tourism industry on the up and up, but people should expect some congestion.
“While these are very frustrating delays for travellers, as they’re getting away ... these are days we were looking forward to during this pandemic,” Morrison said.
“There is going to be some setbacks as the staff come back in, as the system is built up again.
“I’d just ask people to show some patience. I know it is frustrating and I know the airlines and everybody is doing everything they can to turn that around.”
Deputy PM, Barnaby Joyce, who holds the transport portfolio, said the government was committed to tackling airport congestion.
“I look today and I see the crowding at Sydney airport, and it’s understandable,” Joyce said.
“We’ve got five million people that live in the [Sydney] basin and there’s issues there.”
The government intended to spend $55m at Newcastle airport to increase international flight capacity, he said.
Sydney airport chief executive, Geoff Culbert, warned Thursday was “going to be another tough day for travellers”.
“I want to apologise in advance to anyone who is inconvenienced,” he said.
Updated
Police have shot at and arrested a man in Coffs Harbour, after he allegedly drove at officers and led them on a pursuit on the Pacific Highway.
The 29-year-old man was pulled over by officers from the Coffs Harbour Region Enforcement Squad at around 10.25am today, near the Stadium Drive intersection on the Pacific Highway.
Police say that as officers approached the vehicle, the man allegedly drove at them. They say an officer discharged their firearm at the man, before he drove away. The man then pulled his car over and was arrested without further incident shortly after.
An officer discharged their firearm before the man drove from the scene, with police initiating a pursuit northbound on the Pacific Highway.
A short time later, the vehicle stopped on Hogbin Drive and the 29-year-old man was arrested without incident.”
The man has been taken to Coffs Harbour Health Campus in a stable condition, with his injuries not considered life-threatening.
Police said two crime scenes have been established, with a critical incident team from Mid North Coast Police District now investigating the circumstances surrounding the incident.
That investigation will be subject to an independent review, police said.
Northbound lanes on the Pacific Highway and Stadium Drive have been closed, with Police saying traffic could be disrupted for some time.
Updated
National Covid-19 update
Here are the latest coronavirus numbers from around Australia today, as the country records at least 45 deaths from Covid-19:
ACT
- Deaths: 1
- Cases: 1,074
- In hospital: 56 (with 1 people in ICU)
NSW
- Deaths: 21
- Cases: 17,856
- In hospital: 1,582 (with 71 people in ICU)
Northern Territory
- Deaths: 0
- Cases: 563
- In hospital: 30 (with 2 people in ICU)
Queensland
- Deaths: 4
- Cases: 8,754
- In hospital: 590 (with 16 people in ICU)
South Australia
- Deaths: 1
- Cases: 5,398
- In hospital: 238 (with 11 people in ICU)
Tasmania
- Deaths: 2
- Cases: 1,843
- In hospital: 50 (with 1 people in ICU)
Victoria
- Deaths: 14
- Cases: 10,462
- In hospital: 392 (with 19 people in ICU)
Western Australia
- Deaths: 2
- Cases: 8,144
- In hospital: 200 (with 5 people in ICU)
Updated
Lobby group Fair Agenda has launched a website for anyone interested where the parties and candidates stand on the issues of gendered violence and safety, including a pledge for candidates with six specific commitments to try and make things better.
Fair Agenda’s Executive Director Renee Carr said in a statement:
Going into this election, people want to know that the politicians they elect will take action to stop violence against women. A hundred thousand of us marched for justice during the last parliament; we’re taking those same concerns to the ballot box.
We deserve a parliament that will prioritise our safety. Advocates have been calling for transformative change for years. Solutions exist: the pledge shows which candidates are willing to commit to what’s needed.
Everyone who cares about women’s safety should ask, have my candidates taken the pledge? Are they willing to do what’s needed to create a safer future?”
It hasn’t been one of the major issues of the campaign so far, but after the last year, it certainly seems to be one ticking along in the undercurrents.
Updated
Things are a little quieter today – that is because we are seeing the campaigns begin to wind down a little ahead of the easter long weekend.
There won’t be much, if any campaigning tomorrow, and the weekend will just have light touches – both campaigns are very aware of how much politics annoys people when they are trying to have a break. (Which is why it is very rare for election campaigns to be called over the summer holidays).
Updated
The Australia Institute has released new polling:
The new survey finds that most Australians support the formation of a national integrity commission with the powers it needs to investigate and deter corruption.
Key Findings:
- Seven in 10 Australians (69%) agree that not legislating an integrity commission represents a broken election promise by the Coalition
- When asked which from a list of eight powers are necessary for an effective integrity commission, an overwhelming majority agree each power is needed
“Despite his protestations today, Scott Morrison has failed to explain why the Government has never introduced integrity commission legislation to the Parliament -- despite promising to implement an integrity commission over three years ago,” said Bill Browne, head of the Australia Institute’s Democracy & Accountability program.
“The government’s proposed integrity commission would fall disastrously short of what is needed to stamp out public sector corruption. An integrity commission that could not act on whistleblower complaints or call public hearings would not be able to hold politicians or public servants to account.
“If Mr Morrison were genuine about implementing an integrity commission, he could have brought the legislation on for debate any time during the last term of government and allowed the Parliament to improve the model through amendments, as is its role.”
Updated
Those at he ABS, as you might have guessed, are the last people to fall for “gotcha” questions from journalists or anybody else.
Given the sensitivity around what the jobless rate is, and whether it would this time be “the lowest since the 1970s” as the Morrison government initially wrongly claimed a month ago when the February labour force numbers dropped, we thought it best to ask the statisticians for “non-rounded” figures for the jobless rate.
Answer – and we kid you not – is that the March unemployment rate (cue long drum roll) was:
3.9542384% *
Got that Albo, Scomo, or another “mo”?
Let’s see who is the first reporter to ask “what’s the jobless rate”, and also if anybody gets the right answer?
With February 2008 coming at a (partly rounded) 3.981%, we can now safely say we have a figure that’s not been smaller since 1974, when the ABS released data on a quarterly basis.
(* We should add the numbers are, at the start and end of the day, only estimates and in this case the ABS also noted they had some surveying problems because of massive flooding in northern NSW and Queensland.)
Updated
And then there was this last question:
Q: From the Royal College of Australian College of GPs, Karen Price just said that she wasn’t consulted on the clinics issue. You had said that you had worked with them. Could you clarify?
Albanese:
Well, her position was clear. I quoted her position in the press conference this morning.
Here was the question on that this morning:
Q: The clinics will require more GPs. Where do they come from? At the moment this policy of paying clinics to hire more is increasing demand for them. But you’ve acknowledged and are campaigning hard on the fact that there is a GP shortage in Australia. Where do they come from?
Albanese:
We will have more to say about GPs and increasing training, etc for GPs during the campaign. This is what the head of the College of GPs, Professor Karen Price said about our policy. ‘We have long been calling for support for after-hours access for acute care in general practice. This should take place in suitably resources GP-led clinics. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel’. That is precisely who we have listened to on this policy. The Royal College, I have met with them some months ago in my electorate office. We realise there are labour shortages. And we will say more about that. This follows announcements that we have made about GP after-hours, including here in Toronto that I made with Mr Repacholi and Pat Conroy a couple of months ago. So, we will continue to have more to say.
Updated
Anthony Albanese held another door stop to “clarify” his offshore detention comment:
Q: Can you clarify your position on if you want to remove offshore processing?
Albanese: Of course not. It was established in 2013 when I was the deputy prime minister. I was asked today about boat turnbacks. Our position is clear. We continue to support them. And the thing about the government is that they waited a long, long period of time before they had finally taken up the deal that was done between Julia Gillard and John Key a long time ago for New Zealand settlement from people from offshore. That should have been taken up a long time ago.
Q: So, what do you mean when you say turning back boats means you don’t need offshore detention?
Albanese: Well, that’s the preference. At the moment, there aren’t people who have gone into offshore detention in recent times because the boats have been turned back. It’s been effective.
Q: But you would keep offshore detention in?
Albanese: Yes.
Updated
Goodness. Barnaby Joyce has announced another press conference.
This time in Rockhampton (Capricornia) in a couple of hours.
Updated
This is after the government started asking questions about what would happen in the case of boats that could not be turned back for safety reasons – which is one of the justifications the government uses for keeping offshore detention centres open.
Anthony Albanese has clarified he WOULD keep offshore processing centres, after earlier saying if you turn back the boats you don't need offshore detention. #auspol @9NewsAUS
— Fiona Willan (@Fi_Willan) April 14, 2022
Updated
Feeling for our own Josh Taylor today, and all people over 6’2 who have to find new ways of smiling at the “gee you’re tall” daily comment.
I wonder how many times Dan Repacholi gets asked to do this… pic.twitter.com/lRZ5moDaeu
— Shuba Krishnan (@ShubaSKrishnan) April 14, 2022
Updated
For those looking for more on the labour force data, Peter Hannam will have a story for you soon, but you can read what the ABS has said here.
Updated
My colleague Daniel Hurst has reminded me of this pearler from Barnaby Joyce last month, when the deputy prime minister suggested building dams in Queensland would stop China’s expansion into the Pacific.
Why? Because jobs and economy.
There is a lot of talk about how great campaigners Scott Morrison and Joyce are. But look at what they are actually saying. Take away the hats and dig into the lines, and you’ll find arguments like this.
With Barnaby Joyce's daily talking point being we need to get as strong as possible as quickly as possible, I was reminded of this recent exchange as to how new dams in Queensland stop China’s expansion in the Pacific:
— Daniel Hurst (@danielhurstbne) April 14, 2022
"Well, I’ve just explained it to you, okay?" #AusVotes2022 pic.twitter.com/UAdikPdHjH
Updated
Shorter Scott Morrison press conference:
PM on ICAC. "I have honoured my proposal. The Labor Party don't support it. That is where the issue rests."
— Katharine Murphy (@murpharoo) April 14, 2022
Fact check: The proposal was never introduced. Labor doesn't support if because it's been universally panned. Doesn't explain why the legislation was never introduced.
Australia’s unemployment rate has landed for March, and it’s unchanged from the previous month at 4.0%.
The economy added 17,900 jobs but, interestingly, the number of hours worked fell by 10 million, so not all arrows were pointed upwards.
To the disappointment perhaps of a few, the March jobless rate has come in unchanged for the month at 4.0% according to the ABS: https://t.co/3UTaM08fnh pic.twitter.com/YiycThC8xY
— Peter Hannam (@p_hannam) April 14, 2022
The jobless rate, of course, was what Labor leader Anthony Albanese stumbled on at the start of the week.
As Bjorn Jarvis, head of labour statistics at the ABS, said:
“4.0% is the lowest the unemployment rate has been in the monthly survey. Lower rates were seen in the series before November 1974, when the survey was quarterly.”
“The unemployment rate for women fell from 3.8% to 3.7%, the lowest it has been since May 1974. It remained at 4.2% for men, its second lowest level since November 2008 and just above the rate from December 2021 of 4.1%,” Jarvis said.
More to come soon ...
Updated
For those who keep an eye on underemployment:
In seasonally adjusted terms, in March 2022:
- underemployment rate decreased by 0.2 pts to 6.3%.
- underemployment rate was 2.5 pts lower than March 2020.
- underutilisation rate decreased by 0.3 pts to 10.3%.
- underutilisation rate was 3.8 pts lower than March 2020.
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Unemployment rate stays at 4%
The latest ABS labour force is out:
Key statistics
Seasonally adjusted estimates for March 2022:
- unemployment rate remained at 4.0%.
- participation rate remained at 66.4%.
- employment increased to 13,389,900.
- employment to population ratio remained at 63.8%.
- underemployment rate decreased to 6.3%.
- monthly hours worked decreased by 10 million hours.
Peter Hannam will have more for you very soon.
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I wish I could bring you more of what Barnaby Joyce is saying, but Tveeder is really struggling to make sense of him and so am I.
Something about real plans and Joel Fitzgibbon having done a good job and how Penny Wong won’t be visiting and if 850,000 people each spent $1,000 in the Hunter, it would be great. Something about $1.6bn.
The ABC gives up on the live broadcast. It’s for the best.
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Barnaby Joyce press conference
The Nationals leader is in Williamtown (the Paterson electorate) where he is talking about the Newcastle airport.
And then he moves to this:
A lot of people have been thanked ... one person we have to thank, the Australian taxpayer. A very important person.
So thank you to that lone Australian taxpayer who was just thanked by the Nationals leader. Raise your hand.
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It’s a fair bet that after 11.30am AEST today, Anthony Albanese is going to be briefed on what the March jobless rate comes in at, if he’s not watching the ABS website too.
Of course, probably every politician and pundit in the country will be taking a peek.
As we previewed yesterday, “the market consensus” is expecting a 3.x% number for the unemployment, with 3.9% the likely figure.
But a jump or drop in the participation rate may nudge things either way.
For what it’s worth, the February jobless rate was 4.042%, so the ABS told us when we asked nicely, which made that reading the lowest since August 2008 (4.016%), while there was technically a “3” reading in February of that year, at 3.981% for stat nerds.
Anyway, a clean 3.9% will have the ABS dusting off quarterly readings from the mid-70s.
Mind you, the RBA will be watching closely too, given its board also has a meeting on 3 May to consider what to do with the cash rate.
Meanwhile, as RateCity.com has noted today, two more of the big four banks, Westpac and ANZ, have lifted their fixed rates again today.
For Westpac, it’s the second increase in a week, after increasing fixed rates on 7 April. (Not all of its rates have gone up though, with the one-year fixed rate cut.)
ANZ has lifted its one- to five-year fixed rates by as much as 0.60 percentage points.
Fair to say those moves fit in the “more to come” category.
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If you are overseas and want to vote, the AEC has a message for you:
If you’re not enrolled you can’t vote, and people only have a few days left until the enrolment deadline on Monday 18 April,” electoral commissioner, Tom Rogers, said.
Once enrolled, it is then critical that overseas voters check what voting services are available as it’s a little different for this federal election due to the pandemic.
Thanks Tom.
Fwiw – you can get postal votes direct from the AEC. You do not have to use one of the postal votes the political parties are sending out, which often is a data harvesting exercise dressed up as a public service.
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The view from Murph
He said he would not bring the legislation forward unless Labor supported it in its current form. Labor proposes a stronger model. Why? Because pretty much every integrity expert in the country has rubbished Morrison’s model.
Morrison is trying to decouple from his promise and blame Labor. This is complete nonsense.
Fact is the government hasn’t even introduced its own bill to parliament. One of the reasons for the delay has been concern that some Liberals might cross the floor to support amendments to strengthen it.
There is always a risk during campaigns that the news cycle whizzes right past important things. But this morning, Morrison faced a barrage of questions about his position on the integrity commission. The sustained questioning exposed the absolute nonsense of Morrison’s position.
The prime minister again blamed Labor for failing to introduce his own bill to the parliament. Then he blamed the Senate. Then he said it was in the national interest to have a model that experts have panned. Then he declared no one wanted kangaroo courts. Then he said his priorities were jobs, jobs and jobs.
The facts of this are simple: Morrison promised three years ago there would be a federal body and he has broken that promise. Now he won’t even guarantee to reboot efforts if he wins the election on 21 May.
Morrison was flanked at his campaign event this morning by Bridget Archer, the Liberal backbencher who grew tired of the government’s stalling on the issue. Archer crossed the floor to support bringing on parliamentary debate about the integrity commission last year.
Archer, who holds the most marginal Coalition-held seat in the country, navigated a potential media minefield this morning with considerable dexterity. She was asked for her view on the circus playing out before her. Archer was very careful not to smack her leader, but she noted nothing would happen with this important body until the politics was taken out of the debate.
I strongly suspect this was a message to her own side as well as other actors in the parliament. The message was how about we just do our bloody jobs? All power to Archer’s arm.
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Australia applies new sanctions on Russia
Australia has slapped another set of sanctions on Russia over the invasion of Ukraine, this time targeting the country’s oil and gas sector.
In regulations published yesterday, the foreign affairs minister, Marise Payne, added 13 companies to Australia’s sanctions list.
They include Russia’s biggest oil and gas company, Gazprom, which supplies much of western Europe with its gas via the Nord Stream pipeline.
Other companies on the new list include Russia’s biggest electricity producer, RusHydro, and the world’s largest oil pipeline company, Transneft.
Outside the oil and gas sector, Australia has also sanctioned Russia’s biggest telco, Rostelcom, shipping companies and ports and diamond miner Alrosa.
The sanctions are likely to have little impact on trade between Australia and Russia, which is limited – Russia is Australia’s 37th biggest export destination and the 57th biggest source of imports, with total trade in both directions totalling not much more than $1bn a year.
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The jobs data Anthony Albanese was talking about in his press conference – how the number of people working three jobs has increased by 50% since the Coalition came to office, comes from the ABS jobs in Australia data report.
The ABS takes data from the Linked Employer-Employee Dataset (Leed), which is built using Australian Tax Office (ATO) administrative data linked to ABS Business Longitudinal Analytical Data Environment (BLADE)
It shows what’s happened between 2014-15 and 2018-19. The latest data, for 2018-19, was released by the ABS in October last year. The “Jobs in Australia” dataset is the only source that gives the number of people who are working 3 or 4+ jobs concurrently.
Albanese’s 3+ jobs claim also matches what is observed in the recent ABS Multiple Jobs data set. Here are some findings worth noting:
- The number of people working 4+ jobs concurrently has more than doubled (120%) – men by 127% and women by 102%.
- Half a million people (458,000) working three jobs concurrently, up 53%.
- The industry with the most multiple job holders was healthcare and social assistance – which has grown by 26%, and with women in the sector overwhelmingly the biggest group with multiple jobs in one industry (143,400).
Almost one million Australians are working two jobs.
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It is also worth pointing out that anti-corruption campaigners have judged the government’s federal integrity commission to be all but useless:
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Here is the message Scott Morrison wants spread:
What Anthony Albanese will believe on something is an open proposition because he has stood for everything he’s opposed and he’s opposed everything he’s stood for. No wonder people don’t know who he is – this election is a choice between what you do know and what they have done and what our plans are and someone you just don’t know.
But one of the issues is that people do know who Scott Morrison is now.
As he ends the press conference he dons a baseball cap for a photo op and then quickly takes it off and leaves.
Updated
Labor does have an economic plan this time round, but Scott Morrison is really pushing the line that it doesn’t. He just says it over and over and over again, hoping that will be the message that comes through.
But it is an interesting pitch he has just made there – even though we haven’t met all the commitments we said we would, you can only trust us to meet the commitments we are making now.
Scott Morrison is again asked how people can trust him and his government, given the broken promises in his last term. (Car parks which haven’t been built, federal integrity commission are the examples given.)
Q: “Are you committing to an integrity commission?”
Morrison:
You asked me about priorities and I will talk about what my priorities are: Jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs and jobs.
Q: “Is that a no to the integrity commission?”
Morrison:
That is what my priorities are. I haven’t finished my answer.
I uttered five words and that was “Jobs”. That is our priority. National security is our priority. The world we are facing at the moment means my government will first and foremost be focused on ensuring that we sure our economic recovery with the economic plan that is creating the jobs and the forestry announcement today is important to that and secondly, ensuring that in an uncertain world that we have in place the strong national defences and national security.
On other matters that are important, such as the ones you raise in terms of integrity commission. Our proposal is there, it is clear, it is detailed. It has been well thought through and it is there to be supported. It is our policy. The Labor party’s policy on this issue is two pages. I would invite the Labor party, as Bridget has said, to come together in a bipartisan spirit and support our bill and that is our policy.
Q: “The car parks?”
Morrison:
On the commuter car parks. This is a program and many of those car parks are underway and some of them are not. Their partnership is done with state governments and they require us to work together on securing land and putting projects in place. As you know, the federal government does not have a department of building, that is done through state governments. They let the contracts, on occasions when we have been able to do it with local councils, we have done that directly and we have been able to get those in place.
There have been some projects, as we have gone through the planning phases, as you do, do them properly, that some of those projects have changed. You asked me in particular, is how people can have confidence about our ability to follow through on the plans ...
Q: “How can they trust that you will follow through with your election commitments this time around, given we don’t have the car parks?”
Morrison:
Only the Liberals and Nationals have an economic plan to back up the promises and commitments we are making at this election. You can say a lot of things in an election campaign, you can say all the things you like but if you don’t have an economic plan and if you don’t know how to manage money, and if you don’t even know what is going on in the economy – and I am not talking about the fact that he couldn’t remember a number, I am talking about the fact that he didn’t even know what the number was. I am talking about that he didn’t know what was going on in the economy in one of the most fundamental issues.
For those who may not be thinking what does that really matter? If you don’t know what is going on in the economy, then you can’t put together plans that grow jobs. He talks about job security, he talks about wages, if you don’t understand what is going on in the economy, if you don’t understand how important the resources industry is, the forestry industry is and all of those to regional economies, then you can’t look regional people in the eye and say that you have got their backs. The premier and I can say that here in Tasmania when it comes to the forestry industry, I have got the economic plan and the economic record and the economic wherewithal to deliver on what we are saying.
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Q: “Bridget Archer, do you agree that the New South Wales Icac is a kangaroo court?”
Archer:
What I have said, and I have said it a number of times now, is that there needs to be a bipartisan commitment to an integrity commission.
Q: “The prime minister just said that the NSW Icac is a kangaroo court ...”
Archer:
I am from Tasmania and I don’t have much exposure to the New South Wales Icac.
Q: “Do you agree with the prime minister that the NSW Icac is a kangaroo court?”
Archer:
I am from Tasmania and I am not that familiar with the New South Wales Icac. What I have said and what I will continue to say is that I would like to see the positive promotion of integrity in public life. There are a lot of ways to achieve that, one of those may be through integrity commission legislation but there are other ways to achieve that. I will continue to talk within the government ...
Updated
One of the main criticisms of the government’s federal integrity commission legislation is that it wouldn’t allow for the investigation of the issues we saw crop up over the last parliament. It wouldn’t allow for the investigation of federal MPs.
And just on Icac, it is not a kangaroo court. It does have private hearings. It does not find anyone guilty or innocent. It investigates, then hands what it finds during that investigation to the director of public prosecutions, which then decides whether or not to pursue charges. If it does, then that goes to a court, where the issue is judged as it would be in any other court case.
Scott Morrison says a federal Icac would be a 'circus'
Asked whether he would look at amending the national integrity commission legislation, Scott Morrison says:
What I am concerned about is the circus that Labor would want to put in place with an integrity commission.
I have lived with that in New South Wales. I have seen the lives destroyed by a commission such as that which becomes a kangaroo court and goes around and seems to operate through politics and shaming people and the proper process that should go to those important issues being properly considered.
I have seen the damage that that causes. I don’t want to see something of that nature. That is why we carefully designed and we have already taken steps by increasing our funding and increasing the powers to ACLEI [Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity]. Those who aren’t familiar with that organisation, that is the organisation that polices law enforcement in this country.
We have extended its mandate to many more arms of the government’s law enforcement operations and to ensure because, at a federal level as you know, we don’t deal with things like planning and development controls. We don’t deal with things like racing and gaming and liquor licensing and all of those sorts of issues.
At a federal level, there are major contracts and that is done at arm’s length and the decisions are made away from ministers and made by public servants ...
Our model has been well thought through and we have considered the sorts of protections that need to be around something like this to make it work effectively and not see it descend into the sort of farce that we have seen in New South Wales, where it is just weaponised politically to try and destroy people who have been cleared time and time again.
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Scott Morrison really relishes answering this question
Q: “The UK government has announced a five year refugee resettlement deal and endorsed boat turn backs. Albanese was just asked at his press conference about this and he said he would turn boats back which means there is no need for offshore detention. What is your reaction to this?”
Morrison:
Anthony Albanese has had every position on border protection. He has supported everything he has opposed and he has opposed everything that he has support. We have seen that across so many issues. I am not surprised that Australians are confused about what he stands for. Anthony Albanese said that he could not ask someone to do something that he couldn’t do and he was saying that meant boat turn backs. I designed the boat turn back policy. I implemented it.
I stood up to criticism day after day after day, I remember back at the 2013 election, people said this was an inhumane policy. It wouldn’t work. There is no way you could make it happen. I stood firm on that policy. Then I implemented it. It worked. We stopped the deaths at sea.
We closed 17 detention centres that Labor had to open. We got every single child out of detention that Labor had put into detention and let’s not forget, because I saw them with my own eyes, I went to Manus Island where Labor put children in offshore detention centres on Manus Island.
I met them there. I met their mothers and I saw their distress and I put in place a policy that ended all that and got them out. If people want to weigh up and understand these issues of border protection, they can believe someone who came up with it, stood up to the opposition on it, which included Anthony Albanese, implemented it, safely, stopped the boats, protected our borders, closed the detention centres and got the children out, or they can listen to Anthony Albanese, who has been a complete weather vane on this issue. Who is this guy?
That is what Australians are asking. He has had three years to tell them who he is.
People know me. Some people disagree with me, some people agree with me. Some people don’t like how I say some things and other people do. You know who I am. When it comes to border protection, the people smugglers know who I am.
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Scott Morrison is asked about the promise to plant 1bn trees by 2030, where only 1% of trees have been planted. He says he has more time.
We had the setbacks from the Black Summer fires which had a massive impact on the forestry industry and a big part of our response to the forestry industry, through the black summer fires, I know I was down in Eden when I announced that package of support to support the millers and the industry to get back up on its feet. I don’t think anyone in Australia would take casually the impact that the black summer fires has had on our forestry industry and we have moved to support them.
We will monitor that target. We intend to hit it and that is why in today’s announcement, we understand that the future of the forestry industry – because we believe in it, we really do believe in it and we always have.
Many of you will remember when John Howard came to Launceston many years ago, when the Labor party was trying to destroy the forestry industry then, it was the Liberals and Nationals who stood up for forestry industry. When the Greens and Labor here at a state level ripped 4,000 jobs out of the forestry industry, who stood up for the forestry industry? The Liberals stood up for the forestry industry in Tasmania.
Again, we are seeing that here. Whether it is here or in Eden or other parts of the country, in Victoria, where forestry is so important, what they know from today is we will invest in the research and the science and Rufus Black is here from University of Tasmania today and he understands the importance of getting the science and research right to inform the industry’s plans and particularly inform our plans to meet those commitments that we take very seriously. We didn’t set them because we thought they were easy.
We set them because we believe they were important and we have to keep working to that despite the setbacks that we have had and this is a big commitment to ensure that we can meet those targets.
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Q: “I have a question for Bridget Archer. The prime minister indicated he will only move forward with a national integrity commission if Labor supports the current proposal from the government without amendments. Is that good enough and do you agree with him that he has kept his promise?”
Archer:
I have spoken on this several times and made the view that all sides of politics agree that we should have some sort of national integrity body. The disagreement comes on that what should look like. The prime minister is quite right.
Nothing will move forward until the politics is taken out I have said that all the way along.
Q: “Has the prime minister done enough of that to make that happen?”
Archer:
Yes, he has.
Q: “You don’t support the government on a commonwealth national integrity commission?”
Archer:
I don’t want the Labor model. My view has always been all the way through on every occasion I have spoken about it that all sides of politics will need to come together to get this done in a bipartisan way, as the prime minister has said.
Q: “Why should the people of Bass support this prime minister when you haven’t supported key planks of his agenda? You sunk his religious discrimination proposals and you don’t support his model on the integrity commission and now you are asking the people of Bass to support him? Isn’t that a bit disingenuous?”
Archer:
Not at all. That is my job and it is part of why I am a member of the Liberal team. My job is to come out here and represent the people of Bass and to speak on behalf of the people of Bass. The prime minister has to balance that with the considerations for the entire country. I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t stand up and say what was important for the people of Bass and the prime minister has to take that and balance that with the needs of everyone else across the country and I am proud to be part of this team that can give me the ability to do that and to move forward as part of that team. If I sat on the Labor benches, I would be out the door.
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Bridget Archer is at this press conference, so things are about to get interesting.
Q: “Talking about a national integrity commission, you are asking Australians to trust you and you haven’t delivered on a promise about trust, about integrity. How can Australians trust you ...”
Morrison:
I have to disagree with you.
Q: “It is a broken promise, isn’t it?”
Morrison:
No, it is not.
Q: “You promised you would establish one in the last term and you haven’t, that is a broken promise.”
Morrison:
We put forward our proposal in detailed legislation and it has not been supported by the Labor party. I need bipartisan support to put that in place. I am not going to introduce a kangaroo court.
I am not going to introduce a policy that I don’t think is in the nation’s best interests and how it would be corrupted by a Labor party that’s more interested in playing politics with this issue than addressing the real issues. I put forward a detailed plan, a detailed proposal which the Labor party rejects. I have honoured my proposal. The Labor party don’t support it. That is where the issue rests.
(The reason Scott Morrison needed Labor support was because he didn’t have the numbers in his own party to pass the bill in the lower house.)
Updated
We get to the questions.
Q: “If you cannot deliver on what you promised, how can Australians trust what you say now?” (This includes the national integrity commission.)
Scott Morrison starts by mentioning what he says the government has done. Then he moves to his main message:
The thing is though, you are right, this is a choice. This is a choice. At the election. It is a choice between the government that you know, a government that has a strong economic plan, that has kept people in work. That is brought tens of thousands of businesses to the worst crisis we have seen, that has been tested each and every day in these very trying circumstances.
And in opposition that you don’t. The consequences of the choices are very real. Because the consequences of the choice is, if you’d use a Labor party that does not know how to manage money, that hasn’t gotten economic plan, that hasn’t been able to tell people who they are and what they are about, then you cannot have confidence about their ability to keep downward pressure on rising costs of living, to keep putting Australians into jobs as we have put people into jobs.
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When talking about his jobs plan in his opening spiel, Scott Morrison mentions “teachers and care workers”, along with the forestry, agricultural, fishing, and resources sectors.
That follows an analysis by Katina Curtis in the SMH today, pointing out that Morrison hasn’t been talking about industries which traditionally, have more women employed.
Updated
Scott Morrison press conference
The Liberal leader opens his press conference with the forestry announcement, and once again pops in a mention of fuel prices.
Under my government, under our government, we will not support any shutdowns of native forestry, and we will continue to work with the state government to create permanent timber production areas.
Updated
Victoria records 14 Covid deaths and 10,462 cases
Victoria has now reported its Covid numbers for the previous 24-hour period:
We thank everyone who got vaccinated and tested yesterday.
— VicGovDH (@VicGovDH) April 13, 2022
Our thoughts are with those in hospital and the families of people who lost their lives.
More data soon: https://t.co/OCCFTAtS1P pic.twitter.com/O9Gpg4rPXc
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Morrison accuses Labor of trying to frighten pensioners
The prime minister, Scott Morrison, has accused Labor of trying to frighten pensioners and replicating the “Mediscare” campaign of 2016. Morrison was speaking with the presenter of the radio program Tasmania Talks, Mike O’Loughlin, a short time ago. When asked about aged pensioners being put on the cashless debit card, Morrison said:
This is a disgraceful lie and deceitful lie from the Labor party ... My government will never, ever use the cashless debit card on pensions, we won’t. We just won’t. It’s been in a trial programs around the country in areas where we’ve been working directly with communities who have been supporting the card.
Morrison’s language gets increasingly direct: “Because he doesn’t have an economic plan, Anthony Albanese is working away in the darkness there, trying to frighten pensioners at night about the cashless debit card in the same way they did on Mediscare.”
Incidentally, the interview ended without a question about fuel prices. Morrison seemed to want to show that he was across the fuel price, so he slipped it in at the end.
Updated
Anthony Albanese calls an end to the press conference, with Meryl Swanson giving him a “well said” as he turns around.
He seems much more relaxed today.
Q: “Given so much of the federal campaigns are about the leaders and their personalities, a recent focus group published today in the AFR said neither you or Scott Morrison are very impressive but the least unimpressive is Scott Morrison and the criticism of you is that you are dull, disinterested ... How will you change peoples’ perceptions of you?”
Anthony Albanese:
I am who I am. I will be getting about being me, putting forward my proposition [for a better future]. What people are interested in is who has a plan for Australia’s future. I have a plan for the future, a plan for more secure work, a plan to strengthen Medicare, a plan for making more things here and it is a plan to take pressure off the cost of living.
Q: “Don’t the results of that survey show voters actually don’t know who you are, despite what you have been saying? Are you comfortable standing next to a candidate who has been forced to delete social media posts and profiles over controversial things he has said online in the past?”
Albanese:
I support Dan as the candidate for Hunter. The truth is, if everyone is held to account, who now is a young person on social media for what they might put on social media in their 20s, then I tell you what, in 10 years time, you will struggle to hold a press conference because there won’t be candidates. If you look at what young people do on social media, Daniel Repacholi – I have got to know him in recent times. He has represented his country with honour.
He has been a coal miner in this area. He has worked in industry, in small business before having to resign to run full-time. He was a manager of – I am not sure how many people, 78 people, to be precise ... He is the sort of person I want to see in politics.
Were all of his social media posts perfect? No, they weren’t. He regrets that. We need to actually have real people coming in. This bloke is as real as they come and I look forward to him being in the federal parliament.
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Asked when he’ll make his announcements on skilled migration, Anthony Albanese says:
I won’t do what this government does, which is to make announcements about when we are going to make announcements.
Q: “The labour force may well tighten again today. What are you going to do with the skilled migration cap, will Labor have to increase it in office?”
Anthony Albanese:
One of the things that we will do is – that’s why we’re creating jobs and skills Australia and yesterday I met with people including the head of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and one of the things we talked about is the skills crisis and also the head of the restaurant and caterers, other industries that need labour and in the short-term, you will need to import labour across a range of areas.
We have a skills crisis in this country. It means that some restaurants can’t open seven days a week or six days a week or whatever their normal pattern is. That is holding the economy back, it is holding back jobs. We need to do something about that. One of the things about jobs and skills Australia that we will do is look at using the Infrastructure Australia model, which is proven to be successful when it was actually listened to, is to have a board, including serious people from the private sector, that look at what are the jobs we need today but in a year and five, 10 years time and make sure that the training occurs for it.
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Q: “Today the Prime Minister is in Tasmania for a forestry announcement. The Coalition at the last election committed to planting a billion trees by 2030. They have only done about 1% in that time. What is Labor’s position on that issue of the supply chain in the timber industry and do you think that the government should come clean about how many trees they actually will be able to plant by 2030?”
Anthony Albanese absolutely relishes being able to answer this question:
This is another announcement from a government that’s all announcement and no delivery. He will be there for the photo op but he is never there for the follow-up, always. This prime minister promised a billion trees. How many have they got? 1%.
Morrison skated through an election campaign without being held to account. He skated through with photo ops, making promises, none of which – are just dismissed.
Whether it is this or whether it be yesterday when he walked away from a national anti-corruption commission. Before the last election, indeed in 2018, he said very clearly, when he became prime minister, there would be a national integrity commission.
Yet what he has done is not even introduce the legislation into the parliament and yesterday he made it clear that he wouldn’t have a national integrity commission during the next term with this rather bizarre statement that the reason was because Labor didn’t support his model.
The reason why this prime minister doesn’t want an anti-corruption commission is sitting on his front bench. They are the people – that is the delay for why there is no national integrity commission because a national integrity commission would look at the money that was paid for land at Badgerys Creek of $30m for land that was worth $3m.
It would look at the sports rorts saga. It would look at all of the rorts that have been looked at. It would look at how it is that Angus Taylor – they spent a fair bit of time on Angus, I have got to say and that is why there is not a national anti-corruption commission.
This prime minister just makes promises and walks away from them. Similarly, on religious discrimination, the prime minister withdrew legislation on wage theft, the prime minister had the numbers in both houses and withdrew it from their own legislation. This is a prime minister who can’t be trusted to deliver on his commitments next term because he has shown this term that he can’t be trusted.
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Q: “You said earlier this week that foreign nurses might be part of the mix for your aged care pledge. Claire O’Neill insists that wasn’t the case on Q+A recently. What is actually happening?”
Anthony Albanese:
Foreign nurses are part of – I hate to break it to you but I don’t know if you were listening to the accents before but ... I don’t think she is from Cessnock, I will give you that big tip. Foreign nurses – when I was in RPA last year, it was Irish nurses just about everyone was an Irish nurse. They are a part of our migration system.
Q: “[Inaudible] given to Australian nurses like the ones yesterday, the aged care policy would be filled with Aussie nurses?”
Albanese:
The nurses who were there yesterday are ecstatic about the policy. The nurses who were there yesterday are some of the same nurses who I was the first leader of any political party to address a national conference of the Nurses Federation. When they said that to me, I said ‘Are you sure?’ To Annie Butler, the national secretary.
The truth is that the nurses have historically not been engaged in backing a political party. What happened at that meeting was I heard first hand from aged care nurse after aged care nurse their issues being raised, including the fact that they wanted 24/7 care.
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Anthony Albanese promises to match Coalition's funding for Newcastle airport
Q: “Newcastle airport funding announcement this morning from the Coalition – will Labor match that?”
Anthony Albanese:
Yes, we certainly will. We have done a lot of work on Newcastle airport over the years. I have been a regular visitor here and there is someone here who I think, in terms of the big issue, as you would be aware at Newcastle airport – I might ask Meryl if she wants to say something as the local member – that PFAS was the biggest issue facing the community here. Meryl was an extraordinary advocate for her local community but we will certainly match that commitment.
Newcastle airport is really important and one of the things that I hope occurs and we envisaged in the aviation white paper I did way back in 2009, was how you could get more regional tourism directly here? I want to see more direct flights internationally to here in the Hunter because, as Dan said, there is a lot to offer here. Some of the best wineries in the world ...
Meryl Swanson then talks about her excitement at the expansion of the Newcastle airport and what that means, dropping in a few local jokes which go completely over my head (as they are meant to).
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Q: “Fred poked me in the back before and said ‘What is going to happen with the pension?’ He hasn’t had a decent raise in the pension in 10 years. What is your message to Fred and other pensioners who are doing it tough out there with cost of living. What will you do to help Fred?”
Anthony Albanese:
Fred, who I know from way back – I know Fred very well. Fred is someone who, like a lot of pensioners, will always have a good say and he is someone who has made a great contribution in his working life and he deserves respect and dignity in his older years.
I will make this point, when Labor was last in office we gave the biggest increase in pension’s history. I will always be sympathetic to pensioners. I grew up in a household where I survived as a child with a mum on invalid pension. I have said in every single budget, every single budget, governments should consider what they can do for people who are doing it tough.
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Albanese reaffirms Labor’s pledge to turn refugee boats back
Q: “The UK government has announced a five-year refugee resettlement deal with Rwanda and endorsed boat turnbacks. If people smugglers seek to take advantage of an incoming Labor government and send more boats, will you be tough on boat turn backs and will you consider an offshore resettlement deal?”
Anthony Albanese:
We will turn boats back. Turning boats back means that you don’t need offshore detention.
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Q: “The criticism you received from the government, the latest polls is people don’t know who you are or what you stand for. Why do you think that is given you have been in politics for over 20 years?”
Anthony Albanese:
I am concentrating on putting forward my plan for a better future for Australia. I am making sure that I am out there again with candidates, day after day, as I have been in this region. I think my fourth visit to the region just this year. I began on January 2 here announcing faster high speed rail here for the Hunter. I made announcements about GPs after hours. Today this is a practical plan as well.
I am very confident that Dan and Meryl and Pat will be re-elected and Sharon Clayton who is an apology due to a health issue that a few of the team have had recently in this region, will be returned or in Dan’s case will join the team and they will be a strong team for the Hunter which will be part of a strong Labor government, a strong Labor government that has a plan for a better future for Australia, strengthening Medicare, with more secure work, cheaper child care and with making more things here.
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Q: “The AMA says your urgent clinics will do little to relieve the hospital log jam and will fragment care and unfairly compete with nearby GPs. Is the AMA wrong and why weren’t they consulted?”
Anthony Albanese:
The college of GPs, which is what this is aimed at, have welcomed the policy, Professor Karen Price and so have the Grattan Institute.
Q: “The AMA says it is ill thought out and a piecemeal ... ”
Albanese:
It is just one of the policies that we will announce when it comes to GPs. I am very confident – I had a chat with the president of the AMA today. I met with him two weeks ago in my Parliament House office during Budget – I think it was on the day of my Budget reply. I made time to meet with the president of the AMA. My door is always open to him.
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Q: “The latest unemployment rate will be out later today and it might even have a ‘3’ in front of it. Your shadow treasurer said in 2020 the biggest test of this government’s management of the recession and its aftermath will be what happens to jobs. Do you concede the government has passed the test?”
Albanese:
I certainly hope it has a ‘3’ in front of it later today. I want to see the unemployment rate as low as possible.
Q: “Has it passed the test?”
Albanese:
I also look at the nature of how people are doing it. I want an economy that works for people not the other way around. The truth is that the figures have shown, for example we had a debate about casualisation over the last couple of days.
There are half a million people, half a million people working three jobs or more. Half a million, think about that. Three jobs or more. That is an increase of 50% since this government came to office.
The truth is that what we need is secure work that provides enough income so that people can feed themselves, pay their rent, get by, have enough money there so if there’s a family emergency, they don’t think about how they can possibly get by.
The truth is that sometimes these big figures that look at the macro level and remember the definition of employment can be people just working a couple of hours a week.
They don’t get included in the figure but that figure of half a million people working three or more jobs is quite an astonishing one and it continues to grow. We have a growth in insecure work. One of the things I have been talking with Dan [Hunter candidate] about, when we talked about him being a candidate here, he was concerned about more insecure work. Less permanency in the mining sector in this community.
That is something that is a major issue. Meryl [Swanston] has continued to raise this and Pat as well. That is why we have a policy of same job same pay that we will say more about. We want the unemployment rate to be as low as possible. What we also want to look at is what the real impact is on people and people are really doing it tough.
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Q: “I understand you have policies on social and affordable housing but what would a Labor Government do to address the rising rents so many Australia are facing and would you consider raising rent assistance?”
Anthony Albanese:
One of the things that our housing Australia Future Fund is aimed at is to address some of those issues. Part of the problem we have seen is that you have seen a reduction in commonwealth engagement and involvement in building new social housing.
When we were last in office we built something in the order of 20,000 additional social housing units but we renovated o refurbished some 80,000. There were a whole lot of homes that were sitting around that weren’t liveable or viable. We put money into that.
We changed also the social experience of people in that public housing. I think about a public housing estate such as the one in Lilleyfield that was transformed by being renovated away from the old blocks that are up there ...
Q: “What about the private market?”
Albanese:
One of the ways you take pressure off is by increasing supply of housing and taking off that pressure. I was talking yesterday with a bunch of people in the construction industry and yesterday after I saw you and we talked about ways in which we could work together. I had a meeting with some people from the property council last week as well. We will continue to engage. We will have more to say on housing, including private housing, including the private market during the campaign.
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Q: “The clinics will require more GPs. Where do they come from? At the moment this policy of paying clinics to hire more is increasing demand for them but you’ve acknowledged and are campaigning hard on the fact that is a GP shortage in Australia?”
Anthony Albanese:
We will have more to say about GPs and increasing training etc. For GPs during the campaign.
This is what the head of the college of GPs, Professor Karen Price said about our policy: ‘We have long been calling for support for after hours access for acute care in general practice. This should take place in suitably resources GP-led clinics. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel.’
That is precisely who we have listened to on this policy. The royal college, I have met with them some months ago in my electorate office. We realise there are labour shortages and we will say more about that.
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Q: “You have spoken a bit about your time working at Pancakes on the Rocks. Outside your time as a member of parliament, what is the hardest day of work you have ever had?”
Anthony Albanese:
There were days at Pancakes on the Rocks which were pretty tough. I worked the Saturday night 11pm-7am shift on a Sunday morning. At times, there were issues, not surprisingly at 3.00am or 4.00am in the morning in Pancakes on the Rocks and it was also one of the difficulties that it was a well paid job but to tell the truth, the pancake mix got into your skin and people knew that you had worked for two or three days afterwards that you had been there.
It was a tough job but probably the hardest job I had when I was at uni, in terms of a one-off, was a thing that was up on the board there, it was payments to clean one of the wharfs down where the theatre and the Sydney Theatre Company there is. They had been abandoned at that time.
We had to go in with high-powered hoses, they are really tall roofs. They hadn’t been used for a long time and we basically – I think back on it now, no occupational health and safety, we were hosing off pigeon poo probably decades old and it went all over us and it was a dreadful day.
We did get paid for it for three days work and it was a pretty tough.
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Q: “Does that mean the forecast Budget deficit for the coming year is about $80bn, does that mean that you would reduce the deficit more or the same or keep a slightly larger deficit than what is forecast in the budget?”
Anthony Albanese:
We will reduce the waste and we will have all of our expenditures and all of our revenues, it will all be out there. We have said we have got a measure coming on multinational taxes, so we will have that out there.
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Q: “You are going to spend $135m on the 50 GP clinics, if there is a problem with hospital waiting times, aren’t you better off addressing the hospital waiting times than spending money on other clinics that you then have to up-tool and find staff for?”
Anthony Albanese:
This addresses hospital waiting times. Part of the problem with our hospital system and emergency departments – talk to any of the people in the sector, is people in nursing homes who get transferred by ambulance to an emergency department of a hospital because they have a health issue and there is not a nurse on site, they can’t get the care. That is part of the very objective that we have and the same principle applies.
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Q: “When it comes to the rise we are seeing in global inflation, that is going crazy. We are seeing interest rates are tipped to increase multiple times this year. What is your fiscal plan to be able to put downward pressure on rates?”
Anthony Albanese:
What the Reserve Bank has done, and I support what Philip Lowe has done, they have adjusted the Nairu from 5 and they have adjusted that down to 4.25. They want to see a lift in real wages.
When they look at the Nairu which is about what impact inflation can be without putting upward pressure on prices and inflation, they have resisted pressure to increase interest rates up to this point. They have said - they have foreshadowed increases in the future from the 0.1 where they are. That is one of the reasons why we are being very fiscally responsible during this campaign. We are not promising everything that we would like to do because we are making sure that, in terms of fiscal policy, we are being responsible.
Q: “What is your fiscal plan to put downward pressure on rates – what is your actual plan?”
Albanese:
The Reserve Bank have said that interest rates will increase, regardless of who is in government, they have foreshadowed that. Our fiscal plan is to make sure we have responsible spending, to make sure that we don’t have the sort of waste that we have seen under this government as well. We have had – I note some comments about our expenditure on aged care, for example, talk to these nurses, some of whom work in aged care about whether it is needed. That is $2.5bn, that is less than half of the $5.5bn that the government spent on subs that didn’t lead to anything being built.
The Nairu – the Non-Accelerating Inflation Rate of Unemployment – is essentially what is considered to be “full employment” – the lowest unemployment rate which can be sustained without causing wages and growth.
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Anthony Albanese press conference
The Labor leader opens his press conference with an announcement for an urgent care clinic for Cessnock – which is a continuation of yesterday’s announcement.
The questions begin:
Q: “Under your climate policies, businesses will have to buy carbon credits to offset their emissions. Can you guarantee that people, workers in towns like Cessnock and other resources towns around Australia, that none of them will lose their jobs as a result of those policies?”
Albanese:
Not only can we guarantee it, our modelling guaranteed it. We will have the safeguard mechanism that was established by Tony Abbott as part of the 2015 plan and we will implement that. The good news is, if you actually speak to the companies like BHP, Rio Tinto, Santos and others in the resources sector, they have all adopted net zero by 2050. The safeguard mechanism makes sure there is a pathway to 2050. Our policy will see a creation of jobs, 604,000 new jobs created by 2030, five out of every six in regional Australia.
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Western Australia's Covid rules ease as national virus cases rise
We are still waiting on the rest of the nation to report their Covid stats.
Despite rising case numbers, Western Australia and Queensland are both relaxing public Covid health measures ahead of the Easter long weekend.
WA moved to the national definition of a close contact yesterday, AAP reports:
Household members and intimate partners of cases still need to quarantine but cases in classrooms will no longer force children into isolation.
A 500-person cap at hospitality venues has been removed and QR code check-ins are now only required at hospitals.
You will no longer need to check in at most Queensland venues – but check-ins remain in vulnerable settings (think hospital, aged care centres).
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NSW reports 21 Covid deaths and 17,856 cases
NSW Health has reported its figures for the previous 24-hour period:
COVID-19 update – Thursday 14 April 2022
— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) April 13, 2022
In the 24-hour reporting period to 4pm yesterday:
- 96.1% of people aged 16+ have had one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine
- 94.6% of people aged 16+ have had two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine pic.twitter.com/4UaErj3DF1
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Fare-free days begin for Sydney commuters
If you are in Sydney, you can have a little treat – free public transport (for 12 days).
As AAP reports:
Commuters can take advantage of 12 days of free public transport on Sydney’s Opal network during the Easter holiday period.
The free trips on trains, buses, ferries, light rail and metro services began at 4am on Thursday and will continue until 3.59am on 26 April.
The network extends across Greater Sydney to the Blue Mountains, Central Coast, Hunter and Illawarra regions.
Transport for NSW announced the fare-free period on Tuesday, saying the move was designed to boost businesses and get people out and about in the community during the Easter holidays.
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We are expecting to hear from Anthony Albanese very soon.
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Paul Karp continues his factcheck series.
If you haven’t checked it out as yet, you should. He is doing a wonderful job of cutting through the guffe. Today’s is on the government’s repeated claim that Labor would have spent an extra $81bn during the pandemic.
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Adam Bandt is on the ABC. The Greens leader is asked about his message on mining yesterday in his national press club address, and how it might be seen as being less aggressive than previous leaders, such as Bob Brown.
Look, my history before I came to this job, I actually represented coal-fired power station workers in their battles to preserve their wages and conditions. It’s something that has been close to my heart for a long period of time and my message is very clear – coal and gas workers are not the enemy.
In fact, we owe a debt of thanks to coal and gas workers for helping power our country and create the products that we all use, but we just know now that we can’t keep going with coal and gas.
The scientists have been crystal clear. The floods, the fires, the droughts that we’re all living through are fuelled by coal and gas.
So we need to get out of it and we need to do it quickly, but we need to do it in a way that supports people and communities who are currently dependent on coal and gas.
And so our message has been very clear – let’s get out of coal and gas, let’s stop opening new coal and gas mines, but let’s do it in a way that supports those workers, ensures they don’t lose pay and income, and also creates the jobs that will be secure high-paying jobs in areas where they need because we’re blessed in Australia with so many minerals that the world is going to need to create batteries, to create green steel, and the best job in many instances for a coal worker is another mining job.
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Barnaby Joyce is also campaigning in the Hunter today.
He is in Morisset this morning. The Nationals really, really, really want the seat Joel Fitzgibbon (who is retiring) barely held on to last election, so the good burghers of Hunter can expect to see a lot of Joyce this election.
The ABC is now reporting that people who are not travelling for hours are not being allowed to check-in to Sydney airport to try and make room for those with earlier flights.
The footage is absolute chaos.
(This is why it pays to have no friends, like me. You don’t have to deal with travel chaos. Win for the grumpy people among us!)
Melbourne airport seems more ordered. Except when it comes to the coffee lines. They look brutal.
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Meanwhile on the Nine Network, Peter Dutton was asked about a story in the Financial Review, which reports focus groups have found undecided voters are leaning towards voting for Scott Morrison, but only because they think he is the least worst option.
Here is what Dutton had to say about that ringing endorsement:
In politics just by definition because you are a member of a particular party some people would never consider you. I think that people look at the runs that the government has on the board.
The fact that we have been able to turn around the budget, 700,000 jobs saved during the course of Covid with jobkeeper and the fact that unemployment rate is at 4% and hopefully going lower soon, when it was predicted to be 15%. The figure that Anthony Albanese was stumbling for which was 5.4% which was the unemployment [rate] when he was in government.
You look what is ahead of us and the risk that people face in turn to Anthony Albanese to run this country in the next few years. We have had incredible challenges in the past few years. People don’t want to risk going to a significant unknown in Anthony Albanese come the next election
Jane Hume on the ABC also defended her leader as the “least worst option”:
That’s an easy target and I don’t think that the quiet Australians have yet spoken. Scott Morrison has been an amazing leader throughout the most difficult periods of time and I think when it comes down to election day, when you get into that ballot box, I think people will make the right decision.
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Michael McGowan has had a further look at some the previous social media posts of Scott Morrison’s handpicked candidate for Warringah, Katherine Deves.
On ABC News Breakfast, Jane Hume was asked about the candidate who Morrison had lauded for standing up for “common sense” earlier in the week when it came to her support for banning trans women from participating in women’s sport.
Hume tried to avoid it at first, by saying she would not comment on social media posts she had not seen. Pushed by Lisa Millar, Hume said Deves’ position was not the position of the government.
I think she’s – you know, a very capable candidate, but on this particular issue, I think her positions are wrong.
Millar: “She said last year she was triggered by the rainbow flag. Well, what do you say to that?”
Hume:
I think that’s an exaggeration at best, and probably inappropriate language at worst.
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Anthony Albanese is kicking the morning off in Cessnock in New South Wales, with Hunter candidate Dan Repacholi talking healthcare – Labor is hoping to retain the seat Joel Fitzgibbon is retiring from, which the Liberal party is also heavily targeting.
Scott Morrison is in northern Tasmania where he will promise a $220m forestry package, to take advantage of the timber shortage across the world and promising 73,000 forestry jobs.
It should be pointed out that the jobs Morrison has promised so far have been in traditional male dominated industries or used those industries as a backdrop.
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Good morning
It is day four (of full campaigning) and the last day before the campaigns put the tools down for Good Friday.
But the biggest story is airport chaos on the eve of the Easter long weekend. Queues are out the door at Sydney airport, as staff shortages impact on just how fast the airport can process travellers through the gates.
The Transport Workers Union says the government dropped the ball by not helping firms get enough staff in time, pointing out that not everyone received jobkeeper, while companies like Qantas received more than a billion dollars in assistance and still sacked staff.
TWU National Secretary on @SkyNews explains how workers have already proposed a long-term solution to rebuild aviation. #ausvotes
— TWU Australia (@TWUAus) April 13, 2022
Sign the petition 👉 https://t.co/GlFArK0lWu https://t.co/ZztaLAm8he
Liberal senator Jane Hume who has been sent out this morning to spread the government’s messages, said that’s not fair:
Well, I heard the criticisms of the TWU boss and, you know, quite frankly [her] suggestion that the federal government should have stepped up with jobkeeper for companies that were, in fact, owned by other countries, you know, sovereign entities which is entirely inappropriate.
The federal government supported Qantas, we supported Virgin, we supported Jetstar, we supported the industry with a $5.3bn rescue package and, in fact, this was the biggest rescue package for any industry in response to Covid-19. So while we know that there are delays now and often those delays are, in fact, caused by absences because of, you know, the continuing Covid restrictions and the isolation rules, we’re hoping that the industry will be able to sort itself out and find an equilibrium.
Probably not a lot of solace for travellers right now, but here we are. If you are travelling, the advice is to get to the airport as early as you can to allow enough time to move through check-in and security. And remember the staff who are there are doing the best job they can.
The campaigns don’t have to worry about airport chaos, having their own planes.
The Liberal campaign is in Tasmania, where Labor was earlier in the week, to talk forestry plans, while the Labor campaign is in Sydney, where the Liberal campaign was earlier in the week, to talk healthcare.
We’ll keep you updated with the blow-by-blow, with Katharine Murphy, Paul Karp, Daniel Hurst, Sarah Martin and Josh Butler taking a look at the campaign in depth.
You have me, Amy Remeikis, on the blog for most of the day.
Breakfast has been a piece of Toblerone and three coffees, so it’s all going well.
Ready? Let’s get into it.
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