What we learned today, 20 April
Kapow! Biff! Bam!
Maybe not. The first leaders’ debate is over. There was no knockout blow:
- It ended with the Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, winning 40% of the undecided voters’ votes, Scott Morrison getting 35%, and the rest remaining undecided.
- The furore over the signing of a Solomon Islands and China security agreement was a hot topic, as were cost of living questions. Listen to today’s Campaign catchup to get across the issue.
- Morrison will cop heat for saying he and his wife Jenny were “blessed” with their children (who don’t have disabilities), while a terse exchange over boat turnbacks will also be dissected.
- Aside from the debate, in late-breaking news, Julian Assange’s extradition to the US has been approved.
- The treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, had to pull some election ads after claiming endorsement from Guide Dogs Victoria.
- So far, 2022 has already seen more than twice as many deaths as the previous two years.
- And today we are all a hot air balloon, crashing to earth in Melbourne.
Amy Remeikis will be back with you in the morning to continue dissecting the debate along with Katharine Murphy and the rest of the politics team. So long. Farewell!
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Albanese wins 40% of audience vote at leaders' debate over Morrison's 35%
And a result! From the 100 undecided voters in the audience: 35% for Scott Morrison, 40% for Anthony Albanese, and 25% remain undecided.
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Penny Wong was up next. Asked why Labor has blamed a security deal between two sovereign nations on Scott Morrison and the Coalition, Wong responded:
It is true that the Solomon Islands is a sovereign nation. But that doesn’t absolve Morrison of his responsibility as Australia’s leader. And the fact is, this is the worst foreign policy blunder that we’ve seen in the Pacific since World War II. And despite Mr Morrison’s tough talk, on his watch our region has become less secure, and the risks Australia faces have become greater.
Asked what Labor would have done differently, Wong said the opposition wouldn’t have reduced development assistance to the region, nor would she have mocked Pacific leaders “by joking about water lapping at their doors, as Mr Dutton did with Mr Morrison standing next to him”:
We would have been credible on climate. And we would not have mismanaged the Pacific Labour Scheme. All of this adds up to a failure of diplomacy, a failure of strategy, and a failure of leadership ... what you should expect from us if we are elected is more resources and more energy and more focus on securing our region.
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While Albanese and Morrison were battling it out in the marketplace of ideas, the foreign minister, Marise Payne, and shadow minister, Penny Wong, were up on 7.30 as fallout over Solomon Islands’ deal with China continues.
Payne deflected any plan to jump on a plane and head to Solomon Islands right away as her predecessor Julie Bishop advocated for today, dismissing claims the deal demonstrates a failure of Australian leadership in the region:
We have carefully calibrated our approach on these issue and in fact across the Pacific. It’s not just about engaging with the Solomon Islands. There are many of our counterparts with whom we have been discussing these issues.
And it is Australia, frankly, that has been at the forefront of these discussions about the geostrategic realities that we face in the Pacific ... over a number of years now.
Payne continued, citing concerns over the deal’s lack of transparency:
I do think that it is important to note respectfully that countries will always make their own sovereign decisions. We have been respectfully very clear about our concerns of the challenges that this agreement poses.
We’ve been very clear about our concerns on the lack of transparency that’s attached to this agreement – unlike the bilateral security treaty between Australia and the Solomon Islands, which was openly published on the Australian Treaties website, there for all to see. This is not equally open and transparent. We think that that’s important.
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Shortly we’ll have the result from those voters in the audience, so stay tuned.
And that was the first leaders’ debate of the 2022 election. Let the analysis, the pulling apart, the factchecking, the bouquets and the brickbats begin!
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Albanese says as PM he would 'accept responsibility every day'
And the final word from Albanese:
I think the problem for this government is that they have been in office for almost a decade. They are shooting for a second decade in office and they haven’t shown any plan ... about how you actually grow wages. How you have an economy that works for people, not the other way around.
I want an economy that sees wages being lifted. I want people to enjoy a higher standard of living. I want us to aspire and to be as optimistic as as we should be as a country.
I have two simple philosophies. One is that no one is left behind. That is, the Labor party will always look after the disadvantaged. That’s why we do things.
We’re the party of opportunity. We’re the party that understands that if we’re going to advance as an economy, then we need to have stronger education. And we see the economy is growing. The opportunity there is there to use clean energy, to drive high value manufacturing, to drive growth through the economy.
If I’m prime minister, I’ll accept responsibility each and every day. I’ll work hard, and I’ll accept responsibility, and not always seek to blame someone else.
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Morrison focuses on economic credentials in closing statement
Both say again they won’t form a government with the independents. Morrison says “of course” Labor will with the Greens, which Albanese calls “nonsense”.
And here’s Morrison’s closing statement:
This election is a choice, and these processes are important to help people make their choice. But fundamentally, I really believe this election is all about the economy that you, and your family, and your communities will live in for the next 10 years.
It will determine your economic opportunities, your job, your wages, all of these things, and services – can Australia can afford to deliver the essential services that you rely on?
It all starts with managing a strong economy. Our government has proven that with a strong economic plan that has been delivering unemployment falling to 4% ,a triple A credit rating, the biggest budget turnaround seen in 70 years, the future – we’re heading in the right direction.
Now is not the time to turn back. So I thank you for your questions and I look forward to the opportunities Australia has, as we seize them, with the economic plan that we know is working, and will continue to work for you and your family, and the essential services you rely on.
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Morrison’s blaming social media. He says it’s “terribly sad” what happens online, and that the big tech companies have to take responsibility:
The way people engage on social media, I think, is incredibly dangerous.
It has its great advantages. Families stay connected in ways that we never could before. But at the same time what has happened with social media in our political debate over the last 10 years, it makes me terribly sad.
And I think young people have been most affected by that – there are things that people would never say to each other, but they will write it in a comment and hurtful and it’s destructive.
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“Lucy” has snuck in another question about diminishing support for democracy, about disillusionment and about stories about bullying and so on in parliament.
Albanese says a figure Lucy mentioned of only 55% of 18 year olds being enrolled to vote was of real concern. He says:
We have such a proud history in this country, in terms of women’s participation in the political system ... We need to do much better. We need to engage with young people, we need to engage on issues that involve them, because they are our future.
And I know that young people are particularly concerned about issues like climate change, making sure that the world ... is one that’s at least as pristine as the one that’s there at the moment. So I think it’s a matter of us reaching out, engaging, working out new ways of participation, as well, in the political process.
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Albanese continues:
We need to look for areas of agreement, areas of consensus, areas in which the country can be united going forward instead of the constant argy bargy which does seem to dominate a lot of our politics and I think you’re right, it’s putting people off.
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Albanese goes first to a national integrity commission, and the need to look for areas of agreement and ways to unite the country:
We will do different things but I think it’s also important to restore faith in politics ... and I want to unite the country. I want to not be a prime minister who’s always looking for the wedge always looking for the division. Because if we’re going to move forward as a country, we need to work out our common interests.
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Last question before closing statements is about how the leaders plan to restore trust in the democratic process.
Morrison says it’s all about the economy:
Our economic plan is about helping Australians realise their big aspirations in life, have their kids, to raise them, to give them a good education, to buy a home, to save for their retirement, to run a business and to have choices.
Our economic plan is delivering that. Our economy now is one of the strongest in the world, of the advanced world, and that’s giving Australians opportunities every single day. And what I’ve learned from my years in politics, is that unless you can run a strong economy and manage money, maintain the triple A credit rating, change the economy moving forward, then your aspirations for so many of these other issues can’t be achieved.
And that’s why this election is very much about who can run the economy and who can manage money. And following through on those plans, doing what we said we would do, ensuring we said we would get more Australians in their own homes.
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Opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman, Penny Wong, earlier called senator Zed Seselja a “woodchuck” when he was sent to Solomon Islands. Albanese calls him a “juniorburger”, and says:
This government have been complacent here. They cut aid to the Solomons. We should have been on top of this issue. We all agree. We all agree that China has been aggressive. The question is, how do you respond to it?
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Dialling back to Morrison’s response on recent flooding events, and the prime minister reminds viewers he was actually in Brisbane during the floods:
$400 million in Queensland has already been directly paid out through the disaster recovery allowance ... the same payments made during the bushfires.
I was here [in Brisbane] when it was occurring on that Sunday night ... we saw more defence force people turn out here in Brisbane quicker than they did during the floods of 2011. I was out ... that’s just a fact, that’s just true, the defence forces have done an amazing job.
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Albanese says it’s “not so much a Pacific step up – it’s a Pacific stuff up”:
The truth is that we all know that China has changed. China has changed. It’s more aggressive. It’s more active in the region, and we need to understand that and respond to it.
They’re not really stepping up. This isn’t so much a Pacific step up – it’s a Pacific stuff up.
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And now he’s accused Labor of taking China’s side on this. (Wow.)
“That’s an outrageous slur,” Albanese says.
Albanese says the disaster ready fund, if Labor is elected, will provide $200 million every year on disaster preparedness to better respond to the threat of climate change:
What we’ve said is we’ll have a disaster ready fund. $200 million every year will be spent on making sure preparedness is done for cyclones, for floods, for bushfires, for extreme weather events that we know from the science – climate change tells us that it’s here.
The government has acted, in our very strong view, too little, too late to provide that investment in the first place, and then the support. The government should have exercised its power to declare a national emergency, not just in New South Wales but in Queensland when the event happened – not wait until it was too late.
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China-Solomon Islands pact not a policy failure: PM
Now on the security agreement between Solomon Islands and China. How is that not a foreign policy failure, Gilbert asks Morrison.
Morrison says it’s not a policy failure, it’s because “China is seeking to interfere in the Pacific”. He says Australia has done its bit:
This is a very serious issue and one that we’ve been conscious of for a very long time. That’s why we’ve increased our Pacific step up funding to $1.8bn a year to be supporting our Pacific family.
He says he’s been called “racist” for calling out China.
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Albanese criticises the Coalition’s delay in declaring an emergency during the floods, and says Labor will have a disaster ready fund.
Morrison lists the money the government has spent on flood mitigation, and has a bit of a crack at the states on bushfires:
One of the things we want to see is greater transparency on the management of fuel loads, not just in the national parks, but in the forestry estates and the other areas where fuel loads build up. And when those fuel loads burn up, we know what happens. But we don’t have any transparency at the moment from the states about how those fuel loads are being managed.
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Now on the flood response. Albanese says:
We have been critical of the Emergency Response Fund. That was created with our support – but it was created with the idea that $200 million would be spent every year, some of it on recovery, some of it on mitigation, on planning, [on bushfire and flood preparedness]. And yet it just stayed there. It stayed there as if it was a term deposit and it’s grown now to $4.8bn.
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Morrison is defending lifting some of the emergency measures, saying they “no longer apply”.
The same questioner outlines other ways he got left behind by the pandemic. Albanese says Labor supports the small business tax cut and changes to the asset write-off, and that low wages are one of the things a Labor government would tackle:
We think that in terms of taking pressure off your small business, what we need to do is to have a plan as well to lift wages throughout the economy.
One of the things that’s happening is that if people haven’t got enough money to spend, if they’re struggling to get by, they can’t afford to go to the local cafe, they cut back. And that’s one of the things that we’re seeing that’s holding back our economy.
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Moving back to the NDIS for a minute, Albanese’s justification for prioritising NDIS funding was down to participation:
If you allow everyone to participate in society you’ll get better outcomes - obviously better social outcomes, but also better economic outcomes.
Morrison replied with a rebuttal on money:
It’s always the Liberals and Nationals who have to work out how to pay for these things ... this election is really about the economy ... one of the most important things I can do to ensure the NDIS is fully funded is we continue to run a strong economy.
Albanese jumped in:
It isn’t just the NDIS. The PBS was another Labor initiative. Labor does the big things and we also do the big reforms. What the prime minister has attempted to do there is we have an issue for paying for things ... we just went through three consecutive decades of economic growth because of the Hawke/Keating government.
Albanese said while Labor implemented the NDIS and paid parental leave, the Rudd government also emerged from the global financial crisis relatively unscathed:
You can’t be scared of the future, you have to shape the future, otherwise the future will shape you.
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A small business owner is up now, saying he and those like him were left out in the cold. What are the plans for small businesses?
Morrison says:
We’ve cut taxes for small business by 25%. Second of all, we’ve provided the instant asset write-off and what that means is ... if you go and spend on a new piece of ... equipment, a coffee machine, a fridge or a new machine in your tool kit, then you can write that off 100%.
And so we’ve lowered taxes for small businesses because it is tough. One of the key things that small businesses have to deal with is their cashflow. And in this budget, we provided 100% tax deduction for those who were training [people], but also on the investments you have to make.
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Jumping from the debate for a moment, the foreign minister, Marise Payne, is up now on 7.30 following Solomon Islands’ deal with China.
Leigh Sales asks if Payne has any plans to head to Solomon Islands in the wake of the deal. She deflects:
Leigh, as you know, the minister for the pacific and international development ... was there in the last week. Of course, I’ve been in contact with my counterpart, the foreign minister ... the prime minister’s been in contact with prime minister Sogavare. There’s been extensive engagement across the government ...
We understand, though, that this is a very serious decision that Solomon Islands has made. We are, as we said today, deeply disappointed they have chosen to go down this path. Ultimately, it is a sovereign decision for the Solomon Islands.
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Morrison goes on to say jobkeeper saved many lives and hundreds of thousands of lives. He says:
It saved 700,000 jobs, and I believe many many lives because Australians were thinking – they were going to work that day on the day we announced it, and [they were thinking] it would be their last day in work ... and that the Australian economy would be ruined.
Albanese says whoever was in government would have had to put stimulus measures in place, and that it’s the “waste” he is protesting against. He says:
We have no problem with the economic stimulus in terms of the need for one. What we have a problem with is the waste. There was too much waste there. And this has been a wasteful government.
He also points out that the Coalition has doubled the debt levels from before the pandemic.
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Gilbert is now asking about debt and deficit, and asks Morrison if he’ll turn his focus to budget repair if he wins.
Morrison says the budget has turned around by more than $100bn in the past year:
That is the single biggest turnaround in a budget in 70 years.
And the reason for that is we’ve got people into work, off welfare and into work.
That is the major way you turn a budget around, as well as making sure you control your expenditure that has risen because it had to, because we all know when we went into the pandemic, we were facing the biggest crisis we had seen since the Great Depression.
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Albanese responds to that last comment from Morrison. He says Labor “does the big reforms” while “this government has held us back”.
“You have to shape the future or the future will shape you,” he says.
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NDIS a ‘proud Labor reform that we will fix’: Albanese
Albanese says Ethan’s (Catherine’s son’s) story isn’t an isolated one.
The NDIS is a “proud Labor reform that we will fix”, he says, giving the example of someone who was told to reuse a colostomy bag. He says:
If we’re sensible about this, and get it right, one of the things about the NDIS is that it is certainly isn’t welfare. All of the analysis shows, if you allow everyone to participate in society, you will get better outcomes, obviously better social outcomes, but you’ll also get better economic outcomes as well.
Morrison brings it back to the economy and says Labor may bring in such schemes, but it’s up to Liberal governments to work out how to pay for them:
It’s always the Liberals who have to work out how to pay for these things. And that’s what we’ve done over the last eight years. Now I make this point very importantly, because I said at the start that this election is really about the economy.
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Morrison continues, praising the NDIS:
The thing I love about the NDIS is it’s not welfare – what it’s designed to do is help people with disabilities live their best possible life, like my brother-in-law Gary, who has multiple sclerosis.
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A question now about the NDIS, and stories about people having their funds cut. What does the future of the NDIS look like? Morrison says he and Jenny have been “blessed” because their kids don’t have disabilities.
And he pays tribute to former prime minister Julia Gillard for creating the NDIS. He says:
We are fully funding the National Disability Insurance Scheme. It’s a difficult scheme to manage, because every single person who has a disability is different. There’s no cookie cutter approach to the NDIS.
He adds:
It can be a very difficult system ... It’s expensive, it’s more expensive than Medicare.
The questioner, Catherine, asks again about those funding cuts. Morrison says he’ll look into the case she’s talking about.
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Morrison says “they are being made here”:
We’re investing $22 billion between now and 2030 on ensuring that we’re developing the clean energy technology, which includes batteries that will enable us to transition our economy – and not just ours, by the way, but the economies in our region as well, to ensure that they can get access to this technology.
Now, Anthony is right about critical minerals and rare earths. These rare earths and critical metals, particularly coming out of Western Australia, they are a major opportunity for Australia.
He adds:
I think Australia can be an energy powerhouse.
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A bit of back and forth now between Albanese and Morrison on boat turn backs. Morrison says Labor hasn’t been consistent in its policy of turning back the boats.
Albanese:
Why is it, Scott, you’re always looking for a division, not looking for an agreement?
Morrison:
I’m just looking for the accuracy and the truth.
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And now a question on electric vehicles.
Albanese says “we need to make more things here”, including batteries. “This is a potential major industry here in Australia,” he says:
We need to do more to create those high value jobs. I support exporting our resources, but where possible, we should be value adding here rather than seeing the value add somewhere else, and the jobs created somewhere else, and that’s what we’ll do.
And he gets a crack in about Morrison predicting EVs would “end the weekend”.
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Albanese and Morrison clash on boat turnbacks
And now straight into border protection. Morrison says (I’m paraphrasing) that he stopped the boats. He says:
It’s not easy. And you have to believe in it. You have to understand it. You have to understand how to do it safely.
You have to understand how it works with all the other areas of your border protection policy, which has temporary protection visas and offshore processing. Other countries around the world have said Australia got that right.
And some fire from Albanese when Morrison says he didn’t support boat turnbacks.
“The truth is we support boat turnbacks, and we’ll do it,” Albanese says when Morrison asks if he did back in the day.
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Debate continues on the cashless debit card.
Albanese says the Labor government would scrap it if they were to be elected:
The cashless debit card not only tells you what you can buy – it’s who you can buy it from, and that’s why we’ll get rid of it.
Morrison responds, saying the card assists people in “vulnerable communities” to “get up on their feet”:
The Labor party wants to get rid of the cashless debit card where ... what it works like is just like a debit card.
It’s an electronic card that means people in vulnerable situations are able to manage their income better, which means they can get food on the table for their kids ... and [it is] giving vulnerable Australians the support they need to get up on their feet.
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And now we’re on to the cashless debit card. Albanese repeats the pledge that Labor will get rid of it.
Morrison jumps in to say the Coalition will not apply the card to pensioners (this has been a matter of quite some debate and skulduggery).
He says:
The commonwealth government – my government, our government – is not putting the cashless debit card on pensioners. It’s not happening, not happening.
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Albanese goes on to say:
The government’s model would have ministers determine whether they can be investigated or not. It needs to be independent, at arm’s length. It needs to have the capacity to have public hearings if it deems that that is in the public interest. And it does need to have some teeth.
Albanese is responding on the question of a federal integrity commission, and says “there’s a stench” with sports rorts, carpark rorts, abuse of taxpayers’ money – so we need an anti-corruption commission with teeth. He says:
It’s an issue where we need to restore faith in the political system. Now I think overwhelmingly, people go into politics for all the right reasons, whether they be Labor, Liberal or minor party people. But the truth is, there’s a stench around a whole range of issues in Canberra.
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On aged care, Albanese says while the Coalition did implement some of the royal commission’s recommendations, there was “nothing there” for addressing workforce shortages.
The missing pieces were all about workforce, there was nothing there but one off payments to aged care workers. One payment was supposed to happen in March, another in May, but it all ends as soon as people cast their votes.
The royal commission found unless we do something about increasing wages we won’t have a workforce ... that’s why we need ... a plan for workforce, that’s the missing piece, it just isn’t there.
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The next question is about the “toothless tiger” that is the Coalition’s federal integrity commission plan.
Morrison says that a federal commission would not be a “kangaroo court” and would have a different scope to state versions. He says:
You’re dealing with things like immigration decisions and tax office and things of that nature, so a different set of issues [to the states]. You’re dealing with our proposal for a commonwealth integrity commission, which has 357 pages in legislation, and a budget of $60 million, which is in the budget.
We’ve already spent $50m applying that to the Australian commission for law enforcement integrity, which they police, the Home Affairs Department, the federal police, these sorts of organisations that already exist to ensure that integrity is upheld in those important institutions.
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Morrison says Labor’s plans to have 24/7 nurses in rural and remote facilities will close those facilities down.
We are training more nurses and we need to train more nurses. But aged care is complex and difficult. There are no simple solutions. You can’t all of a sudden say that there’s going to be all of these nurses to go in there, because if you make it a standard thing, you have to hold to that standard.
And if you applied that today, you’d be shutting down aged care facilities right across the country.
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Morrison is paying tribute to aged care workers, and says he created the royal commission into aged care to ensure that all Australians can “age with dignity”.
He says there are complex and difficult problems:
We can’t just make nurses all of a sudden fall out of the sky and be able to go and meet a 24/7 commitment to have a nurse in every single aged care [facility].
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Albanese also talks about getting the Maggie Beer Foundation in to help with aged care nutrition, and says:
They’re literally starving. and we had cases like food being scraped up off plates, put in a blender and served the next day.
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And now a question on nurses, which both sides have been asked about.
Albanese is up first, talking about “putting the nurses back into nursing homes”. There’ll be additional university places, he says:
We need to train up more nurses for the jobs that will become available, because we will need more – we’ve got an ageing of the population, so we will need more care workers across the board.
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Morrison does go to foreign ownership, saying:
Not only have we toughened the laws on foreign ownership in this country for residential real estate, but more importantly, increased the resources for the Australian Taxation Office to make sure they’ve been complied with.
Albanese is focusing on affordable and social housing. He says:
It’s a common story you hear all around Australia, people are worried about whether their kids will ever get into that great Australian dream that I was raised with of owning your own home. That was something that we took for granted.
Perhaps I grew up in public housing, where my mom lived in the same one house for all of her 65 years, but she drummed into me: when you get the opportunity, save for a deposit, buy your own home. But I know that it’s just so tough now.
He talks about rental costs as well, which Morrison didn’t really touch on.
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The first question – no big surprise – is on house prices, and on foreign ownership.
Morrison says he gets it – it was tough 30 years ago when he and Jenny bought, and “it’s tougher now”. He says the Coalition is helping people into their own homes with a lower deposit thanks to their deposit guarantees, and other programs:
The home guarantee scheme, the home builder program ... gave people grants to support to build their own home, and there was also the national housing finance and investment corporation that was loaning to community housing organisations so they could build more affordable dwelling units.
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Albanese:
Scott and I agree that Australia’s the greatest country on Earth, but I believe we can have a better future if we have a better government.
You all know that the cost of everything is going up but your wages aren’t. That’s why we need to lift wages. We need to plan for cheaper childcare, cheaper electricity, we need to plan for housing affordability. We need to make sure we have a strong economy with secure work. And we need to make more things here using cheap, clean energy to drive manufacturing again.
The government hasn’t learned from its mistakes, he says, and we can do better – with a federal integrity commission.
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Morrison thanks everyone for joining “after everything we’ve been through as a country over these last few years”.
He says:
I am incredibly optimistic about Australia’s future. Australians are incredibly resilient ... and now we’re in a very strong position despite the many challenges we continue to face, our economy today is one of the strongest in the advanced world. Two years ago, we were told unemployment would go to 15%, but today it’s at 4%.
[This election] is a choice between a stronger economy and a weaker economy. A stronger future and an uncertain one.
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The prime minister, Scott Morrison, and Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, shake hands and grin for the audience and camera, and the PM is off with his opening statement.
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And now we’re over to host Kieran Gilbert. He’s welcoming that audience of 100 undecided voters to the Gabba.
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Leaders' debate begins
There’s applause from the audience at the people’s forum, and laughter, but unfortunately the Sky News talking heads mean I can’t actually see what’s happened ... anyway, we’re about to start!
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Our politics team has pretty solidly covered the important stuff about tonight’s debate, but here’s another succinct guide from the ABC. And of course, we’ll be covering the highlights (and lowlights) tonight and tomorrow (and if they’re particularly high or low, they may continue to ripple through the election campaign).
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For the record, the ABC has invited both leaders to take part in a debate, as it does every election. Discussions between the parties are ongoing. #AusVotes2022
— Nick Leys (@leysie) April 20, 2022
As we barrel towards the leaders’ debate (or the people’s forum, as Sky News styles it), it’s worth taking another look at the latest Essential poll.
Seven per cent of voters are undecided. That is more than enough to swing an election (insert all disclaimers here about the lumpiness of the vote spread, the unknowables about preference cascades, and the margins of error).
Sky promises the 100-strong audience for tonight’s debate is all undecided voters, which should up the spice content.
Katharine Murphy has all the latest poll numbers here:
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Duelling protests outside the Gabba, where Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese will soon face off in the first head-to-head showdown of the federal election campaign @canberratimes pic.twitter.com/pqINrQBWJ7
— Dan Jervis-Bardy (@D_JervisBardy) April 20, 2022
Josh Butler has herded a lot of cats today to bring you this campaign briefing:
And Anthony Albanese dons the hi-vis:
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A couple of pics from Scott Morrison’s swift visit to Adelaide this morning from AAP:
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NSW treasurer Matt Kean is on Sky News trying to discuss nuanced issues about transgender people with Chris Kenny. Yikes.
Kean called for Liberal Warringah candidate Katherine Deves to be disendorsed and Kenny ... doesn’t agree.
(PS: apologies, I prematurely published this just before!)
Chris Kenny says Katherine Deves "has not directly referenced the Holocaust, she's just mentioned Nazis".
— Paul Karp (@Paul_Karp) April 20, 2022
Ah, I see.
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Need a quick refresher before tonight’s leaders’ debate? Jane Lee and Sarah Martin have your back with the Campaign catchup:
Is my maths right? This would mean about six in 10 tests in the past 24 hours came back positive (the rate was about half that yesterday):
This daily 📅 infographic provides a quick view of the current coronavirus (#COVID19) situation in Australia 🇦🇺
— Australian Government Department of Health (@healthgovau) April 20, 2022
Find out more here 💻 https://t.co/YcsPBOTHZD pic.twitter.com/sV0jhJdS7V
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For some essential reading before the debate, Paul Karp’s latest fact check is out.
Labor is warning that a return of the Coalition’s omnibus industrial relations bill will mean changes to the better off overall test, allowing pay cuts.
Scott Morrison has dismissed this as “another scare campaign” following on from Labor’s claims about aged pensioners being put on the cashless debit card.
Read the verdict here:
Kate Palmer, the former CEO of the Australian Sports Commission, is on the ABC talking to Fran Kelly.
Palmer says that since guidelines on the inclusion of transgender and gender diverse people in sport were released in 2019, it has been heartening to receive messages from trans women saying thank you, and providing examples of welcoming sports communities – often in Australia’s regions.
Asked “how big an issue” the inclusion of transgender people in sport is, Palmer replies “it’s not at the top of our list” and says language used in the public sphere hasn’t been appropriate.
There are many more critical issues to deal with and it puts sport in a really difficult position because sport is doing a terrific job of including people in their organisations ... This is putting them off track, so for me, it’s not an issue that they need to deal with critically.
Palmer says she intends to focus on what matters for women in sport – which means “more investment, more infrastructure, equal opportunity”.
Updated
Meanwhile, the prime minister has gotten his head in the game before tonight’s debate with a swim at a Brisbane pool.
“Good to get in a few laps,” he remarks.
How PM @ScottMorrisonMP has spent his afternoon before the first debate @westaustralian 👇 #auspol pic.twitter.com/YPncNhdE62
— Lanai Scarr (@lanai_scarr) April 20, 2022
The fallback is to fear, Hugh Riminton writes:
Zed Seselja on Joyce's Solomons warning: 'We are a long way from that'
In case you missed it earlier, here was deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce’s contribution to the discussion. He said:
Solomon Islands is a sovereign nation. They’ve decided to have a pact with China, dual purpose, which means China is able, if they follow through, to set up a military base there.
That will be, absolutely, that’s a very bad day for Australia.
We don’t want our own little Cuba off our coast.
Asked about those comments, Seselja says: “We are a long way from that,” before making it about the opposition:
We have an opposition who make claims that are false, [that are] for their own political ends.
Updated
Pacific minister Zed Seselja is on the ABC, talking to Greg Jennett.
Jennett asks if there’s any plan to send foreign affairs minister, Marise Payne, to Solomon Islands after they signed that security agreement with China (Labor has criticised her for not going, and for Seselja going in her place). He says that’s not the fundamental issue:
“The fundamental issue is how we can continue to engage at every level with the Solomon Islands government.
We have a disagreement on this, as friends and a Pacific family [we] will continue to express that. We will ask for the Solomon Islands government [that] they be transparent about what is in the agreement.
That’s very important going forward [that] the entire region can see what it is, because we’ve had assurances which I think are good assurances in relation to the fact that there will never be bases and Australia will continue to be the first port of call and security partner of choice.”
Catch up on the back story here:
Updated
First Dog on the Moon
OK, just one more on the dog theme. But this is First Dog, and he is such a good boy:
Updated
The video of today’s hot air balloon crash is quite wild and comes with a profanity warning. The whole story is quite a gas, really. Caitlin Cassidy and AAP here:
And now for some very different dog content. Khaled Al Khawaldeh reports on treasurer Josh Frydenberg pulling those election ads:
It would have been somewhat surprising if prime minister Scott Morrison touched down anywhere else. Would love to get a sneak peek at how rehearsals go.
No great shock given there’s a debate tonight, but the Morrison campaign’s media contingent has touched down in Brisbane. We’ve now visited every state and territory except the NT @FinancialReview #auspol pic.twitter.com/cFlFrRNRuL
— Michael Read (@michael_read_) April 20, 2022
A man got stuck headfirst in a septic tank in Sydney earlier today.
And then he was saved by a dog.
A border collie named Spot heard the man’s cries, and the dog’s 13-year-old human called authorities. AAP reports the man was rescued by intensive care paramedics and Fire and Rescue NSW. AAP reports:
The man was a contractor working on the property when he became stuck in the septic tank, commonly used where homes are not connected to sewerage.
He had been trapped upside down and unable to free himself from the tank as the water rose. NSW Ambulance acting inspector, Charnan Kurth, said the four paramedic crews that attended faced a challenging scene as they worked to free the man. His extraction took about 40 minutes.
“Had the dog not heard the man’s cries, it may not have been such a good ending,” Inspector Kurth said.
Updated
Hours after Albanese vs Morrison will be Macron vs Le Pen.
The French presidential debate between current leader, Emmanuel Macron, and his far-right challenger, Marine Le Pen will happen late Wednesday France time, so early on Thursday for us here, as al Jazeera reports.
Macron will seek to portray Le Pen as untrustworthy. We’ll see if “I don’t think, I know!” gets another run.
Updated
Western Australia premier Mark McGowan has had a negative result on a PCR test, but will isolate after a family member tested positive, AAP reports.
He says he’ll work from home while isolating, but AAP says he’s expected to be out in time for the federal Labor election campaign launch in Perth on 1 May. McGowan says:
Western Australians have done such a great job of doing the right thing and following the health advice to keep the spread of the virus to a minimum and reach the soft landing we all sought out to achieve.
WA changed the definition of a close contact last week, so only household members and intimate partners have to isolate. The state, which has had the strictest border controls throughout the pandemic, recorded 8,080 cases today.
Premier Mark McGowan in isolation, under revised #CovidWA close contact rules @7NewsPerth pic.twitter.com/rHCuxm8Rlz
— Jessica Page (@JessicaPage7) April 20, 2022
Gilbert asks Chalmers what he’ll say to Albanese in the green room before he takes to the stage. He’ll be relaxed, Chalmers says. “He’ll be looking forward to it.”
Labor’s treasury spokesperson, Jim Chalmers, is part of the debate warm up (which is going for half the day).
He’s talking to host Keiran Gilbert about the opposition’s budget repair aims – I’m going to summarise: Spend less, make more, stop rorts, tax the multinationals.
Gilbert says the debate is a challenge for the leaders to be aggressive towards each other while appearing prime ministerial. Chalmers, naturally, reckons Labor leader Anthony Albanese will strike just the right balance.
Updated
Thank you, Amy Remeikis!
I’m limbering up my ageing, creaking fingers for tonight. I have the special keyboard out. Wish me luck!
Updated
It’s all about the debate tonight, which Tory Shepherd will take you through. So if you can’t watch it, check back here for updates on how it’s going.
The questions are coming from undecided voters so it should be interesting to hear just what some of those voters care about.
Thank you for joining me today. I’ll be back early tomorrow morning with the wash-up. In the meantime, take care of you.
Scott Morrison spoke with Adelaide radio 5AA this morning, where he was asked if his second visit to Adelaide within a week meant he was worried about losing seats.
This is how he answered it:
“Well, we’re now in the formal election campaign period, and I’m taking every opportunity to move around the country and be very clear to the Australian people that there is a choice here. And elections are about a choice. And you know, we’ve come through this pandemic with one of the strongest economies in the world.
The IMF, the International Monetary Fund, has confirmed that again today, actually revising up where Australia’s economy is going while revising down many of the other advanced economies around the world.
We’ve had a big budget turnaround because of our strong economic plan. Unemployment in South Australia has been falling since September of last year, down to 4.9% now here in South Australia, and we want to be able to keep the South Australian economy strong.
That’s why we need to continue making the investments, investments in ensuring that that economy can remain strong.”
Despite the strong result for SA Labor in the state election, Boothby is considered the only electorate Labor could potentially pick up in the federal election – but despite always looking like it could swing, voters keep it blue.
Updated
Peter Lewis from Essential has some further take aways from the latest Guardian Essential poll:
Still waiting on the AEC to get back to us on this.
(That is a joke, obviously).
does that alpaca have an electoral authorisation on it? https://t.co/n8jIKnRHZW
— cameron wilson (@cameronwilson) April 20, 2022
Updated
The Labor campaign is preparing for tonight’s leaders’ debate.
Scott Morrison was asked about how he was feeling about the debate at his press conference and said:
My approach is not to lock myself away in rooms before having these things.
(That’s about Anthony Albanese taking the afternoon off to prepare).
Morrison then said he hoped the debate “will be a civil discussion”.
Updated
At least some candidates are still talking about issues like the climate crisis:
Shameful. Morrison Govt's “climate change isolationism” sees Aus fall from ranking 35th to 52nd globally in national responses to global warming - right next to oil giant Saudi Arabia. In light of our clean energy potential, this is a disgrace. And it's being done with our taxes. pic.twitter.com/kyAVT4cNyZ
— 🌏 Zali Steggall MP (@zalisteggall) April 20, 2022
Updated
The Public Interest Journalism Initiative has taken a look at the local government areas which don’t have any local news outlets.
And if you are in NSW, here is what you need to know:
(via AAP)
Rule changes from 6pm Friday April 22
- Close contacts don’t need to isolate as long as they’re symptom-free. But for seven days, they must stay away from aged care, hospitals, disability services and correctional facilities. They also need to wear a mask indoors, take daily RATs if leaving the house, work from home where possible, and avoid vulnerable people.
- Vaccine mandates for key workforces are lifted, but staff in aged care and disability services still need to be vaccinated.
Rule changes from April 30:
- No quarantine for unvaccinated international returning travellers, but they must take a RAT within 24 hours of arrival
- Public transport capacity caps are lifted
Rules remaining in NSW:
- People who test positive to Covid-19 need to isolate at home for seven days
- Masks required on public transport, planes, indoors at airports, and cruise terminals.
Updated
In Victoria and want to know what Covid restrictions are changing come Saturday morning (or 11.59pm Friday to be exact)?
AAP has a handy dot point list:
- Close contacts don’t need to quarantine for seven days, as long as they wear a mask indoors, avoid “sensitive” settings and have at least five negative rapid tests over seven days
- Vaccination mandates and check-ins for venues scrapped
- Masks no longer required in primary schools, early childhood, hospitality, retail settings, or at any event
- Hospital visitor restrictions lifted but masks still required
- No testing for symptom-free international travellers on arrival, although it’s still recommended
- No quarantine for unvaccinated travellers
- People who have Covid-19 are exempt from testing or quarantining for 12 weeks post-infection, rather than eight weeks
Rules remaining in Victoria:
- People who test positive still need to isolate at home for seven days
- Visitor restrictions in care facilities - residents can have up to five visitors a day if they show a negative RAT or two visitors if no test is provided
- Masks on public transport, airports, sensitive health, aged care and justice settings
- Vaccine mandates for specific workforces such as healthcare, food distribution, emergency services and education
Updated
Here is what the prime minister had to say about a Chinese military base on the Solomon Islands:
The prime minister of the Solomon Islands has made it very clear that they are not accepting of any [military] base in the Solomon Islands. They are not. So that is a false claim. That there is no basis to make that assertion. It’s just not there. That would be the first point that I would make.
Perhaps he should tell his deputy?
Updated
Barnaby Joyce says Solomon Islands potentially 'our own little Cuba'
Barnaby Joyce has also broken government ranks in his description of the security pact between China and Solomon Islands.
Solomon Islands is a sovereign nation. They’ve decided to have a pact with China, dual purpose, which means China is able, if they follow through, to set up a military base there.
That will be, absolutely, that’s a very bad day for Australia.
We don’t want our own little Cuba off our coast.
That is not what is good for this nation. Not what is good for the region.
Updated
For at least the second time, Barnaby Joyce has claimed that building coal mines in Australia will halt China’s growing influence in the Pacific region.
His reasoning is coal makes money and money means nuclear submarines. (I am not making this up)
Joyce, speaking in Queensland said:
If you want to buy fighter planes or nuclear submarines, you got (to have) the cash in the bank to do it.
And his money making solution was again developing more coal mines “to make more money”.
So what are we doing? No point everyone saying, “Well, we must do something about it.” All the way through we say, “How do we become as strong as possible, as quickly as possible?
“Well, we develop the Pilbara and that’s what you saw this the budget, money into the Pilbara, make money where we earn money so we can make more money so we can become more secure so if you want to buy a fighter planes or nuclear submarines, you got the cash in the bank to do it.
This ignores international markets beginning to transition away from coal and international financiers moving to renewable energy.
Updated
AAP has a treasury update:
The departments of treasury and finance believe the Australian economy remains strong despite significant global headwinds, including widespread inflation and the war in Ukraine.
Department secretaries Steven Kennedy and Rosemary Huxtable signed off on pre-election economic and fiscal outlook (PEFO) on Wednesday, as part of the charter of budget honesty that was introduced by former Liberal treasurer, Peter Costello.
Their independent assessment of the federal government’s financial books has proved to be little different from the budget handed down by treasurer Josh Frydenberg last month.
“The economic and fiscal outlook has not materially changed since the publication of the 2022/23 Budget,” PEFO says.
“While there has been recent movement in some economic indicators, taking into account all available information, our judgement is that these have not materially altered the economic and fiscal outlook.”
PEFO’s forecast for the deficit for the 2021/22 financial year was $79.8bn, the same as in the budget, but for 2022/23 it is now fractionally smaller at $77.9bn compared with $78bn in the budget.
Further out, the deficit for 2025/26 is now $42.9bn rather than $43.1bn, while other deficit projections were unchanged.
The report estimates policy decisions taken since the budget amount to $1.3bn, although these were partly offset by the reversal of a number of decisions previously taken but not yet announced.
The contingency reserve has reduced since the budget by $338.4m over the four years to 2025/25, which includes a partial drawdown of the provision for the potential costs of the long-term response to the February-March floods in parts of NSW and Queensland .
Economic forecasts for growth, unemployment, inflation and wages in PEFO were the same as in the budget.
These include 2022/23 predictions of economic growth of 3.5% in 2022/23, an unemployment rate of 3.75%, inflation at three per cent and wage growth of 3.25%.
“As an energy and food exporter with very limited direct trade exposure to Russia and Ukraine, Australia is relatively well positioned to weather the effects of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” PEFO says.
It says the recent record prices for key export commodities will boost Australia’s income in the near term, although elevated global oil prices are flowing through to higher petrol and other consumer prices.
“While markets expect interest rates to normalise in coming years, materially higher household and business cash savings than at the start of the pandemic are expected to see domestic demand remain resilient,” it says.
Updated
(You may be able to watch the debate on free-to-air if you are in a region which receives Sky News on the Win network.)
Updated
National Covid summary
Here are the latest coronavirus numbers from around Australia today, as the country records at least 38 deaths from Covid-19:
ACT
- Deaths: 0
- Cases: 1,180
- In hospital: 63 (with two people in ICU)
NSW
- Deaths: 15
- Cases: 15,414
- In hospital: 1,639 (with 72 people in ICU)
Northern Territory
- Deaths: one
- Cases: 594
- In hospital: 44 (with two people in ICU)
Queensland
- Deaths: six
- Cases: 8,995
- In hospital: 594 (with 25 people in ICU)
South Australia
- Deaths: two
- Cases: 4,256
- In hospital: 252 (with 14 people in ICU)
Tasmania
- Deaths: 0
- Cases: 1,816
- In hospital: 56 (with two people in ICU)
Victoria
- Deaths: 14
- Cases: 10,628
- In hospital: 437 (with 34 people in ICU)
Western Australia
- Deaths: 0
- Cases: 8,080
- In hospital: 244 (with 10 people in ICU)
Updated
Tonight’s leaders’ debate between Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese is only available to people who have a subscription to Foxtel, news streaming service Flash or the Courier Mail.
It will be streamed live on the Courier Mail website as well as at skynews.com.au, both which require a subscription.
Sky News and The Courier Mail will host the critical first leaders’ debate at 7pm AEST on Wednesday 20 April from Brisbane – the first time the prime minister and opposition leader will come together to face voters’ questions at The People’s Forum.
Held in Brisbane, it will be moderated by Sky News chief news anchor Kieran Gilbert and the leaders will take live questions from 100 undecided voters chosen by Q&A Market Research, according to Sky News.
“The Sky News/ The Courier-Mail People’s Forum is the best format for leaders’ debates because it brings the views of undecided voters directly to our nation’s leaders,” Gilbert said.
The 7pm debate will be sandwiched between two Sky After Dark programs hosted by Coalition supporters Peta Credlin and Paul Murray.
• Correction: after this post was published it became clear the debate could be watched online via live streams on news.com.au and skynews.com.au, which dropped its subscription requirement for the event.
Updated
The view from Murph
We can keep this brief. There has been a lot of talk prior to the election about whether or not Anthony Albanese can find the extra gear necessary to best Scott Morrison in a political campaign, which is one of the prime minister’s core strengths.
The two leaders will meet tonight for the first leaders; debate of the campaign.
Albanese this morning reached for that extra gear, firing up about aged care to sketch a contrast between himself and his opponent – the Labor leader’s implicit pitch was I care, that bloke doesn’t.
Given this morning’s Guardian Essential poll shows Morrison remains in negative territory when it comes to voter approval, it’s a salient pitch, and this is a tempo he’ll need to sustain tonight because what this morning’s poll also tells us is voter disapproval of Albanese is up five points in a fortnight (which is a negative movement outside the poll’s margin of error).
The press pack travelling with Morrison was fired up today, and the prime minister was on the back foot about a significant regional security failure in the Pacific and whether or not nuclear submarines will ever be built in Australia given our lack of a domestic nuclear industry.
Unlike 2019, Morrison continues to be dogged by his record in this campaign. He’s trying to keep ahead of his baggage, but thus far, the baggage is shadowing him, stride for stride.
Updated
Marise Payne spoke to ABC radio AM host Sabra Lane this morning about the security pact between the Solomon Islands and China and why she didn’t go herself to the Solomon Islands. Sky News political editor Andrew Clennell reported on the day Zed Seselja left, Payne was at a fundraiser.
Payne:
I spoke at length and engaged at length with my colleague, minister Manele. The prime minister has been in contact with prime minister Sogavare, including through correspondence. And, of course, minister Seselja, who is our minister for the Pacific, visited as soon as he was able to, having experienced Covid just before that.
So, we have been in very close contact with the government of the Solomon Islands ultimately based on our respect for the sovereignty of Solomon Islands. And there have been multiple engagements, including across the region.
SL: But still, you didn’t go personally. The shadow minister Penny Wong says despite all of his tough talk, Scott Morrison’s watch on our region has become less secure. How do you respond?
Payne:
I think that’s an unfair characterisation. And I don’t think it recognises the sovereign decisions that governments, of course, make for themselves. And it also doesn’t recognise the strength and the engagement that Australia has made through the Pacific step-up. We are looking at very serious geostrategic challenges in our region. And they are realities. We deal with them across the region broadly, as I’ve already mentioned. But in terms of our bilateral relationship with the Solomon Islands, we are by far their largest development partner, and we’re very proud to work and engage with the Solomon Islands on a range of issues. The Covid-19 response is one example.
Updated
The Greens are calling on the Coalition to urgently step in to help the more than 13,000 Aboriginal people who have lost thousands of dollars after their funeral fund, Youpla/ACBF went into liquidation last month.
As we reported yesterday, Aboriginal families in at least two states have been forced to leave the bodies of their loved ones in morgues because they can’t afford a funeral, after the financial collapse of their insurer, which has previously been exposed for its “misleading and deceptive” conduct.
The collapse last month of Youpla Group has sparked calls for compensation for the more than 13,000 low-income Aboriginal people who face losing all they have paid into the funeral fund.
Labor has said if it wins government it will set up an inquiry into the collapse, while the Morrison government has dismissed calls for compensation. But Greens senator Lidia Thorpe says Aboriginal families are in urgent need of assistance.
We struggle to survive in this country, and we can’t even rest in peace.
Our family members are being left in morgues while the community saves for sorry business, or they face being buried as paupers! It’s devastating.”
The Coalition allowed Youpla Group to continue to trade and target First Nations people. This government’s failure to regulate the industry has caused these losses, they have a duty to compensate policyholders. This is about dignity. This is about respect.
This could be resolved by a government, who seem to have no trouble bailing out their mining and corporate mates. The hypocrisy of this government, to facilitate the ongoing loss and pain in our communities is a national shame.
Before the government went into caretaker mode, the minister for financial services, Jane Hume, said people could apply for a state-assisted funeral, commonly known in the industry as a “destitute” or “pauper” funeral.
Updated
Well that was quite the morning.
Both campaigns will go a little quiet now, as they prepare for the first leaders’ debate tonight.
That is being broadcast on Sky, so it won’t be shown on free-to-air.
Updated
Further to Murph’s story.
The ACL has released this statement:
This week, the Australian Christian Lobby launches its national election campaign, powered by an army of 7,700 active volunteers.
The purpose of the campaign is to highlight the record of certain MPs and senators – both good and bad – with a special focus on those who refused to protect people of faith from discrimination and tried to severely compromise Christian schooling.
We ask the question of voters, “Do their attacks on faith accord with your values?”
The truth about these candidates will be spread in target electorates through multiple flyers, digital ads, phone canvassing, billboards, and more.
The Australian Christian Lobby’s campaigning activities come off the back of new survey results revealing that thousands of local voters are yet to learn the truth about these Liberal rebels.
The survey of 4,063 voters in the Liberal-held seats of Bass (Bridget Archer), North Sydney (Trent Zimmerman), Reid (Fiona Martin), Wentworth (Dave Sharma) and the independent seat of Mayo (Rebekah Sharkie) found 49% were unaware of the role played by their MPs in ending a bid to protect religious Australians from discrimination.
ACL Managing Director Martyn Iles said:
These survey results mean there are still thousands of Christian voters who need to hear the truth about their MPs. I urge Christians to take the time to learn the truth about each of the candidates and understand where they stand on the important issues of religious freedom and protections for Christian schools.
This campaign is blind to party colours. Rather, it sees individuals and their voting record. When the election is over, whichever party wins, it is our hope that more individual parliamentarians from all parties will stand up for faith communities and the protection of Christian schools.
Updated
There’s been an effort by the Morrison government over the past day to challenge Labor about the costs of its plans to accelerate the decarbonisation of the power sector (see Adam Morton’s pieces here and here).
However, whoever forms government from 21 May, Australia’s power sector needs urgent attention as ageing coal plants near the end of their (often shortened) design lives.
The latest evidence comes today from AGL Energy, the largest electricity generator, which said a quarter of its 2.215 gigawatt Loy Yang A power plant will be offline after an electrical fault that it’s still investigating.
@AGLEnergy shares are down about 6% after it said one of its Loy Yang A units would be offline until Aug 1 (subject to working out how to fix the fault). Awkward timing given the planned demerger soon, and a reminder ageing coal-fired power plants are not so reliable. #ausvotes pic.twitter.com/4yKLPWScrz
— Peter Hannam (@p_hannam) April 20, 2022
AGL expects to update the market by the first week of May on how long its Unit 2 will be offline.
As we noted earlier this week, wholesale electricity prices have soared in recent months, in part because of the closure of coal plant capacity – and are double the level touted in the recent federal budget for most of the national electricity market:
AGL’s announcement will nudge power prices higher, particularly in Victoria, where Loy Yang A is the biggest single plant.
Updated
'Don't send text messages': Dom Perrottet on PM text message leak
NSW premier Dominic Perrottet says he is unaware of how a text message exchange between him and Scott Morrison was leaked to the media.
The Australian has reported that Perrottet texted Morrison to express support for him standing by the Liberal party’s controversial candidate for the seat of Warringah.
Katherine Deves has come under fierce internal criticism over her comments on transgender issues and women’s sports.
Perrottet told reporters he did not know how the text message had been obtained by The Australian:
The moral of the story is don’t send text messages.
He also played down differences with NSW treasurer Matt Kean who has called for Deves to be disendorsed:
Matt has a view in relation to the candidate and the way she’s expressed those positions. Now, I actually agree with Matt on that point ... when you are dealing with issues that are delicate, it’s incredibly important that we are sensitive in our language and when we are sensitive when we are engaging in those discussions.
Updated
Guide Dogs Victoria investigates CEO endorsement of Josh Frydenberg
Khaled AlKhawaldeh and Josh Butler have a story on this coming in just a moment – but they have sent through a blog post because they know you don’t like to wait:
Guide Dogs Victoria has asked treasurer Josh Frydenberg to stop circulating election flyers featuring an endorsement from its CEO, with the charity saying it had “no prior knowledge” of the ad.
Guide Dogs VIC chair Iain Edwards said the organisation had launched an investigation, saying it was “absolutely committed to its important work as a charitable apolitical organisation”.
Frydenberg has recently been sharing ads and flyers featuring endorsements from local community members, as he faces a stiff challenge from independent Monique Ryan in his Victorian seat of Kooyong. One such ad, featuring Guide Dogs VIC CEO Karen Hayes, has been distributed to letterboxes and is being boosted with paid Facebook ads.
Speechless. #auspol @GuideDogsVIC pic.twitter.com/uF5lvMijTe
— Daniel Scoullar (@_DanSc) April 19, 2022
In the Facebook ad, Hayes praises the treasurer as an “amazing supporter” of the organisation, for which she was “enormously grateful”. On the flyer, Hayes said he has “genuine care” for Guide Dogs VIC and that her has “delivered in so many ways” for his electorate.
In a statement to Guardian Australia, Edwards said Guide Dogs VIC wasn’t aware of the ad.
Guide Dogs Victoria has been made aware of the distribution of political material which includes comments from our CEO who appears to endorse a local candidate in the upcoming federal election. The board of Guide Dogs Victoria fully understands the concerns that have been raised by members of the community and from our supporters about this matter,” he said.
The board has launched an internal investigation and requested that this material be immediately removed from circulation. We will make no further comment during this process.
The board had no prior knowledge of the distribution of this material and does not endorse it.”
Guardian Australia has contacted Frydenberg for comment.
Updated
'We’re not going to have a submissive relationship with China': Morrison
Q: What is your red line for China’s presence in our region?
Scott Morrison:
Well, we will always stand up for Australia’s national interests and call out coercion and interference from China wherever it occurs. Now, I know that has meant that Australia has been the target of China’s coercion.
We’ve been the target of a nation that is seeking to exert its influence in our area, which is in Australia’s interest. But I’m often asked this question.
Why is Australia so forward-leaning when it comes to China? Because if not us, then who? Who has the most to lose in our region, if Australia were not to stand up? Australians would.
And that’s why I haven’t been shy about it. I haven’t been intimidated, whether it was knocking back the Kidman property sale when I was the treasurer, or ensuring that appropriate arrangements were put in place to protect Australia through our national defences, or calling out China, which is where the pandemic started, and the many issues that flowed on from that.
We’ve always stood up to China because it’s in our interests. Now, we would like to have a very positive relationship but we’re not going to have a submissive relationship with China and I don’t think it’s in the interests of Pacific nations to have a submissive nature with China, any more than it is to have a submissive relationship with Australia, and we’re not [suggesting] that. We have a partnership of equals with our neighbours and when prime minister Ardern and I addressed these issues in the Pacific, we both understand that and share an approach to how we deal with issues in the Pacific. And we’ve discussed this issue, Jacinda and I, many times. And the approach we’ve taken, as the larger economies in the Pacific theatre, is to respect and engage and not seek to throw the weight of large countries around.
Updated
Q: Can you guarantee 100% that the fleets under the Aukus agreement will be built in Australia, will they be built here in Adelaide?
Scott Morrison:
As much as possible will be built here in Australia. Now, we haven’t down selected even the vessel that will be made. So no one can respond to that question in the way you would like them to.
The other point I’d make about Aukus is this. Aukus is not just about Australia having nuclear-powered submarines. Aukus is about Australia being able to produce them. Because in the United States and in the UK, they are both making lots of nuclear-powered submarines.
They want another partner making nuclear-powered submarines. Now, obviously, the reactors and things that are directly related to the nuclear elements of those programs obviously have to be done in other places, but our agreement, our discussions are about maximising what can be done in Australia, because that is in the shared national security interests of the three partners to Aukus. So the point of Aukus is not just to have this capability, but to be able to build and develop that capability right here in South Australia.
Updated
Scott Morrison: “There’s no need to yell. So why don’t we all take the temperature down and ask your questions.”
Q: No one is arguing against the merits of the various projects under the Step-Up and infrastructure facility, but the record says this: two countries have switched their allegiance from Taiwan to China in the time that we have had this Step-Up. We now have this security agreement which could pave the way for a Chinese defence base in the Solomon Islands. What’s the evidence that the Step-Up has worked in any way? Where is the soft power win? Hasn’t been nothing but failure?
Morrison:
First of all, I’d say this: the prime minister of the Solomon Islands has made it very clear that they are not accepting of any base in the Solomon Islands. They are not. So that is a false claim.
That there is no basis to make that assertion. It’s just not there. That would be the first point that I would make.
What I would also point to is the work we have done within the Pacific Islands Forum on so many areas of their economic development, Papua New Guinea is a very good example. Do you think there’s not the same pressure going on in Papua New Guinea that there is in the Solomon Islands? Of course there is.
You don’t think the same pressure is put in place on Fiji or Samoa or that’s happening in all of those countries. We keep re-enforcing to all our our Pacific family that will always be there for you in your interests and that is what we believe will ultimately prevail. Now, there are lots of pressures and we’re not dismissing those.
I mean, when Anthony Albanese was asked about this, he thought this issue was about ... only three things – climate change, climate change and climate change*.
That’s a nonsense. China has the biggest emissions and growing emissions in the world. So they haven’t – they may have just woken up to the issue. They have been highly critical of our government and me and the strong stand that I have taken against China. But what these issues highlight is the risk, the uncertainty and the fact that you need to be constant in your relations with all these Pacific countries.
The Pacific Step-Up was not a one or two-year program. It is an ongoing arrangement to demonstrate to the Pacific that, you know, we’re going to engage with you over the long-term ... and [not treat] Pacific Islanders as some sort of colony, which was the impression they used to have.
Now, we have been turning that around and you make the point about Taiwan and Beijing. The Australian government recognises Beijing over Taiwan. What hypocrisy would there be from Australia to lecture a Pacific Island nation to make a decision that the Australian government has made. I mean, that would be the height of hypocrisy and the height of arrogance and there’s one thing that does not characterise the way I deal with Pacific leaders. I treat them with respect and I respect their sovereignty and I respect their electoral mandates.
*Here’s what Pacific leaders have said in the past about Australia and climate change:
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Q: The point that this hasn’t come as a surprise. How were you informed that the deal was finalised? Have you spoken to Manasseh Sogavare in the last 24 hours? And given that you say this has been an ongoing issue, doesn’t that just show Australia has become complacent and that China has done a better job on the diplomatic front?
Scott Morrison:
No, I don’t think you can draw that conclusion. I think, again, what this highlights is that over the last five years in particular, the level of interference and the level of engagement and particularly, you know, with all sorts of promises of all sorts of investments that can be very persuasive.
And so that is the challenge that we’re now dealing with and we have been dealing with it for many years.
It is not a new issue and these threats still remain. I speak to other Pacific leaders about it all the time and what we reassure them about is you can’t always be fully persuasive on these issues.
What I assured them about is that Australia will be there for you as we always are, not because we want anything from you, but because we see the Pacific as our family and we want to stand by our family and be sure that they can have the sovereignty that they have earned, that they believe in very strongly.
And we want to support them in that. And so the Solomon Islands government, through a duly-elected prime minister and cabinet, have made a decision that they are allowed to make. Of course, they are. They’re a sovereign country and we have to respect their sovereignty so now with this arrangement, we need to ensure we work with them to see that Australia’s interests aren’t compromised because we believe in our interests, that their strength and their sovereignty is not compromised by these types of arrangements and that’s why I sent the national security officials to go and provide a briefing to the prime minister as I did to a number of other leaders in the region.
Now, I can’t go into the reasons as to why I am aware of whether agreements have been reached or not, that is not appropriate in terms of how the Australian government operates.
Updated
Those questions continue:
Q: Why was it not important enough for a cabinet minister to go?
Scott Morrison:
As I said before, in the Pacific, one of the things you got to be very, very cognisant of is there is a long history of frankly countries like Australia and even New Zealand and others coming around and treating Pacific Islands like they should be doing what the big countries should tell them to do.
You have asked me the question about why this is important. Now I had a lot of experience in this area and I have dealt with Pacific countries for a long time including before I went into parliament. One of the things you don’t do in the Pacific is you don’t throw your weight around. What you do is you treat others respectfully.
I’m very conscious of how visits are perceived within the Pacific. This was the right calibrated way to address this issue with the prime minister. I have had discussions with the prime minister personally about these issues. I have spoken to Manasseh Sogavare on many occasion, many, many occasions, as I talk to Pacific leaders all the time and particularly about this issue. So the judgement was made to ensure that Australia’s views were communicated very clearly and very respectfully and that has been done. And this is an ongoing issue.
That secret agreement that the Solomon Islands’ prime minister was very determined to resolve it, there is a lot of influence going on in the Pacific and a lot of pressure placed on other Pacific countries and our region and what they need to understand is that I am going to work with them. I’m not going to act like former administrations that treated the Pacific like some extension of Australia. The Pacific Islands are very sensitive to that and I have always had an approach with the Pacific Islands which understands those sensitivities because there is a lot at stake.
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Q: Two questions. The first is on the very day that Zed Seselja was travelling to the Solomon Islands, Marise Payne was hosting a private fundraiser at PwC Barangaroo. Is that really the best use of the foreign minister at that time as opposed to going to the Solomons? My second question relates to boat turnbacks. How many have your government done and how many have Labor done?
Scott Morrison:
We have done 27 turnbacks from memory and Labor did none. Labor did none. And I remember this very vividly because I was the shadow minister for immigration and border protection at the time. Labor did everything they could possibly do to avoid restoring temporary protection visas, ultimately for many years, to restore offshore processing which they finally relented on too late, and sent actual kids and put them on Manus Island, and, thirdly, they just refused to do turnbacks.
Now, the policy I put together prior to the 2013 election with my team, with many others, with the great support of Tony Abbott, enabled us to be ready when we were elected to go and deal with that problem. We have worked on a plan, we have done the hard work in opposition to come forward with a plan that was going to deal with one of the most significant national security issues that were being dealt with at that time and we implemented it and it worked. And so the real test of whether you support something or not is when it really mattered and the Labor party and Anthony Albanese opposed all of those measures for so long and they demonised those who sought to put them in place.
Q: And Marise Payne?
Morrison:
Look, I already answered the question. We were very aware of where that agreement was up to, as were all other Pacific leaders, it was very important that we communicated very clearly to the prime minister of the Solomon Islands, Manasseh Sogavare, what the Australian government’s position was. And to do that at that level made very clear that Australia was not looking to go and stamp around, that we were going to deal with it constructively and respectfully.
Q: Zed Seselja doesn’t. How does that work?
Morrison:
The foreign minister is a different level to the minister of Pacific. One is in cabinet, one is not. You calibrate your diplomacy to deal with sensitive issues.
Updated
Morrison says he won't allow people to 'cancel' Katherine Deves
Q: To the mental health of young people and driving down suicide rates, you’re standing by a candidate who has potentially caused more harm than good to gender diverse and trans young people. Aren’t you concerned that’s doing more harm than good? And on a second note - it’s been revealed that the candidate for Cooper is noted to attend far-right rallies, an active member of Clive Palmer fans Facebook group and once described ex-Queensland Senator Fraser Anning as a God. Why are you standing by him?
Scott Morrison:
To the first point you raised and I have raised this many times in these press conferences - the remarks that Katherine has made in the past that have been [insensitive] that she’s withdrawn those remarks and I think she has learned that in taking forward the primary issue that she is seeking to raise as a woman raising three daughters of her own is about women and girls in sport. That’s what she’s seeking to bring attention to.
Reporters interject
Morrison:
I haven’t finished my answer. You can wait until I finish my answer.
Reporters interject again
Morrison:
Women in sport is the issue that Katherine has been highlighting. She’s made a number of remarks in the past, and on a number of occasions, not in the majority, she’s stepped over the line, and she’s acknowledged that. To go forward as a member of Parliament, that is something you need to learn. That these issues are important, that you need to be able to deal with them with respect for others, to be compassionate in terms of the feelings of others.
But what I won’t allow, what I won’t allow, is for those who are seeking to cancel Katherine simply because she has a different view to them on the issue of women and girls in sport.
I’m not going to indulge that because you know in this country, I think Australians...
Reporters interject again.
Morrison:
I think Australians are getting pretty fed-up with having to walk on egg shells everyday because they may or may not say something one day that’s going to upset someone*. Now you shouldn’t seek to upset anyone else, you shouldn’t seek to upset people, you should deal with things in a very sensitive way, but in this country, I think it’s time to allow - allow people where they have made mistakes in the past about how they have said things in the past, where they’re prepared to put those behind them, and focus sensitively on the issues they’re seeking to promote, then that’s how they do it. Others might want to cancel her, others might want to cancel other Australians for standing up for things that they believe in but I am not going to be in partnership with them.
*A reminder Peter Dutton sued over a deleted twitter comment and the government has legislation it has dressed up as making social media safer, but really makes it easier for people to launch defamation action
Updated
Morrison says China push in the Pacific is 'no surprise'
Q: Prime minister, why was Marise Payne not sent to Solomon Islands the minute the government knew this deal was coming to a head? And is it a failure of your Pacific step-up program?
Scott Morrison:
No, I think – no, absolutely not.
Q: Why not.
Morrison:
This is highlighting the very real issue that we have been working on for many, many years. This is no surprise to us. It may be a surprise to the Labor party, but it’s not a surprise to us. I mean, the Labor party has been very passive when it comes to the risk presented by China in our region.
They have been very critical of the government, they have been very critical of me personally in the strong stand that I have taken in relation to China’s influence, not just in Australia, but across the Pacific.
I mean, I was the one who went to the G7 and tabled those items of the coercion that Australia is facing. Australia is being coerced by China because of the strong stand that our government has taken. So this is not a new issue.
It is not a new issue for my government, for our government. It’s a very serious issue and that’s why, particularly during the course of the pandemic, I’ll tell you what happened with Fiji, for example: with Fiji, we were the country that ensured they could vaccinate their entire population. And when China sought to send their vaccines to Fiji, the Fijian government was able to say, “No, thank you. The Australians have got us covered.” Now, I have been working closely with all of those political leaders because as a family, you deal with the security threats that arise from this secret agreement with China and I know that is a great concern to other members of the Pacific family.
I mean, I know what Kevin Rudd said, he thought foreign ministers should be sent up there to stomp around and tell Pacific Islanders what to do. That was the failed approach of the past. What I have done as prime minister is taken a very different approach.
Personally engaging with these leaders, constantly, and ensuring that we talk through the challenges that they have, particularly during the pandemic. We were the country that stepped up most for our Pacific family and reminded other large countries in the world about the needs in the Pacific area and that is respected in the Pacific.
Updated
Q: Prime Minister, you said no major changes to the BOOT. What changes to the BOOT are you considering making? And does it include the proposal in the omnibus IR bill that would have allowed businesses hard hit by the pandemic to reach agreements that aren’t subject...?
Scott Morrison:
The pandemic is now passed. I mean - the pandemic passed. There are emergency measures that obviously no longer have an application, we’re not in an economic emergency environment. And so the measures that I have already articulated to you and that are set out well in the legislation, I think, are very clear. But the scare campaign Labor is seeking to run on this is not unlike the one they’re running on pensions. If you don’t have an economic plan, you go and raise false scare campaigns against your opponents*. So every time you hear Labor make these claims, it’s an admission by them that they have no economic plan.
*Does this include the ‘re-start the boat campaign David Littleproud said was a scare campaign the Coalition is running?
Scott Morrison continues that:
This is a very serious issue and I ask you to show some patience as I step through the important issues around this issue.
Now, Senator Seselja, I’m pleased he was able to go and the campaign was already underway prior to Senator Seselja’s visit. I also sent very senior members of our national security officials team to go and meet not just in the Solomon Islands, but to brief other countries in the Pacific.
I have been in regular contact with [Fijian] prime minister Frank Bainimarama who is the leader of the Pacific Island Forum and there is strong concern across the Pacific and with allies and partners, particularly the United States, about where this is heading. But it only underscores and highlights the reason for the actions we have been taking for many years.
And let me run you through some of those actions. Our development program in the Solomon Islands, some $161.2 million in 2021-22. It covers areas of health, economic recovery, education. We have the largest development partner in the Solomon Islands partnering around two-thirds of all assistance.
We provided $1.85 billion in development assistance to the Pacific – that’s our budget for next year. That is up from $1.12 billion when Labor was last in office. We have invested in the undersea cable project to ensure the security of their communications network in the region. We got $30 million going through the Pacific finance facility that we put in place.
And so all the way through we work respectfully with these countries, and they know that Australia is a great friend. Australia remains their first port of call because we have AFP officers on the ground right now.
The first place they called was Australia. And so we will continue to work respectfully with the Solomon Islands. I look forward to making a visit there at the first opportunity. As you rightly said it was the first place I went to, and with Covid, it has been difficult to travel in the region, but we have ensured we have continued to do that and I have seen Pacific leaders very, very regularly.
Updated
Scott Morrison defends Solomon Islands response
Q: Did you make a mistake sending Zed Seselja to the Solomon Islands? And if you’re re-elected on May 21, will the Solomon Islands be one of your first visits as PM as it was when you became PM in 2018? And what do you think about the deal that’s been signed?
Scott Morrison:
Well, this is a very serious issue and it comes as what has occurred in the Solomon Islands - and it comes as no surprise to our government. As you rightly said, after the last election, the first place I went was to the Solomon Islands to sit down with prime minister Sogavare.
Over the course of these last three years, I have spent an enormous amount of time working with all the Pacific leaders, stepping up in our Pacific Step-Up because the real risk, I think, has been exposed.
The risk of China seeking to interfere within our region. I have known about and have been taking strong action about. I mean, I was the one who stood up and called out China on the pandemic. I was the one who called out their interference.
I was the one who did all of this and – and I was the one criticised for it, including by the Labor party.
So I’m pleased the Labor party are catching up on this issue, but what this demonstrates is the very real risk that we have been aware of – that is why I have spent countless hours in meetings with Pacific Island leaders, particularly more recently when this particular arrangement came to light, working with the prime minister of New Zealand in particular.
New Zealand and Australia worked very carefully in these issues and one of the things we strongly agree on and how we handle this issue within our Pacific family, you know, we’re siblings, they’re not children and adults in that relationship.
We treat the Pacific family as siblings and as family and our view is very much that you don’t go around stomping around telling leaders in Pacific Islands what they should and shouldn’t do. You work with them respectfully and carefully. Now, Senator Seselja ...
Journalists begin shouting questions.
Updated
Q: You said on Saturday that you remain committed to omnibus reforms even the ones that didn’t pass the parliament, including those reforms of the two-year pause and more modest changes to the Boot for the long term, taking into account non-monetary benefits and things of that nature. Now, Michaelia Cash is saying that there’ll be no pause to the Boot. Is that a backflip from Saturday? And is the policy either longer term or modest changes to the Boot still your policy?
Scott Morrison:
Well, the legislation, which as you know, was practical, common sense changes. It was an award simplification, it was the greenfield arrangements that I mentioned yesterday when we were in Western Australia, it’s about simplification and ensuring that there’s greater flexibility to ensure that these companies can work with what is an often complex industrial relations system which costs jobs, costs higher wages, and it costs the Australian economy and our policies were set out, as I was asked about this on the weekend, and there are no major changes to the Boot at all.
Even on the greenfields program, I mean, this is something Bill Shorten supported and Anthony Albanese can’t.
So I’m not surprised that there’s another scare campaign from Labor. Labor running a scare campaign now, yesterday, it was telling pensioners we were coming to apply the cashless debit card – an out and out lie.
Just like the lies we had from Mediscare back in 2016 saying we were going to sell off Medicare. Now, that didn’t happen. We took Medicare from 82.2% bulk-billing to 88.8%.
The budget is now $31.4bn and so what this has demonstrated is Labor lies in campaigns. They try and scare people. Now, let me tell you why they want to do that. If after three years you still haven’t come up with an economic plan and they have had plenty of time to do that, and they can’t! So what do they do?
They run scare campaigns against the government. That’s what happens with Labor in election campaigns. Our policies are very clearly set out.
Labor is opposed to another important part of that program which was actually protecting casualisation, protecting workers involved in casual jobs. It was also their very serious penalties dealing with wage theft.
The Labor party said it was collateral damage. The Labor party were more interested in having some political win against the government rather than protecting the jobs of Australians, be they casuals or protecting Australians from wage theft, they were happy to sell them out for a cheap political win in the parliament.
Updated
Scott Morrison press conference
Scott Morrison is in Boothby (Adelaide) where the Liberal MP Nicolle Flint is retiring.
Labor always thinks it can get Boothby, but the electorate has voted Liberal pretty much since it was formed.
Morrison is talking manufacturing and coming through the pandemic and not being able to trust Labor.
Household contacts of positive Covid-19 cases in New South Wales will no longer need to isolate for seven days as part of sweeping changes to pandemic restrictions in the state.
NSW premier Dominic Perrottet on Wednesday announced from Friday 6pm, close contacts of a positive case will not be required to isolate if they do not have symptoms.
But close contacts must wear a face mask in indoor public settings, avoid contact with elderly and immunocompromised people, work from home where possible and undergo daily rapid antigen tests before coming into contact with people outside their household.
Perrottet said the removing of restrictions did not signal the end of the pandemic:
We will always tailor our restrictions, as we’ve said from the outset, to the circumstances we find ourselves in.
Perrottett said the state would also cease using hotel quarantine and scrap government imposed health mandates for most businesses. Restrictions remain the same for Covid positive cases.
Victoria is also easing restrictions and scrapping its close contact isolation rule, with the changes to come into effect at 11.59pm on Friday. Close contacts will need to take five rapid antigen tests over a seven-day period.
The state will also end its vaccinated economy, meaning customers will not be required to show proof of two vaccine doses to enter a venue.
Staff and patrons will not need to check in using the Services Victoria app at venues. Masks will no longer be required in primary schools, hospitality and retail settings.
Updated
NSW to drop Covid close contact rule and remove Covid hotel quarantine
NSW premier Dominic Perrottet is announcing NSW’s changes to its Covid public safety measures to come into effect on Friday at 6pm:
Those changes today will include the removal of the seven-day isolation period for close contact. In addition today, we will be moving towards removing hotel quarantine here in our state.
Hotel quarantine has proven to be incredibly successful over the course of the pandemic but from this position we are in now, hotel quarantine will cease, in addition we will also be moving from a government perspective of in relation to mandates and occupational health & safety approach.
All areas of government will take risk-based assessments in relation to their areas of employment and they will make recommendations in relation to where vaccination will be required in their specific areas. Dr Chant will speak to this in certain areas and health where vaccination will be required just as we have had pre-pandemic for various health workers in certain settings. In addition to that as well, today the green dots will be removed from public transport.
So I want to make the point in closing. This is not the end of the pandemic, we will always tailor our restrictions as we have said from the outset over the last two years, from the circumstances that we find ourselves. But today is a day where the people of our state can be incredibly proud to be in a position where we have had an incredibly low death rate.
We have put downward pressure on our health system and that is because of the efforts and sacrifice people have made.
Updated
Mask mandates remain in critical care settings, as well as aged and disability care.
Vaccine mandates remain in place in those same areas.
Victorian chief health officer, Prof Brett Sutton, steps up at the Victorian press conference:
Today is a significant day for all Victorians, not a wholesale change but an appropriate next step in this phase of the management of the pandemic. So from Saturday, it will absolutely focus more on the individual discretion of all of us in the community to make appropriate choices for ourselves, to protect ourselves and protect those around us as we go about our day-to-day lives.
The phase that we’re in now is only possible because of the very high vaccination coverage that we’ve achieved, really astonishing protection for our population. And the many millions who have been vaccinated right through this pandemic, but in particular the third doses that have been given through the course of this year at GPs, pharmacists, state-run centres and all of our community pop-ups, just fantastic work to give us that protection that allows us to be here, making these changes today.
So I want to thank every Victorian, every health worker, every person in our system. I want to thank everyone who has stepped forward to get a test or a vaccine. That collective effort has safeguarded our community and saved literally thousands of Victorian lives.
We’re at a point where 19 out of 20, essentially, 95%, are double vaccinated. We’ve got two-thirds who are triple vaccinated, indeed among those who are eligible – because some have recently had Covid – it’s above 70%.
We’ve reached that milestone in just five months. The vaccine rates among older Victorians are even higher. We’ve got 90% coverage for those over 70, 85% for those over 65, 82% for those over 60.
Terrific figures. It means we’re in the best position to make a further easing of restrictions is significant, but it is a sensible one. It will allow us to get back to a better normal, help keep us safe at home at school and at work while we can still respond to the emerging risks.
Updated
Meanwhile, as Donna Lu and Benita Kolovos report, more people have died in the first four months of this year than in the past two years of the pandemic combined:
The number of deaths from Covid-19 in Australia this year to date has reached more than double the deaths from 2020 and 2021 combined.
According to federal health department data as of 18 April, 6,786 people have died of Covid-19 in Australia since the beginning of the pandemic. Of these deaths, 4,547 occurred in 2022 – more than double the 2,239 deaths recorded over the first two years of the pandemic.
NSW and Victoria on track to scrap Covid isolation rules for household contacts within daysRead more
Prof Adrian Esterman, a biostatistician at the University of South Australia, said the figures were unsurprising given the high transmission of Covid in recent months. He criticised a relaxation of policies on face masks and social distancing, which he said was sending the message to the general public that the pandemic was over.
“Unfortunately, the virus doesn’t know that. We’re still seeing thousands of people being infected; we’re seeing many, many people ending up in hospital,” he said.
“Yes, it’s no longer an absolute acute emergency like it was, because we have a large percentage of our population vaccinated and we’ve got better treatments. But the fact of the matter is it’s still there. We could still get another variant coming along tomorrow, which is worse than Delta.”
Victoria announces Covid health measure changes
Martin Foley is announcing changes to Victoria’s Covid safety measures, to come into effect at 11.59pm on Friday:
So from 11:59pm on Friday, the following changes to the pandemic orders will be made:
People won’t be required to have two doses or show their vaccination status before entering venues.
The requirement for staff and patrons of venues to check-in using the Services Vic app will end and operators will not be required to maintain attendance records or maintain a check-in marshall.
Masks will no longer be required in primary schools, in early childhood settings, or retail settings or events of any size that apply – greater than 30,000 and a few other locations.
Close contacts will no longer have to quarantine, provided that they wear a mask indoors and avoid sensitive settings, and they will also need to carry out five rapid antigen tests over the course of the seven days that they previously would have been in isolation.
Further, all visitor restrictions in hospitals will be removed, except for mask requirements, with health services able to tailor their own settings based on their own circumstances. And we’ve been discussing this matter with health services for some time and we know that they will variously apply continued acceptable restrictions that apply to their particular workforces, patients, and locations. Events with more than 30,000 people will no longer require public health pre-approval.
International travellers who are symptom-free will be recommended, but not required, to undertake PCR or rapid tests on arrival and unvaccinated travellers will no longer complete seven days’ quarantine.
Pre-departure tests for unvaccinated aircrews will also be lifted. People will be exempt from testing or quarantining for 12 weeks if they’ve previously had Covid-19 up from the current eight weeks.
Individuals will be required to notify their workplace contact in addition to informing their social contact. Workplaces won’t have to notify individuals and each potentially exposed worker in an outbreak but they’ll have their general occupational health and safety responsibility for advice to their workplaces.
Updated
David Littleproud on ABC radio RN Breakfast was also pushed on why the Morrison government didn’t send a more senior minister to the Solomon Islands and had this to say:
What we need now is leadership instead of politics.
(I think that was the point?)
So why didn’t we send the most senior person we could?
With respect if the wannabe foreign minister wants to be making inflated comments in a time when what is needed is leadership and calm and to work collaboratively with them to get an understanding before they make derogatory comments about what’s in that agreement, and you shouldn’t jump the gun in foreign diplomacy.
And that should be a lesson even as little agriculture minister, I know that you should do this maturely. You should work through this with your partners and particularly the nation in question before you give any gratuitous advice from the sidelines.
That’s the responsible thing to do. Otherwise, you risk escalating matters. And that’s why we need to do this not only with the United States, but with other Pacific nations and Penny Wong just needs to calm down. We all need to calm down.
Updated
Consumer confidence really translates into voter confidence during election campaigns, so the weekly survey of sentiment by ANZ and Roy Morgan is worth keeping an eye on.
Media chatter about “cost of living pressures” has certainly come off in the weeks since the 29 March federal budget when treasurer Josh Frydenberg halved the fuel excise, lopping 22.1 cents off the per-litre price of petrol and diesel.
The six-month “electoral investment” seems to be paying off for now – helped of course by falling global oil prices from their peaks after the Russians invaded Ukraine. (Fuel prices in NSW, for instance, are under $1.65 per litre today, or about 50 cents off their peaks.)
Consumer confidence rose 2.3% last week for a third consecutive weekly gain, dropping only in Queensland among the states.
Another sign the Morrison government's halving of the fuel excise (and fortuitous falls in global oil prices) is boosting consumer sentiment, with the ANZ-Roy Morgan weekly survey picking up for a third week in a row... #auspol #AusVotes2022 #ausvotes pic.twitter.com/4f2jjtjXmL
— Peter Hannam (@p_hannam) April 20, 2022
ANZ’s head of Australian economics, David Plank, says sentiment is now at its highest since 6 March, although it remains below the 100-reading so we’re not out of the funk yet.
Oil prices have risen more than 10% from the low at the beginning of last week, so it’s not clear if there is much more room for confidence to be boosted by lower petrol prices.
With lower fuel prices come lower expectations of inflation, so the survey also found:
Flowing on from lower fuel prices is the drop in weekly inflation expectations. The budget estimated halving of the fuel excise would shave 0.25 percentage pts from June Qtr inflation at a cost of $3b over the six months. May pay off electorally. #auspol #ausvotes #AusVotes2022 pic.twitter.com/1POaz4BljU
— Peter Hannam (@p_hannam) April 20, 2022
That will be heartening for the Reserve Bank which has been in no hurry to raise its cash rate target. As we noted yesterday here, the central bank’s minutes show it still wants to see more data “over coming months” before lifting rates. Investors don’t expect the RBA’s May meeting to see the target raised from its record low 0.1%, but they do expect the June gathering to kick them off.
As expected, RBA minutes didn't move the expectations much about when the central bank will lift the cash rate *target* (still looks like June, just after #Ausvotes2022) #auspol https://t.co/uHpwWZEl3I pic.twitter.com/qlWcWqywLc
— Peter Hannam (@p_hannam) April 19, 2022
In other words, higher rates and higher petrol prices once the excise level is restored seem safely over the post-election horizon as far as the Morrison government is concerned.
Updated
After taking months of hits from Peter Dutton on Labor’s defence record, Brendan O’Connor is turning the focus back to government decisions, as Daniel Hurst reports, following an interview with the would-be defence minister:
Labor will consider reinstating a $1.3bn program for Australia to acquire armed drones if it wins the election, vowing to review the Coalition’s “bewildering” decision to scrap it “as a matter of urgency”.
The shadow defence minister, Brendan O’Connor, said he was concerned there was a “very significant capability gap in the immediate future”, and he would seek detailed advice after the election.
In a wide-ranging interview, O’Connor also raised “systemic” problems with the delivery of defence projects and promised more stringent oversight if appointed minister.
Updated
Daniel Hurst has sent me the White House statement on the Solomon Islands-China security pact:
On April 18, National Security Council Indo-Pacific Coordinator Kurt Campbell and Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink convened a meeting in Honolulu with U.S. Navy Adm. John C. Aquilino, Commander, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command and senior officials from Australia, Japan, and New Zealand on developments in the Pacific Islands. In Honolulu, the officials reaffirmed the four countries’ enduring and shared commitment to the Pacific Islands.
The United States resolved to intensify its engagement in the region to meet 21st-century challenges, from maritime security and economic development to the climate crisis and COVID-19. We will do this in ever-closer partnership with Pacific Island nations, including through a united Pacific Islands Forum; and together with like-minded countries, within and beyond the region, including in Europe.
Officials from the four countries represented also shared concerns about a proposed security framework between the Solomon Islands and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and its serious risks to a free and open Indo-Pacific. The meeting was part of regular and extensive U.S. consultations with allies and partners on the Indo-Pacific and is part of the announced senior administration travel this week to Hawaii, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands.
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Katharine Murphy had this story this morning:
The Australian Christian Lobby is targeting moderate Liberals who crossed the floor to strengthen protections in Scott Morrison’s religious discrimination package, distributing leaflets in their electorates showing a mocked-up image of MPs driving a wrecking ball into religious schools.
Guardian Australia has seen new leaflets attacking Liberals Trent Zimmerman, who is in a fight to retain his seat of North Sydney; Dave Sharma, who is battling to hold the eastern suburbs seat of Wentworth; and Bridget Archer, who holds the most marginal Coalition seat in the country – Bass, in Tasmania.
As well as the mocked-up image, the leaflets state the MPs “voted against protecting people of faith from discrimination” when the package was before the parliament in February. It also says the MPs “voted to remove laws that protect the values of faith-based schools”.
You can read the full report here:
Someone has just helpfully sent me the Fiona Martin version of the ACL leaflets I covered this morning 👇 #auspol pic.twitter.com/AJEjl7ZIDy
— Katharine Murphy (@murpharoo) April 20, 2022
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'It is a scare campaign': David Littleproud on Coalition boats policy
David Littleproud was also on ABC radio RN Breakfast as part of his media rounds this morning, where he was pushed by Patricia Karvelas on various scare campaigns being run and became flustered enough as she pushed him on what the Coalition is saying about boats, to say this:
It is a scare campaign. Take away one element of the three elements of sovereign borders, which is the temporary protection visas, you open up the business model. That should scare every Australian.
PK: You want people to be scared?
Littleproud:
You’re opening up the borders again and you have people coming here illegally. It is not just about that, it is about the 1,300 souls that were lost. Any human being would be upset to think if you open up a business model again that would put ...
PK: Labor hasn’t proposed opening up the business model.
Littleproud:
They aren’t going to support temporary protection visas. That is the challenge that we have.
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Barnaby Joyce says he plans to stay on as Nationals leader
Barnaby Joyce has said he intends on staying on as Nationals leader, even if the Coalition loses the election, the Northern Daily Leader has reported:
Deputy Prime Minister and Member for New England Barnaby Joyce has said he will stay on as Nationals leader regardless of the election result, so long as the party wants him to.
Mr Joyce has held the Nationals leadership three times, and has no intention of letting it go again, even if that means fulfilling the role from shadow cabinet.
“Definitely, absolutely, 100 per cent [I will be], this is incredibly important and I absolutely respect and thank the people of the New England for the great honour they give me in representing them,” he said.
“And also the latitude of understanding in the office of deputy prime minister, that I have a duty to my nation that probably goes beyond the expectations of other people on the backbench.”
He did note, however, that being reinstated as party leader is not a guarantee.
Mr Joyce said that was a matter for the party room and it would be wrong to speculate about what decisions may or may not be made depending on the outcome of May’s election.
(Thank you to Gabby Chan for pointing me in that direction.)
Updated
Looks like Anthony Albanese is gearing up for the debate tonight, given some of his answers there.
That answer from Albanese continues:
We can end the climate wars in this country. And what we’ve seen over the last 48 hours, frankly, is a thought bubble ... The problem for this government, and the reason why time’s up for this government, they don’t have a plan for the future.
They don’t have a plan to deal with the economic transformation that will be driven by the shift that is happening in the global economy, to clean energy. That is something that is happening globally.
This government just have scare campaigns, they just have nonsense, making up figures, making things up, and they think that’s enough to skate through without a plan for the future.
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Q: What chance would have Labor government have as hosting the Cop [climate change] conference, as you said you’ll try to do, if you won’t commit to this UN pledge?
Anthony Albanese:
I think we would have a very good chance of hosting a Cop conference. Our proposal by the way goes ... to Australia and the Pacific hosting a Cop conference.
I have had the honour of going to two conferences of the parties, the ones held in Montreal, where Kyoto came into effect, with number people ratifying the Kyoto protocol. I also attended the Cop in Nairobi.
And it isn’t just a government to government engagement, although that of course is the main game. It’s also one where business and civil society are participating in processes as well. So I think our plan, very conscientiously, as part of our announcement that we made back in December, of our climate plan, is about deeper engagement with the Pacific.
If you go to Kiribati, or Tuvalu, or any of those Pacific Island nations, what you will find, if you ask them what’s their priority, they will talk about climate change.
So it is an opportunity for us together with the Pacific to embrace them. It’s the sort of constructive relationship building that has been missing from this government.
I will make this point as well – that our climate policy is another example of the how ... We had more extensive negotiations and consultations with people from the business council of Australia, Australian industry group, National Farmers’ Federation, the ACCI and the ACTU and unions, they all have been very supportive of our policy. That’s what is important.
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Q: Why wouldn’t an Albanese government sign the UN pledge to stop coal, why wouldn’t you sign that pledge?
Anthony Albanese:
Because coal is a part of our energy mix. Here in Australia, right now. Coal is a part of our energy mix here.
Q: Back to the Solomons, you referred to Zed Seselja as a junior minister. Would an Albanese government elevate the significance of the Pacific portfolio? Would you be prepared to make a personal visit to the Solomons if elected?
Anthony Albanese:
On the second, yes I would.
Q: On the first?
Albanese:
We would have sent Penny Wong, quite frankly, and that would’ve been more appropriate.
(That wasn’t the question.)
Updated
Q: Last week the high court said it was appropriate to fine the CFMEU maximum amount because lower amounts of fines weren’t changing the industrial behaviour from that union. Can I put this question to you, rather than Mr Burke, just for a minute, what’s your reaction to that ruling? Should we be worried about the CFMEU under a Labor government?
Anthony Albanese gives the question to Tony Burke, saying “he’s the spokesman”.
Burke:
We need to look at what courts had to say with respect to the ABCC. When the federal court said the ABCC was treating its job as a blood sport, then we’ve got a regulator that’s not doing its job.
We’ve got a regulator set up to do a political job, we’ve got a regulator that’s told Senate estimates that if it sees a safety poster or a poster in a workplace that’s raising money for flood relief, if it also carries a union logo, it’s an offence.
They think those are the priorities. So we make no apology for saying a regulator that’s ridiculously politicised, that’s been criticised by the courts as behaving as though it’s a blood sport, should not be a regulator. When you have a situation where there’s aggression happening, where you have a situation where there’s illegality happening, it should be the same rule across every workplace. The police should be called in – that’s how you deal with illegal behaviour at every workplace.
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Anthony Albanese unleashes on government's aged care response
The Labor leader continues:
The title of the report is Neglect. In one word, and what we have is a neglect of a royal commission that has been titled Neglect. Neglect from ... this government.
We have made very clear what our plan is on aged care and quite frankly, when I sat in the budget lockup with Jim [Chalmers] and the team on the Tuesday night, because I did have a draft of the speech ready to go for Thursday, I was stunned when I asked, has anything at all happened on aged care?
And this is a government that has $70bn of additional spending with no offsets between MYEFO in December and then March budget. But they couldn’t find a single dollar. Aged care workers are despairing.
This is tough work. It’s physically demanding. They are faced with circumstances whereby they’re in an aged care home and they have three buzzers going at once. Which person do they go and lift up? We have people living in their own soil, unable to be changed for days.
We have 50% – the royal commission found this, this isn’t Labor party versus Liberal Party – that over 50% of aged care residents were not getting the nutrition they need. They’re literally starving. This is a crisis in this country.
This what is this election is about. This election is about whether we have a government that looks after people or whether we have Scott Morrison who goes missing, who goes missing unless there’s a photo op, unless there’s a campaign. I have no doubt they will deliver on that. He doesn’t deliver on his key responsibility. He always blames someone else. A government member said to me, well, there aren’t any votes in it, well I tell you what, this needs addressing.
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Q: Aged care workers in Queensland, WA and South Australia have voted in favour of industrial action. It’s quite likely that strikes are going to take place in the next few weeks. Do you support these strikes, and if elected will you fully implement all recommendations of the royal commission and fund them?
Tony Burke:
Well, I will deal with industrial, I will go back on the royal commission. What we’re seeing is pressure having built up from people’s wages having flatlined for 10 years. That’s what we’re seeing. And to view this in an any other way misses the point what is happening in households. Every week as the pay comes through and the bills come through, it’s becoming tighter and tighter and it’s being going like that for a decade. What we’re seeing happening at workplaces has been two things – unions did the right thing during the pandemic and held back on industrial action. It was incredibly responsible and it was done across the board. But secondly, what’s happening now at a number of workplaces is that pressure that has been building for a decade, people are saying we need to get wages moving and Mr Morrison’s response to that is to legislate a pay cut.
Anthony Albanese:
On the aged care issue, our five-point plan is directly arising from the aged care royal commission. That is a nurse in every nursing home, 24-7. That is [at least] 215 minutes of care [per day]. That is increased wages for people in the aged care sector. That is better food and nutrition.
And we’ve announced a specific plan with the Maggie Beer Foundation to deliver that. And the fifth and really important point – transparency and accountability. We want every dollar that goes into aged care to go into better care, and better food, and better outcomes for our older Australians.
And with regard to the recommendations of the royal commission, my observation is this: why does the government set up a royal commission and then ignore the central recommendations in it?
People made these submissions about the crisis in aged care, and what they got from this government was contempt. Nothing to assist workers in the sector. You talk about the frustration that workers are feeling workers are leaving the sector.
Think about this. All of you here today, and the workers here today, will have parents, will have uncles and aunties ... if they’re really young, they may have grandparents, it may be us one day. And there won’t be an aged care sector to look after them unless we do something about this and unless we do something about it now.
Updated
Q: On the issue of both turn backs, you have made the point you now support turning back the boats. How would you implement turning back the boats, and how many did you turn back last time you were in government?
Anthony Albanese:
Yesterday I got a misleading question from you, with respect, Jono, what you did was two separate questions and you conflated an answer.
Q: Back on your statement ...
Albanese:
They were two separate questions you put to me. I gave one answer but it was two answers to two questions and I was perfectly accurate yesterday. Labor supports turning back boats. Where it’s safe to do so. The same policy, exactly the same policy as the government.
Updated
Q: You said that Australia is in the naughty corner when it comes to climate change on the international stage. A key reason for that, the fact the government wouldn’t sign the UN pledge to end coal use. Would you sign that pledge? If not, why not?
Anthony Albanese:
No.
Q: Why not?
He moves on to the next question.
Updated
Q: Mr Albanese, can I please ask you, what is your view on transgender participation in women’s sport?
Anthony Albanese:
That’s covered by the Sex Discrimination Act.
Q: But what’s your personal view?
Albanese:
That girls should be able to play sport against girls and boys should be able to play sport against boys.
It’s covered by the Sex Discrimination Act. And that sports currently are in control of this issue.
So, let me tell you what this issue is really about – this is an issue about the chaos within the NSW branch of the Liberal party. And I note that once again we see a leaked text message that is supposed to be a private text message from the NSW premier to the prime minister. Once again, this prime minister, the premier says that he didn’t leak the text message. I don’t know the source of that.
Q: Can I also get Tony Burke and Jim Chalmers to respond to my question.
Albanese:
They have the same position.
Q: Can they say that?
Albanese:
That’s why I’m the leader.
Updated
Q: Fines for thuggish unions and officials. What is your position on that? Do you think it’s a good idea, would you support it?
Tony Burke:
It’s no surprise, first of all, what has been announced by the government today is not our policy. So just to give you that cleanly.
But secondly, it is no surprise that the government has decided the biggest issue they want to deal with is to be able to have an attack on unions, and still to this day they have not legislated to deal with wage theft. So, if an employer is stealing from their workers, Mr Morrison doesn’t think that’s a concern.
And we saw some extraordinary cases, over the time that Mr Morrison has been prime minister, it’s not just that they ... couldn’t get around to it. They had wage theft legislation in the parliament in front of them, written by themselves, and they, together with One Nation, voted it down.
So the priorities of the government here are just completely wrong. And if they were serious about wanting to make sure we had law abiding at the workplace, the first thing to do is to make sure that people are paid properly.
Updated
Q: If I can ask you on a draft for teachers, a guidelines for teachers in the Northern Territory, it shows teachers being urged to organise non-gendered sports teams. Do you think this is a positive thing, or do you think it raises some concerns?
Anthony Albanese:
I note it’s been dismissed already by the NT government. It’s not appropriate.
(Non-gendered sport has been played in co-ed schools for years).
Updated
Albanese says Australia needs to 'rebuild' relationship with Pacific
Q: Is there anything your government could do if you were elected in four weeks’ time to reverse what Penny Wong has described as the worst foreign policy failure since in the end of the second world war?
Anthony Albanese:
This is a massive foreign policy failure on the prime minister’s watch. One which they were warned about, even in the weeks leading up to the government finally sending Zed Seselja, a junior person, to the Solomons. We were saying, what you are doing to engage here?
This isn’t something that has just arisen. This is something that has been in the planning for a period of time. And quite clearly I think relationships have broken down. And the United States ... historically has relied upon Australia to be a key player in the Pacific as well. Australia has been the security partner of choice for the Pacific for a long period of time, for the entire post-world war two period. That’s broken down. We need to rebuild it.
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Q: Mr Albanese, if you are prime minister, what would you do in the Solomons? Would you be seeking to unravel this agreement, go to Beijing and meet with the leadership there, what would your approach be?
Anthony Albanese:
I would be engaging with the leadership of the Solomons. And I would have done it over a period of time. The problem is those relationships aren’t ones that can be done just during when there’s a crisis. When Richard Marles was our person in the Pacific, he had deep engagement, indeed, won a civil honour in the Solomons.
What is clear is we’ve dropped the ball here. What is clear is when the warning was given in August, the government didn’t act soon enough. August is now more than six months ago, eight months ago – the government was warned about this.
Updated
Tony Burke is also at this press conference:
The announcement by the government to bring back the omnibus bill is extraordinary. We have a situation where everything has been going up, except for wages, and the government now says they want to bring back legislation which had wage cuts written all over it – 111 pages that bill was, and it had wage cuts in black and white.
This is legislation that says your ordinary hourly rate, that can stay the same, but every penalty rate, every shift allowance, every loading, overtime rate, up for grabs. What does it mean in the real world? It means if you’re someone working in retail as a night manager, $10,000 a year can be up for grabs as a pay cut.
If you’re a butcher working on a Thursday to Sunday shift, $7,000 a year. If you’re a part-time disability care worker, $14,000 a year.
Now, you only say we’re going to suspend the better off overall test if you want to allow a situation for people to be worse off.
Low wages haven’t been an accident. The government made clear low wages are a deliberate design feature of their management of the economy. At a time when Australians are desperately wanting to see wages get moving again, the prime minister has made clear legislation that is about cutting wages is on the way back, if Mr Morrison is returned.
Updated
Anthony Albanese holds press conference
The Labor campaign is in the south-east Queensland seat of Forde.
Anthony Albanese and Labor are talking industrial relations, warning the Morrison government wants to take away the better-off-overall test.
Albanese is also talking about the security pact between Solomon Islands and China.
Can I make some comments about one of the greatest policy failures that we’ve seen from this government – this deal between China and the Solomons was foreshadowed, foreshadowed last August, the government was warned.
Yet only in recent days did the government bother to send a junior person across to the Solomons. No visit from the foreign minister, no visit from the defence minister, no engagement in a serious way with prime minister Sogavare.
What we see is a foreign policy failure on our doorstep. The Solomon Islands is less than 2,000km from Cairns and Townsville. The distance between here and Perth is more than that. So what we see is a massive policy failure because once again the character of this government is on show. A prime minister who goes missing on the big questions.
A prime minister who is always too little, too late. Whether it’s the bushfires, whether it’s ordering enough vaccines, whether it’s ordering rapid antigen tests, whether it’s responding to the floods, this prime minister is complacent. He’s always there for the photo op, never there for the follow up, never does the right planning to get ahead of issues.
Updated
Penny Wong was also asked about the election campaign this morning. She had this to say:
What I’d say to every voter including new voters, and I had the opportunity to chat to a couple of young women in Adelaide yesterday who were going to vote for the first time and they were excited about it and they were informing themselves, I say have a look at what the policies are. Have a look at where this country is and have a think about whether we can do better.
Can we do better on climate change? Of course we can. And that’s what Labor is offering. Can we do better on childcare? Of course we can. That’s what Labor is offering. Can we do better on strengthening Medicare? Of course we can. And that’s what Labor is offering. So there are a lot of issues that are important for the future of the country.
Of course, there’s always the media focus on the game, but beneath that, underneath that is actually something profoundly important, which is: what sort of country are we?
Updated
Melbourne to host Brazil-Argentina clash in World Cup warm-up
Melbourne will again host one of the biggest rivalries in world sport this winter when Brazil take on Argentina in front of a potential 100,000-strong crowd at the MCG.
The fierce football rivals will meet in the latest edition of the Superclàsico on Saturday 11 June, which will serve as a World Cup warm-up before the tournament in Qatar at the end of the year.
It is not the first time the two powerhouse nations have met in Melbourne; the last time they clashed at the MCG was in 2017, when more than 95,000 watched an underwhelming 1-0 victory for Argentina.
Then, after a much hyped build-up amid the prospect of a mouthwatering Lionel Messi-Neymar clash, many big name Brazilian players, including Neymar himself, did not make the trip.
Still, given the reputations of the two sides, the Victorian government says it expects thousands of interstate and international visitors to Melbourne for the upcoming match.
The minister for tourism, sport and major events, Martin Pakula, said:
To have two of the most successful football teams in the world return to the MCG to continue their longstanding rivalry reinforces our position as one of the world’s great sporting cities and Australia’s event capital. Football is known as the world game and a match of this calibre will put millions of eyes on Melbourne and attract thousands of visitors to Victoria.
Updated
NSW records 15 new Covid deaths and Victoria records 14
New South Wales and Victoria have reported their Covid figures for the past 24 hours.
NSW has recorded 15,414 new Covid cases and 15 deaths, with 1,639 people with the virus in hospital.
Victoria reported 10,628 new cases and 14 deaths, with 437 hospitalisations.
Seeing these numbers will never be easy.
We thank everyone who got vaccinated and tested yesterday.
— VicGovDH (@VicGovDH) April 19, 2022
Our thoughts are with those in hospital, and the families of people who have lost their lives.
More data soon: https://t.co/OCCFTAtS1P#COVID19Vic #COVID19VicData pic.twitter.com/zEthsVudVJ
COVID-19 update – Wednesday 20 April 2022
— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) April 19, 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
- 94.7% of people aged 16+ have had two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine pic.twitter.com/Kqpv5rQblg
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'The worst Australian foreign policy blunder in the Pacific since world war two': Wong on Solomon Islands
Penny Wong is doing the media rounds today, branding the newly-signed security agreement between China and Solomon Islands as “the worst Australian foreign policy blunder in the Pacific” in decades.
Labor’s foreign affairs spokesperson was scathing on Wednesday morning. She accused the Coalition of mishandling the situation, raising concerns of a potential Chinese military presence 1,600km from Australia in Solomon Islands.
“On Scott Morrison’s watch, our region has become less secure, and the risks Australia faces have become much greater,” she told the ABC.
The Pacific minister Zed Seselja flew to Honiara last week to ask Solomon Islands prime minister Manasseh Sogavare to consider not signing the security pact with China.
Wong said the government should have done more, describing the deployment of Seselja as “a junior woodchuck at the last minute”.
“Yet again Mr Morrison has gone missing and might talk a tough game, but what we are seeing on his watch is the worst Australian foreign policy blunder in the Pacific since the end of world war two,” Wong said.
In a separate press conference, she said more should have been done.
“Someone in government needed to take responsibility,” Wong claimed. “We always support ministers going overseas to work for Australia’s interest s... but do I think it was too little too late? Clearly it was.”
Labor’s shadow industrial relations minister, Tony Burke, claimed on ABC News the Coalition hadn’t made more serious diplomatic moves “because everybody more senior was too busy with an election campaign”.
In her own interview with ABC’s AM, Marise Payne said the government was disappointed at the agreement but respected the sovereignty of Solomon Islands.
She denied the Coalition had dropped the ball, saying she and Morrison had engaged directly with the Solomon Islands government by phone on the issue, and called Labor’s criticisms “unfair”.
“We firmly believe the Pacific family is best placed to meet the security needs of our region,” she said.
“We are looking at very serious geostrategic challenges in our region.”
Updated
Meanwhile, the Australian newspaper has an exclusive story that NSW premier Dom Perrottet sent Scott Morrison a text message saying he agreed with him over his comments on women’s sport.
That’s all over the Katherine Deves candidacy for Warringah. Her inflammatory and transphobic past comments on LGBTIQ issues have become a campaign flashpoint, with Morrison declaring she had his support and he would not allow her to be “silenced”.
Two people were involved in that text message exchange.
Lols pic.twitter.com/anPDZnBgbY
— Amy Remeikis (@AmyRemeikis) April 19, 2022
And now:
Dominic Perrottet tells colleagues he did not leak Katherine Deves text to Scott Morrison | @jamesmassola @AlexSmithSMH
— The Sydney Morning Herald (@smh) April 19, 2022
https://t.co/PtDUU1T6qR
Updated
For followers of South Australian politics, the good burghers of Bragg in Adelaide’s east are headed back to the polls, with Vickie Chapman announcing she will quit politics at the end of the month, triggering a by-election.
Chapman is a moderate Liberal and the new SA Liberal leader, David Speirs is ... not in the same faction.
Updated
Katharine Murphy has the latest Guardian Essential poll:
Labor appears to have lost ground in the opening week of the federal election campaign according to the latest Guardian Essential poll, but a majority of respondents still think Anthony Albanese will be Australia’s next prime minister.
The latest survey of 1,020 respondents shows Labor’s standing in the two-party preferred “plus” measure is down three points in a fortnight, and there has been a two point increase in the number of undecided voters. But 55% of respondents believe Labor will win on 21 May.
Voting intention figures, calculated by Guardian Essential, now express the head-to-head metric of the major party contest as two-party preferred “plus”, rather than the standard two-party preferred measure. This change in methodology, adopted after the 2019 election, highlights the proportion of undecided voters in any survey, providing accuracy on the limits of any prediction.
Updated
Q: Should the government have sent Scott Morrison or Marise Payne instead of a junior minister?
David Littleproud tells the ABC:
Well, let me make this clear – the prime minister has been in constant contact not only with the prime minister of the Solomon Islands, but other Pacific nations have also been in diplomatic discussions with the Solomon Islands. But we’re in caretaker mode and when you’re in caretaker mode there is an agreement between the government and the opposition about a joint approach to this.
And the opposition, the Labor party, agreed* that the best form of attack that we put forward was that Zed Seselja should go there as the Pacific minister, as one who ... has been on the ground on the Solomon Islands and with our other Pacific nations in dealing with this matter, would have better cut-through. And they actually agreed to that.
So now that [they] want to politicise this, just disappointing. And I think it’s just important now that we all take a deep breathe, we show some calm and restraint and ... work collaboratively with our Pacific family about how we can work with the Solomon Islands. We don’t want to isolate them and by inflaming language for political points at the moment could inflame the situation.
* Under caretaker mode, Labor did have to agree to send Seselja, but it’s not usually something that turns into a negotiation over policy.
Updated
David Littleproud is up next, and as you would expect, he defends the government over the Solomon Islands-China security:
I just think we need some maturity and calm. What we have seen so far is some statements by the Solomon Islands prime minister to say that there will be no military bases.
We haven’t seen the detail of this pact and before we start making commentary and gratuitous commentary from the sidelines we should get the details. When you’re dealing with diplomatic matters, particularly with many of our Pacific family who have been part of this conversation with us, with the Solomon Islands, that it is important before you start condemning the actions of not only Australia but our other Pacific partners in this – you put at risk of inflaming the situation.
So if you want to be the foreign minister, it’s important you act with restraint and calm and make sure that you understand all the details before you start making a politicised point.
It’s important, obviously, we’re disappointed, but we’re working through this calmly, not only with the Solomon Islands but our Pacific family ... in trying to get an understanding and appreciation of how far this goes.
The prime minister, as I said, has made it clear ... clear enunciation from the Solomon Islands that there will be no military base there. We take solace in that but we need to work through this pact before we start trying to politicise and I think that’s the maturity that Australians would expect, particularly when you’re talking about our national security and the threats that may come from it.
Updated
How would a Labor government handle Australia’s relationship with China? Penny Wong:
I think it’s really critical we deal with the increasingly assertive and aggressive China, first, by ensuring we secure our region. So we understand that our interests on a range of issues are very different, and Labor will never take a backward step when it comes to standing up for Australia’s interests. But our first priority must be to secure our region and that is why this failure of Mr Morrison is so great because it goes directly to his failure to secure our region when we needed him. When Australia needed him, he went missing yet again.
Updated
Wong is asked whether Labor is suggesting Morrison should have gone to Solomon Islands himself, and says:
Well, he’s the leader offer of the country. This is our region. It goes directly to Australia’s national security and he should have taken responsibility. The United States is sending, you know, their top Indo-Pacific national security advisor, Kurt Campbell. We send the junior minister in the last minute in a region which is critical to our security.
Yet again Mr Morrison has gone missing, and might talk a tough game, but what we are seeing on his watch is the worst Australian foreign policy blunder in the Pacific since the end of world war two.
Could a Labor government unpick it?
Well, look, I can tell you what we will do is put more resources and more energy into ensuring that the Pacific family, which Mr Morrison and Marise Payne like to talk about, but that the Pacific family is secure.
And what we won’t do is do things like mismanage the Pacific labour scheme, cut development assistance by $12bn since they came to government and we won’t make jokes about water lapping at the door at Pacific Island leaders meetings like we saw Mr Morrison and Mr Dutton doing.
We would be serious on climate and remember – climate change has been identified by Pacific leaders as their number one economic and national security priority.
Updated
Penny Wong lashes Morrison government over handling of Solomon Islands
As Daniel Hurst reported last night, Australia is reeling from the signing of the security pact between Solomon Islands and China.
You may remember the minister for the Pacific Zed Seselja was sent to Solomon Islands to try to discourage the pact.
Labor is pointing the finger at the Morrison government.
Penny Wong told the ABC this morning:
This is the worst foreign policy blunder in the Pacific that Australia has seen since the end of world war two ... It is going to make our region less secure and this is all happened on Scott Morrison’s watch.
He was warned ... back in August, we were told by the opposition leader in the Solomon Islands, the prime minister, that the Australian government was warned that this was in the offing. But what has happened, well, we have seen it’s come to fruition and as a consequence of Mr Morrison going missing, just like he did on bushfires, on vaccines and on rapid antigen tests ... our region is less secure and the risks Australia faces have got greater.
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Well, yesterday NSW and Victorian business groups called for a change to close contact covid rules – and today, it looks like they’ll be getting what they wanted.
Bob Katter has called for the age pension to be increased by $100 a week to help older Australians cope with the rising cost of living.
To pay for the $14bn a year policy, Katter says the federal governmentshould place a 5% surcharge on all imports into the country, which “would generate $20n a year and give Australian industry and workers a competitive advantage”.
“If you want to buy something from China instead of Australia, then you should pay 10 percent more for it,” the independent Queensland MP said. “It might teach people to buy Australian made and not from overseas.
“People who have worked their whole lives for our nation can’t afford to live on the age pension payment they are getting now. Some people on the pension did not have superannuation for most of their working life.
“Single pensioners can currently earn $180 a fortnight before their pension is reduced. I think that figure should be increased so that pensioners can work if they want to, without being penalised.”
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Good morning
Good morning and welcome to debate day! (The exclamation mark is sarcastic, I promise.)
Scott Morrison and the Liberal campaign touched down in South Australia last night. Anthony Albanese and Labor are still in Queensland. Morrison will head to Brisbane later today ahead of the first debate between the two leaders.
The Sky News/Courier Mail People’s Forum gets undecided voters to ask the questions. It’ll be the first time the pair face off against each other without anyone being able to ask for the member to no longer be heard.
So expect some early campaigning today before both camps go dark to prepare the leaders.
Barnaby Joyce is also in Queensland – he’s in Mackay making more spending commitments, this time on roads.
We’ll cover it all off as the day unfolds. You have Amy Remeikis on the blog as usual, with Katharine Murphy, Sarah Martin, Paul Karp, Daniel Hurst and Josh Butler keeping a sharp eye on what’s happening on the campaign – and what’s really behind the promises and policy.
Ready? I’m not. But still – let’s get into it.
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