Both leaders demonstrated their walking-while-being-questioned skills on Tuesday, as Anthony Albanese brushed off persistent queries about campaign costings and Scott Morrison deflected an invitation to appear on National Indigenous Television.
The Coalition also foreshadowed $3.3bn in spending cuts across the public sector to pay for its election commitments.
Four sleeps to go: here’s how today unfolded.
Postcard from the Albanese campaign
By Josh Butler
Anthony Albanese again pulled up stumps on his public campaigning before lunch on Tuesday, finishing a press conference in Perth then heading back to the east coast.
He wrapped his daily presser after 10 minutes, abruptly leaving as journalists pressed him on Labor’s election costings. After batting away numerous questions and saying only that the information would be released on Thursday, Albanese walked to another part of the complex. He was followed by reporters and cameras, before walking through a door that was shut behind him by a security guard.
“Is this how you’ll conduct press conferences?” one journalist asked as the door closed.
“You’ll have to answer eventually,” said another.
Coalition finance minister, Simon Birmingham, posted the footage on Twitter, criticising Albanese.
Mr Albanese started the campaign saying he would answer every question. Now he storms out of press conferences.
— Simon Birmingham (@Birmo) May 17, 2022
Labor’s first ad said all policies were costed. Yet 4 days until #ausvotes & none have been.
Mr Albanese’s not up to the job of PM. Don’t risk his weak leadership. pic.twitter.com/Xn39NFqmvV
Journalists on Albanese’s travelling press bus have been growing increasingly frustrated with the shifting “rules” by which Albanese conducts his press conferences. He has said he will give questions to “polite” reporters, has chided journalists for “interjections”, and refused to take follow-up or clarifying questions from the same person.
Starting the day with a speech and Q&A at a West Australian newspaper event, the Labor leader told gathered business leaders that his “twin goals” in politics were “social good and economic growth”.
Barely two minutes in, Albanese poured praise on his “good friend” McGowan, talking up the WA premier’s “true character and true leadership”. In a place as parochial as Perth, both Albanese and Scott Morrison have been tripping over themselves to plug their links to the Emperor of WA.
Albanese announced $1.5bn for medical manufacturing under Labor’s National Reconstruction Fund, and a joint funding plan with the McGowan state government for $50m for an Aboriginal cultural centre in Perth.
Asked what his legacy would be – win or lose on Saturday – he sat thinking for several seconds before answering “acting on climate”.
But asked “will you increase your climate targets if that’s a condition of the teal independents” in a potential hung parliament, the Labor leader gave a flat and instant “no”. (Labor’s 43% pledge upgrades the Coalition’s formal target of a 26% to 28% reduction, which remains at the level first pledged by Tony Abbott.)
Albanese will address Canberra’s National Press Club tomorrow and spend the final countdown to election day on the east coast.
Postcard from the Morrison campaign
By Paul Karp
Scott Morrison started the day at a project home in Zuccoli, in the Darwin satellite town of Palmerston in the Labor-held electorate of Lingiari.
His wife, Jenny, has become a fixture on the final week of the campaign, and the couple met Country Liberal party candidates Tina MacFarlane and Damien Ryan.
For the second day in a row, Morrison met a few first home buyers and recipients of the government’s $25,000 Homebuilder grant, before spruiking the super for housing policy.
At his press conference, he warned Territorians to be fearful of the Chinese government, before a round of local radio interviews arguing the NT government needs to “get on top of law and order issues”.
At his next stop, the Palmerston Over 50s Tuesday club, he commented to a group of seniors that he didn’t want people “living in fear” in their communities and they should “be able to walk around freely”. Nor should they fear the pandemic, which should be treated like the flu now and social connections maintained, he said. There were 251 new cases of Covid on Monday in the NT, and 1,962 active cases.
So China: be afraid. Crime: already feared but ideally it shouldn’t be. Coronavirus: nothing to fear despite active cases.
What’s most notable about Morrison’s whirlwind photo opportunities is that he is only meeting a few young people at a time, when they’re pre-vetted, and ideally recipients of Homebuilder grants. Retirees and over-50s are safer for Morrison, and can be risked in medium-sized groups.
Morrison also faced questions from SBS about why he wasn’t making announcements on Indigenous issues, and whether a Coalition minister would appear on NITV. (He briefly mentioned Coalition efforts to close the gap before he hopped in a vehicle and the door closed.)
SBS Political Correspondent @ShubaSKrishnan tried to get the Prime Minister on why no one from the Coalition was available for NITV while campaigning in Lingiari (the seat with the highest percentage of Aboriginal voters in the country)
— Sarah Collard (@Sarah_Collard_) May 17, 2022
Here is the response. 👇🏽 👇🏽👇🏽 pic.twitter.com/B1PCjWu7GE
Morrison’s last stop for the day was at CareFlight in Darwin, where he spruiked (old) money contained in the budget for emergency flying medical services.
Today’s big stories
Coalition costings: The Coalition says spending cuts across the public sector will deliver $3.3bn in savings to pay for its election commitments, as the government turns the pressure on Labor to submit its plans to Treasury for costing.
The treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, and finance minister, Simon Birmingham, released the Coalition costings in Melbourne on Tuesday, revealing that the proposed increase to the public sector efficiency dividend and changes to super contributions would offset the $2.3bn in new spending promises made by the Coalition since the beginning of the election campaign.
Secret weapon?: Labor is deploying frontbencher Penny Wong to the electorates of Brisbane and Higgins in the final days of the election campaign, as the opposition becomes increasingly bullish about its prospects in the Liberal-held seats due to voter disaffection with Scott Morrison.
Strategists say Labor’s internal polling points to opportunity in four Liberal-held seats – Brisbane and Ryan in Queensland, Bennelong in Sydney and Higgins in Victoria – because disapproval of Morrison is high in these electorates and disaffected centrist progressive voters don’t have a teal independent to back.
Pay pressure: Scott Morrison has softened his language on pay increases as he faces mounting concern about the cost of living, stating “wage rises are good things”. The prime minister on Tuesday also urged drivers to dob in operators suspected of price gouging on petrol.
Morrison made the comments in the Northern Territory ahead of Wednesday’s release of the latest wage statistics, which will show whether the Reserve Bank’s prediction of an increase in pay has materialised.
Western Sydney: There is a growing “electoral volatility” in western Sydney, with experts saying residents have “departed from the script” in a region which could prove critical to deciding the federal election.
A new study from the Centre for Western Sydney that analysed federal election voting patterns found a level of volatility above national trends. Five of western Sydney’s 14 federal electorates are now marginal, with the report outlining a confluence of issues that are combining to alter the electoral landscape.
Aukus latest: Scott Morrison’s Aukus middleman has not lobbied any US officials since the landmark security deal was announced, despite a previous agreement with the prime minister “to engage with US personnel to facilitate Australia’s engagement with US and UK per Aukus agreement”, according to a newly filed document.
Quote of the day
The other mob are hiding until Thursday to bring it out … that’s not how you should treat the Australian people.
– Agriculture minister, David Littleproud, blasts Labor for not releasing its costings document until the Thursday before the election, without mentioning that the then Coalition opposition did the very same thing before winning the 2013 election.
By the numbers: Six
The number of examples of how policy has lost out to soundbites in Australian political debate in this piece by Katharine Murphy.
How social media saw it
608k pre-polls taken yesterday, 200k more than on the equivalent day in 2019. Despite pre-polling being one week shorter in 2022, the number of pre-polls is about to overtake the 2019 rate. Updates here https://t.co/tjV43DMg04 #auspol #ausvotes pic.twitter.com/YuD71FuDg8
— Antony Green - elections (@AntonyGreenElec) May 16, 2022
The big picture
Hi-vis, high-volume:
Listen: Full Story’s campaign catchup
Paul Karp, who is covering the Coalition campaign this week, joins Jane Lee to discuss Scott Morrison’s final stops.
