Finance Minister Simon Birmingham said essential services "remain guaranteed" under the Coalition, following the announcement of the government's costings heading into Saturday's polling day.
Look back on how Tuesday's updates unfolded in our blog.
Key events
- More than 2.5 million people have already voted
- Labor slams spending following Coalition's costings
- Morrison says the ABC is not having its funding cut
- Coalition reveals it has submitted 35 policies for costings
- Coalition costings announced
- Josh Frydenberg and Simon Birmingham reveal Coalition's policy costings
Live updates
By Jessica Riga
We're going to wrap up our live coverage here
Thank you for your company today!
We'll be back tomorrow to live blog another day on the campaign trail.
Only four more sleeps until election day! See you tomorrow.
By Jessica Riga
By Jessica Riga
Labor pledges to devote more resources to building ties with South-East Asia
The ALP is pledging to devote more resources and bureaucratic muscle to building Australia's ties with South-East Asia, declaring the region will be a top foreign policy priority if it wins power at the election.
Labor has promised to boost overseas development assistance (ODA) to the region by $470 million over the coming four years, as well as creating a new office of South-East Asia in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
It's also confirmed it would develop a new economic strategy for the region, as well as appointing a senior "special envoy" to South-East Asia, who would be given a brief to build relationships and cut through institutional blockages to deeper ties with key countries in the region.
Labor leader Anthony Albanese will present the package to the Quad Leader's summit in Tokyo next Tuesday if he's victorious on Saturday night.
Shadow Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the Coalition had "never made South-East Asia a priority" and that "increasing Official Development Assistance to the Pacific and South-East Asia is central to our national security."
"Labor has always understood the importance of South-East Asia — our countries face many shared challenges, including the reshaping of the regional order, pandemic recovery and, as [Indonesia's] President [Joko] Widodo said directly to our Parliament, climate change," she said.
Foreign aid groups have praised the push to lift development assistance.
Marc Purcell from the Australian Council for International Development (ACFID) said that, while the Coalition's "temporary and targeted" aid boosts were a welcome response to the pandemic, Labor's plan would ensure aid increases were baked in.
"I think it's the permanency of the increases which are significant, and it's a very good building block to increase Australia's engagement with the region, over time, in the national interest," he said.
"We have indeed stepped up in the Pacific under the Coalition government but it's been at the expense of [a] 40 per cent reduction in our assistance to Asia over the last seven years."
"I don't think that's a tenable position, given the complex strategic environment we now face."
By foreign affairs reporter Stephen Dziedzic
By Jessica Riga
Refugee advocate wins appeal against ruling he defamed Peter Dutton in tweet
A refugee advocate has won an appeal against a defamation ruling which ordered him to pay Defence Minister Peter Dutton $35,000 over a now-deleted tweet.
By Jessica Riga
Will voters have enough time to assess Labor's policy costings?
Q: Is it fair for Australian voters to release it on Thursday? Does that give them enough time to be able to digest what you are offering and for us to scrutinise it?
Here's Anthony Albanese's reply:
"Let's be very clear here. You have an $80 billion deficit at the moment. You have $1 trillion of debt. You had $70 billion expended by this government — by this government — and our announcements between December and March. You have our announcements every single one of them — we have put a costing on. We've been transparent throughout the election campaign about those issues. And the other thing that we have done in terms of fiscal responsibility is point out how fiscally irresponsible it is of the government to be promoting a policy which will lead to increased numbers of people potentially being reliant upon the pension, rather than their own superannuation savings. And I'll conclude with this point — the costings and expenditures which we have made have been responsible. They pale into insignificance compared with the waste and the rorts that are riddled through this budget. $5.5 billion on French subs is more — is more — than any of the commitments that we have made during this election campaign, the largest of which is for childcare."
And that's the last question of the press conference.
By Jessica Riga
Albanese on productivity
Q: This morning, you mentioned your childcare policy. You said that there would be a return to government in productivity increases. Could you please detail the productivity increases you expect, separate from participation, which is well understood?
Here's Anthony Albanese:
"Childcare does two things. One is it does workforce participation increases, so that you remove the disincentive that is there structurally towards women working a fourth or a fifth day at work. What that means is that those women have greater career opportunities to advance. That means they earn more income. That means they pay more tax. That also means that the businesses — which is why our policy is supported so strongly by business — get productivity improvements. Because when you have a greater input in terms of the capacity of the workforce, that is one of the ways in which productivity grows. So this is for individuals, it's also good for businesses in terms of the growth which is there."
By Jessica Riga
Albanese on transparency
Q: You've said you're going to be a prime minister who answers the questions. You've been asked this morning about deficits, higher or lower, and haven't answered it. You haven't answered a question about a treaty. Aren't you doing exactly what you accused the Prime Minister of, not being transparent?
"Not at all. And I'll be at the National Press Club tomorrow," Anthony Albanese says.
By Jessica Riga
Will Albanese sign up to the WHO's potential Pandemic Treaty?
Q: The World Health Organization is meeting next week. On the agenda is clearly the formulation of what's called a Pandemic Treaty, which will give the WHO greater control in how they dictate other countries manage pandemics. Would you sign up to such a treaty?
Scott Morrison said he would sign up for it this morning when he was asked. Here's Anthony Albanese's reply:
"What we have said is that we need, clearly, to strengthen the WHO and the way that it operates. One of our three pillars of our foreign policy is our alliance with the United States, engagement in the region, and support for multilateral forums. Today, one of the things that we're about as well, and today's announcement is about the response of the pandemic. That's why we're announcing today our support for medical manufacturing. Clearly, one of the lessons of the pandemic is that we weren't self-reliant enough."
By Jessica Riga
Will Labor's deficits be higher than the Coalition's?
Q: The government has announced cumulative deficits over the next four years of $223.5 billion. Can you be fair-dinkum with us and confirm that your deficits, over four years, that you'll unveil on Thursday, will be higher?
It's a bit tricky to hear the follow up questions to this but here's what Anthony Albanese had to say:
"Let's get real. This government made $70 billion of announcements with no offsets. Not a dollar of offsets between December's MYEFO and the March budget that they brought forward.
"In terms of what this government has done is — $70 billion, they have added. They will leave a legacy of $1 trillion of debt. Now, what we have done during this campaign is be responsible.
"We've been fiscally responsible in all of the statements that we've made, including today's announcements that there were two announcements today at the Leadership Matters Forum. We said what dollars would go, and we have done that throughout this campaign. We have a couple more announcements to go. We have until Saturday. But we will be releasing our costings announcement on Thursday.
"What we will do is outline all of our costings, all of our costings will be outlined on Thursday. We'll have more announcements to make including a reference to some of these issues at the National Press Club tomorrow."
By Jessica Riga
How does Labor's NDIS plan address the issue of employment for people with disabilities?
Q: A disability employer here in Western Australia have announced they're closing down their industrial work sites, as many as 700 disabled people may become unemployed. The government have, in their current NDIS plan, said they're favouring mainstream employment for disabled people, as opposed to supported employment more like the industrial workshops. What's Labor's policy on that? Is your preference for mainstream or supported? And how does your NDIS plan address the issue of employment for people with disabilities?
Here's Anthony Albanese:
"This is a really serious issue. This is a serious issue that goes to the cuts that have occurred to the NDIS and goes to, as well, what has occurred in employment services. This decision has been devastating for the people involved in those employment services, but also their families. This is a company that have been active in Western Australia for 70 years. They've survived all sorts of pressures, but they couldn't survive the Morrison government. We need — we will do — what we can to sit down and get advice about how these services can continue to operate. I know that, last night, families of people involved were ringing in to a radio interview I was doing on WA ABC here, expressing their real concern — this is about employment and engagement, it's also the social interaction that comes with these services. And it is absolutely of real concern.
"I've said, consistently, that the NDIS has one key difference between us and the government. That is, we understand that the NDIS is about people. It's about the people who are involved in the scheme. And at the heart of it, what we want to do is, in all ways, encourage the fullest participation possible in society, including in employment, of people with a disability. What we understand is that that's not only good for the people with disability — it's also good for our Australian economy and for our society as well, to be inclusive. That's our view."
By Jessica Riga
Will Labor's costings be higher or lower than the Coalition's?
Q: Will your costings by higher or lower than the $2.3 billion that the Liberal Party has outlined?
"Our costings will be out on Thursday. They'll be released at the same time that the last time that there was a change of government occurred. I'll tell you what our costings won't include - what they included on that couple of days before the election was $4.5 billion of foreign aid cuts. We've seen how that damaged Australia's standing in the region," Anthony Albanese says.
By Jessica Riga
Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese is speaking now
Standby for updates.
By Jessica Riga
How important is your state this election?
This election will be decided in marginal seats, but as we saw in 2019, the variation in state swings can make a huge impact.
By Jessica Riga
By Jessica Riga
What Jacqui Lambie and the Medevac laws tell us about the balance of power
Whether a bill becomes law can sometimes come down to the vote of a minor party or even a single independent.
When this happens, the party or independent has what's called "the balance of power", which can make things a bit more complicated for major parties.
Here's an example.
In March, 2019, independent Kerryn Phelps introduced the Migration Amendment (Repairing Medical Transfers) Bill 2019 (aka Medevac), which gave doctors more of a say in transferring refugees and asylum seekers from offshore-processing centres to Australia for medical treatment.
That bill was passed and it became law.
In December, 2019, independent senator Jacqui Lambie gave the Coalition the numbers it needed to repeal the laws under the terms of a secret deal.
Senator Lambie later revealed that she had agreed to support the repeal in exchange for the government allowing 150 refugees stuck in Australia's offshore detention system to be resettled in New Zealand.
The resettlement deal was made in 2013, but the Coalition had never followed through on it until just before the election.
By Jessica Riga
Why do parties launch their campaigns so late?
Why do parties have their "launch" so late? Greens today. Seriously? I voted weeks ago.
-John
Hi John — the Greens launched their campaign last night, and the Liberal Party launch was held just this past Sunday, a week out from the big day.
So why do parties "launch" their campaigns so late? After all, this federal election campaign officially started five weeks ago.
It's basically so the parties can capture the public's attention closing to voting day. If every party did their big launch when the election was called back in April, their policies might not be front of mind six weeks later when we head to the ballot box.
Got a question about the election? Submit it using the blue buttom and we'll try to find you an answer!
By Jessica Riga
Coalition continues to defend its housing policy, Labor labels it a 'desperate plan'
Let's loop back to News Breakfast this morning where Housing Minister Michael Sukkar continued to defend the Coalition's housing policy, saying "we've got to continue to assist first home buyers."
"This builds on work we have done for many years to support first home buyers," he says.
"In the middle of the pandemic we put in the HomeBuilder program, $25,000 grants, more than 140,000 projects were supported for that. This is a natural extension to work we have done over many years to continue to support first home buyers."
But Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong told News Breakfast the plan was "desperate."
"This is a desperate plan from a desperate Prime Minister who wants to change the topic and wants to make Australians think that after nine years of being in government, after presiding over housing crisis and presiding over declining affordability, that somehow he really does care about this issue," she says.
"Now he wants to gamble your super, the superannuation scheme, on a policy that won't help people to buy. It won't help people to buy. Yesterday we saw Jane Hume driving a bulldozer through the bulldozer's policy. It will increase housing prices."
By Jessica Riga
We're another day closer to Saturday's federal poll, but there's still time to complete Vote Compass
Polls close on Saturday evening. Still not sure where your political views align with the major political parties? Vote Compass is here to help.
Vote Compass is a tool developed by political scientists to help you explore how your views align with the major parties.
Over a million people have already filled out their Vote Compass, which you can check out here.
By Jessica Riga
'Referendum needed to fix broken system' as eligibility in question for dozens of candidates
Under the same section that saw Barnaby Joyce, Larissa Waters and others stand down from parliament in 2017, the ABC had found that several candidates at this federal election may not be eligible to stand because they were dual citizens when they nominated.
The ABC has examined the qualification checklist forms of all lower house candidates and found dozens failed to acknowledge they may have inherited foreign citizenship from their parents.
Others said they were "unsure" if they were a dual citizen, or that they were unable to renounce their foreign citizenship, or that their renunciation paperwork had not been processed by the time of nomination.
Constitutional law expert George Williams from the University of NSW examined the ABC's data, and renewed his calls for a referendum to deal with the issue.
"At some point we just need to grapple with a broken system that other countries simply would not put up with," Mr Williams said.
By Jessica Riga
The Greens launch their campaign, release policy costings
Greens leader Adam Bandt has laid out the priorities for his party should it hold the balance of power after Saturday's federal election, AAP reports.
Taking urgent action on climate change, dealing with the cost of living crisis and providing justice for Australia's First Nations people by progressing the Uluru Statement from the Heart are among the list of demands.
Bandt will call on the party that wins the federal election to sign US President Joe Biden's Global Methane Pledge, to phase out methane gas.
The gas is one of the nation's fastest-growing sources of emissions.
"Voters deserve to know what will be on the negotiating table," Bandt said at the Greens national campaign launch in Brisbane on Monday.
"Of course, we want to see all our policies implemented, but these will be at the top of the list."
The Greens released its policy costings, which were prepared by the independent Parliamentary Budget Office and relate to the period 2021/22 to 2024/25.
Expenditure:
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No new coal and gas mines and looking after coal workers — $2.8 billion
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Dental and mental health into Medicare — $17.4 billion
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Building a million affordable homes and better rights for renters — $9.3 billion
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Free childcare — $16 billion
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Wiping student debt — $33.2 billion
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Lifting income support above the poverty line ($88 a day) — $94.3 billion
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Progress on all elements of the Uluru Statement from the Heart — $25 million
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Total expenditure — $173.02 billion
New Revenue and Saving Measures:
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Tycoon Tax (Corporate Super-Profits Tax, Mining Super-Profits Tax and Corporate Tax Avoidance) — $80.4 billion
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Billionaires Tax (including Billionaires Pandemic levy) — $46.5 billion
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End the corporate handouts (Making Gas Exporters Pay and End Subsidies for Coal, Oil & Gas) — $55.9 billion
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Total revenue and savings — $182.7 billion
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Net savings to the budget — $9.71 billion
