That's enough
Well I think that will do for week four, thanks so much to Mel Davey for doing early shifts for the past fortnight, and to you readers for showing up.
Let’s say farewell for now.
The prime minister faces continuing difficulties with the government’s superannuation policy, but he’s putting his foot down, declaring the policy is now, and will forever be, the policy because it’s fair.
The Labor leader faced questions about why he supported company tax cuts in 2011 but did not support them now. Bill Shorten said because Labor was making choices in this election, and the choices were schools and hospitals, not tax relief for big companies.
Have a delightful weekend, and we’ll be back, doing it all again next week.
Updated
With campaign debates a minor issue today, the deputy Labor leader, Tanya Plibersek, has taken to Facebook to declare she’s ready, anytime, anywhere. Well perhaps not, but you get my drift.
Julie Bishop and I have been invited to do a few deputy leader debates, including Q&A, the Press Club, Mamamia, and Twitter. I have said yes to all of these. I hope Julie Bishop MP will too.
#StayTuned
Updated
Now, sadly, I’ve inadvertently misled you today on the latest episode of our podcast Australian Politics Live. Normally the episode would arrive about now, but our production process is a bit delayed this week. It’s likely the episode will appear tomorrow morning. I’ll share it via social media when it appears.
Updated
Let's talk about gotcha
Political blogger Paula Matthewson has posted for Crikey today on the vexed subject of gotcha journalism. She points out that there is a circular process going on in politics: because *gotcha* has significant currency in the news cycle, the back room responds by trying to lock everything down.
Somewhat ironically, gotcha journalism is, in large part, responsible for politicians being drilled in the art of (not) answering the question. And also for the tightly choreographed visits to classrooms, shop floors, and shopping centres that make it almost impossible for a party leader to meet a member of the public who hasn’t already been background-checked and briefed, or utter an unscripted word.
This is absolutely right of course. Another issue associated with the modern expectation that everyone in a government or an opposition or micro party be absolutely across every issue is the rise of talking points. That’s why politicians sound like robots, spouting the same formulations, because a lot of people are talking way outside their portfolios. They’ve learned lines rather than digested content.
Paula again:
Gotcha journalism is an attempt to break through the bubble that risk-averse campaign teams construct around their leaders, and in this respect it could be a more legitimate form of journalism.
But only if the unexpected and unsettling questions pursue and elicit information that is of greater value to the public interest than the demonstration of an interview subject’s lack of photographic memory.
I don’t have any particular argument with this as a conclusion – however, I would say this. One person’s gotcha is another person’s pursuit of accountability. It can be hard to distinguish the two sometimes. For example, I don’t think Neil Mitchell’s interview with Julie Bishop this week was a gotcha moment. I think Mitchell was genuinely frustrated that people inside the government and beyond hadn’t focused on the implications of the transition to retirement changes, and one way to shine a light on that was actually shine a light. As a consequence of that, we’ve had an informative discussion about super policy this week, in which the government has done something novel: defend the policy on its merits, without resorting to overwrought rhetoric. It’s actually served a useful purpose, even if Bishop had to endure a rugged 15 minutes in the hot seat.
You can also have moments in journalism that I’d describe as accidental gotcha. A few years ago I was in a press conference with the then treasurer, Wayne Swan, and I couldn’t find the inflation figure in the materials we’d been given, probably because I was trying to do several things at once, so I asked the treasurer what the inflation figure was. Swan had a brain freeze and a long silence followed. This, of course, was prominent on many news bulletins that evening. It would have looked planned. As I asked the question I can say, hand on heart, that it wasn’t planned. I just couldn’t find the inflation figure and I needed it quickly. It never occurred to me that he wouldn’t know the answer.
Interested, as ever, in thoughts from readers.
Updated
One more from Fairfax photographer Andrew Meares. Deep bog at Mount Barker.
PM's RMs oats paddock, Mount Barker pic.twitter.com/b3eM8jKBcI
— andrew meares (@mearesy) June 3, 2016
Some views of the campaign from Fairfax photographer Alex Ellinghausen, from the prime minister’s official photographer Sahlan Hayes, and from the Labor frontbencher Jenny Macklin.
Campaign this two hours after lunchtime
Rightio, time to stand and deliver. Recapping the key events of Friday.
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Malcolm Turnbull has flown into Adelaide to try to shore up the Coalition’s seats against an insurgency from Nick Xenophon. On Thursday night, the prime minister held a virtual town hall with the voters of Sturt before campaigning with Liberal Jamie Briggs, who is attempting to hang ont o the seat of Mayo. Superannuation is continuing to be a problem, with National Michael McCormack signalling he’ll raise the policy in the Coalition party room once the election is done. The prime minister is continuing to dig in behind the policy. It’s fair, he told reporters just a little while ago, adding he was prime minister for all Australians.
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Bill Shorten is in Tasmania trying to take seats from the Coalition. Today he unveiled $44m for tourism projects in the state and faced questions about why he supported company tax cuts in 2011, and doesn’t support them now. Shorten said he supported company tax cuts in 2011 because it was part of the mining tax package, and because his judgment was it was affordable then. He says it is not affordable now, because elections are about choices, and Labor’s choice is to fund schools and hospitals rather than fund a corporate tax cut.
Onwards, upwards.
Updated
Rightio that’s over and out for the press conference now. I’ll come back shortly with a summary of Friday, the story thus far.
I did skip over election debates. Malcolm Turnbull was asked whether or not he’d do a Sky debate in Queensland next week. Turnbull didn’t declare his hand.
We have had many proposals about another leaders’ debate and we have already done one with Sky News, as you know. We’ve done one at the Press Club which was carried by the ABC and by Sky News. There are other media organisations that have presented other proposals and we are considering them.
Q: The issue of pensions has been thrust back into the spotlight of former parliamentarians. Given Nick Xenophon is making political hay out of it in South Australia, is it time once again to look at that issue?
Malcolm Turnbull:
I’m not sure what you are referring to as far as Nick Xenophon is concerned but there is a parliamentary pension scheme in place. It was changed in 2004 so it only applies – the old system, which is a defined benefits system – only applies to people who were elected prior to 2004 and the new system which affects me and anyone else elected after that year is a contributory one consistent with current practice in the public service.
Q: Your frontbencher spoke out this morning on super saying he will raise the issue after the election. Given you have said the only thing you will look at after the election is the way these changes are implemented, not the changes themselves, why is it so many people in your party seem to have a different idea about how receptive you’d be to substantive changes?
Malcolm Turnbull:
I will repeat what I said before. Our changes to superannuation are fair. They make the superannuation system more sustainable. They make it fairer for people on low incomes.
As I said yesterday, we have to be real about this – 15% is a lower rate of tax than the marginal rate that a kid stacking shelves at Woolies pays. Let’s get real. Super remains enormously generous. For those on high incomes with very large super balances it remains very generous. Just not quite as generous as it was.
By doing that, we have made it fairer and more flexible and it works better particularly for women, people on lower incomes, for older Australians and independent contractors.
Remember, I’m the prime minister for all Australians.
Updated
Tom Hughes, dropping Tony a line
Q: Do you agree with your father-in-law that appointing Abbott as leader in 2009 was a potentially catastrophic decision and like having the principal lunatic in charge of the asylum?
(Inevitable this question would be put. I referenced this story about Tom Hughes earlier today.)
Malcolm Turnbull:
I won’t comment on that other than to say that my father-in-law is a very distinguished lawyer. He is a great man – 93 years of age this year. He served in the Royal Australian Air Force in the Second World War. He served his country in parliament and at war and his memoir will be of great interest and inspiration to many people who read his life story.
Tom has great respect for Tony Abbott and the note that is referred to in his memoirs, of course, is some years old and I know that Tom has written a note to Tony to apologise if any offence is caused by that.
Updated
The prime minister is asked whether we will have to wait 20 years to see growth flow from the corporate tax cuts. Turnbull would like to mention that Bill Shorten in 2011 supported a company tax cut.
Q: Will we have to wait 20 years to see 1% growth out of that?
Malcolm Turnbull:
You will see continued growth out of it. Every improvement in the return on investment in companies will result in more investment.
Turnbull is asked whether or not he made the wrong call by not going to the repatriation ceremony for the Vietnam veterans yesterday. The prime minister gives a similar answer to the one Bill Shorten gave earlier. They didn’t go because the event was for the families and they didn’t want to politicise it in the middle of an election. He says Peter Cosgrove, “who is the highest office holder in our nation and who served in Vietnam and won a military cross there” presided over the function, appropriately.
Malcolm Turnbull:
It was a solemn occasion. The occasion was dealt with, I believe, in a very respectful and honoured way. It was not politicised yesterday. I do not want to politicise it today.
Updated
Q: Do you still support a ban on political donations by corporations and unions and caps on donations for individuals?
Malcolm Turnbull says yes, “in an ideal world”.
My view is that donations would be limited, or electoral spending if you like – that’s an important distinction, would be limited to people who were on the electoral roll and with a cap. I don’t have a strong view about what that cap should be but a reasonable figure so that would exclude unions, exclude corporations and so forth.
The NSW Liberal government as you know sought to do that or something very close to that and ran into trouble in the high court. The problem that we face at the moment is designing a campaign finance law that does not allow trade unions, for example, to simply get around it by spending directly.
Updated
First question is about Nick Xenophon. Is the prime minister worried about Xenophon’s anti-trade liberalisation stance, and will he do deals with him to get legislation through?
The prime minister says the only way to ensure your vote will support “stable government, stable Coalition government to deliver jobs and growth, is to vote for the Liberal and National parties”.
Q: How worried are you about Nick Xenophon team’s impact in Mayo and Sturt?
Malcolm Turnbull:
I have made my point about Mr Xenophon.
Updated
'We are delighted to be here at Saab with this augmented reality'
The prime minister fronts reporters looking entirely pleased with the rich bounty life has delivered on this Friday in Adelaide. Technology delivers jobs and growth. Small business will deliver jobs if they get a tax cut.
Malcolm Turnbull:
We are delighted to be here at Saab with this augmented reality, but the reality is that we, my government, is the only party in this election that has a clear economic plan for jobs and growth.
Updated
Nothing I could say would add to these images, so I’ll just share.
Updated
And a very good afternoon to Matt Davey.
@murpharoo The 2016 augmented reality device is a lot more compact than it's predecessor, the virtutron3000. #auspol pic.twitter.com/mk7gCpd8kP
— The Matt Hatter (@MattGlassDarkly) June 3, 2016
Then this happened.
PM @TurnbullMalcolm and @cpyne enjoy a moment of augmented reality #ausvotes pic.twitter.com/RR3nR8MpyK
— Adam Todd (@_AdamTodd) June 3, 2016
'I will certainly raise it in the party room': Michael McCormack on super
The Nationals’ Michael McCormack is on the ABC now. Just when you think the super wobble is dying down, here comes Michael.
Q: Has anyone raised with you any concerns about their own super fund being affected by these changes?
Michael McCormack:
Look, certainly, people have raised it with me in my electorate and speaking to colleagues they’ve also raised it with them.
Q: What would you seek to do about that if and when you returned to the next parliament?
Michael McCormack:
I will certainly raise it in the party room. That’s the proper way to do that.
Q: With a view to, what, changing?
Michael McCormack:
It’s something that has been put on the table. The prime minister has been quite clear ... that is our policy and that is our policy.
Q: So it doesn’t change?
Michael McCormack:
According to the prime minister it doesn’t and look, at the end of the day legislation will be sorted out in the next parliament.
Q: But if the message came through loudly and clearly from constituents that there was significant concern, are you for your own part one who says we could make some changes?
Michael McCormack:
I will certainly raise the concerns as I’m sure others will but at the end of the day the taxation office says 4% of people are are affected. It’s policy that we need to fix up, Labor’s mess that we inherited and it’s policy that we will be taking to the election, and to the parliament.
Updated
'Of course it's all about me, we've always known that'
I’m waiting for the prime minister’s press conference before I take stock with a summary. I suspect I’ve got time to bring you the opening of an appearance on breakfast television by Labor’s Senate leader Penny Wong and Liberal Christopher Pyne. The host was Karl Stefanovic.
Q: Superannuation has dominated the election campaign this week. I’m joined now by Christopher Pyne and our special guest in her home state of South Australia, Labor senator Penny Wong. Big round of applause folks for these two, the only politicians getting a round of applause this week.
Penny Wong:
Good morning.
Christopher Pyne:
I notice that Penny Wong got a much more generous introduction than I did.
Penny Wong:
Don’t take it personally.
Q: Christopher Pyne everyone!
Christopher Pyne:
With special guest Penny Wong. What am I? Chopped liver?
Penny Wong:
It’s just that it’s unusual for me to be here, OK?
Christopher Pyne:
I’m just chopped liver.
Q: You are chopped liver …
Penny Wong:
It’s not all about you, Christopher.
Q: Exactly.
Christopher Pyne:
Of course it’s all about me, we’ve always known that.
Updated
If you’d like to review the Crinkling News kids’ debate on video, Politics Live regular Anthony Segaert tells me you can view video here.
Updated
Terrific picture from Mick Tsikas from AAP.
Updated
'I don't think it has the characteristics of an invasion'
I mentioned the kids’ election debate a couple of posts back. Lane Sainty from BuzzFeed has transcribed the answer the deputy prime minister, Barnaby Joyce, gave to a question from the kids about whether white settlement of Australia was an invasion.
Here's Deputy PM Joyce's full response to #kidsdebate q on whether Australian history should be called an "invasion" pic.twitter.com/UOAalYOEeM
— Lane Sainty (@lanesainty) June 3, 2016
Updated
Back to animal testing, and all things in politics being subject to change without notice. Nationals frontbencher Darren Chester only about five minutes ago. Now everyone is saving the bunnies. Not just Albo, and his football team.
Are you sure it's a great policy @JaalaPulford Labor policy to 'save the bunnies' must be a sop to @AlboMP #auspol pic.twitter.com/mZdCIKyGf5
— Darren Chester MP (@DarrenChesterMP) May 26, 2016
Updated
Updated
Back to animal testing, Labor is unhappy with the Coalition waiting until the election to say it will legislate to ban the sale of cosmetics that have been tested on animals. Earlier this year Labor produced a private member’s bill proposing just such a ban.
Labor’s assistant health spokesman, Stephen Jones:
When we introduced our bill into parliament we said we were willing to work with other parties to ensure it became law. The Liberal and National parties said nothing. It is a real shame that instead of supporting our proposed changes in February, the government was more interested in playing politics than ending the cruel practice of animal testing.
(As a voter, I’m just glad it’s happening. The practice is abhorrent.)
Updated
Also while I’ve been preoccupied with Bill Shorten, the kids’ newspaper, Crinkling News, has hosted a debate for school students with Barnaby Joyce (Coalition), Larissa Waters (Green) and Amanda Rishworth (Labor). Scrolling down the twitter feed of that event makes for interesting reading. It was certainly a more enlivening contest of ideas than the one we saw at the National Press Club last weekend.
Post #kidsdebate pic.twitter.com/DqdhS2Yapj
— Crinkling News (@crinklingnewsau) June 3, 2016
Updated
While I’ve been preoccupied with Bill Shorten the Coalition has announced it will ban the sale of cosmetic products tested on animals if it wins on 2 July. The assistant health minister, Ken Wyatt, says the testing of cosmetics on animals is unethical, unnecessary, of highly questionable value and should stop.
Ken Wyatt:
We no longer need to test cosmetics on animals and many countries, including the European Union, have banned the use of cosmetic ingredients tested on animals. I can’t see any reason why Australia shouldn’t follow suit which is why a Coalition government will legislate this change if re-elected.
Updated
Q: Cradle Mountain needs $30m, you’ve committed 15. Where is the rest of the money?
Bill Shorten:
We’ve got no doubt that we will see positive responses at the state level but we are – what we’re going to do is not keep Cradle Mountain and the tourism industry waiting and demand that everyone else has to have everything else in place before we go.
I will lead. I know that us putting $15m on the table gives the confidence for other investors to be able to do what they need to do, to say great, we’ve at last got a partner for Tasmanian tourism infrastructure and it’s called a federal Labor government.
Updated
Q: We’re halfway through the campaign. How are you feeling physically? Is there still much petrol in the tank and how do you think the campaign is going so far?
Bill Shorten:
Today it’s been 1,000 days since the Liberals were elected and I’ve got a lot of petrol in the tank for the next 28 because within the next 28 there’s every chance that the Liberals won’t get another 1,000 days on top of the 1,000 days they’ve wasted of the nation’s life.
Updated
Q: Just back on tax cuts, you mentioned a few minutes ago that you’d only support tax cuts when they’re affordable for the budget, but how do you reconcile that with the fact that you are supporting a cut to the personal income tax to people earning $80,000? Do you still support that or would you be better off taking that money and using it for your own priorities?
Bill Shorten says he’ll support the income tax cuts because on balance, they are affordable, and “better than nothing” but that’s where you draw the line. But you don’t support a $50bn corporate tax cut, or tax breaks for high-income earners, he says.
Updated
Q: Veterans believe that you and Malcolm Turnbull showed a lack of judgment yesterday by not attending the repatriation ceremony in Sydney. Do you apologise to those people who you’ve offended and what was the reason for not attending?
Bill Shorten:
Well, I found out about this matter and I went back and checked what happened. I understand that our people contacted the relevant government minister. We were informed that the PM wouldn’t be going, that the governor-general and the caretaker period would be doing these events rather than politicise it with Malcolm and myself turning up, and our people thought, well, that seemed a sensible and respectful thing to do, not to have a big political sort of entourage and all of that when much more important thing was being concluded.
So that’s what happened. I would like to have been there with hindsight and I’m certainly sorry that I missed that event. It was an important event and also, you know, I guess it’s that judgment. You don’t want to politicise an event but certainly I think that the return and the repatriation was very important. And might I just give Tony Abbott a bit of acknowledgment for his work on that too.
Updated
Bill Shorten is asked whether Labor would look at boosting the small business turnover threshold to $5m for small business. He says the election is about choices and Labor has made its choice.
He’s then asked about Nick Xenophon outpolling Labor and he turns the question around to say the Coalition is in trouble in South Australia – hence the visit by the prime minister today. What about Xenophon holding balance of power? The Labor leader says it’s up to the voters who they choose in this election.
Q: Will you be campaigning alongside David Feeney who at risk from the Greens at Batman?
Bill Shorten:
I will be campaigning in many electorates. I will certainly be supporting David and plenty of other people but the best thing I can do for Labor candidates is explain to Australians our positive plans.
Updated
Q: What you’ve announced here in Tasmania, the Liberals say you can’t afford it. What do you say to that?
Bill Shorten:
The $44m?
Q: Do you think there’s enough money to do that?
Bill Shorten:
Absolutely. First of all, what we do is we prioritise things which local communities ask for. Julie [Collins] outlined for a year [the policies we’ve been working on ... We’ve been working on the policies longer than PM has been leader of the Liberal party.
The real question is can Australia afford a $50bn tax cut which principally goes to overseas shareholders? No, we can’t. But can we afford to stand up for tourism in Tasmania? Yes, we can.
Updated
Q: How can you campaign against a company tax cut now given you were for one back in 2011. What’s changed?
Bill Shorten:
There’s no comparison between 2011 and now. The truth of the matter is you can only ever do company tax cuts when the nation can afford to do them. That goes for any tax cuts. And the truth of the matter is that in 2016, the idea that we would give a $50bn tax giveaway where it basically goes to overseas shareholders, to large banks, mining companies and multinationals, well, that’s the wrong choice for this country at this time.
Q: Mr Shorten, how can you say that a $50bn tax giveaway, your words, would have no effect on jobs when a much, much smaller tax cut that you were talking about in 2011 was going to create jobs? It’s illogical.
Bill Shorten:
First of all, you can only give tax cuts when you can afford them. Now the circumstances are quite different between 2011 and now. And let me illustrate what I mean by the changed circumstances. The tripling of the deficit, the triple A credit rating being at risk, standard of living in Australia declining since the Liberals got in, wages growth flatlining. The government’s getting increasingly hysterical in their attacks on Labor at the moment. They know they’ve made a mistake with a $50bn tax giveaway.
Q: The question is why is a tax cut in 2011 of a very small nature going to create jobs when a much larger tax cut in 2016 to 2026 won’t?
Bill Shorten:
Because the choices that this government’s making are the ones which undermine our economic prosperity in the future. I choose to invest in Medicare, I choose to invest in schools, I choose to stand up for our pensioners, we need to have sustainable economic growth. And at the numbers which we talk about for the poor economic growth of Mr Turnbull’s economic changes, highlight the paucity and the shallowness of their economic recipe.
Q: When you made those comments back in 2011, the budget deficit was $50bn. How is it affordable then and not now?
Bill Shorten:
They’ve tripled the deficit.
Q: But a $50bn is still a high deficit?
Bill Shorten:
Let’s not rewrite history. That was a debate in the context to the changes of the mining tax.
Updated
Bill Shorten is flagging a $44m Tasmanian tourism infrastructure fund, with spending in Cradle Mountain, in Burnie, and in the north east.
Bill Shorten addresses reporters
Good morning, everybody, and welcome to another great day of weather in Burnie.
The Labor leader is underway now, oceanside.
Tasmania can no longer hide its beauty from the world. It’s been one of the best kept secrets but the world is waking up to what a glorious destination Tasmania is. In 2015 Lonely Planet rated Tasmania as its 4th best destination to visit.
What Tasmanians deserve with the great opportunities of tourism, is a national government committed to making sure that Tasmania’s beauty is brought to the world.
Who is this stranger?
PM meets a shy toddler... #ausvotes pic.twitter.com/Qo7X93Wpuc
— Stephen Dziedzic (@stephendziedzic) June 3, 2016
Bill Shorten will address reporters in Burnie, Tasmania, shortly.
“I hope you sleep well at night” – a refugee advocate in Stirling to the prime minister.
Independent refugee advocate challenges @TurnbullMalcolm about refugees "I hope you sleep well at night" @australian pic.twitter.com/UiIdGRYYY6
— Rosie Lewis (@rosieslewis) June 3, 2016
Updated
Looks like a street walk is in progress. Look at the crush. Clear out Stirling, circus coming through.
One local raises refugees- very unhappy with government's border protection policies #ausvotes pic.twitter.com/rYPUoVc9Wj
— Stephen Dziedzic (@stephendziedzic) June 3, 2016
Here’s some vision.
PM ambushed by Nemo protestor wanting reef protection (and selfie) #ausvotes pic.twitter.com/ZKi4vXOzrW
— Jackson Gothe-Snape (@jacksongs) June 3, 2016
Malcolm Turnbull finds Nemo
When Malcolm Turnbull got out of the car, he was greeted by a protester in a Nemo suit, worried about coal mining and the Great Barrier reef.
Turnbull stopped for a selfie with the fellow in the fish suit, saying his grandson loved Nemo, so he’d love it. The prime minister went to move on by, but then thought he might seek to convert Nemo to the Coalition’s various climate actions. He turned on his heel and doubled back. Always a brave campaign call, to tussle with a man in a fish suit, but there has never been a more exciting time.
The prime minister told Nemo the reef was now off the endangered list. Nemo persisted. How about the Adani coal mine? There was no public money in Adani, Turnbull said, before presumably understanding this could become a zero sum game, and moving cheerfully on.
Updated
As we speak the prime minister has arrived in the Hills, and is taking on Nemo as we speak. Yes, I’m not joking.
I gather Labor’s announcement today is about tourism in Tasmanian. Another poll puts Labor ahead of the Liberal MP Andrew Nikolic in the seat of Bass.
The prime minister is ascending the Adelaide hills as we speak (and journalists, too, now the bus has been rescued) to pledge that a re-elected Turnbull government “will drive jobs and growth in Mount Barker by investing $3.75m towards the new Mount Barker regional sports hub”.
A Liberal prime minister having to show up to back in a Liberal candidate in Mayo is a pretty unusual event. Alexander Downer, who held the seat before Briggs, did have to fend off challenges from the Democrats in the early 1990s – before my reporting lifetime. He had a second insurgency in the late 1990s, when the former lead singer of the band Redgum, John Schumann, ran in the seat.
But it’s been pretty quiet since then.
Updated
A pictorial representation of why momentum matters in political campaigns.
Quick push and we're away #ausvotes pic.twitter.com/14KjIjHgVN
— Jackson Gothe-Snape (@jacksongs) June 3, 2016
Speaking of not mentioning the war, the Australian this morning has an extract of a new biography about Malcolm Turnbull’s father-in-law, Tom Hughes, which republishes what journalist Troy Bramston characterises as “a blistering letter Mr Hughes sent to his brother, the late Robert Hughes, world-renowned as an art critic and accomplished historian”, when Tony Abbott became Liberal leader.
Tom Hughes on Tony Abbott:
This is a potentially catastrophic decision. To elect Abbott in his place is the equivalent of putting the bull in charge of the china shop or the principal lunatic in charge of the asylum. Abbott’s behaviour in relation to the risks of global warming may be compared to the oscillations of the weather vane.
*Crickets*
Updated
Don't mention the war
The defence minister, Marise Payne, is speaking to reporters in Townsville where she is campaigning today.
Q: Marise Payne, we heard a lot about war from your treasurer on the same day veterans were repatriated. It’s worth pointing out neither leaders attended that service. Were his comments appropriate?
Marise Payne:
I’m not going to make any comment in relation to the ceremony which I attended yesterday.
I will leave the gravitas of that as it is.
Q: Scott Morrison’s comments have offended veterans groups.
Marise Payne:
I’m not going to comment.
Updated
And in the Apple Isle.
Meanwhile, in Indi.
Campaign launch is this Sunday at 2pm! If you can't make it, watch live stream: https://t.co/mNGrb7Rd0y #indivotes pic.twitter.com/uutSAMuGBn
— Cathy McGowan (@Indigocathy) June 2, 2016
The video of Bill Shorten endorsing company tax cuts has been referred to several times on the blog this morning, so best we show you it.
To summarise the arguments this morning, the Coalition says, “Look, Bill, you hypocrite!” and Labor says, “Hang on. These were tax cuts the government and the Greens voted against, and in any case, the budgetary circumstances were different.”
Left untrammelled in all this is a knock-out blow from the Coalition showing corporate tax cuts are a boon for economic growth (the evidence is a distance short of compelling), and a coherent explanation from Labor about why Australia can’t afford $50bn in corporate tax cuts, yet the ALP is happily spending some of the money on its election promises.
Updated
A plug sure, but an informative one, I hope. This week Lenore Taylor and I have brought in Mark Textor, the Liberal party pollster and political strategist, for the campaign podcast, which should be up some time this afternoon. I’ll share it once I have it. Our purpose in this conversation was to hit pause on “jobs and growth” and “budget repair that is fair” and unpack the reliability or otherwise of published opinion polls, like the ReachTEL one I’ve just referenced. It’s a mini polling masterclass. In the conversation we cover why the major polls are asking either the wrong questions or not enough of the right questions, and the problems with marginal seat polls – and we also think about concepts such as tactical voting. If you are into politics and numbers, this is your chat.
Updated
Bit of context for that final question on the Liberal Jamie Briggs losing Mayo. The Nick Xenophon team is strong in the seat if a new poll is any reliable guide.
A ReachTEL poll conducted on 16 May but released only on Friday found 23.5% of people in Mayo support the Nick Xenophon team (NXT).
Briggs, who holds the seat for the Liberal party, attracted the most support with 39.6% of voters planning to vote Liberal.
But NXT candidate Rebekha Sharkie could win the seat, with preferences from Labor (who received 18.3% support) and the Greens (10.7%).
The poll of 681 people also found the 4.4% of voters who were undecided in Mayo were leaning towards NXT. It found 33.3% of undecideds favoured NXT, compared with 26.7% for Labor and 20% for the Liberals.
In Christopher Pyne’s seat of Sturt, the Liberals polled 41.4% compared with 21.3% for NXT. NXT is narrowly ahead of Labor (20.4%) and well ahead of the Greens (8.4%), suggesting a strong flow of preferences could boost it into a winning position.
However, unlike Mayo, Sturt’s undecided voters favoured the Liberal party (39%) much more strongly than NXT and Labor (both on 19.5%).
Of voters who weren’t planning to vote Labor or Liberal in Sturt, 64.3% planned to preference Labor compared with 35.7% for the Liberals. This suggests if Labor overtakes NXT in the count, Christopher Pyne may be returned by receiving a sizeable chunk of preferences.
Updated
Q: No changes to the GST. Do you mean never ever on the GST?
Malcolm Turnbull:
Well yes, it’s not something we would contemplate in the next term of government.
Q: Will you proceed with the super changes?
Malcolm Turnbull:
It is absolutely ironclad, yes. The commitments we have made in the budget are our policy.
Q: Does the fact that both you and John Howard are campaigning with Jamie Briggs in Mayo suggest you are worried about him losing?
Malcolm Turnbull:
It indicates we are campaigning all over the country.
Updated
Malcolm Turnbull is on Adelaide radio at the moment imploring voters in South Australia to vote for the Coalition, not for Nick Xenophon. He says only the Coalition can deliver things for the state, such as the big defence spend.
Updated
In the Mural Hall, Labor’s Tony Burke is being asked about Shorten’s position on the tax cut in 2011.
Q: Isn’t it true that Labor, senior Labor ministers, previously had supported a company tax? Bill Shorten spoke about it in Parliament in 2011, people like Chris Bowen have spoken about it in his book, and also Penny Wong has spoken about it. Isn’t there some merit in cutting taxes for businesses beyond a turnover of $2m?
Tony Burke:
In terms of 2011, there has been a bit of footage running around over the last 12 hours. Can I start with this concept: in 2011 Labor put forward a company tax cut and the Liberal party voted with the Greens against it. So in terms of have parties changed their position between 2011 and now on a very specific issue of that particular company tax cut? The answer is yes but it is a story of the Liberal party as well. Let’s tell the whole story on that.
The second thing, though: what has changed since then? Well, in the last two years alone, for the financial year that we are about to enter, the deficit has more than tripled. In their first budget the government said the deficit for the next financial year would be $10bn. In the budget they just delivered, that figure has blown out to $37bn. So you have to ask the question with any tax cut: is it affordable?
Now there is no doubt a small business tax cut under the current definition of small business is affordable. There is also no doubt that you can’t deliver the extraordinary gift to big business that Malcolm Turnbull’s putting forward unless you make cuts to health and education. Malcolm Turnbull is willing to go ahead with that by making the decision at the same time that he will attack Medicare. Where you have got that sort of choice, that’s not a choice Labor would make.
Updated
At his regular doorstop in Canberra, Mathias Cormann has gone on the attack over video which surfaced of Bill Shorten backing company tax cuts in 2011. “Australians now know what Bill Shorten really thinks about the economic benefits of a more competitive business tax rate. Bill Shorten of course knows that a more competitive tax rate helps boost investment, boost productivity, boost growth, create more jobs and over time increase real wages. That is what he told the parliament not that long ago.”
But Cormann faced a blizzard of questions about whether it was inconsistent to pick on Shorten when the Coalition opposed company tax cuts in 2011. Cormann explained the Coalition opposed Labor’s mining tax package and company tax cuts were linked to the revenue from the mining tax at the time.
Cormann was also asked about Nick Xenophon, after ReachTEL found his party was polling above 20% in SA seats Mayo and Sturt, and whether the government was sharpening its attack by calling him protectionist. “I don’t know how you can say describing Nick Xenophon as a protectionist is an attack. I think he would describe himself as that. Nick Xenophon is a protectionist.
“Our future lies in embracing international competition, embracing the opportunities that come from our exporting businesses getting better access to key markets overseas.”
Cormann would not say how much it cost to build submarines in Australia compared with an international build and whether this constituted protectionism. He described local shipbuilding as an investment in jobs and growth.
“We are totally committed to Australia as an open trading economy, and an economy whose future economic success lies in selling more of our products and services in a global market,” he said. Cormann pointed to free trade deals with China, South Korea and Japan.
Updated
Tony Abbott on the two “people’s votes” of the next parliament (assuming a Coalition victory): the referendum on recognition of Indigenous people and the plebiscite on same-sex marriage.
Two reflections here: Abbott will campaign in favour of recognition provided the amendment is only about recognition. Presumably he means he doesn’t want the proposition to further what Andrew Bolt might term the “rights agenda”. And if the people of Australia vote yes at the plebiscite, so will he.
Q: Well there are two very big debates that are coming up. One is the Indigenous referendum and the other is the same-sex marriage debate. On the Indigenous referendum issue, how do you think that’s going and would you be really active in that campaign?
Tony Abbott:
I think it’s now being mulled over by people at a grassroots level. There are the community consultations that Bill Shorten and I agreed upon back in July of last year that are now going ahead. There’s an Indigenous stream, there’s a general stream. They’re taking place.
Hopefully, in the next few months, a proposal will crystallise, a proposal which can unite our country rather than divide our country, and provided it is about recognition and it’s not seeking to do a whole lot of other things that might be more properly be the preserve of the parliament, I see no reason why I won’t be there campaigning strongly for it.
Q: And you think it can be carried?
Tony Abbott:
If it’s about recognition and not about a whole lot of other things, yes I do.
Q: And in the same-sex marriage campaign, which looks as though, if the government is returned, will be this year, will you be campaigning for the “no” case?
Tony Abbott:
Well, again, I have a well-known position on this. I’m a traditionalist on this. I accept that good people can disagree on this and I accept that a position which was almost unthinkable a decade ago is now strongly supported by lots of people in our community.
I think of my sister – the arguments I’ve had with her. She was not interested in this five years ago but now she’s passionate about it, as is her right. But I have a position. It’s been a very consistent position and in appropriate ways I’ll be putting it.
Q: So you would expect individual Liberal MPs – backbenchers – to be able to campaign for “yes” or “no”?
Tony Abbott:
Well, I certainly think that the whole point of a plebiscite is that politicians become less important and people become more important. I mean that’s the whole point of a plebiscite. It takes it out of the hands of the parliament and puts it into the hands of the people, and Tony Abbott’s opinion is no more important than anyone else’s opinion.
Q: But MPs would be free to put that opinion …
Tony Abbott:
Well, again, this is a matter for the partyroom to thrash out. But I’d certainly expect that there would be some people on one side, there will be other people on the other side, and that will be true of the Labor party as well.
Q: And some of your colleagues, for example I think Eric Abetz, have suggested that if the “yes” vote got up they would still feel free to vote against the enabling legislation. Would that be your view or would you think that if the “yes” vote got up that would be an instruction to MPs, as it were, from the electorate?
Tony Abbott:
Well, my view is that by putting this view to the people at a plebiscite, we’ve effectively said that the people are sovereign on this matter rather than the parliament.
Q: So you’d vote for enabling legislation …
Tony Abbott:
You’d have to respect the outcome.
If you’d like to listen to the full podcast, you can find it here.
Updated
Good morning. It's Friday. Welcome
Thanks Mel, good morning everyone and welcome to Friday, it’s lovely to be with you. Let’s start with a couple of snapshots of the campaign, sticking in the first instance with South Australia. Mel has mentioned that Malcolm Turnbull is campaigning in Adelaide last night and today. As well as calling in on Cory Bernardi’s event Turnbull made himself available for a virtual town hall with the voters of Sturt, which is of course Christopher Pyne’s seat. Various folks alerted me to this on Twitter last night, and Pyne has documented the event on his Instagram account.
The Coalition is leaving no stone unturned in South Australia. I have no sense of how that contest is unfolding from this distance, but I’d love a field trip to find out. Interesting that now Nick Xenophon is making his biggest play for balance of power, trying to take seats from the major parties in the lower house as well as the Senate, the level of scrutiny from the News Corp papers has increased. The Australian has two negative stories about Xenophon prominently on its website this morning. I’m not suggesting anything at all untoward here. Election cycles subject all candidates to close scrutiny, and that’s exactly how it should be, no question. It’s simply interesting. Readers in Adelaide might get in touch today and let me know how the Advertiser is characterising the Xenophon sortie because I don’t get a sense of that from Canberra.
Sticking with interesting, Tony Abbott has bobbed up in conversation with The Conversation’s Michelle Grattan. As Michelle notes “Just as there is a ‘good Malcolm’ and a ‘bad Malcolm’ so there is a ‘good Tony’ and a ‘bad Tony’.” In this conversation, it’s good Tony who has shown up. If you were a humanitarian, you’d say it’s good that Abbott seems in better temper. Leadership contests are very bruising things to go through, it’s good that he no longer sounds so ferociously defensive, or ferociously sad. But if you were a cynical person, you’d say the former prime minister is playing a very deliberate long game. You’d say he’s positioning himself for the future, because in politics, you just never know, and because you just never know, it’s good to hover on the balls of your feet, particularly if you aren’t a speedster. Abbott’s default genre is the marathon, not the sprint.
I’ll give you a little bit of the Abbott content shortly before we roll into the day, but first, a reminder today’s comments thread is open for your business. If the thread’s too bracing for you, Mike Bowers and I are up and about on the twits – he’s @mpbowers and I’m @murpharoo. If you only speak Facebook you can join my daily forum here. And if you want a behind-the-scenes look at the day and the campaign as a whole, give Mike a follow on Instagram. There’s some beauties there from yesterday. You can find him here.
Updated
Thanks to those early birds who have joined me this morning. I’m handing over to Katharine Murphy and the team in Canberra now.
To recap, Labor finance spokesman Tony Burke and shadow treasurer Chris Bowen have this morning been defending their party’s apparent change in stance over corporate tax cuts. A video has emerged of Bill Shorten arguing for the cut back in 2011. Burke told ABC’s AM program that the time was no longer right to introduce the cut, with Medicare and health now a priority:
I f they reintroduce a Labor policy they spent two years railing against and reintroduce it just before an election good on them.
You don’t get these tax cuts for free – if you give it, it means other things hit the fence on the way through.
Malcolm Turnbull wants to bring company tax rate down to 25% over the decade while cutting and trashing Medicare and bulk billing.
Melissa Davey signing off now, as Turnbull tours South Australia and Shorten takes on Tasmania today.
The man who calls himself “the fixer” is in a bit of a fix, writes Max Opray in this profile of Christopher Pyne for Guardian Australia. The industry minister is defending his political future from Labor and the emerging threat of the Nick Xenophon Team.
South Australia’s most prominent Liberal politician is up against not only the old enemy in Labor, represented by the LGBTI rights activist Matt Loader, but also the emerging threat of the Nick Xenophon Team (NXT), which has offered up emergency doctor Matthew Wright.
Xenophon, whose party outpolled Labor in South Australia in a Roy Morgan survey released this week, has personally involved himself in the fight despite Pyne’s attempts to avoid such a showdown, slamming the Pyne team’s“premature erection” of election signage and mocking the campaign slogan “Pyne Delivers” by printing out empty pizza boxes adorned with the industry minister’s face. Pyne hit back this week by accusing NXT members of stealing his signs.
Juggling the responsibilities of a senior minister in addition to a war on two fronts within his own seat, Pyne is working overtime to safeguard his political future, hitting up shopping centres for meet-and-greets and in particular targeting the migrant small business owners that so define Adelaide’s eastern suburbs.
Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen says the economy is in a different position now compared to when Bill Shorten argued for a company tax cut in 2011. Despite Shorten supporting the cut back then, Labor is opposed to the government’s plan to lower the corporate tax rate.
Bowen told the abc’s AM program:
“You’ve got the triple A credit rating under real pressure now, and you’ve got this government refusing to fund schools properly. If they want to make a charge of hypocrisy it’ll bounce right back on them.
Updated
Fairfax reports that Malcolm Turnbull was photographed last night at a fundraiser for Cory Bernardi’s Conservative Leadership Foundation [CLF], despite the pair’s opposing views on climate change and gay marriage.
The CLF website notes the venue is the “headquarters of Australia’s conservative movement” and can host 150 people in a “cocktail format.” There were attempts to replace some of the foundation’s signage with Mr Turnbull’s paraphernalia but its understood this was swiftly rebuffed.
The CLF’s shop boast an array of Cory Bernardi merchandise, including “Hardcore Conservative” T-shirts and the senator’s five books. His most recent is The Conservative Revolution, in which Senator Bernardi labelled women who have abortions as “abhorrent and pro-death.”
He also said children from single mother families have higher levels of criminality and promiscuity, and claimed his views were not “far-right” but “enduring.”
Last month, the the Queensland government evacuated teachers from a remote Indigenous community of Aurukun over safety concerns after a school principal was allegedly carjacked and threatened with an axe by teenagers.
The direct instruction model of the school has been criticised, which was introduced to Aurukun when Aboriginal leader Noel Pearson’s Cape York Academy became involved in 2010.
ABC’s Fran Kelly has pointed out some of this criticism to Pearson on AM this morning. He rejected it, saying:
You’re swallowing a whole lot of spin from a whole lot of the anti direct-instruction crowd. This past week has been a travesty of a conversation... that has been turned around into a story about the failing. I am prouder of nothing else, of the progress of those children at Aurukun who carry a heavy burden. These children are nonetheless succeeding against all of those odds.
Journalists like yourself don’t get on top of the facts.
Updated
From AAP, we turn to the electorate of Bass:
Labor is leading the two-party preferred race in Liberal MP Andrew Nikolic’s northern Tasmanian seat, according to a new ReachTel poll.
The survey of 824 residents across the electorate of Bass, conducted on Tuesday, found Mr Nikolic received top billing with 44.1 per cent of first preference votes.
But on a two-party preferred basis Labor candidate Ross Hart tipped the scales with a narrow margin: 51 per cent to 49 per cent.
The poll, commissioned by lobby group GetUp!, focused on health services spending.
A majority of respondents backed Labor as better placed to manage health services, except those aged over 65 who gave the Liberal party their support.
Former army brigadier Mr Nikolic is serving his first term in Bass which he won in 2013 with a four per cent margin.
Project presenter Waleed Aly, editor Scott Stephens and journalist George Megalogenis have recorded a podcast for the ABC asking: Are our political leaders out of ideas?
Aly says:
What’s strange about this election campaign is that it’s timid. During the leaders debate, it felt like both sides were playing for a nil-all draw.
I feel like this is an election campaign that is waiting for someone to step up and try to win it, rather than wait for the other side to lose it.
That didn’t take long - we’re back to super talk.
Christopher Pyne has just told the Nine network that he “absolutely” guaranteed the Coalition will not backtrack on its changes to superannuation.
This is a fairness measure and there is absolutely no reason why we should change it.
Updated
From AAP: Labor frontbencher Penny Wong has been forced to defend her party’s position on company tax cuts after being shown a 2011 video of Bill Shorten talking up their benefits.
The opposition is now opposing the government’s 10 year plan to reduce business tax, arguing it’s about priorities and choices.
“We just think we’d rather be putting money into Australia’s schools, into protecting Medicare ... than a $50 billion tax break for businesses earning up to $1 billion,” Senator Wong told the Nine Network on Friday.
Updated
Former Liberal candidate for Brisbane, Neil Ennis, has joined the Greens, saying he is “ashamed of” his former party, Josh Robertson reports.
Ennis, who once campaigned with John Howard, says Malcolm Turnbull is beholden to hard right of party.
Ennis, a lifetime Liberal voter who ran twice for the party, including in the seat of Brisbane in 1993, registered as a member of the Greens in February.
The small business owner represents a sizeable segment of the growing Greens base whose traditional allegiances lean right.
The party, whose membership is said to have grown about 40% in the last two years, is aware of about 20% of their voters who give preferences to the Coalition over Labor regardless of what’s on their how-to-vote cards.
Ennis’s growing disillusionment with the Liberals in government was reflected in letters of concern to his federal member, Peter Dutton, in 2014.
He told Dutton that the government’s proposed changes to racial vilification laws and slashing the renewable energy target would prompt him to “actively campaign against” the party.
“I’m a long-time Liberal voter and small business operator but I am surprised at how many recent decisions by the federal government are alienating me,” Ennis wrote. “I feel like you guys are now hostile to most of the issues that are important to me.”
Full story here.
More on that excruciating Sky News interview with Bronwyn Bishop, courtesy of federal politics reporter Gareth Hutchens.
Sky News’ political editor David Speers was left with little to work with as the former speaker remained tight-lipped over key questions, including her relationship with Tony Abbott, Hutchens writes:
The interview had been billed as a chance for her to clear the air over events surrounding her controversial helicopter ride, and her strained relationship with Tony Abbott.
But Bishop gave Sky viewers nothing.
She admitted the helicopter ride was “probably a pretty dumb thing to do,” but she would not reveal what was going through her mind at the time.
“[At] the time, it was to get to the function to be there on time to speak about the role of the speaker as I’d been doing all over the country,” she said.
Speers pressed her, asking “surely it must have clicked at the time that [it was] not right?” and Bishop said “yeah it did”, apparently acknowledging that she did know it was the wrong thing to do.
So Speers asked her, to be sure: “So you knew that at the time?”
But Bishop backtracked: “Well I do now, with hindsight. It was just that we had to get there. The time constraints were there. But as I said it was a pretty dumb thing to do.”
And so it went.
Read the full piece here.
Bishop: Abbott asked me to resign personally https://t.co/LEbRoWXhRk pic.twitter.com/3LkPWrbEuk
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) June 2, 2016
Updated
Welcome to the end of week four of the political campaign, which means we’ve made it halfway through. Polling day seems almost visible on the horizon now. Almost.
This week has been dominated by talk of superannuation, and we can all thank Julie Bishop for that, who on Tuesday failed to explain the Coalition’s superannuation policy during an interview with Neil Mitchell.
By Thursday a backbench revolt was looming over the policy, Liberal party donors were threatening to withhold donations, and nearly every MP to give a press conference or radio interview was asked to explain what the policy means.
Will this furore continue into Friday? We’ll see.
Melissa Davey with you here for the final time this election campaign. Someone else will take the 5am reins next fortnight, and I can’t say I’m too devastated about that. Early mornings aside, it’s been fun. Though may I never have to type the words “jobs and growth” again.
As always, the blog’s rightful owner, Katharine Murphy and the Canberra team will be with you from 8.30am, taking you onwards and upwards.
Happy Friday.
The big picture
Fairfax reports that the Labor party is furious with the ABC over the Vote Compass website. Labor has demanded a disclaimer be added to the website, which aims to help people decide how to vote based on how their own views align with party policies. Fairfax explains:
New ABC boss Michelle Guthrie has been sent a blistering letter by Labor national secretary George Wright demanding the website stop using party logos, return data provided and publish a prominent statement noting the ALP “does not believe it is an accurate representation of our party’s positions”.
Labor is furious with the ABC over its Vote Compass website, arguing it misrepresents the ALP’s position on election-deciding policies including penalty rates and boat turn-backs.
Vote Compass has been used more than half a million times during the 2016 campaign and features prominently in ABC news coverage of the federal election.
And while it is usually the Coalition that has public stoushes with the ABC, Labor believes the site seriously misleads voters over key policy positions and unfairly directs voters to support the Greens or the Coalition.
In The Australian, Independent Senator Nick Xenophon features heavily this morning, with reports that he failed to declare his directorship of a company run by his father.
The Aus reports that the company once owed $2.5m to the Australian Taxation Office in unpaid company taxes and developed an apartment tower that housed international students who later turned some units into illegal slums.
The South Australian independent, who stands to win the balance of power in the Senate, initially denied any involvement with Adelaide Tower Pty Ltd but after checking admitted he had failed to declare the directorship in his parliamentary register of interests in an “embarrassing oversight”.
Senator Xenophon personally owns two units and Adelaide Tower owns two or three others in the King William Street block, where students created bedrooms in kitchens and living rooms using partitions made from shower curtains and wardrobes.
“It is not good enough that it (the directorship) wasn’t disclosed; I’ll be getting an independent auditor in,” he said.
“I am embarrassed it wasn’t disclosed but I have to take responsibility for it. It was a genuine oversight. It’s a matter of public record through ASIC (Australian Securities & Investments Commission) that I am a director of it.
In a separate story, the Senator warns he will be “ruthless” in using his numbers in the upper house to impose his agenda on the next government.
The South Australian independent yesterday seized on the fate of Arrium’s troubled Whyalla based steelworks to oppose Australia’s entry into a World Trade Organisation procurement agreement as well as the landmark Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact covering 48 per cent of global GDP and delivering a $1 billion boost to Australian farmers.
The Prime Minister faces growing calls to tackle Senate intransigence, with the chair of the government’s 2014 commission of audit, Tony Shepherd, warning that the Senate represents a potential threat to the “future welfare of Australia”.
Tipped to win at least three Senate seats at the July 2 election, Senator Xenophon said his team would “unashamedly use our votes to hold out for Arrium to get the help it needs” after its Whyalla steelworks was placed into voluntary administration in April. He claimed the WTO procurement agreement and TPP covering 12 Pacific Rim nations would destroy manufacturing jobs and called for a review of the impact of free trade deals on the domestic manufacturing sector.
On the campaign trail
For the second time, Turnbull will be in South Australia. He’ll be visiting the electorates of Mayo and Makin.
In Mayo he’ll campaign with Jamie Briggs, who resigned from the ministry in December over unacceptable behaviour involving a female public servant at a bar in Hong Kong, during which he allegedly tried to kiss her on the neck. Then, he was criticised for sexist comments he had allegedly made by his former staffer Rebekha Sharkie, who is now running against her former boss in the electorate who and is polling strongly.
While in the electorate, Turnbull will announce a package to drive “jobs and growth” in Mount Barker by investing $3.75m towards the new Mount Barker Regional Sports Hub.
Shorten is in Launceston, Tasmania, in the electorate of Bass, held by Liberal Andrew Nikolic.
The campaign you should be watching
Let’s stick with Mayo in South Australia. As mentioned above, the Liberals’ Jamie Briggs is facing stiff competition to retain the blue-ribbon Liberal seat.
As AAP reports, “a candidate from independent senator Nick Xenophon’s team and a former staffer of Briggs, Rebekha Sharkie, is polling strongly and is poised to potentially cause a massive upset” in what has been a very safe Liberal seat.
Mr Briggs’ reputation took a battering after he resigned as cities minister late last year following revelations of inappropriate behaviour in a Hong Kong bar involving a female diplomat.
A ReachTEL survey of 681 residents on May 16 for activist group Getup found just under 40 per cent intend to vote for Mr Briggs.
He’s trailed by Nick Xenophon Team candidate Rebekha Sharkie with 23.5 per cent support, followed by 18 per cent for Labor and 10 per cent for the Greens, News Corp reports.
According to the ABC’s electorate guide, third parties have always polled well in Mayo.
In 1990 the Australian Democrats polled 21.3%, and polled 21.8% in 1998 when candidate John Schumann came close to defeating Alexander Downer. The Liberal first preference vote fell to 45.6%, and strong preference flows to Schumann from Labor and One Nation came close to creating an upset.
Given these past results, the Liberals have much to fear from the Nick Xenophon Team if the Liberal Party falls any significant way short of 50% and the Xenophon team outpolls Labor.
And another thing(s)
The former prime minister, Tony Abbott, has given a lengthy interview to The Conversation’s political editor, Michelle Grattan.
Apart from campaigning in his electorate of Warringah, Abbott has been largely keeping his head down throughout the campaigning, only appearing where he is invited by campaign HQ. Which is more than can be said for other ousted PM’s, namely Kevin Rudd.
Abbott says he hasn’t ruled out travelling to the Victorian seat of Indi where Sophie Mirabella is trying to reclaim the seat she believes is rightfully hers from Cathy McGowan. [Speaking of Indi, there is an excellent profile of the electorate in the Monthly here by John van Tiggelan].
I certainly have been talking to Sophie Mirabella about how I can help her because, as you know, Sophie’s a friend of mine. We’ve been mates for 20-odd years. And I was very, very disappointed that Sophie didn’t win Indi in 2013 because I expected her to be a strong member of the Abbott cabinet.
Abbott also said he hopes he and Bronwyn Bishop can be friends again one day following the choppergate scandal and her dumping from the position of Speaker.
I would certainly like to think that at some point in the future the long friendship could be resumed. But there’s absolutely no doubt that the loss of the speakership was a very hard blow for Bronwyn, and I can understand that. And I guess the difficulty with the things that have happened over the last 12 months is that a number of relationships have been strained.
But in an interview with Sky News last night, Bishop was more frosty. In a rather difficult interview where she didn’t’ give away a whole lot, Bishop said he hadn’t spoken to Abbott apart from to say “g’day” since being dumped. She also said:
When Tony asked me to resign himself I did to protect him. It was to protect him and I did. So that’s it. But it’s kind of yesterday’s news.
On choppergate itself ...
We had to get there. The time constraints were there. But it was a pretty dumb thing to do.”
As to who she voted for in the leadership ballot:
Well, the world seems to have made up its mind about who I voted for, so let’s just move on. I think that’s adequate.”
Back to Abbott, and he was also asked about the topic of the week - superannuation. Abbott threw his support behind the policy, even though, when he was PM, he vowed not to touch super. He’s changed his mind on that, he says, and staunchly defended the policy.
... there obviously is some disgruntlement among some people who are normally very strong Liberal supporters.But the point I keep making to them is that superannuation is not about building up your wealth, it’s about giving you a reasonable income in retirement. Now over the years some people have seen it as a vehicle for wealth creation.
The government, quite understandably in the circumstances, wants to return superannuation to its original purpose. The Labor Party, likewise, wants to return superannuation to its original purpose, which is why Labor has some rather similar proposals on the table to ours.
The other point I keep making, Michelle, is that sure, superannuation is going to be less tax-advantaged for people with very large superannuation balances, but there is no way of doing the sorts of things we have to do with company tax without finding the revenue from somewhere.
Updated
