In a nutshell
Given how the day panned out, it was probably apposite that the energy minister, Angus Taylor, gave himself a herogram to keep collective morale high. (“Fantastic. Great move. Well done Angus”). The brief self-care, quickly deleted, was followed by the inevitable crash. There is always a moment in a federal campaign where poorly vetted candidates start to explode – and on Wednesday that moment was duly reached. The sound of exploding was heard around the land.
The Victorian Liberals lost two of their finest (yes, irony) by mid-afternoon. Peter Killin, the Liberal candidate for Wills in Victoria, resigned after the Herald Sun revealed some of his anti-gay comments from 2018. The “homosexual lifestyle” was “distressingly dangerous”, the candidate thought. He also thought he would have voted against Tim Wilson’s preselection (Wilson being a gay Liberal MP) had he had the opportunity.
Bye bye Peter. Bye bye.
Jeremy Hearn, another Victorian Liberal candidate, is also in the process of being disendorsed by the state division because of his negative commentary about Muslims. Hearn said all Muslims subscribed to an ideology of “killing or enslavement of the citizens of Australia if they do not become Muslim”. Bye bye Jeremy.
Just while we are on the walk of shame, another Liberal candidate, Gurpal Singh, also had to apologise a few days ago for linking same-sex marriage with paedophilia during the marriage equality debate. He’s still on his feet at this stage, but the Liberal campaign spokesman, Simon Birmingham, says if there are issues to be looked at, they will be looked at.
Labor was also in the frame on Wednesday. The Australian published a story referencing lewd Facebook posts from the party’s candidate for the seat of Melbourne, Luke Creasey. Creasey issued an apologetic statement characterising his youthful stream-of-consciousness rape jokes (yes, really) as “stupid, immature and in no way reflect the views I hold today. I apologise for these posts which have been removed.”
Labor has not (yet) required Creasey to take a long walk off a short plank. Bill Shorten is yet to comment. The ALP has already had to disendorse a Senate candidate in the Northern Territory, Wayne Kurnoth, for antisemitic remarks.
Scott Morrison, on the hustings in the west, understandably, was not amused by the fracas. “I expect the party administration to be doing their due diligence and, where that’s been not up to standard, I expect them to meet those standards in the future and improve their processes,” the Liberal leader said. “They need to be dealt with swiftly and appropriately and that’s the action we are taking”.
Experience tells me there is likely more candidates shock to come.
Elsewhere on the trail
As well as exploding candidates, and a speech by the Greens leader, Richard Di Natale, at the National Press Club, we had the ongoing travails of the Liberal party’s preference deal with Clive Palmer. Christopher Pyne found himself tap dancing after being asked the reconcile the preference deal with Palmer’s intention to rip up the Murray-Darling water agreement, which would not be popular in Adelaide. Pyne, on radio, counselled that preference considerations in the Senate were “often a choice between the devil and the deep blue sea”. Pyne was asked whether scrapping the basin plan was mad policy. He said the government had no intention of going down that path. “But is it a mad policy,” the host persisted. “Well that’s Clive Palmer’s policy apparently, but we support the Murray-Darling basin plan, we’ve implemented it and it’s the best plan possible for South Australia and we have to hold fast to it,” Pyne said. “Now just because Clive Palmer has that view, number one, he’s not elected yet by the way. He doesn’t have any elected representatives in the parliament”. And so it goes. Palmer is apparently due in Adelaide on Thursday.
The big picture
Well-vetted retirees get feisty at a seniors’ forum hosted by Scott Morrison.
Required reading
Seven potential lower-house independents have signed a joint statement pledging to pursue a number of climate change actions in the event the election makes them kingmakers in the next parliament – including working to stop the controversial Adani coalmine. While we are on independents, at least two candidates have indicated they would support Scott Morrison remaining in government if Australia was faced with a hung parliament. A video has emerged proving that the far-right ringleader Neil Erikson attended the Perth rally headlined by the Liberal MPs Andrew Hastie and Ian Goodenough in support of white South African farmers. If you are so inclined, there’s some new commentary from me about the risks for Liberals and Nationals hitching their wagon to Clive Palmer and One Nation.
Tweet of the day
Travelling with Scott Morrison in the west, after the forum where seniors were on song about the risks of the Labor government, journalist Annika Smethurst with the goods.
If only the Liberals vetted their candidates as thoroughly as they vet people attending the Prime Minister’s campaign forums
— Annika Smethurst (@annikasmethurst) May 1, 2019
What next?
Bill Shorten is off to Tasmania and the critical marginal seats in the state after fronting up for an interview on Wednesday night on the 730 Report. Scott Morrison will depart Western Australia for an undisclosed destination. Renewable energy and health will be on the policy agenda.
