Summary
And that’s a wrap of this sunny Saturday in politics. I hope you’ve enjoyed it in the event you needed a brief dose of politics to spice up your weekend.
We’re closing up this blog now, so here’s a final summary of events before I go:
- Bill Shorten was praised generally by commentators and analysts for his debate performance on Friday night, with a distinct edge over Malcolm Turnbull. The debate focused mainly on the economy, banking and housing.
- Shorten spent Saturday touting the Labor party’s education policies and talking up the “education election”. He said that over the next 10 years Labor would invest $37bn “to guarantee that every school in every postcode receives fair funding on the basis of need” and would deliver on David Gonski’s higher education reforms.
- Turnbull continued to highlight the Coalition’s economic record, and said that everything the party was doing was “calculated, designed to drive economic growth and more jobs.”
- The Greens leader, Richard Di Natale, also addressed reporters on Saturday, after the party had been excluded from the debate. He said there would be a “green tide” coming for the election.
- The Coalition’s announcement with Pathology Australia to stave off changes to bulk billing arrangements faced criticism from the Australian Medical Association and Labor.
Enjoy the rest of your Saturday. Try to take just a brief hiatus from politics if you can, we’ll be back with more as always tomorrow.
I’ve just pulled together a quick take of the day on the campaign trail. Here’s how events unfolded:
The Labor leader, Bill Shorten, has touted his party’s education record by committing to invest $37bn in the sector over the next 10 years and declaring that the coming federal polls could be the “education election”.
Shorten was campaigning in Brisbane while speaking at an education rally on Saturday, the day after the first peoples’ debate, in which hewon the audience vote on the night.
He said that over the next 10 years Labor would invest $37bn “to guarantee that every school in every postcode receives fair funding on the basis of need” and would deliver on David Gonski’s higher education reforms.
“Australia does not have to choose between a growing economy and great schools. We cannot have a growing economy without great schools,” he said.
“Friends, this can be the education election. A referendum on the future of education in our country.”
Shorten delivered a stinging riposte to the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, over his attitude to Gonski’s school reform program.
“Mr Turnbull thinks the fact that he went to school with his friend David Gonski is the same as delivering Gonski to our schools,” he said. “Namedropping is not an education policy, is it? If you really believe in needs-based funding, then you have to deliver the funding to meet those needs.”
That’s it for the press conference now. Here’s a few Tweets with video clips.
PM @TurnbullMalcolm addressing question on whether his personal wealth will be an issue in the campaign #ausvotes pic.twitter.com/tBNUqSgBZK
— Annika Smethurst (@annikasmethurst) May 14, 2016
PM says victims compensation for families of MH17 will continue + @LaundyCraigMP will sit down with Serge #ausvotes pic.twitter.com/dOy8X7z9UD
— Alice Workman (@workmanalice) May 14, 2016
Turnbull is now being questioned about his personal wealth and the suggestions that he’s out of touch last night from Shorten.
Let me just say to you...Lucy and I have been very lucky in our lives. We know that, we know there are many people who have worked harder that have not been so fortunate. We count our blessings. That’s something that we recognise.
I can understand why Mr Shorten wants to make an issue of this. But I think that most Australians understand that our nation is built on opportunity and aspiration and that all of us are entitled to aspire to achieve great things for our families.
Turnbull is being asked about the Australian Medical Association’s more critical view of the pathology announcement this morning. His first response is a bit of a non-answer:
Pathology Australia have announced that they will continue bulk billing in the way they have before.
When asked again about the savings:
The saving will continue and what, as Sussan Ley has described, is changing are the regulations to ensure that market rates are set in the various localities where they are.
The important thing is that the patients will not pay any more, bulk billing will continue.
Updated
Prime minister Malcolm Turnbull is now addressing reporters in Sydney. He’s fired back at Shorten with one of his own zingers on national security.
We’re providing enterprise tax cuts which will support all of these businesses ... everything we’re doing is calculated, designed to drive economic growth and more jobs.
We have an economic plan. As we know our opponents only have a spending plan.
And the zinger:
They’re the same old Labor. They can’t be trusted with economic security any more than they can be with national security.
Updated
The Green tide is coming. Here’s AAP’s take on Richard Di Natale’s press conference from earlier today.
Greens leader Richard Di Natale says a “green tide” is coming and if it’s a hung parliament on July 2, he’s confident deals will be done.
The Greens national team assembled in Melbourne on Saturday, and Senator Di Natale says the phone will ring after the election if neither of the major parties secures majority power.
“If the prospect is not governing at all, or having a responsible power-sharing agreement as part of multi-party government, then that’s where they’ll land on,” he told reporters.
“It is only a matter of time before multi-party government is the norm.”
Senator Di Natale says the Greens will work to build on their senate team and with a very real possibility of picking up a potential senator in Queensland or NSW.
He says if they don’t gain another lower house seat in this election “it will happen by the next one”.
And just switching back to the Labor campaign, Shorten is with Labor MP Terri Butler announcing Labor’s plan to provide additional funding for family violence services.
OL @billshortenmp & @terrimbutler announced $65.7m over six years for Family Violence Services #auspol #ausvotes pic.twitter.com/0uZz4zRH9K
— Political Alert (@political_alert) May 14, 2016
Malcolm Turnbull is now on the campaign trail in Reid with Craig Laundy. A very touching moment captured here with one of the family members of an Australian who was on board the MH17 flight.
Incredible moment in Reid this morning as Malcolm Turnbull comforted Serge, whose son died in MH17. #ausvotes pic.twitter.com/OJovY4fLOz
— Alice Workman (@workmanalice) May 14, 2016
For another weekend election long read, the excerpt of David Marr’s essay in Good Weekend on Bill Shorten is one that shouldn’t be missed. The first line is a real killer.
He is the master of a small room. This is a boardroom in a Sydney warehouse, where an outfit called BlueChilli aims to turn start-ups into businesses. It’s as elegant as all get-out. Everyone is young. They’re in a rush to go places even when they’re standing still. Shorten is shown around: bare brick, coffee machines and whiteboards. He says: “Where’s the ping-pong table?” The language around the table is 21st century, but the ask is as old as time: these tyro entrepreneurs want government help.
Updated
We’ve heard quite a lot from Bill Shorten this morning, but not from the Coalition yet. Word is that Malcolm Turnbull is on the way to Sydney, so we can expect to hear from him soon.
Turnbull bus heading to Reid to campaign with @LaundyCraigMP. It's currently held by the Liberals on a margin of 4.2% #ausvotes
— Alice Workman (@workmanalice) May 14, 2016
Updated
Labor’s Catherine King has now hit back at the government’s pathology announcement from last night. She said it’s an “election stunt” and that the cuts will actually still go ahead.
The Turnbull government was determined to make cancer patients and others with chronic health conditions pay more for their vital tests.
But the government has made clear that it is only deferring these cuts until after the election, and will resume its attack on patients once the election is out of the way.
The government’s election deal with pathologists also does not apply to diagnostic imaging, meaning that the cuts to bulk billing payments for X-Rays, MRIs, PET scans, mammograms and other vital scans will continue, leaving patients with hundreds and possibly thousands of dollars in up-front costs.
Updated
Just coming back to Shorten’s speech, here’s a little excerpt from the protester who disrupted the speech over Labor’s asylum seeker policies. He said he was previously an ALP supporter.
Adrian Skerritt, who busted up @billshortenmp's speech, says he's opposed ALP since Keating's mandatory detention. pic.twitter.com/UVbFagDwtV
— Jared Owens (@jaredowens) May 14, 2016
And here’s a little from the party we didn’t get to hear from during the debate last night. Greens leader Richard Di Natale has just delivered a simmering rebuke to the Greens’ non-invitation.
"We're a party that stands on the shoulders of giants" @RichardDiNatale acknowledge former leaders Bob Brown & Christine Milne #ausvotes
— Stephanie Anderson (@skateanderson) May 14, 2016
Post election, @RichardDiNatale wants @AdamBandt to turn around & see a group of @Greens MPs, not @CliveFPalmer #ausvotes
— Stephanie Anderson (@skateanderson) May 14, 2016
The Greens national conference is on in Melbourne now, so he’s flanked by the entire team.
Worth mentioning Sarah Hanson Young’s rather amusing take on the debate from last night.
If only we had @RichardDiNatale there to cut through the waffle & scrapping.... #peoplesforum pic.twitter.com/cqeKRD1YMt
— Sarah Hanson-Young (@sarahinthesen8) May 13, 2016
Updated
Here’s a couple of fantastic shots from the people’s forum last night courtesy of Mike Bowers for those who didn’t have time to catch it on Sky. You can really feel the brotherly love in that handshake. It looked firm. Real firm.
Updated
And Labor is now looking to shift the focus to other issues, such as family violence. Here’s the ABC’s take.
The Federal Labor Party is promising an extra $65 million over the next six years for frontline family violence services, research and prevention organisations.
The plan would see $10.6 million spent each year on telephone counselling service 1800-RESPECT as part of the national plan to reduce violence against women and their children.
“We genuinely want to see money going to frontline services and to qualified counselling,” Labor’s family violence spokeswoman Terri Butler told AM.
Moving on to some other election issues of the day, and the Australian is reporting there’s been backlash on the superannuation policy from within the Coalition.
Malcolm Turnbull is staring down a backlash over his superannuation policies from conservatives who are threatening to vote against the Coalition in the Senate and sabotage the government’s double-dissolution strategy.
The Prime Minister, Scott Morrison and Minister for Finance Mathias Cormann are refusing to make changes to the budget superannuation hit on high-income earners, and government backbenchers and ministers are being given extra information to explain the proposals.
Liberal conservatives have complained about the surprise measures announced in last week’s budget limiting tax-free superannuation accounts to $1.6 million and capping non-concessional contributions to $500,000. They are threatening to campaign against the government and organise protest votes.
Shorten’s now finished his speech. Here’s the last few lines.
In 49 days, millions of Australians will be walking through the gates of their local schools. In assembly halls and classrooms and gymnasiums across our country. Australians will be voting on the future of schools in this country.
And when that day comes, for that decision, my message to Australians is simple. Choose Labor, because Labor has chosen education. And I make a final promise to all of the teachers who worked so hard in education. You understand better than most that the sort of message our society gives our kids rests in what we prioritise. And I can promise every teacher in every school, this promise. We will restore the status of education and teaching to the rightful pinnacle it deserves to be. And we tell our young people that our schools are important. We tell them what we think is important as a nation, and it is education. Thank you, everyone.
Shorten pulls out his first zinger of the morning.
Mr Turnbull thinks the fact that he went to school with his friend David Gonski is the same as delivering Gonski to our schools. Namedropping is not an education policy, is it?
Following this delivery Shorten started to face heckling from a group of asylum seeker advocates. They’re still attempting to disrupt the event now in the background.
More on Shorten:
What we’ve seen in these remarkable schools is students falling in love with learning. But we see the teachers selling the raffle tickets...to help fill the holes in the school budgets. These schools, these communities, they deserve a government that will help them.
This is real money, real improvements.
Shorten’s now kicking off his address in Brisbane at the education rally. He’s making the case for more - and better focused - investment in education around Australia.
We will give a ten year guarantee of the right resources. More individual attention to classroom support....
This is not hypothetical. This is not a bit of theorising. This is not about trickle down economics.
Moving now to the polls. Here’s a short take from AAP on the Galaxy poll following the debate:
Galaxy Polls in Brisbane’s Courier Mail and Sydney’s Daily Telegraph, taken early in the first week of the two-month campaign, show Labor hasn’t done enough yet to pick up enough seats in Queensland or western Sydney.
The Telegraph’s poll of 500 voters in each western Sydney seat shows a swing back to Labor of 3.5 per cent, but it’s not enough. The government is still ahead in the key seats of Lindsay, Gilmore and Reid and could retain Banks, where the two party-preferred vote is 50-50.
The parties are also deadlocked in the Central Coast seat of Dobell, but Labor is on track to pick up Macarthur from the Liberal’s Russell Matheson following the redistribution.
“If these results are observed at the ballot box on 2 July then the Labor Party may pick up just one or two of the seats they need to win in NSW if they are to form government,” Galaxy Research CEO David Briggs told the Telegraph.
“However, the poll confirms most of these seats are definitely in play and with seven weeks to go to election day there is still a long way to go.”
Mr Shorten will take heart from Friday night’s debate against Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in the marginal Liberal seat of Macquarie, which was not part of the Galaxy research.
Here’s Bill Shorten now in Brisbane. He’s shortly to address an education rally there.
.@billshortenmp is a popular man, at least among ALP campaigners in Brisbane. pic.twitter.com/vxa5QdVPL2
— Jared Owens (@jaredowens) May 14, 2016
Just returning to the Coalition’s pathology announcement last night. One point of interest is changes to pathology rental arrangements, which the Coalition is proposing to find the money to reduce costs which will in turn allow for continued bulk billing.
Going back a couple of years now there have calls from the pathology sector to either cap rents on blood collection centres or make changes to how they are calculated. One particular criticism levelled in Australian Doctor has focused on GP clinics charging inflated rents for co-locate centres. The Australian Medical Association has also previously criticised the rental situation.
The current regulations surrounding the pathology sector states that the rent must be “not substantially different to market value”. That’s defined as a sum being paid that is not more than 20% greater or lesser than the agreed compliant market value, according to a Pathology Australia briefing paper. These provisions are contained in regulations made under the Health Insurance Act 1973.
The Coalition’s announcement said it would introduce legislation to change the definition of fair market value. Their key change appears to be to “link this meaning with relative local commercial market rents.”
One as yet unspoken issue this poses is for the GP clinics that co-locate with blood collection centres. If the government succeeded in passing the legislation, it does appear that the lessors of some GP clinics may quite suddenly have to lower their rents for blood collection centres that co-locate.
Updated
Michelle Grattan also has a take on the debate in The Conversation. Here’s a brief excerpt below where she looks a little at what wasn’t talked about:
Also notable was what didn’t get asked. Much of the election debate this week has concerned Labor’s asylum seeker policy, but boats did not rate a mention. Nor did climate change.
Shorten came across as traditional Labor, focused on the importance of services. But he was also anxious at every opportunity to say how he’d pay for them. He stressed that decisions were about priorities.
He was blunt when pressed on privatisation, saying “the privatisation tide has probably gone too far”. Turnbull said these days the issue was more of a live one at state level. When he was pushed on Australia Post and ASC Turnbull tended to faff around. Shorten jumped in to say that Australian Hearing should not be privatised.
A bit of analysis on the viewer numbers for the debate. Worth noting though that there were also several live streams of the debate that may have drawn a lot more viewers outside of the formal TV stats.
Probably the most salient point we can take from this is how timeless Basil Fawlty really is.
Leaders forum watched by just 39k people in capital cities. 240th most watched show, behind Fawlty Towers & Real Housewives of Beverly Hills
— Andrew Greene (@AndrewBGreene) May 13, 2016
Given it’s Saturday, this dose of post debate politics might be a little on the heavy side for all you Saturday morning readers enjoying a nice breakfast. If you want a great morning read though in the global politics ballpark, it’s very much worth checking out Jonathan Freedland’s piece about post-truth politicians. It unpacks the truly bizarre ways that liars become leaders.
In this era of post-truth politics, an unhesitating liar can be king. The more brazen his dishonesty, the less he minds being caught with his pants on fire, the more he can prosper. And those pedants still hung up on facts and evidence and all that boring stuff are left for dust, their boots barely laced while the lie has spread halfway around the world.
The proof is on show most visibly in the US, where Republican nominee-to-be Donald Trump enjoys a relationship to the truth that is chilly, occasional and distant. The Washington Post’s fact-checker blog has awarded its maximum dishonesty rating – four Pinocchios – to nearly 70% of the Trump statements it has vetted. And it’s vetted a lot. That doesn’t mean the other 30% turned out to be true. They just earned three Pinocchios rather than the full four, which means the Post found a shrivelled kernel of veracity wrapped inside the thick layers of fraud, distortion and deception.
Among the biggest of whoppers, Trump has claimed that Barack Obama was not born in the US; that Obama spent $4m in legal fees to hide the true facts of his birth; that Hillary Clinton was the true originator of these “birther” claims; that he, Trump, opposed the Iraq war before it happened (of which there is no evidence); that “thousands” of Muslims in New Jersey celebrated the 9/11 attacks; that he started his business empire with a “small loan” from his father, when in fact he inherited $40m; that the father of his former rival, Ted Cruz, was a pal of Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald; and on and on. To adapt Mary McCarthy’s critique of the novelist Lillian Helman, every word Trump says is a lie, including “and” and “the”.
Read the full piece here.
We’ll start to hear a bit more from the leaders and other key players shortly. Shorten is set to be in Brisbane today to address the Your Child, Our Future rally at the Brisbane Convention Centre. So expect a focus on education this morning from the Labor camp.
Here’s the morning media comment from the Labor campaign’s spokesman:
A Shorten Labor government will make sure all our kids, regardless of their postcode or parents income will have the skills they need to succeed. Bill Shorten and Labor believe investing in education is an investment in our kids. In contrast, Mr Turnbull is cutting $29 billion from your schools to give big business a tax cut.
Let’s take a quick look at what the other papers are saying about the debate last night. The Daily Telegraph has taken a more circumspect line, despite Shorten being the people’s choice so far.
Class warfare exploded as the election centrepiece after Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten traded blows, but failed to land a knockout, during the first debate of the campaign in Western Sydney tonight.
One hundred undecided voters, chosen by Galaxy research, were given the opportunity to quiz both leaders on issues in the region and wider Australia.
The voters, from the marginal seat of Macquarie grilled the leaders on the cost of healthcare, tax cuts, privatisation of government assets, multinational taxation, the banking sector, superannuation and jobs during the one hour Sky News/Daily Telegraph People’s Forum at Windsor RSL.
The Sydney Morning Herald’s Matthew Knott has gone in on Turnbull’s rather unfortunate defence of real estate agents and bankers.
Real estate agents and bankers: hardly the two professions most beloved by voters.
And yet, in the first political debate of the campaign, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull appeared to rush to their defence.
Even for a man known for his love of innovation, this was quite something.
And The Australian has focused on the housing aspects of the debate.
Fierce disputes over housing policy and banking regulation dominated the first televised clash between Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten last night, with an audience of undecided voters giving the debate to the Opposition Leader by 42 to 29.
Mr Turnbull intensified his attacks on Mr Shorten for proposing a $32.1 billion reform to negative gearing and capital gains tax over a decade, seizing on audience concerns over the cost of housing to warn of pressure on Australians from the Labor plan.
While Mr Shorten hit back with a strong call for an inquiry into the major banks, he left himself open to criticism by making a jibe about the government’s royal commission into the union movement.
Updated
For a bit of campaign catch-up, have a listen to our podcast with Lenore Taylor and Katharine Murphy. It’s got all the latest from the election so far.
Updated
My colleague, Paul Karp, has also pulled together an extremely helpful analysis with the five key moments from the debate. Complete with zingers.
1. Turnbull calls out Shorten for claiming credit for government policies
Malcolm Turnbull called Bill Shorten out early for taking credit for the government’s good works (or following the opposition’s lead, depending on which side you believe).
In response to the first question about businesses moving offshore, Shorten asked: “If it weren’t for Labor’s efforts, would we be talking about building submarines in South Australia today?”
In response to the second, on multinational tax avoidance, Shorten said: “We have championed making multinationals pay their fair share, and we’ve had some success in convincing the government” to pursue it.
Turnbull shot back: “Bill is taking credit for many of the things the government has done”. He said Labor hadn’t commissioned any ships to be built in Australia’s shipyards, in comparison with 54 by the Coalition government.
2. Shorten’s bank bashing goes down a treat
Shorten enjoyed a good bout of bank bashing – calling for a royal commission because of scandals such as CommInsure failing to pay out on insurance contracts, and attacking them for ATM withdrawal fees and not bringing credit card interest rates down.
Turnbull asked why Shorten had written elsewhere that he wanted to “put banks in the dock”, pointing out “that’s where a person accused of a crime stands”. “Here you’ve got Bill, who wants to be prime minister, and he wants to line them up as if they’re all criminals.”
Updated
The Coalition’s pathology plan is one of the big policy announcements from Friday. They were facing a potential backlash from Pathology Australia over their bulk-billing changes, but have now come to an agreement with this proposed measure.
We’ll be unpicking this a little more today but here’s the release from the health minister, Sussan Ley, on the announcement:
The Coalition has reached agreement with Pathology Australia that a returned Turnbull Coalition government will take immediate action to reduce regulatory cost pressures on pathology providers.
This includes legislating to address ambiguities and improve compliance regarding the charging of “fair market value” rents for pathology collection centres by landlords.
These changes will allow the pathology sector to continue to provide all Australians affordable access to pathology services through maintaining current bulk-billing rates.
The pathology sector recently identified rents as their biggest cost-pressure threatening the ongoing sustainability of bulk billing for patients at a roundtable convened by the Coalition in April.
This announcement will give the pathology sector a more sustainable path to confidently invest in future innovation in line with our plan for jobs and growth.
It will also maintain a diversity of providers in the sector safeguarding access to pathology services across Australia, including in rural and regional areas.
As such, the Coalition and Pathology Australia have agreed that our action on rents allows pathology providers to continue to bulk bill patients without the current incentive payment.
The Coalition is committed to building a Healthier Medicare and will increase investment in Medicare to $26 billion by 2021. This is compared with an average of about $17 billion under Labor.
Updated
For all the readers out there this fine Saturday morning who don’t quite feel up to catching up on the entire debate, here’s a quick series of cuts from our video team setting out some of the key debate moments:
Updated
So how did Bill Shorten get the edge in the leaders’ debate last night? Lenore Taylor’s analysis sets it out
Finally, 100 voters at the Windsor RSL have hauled the election out of the talking points and into the real issues. And the issues they wanted to talk about favoured Bill Shorten
They even got some answers in a serious and civilised policy debate where both prime ministerial contenders performed confidently and well.
But the tone and the content of many of the questions clearly favoured Labor’s agenda: hostility to the banks, multinational tax avoiders, privatisation, housing affordability, education and concerns about health costs.
And the hangovers from Tony Abbott’s 2014 budget were everywhere – in a question about the GP tax that has long since been abandoned in favour of the less obvious funding squeeze on government payments to doctors – and in the generally sullen mood about the performance of big business and the impacts on ordinary people of spending cuts.
Turnbull, probably the more confident performer, kept circling back to his company tax cuts as the recipe for “jobs and growth”, but that wasn’t what was firing up the room.
You can read the full piece here.
Updated
Summary
Good morning, and welcome to our continuing coverage of the 2016 Australian election. This morning we’ll be bringing you all the reaction to the first leaders’ debate between Bill Shorten and Malcolm Turnbull, and some more updates on the Coalition’s proposed new health spending measures.
Here’s a quick summary of how the debate went last night:
-
Bill Shorten won the audience vote at the first debate by 42 votes to 29, with 29 undecided after both flagged new measures on health spending. Shorten’s performance was seen as more convincing by a significant majority. Strong responses on housing and banking appeared to give him the edge.
-
The first leaders’ debate turned mostly on questions of the economy, housing and banking. There was a strong focus from the audience on the way each party could deliver on those policies, and how it would leave them all. There were no questions about issues such as marriage equality and asylum-seeker policy.
-
The debate came amid new new flagged policy proposals on health spending. The Health Minister, Sussan Ley, had announced a deal with Pathology Australia surrounding bulk-billing incentives, while Labor indicated it may not maintain a Medicare funding freeze.
We’ll be bringing you more updates this morning and more analysis on how the debate unfolded so do follow on.
Updated
