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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Amy Remeikis

Shorten condemns egging of Australian prime minister Scott Morrison – as it happened

With the campaigns all but tucked up for the night, it’s time to put the blog to bed.

Pauline Hanson will be the Radio National guest this evening. It’s the first interview since she cried on A Current Affair over the men she selects as candidates continually letting her down.

David Littleproud and Joel Fitzgibbon will debate agriculture policy at the National Press Club at lunch time, while the leaders will be on at the same venue, from 7.30pm.

And we’ll be back early tomorrow morning to cover it all.

Thank you to everyone who came along with us today, and for your comments and messages. We appreciate them all. Have a wonderful night – and take care of you.

The campaigns are down for the night.

Labor plans on heading to Canberra ahead of tomorrow’s debate, while Scott Morrison is on his way back to Sydney, with the plan to head to Canberra tomorrow.

We’ll bring you the debate on the blog, so I hope you’re ready for another long day.

A reader has just sent me this – worth the trip down memory lane:

Updated

We have seen candidates hand out other parties’ how-to-vote cards – including Liberals and United Australia party volunteers – but this is a whole new level of odd.

Updated

Patricia Karvelas: Apart from the big tax cut policy, we know little about your agenda. Answer me this, will a re-elected Morrison government be a reforming government?

Simon Birmingham: I don’t accept the premise of your question. We handed down a budget a few weeks back and 700 policy measures outlined...

PK: Other than tax there is no big reform in that document.

SB: Firstly, the tax reform is big. To eliminate the 38 cent in the dollar tax and eliminate tax creep, so Australians can work an extra shift and get a pay rise and not be pushed into the next tax bracket. We will pay down Labors’s direct...

PK: But on my question, is it going to be a reforming government?

SB: It is going to be a government that makes sure we deliver what Australians. Strong economy, budget surpluses to pay down Labor’s debt, secure borders and investment in the national security apparatus, continuing record investment in schools, hospitals, roads, our infrastructure. Australians expect their governments to be responsible with their money, to be cautious in our approach, to deliver the services that they value but to make sure those services are paid for without the need for higher taxes.

PK: But you use the word, will it be a reforming question? That is my question?

SB: It is a reforming government by virtue of having the most significant reform to our income tax structure the nation has seen in a long time...

PK: But reforms in industrial relations?

SB:

By tackling important social issues like suicide and mental health issues that the prime minister has put a strong focus around his agenda and the policy settings put there. It will be a government that makes sure it gets on with reforming in the social context and the economic context but as people expect a Liberal National government to do.

Bill Shorten will be a reformist, a radically reformist government if he pursues his agenda because he does have the most radical agenda in a generation and Australians will pay a significant price for that.

You cannot go about pursuing billions of dollars of extra taxes and extra spending without having a consequence on economic growth.

We’ve seen today from the Reserve Bank statement we need to keep a firm eye particularly on continued labour market growth in the future. We have achieved that, 1.3 million plus jobs created in our term in office, plans for another 1.25 million. That is done by a strong economy and listening to the Reserve Bank.

Updated

PK: Can we look forward to your launch on the weekend? Is John Howard going to be the only ex-prime minister there?

SB: Our launch on the weekend, I don’t know whether Mr Howard will be there, but our launch on the weekend will though be about the Liberal Party and the National Party. It will be about our plans and how they help the Australian people and first and foremost, our launch will be about Australians and their future and their lives, highlighting what it is we have done to get Australians into jobs at record rates and record women’s participation and the policies achieved there...

PK: Has John Howard, Malcolm Turnbull and John Howard been invited?

SB: I don’t know.

PK: Why not?

SB:

Because I’m not running the invitation list. Frankly, you’re trying to sort of set this up, a launch must be about celebration of the party. It’s not about the party and it’s not about the past. It is about the future and the choice of Australians for the future.

The choice at the next election isn’t about Mr Howard, Mr Keating or former prime ministers, it is a choice between Scott Morrison and Bill Shorten and a choice between lower taxes, more jobs, targeted spending in the future or a party of higher taxes, a weaker economy and therefore fewer jobs and less opportunities to be able to maintain the budget surpluses that we projected into the future. They are the choices and we’ll seek to contrast the choice for the future at our campaign launch, not the past.

Updated

The interview turns to Scott Morrison’s leadership style:

PK: At the end of Scott Morrison’s interview with Leigh Sales yesterday he said he would be the one in control of your warring wings. What does that mean? Does he have supreme control now?

SB: Well, Scott is the party leader. We have absolutely dealt with the issue in terms of leadership changes. So if Scott is elected as prime minister, he will serve the next three years...

PK: Sure, but the question is about dealing with conflicts on policy we’ve seen, with the climate wars inside your own party, that was at the heart of Leigh Sales’ question. He just overrides disagreement in the party room? Is that the way it will work?

SB:

Scott has been a very consultative leader to date. He has worked hard with the backbench and the different perspectives on the backbench to ensure their voices are heard.

We go into the election with a strong plan to grow the economy, to create 1.25 million jobs to invest in particularly suicide prevention and mental health support with a half billion dollar package of targeted investments there, to support continued development of the trade agenda, which is obviously particularly important to me, through targeted investments and expansion of the Australia Made campaign and logo. These are good plans to keep the economy strong, to keep Australians with strong choices for the future.

That is a leader who has developed those plans in consultation with his team and backbench.

Updated

That exchange continued:

PK: Sure, neither can Bill Shorten, can he?

SB:

Bill Shorten is the one who put it on the table in terms of saying he would look at the aged care royal commission. He is the one who put it on the table in the context of this unprecedented step of government subsidising in the private sector wages. I can tell you that in terms of a Coalition government, we are not about to set up some hodgepodge ill-defined scheme.

We’ll look at the recommendations of the royal commission but won’t be going down a pathway that has government, whose job it is to pay public servants, whose job it is to provide social welfare and support for the safety net, whose job it is to subsidise services like aged services and childcare, but it has never been the job of the government on top of the services pay a subsidy for the wages in the sector.

We would look, if there happened to be a recommendation in the age care royal commission, how is it award structures and the Fair Work Commission could best and appropriately address that.

That is a big hypothetical question.

But I can say we won’t be going down some ill-defined path and it is worth pointing out Mr Shorten doesn’t know how he will do it. Mr Bowen says 100,000 people, part of the workforce, Bill Shorten says it would well be other sectors as well but neither say how they will deliver it because it hasn’t been done before and they will work out the details after the election. It is a $10m policy. Australians deserve far better than the Labor party saying we’ll work out the details after the election if huge amounts of spending are to be undertaken.

(So it’s the same answer Labor gives.)

Updated

This is interesting on what the Liberal party would do if the aged care royal commission recommends workers are paid more:

Question: You have taken on Bill Shorten on the aged care workers’ pay rise issue saying he has flip-flopped on that issue. So if the royal commission recommends that aged care workers deserve a pay rise, is it something a future Morrison government would rule out?

Birmingham:

We will look at whatever the royal commission advises. We will look at the training, professionalism, standards, and we will consider them as they come forward. Yesterday, I highlighted yesterday, you had Chris Bowen in relation to Labor’s wage subsidisation going in one direction and Bill Shorten going in a polar different direction. Chris Bowen was trying to ring-fence it to 1,000 employees by saying not all childcare workers are early childhood educators, saying it is only 1,000, even though workforce data says it is 9,500 in the sector.

Opening the door to the aged care sector and the disability sector. It is an unprecedented policy for government stepping in and paying private sector wages and that $10bn would quickly spiral into who knows how much if you leave the door ajar and say everyone with a claim gets a subsidy.

PK: If the royal commission recommends that aged care workers should get a pay rise, is it something a Morrison government would consider doing as well?

SB: We will receive the recommendations of the royal commission and respond to them...

PK: You also leave the door open to potentially giving aged care workers a pay rise?

SB: What the royal commission is looking at is areas of training, of standards in terms of the structuring of the workforce in the aged care sector. We’ll see what the royal commission recommends. I cannot actually preempt what those recommendations will be. It would be irresponsible of the government to say not to look at the recommendations.

Updated

PK: With respect, you are the campaign spokesman and we are talking about the campaign. I have got questions, don’t you worry. Should we reconsider whether Australians should be able to vote for such a long amount of time?

SB: Not necessarily, Australians are voting and doing so in accordance with the electoral law of the land. If people find in terms of their travel commitments, work commitments, taking their kids to sport, whatever it is, that it is easier for them to vote in advance, good luck to them. That is the process we have.

PK: You don’t think it is worth looking at – new policies get revealed at different points closer to the election, they are not really equipped with all the information, are they?

SB: These are matters that parties take into account when we’re thinking about how we structure and run the campaign but obviously millions of Australians start the campaign knowing who they will vote for. Others leave it to the very end and decide as they walk to the polling booth on election day. Those turning out, by the time they put the pencil to paper, they have made their mind up.

Updated

Simon Birmingham rules out Liberal involvement in WeChat 'fake news' postings

PK: Penny Wong has attacked the government over the Liberal party’s alleged involvement in fake news campaigns on WeChat. Can you rule out Liberal party involvement in the false content that’s circulating on WeChat?

SB: Yes, I can. And I can also say I didn’t see Penny Wong rushing to the barricades to condemn the Mediscare campaign at the last election. We are wracking them up. We have got Sally McManus being a hypocrite and now, Penny Wong, Labor are the party who invented...

PK: Is it happening? I’m confused. Is it happening or not?

SB:

Aside from what I saw in today’s newspaper, I have got no knowledge of it. I’m confident if there are things that are being said that are incorrect, they are not coming from our campaign, it is a social media platform, there are millions of people who comment on WeChat and we don’t control the comments of the millions of different users of WeChat and this is really just a case of the Labor party desperately attempting to create an element of smear or otherwise in the election campaign and trying to distract from the issues.

This is an election campaign with the starkest policy choices that we’ve had in a generation and so far we have talked about egging and postings on WeChat rather than talk about the jobs of Australians, the taxes of Australians, whether the services can be paid for.

Updated

Question: But this was united, everyone agreed that the egging incident was inappropriate and had no place in our political contest. So why score a political point at that juncture? How does that make sense to politicise something like this?

Birmingham:

Well, Patricia, I don’t think you should read too much into the prime minister’s message afterwards.

But I do think it is important to realise behaviour like this often feeds off conduct that occurs elsewhere. If you have the type of behaviour done by trade unions in terms of workplaces, and in particular the CFMEU, that sets a bad example.

If you have an increasingly hostile atmosphere occurring in elements of the political debate that sets a bad example as well. Whether it is the far left, far right or aggressive trade union officials, it sets a bad example. In the main, what you saw when the incidents occurred today, is that Scott Morrison was calm, he was considerate to the others around him and completely unflappable in terms of what occurred.

Really, this is not an issue upon which we expect the election will hinge or turns. It happens on the campaign trail. It is unfortunate and shouldn’t happen and those who want to see a democracy where the leaders can deal freely with the Australian people condemn it and want to see the behaviour stamped out so we can continue to have the type of access Australians value.

Updated

Simon Birmingham pops up as the next Afternoon Briefing guest.

Patricia Karvelas asks about this:

PK:

In today’s egging incident, ACTU secretary Sally McManus has hit back at Scott Morrison for linking this egger to union treatment and said how dare you, we would never support such behaviour.

Why was it necessary for the prime minister to link this event, which has been widely denounced, to the union movement?

Simon Birmingham:

I am a bit surprised that Sally McManus is (a) so thin skinned, but (b) so negligent of the thuggery on work sites around the country.

How much CFMEU officials have had to front court and face challenges on their behaviour that shouldn’t be tolerated in any workplace.

Yet of course, the ACTU is still happy to have the CFMEU as one of its members. Really, Sally McManus ought to be looking firmly in her own backyard before she starts worrying about whether or not the PM made a reflection on elements of the trade union movement act in a despicable manner.

Updated

Josh Frydenberg has responded to the RBA’s decision to not cut the cash rate:

In this year’s Budget, global growth was downgraded to 3½ per cent for 2019 and 2020 following a loss of momentum in the second half of 2018, which has extended in to the current year. The IMF has also since downgraded global growth further to 3.3 per cent in its latest World Economic Outlook warning that “this is a delicate moment for the global economy”.

The RBA in its statement said “the outlook for the global economy remains reasonable, although the risks are tilted to the downside. Growth in international trade has declined and investment intentions have softened in a number of countries.”

At home, we face our own challenges with the impact of flood and drought, as well as a cooling housing market and its impact on household consumption.

Australia’s economic fundamentals remain sound. In its monetary policy statement, the RBA stated that the “labour market remains strong” and that “strong employment growth over the past year or so has led to some pick-up in wages growth, which is a welcome development.”

More than 1.3 million jobs have been created since the Coalition was elected driving down the unemployment rate to 5.0 per cent. More than 100,000 young Australians between the ages of 15 and 24 found jobs last year – the highest number in Australia’s history. Welfare dependency is at 30-year low and we are delivering the first Budget surplus in 12 years.

The RBA expects “the Australian economy to grow by around 2¾ per cent in 2019 and 2020. This outlook is supported by increased investment in infrastructure and a pick-up in activity in the resources sector, partly in response to an increase in the prices of Australia’s exports.”

But we must not be complacent. The Morrison government is delivering pro-growth policies including lower taxes, record infrastructure spending and investment in skills. These policies will support the economy in the near term as well as boost Australia’s productive capacity, underpinning our prosperity.

We are delivering a surplus, beginning the journey towards paying back Labor’s debt. This is important as our interest bill has grown to more than $18 billion per year. The surplus will enhance our fiscal buffers, sending a strong signal to the market that we can meet the challenges that lie ahead. All at the same time as delivering record funding for schools, hospitals and roads.

In contrast, Bill Shorten has a plan to weaken the economy, create fewer jobs and deliver lower wages, with $387 billion in higher taxes. A weaker economy will put at risk Australia’s AAA credit rating, which was reaffirmed following the release of the Budget in April.

The last time Labor delivered a surplus was in 1989 – more than 30 years ago.

When Labor spends more, they tax you more and when Labor taxes you more they weaken the economy.

Australia cannot risk a return to Labor’s high tax and spend agenda.

Patricia Karvelas: Bill Shorten keeps saying everything is going up except for wages. But if you look at the economy, not everything is going up, is it?

Tanya Plibersek: No, but things people rely on every week, power bills, private healthcare insurance, childcare, a whole raft of things are going up.

PK: But you say everything is going up.

TP: No, but you only buy one flat-screen TV so the fact they are coming down is no comfort to people who are struggling to pay their power bills or childcare. That is why our policies are aimed at reducing the cost of childcare, making it free for many families. We have the same tax cuts for many Australians, bigger tax cuts for 3.6 million Australians under $48,000 a year, restore penalties rates and deliver proper wage increases over time because we cannot keep the situation where wages are flatlining and expenses that families struggle with continue to increase.

PK: Just before I let you go, what do you make of the attempted egging of the prime minister this morning? What does it demonstrate about the kind of state of our democracy?

TP: I think it’s terrible. I think it’s – you know, it is such a discourteous thing.

It would worry the people around the prime minister. His – the people who are showing him around that day, his security detail would have wondered what comes next?

Do they have to protect his safety from an even worse attack? It reduces people’s access to parliamentarians.

You were saying before, when instances like this happen, security goes into overdrive so it actually diminishes our ability to connect with voters and talk to them, so it is very bad for democracy.

And I think even if you don’t agree with Scott Morrison, you should respect the office of the prime minister of this country.

We live in a democracy. It is very important to respect our democratic processes. Can I say this last thing, Patricia – it’s been said before, many people say it, the first person to raise their voice loses the argument. I think when we are having public debates about issues, behaviour like this doesn’t win people to your cause.

It actually turns people off your cause. So, I think that whatever this point, this protester thought she was making this morning has been lost and perhaps even I would say that whatever she was trying to convince people of she’s probably convinced more people of the fact that her argument is not worth making a proper reasoned debate. In fact, she would have turned people off whatever cause she was hoping to promote.

Updated

Patricia Karvelas: What did Bill Shorten mean when he said he was thinking what he would do about the age cared workers? Are you considering a rise for them as well?

Tanya Plibersek:

There is a royal commission into aged care and I would be very surprised if it doesn’t make recommendations about workforce.

We know they are some of the worst-paid workers in the country despite the fact they do complex responsible work and age care workers are in a similar circumstance and it is a largely feminised industry.

We have got to see what the outcome of the royal commission is. But, as I say, workforce continues to come up as an issue in the hearings of the royal commission. The stress on the workforce, the low number of people who are caring...

PK: Do you anticipate pay will come up as well and it will be a live issue if you’re elected?

TP: That would be a matter for the royal commission but I would be surprised if the royal commission didn’t make recommendations round the workforce.

PK: And pay specifically?

TP:

I’m not going to speculate and get into hypotheticals but most people would agree that caring work done by women is underpaid. Disability workers, when we were last in government, people who work in drug and alcohol refuges, we supported an increase for those workers.

We have already committed to an increase for early childhood educators because we don’t think parents should pay more for childcare and they should pay less. We have an offer to even receive free childcare but we think they should be properly compensated and it is complex work. We have asked them to increase qualifications with the national quality framework when we were last in government and we haven’t seen a commensurate rise in pay. We have a problem with low wages right across the economy. We have got a real problem with the fact that wages aren’t growing.

The reason we’re so worried about very low inflation in the economy at the moment, the reason that confidence is so low is because wages are not keeping up with the cost of living...

Updated

Patricia Karvelas: Labor has all but promised an increase to Newstart. Will Newstart rise under Labor?

Tanya Plibersek:

We are doing a review, not with the intention of Newstart. But we accept it is an inadequate payment that people are struggling with poverty on Newstart. We need to make sure we can afford the sorts of rises that people will suggest through the process of this review.

Currently, you are talking about a payment of up to about $776 a fortnight but it can be much lower than that as well depending on the age of the person and other circumstances.

And youth allowance, of course, is lower again. Even business groups agree that this is actually trapping people in poverty and preventing them, for example, paying for the public transport to get to their job interviews or a new shirt...

PK: Would you commit to a Newstart rise in your first term if elected as a Shorten government?

TP: We have accepted it is an inadequate...

PK: Would you commit to a rise in your first time?

TP: I wouldn’t put a time line on it but I would like to see a rise to Newstart because people are struggling to make ends meet.

Updated

PK: But do you accept by not modelling the policy you are presenting to the Australian people for the next election. You mentioned the 2015 modelling but you just said it is. It doesn’t take into consideration the architecture you developed here. It is actually different to what you’re presenting.

Plibersek:

Warwick McKibbon said 10 days ago that yes, the Labor policy allows purchase from overseas and the impact is the same as the government.

There is modelling from ANU and the CSIRO talking about the cost of inaction. When it comes to power policies, energy policies, this government has had 13 different energy policies. It doesn’t have one.

They have given up on the national energy guarantee. What is the cost to Australia of not having a policy that will bring down power prices and bring down pollution?

The national energy guarantee modelling showed that – this is the government modelling their own policy when it was their policy – said that households will save about $550 a year with the introduction of a national energy guarantee.

Why has Scott Morrison abandoned this policy? Why won’t Scott Morrison tell you what his energy policy is?

PK: Well, he said he has.

TP: He has admitted. Has he?

PK: I’m not going to make the government’s case for him. I know you don’t agree with them.

TP:

No, it is not I don’t agree with them. I don’t know what they are. It used to be the national energy guarantee. Well, to start with it was Scott Morrison carrying around lumps of coal.

Then their 13th policy when Malcolm Turnbull was turfed out and replaced by Scott Morrison, it is impossible to know whether it was still their policy. They voted for it three times in their party room.

Apparently it is not their policy any more. I don’t know what their policy is.

Updated

Plibersek: Has Scott Morrison answered the question about the cost to the economy? He hasn’t. He keeps talking about the cost to the budget...

Patricia Karvelas: You are trying to contrast and say cost benefit analysis, the cost to the environment and the consequences are bigger from not taking the action that you’ve described.

TP: I say that absolutely...

PK: Let me finish my question. Taking that on face value, why not provide the costings so we can compare the two different sets of modelling to say it is going to cost this much if we don’t and our policy costs this much. Because it is a fiction to say it won’t cost anything to the economy.

TP:

The modelling has been out there since 2015, Tony Abbott requested it from Warwick McKibbin.

When you ask the parliamentary office they can cost that. But the impact on the economy, which is continued growth in our economy and employment in our economy, that’s been done. I tell you something else, there is a huge opportunity in investing in renewables.

We believe our 50% renewables target would create 70,000 extra jobs. We see already in Australia people have made their own decisions – the fact that investing in renewable energy saves them over time. We’ve gone from 7,000 homes with solar panels on their roofs to two million now.

Australian families have made a decision there is an investment here. You invest in renewable energy and the pay-off comes for Australia. It will come in reduced pollution and reduced power prices.

It is why we have programs like doubling the clean energy finance corporation, solar schools, our investment in hydrogen, making sure we have big-scale renewables like the hydro electricity wind and others in Tasmania. Right across Australia we will bring down power prices and pollution with greater investment in renewables.

Updated

Tanya Plibersek is the Afternoon Briefing first guest today.

Patricia Karvelas: Why is it a dumb question, as Bill Shorten said on Q&A, to ask the cost of Labor’s abatement policies. Isn’t it insulting to call a reasonable question like that dumb?

Plibersek:

No, that is not what he meant. He meant we are not considering the cost of inaction. Disasters are costing the Australian economy $18bn a year and that is projected to double by 2028 so the cost of inaction is high. Here is the dishonesty about Scott Morrison’s scare campaign.

Warwick McGibbon did the modelling and when he did that modelling he found the impact of Labor’s higher targets and the impact of the coalition’s targets is the same because to reduce pollution Labor will allow the purchase of offsets from overseas and the Coalition won’t allow the purchase of offsets from overseas.

So, he has said – economists agree that the impact of these policies is the same and it will continue to see growth of around 2% of GDP into the future.

Now, when Scott Morrison talks about the cost of his policies, he talks about the cost to the budget of his policies, which is about $3bn in this Emissions Reduction Fund that isn’t working, that Scott Morrison himself agrees isn’t working.

We would scrap that Emissions Reduction Fund, we’d save $2bn from scrapping that fund. We want to invest in things like electric vehicle charging stations and other investments that would cost $535m. So the cost of our policies to the budget is much smaller.

PK: But the question is about the cost to the economy, the job losses?

Updated

Mark Butler’s response:

As you will be fully aware, climate change and energy policy has played a prominent role in the public debate through this past term of Parliament, as well as the current election campaign.

Based on the intensity of the debate and numerous public opinion polls, climate change is as important an issue in this election as any since 2007, and perhaps any in history.

I note that it is Minister Price who holds responsibility for Climate Change in the government. I have written to Minister Price on 24 April requesting a debate on climate change and am yet to receive a reply.

In addition, my office has raised Minister Price’s participation in any debate with your office, and has been told she would not be participating.

This is extremely disappointing, and I can only conclude it reflects the government’s lack of concern about climate change as an issue as well as a lack of confidence in Minister Price.

In my view your offer of an energy policy debate at the NSW Business Chamber, with small business NSW Business Chamber members comprising the audience, fails to give climate change and energy policy the prominence it deserves as an issue, it fails to provide an adequate forum for voters to engage with the debate, and it fails to represent the whole of economy and whole of society nature of these issues.

I am of the firm belief that a debate between our two parties should be about the whole gambit of climate change and energy issues in as widely accessible format as possible.

That is why I have asked for a debate at the National Press Club, which has indicated they are willing and able to host such a debate on the Friday you have indicated you are available.

The National Press Club is the recognised preeminent forum for nationally significant policy debates during elections. In this election, the National Press Club has or will host a Leader’s debate, a Treasury debate, an agricultural policy debate and a health policy debate.

Last election, I participated in a climate change debate with Minister Hunt at the National Press Club, as well as a nationally televised climate change debate on ABC’s 7.30.

I am convinced your suggested NSW Business Chamber small business energy debate will not do justice to the issues of concern to voters, and will not provide an adequate forum for voters to engage with the issues.

As such, I cannot accept your inadequate offer.

Should your opposition to a National Press Club debate, which includes climate change as well as broader energy policy, change please let my office know.

Updated

Speaking of debates, Mark Butler has been trying to tee one up with Melissa Price (lols) and also with Angus Taylor, to talk energy, as occurred in the last election. The first letter requesting the debate seemed to go out on 26 April.

Taylor responded with this, today:

Thank you for your letter to me of 26 April proposing a debate ahead of the Federal Election.

Given the significance of energy policy in this campaign, and its impact on the cost of living for Australian households and businesses, I agree with you that all Australians deserve to know what the choice on 18 May means for them, their families and their livelihoods.

My office has been in discussions with NSW Business Chamber regarding hosting our debate on Friday 10 May in Sydney.

Should you accept this invitation, my office will be happy to work through further details with yours. I look forward to your response.

Updated

Advance Australia (conservative GetUp) has created a new ad, which seems to be saying the independent candidates are not exactly independent, because they all want “action on climate change”.

*Paul Murray warning

Have you ever noticed this, I am sure your listeners have, people who can’t manage money, always end up spending more of it. Have you ever noticed that,” Scott Morrison says.

They do. They don’t know how to manage it, they always spend more of it, and then guess who they then come and ask to come pay their bills? Someone who does know how to manage it.

His point is that is what Bill Shorten’s policies will do (repeating the line that if you don’t know how to manage money, you’ll come after someone else’s).

Political point aside, as someone who was raised on a low-income single wage in a five-person household (and I acknowledge that we were still a lot better off than a lot of people) it wasn’t a case of not knowing how to manage money that resulted in debt.

It was not having enough money to cover the basics of life. In my experience, those who don’t have a lot of money know how to manage it better than those who don’t have to think about it – you have never seen a dollar stretch so far, when it is one of the only ones you have.

The problem, as anyone on Newstart or the pension, or a fluctuating casual wage, or underemployed, knows, is that those dollars, no matter how well managed, can only go so far. And expenses never go down. So make your political points. But let’s not demonise everyone who can’t pay their bills.

Updated

For the second time today, Scott Morrison also mentions the “recession we had to have” in 90/91 (Paul Keating’s infamous line) when talking about the risks Labor is making with its election spending promises, saying they are spending “30 times” what the government is.

Talking to Ben Fordham on Sydney radio 2GB, Scott Morrison recycles the “I’m not going to over-egg it” pun, about the attempted egging. He also reiterates his concern for Margaret Baxter, who was the woman who was knocked down, but then Fordham brings it back to the lols:

“She could have hit you in the scone, could have been worse.”

“Very good mate,” Morrison says with a laugh.

Narrator: It wasn’t.

Updated

It is worth pointing out that Melissa Price, the environment minister, has not addressed the UN report showing we are on the precipice of a mass extinction event.

Which is very on-brand – she also hadn’t read the IPCC report on climate change, but maintained it was wrong.

She was bailed up on emissions in the press gallery hallway and insisted they were coming down (they are rising, as the prime minister admitted last night) and at the last press conference she held, Angus Taylor did all the talking.

Fantastic. Great move. Well done Melissa.

Updated

We’ve gone international:

Updated

Oh and he is very happy about the royal baby (Bill Shorten also congratulated them on behalf of himself and his family, and said they would be sending over some books).

Scott Morrison wants to send Jenny’s pavlova:

Prince Harry and Meghan, Jenny and I had the great thrill with our girls to be able to meet them when they came to Australia.

Jenny cooked the pav and Prince Harry smashed the pav. He absolutely loved it. Maybe we will have to get one over there for the new baby.

A baby coming into anyone’s life, whether you are a royal or not, whether you are living in Albury-Wodonga or in the southern suburbs of Sydney or in Cloncurry, it doesn’t get any better than that.

The fact that everybody is healthy and everybody is well, it is a nice reminder that there are some really good things in this world. Anything that puts a smile on someone’s face – the first of any child will always do that.

Good on you. God bless and enjoy the moment. It is one of the most special moments in your life.

Jenny and I know that and my colleagues here know that in their own experience. All the best to them and God bless.

Updated

Question: What does it say (politically) that you are in Farrer (given the large margin)?

Morrison: It says there was a CWA conference in Albury today. If it had been in Wodonga I would have been in Wodonga, but given it was the New South Wales branch ... [I think that would have been quite strange]

Question: Is the government in trouble here?

Morrison: No, Sussan Ley has been a highly effective and well-known and hardworking local member of parliament since 2001. She is one of the most articulate and passionate spokespeople for rural and regional life in this country and she is always outspoken, she always puts her view, she never holds back.

In Sussan Ley you have someone who has the ear not only of the prime minister but the respect of her colleagues because she knows how to raise issues and she is a very talented individual.

Apart from being a master of taxation and a pilot and a mum and all of these sorts of things, she is someone who has lived and breathed rural and regional life throughout her entire life.

People can trust her because they have seen what she’s done, they have seen her in action over a long period of time.

That is why I think Sussan does present, I think, the obvious choice here. Her record and her plans speak for themselves and they – I would encourage people across Farrer, including down here in Albury, to give her that support because she will certainly continue to give you great support.

(Except for that time she had to resign from the ministry, which led to the independent travel expenses authority being set up.)

Scott Morrison with Liberal member for Farrer Susan Ley at a community event in Wodonga
Scott Morrison with Liberal member for Farrer Susan Ley at a community event in Wodonga. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Updated

Question: On the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, people, particularly in this part of the country, are concerned about it. The candidate for Farrer wants a review, more money for irrigators. Barnaby Joyce has asked for a review as well. Is this something you will consider?

Morrison:

We have already announced after Sussan Ley brought a delegation of farmers from the Murray – the Murray farmers and particularly the dairy farmers – and following that we initiated the ACCC doing their work into that section of the basin and that is under way now.

On top of that that will include an assessment of the socio-economic impact of things as they are currently operating.

So I think that’s the first step in our response to those, what I found to be very helpful meetings in explaining what the, how the current plan is impacting on those local farmers, and so I found that very helpful.

We have taken further action and we will get that information and then we will take things from there. The Murray-Darling Basin Plan though is a plan that has bipartisan support.

It is a very complicated plan. It is by no means perfect but the absence of that plan or the unravelling of that plan would carry with it equally some very significant consequences so I think you proceed carefully in this area.

Updated

Question: Nearly one million people have already voted. What does that say about the level of engagement in this election and why not advocate for a shorter pre-poll period to ensure that people have enough time to consider their options?

Morrison: I don’t think people are complaining about having the opportunity to vote over three weeks so I don’t really see it as an issue. If that provides the opportunity for people over a longer period of time I don’t really have an issue with. That I’m not seeing anyone, any voters expressing any disenchantment with that idea. I think they find it quite convenient.

Question: Are you concerned that the policies of both parties aren’t out there for people to make an informed choice?

Morrison: Well ours are. We set them all out in the budget. The problem is that Bill Shorten has had 60 occasions to tell people what things will cost and he won’t do it. As people go and vote in the pre-poll they go in knowing that if Bill Shorten thinks if you ask him what things cost he thinks you are stupid and secondly he won’t tell you anyway.

Updated

Question: Are you relieved the Reserve Bank hasn’t reduced interest rates?

Morrison:

The Reserve Bank makes their decision every single month and it is the same decision now for a record number of months.

I completely respect the Reserve Bank governor and their decision to make the decisions, they are watching the things closely. When I was treasurer, I would meet with the senior bank officials every month and get their regular briefings so I have a good insight into their thinking and what they’re looking at.

They are always pleased to see jobs growth and infrastructure investment and a fiscal policy that is responsible and keeps the budget in surplus and doesn’t create unnecessary risks for the economy.

I mean, central bankers are, by nature, a pretty cautious bunch, whether it is here in Australia or anywhere else.

When I was treasurer I would meet with central bankers all around the world and they are a common group of people who are pretty conservative. One thing they don’t welcome ever is big risks being taken in the economy.

And the big risk of $387bn worth of taxes, the big risks that levels of blowouts and spendathon of expenditure from the Labor party at a time we are going into pretty stiff headwinds as an economy, I think that adds up to a real caution that they’ll continue to observe.

So, look, that’s why I think, frankly, when Bill Shorten thinks it is a stupid question to find out what something costs, when he is changing his policies each day, one day he’s going to subsidise age care workers and the next day he isn’t, it is not a sensible policy in the place, he can’t make up his mind who it will apply to day by day, is a cause for concern. He is making it up as he goes along. You can’t make it up when you run a $2tn economy. We don’t do that. We carefully consider our policies and careful about the expenditure of public money.

That is why we aren’t putting up taxes and getting them down and continuing to ensure the budget remains under control and we invest in the things that make a difference, whether it is roads, $100bn in roads, hospitals, including here in Wodonga and the Shell Harbour hospital yesterday, increasing spending on education – that responsible increases in spending that are supported by a budget that doesn’t put extra tax burden on the economy.

Updated

Where is Melissa Price?

Question: There is a United Nations report today saying one million species are facing extinction but we haven’t heard anything from your environment minister today about the report. Is there a risk voters won’t take you seriously?

Morrison: We introduced and passed through the Senate dealing with that very issue in the last week of the parliament. We have been taking action on that, yes.

Question: What is she doing today?

Morrison: I assume she is over in Western Australia, one of the biggest electorates in the country.

Question: Why isn’t she responding to this?

Morrison: You can contact her office directly.

Question: Why isn’t she here with you?

Morrison: We’re standing in Wodonga talking about transport.

Question: One million species is something the environment minister should comment on?

Morrison: I am sure she will make a comment.

Updated

Labor worse than Clive Palmer's United Australia party – Scott Morrison

Question: You upped the values test, when Bill Shorten was defending his Melbourne candidate, and you said that the standard you walk past is the standard you accept.

With that in mind, how can you continue, as late as last night, continue to defend your acceptance of Clive Palmer with your preference deal with him. He may not have thrown an egg but he dudded Australian workers and turned the parliament into a farce when he was in it and his immigration spokeswoman was a former One Nation candidate who has shared social media posts about wanting to ban Muslim immigration?

Morrison: I said what I said last night. At the end of the day we have to advocate a valid vote in the election. In my view, the Liberal and Nationals are the only good vote in this election.

Indicating a valid vote will advocate every square. If I have to make a decision between the Greens and Labor and the United Australia party and the Labor party and the Greens, frankly, Labor and the Greens are a bigger danger to jobs here in this business. I can say that. No, I can say that.

Question: His company collapsed and he just didn’t pay his workers and turned the place into a farce when he was here last time?

Morrison: Mr Palmer must meet all of his obligations and we are pursuing him through the courts to ensure he pays everything he should pay and that’s what he should do.

But if you’re asking me at this election, whether Labor and the Greens are given the opportunity to form government in this country, if you’re asking me is that a risk to Australia?

I think that’s the biggest risk facing this country at this election: the prospect of Bill Shorten becoming prime minister, imposing additional costs whether it is on this business or many, many others around the country, threatening jobs and putting Australia’s economy at risk, being unable to manage money, blowing out the budget again with reckless spending like we saw from Labor last time, we saw them all at the launch last time ... why they invited them all to remind them all of those failures only they can explain. But they are a living reminder that Labor can’t manage money. When they can’t manage money they always come after yours.

Updated

Question: Is this the ugly face of campaigning in this day and age? What do you think it says about modern campaigning and are you concerned Australian politics might see more violent acts?

Scott Morrison:

Well, pardon the pun, but I don’t want to over-egg this thing. But at the same time, what my concern was for Margaret and the disregard the individual seemed to have for those others who were in the room. Margaret was a more elderly woman and she was bowled over in the exchange.

And I was able to help her up to her feet and I’ve contacted her since and I understand she’s had some medical attention and she’s fine and that’s great and I’m pleased Margaret is fine.

It was great to be at the CWA events, I have got to say, and there were so many women who wanted to come and see what I had to say and be involved in their conference. To see it disrupted that way was very disappointing.

You have heard me say this, we have got to disagree better about things. Just because you have a difference of view to someone doesn’t mean you have to engage in these sorts of ugly types of protests.

I mean, it is not the way we should do things. We is civilised people. We don’t have to go running around doing that.

I respect people who disagree with my opinion and we have to learn to disagree better and there has been an ugly side to some of those protests. It happened to me one day.

We have got farmers around the country, the point is she was unlikely to be a vegan protester if she was trying to egg me.

But the point is we have got farmers today who have to put up with really ugly protests by those who want to come and invade their homes and they are dealing with that all the time. We have got small business owners and employees in this country who are dealt with those who want to stand over them for militant unions and that’s why we want to keep the Australian construction commission.

We don’t put up with intimidation in whatever form it takes and whether it is the silly acts from someone who should know better than we saw today or a campaign against hard-working Australians doing the right thing every day.

We have got to make sure we take that ugly side of things. I will be introducing legislation particularly to protect farmers. Already it is an offence to trespass against someone’s property. You heard me say it today at the CWA and the reaction of the women in the room, they get it and understand this is on. By all means you can have a different view but this type of behaviour really should have no place in this country.

Updated

“Pardon the pun, but I don’t want to over-egg this thing. But at the same time, my concern was for Margaret and the disregard the protester had for the other people in the room,” Scott Morrison says about the attempted egging.

Updated

Scott Morrison press conference

Scott Morrison is in Indi, with Jane Hume, making a local roads announcement.

Honestly – what is wrong with people? This is on the same route Larissa Waters’ kids take to school.

There have also been swastikas painted across other Greens campaign posters.

Scott Morrison has found himself another big truck:

Updated

RBA holds interest rate cut – for now

The Reserve Bank has decided to hold interest rates where they are.

Unchanged at 1.50%.

From Philip Low’s statement:

The inflation data for the March quarter were noticeably lower than expected and suggest subdued inflationary pressures across much of the economy. Over the year, inflation was 1.3 per cent and, in underlying terms, was 1.6 per cent. Lower housing-related costs and a range of policy decisions affecting administered prices both contributed to this outcome. Looking forward, inflation is expected to pick up, but to do so only gradually. The central scenario is for underlying inflation to be 1¾ per cent this year, 2 per cent in 2020 and a little higher after that. In headline terms, inflation is expected to be around 2 per cent this year, boosted by the recent increase in petrol prices.

The Board judged that it was appropriate to hold the stance of policy unchanged at this meeting. In doing so, it recognised that there was still spare capacity in the economy and that a further improvement in the labour market was likely to be needed for inflation to be consistent with the target. Given this assessment, the Board will be paying close attention to developments in the labour market at its upcoming meetings.

So if the labour market doesn’t improve – I expect we can see cuts coming.

Updated

Given the attention on pre-polling (we will have hit one million votes by now) I’m interested to know: if you are one of those who have already hit the polls, why you have gone this early?

Updated

Meanwhile, the world continues to burn. From Adam Morton’s report:

Australia’s major political parties are facing calls to explain what role they will play in securing a global deal to save nature after a major scientific report warned a million species across the world face extinction.

The assessment by an international scientific panel convened by the United Nations, known as the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, warns species are declining at a rate unprecedented in human history, with three-quarters of land-based environments and two-thirds of the marine environment significantly altered.

Compiled by 450 scientists and diplomats over three years, the assessment says accelerating species extinction is likely to have significant implications for human society and urgent systemic change is needed to reverse the decline and restore lost ecosystems.

Clive Palmer’s United Australia party appears to have officially launched its campaign – on YouTube:

Clive Palmer launches election campaign

Updated

The RBA decision is due in the next half an hour.

You can follow along with that, here.

Updated

It is currently 11.30pm in New York, but the Turnbulls are still switched on to Australian politics:

Woman knocked over during egging of Scott Morrison chats to ABC

Margaret Baxter, the woman who was knocked over in the melee that followed the attempted egging of Scott Morrison, has had a chat to the ABC.

She’s OK.

Baxter: All I know, I saw a guy with a camera start to wobble and he knocked me and I went down. I found out later that there was a protester trying to get in but I didn’t see the protester. So I don’t know what happened. I have to say that the prime minister helped me get up off the floor and I was very grateful for his assistance. I was then brought out here to the first aid who did a full first aid check, and yes, I’m fine.

Question: What did you land on?

MB: My hip.

Q: Pain? Problems?

MB: Not really, no.

Q: You’re lucky.

MB: My main concern was I recently had surgery on my stomach so my main concern was holding my stomach to make sure it didn’t get hit or somebody land on it.

Q: It could have been a lot worse.

MB: Yes.

Q: Does it disappoint you that somebody tried to throw an egg at the prime minister?

MB: I didn’t see that but I am very disappointed that something like that would happen at a CWA meeting, but I believe they weren’t a CWA member.

Q: What did you think about the prime minister picking you up?

MB: I don’t know, I don’t know.

Q: I think this meeting will go down in folklore perhaps?

MB:I don’t know. I’m a member of Rylstone CWA, Castlemaine Country group and I’m in the Clare electorate of Andrew Gee.

Updated

Question: No one expects Labor to have a majority ... nobody expects mandates in the Australian parliament, least of all the Senate, and you know that. What is your message to the Senate crossbenchers who say they will block the main parts of your program to fund all these promises you’re making, or do you have a plan B?

Shorten:

What I would say first of all to Australians is let’s not have three more years of minorities controlling the Senate. If you are sick of the last years, if you are sick of the chaos, if you’re not excited by the idea that you voted for Tony Abbott and got Malcolm Turnbull, you voted for Malcolm Turnbull and you got Scott Morrison and you vote for Scott Morrison and you get Clive Palmer and Pauline Hanson calling the shots, beyond that, vote for Labor.

I think even our harshest critics say we are putting our policies out there first. I do believe we will have a mandate and I’m a very determined person. I don’t think Australians want to see multinationals treating tax laws as a doormat, wiping their feet as they head off to the Cayman Islands with Australian assets and that tax cuts are more important.

Bill Shorten speaks to the media during a visit to Deakin University School of Medicine in Geelong
Bill Shorten speaks to the media during a visit to Deakin University School of Medicine in Geelong. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

Updated

Question: Mr Shorten, obviously, the RBA will make the interest rate decision later today and you said you will release your costings later this week. Will the RBA’s decision alter the timing or cost of your policies and how?

Shorten:

First of all, we will release our costings later this week. I don’t want to make this press conference all that long, we will be here when it is announced. We know the economy is going backwards and there is a malaise in the economy.

One thing I can say, we are committed to funding healthcare in this country and reversing cuts to hospitals and is improved under a Labor administration. We can make the promises for better healthcare and hospitals because we are not giving 77bn away to the top end and money to business tax cuts.

Updated

Question: One million people have engaged in pre-polling and some in your party have concerns pre-polling is too long. Do you share those views?

Shorten:

A range of politicians across the spectrum ... my focus is on the election. My focus is in explaining to people the value of voting for Labor. I personally think one of the themes that is leading to early pre-poll is a mood for change. People look that Scott Morrison voted 10 times to introduce business tax cuts and spoke 205 times on the benefit of business tax cuts.

He has not only put them in for the top end of town, for the big businesses because Labor and the cross bench blocked him.

He never once said it was a bad idea or declared it was the wrong thing to do. With all his deals with Clive Palmer I have no doubt if Scott Morrison was to be re-elected this would be right up the top of the list of things for him to do, quick as a flash, arguing the case of $280m for tax cuts for big business.

When we were down in Geelong, Women and Children’s hospital working with the Victorian government, radiation treatment available on the surf coast, the choice is as clear as day and night, a vote for Labor is for better hospitals.

A vote for the current mob is more tax cuts for multinationals.

Bill Shorten speaks to medical student Ellie Smith (right) during a visit to Deakin University School of Medicine in Geelong on Tuesday
Bill Shorten speaks to medical student Ellie Smith (right) during a visit to Deakin University School of Medicine in Geelong. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

Updated

Labor calls out 'fake news' circulating on WeChat

Question: Labor has written to the owner of WeChat about messages circulated in Chisholm. Are you worried about your message to Chinese Australians? And the US has a new policy in the Pacific with new bases to be built in Micronesia. I am wondering how much sharper you think the choices are facing Australia.

Shorten: Great to have the Wall Street Journal here and great to have my foreign affairs spokesperson here. So I’ll give Penny a run.

Penny Wong:

Can I first respond on the WeChat issues. There are deeply concerning reports about fake news, malicious content being spread on WeChat.

Our message to the prime minister is this: this is not what we do in Australia. We have robust political debates. We don’t have major political parties engaging in fake news on this media platform or any other media platform.

It is incumbent upon Scott Morrison to rule out any Liberal party involvement in the malicious false content that is circulating on WeChat.

We had foreign interference laws which passed our parliament not that long ago. And we did that because we want to ensure there is no interference in Australia’s election, that our democracy remains sovereign. Well, the prime minister needs to make sure that his party does the right thing.

In relation to the various discussions, both on trade policies but also on the Pacific, we have already announced, Bill announced at the Lowy Institute our support for and our intention to make the Pacific front and centre with Labor’s foreign policy and we will continue to work that way with the US with constructive engagement in the region.

Updated

Question: Just on that question, you are saying there will be no costing number put on your climate change policies before the election?

Shorten:

Let’s go through it. I understand the interest of The Australian in the question so let’s be up front.

Cost to the taxpayer is more expensive under the government. They are paying big polluters not to pollute.

That is more than us. We are proposing $300m for aluminium, steel, cement to cope with change but it is far less than the current government.

Then we look at the cost to the environment. There is no debate. I don’t think even the most extreme rightwing climate deniers – they do, but most other people recognise there is a cost to the environment on inaction. In terms of businesses, smart businesses are investing in change.

This country, the politics is broken. We have got a government who is dragging its feet. If you really, really think there is a cost to taking action on climate change then why have two million Australian households invested in solar?

They understand, we understand, most thinking people understand action on climate is important.

Updated

Question: How would you ram your tax reforms through the Senate when the prospective crossbench plans to torpedo them.

Shorten: Get as many as possible to vote Labor at the election.

Question: Surely the taxpayers want to know what the cost of your policy is?

Shorten: I didn’t mean offence to anyone in the matter but let’s be blunt, the idea that you can have a debate on the cost of taking action on climate change without the cost of inaction on climate change is only one piece of the puzzle.

Question: If you can answer the question: how much would your 45% reduction cost the Australian economy?

Shorten: My view hasn’t changed from last night to today. Australians are fed up with people getting the wrong end of the telescope and a microscope on the cost of taking action on climate change. Australians know – they know. Sorry, can I have the chance to finish your question?

Australians know that politics is broken in this country because we don’t have action on climate change. Companies are decarbonising. I have seen with my own eyes the solar wind farms of big industrial operations without which, if they hadn’t made that investment, which you might call a cost but smart companies call an investment, we couldn’t see these factories and plants being opened.

Updated

Question: What will it mean today if interest rates are cut?

Shorten:

Well, the Reserve Bank of Australia is independent. And they need to make that decision free of any pressure from anyone in politics.

I mean, it is a bit of a wicked situation for them, isn’t it? On one hand, everyone knows the economy is wallowing in mediocrity but on the other hand it is 10 or 11 days before an election so everything will be viewed through that prism. I don’t need the RBA to tell us this is that everything is going up except people’s wages.

We are at 0% inflation and Aussies are doing two jobs to make ends meet. This economy is not firing on all cylinders and it is a problem for Australia.

I do enjoy the visual of an economy wallowing in mediocrity. I imagine it laying in bed with twisties, watching Rick and Morty and talking on Reddit about the app it has in the works.

Updated

Question: Do you support the Greens’ call to have a codified vilification law to apply to media commentators?

Shorten: I haven’t heard about that at all.

Question: He spoke about it in a speech last year?

Shorten: You follow Richard Di Natale more carefully than I do.

Bill Shorten press conference

Bill Shorten has condemned the protester’s action’s this morning:

Let me be very clear: this is appalling and disgraceful behaviour. In Australia we have violence-free elections. People are allowed to protest peacefully but anything approaching violence is unacceptable.

If this protester think she will get sympathy or support from me she couldn’t be more wrong. In terms of threats or vile comments it can happen from time to time but this is completely unacceptable and the prime minister has my complete sympathy, and of course, the lady who got knocked down in the process.

He said he won’t pass judgment on Scott Morrison for his “militant unionist” tweet:

I get it was a very upsetting experience for him and I’m not going to judge. I do need to reiterate, this is not what we do in Australia.

We are not one of those countries. It doesn’t matter if you are the extreme left or the extreme right or in between. This appalling and disgraceful behaviour. No sympathy or support.

Updated

Albury police have confirmed a woman has been taken into custody over the attempted egging:

“We have a female in custody in relation to an incident involving the Prime Minister this morning,” a police officer said.

Not political, but still important. From Maurice Blackburn:

Tomorrow a landmark trial will be held in the High Court of Australia to determine an important threshold question as to whether Aboriginal Australians can be considered an ‘alien’ under the Constitution and, as a result, be deported following a serious criminal conviction.

The special case is being brought on behalf of Aboriginal Australian men, Daniel Love and Brendan Thoms. It will be argued that both men are Australian nationals because they are Aboriginal people who, although born overseas, are not aliens under the Constitution.

Mr Love was born in Papua New Guinea. His father was a natural born Australian citizen and Aboriginal Australian. Mr Thoms was born in New Zealand. Mr Thoms’ mother is an Australian citizen and an Aboriginal Australian woman. Both men have lived in Australia since they were young boys. Both have an extensive Aboriginal Australian heritage. Both have children who are Australian citizens and identify as Aboriginal Australian. Mr Thoms also is a native title holder.

Both were convicted of criminal offences and served time in prison. At the conclusion of their sentences last year, both men had their visas revoked and were taken to immigration detention in Brisbane where they were advised they would be deported. Mr Love was to be deported to Papua New Guinea, and Mr Thoms was to be deported to New Zealand. Mr Love was released in September 2018 shortly after the present court proceedings were filed. Mr Thoms remains in immigration detention.

Maurice Blackburn Senior Associate Claire Gibbs, who is acting for Mr Love and Mr Thoms, said the case was important in seeking to make clear that it was unacceptable, under the Constitution, for people who were clearly Australians to be subjected to the alien deportation powers.

“In our view it is morally wrong for the Commonwealth to try to remove our clients from Australia, when it is evident that, on any common sense measure, our clients are Australians,” Ms Gibbs said.

“Our case is directed to showing that it is also unlawful.

“Our clients have a clear Aboriginal lineage, they each have an Aboriginal Australian parent, they have children who are Aboriginal Australians and they went to school and worked in Australia.

“One of Mr Love’s grandfathers, an Aboriginal Australian man, fought for Australia in World War Two. Mr Thoms is a native title holder.

“It defies logic that our clients who came here as kids, whose Aboriginality and strong connection to Australia is not in dispute, should have ever been placed in immigration detention and threatened with removal from Australia.

“No one is seeking to defend the criminal behaviour of our clients. But, in their situation, the fact is they are now being punished twice. These men have served their time and instead of being released they were instead sent to immigration detention with the threat of deportation. This is not consonant with their multi-layered connections to Australia.

Updated

Scott Morrison is now campaigning in Indi, warning that “independents don’t solve these problems”.

AAP has also reported the woman accused of attempting to egg the prime minister was protesting against the government’s asylum seeker policies:

Outside the venue, the protester told reporters she didn’t mean to knock the other woman down.

“I don’t want to give a report, no thank you. I’ve got to go to work. No comment,” she told reporters.

She denied using violence, describing the action as “the most harmless thing you can do”.

It’s understood the young woman was protesting the Coalition government’s asylum seeker policy.

The woman who attempted to egg Scott Morrison is spoken to at the Country Women’s Association event in Albury
The woman who attempted to egg Scott Morrison is spoken to at the Country Women’s Association event in Albury. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Updated

Well this is disgusting. From AAP:

NSW police officers have collected a poo hidden inside a book that was dumped outside Tony Abbott’s Sydney electorate office.

The faeces was placed inside a hollowed-out book that had the word “Unpopular” written on the cover, according to photos published by News Corp Australia.

Detectives are investigating after the item was left outside Abbott’s Manly office on Tuesday morning, a police spokesman told AAP.

“Police attended and the item has been collected,” he said.

The former prime minister’s office has been contacted for comment.

Police also appealed for information late last week after posters featuring Abbott appeared in his Warringah electorate with expletives written across his forehead.

Other posters had “Pell” written across them – an apparent reference to the Liberal MP’s friend and convicted paedophile Cardinal George Pell.

Updated

Section 44 continues to haunt the campaign.

From the Herald Sun:

The Coalition says it is ­prepared to challenge the ­result in the Victorian seat of Deakin should it be won by Labor, arguing the ALP candidate is a dual citizen.

Shireen Morris, a prominent constitutional lawyer with Fijian-Indian heritage, is favourite with bookmakers to defeat sitting Liberal MP ­Michael Sukkar in the eastern suburbs seat.

The Herald Sun can reveal the Coalition’s legal advice claims she has been a Fijian citizen since her birth.

... Labor is adamant there are no doubts over Ms Morris’s citizenship status because dual citizens were banned under Fiji’s 1997 constitution and she is an Australian by birth.

Updated

The ABC’s Antony Green is reporting that Clive Palmer has lost a high court case challenging the way the Australian Electoral Commission does its election night count:

As polls close on the east coast the AEC begins to count votes, and announces results progressively with an indicative two-party-preferred count.

This requires the AEC to simplify each contest as a race between two candidates depending on who is most likely to win – Labor and Liberal in most seats.

Palmer, who unexpectedly won the seat of Fairfax in 2013, had argued this process could disadvantage the United Australia party in Western Australia, by suggesting the minor party is not in a winning position in the east.

A Palmer win could have significantly delayed results on election night. Those wanting to know who the next prime minister is and get to bed before midnight can thank the high court for keeping things moving in an orderly fashion.

Updated

Not a surprise

The woman was not part of the CWA apparently.

Scott Morrison appears to be blaming the “cowardly activists” and also, “militant unionists”.

Updated

From reporters on the scene, it seems as though a woman threw an egg at the prime minister as he left the stage at the CWA conference. It didn’t break, and seemed to graze him. But as security bundled the protester out of the conference, an older woman was knocked to the ground.

Scott Morrison helped her up when he realised what had happened. From the images, she looked shaken, but OK. St John ambulance staff are on site.

The egg did not break

Prime minister Scott Morrison is egged by protester

Scott Morrison has just been egged by a protester as he left a CWA conference

He may not be at the Liberal party launch this weekend, but John Howard will always be there for Tony Abbott (who will also most likely not be at the Liberal party launch this weekend)

Also, your daily reminder that removing a concession is not a tax

And on franking credits, Chris Bowen had this to say:

I’ve received very good feedback about what we’re explaining about franking credits.

That we’re the only country in the world that provides a tax refund to people who aren’t paying income tax.

That it is costing $6bn a year – money which could be spent on schools and hospitals and Medicare.

That it overwhelmingly goes to people with high superannuation balances. It’s reverse means-tested in that regard.

And that it’s not fair. Because people who are working, paying tax, pay their tax.

But if you’re a retired shareholder, not only do you not pay income tax, but you get a tax refund.

People who are doing that are doing nothing wrong. They’re complying with the law and I have full respect for that.

But we’re saying that that is not affordable any more. Of course, not everybody will agree with the policy, but we have been communicating that and I think that people are more and more understanding just what is inherently unfair about the system.

That’s what the Liberals are defending every step of the way. They defend, the only country in the world that send a tax cheque to people who haven’t paid income tax. They defend, for example, a nurse earning $67,000, roughly, paying around $13,000 a year in tax.

But a retired shareholder, through their self-managed super fun getting $67,000 a year worth of dividends and not paying any tax and getting a tax cheque of around $27,000. That’s the higher end of retirees?

Updated

Chris Bowen still wants to know what the government’s high-income tax cuts will cost.

He also talked about Labor’s negative gearing policy:

We’ve had the policy out for years. Of course, when you have a policy out for years, sometimes, figures move around, as the economic circumstances change.

I presume he is referring there to the number of, or the amount of negative gearing that goes to existing properties, which, of course, will move around a little over time. The historical average is around 90%.

But the costing is accurate, has been stood by, by the Parliamentary Budget Office.

There’s only one person telling fibs here and that’s the treasurer.

Updated

Scott Morrison is addressing the Country Women’s Association conference in Albury.

“When rural and regional Australia is strong, so is Australia. When rural and regional Australia is not strong, neither is Australia.”

He says he is happy to be back talking to the Albury CWA for the second time this campaign “and not just because the scones are good, but the scones are very good”, he adds.

Updated

The other interesting news line was about aged care wages. When announcing the childcare wage subsidy, Bill Shorten said it was the “first” they would look at. Brendan O’Connor later said there were “no plans” to extend it to other industries, because childcare workers were “an exceptional case”.

Shorten later said the party would wait to see what the royal commission recommended before making any final decisions. Last night, he was asked about aged care wages again and said:

Well, I don’t think it’s quite fair to play that Hunger Games approach. In terms of early childhood educators which is a separate issue, they have been neglected too. I’m happy to take you through these numbers.

I think we’re in a position to be able to do a whole package on childcare now. I get the royal commission may make findings.

I get that we need to talk to all the stakeholders in aged care to roll out changes. The fact that we look after early childhood educators now does not mean that we won’t work to help aged care work force in the future.

As it happens we know that for early childhood educators, and when you have lots of people not being paid properly, let’s not have a competition who is the most miserable but did you know that they are the 92nd lowest paid profession in Australia out of 96?

These early childhood educators are the people we first entrust our children outside of the family unit because it’s a feminised industry and the vast bulk workforce of women have been underpaid forever. That’s why we are going to look after early childhood educators.

My answer shows we’re thinking about what to do in aged care too.

Updated

In case you missed it, this is some of what Bill Shorten had to say about Newstart on the bad show overnight:

I think common sense says that a review is going to conclude that amount is too low.

I won’t preempt it but I’m not have a view to cut it. This language of big spending.

It’s not as if this government is not spending money.

It’s who they’re spending it on. I went to check when we talked about the negative gearing, we’re spending $35bn in the next 10 years to help subsidise property investors who haven’t even bought their property yet, yet we can’t find enough to help Lillian who has been working at 61 on the rougher end of change.

It’s about priorities. When you say big spending, let’s tell the truth here. This government is spending money. They spend it in tax cuts, $77bn for the top tier of tax earners.

They spent three years trying to give away $80bn to the big end of town in corporate tax cuts.

This government will spend money.

When it comes to a woman on $265 a week, “We better check that and send her a robo debt letter from Centrelink.”

Bill Shorten is seen on a TV screen as he appears on ABC’s Q&A program in Melbourne on Monday night.
Bill Shorten is seen on a TV screen as he appears on ABC’s Q&A program in Melbourne on Monday night. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

Updated

Anthony Albanese, talking to Sky this morning, also had some things to say about the length of pre-poll:

“I would have thought that needs to be looked at,” he said.

“I think pre-poll voting is very valuable but three weeks is a very, very long time.”

“...Anything that maximises the opportunity for people to vote is a good thing, but three weeks is a long time.”

The rate we are going, there will probably be two million votes already lodged by the end of the week.

Bill Shorten and Anthony Albanese visit a medical centre in Kingswood, Sydney on Monday.
Bill Shorten and Anthony Albanese visit a medical centre in Kingswood, Sydney on Monday. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

Updated

Scott Morrison said he was looking forward to meeting with the Country Women’s Association when he is in Albury today “I love the CWA,” he told ABC radio (which reminds me of how I was chased out of Texas, Queensland by the CWA after reporting on a cake bakeoff rivalry at a tea stand, which they called in the state member for, with one member threatening to call the prime minister over it, so don’t mess with the CWA is the moral of that story). But it looks like the CWA has aligned with the Australian Council of Social Service (Acoss) on the issue of Newstart. From their statement:

CWAA president Tanya Cameron says:

“We support the Raise the Rate campaign to increase Newstart and other allowances because an increase will strengthen our communities and help people get through tough times.

“Rural and regional communities have been hit hard with drought and floods, with many of these areas experiencing high rates of unemployment.

“People in rural and regional Australia often struggle to find adequate employment, especially single parents, people who have been made redundant or people who have been without paid work for a long period because they’ve been caring for a loved one.

“It is impossible to live on $40 a day in rural and regional Australia. You cannot run a car, pay the rent and buy groceries with such little money.

“Raising the rate of Newstart and other allowances will help people focus on their futures rather than be totally consumed with their current situation of financial crisis.

Acoss CEO Cassandra Goldie welcomed the support of the CWA for an increase to Newstart and related allowances, saying: “The CWA knows that regional Australia stands to benefit most if Newstart and Youth Allowance is increased.

“Newstart has not been increased in real terms in 25 years, despite living costs for people on low incomes having gone through the roof.

“We urge the next government to immediately increase Newstart and related allowances by a minimum of $75 per week to help people get through tough times and into suitable employment.”

Updated

And the treasurer also had some things to say about Labor putting up the most ambitious economic reform plan since John Hewson in the early 1990s (Hewson, you might remember, went to the election with a GST and lost, and then Howard brought it in the following election).

It’s the most reckless agenda we’ve seen from the Labor party. Not only are they promising $387bn in higher taxes, but they’re wanting to re-regulate the labour market to give the unions free rein.

They’re promising now to subsidise private sector wages with taxpayers’ money. Where does that end? And Chris Bowen couldn’t answer the question yesterday that what happens after eight years’ time.

Not only has he undercosted and underfunded a $10bn promise to the childcare workers, based on 100,000 childcare workers, when we know there’s 193,000 childcare workers, not only has he underfunded that promise, but where does it end? And why is he doing it to boost union membership?

The taxpayer should not be used by the Labor party to boost union membership.

Updated

Josh Frydenberg on Labor’s costings:

Well, yesterday in the debate, Chris Bowen couldn’t answer whether his costings will include these promises they’re making about increasing research-and-development funding, increasing aid funding, increasing support in other areas like Newstart.

And, again, I noticed that Bill Shorten was giving false hope to people who are on Newstart by promising increases.

But let’s see it in his costings. So, we’ll have to wait and see whether these costings that the Labor party reveal are actually a true reflection. But we know they’ve been on a spending spree.

We know that the Labor party are spending like drunken sailors. And this is not the time for this reckless spending from the Labor party. Because the more they spend, the more they tax, and the more they tax, the more the Labor party weakens the Australian economy.”

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg (right) and opposition treasurer Chris Bowen at the National Press Club debate in Canberra on Monday.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg (right) and opposition treasurer Chris Bowen at the National Press Club debate in Canberra on Monday. Photograph: Rohan Thomson/AAP

Updated

Is pre-polling open too long?

Josh Frydenberg seems to think so:

It does feel a bit long, three weeks, because members want to get around their electorates, or some members holding portfolio responsibilities either in government or shadow portfolio responsibilities would like to get around other parts of the country.

Again, that’s an issue that will probably be revisited by both sides of politics after this election.

Scott Morrison had a chat to Triple M in Melbourne this morning, and again spoke about the launch. He doesn’t like the official party campaign launches, apparently, because it is all about the party.


You know what I hate about all these launches, is they’re all about the parties. I mean the Labor party’s launch on the weekend was just big Labor-fest. They’re all patting each other on the back, it was all about them. It wasn’t about the people were actually watching at home. I mean who cares whether Kevin Rudd’s there? It’s not about that, the election isn’t about that. The election is actually a choice between Bill Shorten and myself.

So, on Sunday I’m not going to be focusing on all that, on the Liberal party, everyone patting each other on the back and telling each other how good they are. What I’m going to be focusing on is the people who are going to be watching and listening – and communicating what this election is all about and the choice. At the end of the day it’s a choice between me and Bill Shorten. No one else.”

That’s a little bit like complaining that someone’s birthday party is all about the person having the birthday. The point of a political party campaign launch is that it is all about that political party.

And also, you can just, you know, not have one. There’s no law which says you must have a campaign launch. It’s how my mother has handled every one of her birthdays since turning 40.

Updated

Following on from Chris Bowen’s comment yesterday that if Labor wins the election it would have a “moral authority” to implement its tax agenda, given how long it has been out there, despite crossbench senators’ hesitations, AAP has this story:

Labor’s finance spokesman Jim Chalmers said his party intended to legislate the full suite of measures it is taking to the May 18 poll.

“If we do get over the line in the election we would expect that mandate would be recognised,” he told ABC Radio National on Tuesday.

Chalmers said it was no surprise Palmer sided with the Liberals given he would personally benefit from the Coalition’s plan to reduce the top marginal tax rate.

“We’ll put our changes out there, we’ll argue for them, we’ll have the necessary discussions but we intend to pass the tax changes that we’ve proposed,” the Labor frontbencher said.

He said Labor senators had discussed tax policies with crossbench colleagues since its agenda was released.

“We’ve made it very clear for a long time what our policies and plans are,” Chalmers said.

Australian Conservatives senator Cory Bernardi said Labor had not respected mandates from previous governments.

“I don’t support tax changes of this nature,” he told the ABC. “This is just self-serving and quite frankly, a little hypocritical by Labor.”

Bernardi said while he wouldn’t be an impediment for the sake of it, governments did not get a blank cheque to get legislation through the upper house.

But he can see Labor’s agenda winning support.

“I do see pathways because I’ve seen people in the Senate ditch their longest-held principles at the slightest whiff of political advantage,” the SA senator said.

Updated

Everyone is very excited there is a new baby in the world

Clive Palmer’s high court case continues today.

You can follow along the case law, here

We’ll easily reach more than a million voters by the end of pre-poll today:

Lots of talk of multinational tax avoidance lately. Chris Bowen has expanded on Labor’s plans:

Labor will introduce a tax haven blacklist to appropriately vet investments from countries that fail to comply with international standards.

Under Labor, companies that operate out of the most notorious tax havens will be prevented from engaging in tax avoidance activities in Australia.

The following hot spots will be put on Labor’s blacklist: Cayman Islands, Bermuda, Andorra, Liechtenstein, Guernsey, Monaco, Mauritius, Liberia, Seychelles, Brunei, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Grenada, Montserrat, Panama, St Vincent and the Grenadines, St Kitts and Nevis, Turks and Caicos, US Virgin Islands.

Updated

Scott Morrison just had a chat to ABC Albury, where he said he believes Sussan Ley will win Farrer, because she has been a hard-working local member.

That’s despite a very, very strong challenge from the independent Kevin Mack. Gabrielle Chan picked this battle well ahead of the curve – you can read more about why Farrer, despite its very safe margin, is considered very much in play from her story, here:

Updated

And finally:

Leigh Sales: But on what you’re doing, again to come back to the issue of trust here. John Howard said in office he’d act on climate change. He later admitted he was climate sceptic. Tony Abbott the same. The party has dumped Malcolm Turnbull twice as leader over climate and energy policy. You famously took a lump of coal into the parliament. Business has decried the absence of a cohesive, committed climate and energy policy over the past six years. Given all those facts why would voters trust a third term Coalition government to do anything differently?

Scott Morrison: Yet we meet our Kyoto 2020 targets. We have policies to meet our 2030 targets, yet we have the third highest per capita investment in renewables in Australia in a year. We’ve got 2.1m more panels on people’s roofs, all achieved under the policies and our tenure in government.

So those facts, I think, Leigh, we speak to those issues largely being matters of commentary. Whereas when you go to our actions and our achievements, we have been taking action on climate change. We’ve been getting action on climate change. We are meeting our targets and we are drawing investment into renewable energy in this country at a rate that has never been seen before.

Updated

That conversation continued:

Leigh Sales: On this point, prime minister, of meeting targets, if we do meet our Kyoto 2020 targets though, it is not due overall to Coalition policy. The Coalition’s Direct Action policy has played a part in it, but there are also factors coming into play such as credits, which have come from during that Kyoto period when Labor was in office, which was to do with Labor’s carbon tax and also the closure of the coal-fired power stations. The Coalition can’t take credit for meeting Kyoto 2020 when your own policies are played only a small part in it.

Scott Morrison: There’s been a 1.1bn tonne turnaround in carbon emissions reductions since we were elected, to meet the Kyoto 2020 targets and our policies have played a role in that, Leigh. But my point is simply this: renewable investments have been increasing, we’re meeting the Kyoto targets that were set out for us – set by Labor and we’ve made sure we were going to meet them and in fact will exceed them by 369m tonnes. Our budget for carbon emissions reduction out to 2030, based on the rules that are set out, the global rules for emissions reduction to meet our 2030 targets, we will meet and we’ve set out the policies to achieve that.

Sales: But –

Morrison: The cost of that is $3.5bn to the budget and that will extend out over the next 10 years and there is no additional cost to the economy.

Sales: In the greater scheme of the Australian budget $3.5bn is really very little over 10 years.

Morrison: Well, I think any amount of money you’re spending, I always spend carefully, Leigh. But that $3.5bn investment, which is everything from the climate solutions fund which is purchasing abatement of carbon at the lowest possible price through the reverse auction process, it’s investing in business energy efficiency in enterprises themselves and refrigeration. It’s investing in Snowy 2.0 and the Marinus Link, that’s the interconnector between Tasmania and the mainland which will unlock a major investment in the Battery of the Nation hydro projects in Tasmania.

That’s what we’re doing, that’s how we meet our targets. Now there’s a difference. I accept, Leigh, that there’s a difference between the emissions reduction target that we’re putting forward at this election which doesn’t choose between the economy and the environment, it chooses both. What the Labor party is proposing, which is 45% –

Updated

But we did, finally, get an admission that emissions are going up. The figures have said that but Angus Taylor in particular had been quite stubborn about not admitting it.

Leigh Sales: Can we establish another basic fact for voters, since the Coalition was elected in 2013 carbon emissions in Australia have been generally overall, rising.

Scott Morrison: Yeah they have lifted and we’ve also made sure though, Leigh, that that we will be meeting and in fact exceeding the Kyoto 2020 targets that we inherited. Over that same time, I can also tell you that there have been 2.1m extra solar panels put on roofs in this country and we have now one in five homes which have solar panels on their roof which is the highest level per capita in the world today.

Sales: But you point out that emissions have been trending upwards during your time in government. Therefore, why would voters trust you with another term in government to do something about that?

Morrison: Because our commitment is to meet the targets that we set internationally. There are the Kyoto 2020 targets and we will meet those. See, when we set a target, Leigh, we will meet it.

Sales But, but –

Morrison: We’ve set a target for 2030 and we will meet it. That’s why we had a $11bn in renewable investment come in in 2017. That was the third highest per capita in the world and we have $25bn of renewable energy investment out to 2020.

Sales: On this point –

Morrison: That is a significant level of investment coming into this country for renewable energy and that’s all happened under our policies.

Updated

Josh Frydenberg basically said this to Patricia Karvelas on the ABC yesterday afternoon, but Scott Morrison seemed to confirm it on 7.30 overnight – the Liberal party launch will be low on former prime ministers:

Leigh Sales: We saw Paul Keating, Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard come together at the Labor campaign launch on the weekend. Will you be having John Howard, Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull at yours?

Morrison: Well, first of all what that reminded me of when particularly Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd were there, I mean Labor is proposing big spending initiatives at this election and what I remember from those two prime ministers is when they did their big spending, it always costs more because their implementation on pink batts and school halls and cash-for-clunkers and border blow-outs, this was a reminder –

Sales: Prime minister –

Morrison: To everyone, of the failures of that government.

Sales: But, prime minister, will you having those three leaders at yours?

Morrison: My launch on Sunday is going to be different, Leigh.

Sales: Will you have those three leaders?

Morrison: My launch on Sunday is going to be different. It’s not going to be a party hoopla event, it’s not about the Liberal party and it’s not about the National party. Labor’s launch on the weekend I thought was very much about the Labor party. I just want to have a conversation with people on Sunday directly about the choice. It’s not about who is coming, it’s about who will be listening and my opportunity to go to set out to them once again the choice of this election.

Updated

Scott Morrison is in Albury, announcing more money for the mobile blackspot program and regional tertiary education.

And the same for Scott Morrison:

This was the whole question and response from last night on Bill Shorten’s leadership:

The latest Essential poll is out, as Sarah Martin reports:

Labor has maintained its election-winning lead over the Coalition as the election campaign enters its final fortnight, according to a new Guardian Essential poll.

The survey of 1,079 people shows Labor is leading the Coalition on a two-party-preferred basis 52% to 48%, a slight lift within the poll’s margin of error compared with last week, when Labor was ahead 51% to 49%.

But after the start of the election campaign saw the two major parties stage a recovery in their primary vote, support for both major parties has again slumped, suggesting the flow of preferences may still prove critical to the election outcome.

Labor’s primary vote has dropped to 34% compared with 37% a week ago and below the 34.7% it recorded at the last election, while the primary vote for the Liberal and National parties combined remains at 38% – down a point from last week, but unchanged from five weeks ago.

Support for minor parties combined sits at 28%, with the Greens lifting their support from 9% a week ago to 12%, One Nation on 7% and other independents, including Clive Palmer’s United Australia party, preferred by 9% of voters.

Updated

Bill Shorten will start the day in Melbourne, while Scott Morrison is in Sydney.

Both campaigns are expected to make their way to Canberra by tonight, before the third and final leaders’ debate at the National Press Club tomorrow.

Updated

Good morning

There are 11 days to go and there can be no more wasted words.

And don’t Scott Morrison and Bill Shorten know it.

Both leaders laid out their case in respective solo ABC outings overnight, with a question for each seeming to define the appearances.

For Morrison, it was this:

Question: Who will have the upper hand in driving Liberal party policy if you’re re-elected, the climate change sceptics who killed the national energy guarantee, voted against same-sex marriage and orchestrated Malcolm Turnbull’s downfall, or the mainstream of the party?

Morrison:

I will.

And for Shorten, it was this question from an audience member, which zeroed down to this: “What will your leadership culture be? How will your government guide all of us as a community in relation to our culture in being a decent and caring country to live in?”

Shorten, after declaring he would not be a “messiah” and repeating his answer that he saw his role as being “the coach”, getting the “best from the team”, then turned to who he said was his inspiration – his mum:

She was the first in our family to ever go to university – she wanted to be a lawyer, but she was the eldest in the family and needed to take the teacher scholarship to look after the rest of the kids.

My mum was a brilliant woman. She wasn’t bitter. She worked here for 35 years. But I know if she had other opportunities she could have done anything.

I can’t make it right for my mum. And she wouldn’t want me to. But my point is this, what motivates me, if you really want to know who Bill Shorten is, I can’t make it right for my mum but I can make it right for everyone else.

Today, the campaign moves on, but it does so in the shadow of the RBA’s May meeting, where speculation is high that it could decide on a rate cut. The experts are split, with the balance leaning towards no cut. But if it does decide to cut the rate to a new historic low, for the first time in more than two and a half years, expect the economy to take centre stage for what is left of the campaign.

So a lot to get through today – I hope you’ve had your coffee. I’m looking for number three.

Ready?

Let’s get into it

Updated

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