And with that, there are planes to catch and a campaign to watch, so we will tuck the blog up for the afternoon.
Both campaigns are in NSW. The southern states are in for at least three days of love.
We’ll fire back up early tomorrow morning – and we will cover the solo Q and A with Bill Shorten as well. There is also (most likely) the final leaders’ debate on Wednesday, which will be at the National Press Club.
Labor will release it’s costings, either Thursday or Friday, and then the Liberals will officially launch its campaign.
There is a lot to get through coming up, so I hope you spend the afternoon resting.
Make sure you check back in with the site – Katharine Murphy is madly typing out analysis and news next to me, so you’ll have that very soon.
Thanks for letting us share in your Sunday. We’ll be just before 8am Monday. In the mean time, take care of you.
Campaign Launch Brisbane @murpharoo @AmyRemeikis @GuardianAus #PoliticsLive pic.twitter.com/HFPvsks0An
— Mikearoo (@mpbowers) May 5, 2019
And again:
This image will be the one Labor hopes resonates beyond it’s launch – because it is one the Liberals have no hope of replicating.
These three together say unity. It’s the message which ran through the whole campaign launch today.
That wasn’t the campaign launch – that was Scott Morrison launching the central coast campaign.
I do have to point out a difference there – Morrison finished there with “stop Labor”. Which has been a defining theme in the Liberal campaign. Stop Labor, rather than vote for us. The vote Liberal message has been there of course, but you are more likely to hear them talk about why Shorten needs to be stopped.
And we come to the end:
And I love Winx. But you don’t put these two together and expect a good result, on the horse running fast or Andrew getting off that horse easy.
Sorry, Andrew! He had a great game the other night the other way when we took out the Storm.
But that’s what Labor will do to our economy.
It will weigh it down. $387bn weighing our economy down.
That’s not how you build our economy. That’s not how you secure our future. We have a plan to do just that.
Up here on the central coast, with Julie and Lucy, you’ve got a fantastic team.
So, together, let’s stop Labor and let’s build our economy to secure your future!
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Scott Morrison on multi-national tax avoidance (and also Winx):
Your know, I heard Bill say the other day he was going to do more with multinationals, now, when we did the multinational anti-avoidance legislation, I took that through the Parliament.
Bill Shorten and his Labor Party voted against it. His policies would raise about $2bn over the next 10 years.
What that means is this, is that Bill Shorten wants to take retirees 28 times harder than multinationals in this country.
Just think about that for a sec. He says he wants to be tough on multinationals but he wants to tax retirees and self-funded retirees in particular but it includes 50,000 pensioners over the next 10 years.
He wants to tax them 28 times harder than multinationals. That’s not fair for anybody, Bill.
That is definitely not the fair go that you like to talk about.
The Liberal party has always believed in a fair go for those who have a go.
That’s what we’ve always been about. We’ve always believed that the best form of welfare is a job.
We’ve always believed that you don’t have to hold some down to allow others to rise up. We always have believed that Australians are at its best when we’re making a contribution and not seeking to take one.
That is why we’re Liberals. That is why we’re offering this at the next election. And there is a choice. There is a clear choice.
There’s a choice between Bill Shorten as prime minister or me as prime minister. There’s a choice between a government that knows how to manage money, and a Labor party that didn’t and still doesn’t, and never will.
It’s a choice between a stronger economy that can pay for the essential services and the affordable medicines, and the hospitals and the schools and the medical precincts, and the car parks, and getting you home sooner and safer, and busting congestion, and all the things that are part of our plan, and the alternative of a weaker economy, held down by $387,000 billion of higher taxes.
I mean, it’s like putting Andrew Fifita* on Winx. I love Andrew Fifita – I wouldn’t want to tackle him!
* Fifita is a prop for the Sharks
Updated
Scott Morrison moves on to Bill Shorten and tries to reclaim the “space invader” comment:
The other day Bill Shorten wanted to talk about video games.
I was watching that Wreck It Ralph with the kids and I won’t use that analogy, Wreck it Bill. Who reckons Pac-Man?
Jenny reminded me of that this morning. That little thing that goes around gobbling up like that? That’s Bill Shorten’s tax policy.
Like how it how it chases people around, in the maze, that’s Bill Shorten’s tax policy.
The only space he’s going to invade is your wallet.
Because when he runs out of money, he always comes after yours.
When they can’t manage money, they always come after yours.
Whether it’s the tax on retirees, around a million of these retirees who I said before, one of the great Australian, honest, decent, ambitious and aspirations to save for your retirement in a position of independence, Bill Shorten has insulted all those millions of Australians to say that what you’ve worked for is a gift from him.
A gift from him. I thought that Chris Bowen, the shadow treasurer, got it right when he said, “If you don’t like that, don’t vote for it.” Take Chris’s advice, don’t take vote Labor. Take his advice – don’t vote Labor!”
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Morrison moves on:
Keeping Australians safe and secure, we have cancelled the visas for 4,400 offenders who came to our country, under a visa.
4,400. Three hundred of those were sexual predators of children. We sent them home and we’ll keep sending them home.
When Labor was in power they didn’t.
So that’s a bit about our plan. One and a quarter million new jobs.
Getting the budget in the surplus and keeping it there by ensuring we live within our means and don’t engage in the big spending and the big taxing, the big risk that all of that encounters to pay down Labor’s debt.
To ensure we lower taxes for all Australians, to ensure we keep investing through the strong economy and our good management in the essential services that Australians rely on because that’s how you rely on hospitals and schools funding when you have a government that knows how to manage money.
And to keep Australians safe and secure. The Labor party have a different approach. Big spending, big taxes.
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More on the e-Safety policy:
The other thing we’re going to do, there’s a lot more and I commend the policy to you, we don’t have all afternoon to explain all the details, we will increase resources for education.
We were there this morning with Healthy Harold, sitting there and learning lessons on how to be safe online.
But the other thing we’re going to do and this is for all Australians, we’re going to increase the penalties for those who have been found to be bullying people online.
You will go to jail for five years.
We will increase the jail time for those who are preying on Australians around the country.
And the other thing we’re going to do to make sure this is enforceable and take this through is we’re going to take to task the big multi-media companies that run all these games, requiring mandatory reporting.
I saw the story today with Erin who was on the front page of the telegraph today, Erin Molan*, and she told the story how she made the complaint to Facebook and nothing happened.
There is no mandatory reporting currently for whether it’s Facebook or anyone else to say how many complaints they’ve received and how they’ve dealt with them. We’re going to require that.
There needs to be transparency. If you make a product and put it on a shelf and it’s a child’s toy and it’s unsafe, we pull it off.
The gig’s up for these big online companies who think the rules don’t apply to them in that world and we’re going to apply the same rules to you that apply in the physical world and that means we’re going to keep Australians safe and in particular we’re going to keep kids safe.
*For those wondering, Erin Molan is Liberal senator Jim Molan’s daughter, but her trolling started during the time she hosted The Footy Show.
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As a parent I know it’s a problem.
As a community we know this is a problem.
And we’ve been doing something about it. In fact, Mitch [Fifield] in particular I want to commend.
We’ve been leading the world in what we’ve been doing to address the issues of online bullying and keeping Australians safe online.
Our eSafety Commissioner is a world first.
The legislation we have been putting in place to ensure that we can protect people online is the best in the world in our view and is recognised as such.
But we need to go further and today we’ve made another announcement, which I want to run you through.
We are going to work with the technology firms to make devices and services that are marketed to children what is called default to the most restrictive safety and privacy settings at the initial use or set-up.
What that means is when these kids get on, we set the wall really, really, really high, not really, really low.
What that does is to bring the settings down, they need your permission. They need the parents’ permission.
We need to put the parents back in charge of where their kids are playing.
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He continues:
Being left out by others - one in five. You all remember that in the playground, who is getting picked on the team?
Years ago they worked it out that wasn’t a good way and made kids feel left out.
Teachers and communities did something about it and it doesn’t really happen anymore.
One in five kids online that happens to.
Having things said about them, one in five. Having repeated online messages from someone, unwanted, 13%.
Having lies or rumours spread about them the same.
This is the impact on the kids themselves.
Nearly 6 in 10 respondents - a survey from the eSafe Commissioner - who reported a negative impact.
36% said I did not feel good about myself. 35% said they felt anger, fear, helplessness and without power.
24% felt left out.
They lost some of their friends. 11% said their reputation was damaged. And 9% said they didn’t feel close to their family and/or friends.
This is a problem.
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Scott Morrison then turns to the internet trolling announcement:
One of our most important responsibilities as parents and as a community is keeping our kids safe.
We have two girls, 9 and 11, they’ll be entering their teenage years soon – absolutely terrifying.
Hands up if you’re a parent of a teenager? And you survived. And are surviving.
We want our kids to be everything that they can be.
And when we were growing up, when I was growing up, the online world didn’t exist.
And you just learnt about stranger danger and all those important things and that was the education you had when you were a kid.
But did you know - and this is from our policy today - 8 in 10 young people, 8 to 17, play games online.
Online multi-player gaming, it’s a very popular activity for young Australians, 6 in 10 aged 8 to 17 have played those games.
Not knowing who you are when you’re playing online is an important aspect of online gaming. One in two young people have played games online – multi-player games online with kids they have never met in person.
Would you let your kids go and play down the street with a kid they’ve never met in a place you don’t know completely unsupervised?
You’d never let it happen as a good parent. This is what’s happening online. Up to 34% of young people aged 8 to 17 made an in-game purchase in the 12 months - they’re spending money in these games as well.
An estimated 17% of multi-player gamers experienced in-game bullying. In-game bullying.
Equating to roughly more than 200,000 young Australians. They’re some sobering facts. If those things were happening in the – pretty sobering facts.
If those things are happening in the physical world, this is happening in the world our young people live in every day.
And this is even more concerning – young social media users encounter a variety of negative experiences and this is from the eSafety Commissioner. Being contacted by strangers or someone they didn’t know – one in four.
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Finishing up on the farming policy:
I know, I’ve been out there with them and sat in their living rooms and heard their stories.
One of the first things I did after I became PM, I went to Quilpie and I sat down with the Tullys on their station and their family had come into that area back in the 1850s and had been farming that land ever since.
And to think that our farmers would become the targets of this sort of violence. And what really disturbed me was that 40% of kids in this country today believe that farmers hurt the environment.
And that’s why it’s important we get the education right. That we don’t allow our education system to spread those sorts of lies to our young people, because that’s what it grows up in to.
People storming farms and people’s homes.
If you want to keep Australians safe, we want to keep Australians safe, we have to get the education right at the start.
We have invested $20m that will take kids from our cities and get them out on to farms. That’s it.
And the other part of the program is we’ve got these things call iFarms.
I saw one the other day and it’s a tremendous initiative – are you from there?
Say g’day. I was at the show.
Anyway, these trucks have all the pastures and what’s being grown and the tomatoes and all these things and they put them on the trucks and take them into suburban schools right across Australia and that’s what helps young people understand and get a touch and feel of farm life and rural life in this country. So that’s important.
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Morrison continues:
I think this is one of the most amazing programs any government does anywhere in the world and Australians should feel very proud about the way we do it.
There are 130 cancer drugs, $9bn they cost, that we put on the PBS.
And that is changing those lives and we’ll continue to do that. So that’s where we’ve been investing. It hasn’t just been about managing the money and getting taxes down, creating jobs, it’s about investing in these essential services that Australians rely on. But it’s also about keeping Australians safe.
And it’s about keeping our borders secure. And I think there is frankly no real need for me to go into the matter because you know what the Liberals and Nationals do when it comes to our borders.
Australians know and they do know the risk of it is when it comes to our borders. Absolutely. But I do want to talk to you today, out of the policy which we have released today, keeping Australians safe online.
I want to talk to you a bit about that. And how we’re keeping Australians safe.
I’m going to start with another one. I have been absolutely appalled by these disgraceful protests that we’ve seen with those who have been storming the farms and the homes of hard-working Australian farmers.
Disgusted, appalled and, frankly, it’s made me pretty angry. That’s why one of the first things we’ll do if we’re re-elected is to bring that legislation into the parliament, to ensure that those who are inciting this behaviour, not just those ... not just those who are going and perpetrating these crimes, but those who are inciting it and organising it, that we’ll take them to task too.
And they will bring them before the law. And we’ll make sure that they are held responsible for what is a very ugly thing that’s been done to the hard-working farmers of this country. Those who are enduring drought, they’re enduring flood, they’re enduring some of the toughest times.
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Morrison:
We’ve increased funding for public schools by more than 60% across Australia.
And we’re going to increase it by another more than 60% over the next decade.
We’ve increased funding for hospitals by more than 60%. And we’re going to continue to increase that.
There’s $30bn extra for hospitals over the next five years.
We’ve invested in roads – another big announcement here today on the Central Coast for roads.
We’ve invested in meant health. Jenny was in the Headspace up in Brisbane, she was with me at the start of the campaign. Thirty new Headspace centres.
In the budget – 700 measures in the budget, a budget that’s going into surplus and the key part of that budget for me was ultimately what became more than half a billion dollars in tackling the challenge of youth suicide in this country.
People on the Central Coast are no strangers sadly, no strangers, sadly, to that curse of youth suicide on our country which we must break.
We must break it together. We must break it with the we’ve been able to accumulate and make ready and be able to put in place as a result of our careful management of our finances to ensure we can take on these big challenges togethers.
And that’s what we will do. That’s what the good financial management is for. That’s what making your economies stronger is all about. It’s so you can go and do these things with confidence.
And Australians can look at our track record of how we’ve managed money and when I say we’re going to invest half a billion dollars in these programs, you know I will, because we’ve been able to achieve it in the past.
And you know we’ve managed our money well so you can rely on those commitments as we go forward. And it also means for me the more than 2,000 medicines now or thereabouts that we have listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. Over $10.5bn.
Changing lives, saving lives, improving the quality of life from the youngest of Australians to our most senior.
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Scott Morrison on Labor’s launch:
Last time the Labor party saw a surplus was in 1989. That was the year Taylor Swift was born.
And I tell you what, it takes a long time to ‘shake it off’ Labor’s mismanagement of our economy and our finances.
It takes a long time. In 2007, John Howard and Peter Costello left a budget in surplus and in 12 months it was gone. Gone. In 12 months.
That’s what happened.
I see that Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd are at the Labor launch today with Bill Shorten.
What that reminded me of wasn’t that Bill Shorten was the one who has rubbed them out, it actually wasn’t that.
What it reminded me of was that Labor think that the reason people voted them out in 2013 was because they had a number of leaders.
Actually, while that played a part, the big reason was it was a terrible government. They wasted money.
When I saw those pictures I thought, I remembered pink batts fiascos, overpriced school halls, I remember cash for clunkers, I remembered the deficit - $256bn and the debt going from being in credit with money in the bank to debt rising when we came to government of, by more than 30% a year.
I remembered the border fiascos and the deaths at sea. I remembered those six years of absolute policy chaos.
And so I make this point in the context of the budget, we have kept spending under control.
Spending growth under our government has been at the lowest level of any government in more than 50 years.
That’s how you get a budget back into surplus. You spend responsibly and carefully. You budget properly and you stick to your budget and you try and beat it where you can. And you get your spending under control which means you can get your taxes under control.
For people who can’t manage money, have you ever noticed how they always end up spending more? They do. If you can’t manage t you always spend more. If you always notice who they come after the bill when they run out, the people who have matched money responsibly, and that’s you.
That’s why Labor put taxes up. If you can’t manage money, then you always spend more of it and then they always come after yours. And that’s what we’ve seen with the Labor party. So that’s what I remembered when I saw the former Labor leaders there. That’s not a personal sort of slight or anything, I’m just telling you the history, that’s exactly what happened.
Updated
Morrison continues:
So when Labor come out, as they are in this election, big spending, huge spending, big taxes, what we’re talking about is huge government programs.
But where is their capacity to deliver those programs on budget and without big blowouts? Where has that ever occurred?
I’ve never seen that. So what this big spending and this big tax agenda means is big risk.
It’s not just how much they’re spending, it’s not just how much they’re taxing, but it is also the fact that they have no track record to implement search huge programs. It always ends in tears but the tears are always yours.
He doesn’t know the price of anything because he’s not the one who is going to have to pay for it.
You’re the ones who are going to have to pay for it right across Australia. So I make the point about our plan that we have brought the Budget back to surplus, pay down Labor’s debt, and that’s a core part of all of our plans.
Fourthly, we have been investing in the essential services that Australians rely on.
Updated
I do have to make an editor’s note, to say that was also when the GFC hit.
Moving on.
Morrison continued:
I tell you why I like coming to the Central Coast and so many other part of the country, because when I’m here it reminds me of some really simple things about why Australia is the greatest country in the world in which to live.
As Australians we don’t big-note ourselves. It’s not what we do. We’re humble people. And we have humble, honest, decent aspirations as Australians.
We do. We have aspirations to get a job, be well-trained and educated, start a family, support your kids, pay your taxes, live in your community and make your community stronger, making a contribution, not taking one, not seeking to anyway, and understanding there are those less fortunate than ourselves who we support, because that’s what we do in Australia.
We have the aspiration to buy a home and to make a home. Not just buy one, but to make one for our kids, for our families, for our friends.
This is where we live. We come together in our homes.
Our homes are very important to us. Menzies talked about homes, not just material.
Homes that go well beyond just the four walls in which we live and the landscaping out the front which is nice to have.
Or the drive or whatever you choose to put in your driveway. I won’t be telling you what car to drive, I can tell you that.
Updated
Scott Morrison gives a speech
Scott Morrison is making his official announcement on trolling:
Love being on the Central Coast. Love it. Absolutely love it. It’s great to be here with Mitch Fifield. Thank you for being with us here today, Mitch.
... You gave Lucy Wicks a chance and she’s doing a tremendous job.
How good is Lucy Wicks? How good is Lucy Wicks?
Just quietly, how good is Jenny Morrison, hey? Just quietly. You got to know her a lot better. I have known her since I was about 11 or 12, as you’ve probably just heard. And I’m a pretty lucky bloke. There’s no doubt about that. I’ve been blessed with many things in my life, but none greater than my beautiful wife, Jen. She’s a great blessing. Thank you, Love.
Updated
Griffith (Teri Butler’s seat) was identified as a potential loss for Labor at the last election, but it hasn’t come up in conversations I’ve had with either side this time round.
There is a shifting demographic there, but Butler, after the scare last time round, has been very active in the community.
But this is an election, so who knows.
On what is happening in Queensland, Wayne Swan had this back and forth with the ABC:
Swan: This election is vigorously contested, because we’ve essentially got a 3 and 4 and 5-party system operating here now. Historically, there’s always been two conservative parties, but they’ve joined and they’re at war. Then Pauline Hanson coming along.
Now Clive Palmer and you’ve got a whole raft of conservative candidates.
So a lot of the races out there will be tight races. We can win a swag of seats in Queensland.
Question: What’s a swag? Five or six? Petrie, Ford or Herbert?
Swan: Four or five.
Question: Are you at risk of losing Herbert? That’s one that’s identified as problematic.
Swan: I’ve never heard of that.
Question: Griffith?
Swan: That’s new to me.
Question: But Herbert.
Swan: The truth is that the elections in Queensland are always highly contested. There is no seat in Queensland that’s a safe seat, particularly for the Labor Party. And someone who held a metropolitan seat that has never been safe, I understand that. But we are campaigning aggressively across the state and we’ll continue to do so. We are not assuming we’re going to win a swag of seats. We recognise that they’re all contestable and will be fighting as hard as we can until election day.
Updated
It looks like Bill Shorten – and the campaign – are on their way out of the Convention Centre – and Brisbane.
The Liberal party launch is next week (as we understand it) but there is no handle yet on where it will be.
And yes, we will blog that one too.
Wayne Swan on why Labor won’t be forcing the private sector to pay workers more:
We are going to fix the industrial relations system.
We’ve already said that that’s broken. But in the short-term, we’ve got to move in the system to ensure those workers get some wage justice.
In the longer term, absolutely, but you can’t fix up the industrial relations system overnight. We’ve got to move towards a living wage.
We’ve got to make sure that collective bargaining works for all and we have to do something about insecure work.
So we’ve got all of the problems, colliding, if you like, and we’ve got to go through them step-by-step.
And in the first instance, that measure we’re putting in place for the lowest paid workers in the country is absolutely critical.
Time to 'clean out' the security agencies, says Paul Keating
This was a very interesting exchange:
Question: Would an incoming Labor government have to do something to heal relations with China?
Keating: I think what we have to do is recognise the legitimacy of China. The fact that 20% of humanity has dragged itself from poverty. I mean, is this illegitimate? Of course it’s not illegitimate. It may not suit the United States as a second rate economic power in the world, but we can’t ...
Question: So is there healing to be done? I think there’s healing to be done. But I think that a Labor government would make a huge shift, just merely making the point that China’s entitled to be there, rather than being some mad state that has to ...
Question: Is it one there where they see it?
Keating: When the security agencies are running foreign policy, the nutters are in charge.
Question: The security agencies that would be advising Labor, I might add?
Keating: You’d clean them out. You’d clean them out. Once the Garnaut guy came back from China and Turnbull gave him the ticket to go in there, they’ve all gone berko ever since then you have the ASIO chief knocking on MPs’ doors, you know something’s wrong.
Question: So you think that there should be a clean out of ASIO and the lot?
Keating: They’ve lost their strategic bearings, these organisations. You know, China, whatever you think, China is a great state. It’s always been a great state and now has the second largest economy, soon the largest economy in the world. If we have a foreign policy that does not take that into account, we are fools.
Updated
Question: How do we replace the revenue, the giant revenue, that comes from coal?
Keating: It will come. How do you replace it? By replacing hydrogen fuels, electricity, general energy, from renewables, which are now cheaper by way of capital to introduce than coal.
The idea, only the Liberal party could make up, going back to Stephenson and 1750 and wanting to build new coal-fired power stations. I mean, they’re just living in the past. They’re policy dead beats. Absolute policy dead beats.
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Paul Keating on coal:
Question: What would you do if you were still running this country, when it came to coal exports?
Keating: It’s all very well us talking about our emissions, but what about what we export? Look, coal is the fuel of the industrial revolution 250 years ago. It’s all over.
Question: It’s worth a hell of a lot of money to Treasury.
Keating: There’s the prime minister walking around with a lump of coal. Coal is a fossil. The prime minister is a fossil himself, a fossil with a baseball cap, but a fossil.
Question: A fossil which allowed us to build roads and schools and hospitals. What do you do? If you’re leading the country, what do you do?
Keating: What will happen, the world will stop using fossil fuels. It’s as simple as that. The cost of renewables has come down 90% in about 15 years. I mean, continental Australia is one of the hot plates of the world. You can almost fry an egg on any footpath or any roadway at any time in this country. We can produce, here, such an enormous supply of electricity from renewables that that gives us ... That would underwrite the hydro carbon economy, so hydrogen economy, hydrogen gas. Hydrogen fuels. I mean, you look at the great continental divide of Australia, and the fact that it has sun ...
This is the land of sun. So this is the place, perhaps first in the world, where renewables could be the primary source of energy.
Yet, we have the Liberals going back to Mr Stephenson’s steam train of 250 years ago.
Updated
And, as Paul Keating points out, it shouldn’t seem that radical, given the Coalition government was talking about forcing the private sector to divest of assets:
Imagine if a Labor government was out there with a federal power to make industrial companies force them to divest of assets?
I know, the Financial Review will be crying Reds under Beds.
I mean, the Business Council will be wetting itself, and here’s a Liberal Party pushing ... reasonable.
He’s say that’s a modest increase in revenue, but coming from the tax concession that it should never have been there, to give you a better country.
Updated
And why? Because Keating says the private sector is not paying them:
Take people like the childcare workers. They have no bargaining power.
If you’re a person working in childcare, you have no bargaining power.
None. It’s not even revolutionary idea to lift their wages.
But some of them are working for companies that are making multimillion-dollar profits.
They’re not paying them. That’s the point. Look, what’s happened is this, we’ve had just on 10 percentage points of labour productivity in five years.
It’s all gone to profits. Not a cent of it has gone to wages.
It’s all been retained on balance sheets.
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On Labor’s wages plan under Bill Shorten and whether or not the government should be interfering with the private sector, PJK says:
Yes, because look, we’ve got an enterprise bargaining system which has carried through 28 years of growth.
But it’s not operating down the bottom end.
There’s not enough comparative forces out there for people in the bottom couple of deciles.
Up the top, of course, we wouldn’t have patent bargaining in a fit, because you would just get high inflation again.
But down the bottom where the compression is happening, what Bill is trying to do is loosen up the bottom wage system.
You know, lifting the minimum wage up and the next two deciles, loosening them up a bit. That will take some time, but he’ll do it.
Updated
On what he sees the election as being about, PJK says:
It’s about the economy and society. The economy is there for society. The Liberals have nothing to offer.
You know, I’m surprised how threadbare their program is.
If you look, there is no panorama. There’s no vista. There’s no shape.
There’s no talk about where Australia fits in the world, as if China hasn’t happened. And what’s their plea?
Trickle down economics and a tax cut five years away.
I mean, they have such a poor opinion of the ordinary person that they think that they’ll sell their tax cut five years away.
Paul Keating is giving a rare interview to the ABC. His take on the election?
The whole opportunity of the place has been passed over. It’s time for a renewal. I think Bill Shorten speaks today, speaks about the need for renewal and the propensity of the community to actually accept it.
The Labor campaign is on its way to Sydney.
I think the plan is to stay down south for a bit – there is a Q and A solo episode with Bill Shorten on Monday night, and as far as I know the last leaders’ debate is locked in for 8 May in Canberra, bringing both campaigns back for at least a night.
Updated
The plan for the rest of the day – door knocking.
Ali France just told me her campaign knocked on 1000 doors yesterday in Dickson.
“That is just what we needed.” says one volunteer as he leaves.
Updated
The launch ends.
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There are more cheers as he makes his way from the room.
Updated
Scrap that – that “Bill, Bill, Bill” chant has started.
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The Shortens spend some time greeting people in the front few rows. The crowd is clapping in time, but there is no chanting.
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Chloe and the children are on stage as “no second prize’ by Jimmy Barnes plays.
We won’t impose second-rate options on this nation.
We do not want second prize for the Australian people. And in the 13 days remaining, the choice for our country and our message to the people is as vital and as simple as this - if you want better hospitals and schools, not more cuts – vote Labor. If you want unity and stability – not three more years of chaos – vote Labor.
And if you want to tackle the cost of living and get wages moving, not more tax loopholes for the well off and the wealthy – vote Labor. If you want real action on climate change, not more chaos and denial – vote Labor.
So today, this is our case for change. We say, proudly, to all Australians – end the chaos, vote Labor. Vote for real change. Vote Labor. Vote for your families’ interest.
Vote Labor. Vote for your future – vote Labor.
And for a fair go for all Australians, wherever they live, however much they have, vote Labor.
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In conclusion:
Friends, in our time in opposition, we have united around a bold and comprehensive vision for the nation.
And the case for change, our case for change rests on the great things that we’re determined to do and achieve for our country’s future. Everything, from equal wages for women, to getting the NDIS back on track – our ambitions are high.
It aims high as the people of Australia aim high for themselves. We are choosing hope over fear. We are choosing the future over the past. We are choosing a real plan over petulant name calling and scare campaigns, because we won’t accept second best for Australia. We won’t impose second-rate options on this nation.
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Still on climate change:
We will stand our ground. We will fight hard. We will defy the pseudo science and the scare campaigns.
If we have the privilege of serving as the next government of Australia, I will not bring lumps of coal to Parliament for a laugh, while temperatures soar and bushfires rage and flood and drought batter our land.
We will not tell our children that politics was too difficult or the future was too hard. We will not say that we knew what was needed to be done, but we lacked the courage and the conviction to do it.
We will build a renewable energy future for this country. We will cut pollution, we will help industry modernise.
We will empower our farmers. We will rescue our rivers and save the reef and protect our precious environment. We will not run nor hide from the problem. We’ll get on and do something about it.
And on this issue, perhaps above all others, the contrast and the case for change is night and day, black and white.
If you want to see real action on climate change, you need to vote for a Labor government.
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Shorten on climate change:
Let me cast your mind back to the 2016 election. Malcolm Turnbull, a name you will only hear at a Labor event ... (the crowd enjoys this line) ... promised the government, stable government, and then he was taken hostage by the right wing of the party, his party.
At this election, Scott Morrison cannot promise you stable government, because he’s already taken himself hostage by Pauline Hanson and Clive Palmer.
Three more years of this Coalition of chaos would mean more years of delay and denial on climate change.
On Friday night’s debate, the other fellow, having spent his every day in the job arguing that pollution was going down, the prime minister was finally forced to admit that under the Liberals, pollution is going up.
Yet, he still has no plan to do anything about it. A decade of broken politics proves that half the Liberal and National Party simply don’t believe climate change is real. And the other half just don’t care.
When push comes to shove. I don’t know which is worse – but I do know that Australia deserves better.
In the next 13 days, our opponents and their vested interests will throw everything at us on this issue.
Find every excuse not to act on climate change.
But I promise Australia, and I promise all of those Australians who want action on climate change, and I promise the young people in particular, but all Australians – Labor will stand its ground.
No retreat on real action on climate change.
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Looks like we are getting to the end. Bill Shorten on Labor:
But, by contrast, my goodness, I’m proud to lead a team that believes Australians deserve the best.
The best in everything from defence and national security to our social safety net. And when it comes to health, if you want shorter waiting times in emergency and in surgery, more hospital beds and more nurses, dental for tension pensioners and new help in the fight against cancer.
If these things make sense to you, if they matter more to you than protecting loopholes for the rich; if you think that your family’s health is more important than a multinational company’s tax avoidance strategies, then your decision on May 18 is very easy, indeed.
Vote for a Labor government to put the health of Australians ahead of the tax rorts at the top end of town.
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With the entirely obvious caveat that this is as very sympathetic room, that last line there resonated.
Bill Shorten on his opponents:
Now, I know that politics is a contested business.
I understand neither side wants to give the other an inch at an election time. But I was a bit surprised and disappointed, even by this government’s standards.
When I announced our cancer plan, I deliberately left the door open for bipartisan support.
The prime minister didn’t even pretend to give it 10 minutes thought before he sneered that on one hand, it wasn’t necessary, because the treatments people need are already free.
And on the other hand, he’s argued that plan would cost more than we said. This is what is sick about the political debate in Australia.
This is what is broken inside the government.
Whenever this current business as usual threadbare policy mob are confronted with a new idea, a good policy, a clear plan, they always look for an excuse to say – no. How often throughout this campaign have you heard the Liberals and Nationals say about Labor’s plans, our initiatives for everyday Australians, they say, ‘Australia can’t afford that.’
They say it while they give multinationals a free ride.
They say that while they subsidise property investors to make a loss on their sixth house.
They say that while they send tax refund cheques to people who didn’t pay income tax. And they say it while working behind the scenes, to spend tens of billions of dollars of tax cuts on the top end of town.
You can only not afford a plan to help people with cancer treatment if you’re spending it on other matters.
This election’s about choices.
So please, before you vote, understand this – every time you hear the Liberals say, ‘Australia can’t afford it’ what they really mean is – ‘you don’t deserve it’.
They say Australia can’t afford it, they mean, you don’t deserve it.
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On the cancer plan:
It is a shocking statistic that one in two Australians will be diagnosed with cancer across their lifetime.
The odds are that if it is not us, it is someone that we love.
The more shocking number is that the most reliable predictor of whether or not you will die from cancer is not actually your general health, it is not even your family history.
It is your income.
Now, we’ve got a special guest here, Kristen Larsson who is here, she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer at 21. She’s been battling it for six years, with the help of her fabulous sister and family, and helping others along the way.
She knows the financial burden of cancer treatment. In the oncology day wards, you get to talk to a lot of people.
She knows people who have not been able to afford to pay for treatment.
Kristen summed it up for me at the Day Oncology Ward at the Royal Brisbane Hospital.
She said, “When you’re fighting for your life, money is the last thing that you should have to worry about.”
Kristen, you being here, reminds me of what’s important. You remind all of us what’s at stake, why we do this, why we seek office. You and your fight and your family matters to us. Every one of 145,000 people diagnosed with cancer this year matter to us. Every one of nearly 500,000 people having treatment for cancer matters to Labor.
So, if we form a government on May 18, we will make sure that there is an additional 6m cancer scans and tests, and 3m more specialist appointments all covered by Medicare.
Cancer makes you sick.
But in a rich country like ours, it should not make you poor. And that’s what we are going to change in this country on May 18.
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Shorten on the pensioner dental plan:
No more waiting in queues. No more putting off your teeth health because you can’t afford it. The help you need when you need it.
The legendary Bill Hayden is here today – a founding father of universal healthcare in this country.
He knows better than anyone – it was the current generation of pensioners who were the workers of Australia 35 years ago who gave up wage rises to help create Medicare. So this dental care for pensioner, the next step, because of the reforms we’re making, is a small way of repaying the great debt we owe that proud generation who gave us Medicare to begin with.
Friends – no matter where you live, no matter what you earn, we are going to make sure that Medicare is there when you most need it.
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Looks like others are listening along:
Over the next 5 years we will deliver a further 80,000 apprenticeships. When Bill Shorten was the minister for employment, there was a decline of 110,000 apprentices (or 22%) in just one year (2012-13), the largest annual decline on record. #auspol #ausvotes
— Liberal Party (@LiberalAus) May 5, 2019
We move on to pensioners:
Now, all of us who participate in elections often hear from the pensioners, the mighty army of 2.6 million aged pensioners.
The people on the commonwealth health senior’s card, and they sometimes feel forgotten as their fixed income is being undermined by the cost of healthcare going up and up.
Quite often, when the ads stop rolling and the polls close, it is the pensioners of Australia who are left asking – what about us?
Well, not this time, friends. This time, Labor hears you loud and clear.
This time, we are offering a generational change in Medicare for the pensioners. We are going to provide, we are going to make sure, that three million pensioners and seniors can get overdue help looking after their teeth for the rest of their life.
Pensioner dental.
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Fourth announcement
And it comes from a throwback to Friday’s debate:
Now, if you managed to watch the Sky debate on Friday night, there was one lady who asked a question there, and she was asked about the need of diversity for service providers.
I told her I was listening to her then, and I’d just say to her now – I get it.
Labor gets it. She asked about kids Helpline. As a first step, we will invest $6m in Kids Helpline to ensure young people can call a counsellor for help, 7 days a week, 24 hours a day.
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Health continued:
Now, when we talk of medical emergencies, we think of the wailing sirens and the urgent operations.
But there is also a medical emergency, an epidemic tearing through suburbs and the bush.
It’s parents giving eulogies for their children. It’s young school mates going to the funerals of their friends, who they had no idea they were doing it tough.
It’s communities hollowed out by grief. Now, we’ve made progress in shrugging off the stigma of mental health in this community, but the system is still too fragmented. It’s still too hard to access.
Too many young people are still falling through the cracks. Australia has to change this.
So, to start our investment in the next wave of mental health support, and I acknowledge the presence of Australian of the Year, Professor Pat McGorry here, Labor will put in $197m to trial four new Headspace Plus centres, meaning more resources, more community-based healthcare for young people.
In Brisbane and Sydney and Melbourne and Tassie, and as the trials work, we’ll roll them out further.
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Third announcement
As telegraphed by Murph earlier this morning, it’s on health:
Friends – I think it is fair to say, sometimes, that we can over complicate politics, because in the end, what really matters most to Australian families is straightforward. If your family’s OK, if your health’s OK, then everything else flows from that. But if that is in jeopardy, everything else is difficult.
So when you look at this election, one of the biggest differences and the sharpest contrasts is in health. Is in hospitals. Is in Medicare.
Anyone who’s rushed their child to a hospital in the middle of the night knows Australia has some of the best healthcare workers in the world. But years of Liberal cuts, not keeping their promise, forcing public hospitals to do more and more with less and less, they take their toll.
Put bluntly our emergency departments, despite the best efforts of the staff, are over crowded and underfunded.
They’re not as safe as they should be. One in three patients with an urgent condition doesn’t get seen within the recommended time.
Now, there’s no complicated problem here. It’s a simple question of dollars and resources.
The Federal government has cut the money to the states and is starving the system of resources.
So today, I announce, as part of our $2.8bn Better Hospitals Fund, that we will put $500m to upgrade emergency departments to bring down waiting times right across Australia.
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On tertiary education:
And when you think about the importance of change in education and proper funding, it’s not only important.
My word, it’s urgent.
Nine out of every 10 new jobs created in the next five years will require either a university degree or a TAFE qualification.
So, instead of pushing up the price of degrees, Labor will uncap places and open the doors of university to another 200,000 Australians from the bush, the suburbs and the working class families.
And I say to those working in our great public TAFE system – help is on the way on May 18. After years of cuts, years of neglect, we are going to rebuild public TAFE in every sense of the word.
$200 million to upgrade the TAFEs; 100,000 places where we pay the up-front fees.
TAFE is in our Labor DNA and it is at the heart of our plans for Australia’s future. I want your kids to be able to get an apprenticeship and if you want to retrain, I want you to get that chance at a public TAFE.
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Education continued:
Imagine the benefit. Every 3-year-old, every 4-year-old – the best start in life for the next generation.
That’s what makes every parent get up in the morning and work as hard as they do. And every government should work as hard as every parent to deliver the best for their children.
That is why we will put back every single one of the $14bn that the Liberals have cut from our Australian public schools.
... We know individual attention from great teachers is not a luxury. It’s a necessity. Proper help for the kids with special needs.
It’s a national responsibility. Not to be left to parents to feel isolated just to get attention for the child they love.
We know that languages, arts and drama, music and sport and camps, should not depend upon the personal generosity or the fundraising ability of parents and teachers and cake stalls.
A cake stall is not an education strategy. Putting $14bn back, my word, that’s a plan for education.
We are going to put free back into “free education” in this country.
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On education:
Our economic plan is not about handouts for the top end and everyone else going back. Our plan is about building and growing and diversifying the economy from the ground up, from the regions to the cities.
Making it work in the interests of everyone.
And, of course, for my Labor government, our vision always begins with education. The world and the region that we live in is changing more rapidly than any time in human history.
So much is different.
So much is uncertain. But one truth is guaranteed - the best investment that we can make is in the potential of our individuals and the future of our economy, is education.
Now, my mum was a teacher. She was raised in a Labor household. She knew the Whitlam words, “Liberate the talents and uplift the horizons of the Australian people.”
That is what education does. “Liberate the talents and uplift the horizons of the Australian people.”
And this great national mission begins in the early years: 90% of a child’s brain develops by the age of 5.
Every expert, every smart country, every parent knows this.
This is why for 15 hours a week, 40 weeks a year, a Labor government will deliver universal pre-school and kindergarten for every 3-year-old and every 4-year-old in Australia.
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Second announcement
And it is on multinational tax avoidance (which you may remember came up in the last debate)
Today, I announce a new reform that will prevent big corporations using dodgy royalties to avoid paying tax in Australia, returning over $2bn to the bottom line of the Australian balance sheet.”
A bit more on that announcement from the statement:
Closing this tax loophole for multinationals will improve the budget bottom line by $680m over the forward estimates and $2.3bn over the medium term.
We will deny multinationals a tax deduction for royalties when they are paid:
- By a firm with $1bn or more of global turnover (“significant global entity” in tax law).
- To a related party.
- In a transaction that is subject to the “sufficient foreign tax test” aspect of the Diverted Profits Tax, or has a harmful “patent box” regime.
A multinational can still get the tax deduction if the firm can substantiate to the Commissioner of Taxation that the royalty payments are not for the dominant purpose of tax avoidance.
Embedded royalties are an issue the Australian Taxation Office has also been concerned about for some time. Some multinationals allegedly embed royalty-eligible payments within other transactions like “service fees”. Labor will task Treasury to work with the Australian Taxation Office on this issue and determine whether targeted measures are required.
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Bill Shorten moves into some of the general aspects of Labor’s policy platform:
We’re going to invest in new industries, hydrogen in Gladstone, shipbuilding for our defence and merchant marine, we will back things Australia does best in the world, from farming and mining to advanced manufacturing, science and tourism.
And we will deliver strong budget surpluses to pay down the debt that these delinquent Liberals have doubled since they’ve been in office! We can achieve this plan for growth, this investment in people and infrastructure because we’ve made the responsible reform decisions for the long-term.
We will end the intergenerational unfairness in our tax system that puts property investors ahead of first home-buyers.
We are not going to keep sending tax cheques worth $6bn a year to people who are not paying income tax. (This is greeted particularly warmly in this room)
And the days of Australia being treated as a doormat by tax-avoiding multinationals ends on May 18 if we are elected.
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We move on to wages and jobs:
Friends, our opponents want to enter Australians in a race to the bottom in pay and conditions but many of us know that there’s nothing for our country on the low road of low-skilled work for low wages.
There’s no dignity or hope or security for our people down that path. There’s no marvellous economic opportunity either.
There will always be countries with bigger populations, prepared to pay people less to make stuff cheaply.
We cannot win that race, nor should we be in it.
The future that I see for Australia is the high road – high-skilled jobs, high productivity, growing the economy by investing in people and building our nation.
Here’s some numbers to think about: 150,000 apprenticeships and training places have been lost under the Liberals in the last six years.
We are going to bring them back for Australians of all ages, we are going to have new carers for the NDIS, and new workers in the clean energy industry of the future. This means less pollution, lower power prices but we will also bring tens of thousands of high-quality new jobs here to Australia.
We’re going to build new infrastructure from the beef roads of western Queensland, to cross-river rail in Brisbane, Bass Link 2 in Tassie, the Melbourne metro, the metro in Perth, upgrading the Bruce, the M1 and Ipswich motorway, and tens of thousands of new, affordable social houses for our people.
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On childcare:
For so many families, paying childcare is now a full-time job. If we want to be a fair and productive modern nation, then we can’t continue with this ridiculous situation where women, in particular, are spending their whole salary on the very childcare that enables them to go to work.
Our plan will deliver better subsidies and cheaper childcare for every family who earns under $174,000 – a million families, a million families. Families who earn more than that, they won’t be worse off.
But nearly 1m Australian households will be up to $2,100 better off per year per child, and if your household income is under $70,000, your childcare will be as good as free.
And we’ll make childcare cheaper for families but we’re also going to deliver an overdue, professional pay rise for our early childhood educators.
We’re not going to leave it to the invisible hand of the market or pass the cost on to parents.
It is time our country gave more respect and fair reward to those early childhood educators to whom we entrust our children to give them the best start in life.
What we’re going to make sure is that any opportunistic providers who try and raise their fees on the back of this good news, well, we’ve got some advice for them – a Labor government will look at every option to keep the costs of childcare rises down, including price control.
So the choice for working families is crystal clear - if you want cheaper childcare, if you want real help with the cost of living, vote for a Labor government on May 18.
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On private health:
Changing Australia for the better means helping families with their cost of living. Private health insurance is becoming a luxury, so we’re going to cap the premium increase at no greater than two per cent for each of our first two years while we make the system fairer.
And power bills:
Electricity bills, well, they’re out of control, so we’re going to fill the void in the 13 energy policies of failure of this government and we’re going to get more renewables into the mix to get prices down.
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Shorten:
When Labor understands that when we extend opportunity to any Australian, the benefits are shared by every Australian.
So wherever it’s secure jobs or decent wages, if you want a better deal at work, do not vote for more of the same, do not vote for a prime minister who voted eight times to cut your penalty rates, vote, instead, for the Labor party that spent 125 years championing fair pay for working people in this country!
... And if youth unemployment or discrimination against older Australians means something to you, or has touched someone in your world, then vote for the only party with a plan to help.
If you’re sick of the uncertainty of living shift to shift, payday to payday, waiting for a text message each night to see if you’re working the next morning, if you want more security than that, more dignity than that, more respect than that, more opportunity than that, vote Labor on May 18!
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First announcement
That is why, today, I am proud to announce that Labor will create a new jobs tax cut, we’re going to make it easier for small businesses to create new jobs for people who’ve been looking for work for more than three months, companies with a turnover of under $10m who take on a new person under the age of 25, or over the age of 55, or a parent or a carer, just trying to get their foot back into the workplace, under our Labor government, small businesses up to $10m will be able to claim an additional 30% tax deduction on the salary for up to five employees.
We’re going to keep faith. Our new jobs tax cut is an investment in the potential of our young. It’s an investment in the experience of older Australians.
It’s an investment in participation for parents and carers. I will keep the promise I’ve given at 80 town hall meetings to those older workers, to the young people in rural Australia, Labor’s got your back. This is fair go economics at its very finest.
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On employment:
Friends, today as we make the case for change I am proud to put youth unemployment on this election agenda because young people, youth unemployment, it’s more than double the national average, it’s much higher, in many communities, and what a waste. What a waste of hope and human potential.
Alongside youth unemployment I want to put age discrimination on the national political agenda.
There is a battle which nearly 100,000 older Australians face when they’re longer in periods of unemployment when they’re looking for work, a battle of some older Australians have just surrendered in, been forced to give up.
You know who I’m talking about – the older Australians who can’t get themselves back in the game, not for lack of effort but for lack of a chance.
I see it at every one of the town hall meetings I’ve been at. There’s always very well-dressed, quiet, older people, often clutching in a plastic sleeve, their CV.
They don’t speak up to me in the middle of the meeting but come to me at the end of the meeting.
You can see it in their eyes.
There’s a sting of rejection. There’s a sense of injustice. This recurring question, “Why won’t someone give them a chance?”
How did Australia come to be a country where once you’re 55 and 60, you’re just wiped? Why is their disinterested job service provider simply shuffling them along to one unsuitable interview after another?
This is Labor. We believe that young or old, city or bush, every Australian, regardless of their age, regardless of their postcode, has the right to the dignity of work.”
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On business:
I know, you know, and we know, that this country works best when we work together, when we strive for a win-win outcome.
Indeed, for business, that’s what Labor’s Australian Investment Guarantee is all about.
New analysis out today shows that our extra 20% tax deduction for employers who invest more than $20,000 in new machinery and greater productivity and better equipment, this tax deduction for business, this reward for business to invest, will create up to 77,000 new jobs, and win-win, it will deliver an increase in average wages by up to $1,500.
That’s what I’m talking about – a win for business, a win for the workers, and a win for the economy as a whole because more money in the pockets of wage earners means more trade for the shops in the high street, more confidence across-the-board.
That is what we call the win-win - good for business, good for workers, good for Australia.
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On wages:
If you want to stop the next round of cuts to your school, and your hospital and your community, then on May 18 vote Labor.
Now, if we win this election, our priority is not making the rich very richer.
It is getting wages moving again for working people, starting with laws to reinstate our penalty rates in the first 100 days.
A new push for equal pay for women. A better deal for casuals.
Cracking down on the abuse of 457 visas, cleaning up labour hire ... and for the lowest-paid Australians, converting the minimum wage into a living wage because no Australian adult ... no Australian adult who works full-time should be trapped in poverty.
Labor rejects an American-style wages system where working people have to rely on tips just to make ends meet.
Now of course we will consult, we’ll work with the independent umpire, we will respect the capacity of business in the economy to pay, but I know I can deliver a better deal for working people through negotiation and cooperation.
I know because I’ve been doing it for 30 years.
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Shorten continues:
Now I do not know the details of any secret deal that my opponent has done with Clive Palmer to lock in his preferences but, I tell you what, no one gets something for nothing from Clive Palmer, and I bet that big tax giveaways for big business will be right in the mix!
Friends, here’s the thing, whether you give $77bn to $80bn to the biggest companies, this money has to come from somewhere, and from someone else. If you take out these tens of billions of dollars, it means more cuts to schools, more cuts to hospitals and, as we’ve already seen in the most recent budget, it means cuts to the disability insurance scheme.
My opponent says this is not the time to turn back. I say this is the time to move forward for Australia.
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We get to the guts of the speech now – the policy and the differences between the two campaigns:
Friends, today we sharpen the argument.
Today we make the choice clear.
Today I present the case for change.
Our great country needs real change. Because more of the same is simply not good enough for Australians.
And nowhere is this more clear or more urgent than the economy. Our economy is not working in the interests of working people.
After six years of Liberal-National cuts and trickle-down economics, wages growth is at record lows. One million of our fellow Australians want more hours of work but cannot find them.
One million of our fellow Australians are doing two jobs, at least, just to make ends meet. And our economy is running on empty, the fumes of zero per cent inflation last quarter.
But none of this is by accident.
The Minister for Finance said so himself - “low wages are a deliberate feature”, he said, “of the Liberals economic plan”.
The Liberals are the architects of low wages growth, and they’re proud of it.
And after six years, these are the consequences. People with less job security, people with less money to spend, people paying more for everything, living standards flat lining.
And we all know what’s coming next if the Liberals and Nationals get another three years. They want to give $77bn – the number the prime minister refuses to say out loud – they want to give $77bn of taxpayer money to the highest tier of income earners in this country!
And you just know in your bones that if the Liberals get back in, the prime minister’s personal passion project, his $80bn-giveaway to big banks and big business will be back on the table.
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And on Bob Hawke:
Finally, I’d like to address a bloke who cannot be here today but I know that he and Blanche are watching on television, the one and only Bob Hawke.
Bob, we love you and in the next 13 days, we are going to do this for you!
Thank you, Bob.
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Shorten on Julia Gillard:
Now, friends, I’m a Collingwood supporter so I’ve been to some pretty big games but I reckon ... (as are all proper thinking people, tbh. Yes, I am a Collingwood supporter, don’t @ me)
... I do reckon that the loudest roar that I’ve ever heard in my life was in the Great Hall of the Australian Parliament last year, when thousands of survivors of child abuse cheered the Labor prime minister who called that important royal commission, Julia Gillard!
Julia, you had the humility to listen, the courage to act and because of you, justice is no longer denied to thousands of our fellow Australians. Today, I am proud to announce that we will double the number of case workers working in the National Redress Agency to speed up the processing and delivery of long overdue compensation.
Everyone in the Labor family would like to leave a legacy – your legacy is one which is truly splendid.
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Shorten on Kevin Rudd:
Of course, in my very first week that I served in the Australian Parliament, I, and all of us, had the privilege of hearing prime minister Rudd deliver the National Apology to the Stolen Generations.
Kevin, that act of leadership, that act of decency, that act of healing wasn’t just a great Labor achievement, it was a great national moment. It proved, and you proved, that government at its best can speak to the better angels after the Australian nature. Thank you very much, we will never forget it.
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Shorten:
Friends, on behalf of every true believer, I acknowledge the great PJ Keating.
(There is another standing ovation)
Now, Paul, you mightn’t be aware of this but a few months ago Peter Dutton said that “the big problem with Chris Bowen and with Labor is that we want to deliver Paul Keating’s unfinished business”.
Now, he meant it as an insult. We cannot imagine a greater compliment in Labor!
Paul, you’re a wonderful source of advice to me and my colleagues, a source of great inspiration to every Labor person and I thank you.
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Shorten continues:
Every leader needs a good team but I’ve got the best one on offer at this election.
I acknowledge also the traditional owners of this land.
I pay my respects to elders, past, present and emerging, and I pledge that our Labor government will match these words of respect with action.
Earlier today, our Senator Patrick Dodson, the father of reconciliation, the man, I hope, will be the next Minister for Indigenous Affairs, launched Labor’s First Nations policy.
Real justice, good jobs and stronger families, healthier communities and better housing, and a voice enshrined on your nation’s birth certificate, the Constitution.
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Shorten:
Now, friends, before I go any further, I’d just like to thank my darling wife, Chloe – I love you, and I’m sure that everyone here and across Australia can understand why I’m happy to be known as Chloe Shorten’s husband.
Thank you, Annastacia, for making us welcome, and thank you for so many state and territory leaders for joining us today.
To Tanya and Penny, thank you for your friendship, for your counsel, for your strength, thank you for being a constant reminder of the difference it makes when a political party has real commitment to equality for women.
And I count myself so fortunate to sit in a shadow cabinet with the people on this stage – smart, dedicated, passionate and they have a vision for doing the big things for Australia, thank you very much.
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Bill Shorten takes the stage:
My fellow Australians ... at this election, you have the power to change our country for the better. You have the opportunity to take Australia into a new decade, with new vision, with new purpose, and with a new Labor government.
... I make this promise to my fellow Australians that if you vote Labor, we will put the fair go into action.
A pay rise for wage earners, help with the cost of living for families, including cheaper child care and, at long last, dental care for pensioners covered by our Medicare.
If you vote Labor, you will deliver a better deal for the next generation. Real investments in education and real action on climate change.
If you vote Labor, you can end the chaos in Canberra by electing a strong, stable and united team – focused on serving the people of Australia.
The choice for you, the choice for our country is clear: it can be more of the same or a change for the better.
Division and chaos or unity and purpose. More cuts to health and education or better schools and hospitals.
Rising cost-of-living and stagnant wages or a better deal for working families. The choice is clear.
You can have cowardice and chaos on climate change or courage and action.
There is the choice for every citizen of our great nation – three more years of smug, smirking, unfair complacency under the conservatives, or a bolder, better and more equal future for Australia under a new Labor government.
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Chloe Shorten finished with this:
Tanya generously describes me a little bit like Bill’s feminist conscience.
...I can tell you, that Bill’s unconditional respect for equality for women in that he is his mother’s son.
Now, every marriage requires sacrifices.
Like when we go on date nights and he will talk to the waiters about their wages... I’m going, “Hi, over here, over here.”
Like, when we talk our dog for a walk and he will stop and talk to all the neighbours about climate policy, about mental health policy, about the environment policy.
At the show with the kids, he stops and talks to the ride operators about their EBAs.
But he lives and breathes this stuff. Through the long days away from home, the very late nights, the early, early starts, he’s driven by a determination to make a difference for those who need it.
My friends, I know how much this party means to Bill.
I know how much your support means to him. And I know he leads a group of extraordinary people.
Who, with your help, will be a great, great government for this country of ours.”
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I’ll bring you a bit more of that speech in a moment – Bill Shorten has just arrived to a hero’s welcome. The crowd is on their feet and a woman is chanting “I love Bill” as he walks down the middle of the crowd, stopping to shake hands.
And the music? Labor’s campaign song. Nailed it.
Chloe Shorten starts off nervously (this isn’t her natural environment so it is entirely understandable) but she settles in to her speech when she starts talking about her husband:
... Wow, goodness me. I must say, I never thought that I would be up speaking after three such extraordinary and heroic women – thank you so much.
Good morning my friends. It’s so lovely to be home.
Yes, thank you for your welcome.
And to Bill’s colleagues, thank you so much for making me feel like I belong to this great Labor movement, and not just as a spouse but as a woman and a person in my own right. It’s so very Labor – thank you.
I, too, would like to acknowledge the traditional owners on this extraordinary land on which we meet today, past and present, and what an honour it is to be hearing from Senator Pat Dodson, who my little one calls P Doddy because he is well loved in our house.
Let me talk about the one who I love – caring, smart, funny, gentle, he is a wonderful dad, a terrible dancer, and a very proud bulldog owner.
Brisbane is where Bill got to know my elder two children when they were very little.
He would take them to parks and to Southbank, to beaches.
He would patiently play and listen to them for hours and hours. In our life together, that’s what I’ve seen.
I’ve seen what a great listener Bill is. Especially to those without power.
He is truly a man for others.
And what a strong advocate for people without a platform. Without newspapers to speak for them.
Without lobby groups to represent them. So often I’ve sat with these marvellous people from this grand party, to hear Bill talk about the way the actions and the policies of Labor will support the march of women to equality.
Equal pay, better child care, the prevention of family violence – all issues that are borne out of my own experience, my own childhood and my family’s.
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Tanya Plibersek introduces Chloe Shorten.
It’s now my privilege to introduce someone who knows Bill better than anyone, and who, throughout this campaign, has won hearts around the country, and who here, in Brisbane, on Easter Sunday actually caught a child falling out of a tree ... please welcome a proud Queenslander and a dear friend, Chloe Shorten.”
(That kid was the son of Stephen Beckett, who, along with his wife Shayne Sutton is very well known in Queensland Labor circles and was born on the side of the road. He’s got a knack for stealing headlines, that one.)
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Mike Bowers is at the front of the room
Plibersek:
He’s been putting forward a plan, a bold and detailed plan, a plan shaped and informed by what Bill has done his whole life – listening to the voices of working people, understanding the challenges they face, and finding a way to help.
That’s the contrast which has really shone through in the leaders’ debates.
Scott Morrison talks so much but he has so little to say. (the crowd enjoys this)
He has no ideas, no solutions, no vision, no courage to act on climate change.
His only plan is to keep wages low while giving millionaires and multinationals even bigger tax breaks. (calls of shame)
This is the guy who spent the last three years trying to give billions of dollars to big business and the big banks, and now he wants to give $77bn to the people on the very highest incomes, but he won’t say what he’s going to cut to pay for it.
There’s only one way to end the cuts and end the chaos, and that is vote Labor!
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Plibersek continues:
We are a great country, but the Labor mission has always been about making our nation even better. More reconciled, more independent, more prosperous, and more equal. And that doesn’t happen by accident.
You need a plan.
Bill and I didn’t know each other too well when we became leader and deputy back in 2013 but I think one of the reasons we’ve become good friends is because we share a belief in the value of good ideas and the virtue of good government.
When we talk to each other about the long-term challenges facing the country or the issues of the day, we never just say what our opponents are doing wrong. Firstly, because that would take up all of our time ... (more laughs)
... and, secondly, what matters is what we are going to do about it. What are the real and practical things we can change to ensure that every Australian gets a fair go?
Because Bill doesn’t want to lead an opposition that profits politically from the problems facing people.
He wants to lead a government that fixes those problems. That’s why Bill hasn’t spent this campaign shearing sheep and bleating about tax.
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Plibersek:
Bill’s the right person to lead Australia because we’ve seen what his leadership has done for Labor.
When Bill became our leader back in 2013, it was clear what we needed - unity and discipline.
We’ve achieved that.
Because of you, our members and supporters, because of our caucus and our candidates.
What Bill has done for Labor, Australians want for our nation - an end to the division and chaos, a plan to bring the country together, to make our economy stronger and our society fairer for everyone.
Bringing people together is what Bill Shorten does best, not through slogans and stunts but through ideas and action.
That’s the only way for Australia to move past the climate wars, the culture wars, and the red Speedos and the silly hats.
Penny Wong introduces key senior members of the Labor front bench. And then Tanya Plibersek is up.
“Penny, we love you,” she says.
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Former PM’s Keating, Rudd and Gillard at the #LaborElectionLaunch in #Brisbane @AmyRemeikis @murpharoo @GuardianAus #politicslive pic.twitter.com/neapRblfLw
— Mikearoo (@mpbowers) May 5, 2019
Penny Wong on conservatives 'they are small men with small ideas'
Penny Wong is not pulling punches:
The Liberals and the Nationals and their far-right alliance don’t care about the diversity and unity we’ve all worked so hard for here in Australia.
They don’t cherish the progress we’ve made, progress I’ve seen in my own lifetime.
And they compromise it all and they will give it all away for nothing more than a handful of votes in a handful of seats, from a handful of haters.
And this isn’t just something the conservative parties do – it has become who they are.
For all the chaos and division, from Abbott and Joyce, through to Morrison and McCormack, what they really have in common is this – they are small men, small men with small ideas.
... This government has no plan for climate change. No plan for better schools.
We know Australians need and deserve higher wages and more secure work, but this government has no clue and no purpose.
But I will give them this, they can get it together when they really need to – they can always agree to fight for tax loopholes for their mates.
My friends, Labor has a very different plan because we are very different people. More generous, more serious and better prepared, and truly dedicated to that fundamental Australian value that every one of us is equal.
No matter who your parents were, no matter where you were weren’t or who you love.”
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Wong continues:
And as for what Peter Dutton said about Ali France, we won’t forget. We won’t forget. (calls of shame from the audience)
I tell you what I find more appalling, what was actually the low point of a pretty ordinary LNP campaign, it was when Michael McCormack, the deputy prime minister of Australia, said he’d be doing a deal with One Nation.
And why? Because his values and policies are aligned with those of Pauline Hanson.
That’s what he said. Well, friends, in any society there will always be an undercurrent of disrespect, weak or strong.
At any time there will be groups of haters, small or large. But at this election, we have a major political party seeking to embolden those people and amplify their voice.
A Liberal party and a National party seeking to government, propped up by the preferences of Palmer and clinging on for dear life to One Nation, and at any opportunity, giving a nod and a wink to the extreme right – to senators and candidates, so often condemned by their own vile language and their own hateful words.
Just this morning, Josh Frydenberg, he’s the treasurer by the way ... he defended those deals by declaring unless you are in jail, you can run for office.
Well, don’t you think Australians deserve better than that?
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Penny Wong:
Well, friends, this election campaign has had some wonderful high points. Last Sunday in Melbourne, when Bill announced our plan to give 3 million pensioners and seniors not just new dental care but new dignity was definitely one.
And I thought, seeing Bill call Morrison a space invader on Friday night was pretty good too. (There is laughter)
But, friends, it is being here today with you which is the great moment.
Of course, there have been some pretty bizarre moments as well. That radio interview, where Barnaby Joyce ... (laughs)
He’s a gift, he? That’s not in the speech.
When he talked about the Queensland Labor government, the Labor, Labor, Labor, Labor, government.
Annastacia, you should get him to launch a state campaign.
Then Tony Abbott down in Warringah trying to rebrand himself as a champion of climate action.
Trying to tell us that the decade-long civil war in the Liberal Party over climate change is a thing of the past. Well, as Tony might say, “Nope. Nope. Nope.”
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Penny Wong is the next speaker. She gets a very, very enthusiastic standing ovation.
It’s the first video - Anthony Albansese opens it, with front benchers, Tanya Plibersek, Chris Bowen, Mark Butler and Penny Wong talking about his leadership.
But they then extend that out into what they like about each other, and how they work together as a team.
That has been a mark of difference with this Labor team – it was set up before the 2016 election, but has really been cemented since then – that this opposition is not just about one person – it is a team effort.
There is an Auslan interpreted here, for those wondering. She is off to the side, under a spotlight.
Pat Dodson:
Labor will reset this relationship.
Our new program will be set with First Nation leadership across the country. We will work with First Nations on the principles of co-design and free, prior, informed consent.
A Shorten Labor Government is ready, willing and able to step up and work in partnership with First Nation leadership to deliver long, overdue justice and equality for First Nations Peoples, and all Australians.
To create a voice to the national Parliament and to deliver constitutional change in our first term. And begin the journey of truth-telling and treaty-making.
We will be building together a framework of reasonable assemblies where First Nations Peoples are empowered to make decisions to identify their priorities and place-based solutions and delivering lasting changes recognising the wellbeing drives from within First Nation communities.
Labor, under a Shorten Government will apply the principles of honour, equality, respect and recognition as we develop our new relationship and approaches to reconciliation through a national Makarrata commission, local truth-telling programs, a national resting place for the unknown warriors, and justice and compensation for the survivors of the stolen generations.”
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There are few who can command a room like Pat Dodson. There is no sound as he lays out Labor’s plan for First Australians:
At Fitzroy Crossing, I sat down with the First Nation service managers in the complex areas of women’s health, of repatriation of human beings, of community safety, of young people’s futures and the trials of humanising the CDP program.
One of the senior women was in a very sombre mood. There had been another youth suicide the night before. She looked out into the distance and quietly said through her tears, ‘Sometimes I wake up and I go to work simply hoping that one small child sees this old lady going to work and thinks maybe that they can get a job and become a future role model as well.’
The future of our kids is what keeps us going. Sometimes it gets too hard and we want to chuck it all in. The only things that keep me going are the children and hope.
The funding is always difficult. The rules are always hard and prolific. And the officials controlling the programs don’t listen to them. They are desperate for change, for a change of government.
The Howard-Abbott-Turnbull and Morrison regimes have worn them out.
Constantly being treated as of no value and incapable of managing one’s own affairs is so disrespectful.
Today I am standing with you, conscious of the aspirations and dreams you have entrusted to us, the Labor party. Our pledge is to work with First Nation peoples and allow them to lead us forward together.
A Shorten Labor government has plans and commitments to bring back a fair go for all Australians and a fair go for First Nations Australians. Justice can be delivered and must be pursued. We know that government decision-making processes have led to pain, to poverty and powerlessness. First Nations Peoples deserve better than this.
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Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd are sitting together at the front row of the launch. Mike Bowers tells me they have spent their time chatting and laughing together.
Pat Dodson is the next speaker.
He too gets a standing ovation.
The national anthem is being sung, with most of the room joining in.
There’s a slight hesitation as the young woman singing on stage (I believe her name is Bianca) launches into the second verse, but they recover.
I’m a descendant of the Yuggera people. The people who don’t know the people, it’s a local tribe that occupies the Brisbane region stretching from the mouth of the Brisbane River all the way out to the Great Dividing Ranges at the foot Hills of the Warwick, far down south as the Logan River.
Within the tribe, there are several different subclans – these different subclans make up the larger Yuggera speaking language group. And on behalf of the Yuggera people, it’s my pleasure to welcome you and give you Welcome to Country and extend a warm welcome and say ... (SPEAKS Indigenous LANGUAGE) which means you’re welcome to gather here on this land and may God and all of our ancestors guide us in peace.
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The Liberal party have officially announced its trolling policy. From Scott Morrison’s statement:
“As a dad I know firsthand how anxious parents feel about what their kids see and do online and the dangers the internet can bring,” Mr Morrison said.
“Online trolls have no place in Australia and I promise to bring in new laws to protect our kids and keep our community safe.
“No one should be subjected to vile abuse and harassment whether they are in the online or offline world.
“We need the law to keep pace with technology and I want to ensure the courts reflect community expectations about the seriousness of online harassment, abuse and crime.”
Penalties for online abuse and harassment will be strengthened in line with community expectations that online crime should be treated as seriously as offline crime and will include:
· Maximum penalties for certain offences will be increased, including for those using a carriage service to menace, harass or cause offence under section 474.17 of the Criminal Code Act 1995 from three years’ imprisonment to five years’ imprisonment.
· New “aggravated” offences will be introduced and sentencing for the worst categories of crime, including aggravated offences for sexual intercourse or other sexual activity with a child outside Australia and offences involving conduct on three or more occasions and two or more people.
· New offences of providing electronic services to facilitate dealings with child abuse material, and “grooming” third parties using the post or a carriage service to procure children for sexual activity.
· Re-introduce the bill that Labor stalled in the Senate because they oppose mandatory minimum sentences for child sex offences, including increasing maximum penalties for a range of child sex offences, such as offences that cover “grooming”, sexual activity with a child outside Australia, and using a carriage service to transmit indecent communication to a child.
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The room goes dark, other than the stage for the Welome to Country.
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And the Queensland premier finishes with:
We need a prime minister who comes to Queensland to work with us, not against us.
Queensland needs change down in Canberra, not more of the same.
Queensland deserves a federal government that is united, stable and ready to govern.
Queenslanders want to be part of a nation where the fair go is for everyone, not for the lucky ones.
That’s what’s at stake in 13 days’ time.
That’s why this launch matters so much today.
Queensland … let’s vote them out!
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We are coming to the end of Palaszczuk’s speech:
As Labor launches its campaign in Brisbane, with two weeks to go until election day I want to speak directly to Queenslanders.
You gave me your trust by voting out the Newman government in 2015.
My government worked with you to rebuild our frontline services.
You renewed that trust in me and rejected the cuts and the chaos of an LNP government propped up by Steve Dickson and One Nation 18 months ago.
Together, today we’re setting Queensland up for the future. A better future.
Trust me now when I tell you this: Queensland is being held back by this Federal LNP Government.
There’s no one stronger than a Queenslander. No one more proud.
We stand up to cyclones, bushfires, floods and drought and now I’m calling on Queensland to stand up for itself against a federal LNP government that’s not giving us our fair share.
Queensland! VOTE THEM OUT.
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And then the first lols of the event:
We can have a Federal government that is a partner for our State.
We can have a federal Labor government.
And we can have a prime minister who is a friend to Queenslanders.
We can have prime minister Bill Shorten.
He’s not perfect. He’s not a Queenslander.
But he’s the next best thing – he’s married to one.
Chloe will be here shortly.
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Each of these sentences are greeted with a boo:
Queensland can’t afford three more years of getting the crumbs of federal government spending. (boo)
Queensland can’t afford three more years with a chaotic Federal LNP propped up by Pauline Hanson and Clive Palmer.(boo)
And Queensland absolutely can’t stand three more years of Scott Morrison. (boo)
Queensland, I need you to vote them out. (big cheers)
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The Labor state leaders are introduced and then it’s another standing ovation for “Bill Shorten’s federal Labor team”.
The room is pretty excited to be honest. There is a much better feel here than there was for the national conference in December last year.
That makes sense – there was still some antagonism there, as the party tussled over policy issues. It was the same at the Liberal federal conference.
But here, it is about coming together. The sterile nature of convention centre rooms don’t really allow for a party atmosphere, but there is a general sense of optimism in the room today.
She reads message from ‘another great Labor leader and prime minister”:
‘I regret that I cannot be in Brisbane for today’s launch but I take this opportunity to send my best wishes to Bill and all of our candidates for success on 18 May.
I have great confidence that Bill Shorten and his talented shadow ministry will be elected to govern in the interests of the people of Australia based on the solid founding principles of the mighty Australian Labor Party; a party I have had the honour to serve and be a proud member of for 72 years.
“And it’s signed Bob Hawke,” she says.
The room explodes again.
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She introduces “three great prime ministers” Paul Keating, Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard and the room goes nuts.
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Annastacia Palaszczuk takes to the stage with a standing ovation.
She’s something of a Labor hero after winning the 2015 election with a team of just eight other MPs and then going on to win the 2017 election, increasing her majority.
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Labor launch begins
From Little Things Big Things grow finishes and the proceedings are about to get under way.
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From Little Things Big Things Grow is once again being played as we wait. That was the same as the national conference.
We are in the room. The Labor team are already on stage, sitting in a very class photo formation.
Members of the Queensland Police Service protective detail (which all the leaders have this campaign) are sitting in the audience. There has been a history of anti-Adani protesters gatecrashing these things lately – during the Queensland election campaign they hid under the stage risers, and at Labor’s national conference, they walked on stage, while at media club events, they have formed part of the audience.
The Greens have responded to the Islamic leaders’ request to tackle Islamaphobia in Australian politics, as well as the general tone of this campaign:
“Hate speech has no place in our society, let alone our politics,” Richard Di Natale said.
“There has been a disturbing rise in racist, antisemetic and Islamophobic attacks on candidates during the election campaign, through acts of vandalism or via social media.
“I was appalled to see Josh Frydenberg’s billboard vandalised with antisemitic, Nazi symbolism yesterday. The Greens strongly condemn this vile antisemetic attack on Josh Frydenberg and we condemn the violent racist vandalism that targeted our South Australian Senate candidate Major Moogy Sumner earlier this week.
“No one should have to endure these hateful attacks.
“The Greens have a plan to tackle the rise of racism, antisemetism and Islamophobia in Australia, including making hate speech illegal and funding a national anti-racism campaign.”
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Usually the deputy leader introduces the leader – this time it looks like Chloe Shorten might have the job.
The photographers and camera operators are being taken in, so this show is about to get on the road.
So a bit of a rundown on how today is going to work: we’ll be going into the room at 11am, where we’ll get a briefing.
There is a big Queensland presence here, as you would expect – Annastacia Palaszczuk, the first woman to win an election from opposition, twice, will have a starring role.
Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd are expected to walk in together, which Labor is legitimately excited about.
There will be a few policy announcements – the health ones form the set piece, but I would keep an eye out for a surprise or two.
And of course, there is scuttlebutt about the song Bill Shorten and his team will walk out on. Labor staffers are teasing people about it (it’s always a light-hearted aspect to these things).
The last time I think they opted for the music from the campaign ads. But hit me up with your predictions.
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And just on that post about Australian Islamic leaders asking politicians to clamp down on Islamaphobia – and the story in the Courier Mail about the party suspending a member after Neil Erikson made allegations of branch stacking, you might be interested in this story:
A Liberal senator is being promoted as the headline speaker for a group that wants to ban all mosques, has described Islam as a “destroyer of multiculturalism, diversity, democracy and liberty” and linked fires at European churches to the “immigration of incompatible people”.
The Queensland senator Amanda Stoker is billed as the guest speaker at Sunday’s forum organised by the Sunshine Coast Safe Communities group, an outfit that opposes mosque developments and frequently airs anti-Islamic views.
Last year, in a Facebook post criticising a Queensland grants program designed to support refugees, it commented: “It is time they realised Islam is the destroyer of multi culturalism [sic], diversity, democracy, and liberty, yet they use it cunningly to shame an unwitting host. The evidence is to be seen in every Islamic ruled Nation. Wake up to the dangers of the one that kills.”
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The internet trolling policy is very interesting given that just a few years ago, the Liberal party was arguing the “right to be a bigot” line, during the Racial Discrimination Act debate.
The attorney general, George Brandis, has declared “people have the right to be bigots” as he confirmed plans to remove sections of the Racial Discrimination Act while ensuring the laws were better able to deal with incitement to racial hatred.
“People have the right to be bigots you know,” Brandis said in answer to a question by the Indigenous Labor senator Nova Peris. “In this country people have rights to say things that other people find offensive or bigoted.
“There is no law that prohibits the incitement to racial hatred. When the government deals with this matter the law will be in a better position to deal with incitement to racial hatred.”
The government is planning the changes, after a federal court judge in 2011 found that conservative columnist Andrew Bolt breached section 18C of the act in newspaper articles that questioned the motivations of fair-skinned people who identified as Aboriginal. The section makes it unlawful to “offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate” a person or group because of their “race, colour or national or ethnic origin”.
That was just five years ago. How far we have come.
There have been some questions about whether or not Bob Hawke will be here – last week the word was he wasn’t well enough to attend, and I think that will prove to be the case today.
You can be sure he will receive a mention though.
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The LNP protesters have moved a bit closer to the Convention Centre, but I have to say, it is pretty low energy at the moment.
Might need some more coffee
The announcements coming out of the Labor launch so far:
- $200m for Headspace plus community-based mental healthcare.
- $250m to upgrade hospital emergency departments
- $250m to employ more staff to cut surgery wait times
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Politicians urged to act on Islamophobia
Meanwhile, Australian Associated Press has published this:
Australia’s Islamic leaders have called on politicians to take a stand against increasing Islamophobia and stop contributing to the problem themselves.
The Australian National Imams Council (Anic) has encouraged Muslims to use the holy month of Ramadan to build bridges with others and try to clear up misconceptions of Islam in the wider community.
Anic spokesperson Bilal Rauf said there was a lot of concern in the Muslim community about an increasing trend of Islamophobia.
“A number of politicians have come out and made Islamophobic comments directed at Muslims, directed at Islam,” Rauf said
“All of that creates a certain culture and gives a certain acceptance to that kind of language and conduct, especially when it’s a person occupying a public platform and they express certain views.”
Rauf said he was speaking generally, although he noted some Liberal federal election candidates had been caught out by anti-Muslim comments.
The Anic last month said Australia’s political leaders and representatives needed to take steps to counter vilification and hatred, after independent senator Fraser Anning was censured by parliament for comments linking the Christchurch terror attack to Muslim immigration.
Rauf said politicians had an obligation to avoid divisive conduct, rather than play on people’s fears and insecurities.
“While it might win them some political points, if the effect of it is that it’s causing certain communities within our society to be targeted, to be vilified, then that’s a real concern and I think it needs to be called out.
“We’ve seen from Christchurch that words do have an effect and words do culminate in other things or at least embolden people to act upon a sense of hatred and vilification that might be expressed.”
Rauf said the targeting of anyone in any place of worship was deeply distressing.
Sunday evening is the first night of the holy month of Ramadan, a time of self-reflection during which Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset.
The Anic has encouraged the Muslim community to share the experience by inviting non-Muslims to join them in breaking their fast.
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We are live from the launch.
It’s pretty quiet at the moment, there are a few LNP protesters outside the Brisbane Convention Centre, but other than that, Brisbane is still waking up.
It’s not due to start until 11.30am or so, so we’ve got plenty of time.
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I’m about to head over to the Brisbane Convention Centre for the Labor launch.
Paul Keating, Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard are all walking in together. That is going to be quite the photo. Rudd and Gillard haven’t been pictured together since the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd era end. At the recent Labor conference, Gillard didn’t attend, but Rudd did. But Labor is very, very keen to promote it’s unity, to contrast from who is missing from the Coalition campaign, and why they are not there.
So, watch out for that.
.@JEChalmers: It’s terrific @MrKRudd and @JuliaGillard will both be here (at Labor’s official campaign launch in Brisbane) today.
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) May 4, 2019
MORE: https://t.co/sI8O4oxxaY #speers pic.twitter.com/MP5Jl96o27
Just on that Josh Frydenberg interview, again, this bit, on preselection, given the number of candidates lost once the election was called, was very interesting:
Well, after the election, there’s always a review of the procedures that take place in respect to these things. It’s done by the organisational wing, and that will be the same case after this election.”
That speaks to what we have been hearing – that the federal branch is beyond frustrated with some of the state’s preselection techniques. The Liberal party prides itself on its grassroots branch movement – that it is the branches who make the decision. Unlike Labor, there is no centralisation – each branch, and each state executive, is its own master.
But that means, at times, things can be a little more lax. And, depending on who is in that branch, depends on the candidate who emerges on top – and it is often, not the candidate who would best represent that electorate, but the candidate who controls the branch members.
And that means that at times, some of their branch members, don’t actually see a problem with some of the views held by the candidates.
And here we are.
It might be Revenge of the Fifth today, but let’s all take a moment to appreciate how the Liberal Party’s social team ruined May the 4th for all of us:
The economy is strong with this one. #StarWarsDay #MayThe4thBeWithYou pic.twitter.com/xhR8znXVJe
— Liberal Party (@LiberalAus) May 3, 2019
The Liberal party isn’t a regular political party. It’s a cool political party.
Apparently Scott Morrison won’t be joining Insiders this election campaign, which makes sense – today was the last chance. Next week the Liberals will launch its campaign, officially, and the Sunday after that is election mop-up.
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And on Scott Morrison’s leadership:
Cassidy: Peter Dutton said during the week that win or lose, he’s not interested in the leadership after the election. What’s your position?
Frydenberg: My position is I strongly support the prime minister and I think that his campaign is really strong.
... We’re focused on winning the election. I’m focusing on today, I’m focusing on May 18 and looking forward to a Coalition victory and prime minister Scott Morrison.
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And there have been a lot of questions on this lately – what exactly is the government’s plan, beyond tax cuts?
Cassidy: If you get elected, clearly your first priority is to get the tax cuts legislated.
Frydenberg: Yes.
Cassidy: What then? What’s next?
Frydenberg: Obviously, this is a major package of reform. The Labor party have said that they’re against it. We put in the budget a whole series of changes around infrastructure spending, essential services. There’s going to be legislation required on a whole host of area, but in relation to tax cuts, that’s going to be ...
Cassidy: That’s your priority, but then what? What’s next?
Frydenberg: Well, the budget sets out our plan for the next decade. It’s infrastructure spending. Tax cuts. Apprentices.
Cassidy: What else do you have? $100bn worth of tax cuts. Budgets come along every year. What is it that your party has? What’s the vision beyond tax cuts?
Frydenberg: I’ll tell you what the vision is, and it’s in three parts and it was spelled out in the budget. The first is fiscal responsibility. We have presided over the first budget surplus in more than a decade.
That’s not insubstantial given that Australia is paying $18bn a year in interest – enough to pay for 500 new schools to be built every year, or a new teaching hospital in every state.
Secondly, how do we grow the economy when we’re facing some of the headwinds, both domestically and internationally? And that is the apprentices and the tax cuts and the infrastructure spend. And then it’s the guaranteed essential services, record funding on hospitals and schools, both increasing by more than 60% and three-quarters of a billion dollars to mental health treating and focusing on young people in Indigenous communities. Support for the carers. Listing more drugs on the PBS.
And doing all of this without increasing taxes. That’s our economic plan for the next decade. Bill Shorten is going to see your house price go down, your rents go up. He’s going to hit superannuation. He’s going to be bad news for the country.
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On to Clive Palmer and the preference deal:
Cassidy: Are you comfortable with your party giving preferences to Clive Palmer given that he owes his workers $7 million? Still owes them. He says that he put money in a trust account, but he goes to the Commonwealth with $60 million. He faces criminal charges. Is he a fit and proper person to sit in the Senate?
Frydenberg: As the Prime Minister has said - everyone needs to pay their debts and those issues are being pursued.
Cassidy: And he hasn’t. And in the meantime, you’ve given him your preferences? In this country, unless people are in jail, they can run for office. But they don’t all get the support of a major party, and because of the support you’re giving him, he could sit in the Senate and influence government policy?
Frydenberg: I’ve made the point numerous times that we’re saying to the Australian people, vote first Liberal and National Party. Now, when it comes to Clive Palmer and his preferences, the Labor Party chased them. They’re now preferencing Clive Palmer in 85%, including second in the ballot paper in Franklin and third in Petrie. The Labor Party have been caught out on this. Chris Bowen on Q&A the other day had nowhere to hide when he accepted that the Labor Party had been preferencing the UAP ahead of the Liberals.
That leads to this exchange:
Cassidy: So the thing is, even with the benefit of hindsight, you would still spend $6bn giving the handout to shareholders rather than make childcare more affordable?
Frydenberg: You’re making a fundamental mistake. It’s not a handout. The shareholders own the company ... It’s a refund. It’s a refund.
Cassidy: So you’re going to stick with that refund rather than make childcare more affordable?
Frydenberg: What we have done in the budget is set out an alternative path to economic responsibility.
Cassidy: This is a clear choice. Both sides say that this election is a clear choice. This is not hypothetical but the clear choice that Labor offers now. And you’re saying that even if you started over again, you would stick with the current policy and not put the money into childcare?
Frydenberg: We’re saying that we can provide lower taxes and franking credits, and record funding on childcare and other essential services. Whereas the Labor party have decided to go the route of higher taxes without actually explaining the subsequent consequential impact on the economy of $387bn of taxes. So everything that we laid out in the budget, guaranteeing the essential services, $100bn on infrastructure spending, tax cuts for those earning under $126,000 and 80,000 new apprentices was all done without increasing taxes.
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Franking credits:
Cassidy: Let’s talk about franking credits. Australia is the only country in the world that does this, that we give cash handouts, refunds, to shareholders who pay no tax. How is it that Australia alone regards this as affordable, desirable and sustainable?
Frydenberg: We also have one of the highest company tax rates, and that’s in relation to company tax rates. This is not a benefit to the companies. It’s a benefit to the shareholders. Let me explain a few things. Firstly, the companies have always paid tax on behalf of the shareholder. And they pay it at 30%.
And where the shareholders have a marginal rate of tax under 30%, they get a cash refund. When they have a marginal tax rate above 30%, they pay extra. Bill Shorten and the Labor party took this policy to previous elections. They’ve supported it saying that it will help retirees and lower income earners. Now, in a desperate cash grab, are focusing on the political week, and sought to raise $57bn out of the retirees who have done nothing wrong but diligently save for their own retirement.
Cassidy: If you started over again, and I think this is the key question. If you started over again and you had $6bn to spend, would you spend it on the franking credits or spend it making childcare more affordable?
Frydenberg: This is a critical part of the tax system. By Bill Shorten changing the dividend imputation scheme, you have people like Professor Bignall who is formally a director of the OECD and a director at Sydney University, who say that is this will change the way that capital is formed in this country. There will be an incentive under Labor’s policy for people not to invest in Australian companies, about you to invest offshore. There are a lot of serious economic consequences.
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On climate change:
Cassidy: Was one of the messages about climate change? That you hadn’t given enough attention and weren’t doing enough with climate change? You’re up against two people in your electorate both putting climate change number one? What message are you getting on that issue?
Frydenberg: It’s an important issue in my electorate and it’s an important issue for the country and that’s why we take our Paris commitments seriously and why we’ll beat our 2030 target, just as we’ve beaten the original Kyoto target and on track to beat the 2020 target. We have $25bn in renewable investment currently under way in Australia – a record amount. And one of the most attractive destinations in the world for renewable energy. We’re also investing in Snowy 2.0 to become the big battery on the east coast of Australia. But you shouldn’t see climate change as a zero sum game, as a binary choice between doing something and doing nothing. We’re taking action.
But what Bill Shorten has failed to do is come up with realistic targets, costed policies and practical solutions. But he has been very tricky. He has failed to answer the obvious question 63 times – what is the cost to the economy on the policy?
Cassidy: Maybe you shouldn’t focus necessarily on the cost, either, as the key issue here? You leave an impression that the cost of change prevents change itself?
Frydenberg: But you’ve got the biggest energy user in the country with more than 1,000 blue-collar workers who say that there’s not enough detail about Bill Shorten’s policy.
If the biggest energy user in the country says that Bill Shorten hasn’t provided enough detail, what hope do ten million households and three million small businesses have?
And I think that’s the key point here. Bill Shorten says it’s not going to have any cost. And the reason why he says it’s not going to have a cost is because he’s not going to pay the bill. The Australian people will, and that is where he has an obligation. 500,000 people have already voted in this election, and they’re doing so without Bill Shorten coming clean about the true cost to the economy with the electricity taxes.
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We move on to how Victoria (where, at this stage, the election will be won or lost).
Cassidy: After the Victorian election, you said that it was a wake-up call. When you woke up, what was the message? And what have you done about it?
Frydenberg: Well, we’re communicating our economic plan to the community within Victoria.
Cassidy: Was that the wake-up call, to better communicate?
Frydenberg: I think that that was part of it, actually. I think we’ve got a very strong message. State and federal issues are different. The results at both the state level and the federal level in Victoria have also been different in recent elections. But the clear message that Scott Morrison and I and our entire team are communicating to the Australian people is that there is a clear choice at this election between Bill Shorten and his higher taxes, and the Coalition with the lower taxes, and the focus that we have on delivering essential services.
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Cassidy: There’s the case of Neil Erikson and you don’t get further to the right in terms of extremism. Where he put out a video tape, 11 minutes of it, where he says that he went to an LNP unofficial meeting on the Gold Coast last year and the whole aim of that was to recruit people from the right to try to take control of the LNP from moderates?
Frydenberg: I saw that the LNP official who was actually speaking at the event has said that those views of Neil Erikson are appalling and he didn’t know that he was going to be at the event, and clearly, that event wasn’t designed for that purpose that Erikson is claiming.
Cassidy: One of your closest friends in politics is Ed Husic. Two things, he’s Muslim and on the Labor sides of politics. Is there something that two people like you could do, try to get together and try to sort out some of the racist attitudes that prevail on politics?
Frydenberg: We talk regularly about the toxicity of modern politics. Ed is a good person who stands up against racism, just like I do, just as our leaders do. And I think it’s really important that we be eternally vigilant, because as you know, that’s the price of liberty.
Cassidy: This guy also said that his aim was to “infiltrate and influence.” People used to join a party once. Now they infiltrate it. What is going on in the Victorian branch of the party, when you have the people who seem to be from the extreme right? And yet on the other hand, your party is aggressively recruiting some of these people?
Frydenberg: Well, I don’t accept the premise of the question.
Cassidy: What part of it?
Frydenberg: We’re not aggressively seeking to recruit people with extremist views. The Liberal party that I joined, that I’m a member of, that I’m proud to be its deputy and Scott Morrison is proud to be the leader of, we are tolerant. We stand up for people who don’t necessarily have a voice, and those views expressed by some individuals have no place in our party.
Cassidy: Well, there are people in your party who are saying that you’re going out and you’re recruiting people from some of the churches and their views are quite extreme?
Frydenberg: Well, if people are religious, and those views that they have accord with their religion and they want to express them and they’re legal, so be it.
But we don’t want people with extremist views in our party. We don’t sanctions these views and, as I pointed out earlier, we’ve seen issues such as this be raised across states and across parties, and the Labor party has no place to lecture us given the comments of some of their candidates who have been disendorsed.
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Frydenberg says preselection process ‘not working’ to weed out extremist views
Barrie Cassidy: You mention social media, but the side to that is that we’re discovering what people really think. And on your side of politics, Islamophobes have gotten through and in the Northern Territory, antisemitic comments. The system is allowing the comments to get through?
Josh Frydenberg: I think you’re right. We’ve seen it in all parties and all states. But the views, when they become known to our party officials, we’ve acted very swiftly, because if you have these abhorrent view, you have no place in the Liberal party.
Cassidy: I wonder, though, you act when you hear about it, but how do they get through the system in the first place? You take the case of Peter Killen in the Liberal party in Victoria, who, by his own admission, wants to prevent gays from getting elected to the parliament. How does somebody like that get preselected in the first place?
Frydenberg: There is due diligence done, but quite clearly ... It’s not working. Well, after the election, there’s always a review of the procedures that take place in respect to these things. It’s done by the organisational wing, and that will be the same case after this election.
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Insiders had invited Scott Morrison to be today’s guest, but he declined, in order to keep campaigning in NSW.
So we have Josh Frydenberg.
Barrie Cassidy asks him about the recent antisemitic attacks on his campaign posters.
I think it has become more toxic over the course of the political debate. Social media is contributing to that, with everyone having a megaphone. But there are also people in our community with quite abhorrent views. Now, yesterday’s vandalism of my posters was not only a criminal and cowardly act, it was an insult to all the victims of the Holocaust and to every Australian serviceman and woman who served in our armed forces against tyranny. And we need to have a debate about ideas and about people’s words and actions, but we can’t sanction or green light such intolerant views.
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Labor launching its election campaign in Brisbane is becoming a bit of a habit, started by Kevin Rudd in 2007.
Queensland has voted in Labor state governments for about 15 of the last 20 years, but federally, it has always been a bit of a battle.
At the moment, Flynn, Petrie and Bonner and *maybe* Capricornia and Dickson are the main focus for Labor. They are 50/50 on whether they’ll pick them up. Herbert could fall. Brisbane too is an interesting battle. The Greens vote there is growing, which, in the state election, saw a LNP seat go to a Greens MP.
If Labor win the election, don’t be surprised if the seat of Brisbane is one of those which changes hands.
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There is nothing like an election campaign to get political parties moving quickly to stem damage to a leader.
The Courier Mail revealed last night the Liberal National party had suspended David Goodwin, a Queensland conservative powerbroker (he was pretty influential in Toowoomba and with the right of the party) after far-right extremist and convicted criminal Neil Erickson raised allegations of branch stacking.
From the Courier-Mail story:
The LNP takes any allegation of branch-stacking and abuse of process extremely seriously,” a party spokesman said.
“Following media reports today that included allegations that a member of the LNP has engaged in this type of behaviour the party has this afternoon moved to suspend that person’s membership.
“This matter has now been referred to the Party’s Disputes Committee for investigation.”
That follows on from Sarah Martin and Chris Knaus’s story on Friday.
Queensland is a bit of a crapshoot for both parties at the moment, with the state looking like being a zero-sum game for both. At the moment, it looks like the status quo will reign in the sunshine state.
But given the candidate chaos we have seen this week, particularly with the Liberals having to let go of three candidates for extremist views, the party had to act to protect Scott Morrison from further questions about far-right views within the party, at a federal level.
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Josh Frydenberg is an Insiders guest this morning.
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It’s a bit of a slow start this morning, which is not surprising. There are not a lot of people who want a side of politics with their Sunday morning.
And on the flipside, this is the big Liberal announcement today:
Scott Morrison will promise to crack down on social media trolling and increase punishments for the exploitation of children online as he identifies his immediate priorities for government if the Coalition wins on 18 May.
As Bill Shorten launches Labor’s campaign in Brisbane on Sunday morning, Morrison will promise to increase the maximum penalties from three to five years for people who use a carriage service to menace, harass or cause offence under section 474.17 of the Criminal Code Act 1995.
The Liberal leader will also flag the introduction of new aggravated offences for sexual intercourse or other sexual activity with children outside Australia, and introduce new offences covering the provision of electronic services to facilitate dealings with child abuse material, and grooming third parties using the post or a carriage service to procure children for sexual activity.
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Katharine Murphy has written up one of the big announcements from Labor’s launch today:
Bill Shorten will use the official launch of Labor’s campaign on Sunday to unveil a $500m commitment to upgrade and expand emergency departments in public hospitals.
Shorten will commit $250m for emergency departments and $250m to boost the number of health professionals working in casualty to try and reduce waiting times. Half of the funding comes from Labor’s previously announced better hospitals fund.
Ahead of Sunday’s set-piece event in Brisbane, the Labor leader also signaled during the second leaders’ debate in the city on Friday night he would roll out a new crackdown on multinational tax avoidance. The opposition is expected to outline its full costings by the end of the coming week
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Good morning
Welcome to Politics Live from the greatest nation on Earth – Queensland.
Labor will officially launch its election campaign in the sunshine state capital today, with a focus on health, change and the future.
Scott Morrison is in Sydney, selling the Coalition’s latest election promise – a crackdown on internet trolling.
Campaign launches are very strange beasts. The Liberals aren’t expected to hold theirs until next week – a week before the election.
It’s all for the cameras – and a bit of a rah rah for the true believers in the parties, as a boost before the final slog.
Labor is expecting Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard and Paul J Keating himself at the launch, as a sign of unity – a little, “all our former prime ministers turned up” dig, given that Malcolm Turnbull is not around this election.
We’ll cover that and all the day’s events, so I hope you have had a lovely Sunday morning.
Ready?
Let’s get into it.
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