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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Tory Shepherd and Amy Remeikis (earlier)

Former high commissioner attempts to confront PM on campaign trail – as it happened

Scott Morrison Anthony Albanese Josh Frydenberg Labor
Trevor Sofield
Former Australian high commissioner to Solomon Islands, Trevor Sofield, is blocked from speaking to prime minister Scott Morrison at the Ashgrove Cheese dairy in Tasmania on Day 32 of the 2022 federal election campaign. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

What we learned today, Thursday 12 May

This morning was the morning after the night before. It started with the washup from the last debate of the campaign, and continued with the expected themes (wages etc) and the unexpected memes (loose unit etc). Here’s a swift guide to today’s news:

Amy Remeikis will be here early to get your day off to the best start possible, then it’ll be the weekend (and the Liberal party campaign launch) and before you know it, we’ll be in the last week before the election. It feels like anything could still happen. Stay tuned!

Updated

The former Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd has shared the video of that encounter I mentioned earlier. He tells a Sky News journalist he’s a “tool of Murdoch”, who will “do anything Murdoch tells you to” (and he says he’s not gunning for a gig with a potential future Labor government):

Updated

From the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, on this story about Cardinal Joseph Zen:

There is considerable concern that we’re going to see this escalation in cases progress through the coming months.

Get all your vaccinations, everyone. Tamsin Rose reports that flu cases are coinciding with high Covid numbers:

A man who was missing in a flood zone in Queensland has been found, AAP reports. The 36-year-old had last been seen chasing his dog away from a campground on Wednesday night. Police have confirmed he’s been found safe and well.

The Bureau of Meteorology is warning of more heavy rainfall over the next day or two:

The Morrison government has issued a statement of condolence on the death of Papua New Guinea’s deputy prime minister, Sam Basil.

The statement (from the prime minister, Scott Morrison, deputy prime minister, Barnaby Joyce, foreign affairs minister, Marise Payne, and Pacific minister, Zed Seselja) says their thoughts “are with the families of Mr Basil and the other victims of last night’s tragic events”:

As deputy prime minister and minister for transport and infrastructure, in his other ministerial and parliamentary roles, and as the member for Bulolo Open since 2007, Mr Basil made lasting contributions to Papua New Guinea.

Australia remembers and honours Mr Basil with the deepest respect for his contribution to his country, and for his contribution to building lasting friendship and understanding between Australia and Papua New Guinea.

Updated

The “great white shark”, golfing champion Greg Norman, in hot water:

Another former prime minister has been out and about today – the former Liberal PM Tony Abbott came out to support the Warringah candidate Katherine Deves.

(Reminder: Abbott lost Warringah to independent Zali Steggall. Deves is challenging Steggall but has made somewhat of a mess of it, and Scott Morrison is standing by his captain’s pick).

AAP reports that Abbott send a video to party members, in which he says:

The more I see of Katherine Deves, the more impressed I am with her courage, with her commonsense, with her decency and with, quite frankly, her capacity to win this seat back for the Liberal party.

Whatever faults we might see in the selection process, we’ve got to do this, to get behind her for our community, for our party, for our country.

Updated

In the washup of last night’s debates, both leaders had busy days on the campaign trails. Josh Butler follows the loose units, ukeleles and Ruddisms in the latest election briefing:

Former Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd has hardly been shy and retiring of late (just today, he called a Sky News journalist a “tool” of the Murdoch empire). Here he is having a not-so-diplomatic crack at defence minister Peter Dutton:

(It’s hardly a patch on his sweary little Vegemite video though.)

Updated

The final debate is done, and election day looms. Katharine Murphy and Jane Lee discuss how parties campaign and convince, and measure progress in a pandemic in the latest Campaign catchup podcast:

Updated

Horse-drawn carriages will be banned in Melbourne within weeks, over concerns about animal cruelty.

The city is a harsh environment, particularly in summer, the planning minister, Richard Wynne, said last year. The Victorian government announced today that horse-drawn vehicles would be banned from mid-June.

RSPCA Victoria welcomed the announcement. Its inspectors had attended 48 cruelty reports in the past five years. Its policy and advocacy manager, Mhairi Roberts, said it was a “welcome and significant step forward for the welfare of carriage horses”:

The CBD poses multiple welfare risks for horses including cars, trams, excessive noise, crowds and oppressive heat in warmer months, all while working on hard ground. All these risks are compounded when the horses are not accustomed to working in the city. Even one day of working in the CBD can result in poor welfare outcomes for carriage horses.

Updated

Former Solomon Islands high commissioner tries to confront Scott Morrison

Trevor Sofield, who was Australia’s high commissioner to Solomon Islands from 1981 to 1985, spoke to reporters after he attempted to confront Scott Morrison in the marginal Tasmanian seat of Bass today.

Sofield said he was a constituent of Bass, and said Morrison’s party had lost his vote:

We have lost the plot in the South Pacific. And given that I’ve got a degree of experience I think I know what I’m talking about … the prime minister’s party has lost my vote … because of the way in which they have totally mishandled our national strategic interests, I’m no longer voting for the Liberal party.

Police stop Trevor Sofield from speaking to Scott Morrison
Police stop former Solomon Islands high commissioner Trevor Sofield from speaking to Scott Morrison on the campaign trail in Tasmania. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Sofield said he found it “incomprehensible that we did not know in advance what was happening in the Solomon Islands this time – it just couldn’t have happened previously”. (Morrison has repeatedly said Australia was not blindsided and was working through the issues carefully based on advice.)

Asked whether the foreign minister, Marise Payne, should have travelled to Honiara last month instead of the junior minister Zed Seselja, Sofield said:

Of course. But she should have been there before. She hasn’t been there since 2019. She should be going there every single year. That was the nature of the relationship that we used to have.

A reporter put it to Sofield that the prime minister had said Australia needed to ensure it was not seen as a big brother. Sofield replied:

What’s he doing but rationalising the position he finds himself in? We don’t have to be big brothers, we have to work with them, we have to understand their sensitivities, and we need indeed to make sure that however we work with them we’re working in conjunction, we’re not bullying, we’re not trying to drive something on them from above downwards. It’s really a matter of working at that equal partnership level.

Updated

The Labor MP Stephen Jones (who wrote this piece earlier this year) says comments by the Liberal candidate for Warringah, Katherine Deves, and the prime minister’s role in the trans debate is “despicable”. He’s talking to the ABC, just after they had a segment on youth mental health.

He says:

When we know that there is a five times greater incidence of suicide ideation and self-harm and severe mental health issues with young kids who are going through gender dysphoria, young kids from gay, lesbian backgrounds ... the candidate for Warringah, backed by the prime minister, doubling down to reignite a debate for pure political purposes, it is not only despicable, it’s reckless.

It’s done with the prime minister’s license, that is obvious to everybody, and frankly the gap between what the prime minister says and what he does is growing day by day.

The best way that we can do something to help young people with mental health issues is ensure that we don’t add to the [burden for] people that are already suffering, and every day Scott Morrison gives her a license to go out there and do her agenda baiting rubbish.

Updated

What the world (especially Australia) needs now – Adam Morton factchecks the climate change claims of both sides, in the latest Temperature Check:

Updated

Earlier today, we published this article noting that student loans were among those charges that the federal government indexes to consumer price inflation.

The head of the National Union of Students, Georgie Beatty, called out what she saw as “just plain hypocrisy” in the fact the Morrison government was opposed to minimum wages keeping up with the CPI but it was fine for student loan repayments to rise at that rate.

(We’ve asked Labor, which has been more supportive of wages keeping up with inflation, for its opinion on the loans.)

Many students, of course, work in the one-in-four jobs paying the $20.33 an hour minimum, such as retail and hospo. (Youth wages are even less, of course, and not all employers do the right thing, either.)

Anyway, as if on cue, the Australian Taxation Office – which manages student loans – has chimed in and lifted the annual repayment rate to 3.9% a year.

And while 3.9% looks a bit lower than the 5.1% CPI reported for the March quarter, the formula the ATO uses is a lagging one. It takes the whole past year of quarterly CPI rates and divides them against the previous 12 months’ rates.

In other words, the repayment rates will keep rising a little after CPI peaks but also take a while to come down the other side. Either way, student debt holders will face higher repayments but their incomes may not be keeping up.

The Fair Work Commission will release its verdict on how much the minimum wage will rise by the end of May or early June.

Updated

On childcare, Jennett says Scott Morrison claimed Labor’s policy would cost $18bn. Where is that figure from?

Birmingham runs through some figures on the fly, but doesn’t say where the $18bn figure comes from. The spending, though, “doesn’t make sense”, he says.

Updated

In 2013, the Coalition released its costings the Thursday before the election, Jennett says. So isn’t it OK if Labor does the same next week? Birmingham says:

It is a matter for the Labor party as to when they release their costings. What we have highlighted today, of the policies they have committed through the course of this campaign, and before this, they are not being transparent about the total cost of those policies, [they] are not engaging properly on the costings process at all, before you even get to aggregating out and releasing the total costing.

Updated

Coalition claims Labor leader ‘making it up as he goes along’ on wage rises

The Liberal campaign spokesman, Simon Birmingham, is talking to the ABC’s Greg Jennett now. He repeats the point he made (below) that the Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, is “making it up as he goes along”.

Jennett puts it to Birmingham that limiting the pay rise to workers on the minimum wage would restrict any chance of it having inflationary pressure.

Birmingham says he won’t “hypothesise” about what the Fair Work Commission might do.

Updated

Some more from Morrison’s campaign trail, where Trevor Sofield told the media he was a former ambassador to Solomon Islands:

Updated

There have been 7,670 Covid deaths in Australia:

The perils of the campaign trail:

The prime minister, Scott Morrison, is in the marginal Labor seat of Lyons. Tasmania’s Ashgrove Cheese Dairy Door specialises in crunch cheese snacks called Amazeballs (blessed are the cheesemakers):

Updated

Meanwhile, in Queensland, a woman has died and a man is missing as the state braces for more flooding. And the LNP is talking about trans issues:

Updated

Albanese will be campaigning with local member Anika Wells in Lilley, where the Liberal contender, Vivian Lobo, has got himself in some trouble.

Updated

The Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, is with members of the Queensland Nurses and Midwives’ Union:

Updated

Gilbert: What is your plan?

Birmingham says his party will grow the economy and be “responsible and cautious”.

Gilbert: That’s it?

Birmingham says they have cost-of-living policies, and will reduce income tax.

On this Sunday’s campaign launch, Birmingham says the Coalition will “continue to reinforce our comprehensive plan for the future”. Investing in skills, manufacturing, etc. He says:

The most important way to deal with cost-of-living pressures for Australians is to make sure they have a job and a stable income.

Updated

Liberal campaign spokesman and the finance minister, Simon Birmingham, is accusing the Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, of “making it up as he goes along” (on the wage rise issue).

The Sky News host Kieran Gilbert says economists have told him that a one-off increase would be good. Birmingham says “there’s an old saying that you can put 10 economists in a room and get 12 different opinions”.

But it’ll be the Fair Work Commission that makes the final decision, Gilbert says ... and won’t this be a popular message?

Birmingham says:

Elections shouldn’t be a popularity contest, they should be about competence and plans and policies.

Now Birmingham compares Australia’s performance with other nations.

Updated

Here’s the latest from Paul Karp on Labor and that 5.1% wage rise:

A rare moment of levity on prime minister Scott Morrison’s campaign trail:

Husic is talking about wages growth now. He is saying endorsing a wage rise is “the least that we could do”. He says if Labor is elected, they’ll look at the submissions process with the Fair Work Commission in June.

(The Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, has stopped short of saying he’ll advocate for a 5.1% rise in a submission.)

Updated

The member for Chifley and Labor’s industry spokesman, Ed Husic, is on Sky now.

He’s talking about a Labor announcement they will work with the Queensland government to create a battery hub in Gladstone. Labor has pledged $100m.

Gladstone is at the heart of an energy tussle, and Labor’s promising to create green jobs (mostly in hydrogen).

Updated

The former Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd is talking to Sky News.

He is in Higgins, supporting candidate Dr Michelle Ananda-Rajah. He’s asked about her comments that the AstraZeneca vaccine had “failed in terms of its efficacy”. He swiftly takes the opportunity to have a crack at the Murdoch media in general, without addressing the substance of the question.

Rudd keeps throwing back to the crowd behind him, who enthusiastically agree with everything he says (such as about how the Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, “smashed it” in the debate).

Updated

Thanks Amy Remeikis (but for “heroic”, please read “delirious). Eight and a half days! We’re gonna make it! Right?

Updated

The amazing Tory Shepherd is backing up her heroic effort last night covering the debate by stepping up to guide you all through the afternoon again.

Make sure you stay tuned to all the updates. I’m off to (attempt to) answer some of your questions with Murph and the team for the podcast, but I’ll be back early tomorrow morning.

Eight and a half days to go!

Thank you all – and take care of you Ax

Updated

The broadcast didn’t catch all of Bridget Archer’s opening address at the mental health announcement with Scott Morrison this morning, but this from Archer is worth noting:

I have suffered from poor mental health for a lot of my life. I have anxiety and panic disorders and having a bit of a panic attack when I walked in here this morning. So I’m in the right place.

... Again, with suicide it’s something that I have unfortunate personal experience of losing my stepsister to suicide and I have seen the impact that suicide has had on small communities like mine across Tasmania as well. If we can stop one person taking their life then this will be worth it. So an emotional day today.

More of our leaders should be open about mental health struggles. It helps normalise it for all of us.

It will hopefully lead to better conversations across issues which impact mental health too. Like how hard it is for trans people to listen to parts of the “conversation” in this election campaign.

In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org.

Updated

Peter Dutton, on the minimum wage dispute, tried to thread the needle between the government saying “we all want to see wages go up” with the “but-not-that-fast” attack on Anthony Albanese:

If you drive it up that fast, and without any of the work being done, you’ll see inflation go just as quickly behind it. And then you’ve got to increase wages again, and you get ourselves into a position that, you know, we’ve seen in decades past. And I mean, that’s sort of Gough Whitlam territory. It’s shooting from the hip without the information, the advice that he needs.

(A quick reminder that regardless of whether an Albanese government makes a submission recommending a specific number or not, the Fair Work Commission will make the decision on the minimum wage having taken into account all the relevant data.)

Dutton told 2GB a prime minister’s statements “can move markets” and interest rates “will go up very quickly in that environment” (the target cash rate is set by the independent Reserve Bank).

He went on to say that he’s more positive about “the mood on the ground” for the Coalition:

So I think the mood on the ground, just in my judgment, speaking to some of my colleagues, is better than what you’re seeing in some of the polling ...

I think the performance of Anthony Albanese during this election, even if you’ve prepared to cut him a bit of slack, I don’t think he’s up to the job. I’ve watched prime ministers good and bad over my time in parliament, and he just doesn’t have the goods, I’m sorry to say. And I think it would be very difficult for us to continue, you know, as a country to be able to pay for what we’re doing in defence and the rest if they trashed the budget again.

The Pre-Election Economic and Fiscal Outlook 2013 – issued by the heads of Treasury and Finance shortly before Labor lost office – said: “In 2013-14, net debt for the Australian government general government sector is estimated to be $184bn [11.7% of GDP].”

Josh Frydenberg’s latest budget said net debt “is estimated to be 31.1% of GDP [$714.9bn] at 30 June 2023” and $864.7bn in 2025-26.

Updated

Surging cases of the flu are putting extra demand on emergency departments around New South Wales, prompting a plea from the chief health officer, Dr Kerry Chant, for anyone eligible to get their flu jab.

There have been a number of major outbreaks, including at high school boarding houses, that have led to significant increases in presentations.

According to NSW Health, flu cases almost doubled in a week, with 2,000 in the week to 7 May – up from 1,024 the week before. Chant said there had been about 60 emergency department presentations for flu-like illnesses requiring hospital admission. She urged all people who could to get their flu vaccination, including boarding house students who were particularly vulnerable.

Chant said:

As with Covid-19, boarding schools are a high-risk setting for flu transmission. We’re strongly encouraging all students and staff in boarding schools to get their flu vaccine.

Boarders with flu should be isolated from others until their symptoms resolve. If a school has three or more boarders with flu, they are urged to contact the local public health unit for advice.

Updated

Peter Dutton takes swipe at Clive Palmer over seat preferences

In his regular 2GB interview, Peter Dutton weighed in on the contest in his seat of Dickson. The defence minister said it had “always been a tight seat” but argued the Labor campaign in Dickson this time had been “pretty woeful”.

Dutton also took a swipe at Clive Palmer after the United Australia party chose to recommend preferencing Labor above Dutton in his Dickson seat (in many key marginals the UAP is recommending preferences for the Coalition above Labor, but ultimately it is up to voters whether to follow these recommendations).

Dutton took the opportunity to appeal to voters in his seat:

It’s unfortunate that Clive’s made the decision that he has, but all I’d say is, you know, if you’re thinking about voting Clive, if you think that he can deliver you a maximum 3% interest rates for five years, then, you know, the Story Bridge is up for sale, I can probably negotiate you a deal on that.

I just don’t think … he has any credibility in some of the messaging. So if they’re going to follow the ticket then that will mean that Anthony Albanese wins seats where he’s not preferencing the LNP above the Labor candidate. So in Dickson don’t follow his ticket. If you’re inclined to vote for him, one, please put me two and then fill out each other square. But it’s a strange decision, but that’s an issue for Clive.

Updated

Peter Dutton also has many thoughts on Labor forming government with the Greens in the event of a hung parliament.

He would “bet his house on it”.

(He is not asked about Scott Morrison forming government with support of the crossbench so the house stays safe on that one.)

Dutton:

It’s one of the great cons of, you know, the modern election that Labor tells you that, you know, they don’t support the Greens or don’t believe in what the Greens are saying.

The Greens will preference the Labor party above the Liberal party in every seat.

So the deal between Labor and the Greens is well known, and there will be many Labor members who are elected in seats right across the country, at this election, only off the back of Greens preferences.

Let’s be very clear about that.

And for Anthony Albanese to say that he wouldn’t form a minority government with the support of Adam Bandt, it’s a complete nonsense.

I mean, that’s what Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard said, and if they’re going to, you know, be faced with opposition, or sign up Adam Bandt to an agreement, they’ll sign up Adam Bandt in a heartbeat.

Anthony Albanese was central to all of those negotiations back in the Oakeshott-Windsor days.

And if if you’re going to stitch together a coalition with these green independencies, fake independents, and the actual Greens member, Adam Bandt, I mean, you can’t govern frankly ... in that scenario, because they’ll be running off in every different direction.

And it won’t give you the stability that you need in government. It’s a recipe for disaster.

But I bet my house on the fact that if Anthony Albanese had to form government, and could only do so with the assistance of the Greens, he would, it would walk over any of his friends to do it in a heartbeat.

Updated

Just over half of Indian Australians support Labor’s policies on immigration and the economy, but the community remains split on who would make a better leader, according to a new survey.

Indian Australians are divided almost evenly on the question of preferred prime minister and which party they will vote for, a survey for community-based media platform the Indian Link has found.

Almost 70% of respondents said they were unmoved by the prime minister’s infamous “curry night” selfies, with 23% saying they were now less likely to vote Liberal because of them.

The 2021 Indian travel ban also figured in the survey, with 31% reporting a negative view of the decision, and 44% saying it had no impact on who they will vote for.

The Indian Link chief executive, Pawan Luthra, said he thought the results were surprising:

Normally you do get a trend of one over the other, but this was as even as possible.

We’ve had the curry night selfies, we’ve had politicians wear saris, but they haven’t really sat down and asked what truly matters to the community.

The prime minister has had many years to win the trust and faith of the Indian Australian community and a draw for him is as good as a loss here.

Updated

Peter Dutton phoned in for his regular slot on Sydney radio 2GB and had a bit to say about the YouGov modelling:

I was on the call with the PM this morning. He was upbeat. I think he did well in the debate last night. I think he’s a determined campaigner. I think when you look at the decisions he’s had to make, and the pressure he has been under over the last couple of years, it’s been pretty remarkable.

And I think he’s stood up very well to that. And I think that is a sign of strength and leadership. And that’s really what we’ve got to concentrate on. I think the polling was quite strange in this new YouGov poll. So I don’t put much credit into it at all, to be honest.

Updated

Regulate buy now, pay later schemes, next parliament urged

More than 100 social services organisations and consumer rights groups are calling on the next federal parliament to regulate buy now, pay later (BNPL) products like AfterPay and ZipPay, and legislate safeguards to prevent financial harm.

Organisations including Anglicare Australia, Financial Counselling Australia, Choice, the Consumer Action Law Centre, the Australian Council of Social Service and more, have sent an open letter to candidates in the forthcoming federal election urging them to commit to supporting the move.

Currently, BNPL and wage advance products are not covered by the National Credit Code thanks to the structure of their business models, which means the usual safeguard processes – like assessing a customer’s ability to repay the loan or hardship provisions – don’t apply.

A bulletin from the Reserve Bank in March last year noted that Australian BNPL providers had about 6m active user accounts as at December 2020, though the number of actual users would be lower than this due to many people setting up multiple accounts. The services were generally used more intensively by people under 50.

In the open letter, the collective of organisations – which include major charities, financial counselling and legal services and more – noted that many people had sought their assistance with debts to these companies.

“Financial counsellors are seeing large numbers of clients struggling to pay their BNPL and wage advance debts, with many people having become overcommitted, and some having debts with multiple providers,” the letter said. “Some people are also accessing BNPL and wage advance on top of other forms of debt, such as payday loans.”

Fiona Guthrie, chief executive of Financial Counselling Australia said in a statement:

Together our organisations support hundreds of thousands of people in financial hardship. We see first-hand the harm of unregulated BNPL and wage advance in our community. Our next Parliament must act to properly regulate these products to make them safer.

We know these products cause harm. BNPL is credit and should be regulated like other credit products.

Updated

A panel of teachers has been charged with telling the New South Wales premier, Dominic Perrottet, how to reduce the workload on overworked educators and reform the sector following a roundtable with the education minister, Sarah Mitchell.

The Teacher Advisory Group was formed during the Thursday morning meeting and members of the group have since been asked to go away and think about what they want the government to do before they meet again.

Announcing the inaugural group, Perrottet said they had heard stories of increased workload and staffing issues and that work was being done to reduce the admin burden on teachers.

He said:

There’s a lot of paperwork, for example, on excursions, where incidents occur. There’s probably a whole lot of red tape regulation that doesn’t need to be there. In addition to resourcing, there is no doubt that we need to do more in relation to additional teachers.

He said he would be open to trialing ideas presented by teachers to reform education in NSW.

Mitchell said:

What we want to make sure we do is bring this group together as often as we can, without adding to the red tape and burden that the teachers have to go to.

It is important that we have that accountability, but that we get outcomes because we all want the same thing, which is the best possible education for our children in NSW, no matter where they live, no matter what school they attend.

The group will feature teachers from primary and secondary, government, independent and catholic schools.

Updated

Matt Kean warns against shift to the right in Liberal party

The New South Wales treasurer has warned of the dangers of a Trump-like shift to the right within the Liberal party, as he pleaded with voters not to boot out moderate MPs in favour of ‘teal’ independents on 21 May.

The plea was supported by the state’s premier, Dominic Perrottet, who warned voters would regret stepping away from the party if independents won seats over moderate Liberals.

Speaking alongside the Wentworth MP, Dave Sharma, treasurer Matt Kean warned that unseating moderate Liberals would leave the party lacking important perspectives, drawing parallels to the Republican party in the US. He said:

We’ve seen the impact of what happens when the centre-right parties lose moderate voices. Look at the Republican party, the party of Lincoln, the party that has abolished slavery – has now become the party of Trump, the party of Putin sympathisers and anti-vaxxers.

That’s not in the Liberal party’s interest and that’s why we need strong voices like [federal NSW MPs] Dave Sharma, Trent Zimmerman and Jason Falinski in the Liberal party room to make sure the Liberal party remains reflective of the communities that we’re hoping to serve.

Perrottet said:

Those local communities will be better served having those members in parliament rather than independents. Independents … talk a lot, but they deliver very little.

He said he was concerned that people walked away rather than engaging in debate when people had disagreements of opinion, warning he had seen people “regret it” in the past.

Updated

National Covid-19 update

Here are the latest coronavirus case numbers from around Australia on Thursday, as the country records at least 53 deaths from Covid-19:

ACT

  • Deaths: zero
  • Cases: 1,132
  • In hospital: 74 (with five people in ICU)

NSW

  • Deaths: 23
  • Cases: 12,600
  • In hospital: 1,403 (with 56 people in ICU)

Queensland

  • Deaths: three
  • Cases: 7,271
  • In hospital: 437 (with 16 people in ICU)

South Australia

  • Deaths: seven
  • Cases: 4,696
  • In hospital: 210 (with seven people in ICU)

Tasmania

  • Deaths: one
  • Cases: 1,058
  • In hospital: 42 (with one person in ICU)

Victoria

  • Deaths: 15
  • Cases: 14,333
  • In hospital: 545 (with 29 people in ICU)

Western Australia

  • Deaths: six
  • Cases: 16,670
  • In hospital: 275 (with eight people in ICU)

Updated

Barnaby Joyce is in Mareeba today, which I think is in Bob Katter’s electorate of Kennedy.

Updated

The press conference ends.

Updated

Albanese urges 'competition without catastrophe' in China relationship

Q: China’s ambassador to Australia has written today that China’s rise should not be seen as a threat to Australia. Are you prepared to accept that statement? And would you meet with China’s ambassador to Australia if you are elected?

Anthony Albanese:

I have not met the Chinese ambassador to Australia, and I’m not aware of the detail of what you are putting forward.

Q: What he said was, “China’s rise should not be seen as a threat to Australia.” Do you agree ... Are you prepared to accept that statement?

Albanese:

What I say is that China has changed its posture. They are more aggressive in the region. We need to, in the words of the Biden administration, have competition without catastrophe. That’s what Kurt Campbell speaks about. I’m asked about China, and the other night, we had a question about the Port of Darwin where Scott Morrison said it had nothing to do with the federal government. Well, this here is a signed document, signed by Scott Morrison in May 2016 as the treasurer of Australia. And by David Tolna, the treasurer of the Northern Territory. The government and Scott Morrison as treasurer provided a $20m incentive to the Northern Territory government under its asset recycling program to sell the port of Darwin to a company that had interests connected with the Chinese Communist party. Thank you very much.

Updated

Q: You held up a dollar coin before talking about how this minimum wage, it is quite small an increase that is being discussed about here. Do you support a minimum wage increase, not just for those who are actually on that $20 rate per hour of the day? But also, do you support the minimum wage which is built into a number of awards across the country and how that would then flow on into other industries where people are earning considerably more than that?

Anthony Albanese:

The Fair Work Commission, as you know, if you go back, draw a distinction regularly when they look at the minimum pay, minimum wage and the national wage, they draw distinctions about that all of the time. What I am talking about here is people who are on $20.33 an hour, that the federal government says they should have their real wage cut. Last one. Last one. The Fair Work Commission does that. The Fair Work Commission do that.

Updated

Q: So you said it would be completely untenable for Labor to release its final policy costings before the Liberal party’s campaign launch on Sunday.

But in 2019, Labor did not wait for the launch. So why are you waiting now? And are you just not wanting people to see the costings?

Anthony Albanese:

I hope that the Courier-Mail are asking the prime minister why he’s not releasing his policies. Because he hasn’t even had his campaign launch yet. What I have said is that there are questions about comparisons between us and them. How can you answer that before they’ve had the campaign launch. We will release all of the costings like other oppositions have in the usual way at the usual time.

Updated

Q: Since the election has been called, we’ve had a number of visits from the deputy prime minister. He spent Easter here. Following that, we’ve had people from the Coalition, David Gillespie, the regional health minister, we’ve had Bridget McKenzie here as well. We’ve also had Mr Littleproud.

Anthony Albanese:

Have you had any Liberals?

Q: It’s a Coalition.

Albanese:

Oh, you haven’t been paying attention if you think that!

Q: You said that Mr Morrison has an allergy to the ABC. Neither you or Richard Marles have been here since the election has been called. Have you given up on Flynn or is it in the bag?

Albanese:

I have been here five times into Gladstone. I have been three times to Emerald, twice to Biloela, a number of times to Rockhampton and Gracemere.

If I was an LNP candidate for Lily, I would have changed my address to here I’ve been here so often. I’ve been here more than the LNP candidate for Lilley is at the address where they’re enrolled.

I have been a regular visitor and I was here ... I was here a little while ago. I’ve been here since then.

And I have ... I drove from Cairns to Maryborough right through here. We went to the Rio site. I visited a range of sites here in the electorate. We looked at the beef industry at Gracemere. In Emerald, I met with the mayor and the community there. In Biloela, we went to the power station.

I have been here on so many occasions because this bloke here, Matt Burnett, I personally asked him to run. Why did I do that?

Because I know that local champions can make a difference. This guy is the Queensland equivalent of Kristy McBain – the champion of Eden-Monaro.

And one of the meetings that we had here in Gladstone, a leader with all of the leaders of the community. There were people here who previously had worked on the current LNP member’s campaign and they were telling me that this time, they were backing this bloke.

Updated

Q: Paul Keating said if you change government, you change the country. You will be the first Italian Australian to win and Ed Husic will be the first Muslim Australian in the cabinet. Have you thought about how that will change the country?

Anthony Albanese:

I’m heartened by the response that I have, particularly from the Italian community. I’m being hosted next Wednesday – we don’t give you a whole lot of advances, but next Wednesday, I’ll be at the Marconi Club in western Sydney. There are members of the Italian community saying to me that they are going to vote Labor for the first time in their life because they want an Australia that reflects modern Australia.

Modern Australia is made up of people call Husic and Albanese. But it’s also made up of people like Watts and Burnett.

We’re a diverse country, and the fact that I have a non-Anglo-Celtic name, and so does our Senate leader as well. I think it send a message out there hopefully to multicultural Australia that you can achieve anything in this country. It’s a good thing that we have in Queensland a premier called Annastacia Palaszczuk. That we had in New South Wales, a premier called Berejiklian. That in Victoria, we had Steve Bracks of Lebanese descent, and a fellow called Peter Malinauskas just elected in South Australia. I think it’s a very positive thing.

Updated

Albanese on PM: 'It's like he has an allergy to the ABC'

Q: The polls show that you’re on track to win government. Are you heartened by this or sceptical of it?

Anthony Albanese:

I am focused on May 21 and that election timetable. We’re focused on May 21 on getting there. But we’re also focused on the next election as well.

I’m focused on an agenda that’s achievable. An agenda whereby we can point back and say – we’ve promised you a better future and we’re delivering it.

We’re delivering cheaper childcare. We’re delivering more manufacturing jobs.

We’re delivering a pathway to reducing our emissions.

We’re delivering more secure work. We’re delivering on cost-of-living pressures by dealing with cheaper childcare, cheaper energy bills, cheaper medicines. That’s my focus.

Polls come and go. I welcome the debate that we had last time. I make this comment – I thank Channel Seven for hosting last night. And previously, Channel Nine and Sky News for hosting the three debates that we’ve had. I make this comment – I cannot believe that the national prime minister will be the first one during a campaign who has not appeared on any ABC programs. It is like he has an allergy to the ABC. No debate on the ABC. No appearance on Q+A. No appearance on RN Breakfast. No appearance on ABC Breakfast. No interviews on Insiders, on the major programs, and no appearance yet at the National Press Club.

Updated

Q: You touched on female workforce participation last night. Labor’s national platform talks about lifting paid parental leave to 26 weeks. In an interview last year, you said that you would consult on this. Why are you therefore not taking a policy on lifting paid parental leave to the election?

Anthony Albanese:

Because what we’ve done is take policies to the election to the $1tn in debt. Hang on, can we get some order whereby you ask a question and then I’ll answer it. That’s the way these things work. So that there’s some order.

You ask your question and I’ll give you the answer. We will inherit $1 tn of debt if we are successful. If we are successful.

The government doubled the debt before the pandemic.

What we have said is – we will make clear commitments for things that we are absolutely certain can be delivered. Can we undo 10 years of damage under this government?

Ten years of damage in one year, on day one? No, we can’t.

What we can work towards is repairing the way that Australia works so that people aren’t left behind. Repair the way that Australia works so you get a real reform agenda and economic growth in sustainable way. The way Australia works so that we improve the economic participation of women.

Their biggest commitment that we are making that’s on budget during this campaign is our childcare commitment. It’s less funds, less of an investment, because it is an investment, it produces a return.

Less of an investment than the waste of $5.5bn that this Government put towards the French subs. All they’ve got is a torn-up contract.

Because guess what – those French subs are never going to surface.

Anthony Albanese and Ed Husic tour a Gladstone oil refinery
Anthony Albanese and Ed Husic tour a Gladstone oil refinery. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

Updated

Q: Can I clarify – forgive my ignorance on the Fair Work [proceedings]. Can governments override the decision by the Fair Work Commission?

Anthony Albanese:

No. The Fair Work Commission is an independent body of government.

Q: And if it goes less than 5%, like, what would your response be?

Albanese:

The Fair Work Commission is independent of government … What I said the other day and I stand by consistently, is that if the Fair Work Commission makes a decision which says that real wages for minimum wage workers should not be cut, that is something that I would welcome.

Updated

Ed Husic:

I want to pick up on a couple of points in terms of your question.

Over in January I took a trip to North America to see the Tesla batteries there … Doing lots of battery manufacturing.

Many jobs in that part of the world. And talking with them about, because a lot of people, lots of companies overseas cannot figure out how they have so many resources and we haven’t taken the step to capture the full value of that.

Knowing how many thousands of jobs can be created.

Talking to them without, one of the things that they said ideally particularly about places like Gladstone, they would like to have one of the best ports in the country to be able to ship batteries around because lots of surface transport have to be used.

So that thousands of jobs are created, you have ideal infrastructure here in a state government that wants to partner up. In terms of things like hydrogen as well, I make this point, lots of manufacturers are worried about rising cost of gas.

The Coalition has done very little to try and address this. They had big plans around a gas-fired recovery.

Updated

Q: How do you plan on avoiding the boom and bust of the LNG industry?

Anthony Albanese:

What we are planning is to have a boom, and a further boom and a further boom.

One of the things happening with areas like battery storage, this isn’t just about this, we speak about batteries, people think about electric vehicles and, yes, that is part of it.

It is also about storage for households: one in four, I think, is the figure now.

Australian households have solar panels on their roofs. Far less than that have storage. Because of cost and those factors. It is about that for households.

It is also about storage for industry. It is about how you drive that change through.

This is a growth industry into the future. It will create jobs not a short-term but in the very long-term.

And Gladstone is ideally positioned, I would like to comment on this as well.

Gladstone is ideally positioned, because it has a deepwater port, the people we met this morning, the young women who are working here. Doing Tafe courses in chemical engineering and skilling up.

These are good jobs, good jobs right here in Gladstone …

One of the things they are looking at here is expanding further into the future. If we get this right, we have enormous opportunities in the future ...

One of the things about the debate, what we will have as a national reconstruction fund. Which is $15bn, an independent board that is provides the support for investment going forward and we will make sure as well but we work with Australian industry to make sure that the benefit is kept here.

Updated

It is very hard to hear this press conference – there is a lot of machinery in the background and the journalists seem to have trouble hearing the answers on the ground.

Anthony Albanese:

N

The idea that we would support a real wage cut for people on the minimum wage is I think the extraordinary claim.

I think what is extraordinary about this debate is that a prime minister who says that people who are cleaners, retail workers, people who got us through the pandemic, should get a real wage cut is really what he is saying. We will put in a submission …

What I have said consistently, and will each and every day, is that if the Fair Work Commission, that operates independently of government, independently of government, makes a decision to not cut real wages and keep up with the cost of living, that is something that I would welcome and I welcome it absolutely.

Updated

Anthony Albanese:

Before I take questions, I do want to note that Queensland has once again been hit by floods including the loss of life. A tragic loss of life this week. I want to send my condolences to the family of the woman who has lost her life.

Updated

Anthony Albanese makes battery manufacturing announcement in Queensland

The Labor leader is in the central Queensland seat of Flynn, where Gladstone mayor Matt Burnett is trying to win the seat against former LNP state MP Col Boyce.

Boyce is expected to retain the seat for the LNP.

Albanese:

It is great to be back in Gladstone. I think this is my fifth visit at least to Gladstone, as the Labor leader, because Gladstone is a great industrial centre here in central Queensland. Today’s announcement is consistent with our attitude. A key part of our policy is that we need a future made in Australia. We need to rebuild in manufacturing in Australia. One of the lessons at the Covid pandemic is that we need to be more self-reliant and make more things right here. Today’s project does just that. It is also about getting more value out of the supply chain. Making sure that we send a message as well that Australia, under a federal Labor government is open for business. Open for the opportunities they can come from making more things here.

Updated

Queensland reports three Covid deaths

Queensland has also posted:

Updated

The press conference ends.

Scott Morrison: You haven’t had a question.

Q: Are you tired? You seem tired. I saw a frown earlier.

Morrison laughs.

Q: And what role does the Lord play in this election? And do you pray to him?

Morrison:

I pray every day. That’s been my practice over a very long time in my life and I can assure you I’m fighting fit, full of beans and looking forward as the next 10 days because Australians are going to face a very big choice at this election and it has very real consequences for people at home, perhaps watching this or maybe seeing it later.

How you vote at this election is going to have a big impact on the future of the Australian economy that you live in.

The economy your job depends on – your income, your retirement, how your children will be able to buy a house, indeed how you’ll be able to buy a house.

All of this will be impacted by the strength of the Australian economy in the years to come.

I was making this point last night to vote for a strong economy vote Liberal-National. To vote for the responsible choice in a time of great uncertainty vote Liberal-National.

A vote for Labor means a weaker economy. It means more uncertainty. It means a party and a leader you don’t know what they’re capable of and they don’t know what they’ll do and they don’t know how much it will cost.

Thanks very much, everyone.

Updated

Q: Are the comments from China’s ambassador to Australia – he said in an opinion piece in the Fin today that Beijing’s growing cooperation with the South Pacific is not a security threat to Australia. How does that rhetoric fit with China’s foreign minister visiting the Solomons on the eve of the election next week. Were you aware of this? Did you have advance warning of this?

Scott Morrison:

I don’t have ... You won’t be surprised to know that I don’t agree with the Chinese ambassador to Australia who is writing in the Australian Financial Review today that Chinese government interference in the Pacific is of no consequence. I think it’s of great consequence.

I think it’s of great consequence. I don’t want to give any amplification for the views of the Chinese government. I support the Australian national interests, not the Chinese government’s view of what national interests are, whether it be in Australia or across the Pacific and that’s why I’ve always taken a very strong stance on this, a stance that I’ve been criticised for right across the country. I’ve even been criticised by the Labor party for the strong position that I have had in standing up to the coercion of the Chinese government.

Q: He’s visiting the Solomons next week. Are you worried about that?

Morrison doesn’t answer.

Updated

Q: On superannuation, will you guarantee it goes up to 12% under a government you lead? And what will that do to business as soon as we haven’t made any changes to the legislation?

Scott Morrison:

We stand by the changes as we set out.

Scott Morrison at this morning’s press conference in Launceston
Scott Morrison at this morning’s press conference in Launceston. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Updated

Q: You said in recent weeks there is no magic pen to raise wages, that Labor’s policies to raise wages are make-believe. But now you’re arguing that Labor can raise wages and that it would be too high, that it would be dangerous. Can government raise wages? Or can it not?

Scott Morrison:

No, no, I think you’ve misunderstood my point. My point is the Fair Work Commission is an important institution in how our economy is run and the fact that decisions about wages are made by such a body like the Reserve Bank makes decisions on interest rates, that provide stability in the economy. It provides certainty in the economy.

So if you were a small business person, you can have confidence. If you’re a prime minister or a treasurer, and you’re just careless about these things, you’re loose with things and run off at the mouth about where you think wages should or should not be, that can precondition inflationary expectations in the economy and it can actually become a self-fulfilling prophecy and that’s why – my issue is we all want to see wages increase but I don’t want to see reckless behaviour in how the process should work and this is where Mr Albanese has failed.

He has had three positions on the one thing on one day. He knows he got that wrong. He knows he acted recklessly, and he’s been trying to cover his tracks ever since.

What I know is the way that he would be running the economy is that not only would you see inflationary pressures which means that you would be paying more than you otherwise would have to – we’ve got global forces putting up inflation – but any potential support you might have got in wages would be clawed back in even higher interest rates and even higher inflation. See, that’s not how you manage an economy. He doesn’t understand the moving parts.

He doesn’t understand the complexity to the global economy. That’s why he is a great risk.

And that’s why a vote for Labor could make things far worse. We’re facing serious challenges in this space and he just does not have the comprehension of these issues to handle them.

(The Fair Work Commission makes the decision. Governments, including the Howard government, have in the past put figures on what it thinks the minimum wage should be.)

Updated

Q: I have a question regarding childcare. Labor has a policy that will help more families. Doesn’t better childcare support boost productivity? And what’s wrong with spending money to get women back into the workforce sooner?

Scott Morrison:

As I set out last night, 1.1 million women have come into the workforce under the strong economic policies that we have put in place. Workforce participation of women has risen to record levels under the economic policies that our government has put in place.

The gender pay gap has fallen from 7.4% to 13.8%, which means – no, no, these are important ... These are really important points because the question is about participation and I’m saying the policies our government has put in place which has strengthened our economy means the gender pay gap has come from 17.8% down to 13.4% and what – sorry, 17.4% to 13.8% – and that means that women today in the workforce are $70 a week better off on average than before we came to government.

Now. These policies are working. Now, when I was social services minister, we redesigned the childcare system, which ensured that we ensured that those who were on lower numbers were getting up to 85% rebates on their childcare.

Now, that’s a place where you’re not making choices about whether you’re going to work or not. You’ve got no choice.

Everybody’s having to work in every single way they can and often taking more than one job. And when I redesigned the childcare system, I made sure that those who needed it most got the most support.

And I can tell you after that happened, the childcare out-of-pocket expenses increasing costs ran at 1.2%.

Now, under Labor, it was running at 3.1% growth. So after we put our changes in place, it actually decelerated the rate of increase in out-of-pocket expenses.

You know, in the last quarter, Mr Albanese said this last night saying it was going up. In the last quarter, in the March quarter, out-of-pocket expenses for childcare flatlined. It didn’t go up. They flatlined.

Now, that was in a quarter where we saw inflation go up by 5.1%. Admittedly less than it is in New Zealand, United States and UK and many other countries, but our policies are designed affordably to give support where those who need it most get that support. And on top of that we provide those services in block funding grants to disadvantaged communities.

What I learned when I was social services minister is that’s one of the most important ways to turn around the lives, particularly of young Indigenous children, and that’s where so much of our block funding has gone, into those Indigenous communities, to support that early childhood education. So these issues aren’t about just spending lots and lots of money.

I mean, 90% childcare rebates for everybody costs around $18bn over forward estimates and it costs $63bn over a decade and my only question to Anthony Albanese on this, on everything, is where’s the money going to come from?

And what we know is in this election, he can’t answer that question. He has all sorts of thought bubbles lying out there with no costings. He doesn’t know how to pay for it.

He doesn’t know how to run an economy. He doesn’t even understand the economy and he doesn’t know how to manage money. That’s why Anthony Albanese in charge of the economy can make things worse, not better.

Updated

Q: Do you think the prime minister is being hypocritical when it comes to repeatedly announcing mental health support but then supporting Ms Deves’ comments on trans, and also thank you for sharing your own experiences. How are you finding the pressures of the campaign?

Bridget Archer:

Look, I think a campaign is, you know, an additional layer of pressure that, you know, anybody would be feeling. All of you, I reckon, are feeling it as well, just quietly.

So, I think, yeah, it definitely adds to the challenge. I was talking to my friend Rick before from Relationships Australia, and he was saying, you know, that generally in our days anybody that experiences those challenges, you work out strategies and you have tools in place and they usually involve things like exercise and sleep and, you know, maybe finding some time to meditate.

And of course some of those things go out the window in a campaign so that adds to a bit of pressure but I’m holding up OK. Thanks very much. In relation to the other question that you asked, I’d refer to what I said earlier ...

Q: But is it hypocritical of him?

Archer:

Look, I think there is a place for having the conversations that we are having and I don’t think that we should necessarily seek to censor people. But what I would say, as I’ve said before, is and – and I think that the prime minister understands this as well – is that when we’re talking about people, whoever they might be, we should always seek to do that in a way that is respectful and is not damaging to people’s mental health.

(An earlier version of this post incorrectly attributed the quotes to Scott Morrison)

Updated

Q: Your colleague Fiona Martin appears to have confused her challenger with another Asian Australian. Is it fair for Asian Australians to be stereotyped or generalised in this way and do you think Sally Sitou deserves an apology?

Scott Morrison:

Dr Martin has already made statements on that issue today and, no, that wasn’t the case.

Q: Her defence doesn’t make sense.

Morrison:

I’m sorry. I don’t accept that. She’s made that statement clear! She didn’t run in Cabramatta. She’s made a statement and I refer you to the statement. She’s made it clear.

Updated

Q: Polls today showed that Labor looks like it would win the election if it was held today. Is this where you expected to be nine days from the election?

Scott Morrison:

The election is in the hands of the Australian people. It’s not in the hands of pollsters or modellers or anyone else. It’s in Australians’ hands. And I set out very clearly last night the risk that is there.

I said, rightly, that the Liberals and Nationals, the Liberals here, particularly in the seat where we are today in Bass with Bridget Archer, is the strong, responsible, and safe choice because Australia is facing some of the most difficult challenges and uncertainty that we have seen since any time since the second world war.

And in our government, you have a known quantity. You have a government that understands the economy, that isn’t loose with the economy, that isn’t loose with how the various elements of the economy work. Yesterday, we had Mr Albanese on the issue of wages be yes, no and maybe.

Now, that is not someone who knows what’s going on in the economy or how you manage an economy, and he would be the prime minister.

Now, we need someone who is up to the job, not someone the job is too big for them. We need someone who understands how the economy works and knows how to manage money.

And today you’ve heard from the treasurer and the finance minister and they said it very clearly – not one policy during this election campaign has been committed by the Labor party and Mr Albanese for costing. Not one. Not one.

And so he can make all sorts of claims but you know the ability to do things in government like what we’re talking about here – doubling mental health funding – you can only do that if you know how to manage money …

And let’s not forget there’s never been a Labor leader in the past that has trusted Mr Albanese with the financial portfolio when they were leader.

They haven’t let him anywhere near the till and my view to Australians is, don’t let him near the till. He don’t know how much things cost. He doesn’t know how the economy runs. He didn’t even know what the unemployment rate was and the cash rate and he’s loose with the economy.

Updated

Q: Prime minister, do you stand by your claim that the $500,000 compensation claim being negotiated for Rachelle Miller does not involve claims against Alan Tudge? And if the cabinet minister was involved in such a claim, you would be told?

Scott Morrison:

Well, that was the advice that I received from the secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.

Q: Are you being briefed on the contents of the claim?

Morrison:

Well, I can’t be.

Q: It does name Alan Tudge and it also names Michaelia Cash.

Morrison:

I can’t be briefed on that. My only advice was that it hadn’t been settled. That was my last advice. If there was any matter there that went to the conduct of any minister, any minister at all, that related to the ministry or standards, then I would be advised of that, and I have been advised of no such matters that would require my attention in relation to the ministerial standards. We had an independent inquiry into those matters and that independent inquiry did not find any basis for any action in relation to the ministerial standards.

Updated

Q: Are you satisfied with the prime minister’s commitment to prioritise religious discrimination ahead of protections for LGBTQI students through the Sexual Discrimination Act, sequentially, as he’s described it, given there will be a gap between the RDA passing and protections for these incredibly vulnerable students?

Bridget Archer:

Well, as the prime minister has already said, our views are well known and we will continue to work through those issues in the party room, not just myself, but others.

Updated

Q: This is obviously a very important topic for you. Thank you for sharing with us what you have been going through as well. When it comes to the mental health of transgender communities here in Australia, are you worried about the mental health of the transgender community when you have got Katherine Deves, a Liberal candidate making her views very clear, then you have got a prime minister that is standing behind her. What are your concerns for that community when it comes to their mental health combo?

Bridget Archer:

My concern is with the mental health of all Australian. We know and I have spoken previously that LGBTIQ community members are some 15 times more likely to suffer mental health challenges and a risk of suicide.

I think we all should be very mindful of that. There are discussions that are important and can be had.

I am not to say that we should not have those discussions but I have always said and I will continue to state is when we talk about people, whether whoever they are, that we should do so with kindness that we should do so understanding that people are vulnerable and marginalised and I don’t think it matters who people are we can who people are. We can all do better.

Updated

Q: There is no doubt that your government has invested in this space. Mental health experts are telling me it is still not changing things enough. We know that self-harm rates, hospitalisations as a result, going up, suicide rates are not going down. When you are ready to invest $100bn in submarines that won’t hit the water for decades. Why are we not seeing that level of investment in mental health? ?

Scott Morrison:

This is a difficult challenge, there is no doubt about that. That is why we have doubled our investment to over $6bn a year, which is what we invest in mental health every year. It was around $3bn when we came to government …

It is the work we have seen with Headspace it has led to world-leading work done on early youth psychosis. The finish line keeps proceeding from you when you are dealing with these challenges. That is the hard part of government. You have to keep growing your economy, to keep being able to invest in the services that can completely change people ‘s lives.

On suicide deaths, one of the most remarkable things during the pandemic – and we have to be careful with these statistics and I appreciate that – but in 2019, we lost 3,318 people to death by suicide. In 2020, we lost 3,139. That was a fall of 179. That was in a year of pandemic.

One of the things that we did during the pandemic was address the physical health needs around what was necessary to combat Covid. We were one of the countries that actually did more than any other to address the mental health needs of the country as it was going through this incredible trial.

We will see ultimate figures come out for the 2020 year, but I can tell you at the start of the pandemic one of the things concerning Greg and I greatly, was we would see a soaring in those rates. A soaring in those rates. And we didn’t.

I think that is an extraordinary testimony to the many services whether they be Lifeline or Kids Helpline or Beyond Blue, or the many other services that we invested heavily in, including Headspace, to get Australians through that incredibly difficult period. We have great tools here and great services in Australia. World-class.

They can help people live with mental health challenges, overcome mental health challenges or to prevent finding themselves in the situation. Some of the best in the world and is a government we have been investing, developing and pioneering them. My government will always do that. That is the dividend of the strong economy that we have put in place.

Updated

Of this $55m announcement, $45.6m is federal money and $9.4m is coming from Tasmania.

Of those funds, $24.7m will be spent on existing services and building three additional head to health satellite clinics, including specialised treatment for children.

The partnership on mental health funding will be rolled out with every state.

Updated

Seven’s The Great Debate: The Final Showdown had an average audience of 527,000 metro viewers, building a significant audience after Big Brother despite finishing after 10.10pm.

The audience was lower than Channel Nine’s 641,000 on Sunday night, which had a stronger lead-in from Lego Masters.

But Seven’s leaders’ debate built on the small Big Brother audience of 379,000 and ensured Seven won the night.

Aired on Wednesday at 9.10pm, Seven’s debate format with Mark Riley as a single moderator was more sober and controlled than the one on Sunday night on Nine.
Anthony Albanese was declared the winner of the final leaders’ debate by about 150 undecided voters watching the debate live from pubs in seven marginal seats.

Updated

Scott Morrison makes new mental health announcements

Scott Morrison is announcing a $55m mental health partnership with the Tasmanian government in the marginal seat of Bass:

When I became prime minister about three and a half years ago, ensuring that mental health was getting the support it needed and that we would make greater strides across the country with people living with mental health challenges every day, those challenges that come from the disruptive things that can happen in your life or those who have just struggled with it from a very young age. It’s real. It’s debilitating.

It can rob people of their quality of life. And this is one of the most tangible things we can do to help people improve their quality of life, is by ensuring that they have mental health services that they can access, that we’re destigmatising issues of mental health. Our government has been on a mission for this for many years, as we sought to continue and build support services available.

Updated

We know Scott Morrison is not keen on the minimum wage keeping pace with inflation and Anthony Albanese is wavering a bit too by not saying it would be in a post-election submission by his government to the Fair Work Commission.

But some things do get indexed to consumer price inflation, such as student loans under the higher education contribution scheme.

No wonder, then, that the National Union of Students president Georgie Beatty senses “just plain hypocrisy” in the government’s argument that wage increases at the pace of inflation would be “reckless”.

Many students, of course, hold down those one-in-four jobs paid the minimum (now at $20.33 an hour) in retailing and hospo.

Beatty, who was speaking after the first of two days of strike action by staff at the University of Sydney over poor pay and conditions, said student debt itself was ballooning even before the higher CPI-linked repayments kicked in.

“It’s not just that our fees are based on a much higher rate of inflation than our wages,” says Georgie Beatty, NUS president. “Students are really feeling the brunt” of higher prices, as the cost of rents, food and other costs increase.

“It’s that Scott Morrison’s ‘job-ready graduates’ fees meant we also saw unprecedented fee hikes with arts degrees going up by 113%.

“Students are questioning how we are going to pay off these increased fees when we are facing increased cost of living, insecure work and we haven’t seen major wage growth in most of our lifetimes.”

A spokesperson for employment minister Stuart Robert says the Hecs-Help arrangements were “working to support a record number of Australian students participate in university and ensure that tertiary education does not have a cost barrier at the point of entry”:

HECS-HELP loans are only paid back when individuals meet the income threshold and these loans are free of real interest.

(“Real” interest is an interesting point because many loans are – so far – rates lower than the headline if not underlying inflation rate. When they turn positive, which they must eventually, nominal repayments will soar.)

The Greens, who are campaigning to “wipe student debt”, said the discrepancy between how student debt and wage rises was treated demonstrates the government’s priorities.

“If student debt can be automatically lifted with inflation then wages can too,” Greens leader Adam Bandt said. “The Greens want to change the law to lift the minimum wage to 60% of the median wage and to guarantee wages in female-dominated industries rise at least 0.5% faster than CPI to close the gender pay gap.”

Data from the OECD shows the minimum wage as a proportion of median pay packets has been on a long-term declined since at least 2000. The average for OECD members has increased over that time.

“It’s disappointing Labor won’t make a submission to the Fair Work Commission to require a lift to the minimum wage, something the Greens have done and will push for in the next Parliament,” Bandt said. “We need a full-court press on lifting wages now.”

Updated

The prime minister’s office has missed deadlines to hand over text messages between Scott Morrison and Barnaby Joyce during Joyce’s time as drought envy, and for documents related to the Angus Taylor City of Sydney doctored document scandal.

The Office of the Australian Information Commission ruled in April that PMO must process both freedom of information requests from 2019, rejecting claims by Morrison’s office that the PM’s duties meant he was too busy to handle such requests.

The deadline for those requests was last week but neither applicant has received a response so far.

A similar request for texts between Morrison and his prominent QAnon conspiracy theory-promoting friend Tim Stewart was rejected by PMO again last month on the grounds that the texts were not documents of a minister.

Unfortunately there is no way to quickly force a decision to be made in the next nine days. Under FOI law, when a deadline is missed, a request is “deemed refused” and then it can go back to the OAIC for appeal.

Which, based on the timing of the first review, could take two more years. That’s if Morrison wins the election. If he loses, the request would then fall to the next PMO to cover, and the documents are very unlikely to be retained for the incoming government.

Updated

Federal court dismisses James Ashby's legal costs request

The full federal court has dismissed Pauline Hanson chief of staff James Ashby’s appeal seeking a $4.5m act-of-grace payment from the commonwealth for his legal costs in his dispute with former speaker Peter Slipper.

Ashby had argued that a decision to refuse the payment constituted “adverse action” in breach of the Fair Work Act, and was unfair because Slipper’s costs were paid by the commonwealth and his were not.

After two decisions going against him in January and July 2021, Ashby appealed.

On Thursday, Justices Anna Katzmann, Wendy Abraham and Scott Goodman dismissed the appeal with costs.

They found that Ashby had sought to re-argue his case that a delegate of the finance minister did not have authority to refuse the payment but had not shown error by the primary judge.

They said there was nothing that required the decision on the act-of-grace payment to be made subject to constraints in the Fair Work Act, and that Ashby’s argument was “circular” in that it assumed the correctness of his own construction of the laws:

In summary, there is no merit in either ground of appeal.

Updated

Alan Tudge will be the education minister if Scott Morrison wins the election, the prime minister confirmed last night.

Morrison conceded Tudge was now a “minister without a portfolio” under questioning from Mark Riley, after last year saying he was stepping away from the frontbench, and then at the beginning of the election campaign admitting he was still a minister.

So given that he is still the education minister, Daniel Hurst had a look at what contact he has had with senior education department officials.

Not a lot is the answer:

The third was a WhatsApp exchange between a senior public servant and Tudge.

“Hi Minister,” a senior departmental officer wrote on 3 December.

“Hope you are doing ok. Tough day – hope you have some support wrapped around you. Take care.”

Tudge replied three days later.

“Appreciate the message,” he said. “Yes, had better days.”

Updated

On the timing of costings, Murph points to this 2013 analysis from Lenore Taylor on how Tony Abbott used delaying releasing costings for his campaign promises to control the debate:

After Anthony Albanese highlighted Scott Morrison’s commitment to improving mental health services as something he admired about him in last night’s debate (Morrison said he admired Albanese’s rise from “humble” beginnings, but couldn’t resist a dig at the end saying he couldn’t trust him with the economy), Morrison is in Tasmania talking mental health this morning.

Updated

Dipping out of campaign news for a moment:

(Via AAP)

A Melbourne kindergarten has been gutted by fire after a blaze swept through an old South Yarra church.

Fire Rescue Victoria crews took about an hour to contain the fire in the early hours of Thursday morning at the old Presbyterian church on Punt Road.

The building is the site of Christ Church Grammar School kindergarten.

Christ Church deputy principal Keith Newman said several rooms were destroyed in the fire but no one was injured.

“The staff are really devastated over it,” Mr Newman told the ABC on Thursday. “It’s hit quite hard.

“Our kindergarten is a really beautiful part of our school ... and our families love coming here and so do our students.”

A watch and act message for nearby residents has been downgraded to a warning over heavy smoke and traffic delays.

Christ Church Grammar will be closed on Thursday, as will the neighbouring South Yarra Primary School.

Fire investigators are working to determine the cause of the blaze.

Updated

The Young Liberals continue their reign as champion posters.

The strategy last time (which helped bring the Coalition an election win) was to exploit that many people only get their news from social media and wouldn’t see anything else other than their feeds.

Looks as though that strategy continues

Updated

Simon Birmingham:

The Liberal and National parties are the only parties to have submitted any policies for formal costing during the course of this election campaign. Australians can visit the Treasury and finance department website and see the independent analysis and verification for 22 Coalition policies, but if they go looking for any Labor policies, they won’t find them.

No Labor policies have been submitted to Treasury and Finance or the parliamentary budget office during the course of this election campaign for analysis, confirmation and publication. Twenty-two Coalition policies fully costed, fully verified versus zero Labor policies that have been costed or verified.

It’s a demonstration of our commitment to the integrity of our budget process and our costings process. Mr Albanese is being tricky with Labor’s policies and costings. Mr Albanese and the Labor party are seeking to hide the full extent of their spending in this election campaign and that can be seen by the different nature of the promises that Labor is making through this election campaign.

This election campaign, the parties have switched. Last time Labor made a virtue of releasing its costings earlier than the government, which didn’t release its costings until the last week of the campaign. The attacks were the same, but reversed (Labor was then accusing the Coalition of hiding).

Updated

Josh Frydenberg:

What’s happened in the last two days is illuminating because when it comes to the Labor party’s commitment to a 5.1% increase in wages, it was a thought bubble.

It goes against the practice of both sides of politics to leave these decisions to the independent Fair Work Commission*.

(*It is still the decision of the FWC. And as Paul Karp has factchecked, governments, including the Howard government, have previously suggested figures when giving their recommendations for the minimum wage.)

Frydenberg:

And what is more – it’s now been contradicted by Anthony Albanese’s own shadow ministers – Jim Chalmers has admitted they have no mechanism to deliver on it** and now you have heard from Jason Clare just this morning that somehow they will be putting in a submission to that effect.

**This has always been the case, because it is the FWC which will decide, which Labor has also said.

Frydenberg:

So they really are making it up as they go. And people know with Anthony Albanese they have a Labor leader who has spent his whole career championing higher taxes, whether it was a congestion tax, a carbon tax, a mining tax, death duties, higher superannuation taxes, higher income taxes, higher family business taxes, a housing tax and a retirees tax, all of which Anthony Albanese said Labor had a strong mandate for.

You see – with Anthony Albanese, Labor would deliver a leader who doesn’t understand the economy and has no plan for it. And a Labor party that will always tax more*** and always spend more.

***This government is the second highest-taxing government after the Howard government in the last 30 years.

Updated

Government ramps up economic message

Josh Frydenberg and Simon Birmingham are holding a press conference in Melbourne to talk about what the government has done with the economy over the last three years.

Frydenberg is speaking very slowly and deliberately and is using his soft voice – which is how you can tell he is being serious.

It seems like the point of this press conference is just to say this:

A weak Labor leader who doesn’t know the cash rate, who doesn’t know the unemployment rate and who now seems to want to run a $2.1tn economy from one press conference to another.

Updated

How are the Google searches going?

The debates keep on coming.

Marise Payne will debate Penny Wong tomorrow at the National Press Club.

And now a crossbench debate has been announced – with Craig Kelly, Zali Steggall and Adam Bandt.

Anthony Albanese will also address the press club next week.

Scott Morrison has been invited but has not taken up the offer.

Updated

Those against hung parliaments like to point to the “chaos and confusion” of the 2010 parliament, where Julia Gillard formed government with the support of three crossbench MPs.

But not a single vote was lost on the floor (something this government, which holds a majority, can’t say) and the “chaos and confusion” was not around legislation, but the internal ructions within the Labor party (which ended up contributing to its demise).

Updated

Earlier, Liberal MP Jason Falinski went head to head with independent opponent Sophie Scamps on 2GB Radio.

Falinski:

My real worry is we end up with a hung parliament. We live in a very uncertain world with a dangerous geopolitical situation and an economic recovery that is not assured. Inflation is 5.1%, interest rates are going up. I don’t want a hung parliament, we saw in 2010 the chaos and dysfunction.

Scamps was cagey about who she would support in the event of a hung parliament, explaining not all policies have been announced, and she would negotiate “with either side” after Australians see what they’re prepared to bring to the table.

She argued that the Liberal party “cannot rule in its own right” and was being “led around by the nose” by the Nationals.

She also took aim at “toxic factional infighting” in the Liberal party, in relation to NSW preselection stoushes before the election.

Falinski said he was “on record saying it wasn’t good enough, members should have had a say [in preselections] and it won’t happen again”.

Sophie Scamps at her campaign launch in Avalon
Sophie Scamps at her campaign launch in Avalon Photograph: supplied by Sophie Scamps.

Updated

The treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, has spoken to 3AW about his tough contest in Kooyong, where independent Monique Ryan has a slight lead, according to public polls.

Frydenberg declared that, like Mark Twain, “reports of my death are greatly exaggerated”, explaining that he is encouraged by feedback he is receiving at prepoll, although there is a “long way to go” and he expects it to be close.

He refused to say how much he is spending on the campaign, after reports Ryan will spend $1.2m. He said he’s “got enough” and it’s “fair to say both are spending significant amounts to prosecute our case”.

Frydenberg was asked repeatedly if low-paid workers deserve a pay rise, and ducked and weaved, saying this was up to the Fair Work Commission.

Eventually he managed:

We clearly want to lift the pay of all workers, including most lowly paid.

I’m not sure that is clear, when the Morrison government submission to the FWC argues for the “importance of low paid work” as a stepping stone to other jobs; and when Scott Morrison has attacked Anthony Albanese for supporting a 5.1% pay rise to keep pace with inflation.

Updated

Scott Morrison has confirmed he plans on bringing back the religious discrimination legislation, if he is re-elected – but has not committed to enshrining protections for LGBTIQ students at the same time (which is what caused moderate Liberals to rebel and resulted in the government pulling its own bill just before parliament ended).

Updated

Tony Abbott saw religious discrimination bill as 'unnecessary', Christine Forster says

Christine Forster is contemplating a run for the NSW state parliament after a spell on the Sydney city council.

Forster has spoken to the Sydney Sentinel about her plans but she also gives her opinion on how the Liberal party handled the religious discrimination bill – and what she thinks her brother, former Liberal PM Tony Abbott, would have done differently.

Forster says Abbott saw the bill as “unnecessary”.

From the Sentinel:

While there’s no question she’d run for the Liberal Party, she describes the federal party’s recent (ultimately unsuccessful) move to introduce a Religious Discrimination Bill as a “completely unnecessary piece of legislation”.

There was a lot of pain and grief that shouldn’t have happened. – Christine Forster

“It was a fop to the irrational, aggrieved right of the party – not somebody like my brother who also saw it as unnecessary – he’s a more rational and intelligent conservative than some of them are,” she says. “All it ever was going to be was divisive.”

What does the saga say about Scott Morrison, I ask her?

“That he’s a canny politician. He was responding to forces within his own party that he felt needed to be assuaged, but they’ve seen sense and pulled it. Ultimately, the right result was achieved. But there was a lot of pain and grief that shouldn’t have happened to get to that point.”

Updated

Kopika Murugappan turns seven today – and is spending another birthday in community detention, as AAP reports:

One of the daughters of a Tamil family of asylum seekers will spend her seventh birthday in community detention as the push for their permanent settlement in Australia gains momentum.

Known as the Biloela family, three of the four-strong Murugappan family – parents Priya and Nades along with daughter Kopika – were granted 12-month bridging visas by Immigration Minister Alex Hawke last year following a long ordeal.

The family, who escaped Sri Lanka by boat due to a protracted ethnic conflict targeting the minority Tamils, were given temporary protection visas but were then uprooted in March 2018 from Biloela, Queensland and placed in a Melbourne detention centre by authorities. They were then detained on Christmas Island in August 2019.

The asylum seekers were finally placed in community detention in Perth following the medical evacuation of their youngest daughter Tharnicca from Christmas Island in June 2021 due to a blood infection. Tharnicca remains the only member of the family without a bridging visa.

Supporters are urging Hawke to use his ministerial powers ahead of the election and before their 12-month visas expire in September.

“It breaks my heart to be celebrating another of Kopi’s birthdays while she’s still in some form of detention,” said Angela Fredericks, from the Home to Bilo campaign.

The family has garnered support across the political spectrum especially from independent candidates including Dr Monique Ryan, Jane Caro and Kylea Tink.

In stark contrast to his coalition colleagues, Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce reaffirmed his backing of the Tamil family’s case last month on the campaign trail.

“My position remains the same. I’m having discussions with (Immigration Minister Alex Hawke). We have seen at this point in time, this family has not been extradited back to Sri Lanka,” he said.

Pro-refugee protesters rally at the State Library of Victoria in Melbourne last year
Pro-refugee protesters rally at the State Library of Victoria in Melbourne last year. Photograph: James Ross/AAP

Updated

Victoria reports 15 Covid deaths

Victoria has also reported its Covid figures, as the worst year for Australia in the pandemic continues.

Updated

NSW reports 23 lives lost to Covid

NSW Health has reported that 23 Covid patients have died in the last 24 hours.

Updated

ACT Labor senator Katy Gallagher is facing a challenge from progressive independent Senate candidates including David Pocock and Kim Rubenstein, as well as the Greens, which cuts into her vote.

She told the ABC:

Well, it means I’ve got to fight for every vote. Absolutely. But I do that at every election. That’s my the way I’ve approached campaigning. And this is no different from that. I think the race is tighter in this Senate campaign that it has been in the past. And I think when you have a number of progressive candidates, common sense would say that that would split the vote in a number of different ways.

Updated

So that is the one unity ticket among the major party MPs – not believing the polling.

(Which makes you wonder why their campaigns spend so much money on polling and research, but anyway ... )

Updated

Labor senator Katy Gallagher is also not putting much stock in the polls.

She told RN Breakfast:

Well, I don’t think we take anything for granted. I mean, it’s the 21st of May and the results that come from that that matter. You know, I think this is a very close election. Labor has only won from opposition three times – we take nothing for granted.

And we will be campaigning right up until the 21st of May. That’s the reality, you know, and, you know, polls come and go and as we know, from previous elections, you know, they’re not, you know, you don’t necessarily believe them, in fact, you don’t believe them, because the votes that matter is the votes that are cast on polling day, and that’s the only measure of what the people of Australia think and where they want to go.

And that’s what we’re focused on arguing for a better future with all of the policies that we have outlined.

Shadow finance minister Katy Gallagher
Shadow finance minister Katy Gallagher. Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAP

Updated

Josh Frydenberg told ABC TV he believed Scott Morrison won last night’s debate.

He also believes moderate Liberals have done enough to influence the party from the inside:

Let me take those issues individually. Firstly, on climate, I was a strong advocate, so was Dave Sharma, Katie Allen, Trent Zimmerman, Tim Wilson and many others about getting Australia to net zero emissions by 2050.

We argued inside the tent for that commitment and it’s in Australia’s best interest that it’s a bipartisan commitment. It’s Australia’s best interest that we have a long-term economic plan to get there.

My opponent in Kooyong, like the other so-called teal independents, they have high emissions reduction targets but they have no plan to get there.

There is no detail other than the target itself which they can’t explain. There’s no costings behind it. Whereas we’re investing in microgrid, small-scale solar and wind in remote communities, Snowy Hydro 2.0 to be the big battery for the east coast of Australia, clean hydrogen with new hubs right across the country from Bell Bay in Tasmania and the Hunter, in New South Wales, to La Trobe here in Victoria - La Trobe Valley in Victoria. We’re focusing on new technologies to get us there.

Updated

I would have to concur.

What does Jason Clare think of Scott Morrison calling Anthony Albanese a “loose unit”?

Oh, look, my response to that, you know, it shows a prime minister who’s getting pretty desperate, isn’t he? All he’s got left is sledges.

He was asked a question in this debate last night, “Say something nice about Anthony Albanese.” He couldn’t even do that without putting in a sledge.

This has all the hallmarks of a try-hard Trump. Got nothing left, no policies. All he’s got left is excuses and sledges. I think Australians expect better than that. They want better than that. They’re yearning for something better than that. And that’s what we are offering the Australian people at this election.

Updated

Q: Can you tell me if a Labor government would be putting 5.1% wage rise for minimum wage as a recommendation in a formal submission to the Fair Work Commission?

Jason Clare:

Well, we’re saying if we were put in a position in government, is we don’t want Australians to go backwards.

Remember what this is all about. You’re talking about Aussies on the lowest incomes, 20 bucks an hour, and saying we don’t want them to go backwards. We want their wages to keep up with the cost of living. What does that mean? That means an extra $1 an hour. A dollar an hour. From $20 an hour to $21.

Q: You’re asking people to vote for you, and Anthony Albanese said, “Absolutely, 5.1%.” Will it be part of a formal submission?

Clare:

I think I just did ...

Q: No, you didn’t.

Clare:

I think I just did. OK, go ahead. I don’t want to interrupt you.

Q: No, no, no, I just think we need to be super clear about this, whether 5.1% will be the figure in a formal submission to the Fair Work Commission?

Clare:

And what Albo said last night, what Jim said, I think, to Fran yesterday, is that if we win the election, we’ll put in a submission, and the basis of that submission is we don’t want Aussies going backwards.

You know, when you’ve got inflation at 5.1%, do we really want Aussies on the lowest incomes to go backwards? You know, it’s not surprising that the Labor party is saying that we don’t want Aussies to go backwards, but Scott Morrison is saying that he would be very happy if that happens. And while all of that’s happening, Lisa, while we’re having this debate, you’ve got Liberal MPs saying that politicians should get a pay rise. The only people in this country that the Libs ever think should get a pay rise are politicians. That shows just how out of touch this mob is.

Updated

But like Josh Frydenberg, Jason Clare is also not paying attention to the polls:

I think we’ve learnt the hard way, haven’t we, don’t listen to the polls. We’ve gotta win seats, not polls.

But I do think that Australians have worked this bloke out. You know, they gave him a chance three years ago, and we’ve worked out – I think Australians have worked out – that this bloke just makes up excuses, never takes responsibility, always blames other people, doesn’t do the job.

You know, how many times have you heard Scott Morrison say, “It’s not my job.”

Last night he refused again to setting up a national anti-corruption commission. Now, after everything that’s happened, all of the evidence of the rorts and corruption and misuse of taxpayers’ money, he still refuses to act there.

We got that question about Alan Tudge last night. Now, here’s a minister who is minister for education, half a million bucks of taxpayers’ money has now been paid in compensation to his former staffer, and we find out last night that, if they win in nine days’ time, he will be back as the education minister.

The bloke is in hiding at the moment. Scooby-Doo* would struggle to find him. But if they win in nine days’ time, Scott Morrison says he’s back and he’s education minister. They’re treating the Australian people with contempt.

*We all know it was mostly Velma doing the work.

Updated

Jason Clare was on ABC TV this morning, continuing to sell Labor’s messages:

We’ve had three debates now, everything from a cage fight to a tea party, and Albo has won all three. And I think the reason for that, you could hear it from what people were saying in the pubs after the debate on Channel Seven – they made the point that Albo was talking from the heart and talking about our plans to fix the real problems that are out there. All you heard from Scott Morrison was rehearsed excuses. And I think Australians are sick of that.

Labor campaign spokesperson Jason Clare
Labor campaign spokesperson Jason Clare. Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAP

Updated

Expect some more campaign inflation chatter today, and not just over whether or not minimum wages should keep pace with prices. (We looked at some of the “alarmism” here yesterday.)

Overnight we had the US posting its CPI for April, with the headline rate coming in at 8.3% (ours was 5.1% in the March quarter, heading towards 6% by the year’s end – if the RBA is on the money).

Anyway, the US data was a bit higher than the market expected, so stocks and some other asset prices took a dive.

As Westpac stated in a note this morning:

While the pullback in annual inflation from last month suggests that a peak has been seen, the breadth of rising components raises concerns that inflation pressures will be slow to subside.

Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, also posted 7.4% CPI inflation in April – the highest since 1981. That number, at least, met market expectations, so European stock investors didn’t panic.

Overseas shifts will be among the challenges for whichever PM and treasurer take over after polls close here on 21 May. We looked at some of the main ones here:

A reminder that there are two big economic numbers to land before the votes are in.

On 18 May, we’ll see the wage price index for the March quarter, which NAB chief economist Alan Oster reckons would come in at an annual rate of about 2.5%. (Half the CPI rate, in other words.)

The next day we’ll get the April labour market figures – and we’ll see if the jobless rate stays around 4% – the lowest since the mid-70s.

Updated

The treasurer was also asked on ABC radio about Scott Morrison’s statement last night that he wants to see wages go up – by how much?

Josh Frydenberg:

Well, ultimately, what we’re saying is we are making a submission based on the economic circumstances of the time, Labor is saying they’re calling for a 5.1% increase. And this is a flippant comment from the leader of the opposition. Again, it goes to his lack of competence around the economy, just as he didn’t know the unemployment rate, and he didn’t know the cash rate. And you cannot run a $2.1tn economy one press conference at a time. You can’t run your small business, one press conference at a time and you can’t run an economy, one press conference at a time.

But does the government have an idea of how much it would like to see wages raise by, given the Howard government used to put a figure on it?

That has not been our practice and that is not our policy, and it seems that that we had a similar position previously from the Labor party until just two days ago and Anthony Albanese made a policy on the run and it goes again, to what is the consequences for small businesses that they now need to find an extra 5.1% for their payroll based on a flippant comment at a press conference.

He then seems to remember midstream that it is the independent Fair Work Commission which sets the minimum wage and continues:

What they do is wait for the Fair Work Commission to make a determination and we know that about 2% of people are on that minimum wage, but another 23% are actually impacted by the flow on through the award system.

And so you got more than 2.7 million people that are going to be impacted by such a decision that has brought consequences.

Anthony Albanese has not thought through his position. And as a result, you’ve got independent economists have said that a 5.1% increase in wages as put by him would lead to higher interest rates, and therefore more pressure on mortgage holders, higher inflation and a loss of jobs.

Which doesn’t explain what would happen if the FWC decides to raise wages by a similar rate or how arguing one case is “interference” but arguing another is not.

Updated

Josh Frydenberg says he isn’t paying to much to the polls or modelling showing he is danger of losing his seat:

And there was one newspaper outlet that ran an exit poll [last election] at the polling booth that I was at in my electorate and said that and found that I was getting more than half the vote. So I don’t necessarily agree with the conclusions of the these polls which you should not take as gospel.

So is he confident he will win?

I’m confident that I can continue to win the trust of my local community because I’ve worked hard for them for the last 12 years [and] we’ve delivered for our local community. But also at the same time I’ve been treasurer of the country during the most significant economic shocks since the since the Great Depression and the feedback on the booth and indeed, more broadly in my communities, from small business owners and from family members about how programs like jobkeeper actually kept them alive during a pretty tumultuous time. So people are coming out of this crisis. And they understand that the government has done the right thing by them.

Updated

Good morning

We have made it to the single digits. There are just nine days to go in the campaign, and with all leaders’ debates done and dusted, expect a flurry of activity from both leaders as each tries to win over voters in crucial seats.

Modelling by YouGov, first published by NewsCorp, shows Labor is on track for a majority win, including Josh Frydenberg losing his seat of Kooyong.

Speaking to ABC radio, Frydenberg said the “quiet Australians” haven’t had their say yet:

Obviously, many will vote before election day, but the bulk will vote on election day. And John Howard used to call them his battlers.

Sir Robert Menzies called them the forgotten people. Scott Morrison has described these people as the quiet Australians …

They’re not people who are jumping on the keyboard as keyboard warriors on the Twitterverse. They’re not people who are marching outside the streets on the issue of the day. And they’re not people who who are necessarily always answering the calls from the pollsters.

Who they are is mum and dads. Young people who just want to keep their job. In many cases, they run a small business, they want to health system that they can rely on at times of need, they want a good education for their kids. They want to be secure in their retirement. And, if they’re people of faith, they actually want to go to church and not be ridiculed for that for that fact.

It seemed both leaders got the memo before last night’s debate that people weren’t particularly inspired by two middle-aged men sniping at each other like cats over the comfy blanket, so they managed to keep it together for the final verbal battle.

Seven’s pub test had Anthony Albanese as the winner, winning every pub except Hasluck, where the result was tied. Voters seemed to resonate with the “we can do better” message, which has been created as a foil to the “you have a choice to make” message from Morrison.

So no early birthday present for the PM.

Today each leader is back on the campaign proper, with every day from now on to count. Last election, after Bob Hawke’s death, the Labor campaign slowed down in the final days while the Liberal campaign crisscrossed the country. Don’t expect either to take the foot off the accelerator.

So strap in.

Katharine Murphy, Sarah Martin, Josh Butler, Paul Karp and Daniel Hurst will help you make sense of the day, and you have Amy Remeikis on the blog for most of the day.

Let’s get into it.

Updated

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