The day dawns bright on day nine of the campaign.
The leaders are continuing to pace themselves, unwilling to be seen as the first one to take a break. .
The big picture
Traditionally most elections are said to be won in New South Wales and Queensland, but the electorate of Indi in Victoria has cornered quite a bit of attention.
Independent Cathy McGowan holds the seat on a 0.3% margin after beating Sophie Mirabella in 2013. Interest in the contest is so fervent their debate was televised and ABC’s 7.30 ran a piece on it last night, interviewing both candidates.
Mirabella hinted at discontent within the state party when asked about a story in the Australian which ran under the headline on the website “Mirabella is cooked”.
When asked where the leak came from Mirabella responded:
I’d rather not say. Let others be concerned about internecine affairs. I’ll focus on Indi. Quite frankly, it doesn’t really matter what people in [Victoria Liberal headquarters in] Collins Street say.
Mirabella inspires quite a bit of vitriol and has her own theories about it:
It’s part of how political commentary goes. A strong woman on the conservative side is not what those who oppose the conservative side of politics want to see, obviously.
The Nationals are running a candidate in the seat for the first time since 2001. Marty Corboy has told Gabrielle Chan that some people in Indi are “rapt” to have a man to vote for.
The Greens are going to spend the day campaigning on LGBTIQ issues, announcing a policy to remove religious exemptions to federal anti-discrimination law and increase funding to the Safe Schools anti-bullying program, Paul Karp reports.
The Sex Discrimination Act contains a number of exemptions for religious organisations providing accommodation and religious educational institutions, meaning they can have rules that exclude queer people. The Greens will campaign for these institutions to be treated like any other organisation in Australia and abide by the discrimination act.
In Senate ticket dramas the Daily Telegraph has a story on the Labor party dropping its non-factionally aligned Country Labor candidate Vivien Thomson to sixth spot in favour of unionist Tara Moriarty in fifth spot. Neither spot is seen as particularly winnable.
Several senior Labor figures said they were appalled at the decision, which was made without a formal meeting of the NSW right faction.
Fairfax Media has had a look at what life could look like for retiring politicians, with the former Speaker Anna Burke candidly admitting “no one is beating a path to my door”. But she is looking forward to not having to be nice to everyone.
Bruce Billson revealed an, uh, eccentric family ritual he had whenever he was leaving his home for Canberra.
Usually a bit of a farewell routine that my [youngest] kids and I go through, we just lightly bite each other’s earlobes. I know the kids are missing me when I get additional earlobe nibbles.
On the campaign trail
Malcolm Turnbull has made his way from Western Australia to Darwin where he was photographed with a schooner of beer at a Politics at the Pub event. Bill Shorten was in Victoria yesterday and is expected to campaign on manufacturing again today in Adelaide.
A peek into what goes into making Turnbull’s beer at a Darwin pub look so casual and natural.
Politics in the pub.
— Annika Smethurst (@annikasmethurst) May 16, 2016
*I stood on a table to get that shot pic.twitter.com/fPm2ctYhV3
The campaign you should be watching
Durack in WA covers an area the breadth of Portugal to the Baltic coast. Calla Wahlquist has written about the electorate, the largest in Australia and second largest in the world, though home to only 200,000 people. The seat is held by Liberal MP Melissa Price with a margin of 4%. Although the competition for the seat is not Labor, but the Nationals.
The biggest challenge in such a large electorate for Price?
My challenge is to make sure that people in parliament, ministers and the prime minister, understand the significant economic contribution that my electorate is making, and that there was significant infrastructure and investment needed.
And another thing(s)
Lenore Taylor has written about the pincer move from the Greens that is getting Bill Shorten off-message in his otherwise effective campaign each day.
The combination of the Coalition, the tabloids and some light footwork from the Greens are all adding to the wobbles of the first nine days of the campaign for Shorten.
In particular is the demand that Labor declare they will not form a coalition with the Greens in the event of a hung parliament. Lenore writes:
Despite not making much sense, this scare from the right has given the Greens far more presence in the campaign than would normally come their way, diverted Labor on to subjects they’d prefer not to talk about, and highlighted inconsistencies in Labor’s message.
Malcolm Turnbull has all but confirmed the demise of the so-called “backpacker tax”. Backpackers currently do not pay any tax under the $18,000 threshold but were going to be taxed at 32.5% from 1 July.
Fairfax Media economics editor Peter Martin has picked apart John “Aussie home loans” Symond’s campaign against Labor’s policy to curtail negative gearing. He has addressed the key points Symond has been making, particularly on morning television yesterday, breaking it apart point by point.
The real-estate industry employs 215,000 people. Negative gearers do indeed turn over properties more quickly than owner-occupiers. If owner-occupiers buy the properties negative gearers once would have, the market will become more stable, meaning less work for agents and for firms such as Symond’s.
Over at the ABC, Paula Matthewson is examining the “good cop, bad cop” double act Tony Abbott and Peta Credlin are performing at the moment.
Just one week into the campaign, there are also hints that Credlin aims to do more than garner a few more subscribers for Sky News and rehabilitate her career. She may also have political revenge on her mind.
A new episode of the Behind the Lines podcast is up, with Kristina Keneally, Guardian Australia opinion editor Gabrielle Jackson and myself discussing the role and experience of women in politics and media.
The leave-the-innocents-out-of-this moment of the day
This Mirabella segment on #abc730 is a train wreck but best part is when husband picks up cat and removed from shot. pic.twitter.com/1KnqXLa6Jx
— Rick Morton (@SquigglyRick) May 16, 2016
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