The prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, fresh from refusing what he’s described as a “decree” by Sky News to join its people’s forum in Brisbane last night, spent an evening in the ABC’s 7.30 studios getting grilled by host Leigh Sales.
Meanwhile Bill Shorten, man of the people, or at least man of the people’s forum, had the crowd at Brisbane’s Broncos Leagues Club to himself.
And yet, somehow, they both managed to come off second best.
It must just be that stage in the campaign. It’s day 32. Over the hump in week five now, just three and a bit to go.
The big picture
Focus remains on the economy, and more specifically Labor’s 10-year plan, which the opposition treasury spokesman, Chris Bowen, has said will create bigger deficits than the Coalition has forecast before suddenly returning to surplus in the same year.
As my colleague Paul Karp explains:
Labor’s claim it can return to surplus at the same time as the government is based on the fact a number of revenue measures will ramp up towards the end of the decade, including rejecting the government’s corporate tax cuts, increasing capital gains and abolishing negative gearing for existing properties.
The finance minister, Mathias Cormann, who is presumably still nursing an icepack after that spectacular burn by Tony Burke following the pair’s press club debate yesterday, said Bowen’s figures don’t add up.
What [Bowen has] admitted today ... is that Labor will deliver bigger deficits over the four-year budget forward estimates period and [is] asserting that somehow over the medium term they’ll be able to pay for all their unfunded spending promises.
"Moments of the debate have been like an argument with Siri" – Tony Burke with the best sledge of the campaign thus far #ausvotes
— Elle Hunt (@mlle_elle) June 8, 2016
It is, as Fairfax’s Mark Kenny writes, a risky strategy for Labor to confirm the Coalition’s depiction of them as a party that always runs into the red.
After all, Labor’s deeper deficit plan effectively reinforced their critique: that Labor, as a party, is institutionally profligate and would never reach the long-term surplus.
In light of this attack, one might have expected Shorten and his shadow treasurer, Chris Bowen, to overcompensate – to come in with a sharper fiscal consolidation than the government’s aimed at, snookering it politically. It has worked before: remember Kevin Rudd’s clever self-description as a fiscal conservative in 2007? Backed by his campaign plea to a panicky John Howard that the reckless election spending must stop in the national interest?
Meanwhile, a survey has found that young people don’t care about the economy; at least, not as much as they care about social issues.
The entirely unsurprising findings were made by the Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth, which surveyed more than 3,000 people aged 12 to 25. Before those outside that age bracket start to scoff, remember that the number of enrolled voters under the age of 25 is a record 1.66m this election campaign, and only a third of that group has decided who to vote for.
More from Gareth Hutchens:
Respondents were asked to nominate three issues they wanted addressed in the 2016 election – an open-ended question to avoid bias, which allowed them to be unconstrained by predetermined responses.
It found young people are most interested in hearing Australia’s political leaders address questions to do with asylum seekers (21%), marriage equality (19%) and climate change (16%).
Andrew Hastie booted from army reserves
Andrew Hastie, the star of the Canning by-election last year, whose pitch relied heavily on his experience as a former special forces soldier and army captain, has been sacked from the Australian defence force, according to the West Australian.
The ADF reportedly “terminated” Hastie’s service in the army reserve after he repeatedly refused to remove photos of himself in uniform from election material.
The West’s Nick Butterly reports Hastie had used a few old uniformed photos on billboards and flyers, and declared the whole affair “a fiasco”.
From Hastie:
The ADF should be proud too that they have former ADF personnel on both sides of politics.
And then a parting shot at retired army chief and Australian of the Year, Lt-Gen David Morrison.
David Morrison politicised the ADF long before I ever put my mug on a billboard. In fact, he hastened my exit from the army into politics.
On the campaign trail
Both Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten are travelling to Tasmania today to tour areas affected by devastating floods.
The campaign you should be watching
Politicians ignore Indigenous Australians at their peril, and yet, apart from a few statements on Sorry Day, we’ve not seen much from either major party in the way of policies geared toward Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. This is despite the Labor party standing a record number of Indigenous candidates in lower-house seats.
A group of peak Indigenous organisations aims to change that today by releasing the Redfern Statement 2016 and demanding $534m be returned to the Indigenous affairs portfolio.
This from Dr Jackie Huggins, co-chair of the National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples:
We have barely seen a mention of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander policy or issues this election campaign. That changes today. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups have come together to demand urgent action. It is time that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices are heard and respected. It is time for action.
And another thing(s)
The Greens have released their marine policy, which includes $66m to protect marine wilderness areas and marine parks, $69.5m to compensate fisheries displaced by the establishment of said parks, $6m for shark research, and $2.5m to protect sharks from being finned. They have also proposed banning all super trawlers.
My colleague Michael Slezak has the details here.
Michael has also released an extensive report this week on the health of the Great Barrier Reef, which has begun to die after a severe coral bleaching event. Experts have warned this is the last election to save the reef, so learn what’s happening here.
Meanwhile Chris Brown, the disendorsed Labor candidate for the seat of Fremantle, has said he won’t sue the party for discriminating against him in contravention of the Spent Convictions Act. Brown was ousted after the party learned he had failed to disclose old convictions before being preselected.
Still in WA, senator Dio Wang, fresh from three years having cups of tea alone in the Palmer United party offices in Canberra, has told the Australian he thinks it’s time for PUP to drop the “Palmer” (and possibly the “United,” we suggest) from it’s name.
I think as a startup party the brand did help a lot. But at some time in the future when the time is right, we need to look at changing the party name to depersonalise it.
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