Good morning, everyone. It’s Thursday, but I think I might just have the hang of this one.
All opinions are not equal. Some are a very great deal more robust, sophisticated and well supported in logic and argument than others.
Or so says Douglas Adams. I’ll leave it to you to apply the wisdom where you see fit.
We are two days out from the election and things are picking up speed. Head on over here to catch up on yesterday.
The big picture
Malcolm Turnbull will address the National Press Club at lunchtime, and call for a little more foot traffic on the higher road. After eight weeks of sometimes hostile campaign battles, the PM will make use one of his final major speeches to urge the next parliament to “offload the ideology, to end the juvenile theatrics and gotcha moments, to drop the personality politics”.
As Lenore Taylor observes over here, the call for more mature politics and an end to “division for division’s sake”, is quite similar to the speech he made after taking the leadership from his predecessor, Tony Abbott.
Abbott, ever helpful, has popped up and suggested this hasn’t been the campaign he would have run. The former PM told Sky News budget repair and border security had been ignored.
“This has been an election campaign where a lot of big issues have been touched on without really being developed,” he told Sky News last night. “National security has played almost no part in this campaign and even border security has been just an intermittent visitor to the campaign.”
This has meant “less substantial stuff” has been front and centre instead.
Abbott also said people would feel “ripped off” if a marriage equality plebiscite didn’t happen now.
.@TonyAbbottMHR says border security has been 'just an intermittent visitor' in this campaign #ausvotes #pmlive https://t.co/3AkcgfW8nO
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) June 29, 2016
The election was called over a construction industry watchdog but in its last days is all about marriage equality.
Turnbull said a Coalition win on Saturday would deliver a clear mandate for a plebiscite and he demanded that Bill Shorten respect that and pass the legislation.
“I think it would be very rash of any political party to deny the Australian people a say on this issue when it is clear a majority do want a say, and particularly when a government is returned on the very clear mandate to do it,” he told the Australian.
Turnbull was very confident it would pass, very confident voters would approve it, and has previously said he was sure the free vote then granted to Coalition members would see it “sail through”.
“Sailing through” may be an optimistic prediction for the future Senate. A Guardian Australia survey has found Coalition measures like the corporate tax cut and the so called “zombie cuts” would be unlikely to get through parliament. It also found a Labor government would be forced to negotiate on its negative gearing measures.
Such an event is looking more unlikely though, as polls suggest Labor won’t win the 21 seats it needs for government. Leadership questions are in the air, according to News Corp papers, which are suggesting a possible challenge by Anthony Albanese after an unsuccessful election.
Today the opposition leader has warned of Australia heading towards a situation where the likes of Donald Trump and Ukip gain traction because of increased inequality – which he says three more years of the Coalition would foster.
“We’re not at the point of America, but cooperative economic growth where people are included, not left behind, that’s how you avoid in democracies where people are feeling marginalised and alienated,” he has told Fairfax Media.
“We’re not immune from that – I don’t think we’re as far down the track.”
Shorten again denied Labor was running scare campaigns on Medicare, and said Turnbull had given up some of the “centre ground”.
“I think in this election he’s emerged as hollower than people thought.”
On the campaign trail
Bill Shorten is in Brisbane today, pushing on with education and health – specifically Medicare.
If you want to make sure we have a government that looks out for working- and middle-class families, not just the big end of town, then you need to vote Labor,” a campaign spokesman said.
Malcolm Turnbull is in Canberra and will address the press club at lunchtime.
The campaign to watch
Less a campaign to watch than one to keep an eye on and perhaps send to the naughty corner, but things have already gotten heated at pre-poll booths in one New South Wales seat.
In pre-poll booths in Macarthur, a Labor volunteer allegedly pushed over an elderly Liberal party volunteer and Liberal volunteers have allegedly removed how-to-vote cards from the hands of voters and verbally harassed a young woman. Police were called but no charges laid and the matter has been referred to the electoral commission.
The safe Liberal seat (3.3%) in Sydney’s outer south-west is held by Russell Matheson, who accused Labor of being “increasingly desperate and aggressive”, and demanded the party apologise for the behaviour of its volunteers.
And another thing …
Turkey has declared a day of morning after a terrorist attack on the Ataturk airport in Istanbul killed 41 people and injured more than 250.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has blamed Islamic State for the late-night attack.
• Follow the day’s developments live
• Sign up here to receive your Campaign catchup in your inbox every afternoon
