Prime minister says ‘girls can do anything’ as Bill Shorten promises $100m for extra childcare places. All the campaign news with Katharine Murphy, live
6.19am BST
It was quite funny though, how Malcolm Turnbull corrected himself when he thought he’d gone in too deep on fathers. Mothers, great. Engineers, great, kiddies, great, everyone – great. If you don’t do that, you wake up lathered in a fresh moral panic about some key demographic disdained – like all the faux outrage today about Bill Shorten being a Jurassic creature who thinks only women are responsible for childcare (despite the fact he’s produced a policy which is clearly intended to help women work more). God, campaigns, excruciating.
6.10am BST
Malcolm Turnbull’s self identification as a feminist this afternoon gives me the organising idea to work through what I need to work through with the prime minister’s statement about his father in the press conference just then: let’s grab the catch cry of second wave feminists, the personal is political.
5.29am BST
Well we are having an interesting day, bit strange, but interesting, I’ll be back with some thoughts on that shortly.
5.28am BST
Q: I asked before about the Sky News people’s forum with the ‘Courier-Mail’. Will you go to that on Wednesday and Mr Shorten said that it would be offensive to Queenslanders if you don’t?
Malcolm Turnbull:
I’m sure he did. Look, we are actually - we are having some -we are looking at some alternatives and what I’m hoping to do is to have a debate that is a bit different, that is - that involves Facebook and that involves a larger audience, and that is more engaging. So, I can assure you, I enjoy debating and I want to reach as many people as I possibly can in the debate because we have a great story to tell.
Our national economic plan is vitally important for our nation’s future, and I want to have the opportunity to explain it and take questions on it for as many people as possible. So we’re looking at some so we are looking at how we can achieve wider and greater reach for the debate.
5.26am BST
Q: Mr Turnbull, could I just ask you about the video your campaign released last night, your reflections on your relationship with your father and your upbringing. Why was it important to release that? Was that to counter misconceptions?
Malcolm Turnbull:
It’s important to honour your parents Mark. It is important to honour your father. I was - I was brought up by my father. He ... He taught me so many things, some of them I talked about in that video. He taught me how to cook, not with great talent, I hasten to add, but competently. He taught me how to iron competently. I’ve been given high marks by Mrs Turnbull on that score. And he taught me respect and loyalty. Well, as I said, I would not be the man I am today without him. He was a great – you know, the most – there are many remarkable things about my dad, but I tell you one thing that was in some ways the most remarkable. When my mother left us, we had nowhere to live and Dad rented a flat and didn’t have any furniture. I think the only bit of furniture we had left was my bed, so it wasn’t – he had every reason to be a bit unhappy, to say the least.
And yet he never ever said a bad word about her. You think about, you know – you think about how rare that is. He never uttered a critical word of my mother in all of those years. And when he died and then – he was killed young, he was killed in an aeroplane crash when he was 56 ... I had both of their sets of correspondence and I could read the letters that Bruce wrote to my mother, the letters this he were filled with sadness and reproach and, you know, how could you do this, why did you do that, and the back and forth. I literally have the two sides of the correspondence. And I thought: “What does it say about a man? What does it say about his love that he could sit down and write letters like that, pouring out his heart and then turn to his little boy and say, your mother is the greatest woman in the world and she loves you more than anything.”
5.21am BST
A reporter notes the prime minister flagged changes to the Fair Work Act over the weekend. What exactly would they be?
(I gave you that quote a couple from Turnbull a couple of posts back).
Well, as you know, under the Fair Work Act there are a number of - there is a list of what are called objectionable clauses in EBAs, in industrial agreements, and what we would do - what we propose to do is to include into that list of objectionable clauses ones which would have the impact ... have an adverse impact on volunteer organisations such as the CFA.
5.16am BST
A question about union governance, which gives the prime minister an opportunity to reference the Country Fire Authority dispute in Victoria. And infernos.
Malcolm Turnbull:
You’ve seen the extraordinary events here in Victoria where you would have the 60,000 volunteers of the CFA – these are the men and women who stand between Victorians and the inferno of the Australian bushfire.
Those heroes, those volunteers, those community organisations are, if the government has its way, if the premier has his way, are going to be subordinated to the firefighters union, at the union’s demand.
5.14am BST
Q: Your family has been a big focus of the campaign the last couple of days. Do you want Australians to get to know you better and why, and would you say this is now the real Malcolm campaigning?
Malcolm Turnbull:
I will leave you to the commentary.
5.13am BST
Several questions about childcare. Will the government bring forward its package?
Malcolm Turnbull:
If we can secure the passage of our legislation after parliament gets back, assuming we are returned to government, then, and if we can start it earlier, then we will ...
We have a genuine reform package, it’s a genuine reform package, and it is one that will provide the greatest support, considerably enhanced support to families on lower incomes.
Well, it is a package, as you know, we have savings out of the – we have other savings, as you know, in the social welfare budget. We believe they are prudent savings. Look, the reality is Labor is proposing to spend $3bn extra and they have not indicated at all where it is going to come from.
5.09am BST
A question on why people like independents in the Newspoll (Answer: vote 1 Coalition, written and authorised by Tony Nutt, Liberal party Canberra); then will he apologise to Vietnam veterans like Bill Shorten did for failing to attend the repatriation ceremony? (No, he won’t, he doesn’t want to politicise the issue by any further comment.)
5.06am BST
Perhaps there will be a run on avowed feminism now in Coalition ranks? Never been a more exciting time.
5.03am BST
Malcolm Turnbull switches modes to the exciting times before us this morning.
I want to say, as I said this morning with Kelly O’Dwyer and I said again with Kelly and Karen Andrews, girls can do anything. In particular they can do engineering. You have seen so many impressive, talented women who are engineers.
I would describe myself as a feminist. As I often say, women hold up half the sky.
5.00am BST
The prime minister opens his daily press conference by expressing sorrow at the deaths that have been recorded as a consequence of the wild weather over the weekend, on behalf of the government, and on Bill Shorten’s behalf. Turnbull thanks the emergency workers “risking their lives to keep Australians safe”. He also urges people around the country to stay away from rising flood waters.
4.55am BST
We’ve covered this separately today on Guardian Australia but in the event you missed it, the Greens want to regulate the electricity system to ensure a “fair price” is paid for solar-generated electricity and ensure a “legal right” to connect to the grid by forcing energy companies to prove they cannot connect a consumer.
The Greens’ clean energy policy, which has been released today, would put $192m for solar into schools, establish a solar ombudsman who would enforce a “right to solar” for renters and force energy companies to write-down pole and wire assets. The Greens would also put $5m into an information campaign to promote the Clean Energy Finance Corporation’s (CEFC) schemes to support households and businesses installing solar with no upfront costs.
4.47am BST
We should have a Turnbull press conference coming up soonish.
4.45am BST
I’m a distance from fully across this issue, but a dispute rumbling away in Victoria about the Country Fire Authority crossed over into the federal campaign over this past weekend. Victorian premier Daniel Andrews is under pressure about an enterprise agreement covering the Country Fire Authority being pursued by the United Firefighters’ Union.
We have serious concerns many of these proposed clauses are unlawful and we have legal advice that indicates CFA would be in breach of its statutory obligations. We are now seeking senior counsel advice on this issue. While the Fair Work Commission’s recommendation stated the changes to the agreement do not impact on volunteers, the recommendation does not override the many specific clauses within the agreement that give rise to those issues. Many of these clauses have no place in modern day workplaces and are out of step with today’s society.
First of all, I have the highest regard for the volunteer firefighters and professional firefighters. The issue about working through the EBA or industrial relations frame work for the CFA professional firefighters is a state issue. Of course we expect, I would hope premier Andrews consults the volunteer firefighters just as they’ve been working with the professional firefighters. But it is a state issue. Much like the industrial arrangements are for police and for other matters, I would expect the state government to bring the parties together.
Mr Turnbull said he is going to fix it by changing the Fair Work Act. He needs to explain how he will do this. It is really the fact he is causing more trouble where there’s already enough trouble existing at the moment.
4.21am BST
All the robos. Bring me all the robos.
4.11am BST
Even in big wet, Tasmanians keeping sense of humour @James_Jeffrey @brettwhiteleymp @MovemberAUS @rharris334 #auspol pic.twitter.com/PG2PyUzo5j
4.02am BST
The prime minister, meanwhile, is calling for robo gals in Melbourne. Yes, he is. (He’s in an event with startup folks.) He clearly thinks better of robo gal. He’s happy to see robo guys too.
3.59am BST
Now I have a text copy of Bill Shorten’s speech to the RSL. Here’s a excerpt that will give you the flavour.
Bill Shorten:
Beyond the fallen, hundreds of thousands Australians would return home wounded, or bearing the invisible scars of trauma. And all who served, all who returned, were changed in some way by what they had seen, and what they had endured. For that generation – and for every generation who followed in their footsteps - things could not be the same. And so often they could not find the words to explain why. So often they could not answer the question: what did you do in the war?
From this reality, in this silence, the RSL grew. A welcoming place of camaraderie and quiet understanding. A heart and a home in the community for Australians seeking the uncomplicated solidarity of those who knew what it was like. From its very first days, the RSL fulfilled this mission – a mission that no government had turned its mind too. You reached beyond rehabilitation, you looked further than commemoration. You offer at your core instead the comfort of stability, normality, respect and community. And even as the organisation has grown and diversified and broadened its mission and its ambition: to charity, to sport, to social welfare and aged care, that fundamental respect has continued, that unchanging devotion has endured.
3.30am BST
LDP Senator David Leyonhjelm, again facing the existential horrors of relevance deprivation, wonders how to be outrageous. Hmm, I know, let’s apologise to the much maligned taxpayers of Australia borrowing liberally (excuse the pun) from Kevin Rudd’s apology to Indigenous people. That will do it, surely. Feeling all the feelings.
3.18am BST
Ok let’s pause for a moment to gather the sum of Monday’s parts. (Look at these two: my people, ah yes, my people. Hello there.)
2.59am BST
Labor’s campaign spokeswoman, Penny Wong, is out with reporters in Canberra trying to rebut the Coalition’s attack on Labor’s costings on the childcare package. She says after three years, “the best they can do at this point in the campaign is to simply have an angry, shouty treasurer having a go at the Labor party. Well, that’s not really a second-term agenda.”
Penny Wong:
On costings, Labor has made very clear we will save more than we spend over the decade and, just as we were prepared to be upfront with the Australian people prior to the election being called about savings, you can anticipate more savings announcements from the Labor party before the election.
I think childcare is parents’ business and if you’re referencing what Bill said I would say this: we know in Australia the disproportionate burden of caring work does fall on women and that’s why we’ve put forward a policy to support women making different choices, to support women making the choice to return to work, to make it easier for working families to juggle work and family. That’s the whole point of Labor’s package.
Has she talked to Barnaby Joyce lately? That’s my only answer to that.
2.32am BST
Back briefly to Scott Steel, and the spinoff conversations from this week’s polling podcast, and Scott’s idea that we should be looking at conservative Catholics as a subset of tactical voters. I asked why. This was his response.
Micro, but quite fascinating. I might see if Mark Textor’s got a view.
@murpharoo As a piece of campaign research, you'd be finding out who/why & targeting a mini campaign to cement one group, and flip the other
2.27am BST
My technical nonsense also prevented a clean report of the prime minister and the employment initiative with veterans. Malcolm Turnbull said he would work with groups like SoldierOn and with business leaders (“captains of industry” was the Turnbull formulation) to “encourage employers to recognise the leadership and skills veterans hold” and “honour their service to the nation.”
Malcolm Turnbull:
We believe Australian employers should be more aware of the important leadership skills veterans have and the value that they offer to their organisations. Improving, promoting the employment of veterans is a key agenda for us in our next term of government.
2.13am BST
2.10am BST
Bill Shorten opens his contribution by saying that is it fitting that there is no difference between the major parties on defence matters. He also repeats the apology he gave last week for not going to the Vietnam repatriation ceremony. This was the wrong decision.
Just an aside. The speech writers have clearly poured an enormous amount of effort into both of these contributions. They are both very fine indeed. Because of technical difficulties I haven’t got chunks of Shorten, I just didn’t get the quotes down, but I will come back and share some of the more elegantly crafted sections when I get a text copy of the speech. Shorten ends his contribution, like Turnbull, noting that more has to be done to help veterans of current conflicts. We must do better, we must do more, Shorten said, adding veterans are owed more than the respect of history.
2.02am BST
Sorry I’m having the odd technical glitch but I will resist the urge to throw the computer out the window and power on. The Labor leader Bill Shorten is speaking now.
2.00am BST
Given this is a centenary event, Malcolm Turnbull speaks about world war one and his family connections to conflict. He then points forward to the present, the current issues facing veterans, such as post-traumatic stress disorder
Malcolm Turnbull:
From afar, this tapestry tells our national story. Up close, each thread tells its own tale of courage, grief and sorrow. Australia in 1916 was a vastly different place. There were few welfare services and the elderly, the sick and the unemployed were largely left to fend for themselves. Veterans struggled to get help for their injuries and to return to civilian life. And the hidden wounds, the psychological damage that remained unseen, and therefore untreated, affected both them and their families, sometimes for generations.
Even today, we are still learning how best to help those who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. So these were the conditions our first veterans faced after serving their country. Into that breach came the RSL – the spirit of comradeship, spread out across the nation into thousands of suburbs, streets and homes touched by war.
We also acknowledge the very serious issue of homelessness among veterans, which is illustrated in the Queensland RSL’s recent report, a place to call home. The causes of homelessness are complex but recognised risk factors include mental illness such as PTSD. I’ve asked Dan [Tehan] to gather state and territory ministers to ensure that addressing homelessness among veterans is a priority in the next term of government. The commonwealth will also require its agencies to identify whether clients are veterans to help us understand the extent of the problem.
1.44am BST
The Returned Services League has always sought to unite Australians and their leaders in respecting and supporting our veterans. You remind us that our freedoms have been bought at a great price, that our national interests must be effectively guarded and that, in the words of your wise motto, the price of liberty is eternal vigilance.
This is Malcolm Turnbull at the RSL, who then proceeds to outline the Coalition’s defence spending, before touching down at Thucydides, a favourite preoccupation of the prime minister. He quotes the Athenian general: “You know as well as we do that justice as the world goes is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer as they must.”
Sobering. Chilling. And timeless words. A reminder that a safe Australia, a safe world, needs a strong Australia.
1.33am BST
Thanks for all the feedback on last week’s episode of the campaign podcast, which focused on opinion polling. I asked for thoughts from fellow pollsters about the analysis shared by the Liberal party’s pollster Mark Textor about tactical voting. Scott Steel, who works for the union movement in Queensland, and blogs as Pollytics, has contributed some thoughts about the pod conversation.
@murpharoo I just listened to your @TextorMark podcast. All very true in my experience.It's why campaigns are now so complex
@murpharoo Tactical voting, for example, is actually a thing - an important thing in a campaign - but needs a good example......
@murpharoo Let's say you poll a seat about voting intention, then a by-election is called, then poll them again. The two results will differ
@Pollytics Any way of working out an example in this election?
@murpharoo Not without a proper research program - but if I were designing one to find an example, I'd look first at conservative catholics
1.21am BST
Scott Morrison is asked whether the Coalition has been gazumped on childcare. Certainly not, the treasurer says. Labor doesn’t have a policy, therefore the Coalition can’t be gazumped.
Scott Morrison:
Labor’s policy is a fantasy, a fiction – there’s no money to pay for it.
You cannot spend money that’s not there.
1.17am BST
Scott Morrison is asked about the new Turnbull ad which features the prime minister talking about his father, and growing up in a single parent household. The Liberal party is pushing this ad through Facebook. Calla mentioned this ad to you all earlier today.
Q: Is the party concerned about a certain perception of him?
No.
The government supports community funding.
We are having an election and we are putting savings measures to the election.
1.11am BST
There is another lengthy preamble in this outing – Labor’s manifest horrors take time to outline in detail – but Scott Morrison has turned down his volume dial from the extreme nonsense outing last week. (Everything is relative.) Voters can choose on July 2, Morrison says.
Certainty and stability versus chaos and uncertainty.
1.07am BST
The treasurer, having cleared his throat on the Hadley show, has now found reporters in Sydney to deliver his mid-campaign report. Scott Morrison is sticking with his war on business and growth rhetoric but thus far we’ve avoided toxic taxes and toxins. The treasurer diagnoses his patient: Labor is making promises with money that simply isn’t there. Labor is not committing to savings necessary to funding policies like childcare.
Scott Morrison:
Labor always promises big for families but doesn’t deliver.
1.03am BST
I’m not the only person with a mid-campaign stocktake this morning, it would seem.
Scott Morrison to present this 'mid-campaign report' #ausvotes pic.twitter.com/mdGCX8mqp6
1.01am BST
While the Labor leader was speaking to reporters, the treasurer, Scott Morrison, has been chatting with Ray Hadley on 2GB and the subject is a new poll showing the Greens and independents set to win one in four votes.
Morrison said: “There are two real alternatives at this election: one is the re-election of a Coalition government, with the continued stability, or a Labor-Greens-independent minority outcome.”
12.58am BST
12.52am BST
12.44am BST
Q: You have agreed to do the Sky News people’s forum on Wednesday, not yet agreement from Mr Turnbull, are you hoping he comes round to the idea?
Bill Shorten:
I think Mr Turnbull should give an answer to our challenge to attend the Sky News forum. Mr Turnbull is clearly doing whatever he can to avoid facing the real issues. These people forums are a great opportunity for Mr Turnbull to leave the bubble in which he is occupying and hear what people are really talking about and give them the answers to the questions they are asking. It is discourteous to Sky and the people of Queensland that Mr Turnbull won’t give an answer. It confirms Mr Turnbull can’t talk about his own policy agenda because he doesn’t want to. All he can do is talk about Labor. I’ll be there Wednesday night.
First of all, Mr Turnbull engineered his own chaos on Mr Abbott. The evidence is why Labor is ready to be government of this country is the last thousand days. We are far more united than the Liberal party and rolling out far more positive policies, able to explain how we would fund them. We would be a government of priorities of middle-class and working-class Australians. You can trust Labor to fight for Medicare, to properly fund schools, trust Labor to take real action on climate change, trust Labor to have a fair taxation system and ensure first home buyers aren’t locked out of the housing market. You can trust Labor to ensure women get equal treatment and trust Labor to deliver childcare that is fair and faster. I will finish on that note.
12.39am BST
Bill Shorten gets three questions on wages in the childcare sector.
I want to put on the record Labor supports the work of our childcare workers. They are the early years educators. The childcare workers are the first people that families entrust their kids to when they leave home [and] go to childcare so we think they are an important part of our work force and haven’t been sufficiently valued.
12.35am BST
Q: Yesterday you said when you announced the original childcare policy that men in Australia rely on the women in Australia to do the childcare and organise the childcare. Is that comment not sexist? Do you regret making those comments?
Bill Shorten:
Thanks for asking the question. Men are stepping up in terms of childcare. In this centre you will have noticed dads here absolutely pulling their weight but the fact of the matter is that the burden of childcare falls disproportionately on working mums. Labor wants to make sure a government is backing up working parents in Australia and backing up working mums, full stop.
I think the record reflects in the last number of months Australians are listening to Labor’s positive policies. I’m enjoying this campaign. I didn’t ask Mr Turnbull to call an eight-week campaign but Labor has been ready for this election, we have been working on our policies.
12.33am BST
A question about the CFA dispute in Victoria, then ...
Q: You say you can afford these childcare changes. The government insists you can’t. Australians can’t make a meaningful judgement on that until we see Labor’s costings. On what date in this campaign will Labor make public its costings and if you can’t tell us that, why shouldn’t we believe you’re just delaying it to prevent scrutiny of these costings until late in the campaign?
Tim, I don’t accept the assumption of your question. The opposition I lead, the united opposition I lead, has changed the rules of political debate in this country over the last 12 months by putting forward our positive policies and explaining where we would make saves. There is another four weeks to go in this election. So we haven’t unveiled all our policies. When we have unveiled all of our policies, at that point we will outline our final costings and measures.
Let’s not airbrush what happened before the calling of this election. History didn’t start on the day that Mr Turnbull called the election. It’s been unfolding ever since he became the prime minister. In the same time that he’s wandered across the paddock with GST increases, with proposals now for a corporate tax splash, Labor’s been outlining how we will improve the bottom line. I’m happy to remind you yet again: $32bn saved by winding back unsustainable tax concessions to negative gearing and capital gains tax discount. $50bn saved by not passing over a truck load of budget money to large corporations. $17bn saved by not proceeding with a tax cut for people who earn a million dollars a year. The Emissions Reduction Fund, Mr Abbott’s climate sceptic dream, we are going to save billions of dollars by not proceeding with that.
12.27am BST
Q: What’s your advice to anyone thinking about voting for the Greens and independents? Will you negotiate with whoever holds the balance of power?
Bill Shorten answers the first question but not the second one.
Don’t do it. Vote Labor. Labor’s got the best policies. If you care about the environment, Labor has proper policies for climate change. If you care about the education of your young, Labor has funded policies for schools, TAFEs, universities – now we are outlining childcare. If you care about real action in terms of the NBN, Labor will outline its policy in coming weeks to make sure we have better internet speeds and access for more Australian households. If you care about defending Medicare, you should vote Labor.
12.25am BST
Q: If the waiting lists areas long as you say they are, how will an average of $300,000 per centre fix that crisis?
Kate Ellis:
Labor has said we will direct these fund only towards those areas where there is very high need that is not currently being met. We know today’s announcement will ensure we have thousands of additional places, and those places are located where the waiting lists are currently the longest and where supply is not meeting demand.
12.21am BST
Questions now.
Q: You say today’s announcement is a reallocation of existing money. What is the government currently spending this money on?
We are backing in childcare because we think an investment in childcare is an investment in the future of this country.
12.19am BST
The opposition’s education spokeswoman, Kate Ellis:
I want to turn to another forgotten part of the childcare sector. That is outside school hours care. If you actually have a look at what is acting as one of the biggest barriers against workforce participation, it’s a lack of places when it comes to outside school hours care. There are many parents who are seeking to return to the workforce but as a result of the fact that there are no places for their children after the school bell goes, they are having to turn down job offers and opportunities. That is because we know that the Australian workforce today doesn’t finish when the school bell rings at 3 o’clock.
That is why we need to invest in outside school hours care. We are announcing a plan to expand up to 1,200 outside school hour care places across Australia to establish thousands of additional places so we know thousands of additional parents can return to the workforce.
12.15am BST
The Labor leader Bill Shorten is in Melbourne and has uttered the word game changer at least five times in the past sixty seconds. Having childcare is a game changer for families, a game changer for the economy.
Bill Shorten:
Today we are addressing the other big issue in childcare, which is finding a place – waiting lists. Today I’m pleased to announce that in the next three years Labor will put in $100m, which will provide literally thousands of extra places in areas where there are high demands. Everybody knows that if you can’t find a place for your child, that becomes the big issue as opposed to even just cost and the quality of childcare.
12.10am BST
Labor is persisting on childcare today, we’ll get part two of the policy which is worth about $160m. The government is persisting with questions about how yesterday’s $3bn childcare commitment will be paid for – where’s the money coming from Bill – before pushing into the agenda item of today, which is innovation.
Overnight the Coalition has also attempted to neutralise one of the health issues on which is has been vulnerable. The health minister, Sussan Ley, says the government will commission an independent evaluation, in consultation with the sector, of the commercial pressures facing diagnostic imaging providers.
11.39pm BST
Thanks Calla, good morning everyone and welcome to Monday. We’ve just passed the halfway point of the campaign, so I’d like to start this morning with a short stocktake.
It’s now a truism in Australian politics that campaigns are all about the marginals. Over the weekend my colleague Lenore Taylor referenced the spend on CCTV cameras in marginal seats by the Coalition. Phil Coorey in the Financial Review has broken out his calculator and added up the government’s spend in the marginals over the last few weeks. He says the total outlay is $1.7bn.
PM @TurnbullMalcolm announced $4m for sporting grounds and equipment #ausvotes pic.twitter.com/Aw9tBQ0yF8 (@Dan_Bourchier)
11.38pm BST
I’ll hand over now to my esteemed colleague Katharine Murphy to guide you through the rest of this blustery day on the campaign trail.
11.35pm BST
A warning to women and girls on the campaign trail: Malcolm Turnbull, enthusiastic grandfather and keen supporter of girls Doing All The Things, may steal your name to suggest to his daughter, Daisy, who would probably rather be left to gestate in peace.
Speaking at that women in sport morning tea in Malvern, Turnbull urged all girls in attendance to look to their local member, Kelly O’Dwyer, as a role model.
Girls can do everything. You can do anything and I want you to look at these women and recognise that there should be no limit to your ambitions. No limit at all. Whatever you dream of you can achieve. Whatever you think you might be able to do, whatever you imagine, you can do it.
11.21pm BST
While Shorten & co talk childcare, Malcolm Turnbull will be eating scones for women in sport. Or something.
The venue is the Malvern Town Hall, a gorgeous old building in Kelly O’Dwyer’s seat of Higgins and just up the road from where this correspondent sits gloomily sipping instant coffee.
The morning’s event is inside a town hall at Malvern, promoting women and girls in sport @abcnews pic.twitter.com/QsWMZaG4AX
The morning’s event is inside a town hall at Malvern, promoting women and girls in sport @abcnews pic.twitter.com/QsWMZaG4AX
11.12pm BST
Nick Xenophon has told AM it was “highly unlikely” he would be negotiating with a minority government after 2 July, despite the palpable fear of some in the major parties.
To paraphrase Mark Twain, rumours of my influence are much exaggerated....
I think it’s highly unlikely… I can’t see that the Coaltion will lose 15 seats and then be put into a hung parliament situation.
There’s all this fear and loathing toward myself and the team from the major parties, but the fact is we haven’t run one TV ad, one radio ad, because we simply don’t have the dough.
This is almost a Seinfeld election, it’s an election about not much at all.
10.47pm BST
Before we get to a promised interview with Nick Xenophon on AM we should look to another independent, Andrew Wilkie in Tasmania, who is getting excited about the possibility of another minority government. (You may recall the last minority government, under Julia Gillard, went quite well for Wilkie.)
He told ABC radio on Monday that he saw “a wonderful opportunity in the next parliament” for a strong crossbench, particularly a strong crossbench that supported his proposed poker machine reform.
I’m surprised that Malcolm Turnbull is such a panic merchant and what he is saying doesn’t sound like Malcolm Turnbull. It sounds more like the sort of thing you’d expect Tony Abbott to be saying in an election campaign.
10.31pm BST
To childcare next, which Labor hopes will be the focus of the campaign today.
Bill Shorten will be at a childcare centre in Melbourne’s inner-west with Kate Ellis, Labor spokeswoman for early education, and the local Jagajaga MP and spokeswoman for family and payments, Jenny Macklin. He’s announcing an add-on to the $3bn package announced yesterday: $100m over three years targeted at 300 childcare services in areas of high demand, to reduce the waiting list.
10.11pm BST
Let’s look a bit more at that firefighting fight in Victoria. The United Firefighters Union has been trying to negotiate a new industrial agreement over the Country Fire Authority (CFA) to improve conditions for professional firefighters and get greater control over the organisation to the detriment of volunteers, who say they are being pushed out of the organisation.
The Fair Work Commission last week recommended the CFA accept the deal and cabinet is expected to try to push it through.
I give you this pledge: if we are returned to government on the 2nd of July, we will ensure the law is changed to protect you from this takeover... We will stand with every one of you.
“A union takeover of the CFA would pose a grave risk to the safety of thousands of Victorians who rely on CFA volunteers to protect them.’’
9.48pm BST
Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten took a break from being adversarial yesterday to attend a ceremony marking the 100th anniversary of the RSL. Mike Bowers was there in Melbourne last night.
9.27pm BST
Four weeks down, four to go.
Good morning, and welcome to what would usually be the pointy end of the election campaign but is instead the bump in the middle. Time to lip-sync your favourite pop-song for the halftime entertainment and make a cup of tea before we sink into week five, day 29, of the election campaign.
While the two-party-preferred vote sees the first improvement for the Coalition since April — from 49 per cent to 50 per cent — the government’s primary vote has dropped one point to 40 per cent, which is the lowest level since the Prime Minister replaced Tony Abbott as leader almost 10 months ago.
Labor’s primary vote has also fallen for the second consecutive Newspoll survey, dropping one point to 35 per cent, while the Greens lost one point to fall to a six-month low of 10 per cent.
The poll also suggests that if the Coalition was returned it would face a repeat of the difficulties from the last parliament in passing legislation through the Senate and would rely on a crossbench principally controlled by Senator Xenophon, in cases where it could not secure the support of Labor or the Greens.
The policy, to be launched on Monday by the Greens leader, Richard Di Natale, and MP Adam Bandt would force a “fair price” to be paid by energy companies.
Solar homes and businesses would be protected from fees and charges “likely to be imposed by electricity networks clawing back their diminishing revenues as our electricity system decentralises and consumers become empowered”, the policy says.
The centrepiece is a 15% increase in the Child Care Benefit (CCB) as well as a rise in the childcare benefit cap from $7,500 to $10,000. Labor has said every family earning under $150,000 will benefit from the change.
Labor’s finance spokesman, Tony Burke, said the policy was a stark contrast to the Coalition, which has delayed rebate rises until 2018.
“We didn’t have much money, he was a hotel broker and for most of that time he was battling like a lot of people are, a lot of single parents are, certainly. But he taught me a lot of amazing things ... And he did well after a while; in the latter part of his life he kicked a few goals after a lot of effort.
He was incredibly loyal, very, very strong, very disciplined.
Residents of Australian’s federal electorates - more than 100 from each and a total of more than 24,000 - were polled on how satisfied they were with their standard of living, health, relationships, achievements in life, safety, community connections and future security.
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