The opposition leader is in Brisbane to release Labor’s 10-year plan for growth while Scott Morrison goes on the offensive. All the developments with Katharine Murphy, live
6.39am BST
Now it’s early I know but I’m not nearly finished for the day, even though I’m folding this edition of Politics Live for now. I need to duck off for a bit and record one segment for this week’s campaign podcast, and then come back for another burst of live coverage this evening.
I will be covering the Labor leader Bill Shorten, live and solo at the people’s forum in Brisbane, and I’ll also cover the prime minister Malcolm Turnbull’s interview on the 730 Report this evening. I’ll be back in the live chair from about 6.30pm. I hope you’ll join me.
6.23am BST
I don’t entirely understand all the interpretations in this story but it’s interesting. Fairfax is reporting this afternoon that Liberal MPs are using their taxpayer-funded office allowances to pay a company, Parakeelia Pty Ltd, $2500 a year to use “Feedback” software. This is a data mining operation basically. Intriguing.
Also the environment minister Greg Hunt is hitting back (not quite the right characterisation I know) at the US talk host Ellen Degeneres, who has been campaigning to save the Great Barrier Reef.
.@TheEllenShow Just last year @UNESCO recognised the unprecedented steps we've taken to protect #GBR & praised Aust as a global role model
6.05am BST
On the floods, the early advice from the prime minister’s office is both leaders are likely to be in Tasmania tomorrow, provided conditions on the ground are amenable to that, but they may not appear together. There may be separate programs.
But in any case, it looks like both the campaigns will head south tomorrow.
5.53am BST
Labor folks are also telling me this afternoon that Bill Shorten plans to travel to flooded areas in Tasmania tomorrow. He’s apparently approached the prime minister with a view to making it a joint visit. I’ll check with Malcolm Turnbull’s folks to see what they are saying.
5.39am BST
As if it weren’t already obvious from Bill Shorten calling Donald Trump’s views “barking mad”, Shorten has provided a further endorsement for his opponent, Hillary Clinton. After news that Clinton now has enough delegates to secure the Democratic nomination, making her the first female candidate of a major party, Shorten tweeted “ImWithHer” in support:
#ImWithHer https://t.co/IMddN3s3IO
5.17am BST
While I’m catching up, some Instagram views of the campaign.
4.55am BST
Backtracking briefly, excitements, in helicopters.
PM Malcolm Turnbull sits in a Romeo Seahawk from 816 Sqn. HMAS Albatross near Nowra @murpharoo @GuardianAus pic.twitter.com/qDATdukmuw
4.54am BST
Catching up again, the Labor leader, Bill Shorten, has been meeting apprentices in Brisbane ahead of his people’s forum outing later this evening.
4.48am BST
Now we are on the other side of the National Press Club an update on preferences. Greens MP for Melbourne, Adam Bandt, has confirmed his party will give Labor its second preference in five inner city seats. The seats affected are: Batman and Wills, both Labor seats targeted by the Greens; Melbourne Ports, held by Labor’s Michael Danby; Higgins, held by Kelly O’Dwyer for the Liberals and targeted by the Greens; and Bandt’s seat of Melbourne. However, the big unanswered question is whether the Greens will preference Labor or run open tickets in other marginal Liberal seats. There have been reports that the Greens may run open tickets in Liberal suburban marginals in return for Liberal preferences in the inner city. Expect more details of preference deals by all parties to ooze out over the weekend, as nominations close Thursday and parties lock down how-to-vote cards before pre-poll opens on Tuesday.
4.36am BST
Into closing statements now.
Mathias Cormann looks well pleased with his hour, he says it’s been a good discussion, and the results are Labor hasn’t answered key questions and we are superior budget managers so vote one Coalition, July 2.
Moments of the debate have been like an argument with Siri.
4.33am BST
4.31am BST
Eighth question is on spending growth. The Coalition has increased spending growth since coming to office, how does it account for that record, and will Labor send a signal on the spending cuts stuck in the Senate? Will Labor back some of those cuts?
Mathias Cormann says the government has worked to constrain the growth in expenditures – and whatever you think of the Coalition’s record, it is always better than Labor’s.
4.26am BST
Mathias Cormann says the government is confident it has the policies to combat avoidance by multinationals.
Tony Burke says the Coalition was slow to act on avoidance. Now, he says, some of the assumptions don’t pass the laugh test. Burke says companies aren’t going to pay more tax because the rate is reduced to 25%.
4.22am BST
Seventh question is on avoidance.
Mathias Cormann:
The Coalition gets tax avoidance.
That’s certainly true.
4.21am BST
Sixth question is the fragility of the forecasts and the limits of ten year plans. Cormann is asked why the Coalition has put a ten year business tax cut on the credit card in the current climate, and Burke is asked why he’s ruling out spending cuts post election given the current budgetary climate.
Mathias Cormann says the company tax cut is funded. He says Labor isn’t supporting it for political reasons, not economic reasons.
4.14am BST
Tony Burke is blasting trickle down economics.
Mathias Cormann:
It used to be your policy.
I’m better at it than you.
4.09am BST
Fourth question is on the super guarantee. What are your plans?
Mathias Cormann goes through the purpose of super. He says Labor’s plans to increase the guarantee to 12% weren’t funded, so the Coalition delayed the proposed ramp-up by six years. The government remains committed to that timetable, Cormann says.
3.57am BST
Second question is on the merit of 10-year plans. Both sides have them but suggest the other side shouldn’t have one. What gives?
Mathias Cormann says the test in the charter of budget honesty is the forward estimates, not 10 years. Thus far there’s lots of rhetoric and not a lot of substance about numbers over the four years, he says.
3.50am BST
First question is on the AAA rating. Does Tony Burke accept higher deficits mean it is now under threat?
Burke says Labor is doing precisely what Moody’s recommended, looking at both revenue and expenditure to manage the budget. He repeats what he said in the opening, no one is delivering the outcomes in the budget – not the Coalition, not Labor – because of the zombie savings.
You used to say the same thing about the schoolkids’ bonus and now you support [the abolition]. What other savings measures are you going to end up supporting?
3.43am BST
Finance minister Mathias Cormann says Labor is using weasel words. Deficits will be bigger under Labor over the forward estimates, not because of external factors beyond their control, but because of deliberate spending decisions taken during this election cycle. And the ratings agencies, they won’t like it. Deficit goes up over the forward estimates, Australia’s triple A credit rating is at risk. And today’s glossy?
All pictures, no costings.
3.39am BST
While Hillary Clinton is taking her moment in New York, proceedings are underway at the National Press Club. Labor’s Tony Burke is opening the batting. Presently he’s talking about zombie measures embedded in the budget. He says the Coalition’s policy manifesto is full of holes because savings are being assumed that will never clear the Senate. Burke’s pitch is Labor is doing the hard yards on structural repair in the budget. Neither side is promising a surplus over the forward estimates, Burke says, but Labor is implementing reforms that will deliver for the budget bottom line in the medium term.
3.19am BST
I won’t post a summary this lunchtime because I’ve done two in the course of the morning. Today is about the economy and budget management. That’s all you need to know in the event you are just tuning in with your sandwich.
Press club is coming up, and the Liberals are shaking off Labor on their Facebook page with a hip Taylor Swift reference. Yes, I actually did that, punning my way to polling day. People are being very rude in the thread. “This is what happens when the Liberals let teenagers run their Facebook page.”
3.10am BST
Back to square away Julie Bishop.
Q: The PM has chosen not to appear on the Sky News forum tonight to debate the opposition leader. Is that a sad decision for the people of Brisbane who may have wanted to ask the PM questions?
I think it is an exciting idea to have a leaders debate in a new forum, using Facebook. Hopefully it will reach a whole new audience of people who might otherwise not been engaged in the political debate. With no offence to Sky News and its viewers, this is a great idea of embracing a new way of reaching more people and hopefully it will be a broader audience. I think it is an idea that is worth pursuing and I am pleased that the PM’s suggested it and it is going ahead.
3.05am BST
Meanwhile, in another election season.
Ready. pic.twitter.com/y6qupOwX9K
3.03am BST
Julie Bishop was also asked about a police shooting in Papua New Guinea.
Q: We have seen shocking reports out of Papua New Guinea this morning with four people dead and several injured, from a police shooting, is that acceptable?
I am aware of the reports of this tragedy in Papua New Guinea. There have been student protests for almost five weeks, protesting against the government and I have spoken to the Australian High Commissioner Bruce Davis, who is located in Port Moresby. He updated me. We are still seeking to determine the actual outcome - I know students have been shot but we are still trying to determine whether there have been deaths and how many have been injured.
We call on all sides for calm, to deescalate the tensions, and certainly call on all sides to respect the peaceful and lawful right to protest. We will be monitoring the situation closely. There are about 70 Australian Federal Police officers in PNG spread throughout the country and our high commission will be working with the Australian AFP who are there to monitor the situation and keep me and keep the Australian government informed.
I anticipate when we have details from our high commission and from the AFP officers there, I will make a call to my counterpart in PNG. If people have been shot in this incident, it is a tragedy and we urge for calm, to deescalate tensions between the students and the police. We ask that the right to protest peacefully and lawfully be respected.
2.59am BST
The foreign minister Julie Bishop is campaigning in Brisbane and is also asked about Afghanistan, as the prime minister was this morning. There must be a news report around somewhere that I’ve missed.
Q: Has Australia been asked by international partners to increase our defence contribution in Afghanistan?
We are constantly monitoring our contribution but Australia is one of the most significant contributors to the coalition that has been operating in Afghanistan for a long time. We continue to monitor our support there. We are working with the Afghan government to build the capacity of the Afghan national security forces so that they can control their borders, they can maintain peace and security for the Afghan people.
These are matters that the minister for defence would be handling. There has been constant monitoring of our contribution but they are matters that the defence minister would handle on a day to day basis. I deal with our counterpart, the Secretary of State John Kerry, and there hasn’t been a request by him to me.
2.44am BST
I should, for political tragics everywhere, note that Hillary Clinton is going to be the Democratic candidate for president, it’s official, and Donald Trump opposes something called the PP. I believe that translates to the TPP. At least I hope that’s what it translates to.
Good luck Hillary Clinton. I don’t mean that in any way as a partisan statement. I just mean I’ve seen a female political leader in action, and how she was treated, and in truth I can feel only trepidation for Clinton, even though it’s obvious she’s tough as old boots.
2.22am BST
Looking forward, there’s a debate coming up at the National Press Club today between the two finance spokesmen (and campaign spokesmen) – Mathias Cormann and Tony Burke.
Just in case you were wondering, I will also cover tonight’s Sky People’s forum in Brisbane, where Bill Shorten will have the stage to himself courtesy of the prime minister’s desire to give Rupert Murdoch a campaign head-to-head on a different platform consumed by a great many more readers and viewers (news.com), and I’ll also look in on the prime minister’s interview with Leigh Sales on the 730 Report.
2.14am BST
The view from Tasmania.
Constant, cascading torrent of water down the Gorge! #floods pic.twitter.com/XYxArcwiYV
2.12am BST
Labor, I presume.
BREAKING: Melbourne, @AdamBandt announced #Greens16 will be preferencing Labour #2 in all inner city campaigns including #MelbournePorts.
2.08am BST
2.06am BST
I’ve given you my thoughts on the economic positioning today. Laura Tingle from the Australian Financial Review wonders whether Labor can buck the orthodoxy of economic policy thinking in Canberra that has defined the political conversation since the Hawke/Keating period.
It will be fascinating to see Bill Shorten and Chris Bowen argue the case that so goes against the orthodoxy of the last few decades – that a political party can go to the polls actually acknowledging its policies will result in a short-term deterioration in the budget position, arguing that it is however putting the structural changes in place to address problems longer term.
1.56am BST
Compare the pair.
2016 - Labor's 10 year plan for Australia's economy booklet
2013 - The Coalition's 'Our Plan' booklet pic.twitter.com/5iTlknpZxd
1.48am BST
Scott Morrison has moved into company taxes now, and he’s citing the Murphy modelling that I just referenced. He says higher taxes are bad for economic growth, full stop.
Scott Morrison:
A decade of black holes is not a plan for jobs and growth.
1.42am BST
The treasurer, Scott Morrison is giving a speech in Perth. The Australian reported this morning that Morrison will draw on modelling by the economist Chris Murphy to back in its plan to cut company taxes.
I haven’t had time to read Murphy’s paper but here’s an excerpt from the abstract that gives you a flavour.
Of the major taxes, company income tax is found to be least efficient, with a marginal excess burden of 139 cents per additional dollar of tax revenue. For open economies the literature finds that company tax is among the most inefficient of taxes because it suppresses labour supply and the capital to labour ratio and leads to profit shifting to lower taxed jurisdictions. For Australia, company tax is even more inefficient because of its above-normal company tax rate and the erosion of the final revenue yield through the system of franking credits.
If Derek Zoolander was launching an economic plan, this is what it would look like. Australia does not need Derek Zoolander economics from Labor.
1.30am BST
Up and up and up. Morning to Mike Bowers, travelling with the prime minister on the south coast of NSW.
1.08am BST
That frenzy of activity needs some sifting. Give me a minute and I’ll be back with some sifting.
1.05am BST
Last question on house prices.
Q: Just on the RBA decision, they’ve said that house prices are likely to come under downward pressure as a result of the construction boom. Do you expect even without Labor’s negative gearing changes that house prices will come down?
There is real softness as the bank observed in several sectors of the market, particularly in the apartment sector of the market.
So I would say that the housing market, there are many parts of the housing market that are delicately poised and where growth has either stopped or is going backwards.
1.00am BST
Q: ASIC has moved against NAB, it follows on from what happened with ANZ. What would you say to bank customers and shareholders getting increasingly nervous about the industry and behaviour in the industry?
Malcolm Turnbull thinks this shows the regulatory system is working.
The watchdog is on the job, the watchdog is sinking it fangs into a few suspected culprits and doing his job, that’s what he should do.
12.59am BST
Q: Can you honestly tell Australians that anyone is going to return the budget to surplus in 2020 or 2021?
Malcolm Turnbull:
We have set out a path to do so. It’s been set out in the budget and confirmed by the secretaries of finance and the treasury in the PEFO. We have a very clear plan. Labor has not produced its numbers.
There are always risks with forecasts. I think everyone understands that. The further out you go, the more speculative those assumptions are. Ten years - let’s go back ten years. Ten years ago, 2006, there wasn’t an iPhone. People didn’t have smartphones. Facebook was 1-year-old.
It was a different world.
12.53am BST
Q: Do you admit that not going ahead with company tax cuts has basically allowed Labor to make all these big-ticket promises that you can’t do during this election campaign?
Malcolm Turnbull:
The Labor party has given us no indication of how they are going to fund their promises. They’ve indicated about $100bn of new taxes over the next 10 years. They have got - they are proposing, taxes, which will actively slow economic growth. Let’s be quite clear about this.
They’re going to increase capital gains tax by 50%. That can have only one result: less investment. They’re going to ban negative gearing, the ability of ordinary working people to invest and offset losses against their personal income, they’re banning negative gearing on every asset class - shares, business, property, commercial property, residential property except for new dwellings. What is that going to do? That will also restrict and reduce investment.
12.50am BST
A question about a complaint about the Chinese foreign ministry about the Kidman sale. Do we need a clearer foreign investment framework?
Malcolm Turnbull:
The Chinese people and the Chinese leaders understand very clearly that Australia’s government has the sovereign right to determine who invests in Australia. That is our right. That’s the right of the Australian people through their elected representatives. We have a very clear foreign investment arrangement or regulations. They’re well understood. The vast majority of foreign acquisitions and investments are approved, as indeed are the vast majority of investments from Chinese investors, so nobody has anything to complain about.
12.48am BST
Calla mentioned the prime minister is inspecting helicopters.
Q: Just on the choppers themselves, many of these choppers may be deployed to the South China Sea. We’re seeing European nations agitate for more freedom of navigation, a pushback against Beijing. Is Australia doing enough?
Yes, we support freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea and it’s an issue that we’ve demonstrated that and it’s an issue I have raised robustly and, frankly, with the Chinese leaders with whom I’ve met – president Xi, on four occasions now.
We’ll consider requests for additional support, obviously, we stand shoulder to shoulder with our allies in Afghanistan.
I can’t comment on any recent requests. I can assure you we’re staying in close and constant contact with our allies, in particular of course the United States.
12.45am BST
Never mind the contractions.
What Labor has is a glossy brochure, that’s all they have, another pamphlet, another glossy pamphlet which set out a list of promises, a list of complaints, no way to pay for them and no demonstration as to how they are going to drive the economic growth that we need, that our children and grand children need to secure their future.
12.42am BST
Q: When are taxpayers going to know definitively how much they’re going to fork out for your policies? Is it going to be week 7, week 8, not the Thursday before?
Bill Shorten:
We will make sure every Australian will have the full Labor program well before 2 July. What I’m is also committing to today is to make sure that we are making very clear there will be no new spending on unannounced programs, that we’ve outlined our priorities, and we’ll keep do it.
12.40am BST
Q: There is a credible economist in the media this morning, Chris Murphy I think, saying there is very considerable flow-through from the tax cuts you haven’t adopted and remain a deep critic of. Is he right or are you right? Can I also ask now we have a 10-year Labor economic plan, can you say to business with a turnover above $2m: “You will not get a tax decrease, a tax cut, under a Shorten Labor government in a decade”?
Chris Bowen says he’ll stick with the treasury modelling rather than modelling that assumes a “morality dividend” from corporates suddenly paying a 25% tax when they haven’t been happy paying a 30% tax.
The Liberals do not have a plan for jobs and growth. They have a slogan. Isn’t it interesting that the prime minister today isn’t talking about 10-year plans, he’s walked away from his. He doesn’t want to talk about his corporate tax cut. He says, “Don’t worry about it, it’s in 10 years time and three elections away, and you can vote us out.”
12.36am BST
Q: This morning on radio Malcolm Turnbull said your plan is highly speculative. Does he have a point considering how do you know where we’ll be in ten years time?
Bill Shorten, persisting with the campaign standard of look over there:
I think it’s shameful Mr Turnbull is not prepared to navigate a course to the future looking at ten years time. What’s happened to the old Malcolm Turnbull who had vision and drive? It has been swallowed up by his right wing Liberal party.
12.34am BST
Q: You say you’re going to stick to your word and Mr Bowen you said in your speech you’ll improve the budget without walking away from a single policy. You’ve already backtracked on restoring the school kids bonus, how can the Australian people believe you’re going to do what you say you’re going to do?
Chris Bowen invokes how about that other mob.
We have been very clear. Unlike the Liberals who announced their 2013 election policies in the 2014 budget, eight months after the election, we have been outlining our policies and yes, they’re not all popular, but we’ve made tough decisions for budget repair.
12.32am BST
The obvious question.
Q: If you’ve got bigger deficits over four years and you’re returning to balance in the same year, what is doing the heavy lifting?
In the longer term, we’ve got a good glide path towards a very strong balance by our changes, for instance, to negative gearing.
12.29am BST
Questions now.
Q: Why won’t you reveal your plans to further cut welfare benefits? Why are you waiting until the end of the campaign?
I said in my speech and Chris said then that in coming days we’re going to talk more about our numbers and we’re going to be much more transparent than any opposition has been in previous elections.
We’re not going to dodgy-up our numbers in the short-term by promising cuts the Senate is going to fight and fight, and secondly, we’re not going to rely upon retrospective changes in order to pump up the tyres of an otherwise unlikely budget vehicle of the Liberals.
12.26am BST
Shorten is accompanied by the shadow treasurer Chris Bowen. He says over the medium term, there will be stronger surpluses, because the structural savings Labor has come up with during this term in opposition deliver for the budget in the longer term. “Our reforms build over time and provide a greater return to the budget over the decade.”
12.23am BST
The Labor leader has exited his speech in Brisbane and is speaking to reporters now. Bill Shorten says Labor’s program in government is the program it will outline between July 2.
Bill Shorten:
It is not the start of a debate, it will be the program we implement, it will be the discipline to which we administer to our policies. There will not be then new programs and new spendings if Labor was elected on July 2, it will be the program that we have outlined before July 2. Labor’s very committed to investing in jobs, education and health care, we’re very committed to rigid budget discipline, we’re committed to building the nation-building infrastructure, our roads, our rail, our NBN, our energy grid that Australians need, we’re committed to fair taxation, we’re committed to restoring the dream of important for your first home and the equal treatment of women. This will be our guiding principles not just for this election but for Australia in 2025.
12.20am BST
Here’s the section of the speech that balances the fiscal imperative with Labor’s current policy inclinations on inclusive growth.
Bill Shorten:
It is true that Labor will not have the same degree of fiscal contraction as the Liberals over this period. This is because our solution to the structural deficit rejects unfairness, does not attack demand and confidence and avoids retrospectivity.
Our plan rejects vicious cuts to health and education in the short-term. We will deliver better and bigger structural budget improvements over the decade, savings that accumulate over time and stand the test of time. Unlike the Liberals, our fiscal plans will pass the Senate because they are fair and because we are seeking a mandate to implement them.
12.10am BST
Thanks Calla, good morning everyone and welcome to Wednesday. I’d been wondering when Labor would get off the social capital spending travelator and get on to the critical business of framing the budget and the economy more generally. Well today’s the day.
Labor overnight dropped a campaign document which aims to get the opposition past the political inconvenience that the budget under a Shorten government looks less favourable over the four year forward estimates cycle than the Coalition’s road map. Labor would like Australians to look at the medium term, over ten years. Bill Shorten has said this morning the budget will be back in balance the same year as the Coalition, but “it is true that Labor will not have the same degree of fiscal contraction as the Liberals over this period.” Like a quick trip to the labour ward – fiscal contraction, you wince at the mere mention of it.
12.05am BST
Colin Barnett will attend the opening of WA's first Aldi store today.
The actual premier. Opening Aldi.
12.00am BST
Meanwhile, the prime minister has arrived in Nowra on the NSW south coast. He’s looking at helicopters.
PM is touring HMAS Albatross near Nowra. This is a Romeo Seahawk, part of the 725 Squadron of the RAN @abcnews pic.twitter.com/iNUNmzRHOE
The Prime Minister is coming to HMAS Albatross to see @Australian_Navy's Romeo helo fleet pic.twitter.com/7s4EJ2chgI
11.54pm BST
A fair point. Let’s try to keep the rhetoric in the realm of a pre-2013 Republican.
Does Turnbull really plan to cut "every single dollar" from schools? Political rhetoric continues its way to Trumpification.
"We will fix the national budget without hitting the family budget"; budget repair that is fair" Bill Shorten promises, in a win for cliches
11.43pm BST
Bill Shorten has begun his economic pitch in Brisbane by confronting the truism that Labor cannot be trusted to be responsible with the national coffers.
Every decision that we make will be governed by our solemn understanding that taxpayer money belongs to the taxpayers. We recognise the national mood of concern about wasteful spending. It is a concern that we share. We will not be a big spending Government. We will apply rigorous budget discipline.
We will not ambush Australians who have made investments based upon one set of tax laws in order to simply try and pump up numbers in the short-term in the Budget. Our changes, we give due notice of, they are prospective and we do it for the long-term
Let’s be clear, both sides of politics will be in deficit over the four years of the forward estimates. It is true that Labor will not have the same degree of fiscal contracts as the Liberals over this period. This is because our solution to the structural deficit rejects unfairness, does not attack demand and confidence and avoids retrospectivity.
11.29pm BST
While Bill Shorten debates an empty chair at the Sky News debate in Brisbane tonight, the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, has made other plans.
Cancel your evening plans and stay in - my guest tonight on #abc730 is the Prime Minister @TurnbullMalcolm
11.15pm BST
A pre-announcement run.
6.5km morning run along the Brisbane River pic.twitter.com/uv7TrAuKWs
11.14pm BST
Bill Shorten and Chris Bowen are about to begin that address outlining their economic plan at the Brisbane Convention Centre.
11.08pm BST
#Ausvotes fan favourite Pauline Hansen has launched her election campaign and hit back at comments from Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten, who said she was not welcome in Australian politics.
Hansen told ABC Radio National that she was annoyed at the “sheer arrogance” of Turnbull’s comments, which she said are disrespectful to voters.
He’s saying to people ‘we won’t work with her, she’s not welcome in the parliament’ and I hope people say for that reason, ‘no, let’s vote for her’.
10.58pm BST
Here’s a first look at that glossy, glossy booklet.
Labor's 32-page booklet for its 10-year plan #ausvotes @9NewsAUS pic.twitter.com/YkEZkBiVm1
10.53pm BST
Malcolm Turnbull tells Jones that Labor’s economic plan, which Chris Bowen will begin outlining about now at an address in Brisbane, is “entirely speculative”.
That was in response to Jones’s previously mentioned soft opening salvo, in which he read out an angry letter.
“What’s your response to that kind of letter, I’ve got a stack of them.”
“Well Alan, the writer is absolutely correct. The Labor Party does not have any plan for economic growth, any plan for jobs, any plan for living within our means. The spend-o-metre keeps on whirring.
“There is nothing less fair than putting up one billion dollar promise after the other on the national credit card and leaving it to our grandchildren to pay for it.”
“That’s the guts of it.”
“I suppose this could be an implied criticism of you - have you gone strong enough on this - the Labor Party - Penny Wong has said exactly what you’re saying.”
“See, where people are critical of you, I guess, is that on some of these things they don’t see you going strong enough.”
“Well Alan, you’re absolutely right.”
“They are an extremely left-wing party… they are in favour of every form of spending and every form of tax. They would send the Australian economy backwards at a rate of knots. They basically are like a magnet pulling the Australian Labor party to the left.... It’s one of the reasons why, for example, you simply cannot trust the Labor party on border protection. It doesn’t matter what Bill Shorten says, his party, his base, his members and influential people on his front bench have to be going in that more left direction in order to protect themselves from The Greens.”
“Should he have been?”
“I have on several occasions paid tribute to Tony Abbott’s leadership in organising this. The initiative at the time came from the veterans affairs minister at the time, Michael Rondaldson, and he was there...
“You’ve got to go and I’ve got to go. Next week I want to talk to you about this industrial relations dispute and the CFMEU that has got people absolutely inflamed.”
10.17pm BST
Malcolm Turnbull is on the line with Alan Jones for their third interview so far this election campaign.
Jones opens by reading a letter from the paper that was highly critical of Labor’s economic bona fides.
10.14pm BST
The leaders suspended their campaign yesterday to survey storm damage in Sydney. Three people are still missing following the deluge on the weekend - two in floods in Tasmania, and one in Sydney.
Mike Bowers was shadowing the PM
10.00pm BST
Here’s a bit more on Labor’s overarching economic policy, ahead of the formal announcement in Brisbane later today.
My colleague Gareth Hutchens reports that the plan will support on six key “priority areas” to support Australia’s economic transition, boost productivity, and boost living standards.
Labor is the only party with a fair policy agenda that will ensure a successful economic transition, by investing in nation building infrastructure, and growing a stronger and more productive economy in the future by investing in our best resource – our people
9.44pm BST
Day 31 of the election campaign and it’s all about the economy, stupid.
Labor is set to release its 10-year economic policy – named an economic blueprint, to distinguish it from the economic plan of the Coalition – and the treasurer, Scott Morrison, still in Perth, is on the attack.
… the new study finds a consumer benefit-to-budget cost ratio of 2.39 from the proposed company tax cut. If our company tax rate had already been cut to 25%, the benefit-cost ratio for a further cut to 20% would be more modest at 1.96. And without a franking credits system, it would also be more modest at 1.85.
This consumer benefit-to-budget cost ratio for the company tax cut of 2.39 compares very favourably with the option of cutting other major taxes. For personal income tax the ratio is 1.31 and for GST it is lower still at 1.18. So the proposed cut to company tax is the top priority for tax reform in Australia.
ISDS clauses allow foreign corporations to sue the Australian government in an international tribunal if they think the government has introduced or changed laws that significantly hurt their interests.
The tobacco giant Philip Morris used an ISDS provision in the Hong Kong-Australia bilateral investment treaty, signed in 1993, in its attempt to sue the Australian government over the introduction of plain-packaging laws by former prime minister Julia Gillard in 2012.
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