Prime minister’s campaign heads to Victoria while Bill Shorten and Tony Abbott are in north Queensland. All the latest updates here
3.04am BST
In Marrickville, inner-city Sydney, a primary school hall has erupted in applause. Not for its special guest, introduced by one child as “the honorary Albanese” – but because Marrickville Public School has just won a $100,000 national competition to redesign its playground.
Albo, once on his feet, says he has a hard act to follow. “I don’t have any announcements,” he says.
back to school with @AlboMP in Marrickville @murpharoo pic.twitter.com/1a4RMwUGmw
3.03am BST
A picture from Magic Mike requiring one of those mmmmmmwwaaaahahaha’s.
3.01am BST
Back to the Mornington Peninsula for a moment.
2.57am BST
Well that morning has thundered like a freight train. Before I move to a proper lunchtime summary I’ll use the next couple of posts to clear up fragments from the last couple of hours, hopefully in orderly fashion.
2.53am BST
In Melbourne, Scott Morrison is shouting above the sound of heavy equipment about how Malcolm Turnbull knows about business. This is in response to a shouted question about the Panama Papers.
Scott Morrison:
The prime minister dealt with that fairly comprehensively today in his earlier statements. There’s no suggestion of any impropriety from the PM and I don’t think you’re suggesting anything by raising that in the press conference today, I am sure. That was 20 years ago and it’s all about there in the public sphere and – the thing about Malcolm Turnbull is he has had a lot of experience. He has had a lot of experience in supporting businesses not unlike this one.
He has invested in them. He has created them. He has employed people over his lifetime. And he’s got a lot of experience in how to drive economic policy in this country which sees our economy move through this transition. That is what our national economic plan is all about. It’s all about ensuring that we have the right set of policies that back businesses like this one so they can put more people on.
2.49am BST
The Labor leader ends this outing by asking himself a question on his birthday – what is he getting for his birthday? This is clearly leading to a zinger of some kind, ah yes ..
Bill Shorten:
My present is standing right next to me.
2.46am BST
Good question here on education. How do we actually know this money will be spent in the regions given the federal government doesn’t actually run schools?
Shorten motions in the party’s education spokesperson, Kate Ellis, who says there will be transparency mechanisms.
In terms of the funding for regional schools, we have made very clear that this funding will only be directed towards the evidence-based programs which we know lift student out comes and make a real difference.
The only people that were interested in sending a blank cheque when it came to school funding was the current government when they wrote to the states and territories, said that funding for schools would be no strings attached ...
Absolutely. There was already accountability mechanisms which were written into the current agreements. We are being very clear that taxpayers deserve to know how every dollar is being well spent. Equally parents deserve to know that that money is going to towards the program that will lift their child’s student out comes.
2.41am BST
Back to Fremantle.
Q: What is the problem in Fremantle is it the conviction or the fact they weren’t disclosed?
It is on clear that serious matters the candidate wasn’t forth coming with the truth to the Labor party.
The national secretary of the Labor party [has been] ... investigating these matters. He found there had been a deliberate misleading. He recommended that, therefore, this person shouldn’t be our candidate. I 100% back that decision.
The national executive today will pick a new candidate for Fremantle.
2.38am BST
Bill Shorten gets two questions on the growth projections associated with his education policy, the OECD figures, that I mentioned earlier on today. Shorten says there is a clear case to fund schools according to need.
Bill Shorten:
I have not run into a single parent in the big cities or the small towns or the great provincial cities of Australia like Rockhampton where they’ve come up to me and said: “Gee, Bill, we don’t want to see more money for our kids in education.” Nothing could be further from the truth.
Secondly, is there a serious argument being mounted by some conservative commentators who want to maintain a two-tiered education system in this country that not spending money on this country is not an investment in the future?
2.34am BST
Q: Will Josh Wilson replace Chris Brown if he supports boat turnbacks?
Bill Shorten:
He is a good candidate and he will be the candidate if he is preselected. Let’s be clear about this issue -the Labor party, I think, quite straight up with the Australian people, debated these issues. We debated them last July. There is grave disquiet in the community about the treatment of people on Manus and Nauru ... but there is 100% resolve amongst the Labor party and I believe the vast bulk of the Australian people, to stop the drownings at sea.
That debate was all about people seeking asylum. It was a long debate and I didn’t have a vote in that debate. I was a participant. Once preselected there’s a party position and that is the position I take.
2.30am BST
There’s a high lob on Tony Abbott campaigning in Queensland, does the Liberal party have two leaders? Yes, quite, thinks Shorten. Quite.
Q: Do you regret that Chris Brown was chosen as a candidate for Fremantle considering he has now disclosed his criminal past?
I am very disappointed by this set of events. The Labor party has acted and we’re moving on from it. The national secretary has made a recommendation to me. When I received the formal report I have made it clear I endorse the recommendation and that is - the party is going to make its decisions today. They will do so and I believe that Josh Wilson, the deputy mayor of Fremantle, will be a very good candidate in Fremantle.
It is clear that the party processes were not followed. On very important matters. The party has made a recommendation to me that he should not be the endorsed candidate. And I have absolutely supported that decision, 100%.
2.26am BST
Into questions now.
Q: Do you need to instil more party discipline around your refugee policy? One of your candidates has likened the process to Nazi concentration camps.
I don’t accept the language that was used at all by our candidate.
And let me again state the Labor party’s dealt with this difficult issue at our conference last year.
2.23am BST
The Labor leader is speaking to reporters now on education. Today’s pledge is $1.8bn of the $3.8bn dollars promised in additional needs based funding for schools will flow to schools in regional areas.
2.19am BST
A Labor man has materialised beside my desk hotly disputing my advice to you about the caretaker convention. He says the advice on the department of prime minister and cabinet website says caretaker begins with the dissolution of the House.
Never mind the writs.
The caretaker period begins at the time the House of Representatives is dissolved and continues until the election result is clear or, if there is a change of government, until the new government is appointed.
2.12am BST
Labor’s candidate in Fremantle Chris Brown has held a short media conference to say the only reason the ALP knows about his prior spent convictions is because he brought it to their attention. According to the report in The Australian this morning, “Brown pleaded guilty as a 19-year-old to assaulting a police officer during an altercation with a group of men in 1985. He received a 12-month good behaviour bond and the conviction was expunged in 2011. When he was 18, Brown was charged with drink driving and had his licence suspended for three months. This charge was also removed from his record in accordance with the Spent Convictions Act.”
Q: Can you talk us through the circumstances of how it came about?
Yeah, I was at a festival in Claremont and I was king hit. I was held down by two individuals, punched by a third, pulled to my feet bloodied and dazed. My vision was impaired. I was struggling, I got an arm free to defend myself thinking I was going to be attacked. I was later informed contact was made by a police officer who had come to rescue me.
2.01am BST
Meanwhile, in the beef capital of Australia.
Chloe joins husband @billshortenmp for his 49th birthday #afronthetrail #ausvotes2016 pic.twitter.com/sYOZFMbZx0
1.58am BST
I was trying to have a little dramatic build in my question earlier about who is right about caretaker – P Duddy or Christopher Pyne – but of course you folks are all so on it you’ve piled in on Twitter already.
We are in caretaker as of 16 May, which is next week. On a procedural question, if you ever have to pick a side, go with Pyne every time.
1.53am BST
Interesting that the prime minister’s press conference ran longer today than it has the last couple of days.
1.48am BST
Over a barrel? Roll out the barrel? Is this a barrel of laughs?
1.44am BST
I need to tidy up the immigration minister from earlier on before I check what pictures I have from the Turnbull outing, and share a few thoughts about it.
Peter Dutton was asked in his press conference earlier about Manus and Australia’s obligations to the detainees – questions he attempted to dead bat. Then he was asked about why Green Senator Sarah Hanson-Young is banned from visiting detention centres throughout the election campaign. Does that apply to all federal MPs?
That’s been a long-standing arrangement. As I understand, operating under both sides of government in this country and Senator Hanson-Young, through her mouthpiece in The Guardian, really needs to reassess why she wants to mislead, and why the Guardian wants to mislead the Australian public.
We’re not yet in caretaker mode.
1.32am BST
Q: When will you intend to visit a shopping centre or street walk to meet voters out of these carefully stage managed opportunities?
Malcolm Turnbull:
I look forward to that. I’m sorry you weren’t able to join us yesterday on the train. There were lots of voters on the train and I am getting out and about all around the country.
No, I did not get the train this morning. In fact there isn’t a train station at Mornington. There is to Frankston.
1.30am BST
Now to George Christensen’s comments on the Syrian refugees. Malcolm Turnbull makes it clear that as well as his chat with Barack Obama, he’s also spoken to his Queensland MP about his comments. Turnbull says Christensen was expressing a view about the economic downturn in his region.
Malcolm Turnbull:
I understand that Mr Christensen was expressing a view about - he is concerned about the economic downturn in his region and he is concerned that the introduction, if you like, of people coming through the humanitarian program could - would come into a region where there aren’t enough jobs and that’s the basis on which he’s made those observations as he’s advised me.
Let me say to you that the company in which Neville Wran and I were directors was an Australian listed company and had it made any profits which it did not, regrettably, it certainly would have paid tax inAustralia, obviously you haven’t studied the accounts of the company concerned.
Plainly the objective, when you bring in refugees into Australia, indeed any arrivals into Australia, is to put them in a position where they are given the skills and the opportunities to get into work. That is the whole objective.
1.24am BST
Questions about a WA poll, NSW council amalgamations, and whether he likes beer or wine. On that score he likes lager. So noted.
1.23am BST
Q: PM, will you be campaigning with Tony Abbott over the next 7 weeks?
Malcolm Turnbull:
Can I just say to you that Mr Abbott is campaigning for the return of the Turnbull government and if the occasion arises, no doubt we can. We may be able to campaign in Warringah in his electorate.
1.22am BST
Turnbull is asked first whether he has full confidence in the Liberal party’s preselection processes given the spat about Labor’s candidate in Fremantle. Turnbull doesn’t express it in those terms.
Malcolm Turnbull:
We have a very rigorous process.
Well can I just say to you that as the article acknowledged, there is no suggestion of any impropriety whatsoever. There is nothing new there.
The company concerned was a wholly owned subsidiary of a publicly listed Australian company. So an ASX listed company of which Neville Wran and I were both directors for about two years.
1.18am BST
The two leaders also spoke about the steel glut, and about joint action to address that.
1.18am BST
As well as exciting times in craft beer the prime minister confirms he’s chatted this morning to the US president, Barack Obama.
Malcolm Turnbull:
I should note that I’ve had a good discussion this morning with President Obama on a range of global and regional issues, one of which was the progress of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal which, as you know, is another one of the big trade deals that has been agreed. It has to be ratified by the Congress. The president is confident it can be ratified before the end of the year. So we’re very encouraged by that.
We talked about the security situation in the Middle East and the president briefed me on developments there from his perspective and I did the same from ours. And he thanked Australia for what he described as our extraordinary contribution to the battle against Isil and Daesh. We also talked about security issues in our region and confirmed our strong commitment to freedom of navigation throughout the region and the importance of any territorial disputes being resolved peacefully and in accordance with international law.
1.14am BST
There’s more in Dutton but I have to move past him for now to the prime minister, who is inspired by craft beer.
1.13am BST
Reporters move on to other issues to hand.
Q: George Christensen says he’s been advised Syrian refugees won’t be resettled in his seat of Dawson. Do you know whether the department has advised MPs who have asked, that Syrians won’t be resettled in their seats? Are there no-go areas for Syrian refugees?
The federal government obviously works with the states and you will remember that the state premiers and territory leaders were falling over themselves to provide support to the 12,000 people being brought in and we welcome that. And we’ve been working closely with states and territories. In the end, people make decisions about where it is they will reside. I suspect most people will reside in capital cities because that’s where they have family members and that’s where they have support networks within the refugee community.
Our department’s job, as the immigration department, is to provide screening of people, and we’ve screened some 9,500 and there have been about 5,000 visas issued, about 1,500 people that have arrived in Australia already. Our job as the immigration department is to screen those people to make sure we have the health checks done, to make sure we have the security checks done, and in terms of settlement services, well that’s an issue for Mr Porter and the social service portfolio. From from an immigration department perspective, our job is to make sure that we deal with people to make sure that they’re not going to be a threat to Australian society and we helped settled refugees in record numbers. Many of those coming from Syria and other parts of the Middle East will be Christians because they have been part of a persecuted minority there and that’s part of the criteria that the government put in place when we made the announcement.
Again, I don’t know how you can draw the conclusion –
As I said, refer back to what I just stated. I’m not sure how you could try and represent that some other way. So that’s the position of Immigration and Border Protection.
I haven’t spoken to Mr Christensen. We will work with people across the country and no doubt social services will do that work to help settle people in community housing. We’re a generous nation when it comes to refugees and that’s the position of this department, in terms of the Syrian intake, in terms of the 13,750 people that we will take this year within the refugee and humanitarian program. Otherwise, as I say, our job is to provide the security and health screening checks, issue visas and provide that assistance.
Again, I don’t have any comment to make in relation to those issues, in terms of immigration, our job is to provide support to people, to come to our country. We welcome people that come here under the refugee and humanitarian program. That’s been along established practice in this country and we will continue to provide that support.
1.04am BST
Back in Canberra the immigration minister, Peter Dutton, is advising reporters that Labor is falling to pieces on border protection.
Peter Dutton:
We have restored integrity to our borders and it seems to me that Mr Shorten has completely lost control of this issue and he needs to provide some clarification, some discipline of those members. But there is open revolt within the Labor party and it is obvious to all Australians that Bill Shorten has lost control of this issue and that the wheels have clearly fallen off the Labor party’s policy on border protection and people don’t want to see people drowning at sea or new boat arrivals and that’s what Labor is promising at the moment.
12.41am BST
You have now entered Bruce Country.
The former sitting member @BillsonBruce selling it like a new candidate in Dunkley @murpharoo @GuardianAus pic.twitter.com/Dq00SHML3g
12.40am BST
Possibly the first time the prime minister has been compared to a craft beer.
@murpharoo in which Bruce Billson compares the election campaign to a beer. pic.twitter.com/N7P8m5EJxS
12.38am BST
The Australian Medical Association is in parliament at the moment to try and get some focus on health in this election. The AMA president, Brian Owler, says this election should be a referendum on the public health system.
Brian Owler:
We’ve had now three years of surprises from the current government in terms of health policy. What we want to see is each party outline in advance what their plans are for health in this country. We want to see a coherent plan for health.
12.31am BST
The Daily Telegraph reports this morning that the former prime minister Tony Abbott has been mobbed campaigning in Mosman over the past few days.
A little while back Abbott wasn’t a fan of changing the concessions on superannuation, but he appears to have now fallen into line, with one tiny inflection point. Reporter Caroline Tang takes up the story.
Mr Abbott gave diplomatic responses when asked about the controversial proposed changes to superannuation in the federal budget which will hit lifelong savers hard. “There is a degree of anxiety about that particular budget announcement but people are just as anxious about Labor’s policy as they are about the Coalition’s policy,” he said. “There is no easy way to get the deficit down. There is no painless way to cut government spending and what the government is trying to do here is to restore superannuation to its proper purpose. The proper purpose of superannuation is not to be a wealth creation vehicle, it’s to be a vehicle for giving people a reasonable retirement income. So I think the government is absolutely on the right track and as I said, I think it’s a gutsy call by the government.
12.18am BST
Q: His ministers have come out today saying that this was in the 1990s, it was a long time ago so isn’t it fair, given that Chris Brown [Labor’s candidate in Fremantle] also says this is something that happened to him when he was 18?
Penny Wong:
If the test is how long ago things occurred then I suppose that Malcolm Turnbull and Tony Abbott will be apologising to Julia Gillard for the pursuit of her for matters which occurred 20 years ago.
12.16am BST
Labor’s campaign spokeswoman Penny Wong has found the cameras now to pick up on the Panama Papers. She says Malcolm Turnbull needs to provide full disclosure.
Penny Wong:
On the front page of one of today’s major papers we have Malcolm Turnbull listed as being involved in a company established in a tax haven, a company which Mossack Fonseca established and a company that’s involved in a Siberian gold mine, a company which allegedly made payments to Russian politicians about its activities.
Well I see in the papers that Mr Turnbull has had a spokesperson answer questions. Those answers seem to suggest ‘I don’t know, I don’t recall, it was a long time ago’. Well, this is a man who is the prime minister of the country and he’s running to be the prime minister again and the standards which are expected of him are high standards and he should provide a full and frank explanation of his involvement in this company which was established in a tax haven.
12.11am BST
Just tracking back to Mathias Cormann’s comments about the growth dividend from education funding, he’s bouncing off this story in the Australian this morning by David Crowe.
Bill Shorten stands accused of misleading voters over the boost to growth from his $37.4bn school funding plan by claiming an economic lift “straight away” from the spending, despite economic research that shows the gains would take decades.
In a blow to the opposition leader’s economic case, the author of the global study used to justify the Labor spending told The Australian there would be no “immediate” boost to growth — and that more money was not the key factor in producing the economic benefit.
11.56pm BST
We’re off to the Mornington Peninsula Brewery in the electorate of Dunkley. The seat has become a marginal one after former small business minister Bruce Billson retired in November, after Turnbull demoted him. But Billson’s popularity in the electorate is key to the Liberals’ success there, and Labor is now eyeing it off. Rumour on the bus is that Billson will be joining Turnbull this morning. 5.5% is the margin to the government.
11.55pm BST
Team Turnbull is heading to a brewery on the Mornington Peninsula. Early in the campaign to be driven to drink.
11.50pm BST
As we speak, Magic Mike Bowers is speeding up the Dandenong Freeway on the Turnbull bus. Let’s all wave to Mike.
Bus briefing-PM Turnbull media #DandenongFreeway #melbourne #Election2016 @bkjabour @murpharoo @GuardianAus pic.twitter.com/jz8Klg8AYw
11.46pm BST
Speaking of campaign spokespeople, the Coalition spokesman Mathias Cormann is holding a press conference in the Mural Hall. Cormann is criticising Bill Shorten for the growth assumptions associated with Labor’s education policy. He’s then asked whether the government has made any growth assumptions associated with its own offering. No, Cormann says.
Q: Does the prime minister have questions to answer over the Panama Papers?
No, is the short answer.
Obviously this is more than twenty years ago. There is absolutely no suggestion of any wrongdoing.
11.41pm BST
Thanks to Bridie for battling the wall of sound and the page one PDFs and welcome good people of Politics Live to our coverage of the election campaign, it’s delightful to be with you. The morning news cycle for this campaign Thursday is exploding candidates: there’s Chris Brown, a former MUA official with undisclosed convictions who is Labor’s candidate for Fremantle and perhaps won’t be for much longer; and The Australian tells me there’s a video in which the Greens candidate in Grayndler, Jim Casey, is filmed saying he would prefer Tony Abbott to win the next election rather than Bill Shorten because it would “boost unions and ferment more protests.”
Thus far Malcolm Turnbull being named in the Panama Papers hasn’t really kicked hard into the news cycle, but it’s only 8.30am, and the campaign spokespeople are only just getting under way. To the campaign road trains: Malcolm Turnbull is in Melbourne, then Adelaide, then Sydney, which sounds like a small intensification of activity. Bill Shorten is up north still, in Rockhampton I believe. It’s also the Labor leader’s birthday. Happy birthday.
11.34pm BST
On that note my time with you this morning has drawn to a close and it is now time for Katharine Murphy to fire up the keyboard. Mike Bowers tells me Malcolm Turnbull’s bus has left the Melbourne CBD for an hour and twenty minute trip and is currently chugging along the Dandenong freeway.
Cheerio
11.31pm BST
Malcolm Turnbull has been named in the Panama Papers though there are no allegations of improper conduct, in a story on the front page of the Australian Financial review today.
Arthur Sinodinos has come out swinging against it:
That is a dead horse being flogged, it’s a 20 year matter, it’s old news, they just want to run it because they can, the Fin Review on its front page should be debating policy instead of behaving like a downmarket tabloid.
11.30pm BST
Arthur Sinodinos just said the asylum seeker debate is not a political debate - to much laughter.
On his criticisms of Labor candidates disagreeing with asylum policy, what is he suggesting, that they should be disendorsed for objecting?
What happened within the Howard government is that we got the problem under control, and yes there’s a Liberal philosophy and tradition you can without punishment express dissent [referring to Liberals who objected to offshore detention at the time]. What we are talking about here is Labor candidates lining up to say that as a matter of conscience they cannot support asylum seeker policy, as a matter of conscience they will unravel it.
There are two issues here, the Labor party has acted swiftly and appropriately, there are the convictions but there are also the lack of disclosure. If a candidate tells us then we weigh it up, if they don’t disclose then that’s the problem.
If a candidate can’t tell us we can’t in good conscience put them forward.
11.22pm BST
Arthur Sinodinos and Chris Bowen are on radio national talking election strategy. Neither side has electrified the electorate this week, so what’s the thinking in their camps?
Sinodinos first:
It’s a marathon not a sprint, we can’t excite everyone everyday. If you have them in a pitch of excitement every day they will get exhausted. What both sides will do is keep rolling out policy.
We are out there selling the budget and that’s important.
Budgets can be a slow burn, we are going through process of explaining what’s in it.
It’s a two month campaign, which is very long, what we are doing is leading the policy debate. We are delighted to have a debate about education and we’ve announced an eduction policy every day of this campaign.
When Arthur says he’s selling the budget, I was tempted to ask ‘how’s that going for him?’ it’s unravelling.
11.03pm BST
Malcolm Turnbull has started the morning with a yarn to none other than Barack Obama. I wonder if there was a brief moment where the president thanked his stars he doesn’t have to face another campaign.
Prime Minister @TurnbullMalcolm has spoken with @POTUS this morning for around half an hour
10.53pm BST
George Christensen is hosting Tony Abbott in north Queensland today where Abbott will be campaigning. Christensen is fresh from getting assurances from the minister for multicultural affairs that no Syrian refugees will be settled in his seat in Mackay.
10.49pm BST
Campaigns don't like telegraphing their movements early but @TurnbullMalcolm's in Melbourne today, flying to Adelaide tonight then to Sydney
10.43pm BST
Fairfax Media has modelling on how the 2016 budget will affect Australians – and it’s the poorest who will be hit hardest.
Single-parent families in the poorest 20% of households will be worst affected by the 2018-19 financial year, mainly through scheduled cuts to family tax benefits and hikes in tobacco excise.
10.36pm BST
The Australian is on day three of the man who dared question on Q&A why people on very decent money ($80,000 +) get tax cuts when people (like him) on welfare and very low incomes could use it more.
The Australian front page. Thursday 12 May 2016. @australian #Election2016 #ausvotes #ausvotes2016 pic.twitter.com/MVOOKnKdi3
10.34pm BST
On Chris Brown, the Labor candidate in WA dumped over convictions from the 1980s, the maritime union is not happy and believes the national executive is overreacting.
Brown was charged with assaulting a police officer and drink driving. The assault charge was later expunged.
He didn’t think it was an issue, would you, 30 years on? he He was king hit from behind ... we are not all from the Salvation Army.
10.32pm BST
After hinting earlier in the week that the government could shift on the potential retrospectively of the superannuation, Julie Bishop is not budging on the government line that it does not need to be considered, because the changes are simply not retrospective.
It is prospective, it’s about the tax rate that applies to future earnings on super, nobody is being asked to pay tax on past earnings. The point I was making was self evident, there is a scrutinisation process.
Measures in relation to super often attract this type of attention, what we have to ensure is the system is fair, that there is integrity in it.
Well, we have stopped them. Five men have been arrested in relation to suspected breaches of anti-terrorism legislation and as it remains I’m not going to go into too much detail. It does show law enforcement agencies and security intelligence agencies are cooperating closely.
10.27pm BST
The foreign minister, Julie Bishop, is now up on radio national and she is being pushed on potential Liberal preference deals with the Greens but she will not be moved.
Preference deals are a matter for campaign headquarters, I don’t get involved.
Campaign headquarters work out the arrangements it’s not a matter for me as deputy leader.
These are all hypotheticals, what I do know is when Julia Gillard formed an alliance with the Greens we had some disastrous consequences for Australia, it was chaos.
This is a hypothetical, what we are focused on is getting as many votes as we can. Only the Coalition has a plan for jobs and growth, only the Coalition can keep the borders safe.
10.12pm BST
The government was proudly brandishing modelling just before the election was called (was that only last week?) that its Direct Action plan could meet Australia’s long-term climate promises.
Well, that modelling was actually assuming the Coalition would turn its policy into a type of emissions trading scheme, Lenore Taylor reports.
Peter Holt, associate at Energetics, told Guardian Australia that the policies would only achieve those reductions with changes – either large funding top-ups to the ERF (estimated by others at at least $6bn) or a strengthening of the safeguards mechanism so it turned into a baseline and credit emissions trading scheme.
10.08pm BST
Let them eat cake!
Day four on the campaign trail and it is Bill Shorten's birthday #ausvotes #shortentrail
10.07pm BST
After the Daily Telegraph’s endorsement of Anthony Albanese yesterday they have him writing today on ... how the Greens candidate actually has a Tony Abbott agenda. Creative.
Jim Casey, the Greens candidate in Grayndler, has been recorded saying in 2014 he would rather see Abbott be prime minister than Bill Shorten in a society where anti-war, women’s and climate change movements were growing.
I don’t want to see people oppressed so that they rise up. I want to work through the parliament to uplift people in my electorate and people right around the nation.
I don’t want bigger demonstrations.
10.00pm BST
Ged Kearney, from the ACTU, is on radio national talking about legal advice the council of unions has received which says the government’s intern program could be illegal.
It’s not a job, it’s an internship, so how could it be illlegal?
It’s not necessarily an internship either, it’s so unclear and so murky and we have a very varied indication of how it is run. But what we do know is that the minister says there has to be a real prospect of ongoing employment. Our advice indicates that for all intents and purposes it is an employment contract and they should be paid the minimum wage.
I think it’s unfortunate the government has used the term internship.
For all intents and purposes it should come under the Fair Work Act. To avoid exploitation of these workers, and they will be workers, it should be under the fair work act.
Paying employers to take on free labour, there is so much wrong with a plan like that.
9.45pm BST
Richard Di Natale is not immune from the charms of Justin Trudeau, it seems, and is modelling himself on the Canadian prime minister.
No question at all about that. He has shown, as have many other European examples, that you can have strong progressive values, that you can stand up to those big vested interests.
You just need to look at where the major party vote is and what it’s been doing over a number of decades.
The major party vote has been declining, the growth of the Greens has been continuing year on year on year ... That is the future for Australia. Multi-party government is the future.
9.38pm BST
Keeping us all in the loop at all times
Thanks Twitter - couldn't have got through the day without this news. pic.twitter.com/Oos0dO8ntJ
9.34pm BST
Malcolm Turnbull will announce the first big spend of the campaign with $100m for border protection, ABC reports.
The funding will go to the Department of Immigration and Border Protection to scrutinise visa applications and minister Peter Dutton is selling it as a policy to help weed out criminals and terrorists before they get to Australia.
9.11pm BST
The day dawns with three stumbles already for candidates – from being dumped to being dropped down on the Senate ticket – but with the promise of a new day is the opportunity for the slate to be wiped clean, and for other candidates to have their moment in the spotlight and take the heat from those not exactly basking in it.
I’ll be taking you through to 8.30am, when the good and golden Katharine Murphy will be in to drive the blog campaign bus for the rest of the day.
Legal advice sought by the peak union body suggests the PaTH program ... would leave vulnerable interns languishing below the legally enforceable minimum wage and potentially able to sue for recovery of unpaid wages.
It is avoiding using such phrases as ‘helping the economy transition away from the mining boom’, because it is further fuelling job insecurity in economically depressed regional and rural electorates. It is especially potent in north Queensland and its mining regions.
‘That sounds like to a truck driver that he’ll be out of a job and a robot will replace him,’ said one senior National.
It’s not like the dark cloud of Kevin Rudd over Julia Gillard in 2013 but Tony Abbott’s shadow is hovering over Malcolm Turnbull’s campaign.
Bernard Gaynor's response.. pic.twitter.com/zENuvgmQ0W
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