Strong responses on housing and banking appear to give opposition leader the edge over prime minister in the audience vote
6.36am BST
And that’s a wrap of this sunny Saturday in politics. I hope you’ve enjoyed it in the event you needed a brief dose of politics to spice up your weekend.
We’re closing up this blog now, so here’s a final summary of events before I go:
6.19am BST
I’ve just pulled together a quick take of the day on the campaign trail. Here’s how events unfolded:
The Labor leader, Bill Shorten, has touted his party’s education record by committing to invest $37bn in the sector over the next 10 years and declaring that the coming federal polls could be the “education election”.
Shorten was campaigning in Brisbane while speaking at an education rally on Saturday, the day after the first peoples’ debate, in which hewon the audience vote on the night.
4.47am BST
That’s it for the press conference now. Here’s a few Tweets with video clips.
PM @TurnbullMalcolm addressing question on whether his personal wealth will be an issue in the campaign #ausvotes pic.twitter.com/tBNUqSgBZK
PM says victims compensation for families of MH17 will continue + @LaundyCraigMP will sit down with Serge #ausvotes pic.twitter.com/dOy8X7z9UD
4.43am BST
Turnbull is now being questioned about his personal wealth and the suggestions that he’s out of touch last night from Shorten.
Let me just say to you...Lucy and I have been very lucky in our lives. We know that, we know there are many people who have worked harder that have not been so fortunate. We count our blessings. That’s something that we recognise.
I can understand why Mr Shorten wants to make an issue of this. But I think that most Australians understand that our nation is built on opportunity and aspiration and that all of us are entitled to aspire to achieve great things for our families.
4.39am BST
Turnbull is being asked about the Australian Medical Association’s more critical view of the pathology announcement this morning. His first response is a bit of a non-answer:
Pathology Australia have announced that they will continue bulk billing in the way they have before.
The saving will continue and what, as Sussan Ley has described, is changing are the regulations to ensure that market rates are set in the various localities where they are.
The important thing is that the patients will not pay any more, bulk billing will continue.
4.34am BST
Prime minister Malcolm Turnbull is now addressing reporters in Sydney. He’s fired back at Shorten with one of his own zingers on national security.
We’re providing enterprise tax cuts which will support all of these businesses ... everything we’re doing is calculated, designed to drive economic growth and more jobs.
We have an economic plan. As we know our opponents only have a spending plan.
They’re the same old Labor. They can’t be trusted with economic security any more than they can be with national security.
4.22am BST
The Green tide is coming. Here’s AAP’s take on Richard Di Natale’s press conference from earlier today.
Greens leader Richard Di Natale says a “green tide” is coming and if it’s a hung parliament on July 2, he’s confident deals will be done.
The Greens national team assembled in Melbourne on Saturday, and Senator Di Natale says the phone will ring after the election if neither of the major parties secures majority power.
4.07am BST
And just switching back to the Labor campaign, Shorten is with Labor MP Terri Butler announcing Labor’s plan to provide additional funding for family violence services.
OL @billshortenmp & @terrimbutler announced $65.7m over six years for Family Violence Services #auspol #ausvotes pic.twitter.com/0uZz4zRH9K
4.01am BST
Malcolm Turnbull is now on the campaign trail in Reid with Craig Laundy. A very touching moment captured here with one of the family members of an Australian who was on board the MH17 flight.
Incredible moment in Reid this morning as Malcolm Turnbull comforted Serge, whose son died in MH17. #ausvotes pic.twitter.com/OJovY4fLOz
2.48am BST
For another weekend election long read, the excerpt of David Marr’s essay in Good Weekend on Bill Shorten is one that shouldn’t be missed. The first line is a real killer.
He is the master of a small room. This is a boardroom in a Sydney warehouse, where an outfit called BlueChilli aims to turn start-ups into businesses. It’s as elegant as all get-out. Everyone is young. They’re in a rush to go places even when they’re standing still. Shorten is shown around: bare brick, coffee machines and whiteboards. He says: “Where’s the ping-pong table?” The language around the table is 21st century, but the ask is as old as time: these tyro entrepreneurs want government help.
2.27am BST
We’ve heard quite a lot from Bill Shorten this morning, but not from the Coalition yet. Word is that Malcolm Turnbull is on the way to Sydney, so we can expect to hear from him soon.
Turnbull bus heading to Reid to campaign with @LaundyCraigMP. It's currently held by the Liberals on a margin of 4.2% #ausvotes
2.25am BST
Labor’s Catherine King has now hit back at the government’s pathology announcement from last night. She said it’s an “election stunt” and that the cuts will actually still go ahead.
The Turnbull government was determined to make cancer patients and others with chronic health conditions pay more for their vital tests.
But the government has made clear that it is only deferring these cuts until after the election, and will resume its attack on patients once the election is out of the way.
2.21am BST
Just coming back to Shorten’s speech, here’s a little excerpt from the protester who disrupted the speech over Labor’s asylum seeker policies. He said he was previously an ALP supporter.
Adrian Skerritt, who busted up @billshortenmp's speech, says he's opposed ALP since Keating's mandatory detention. pic.twitter.com/UVbFagDwtV
2.15am BST
And here’s a little from the party we didn’t get to hear from during the debate last night. Greens leader Richard Di Natale has just delivered a simmering rebuke to the Greens’ non-invitation.
"We're a party that stands on the shoulders of giants" @RichardDiNatale acknowledge former leaders Bob Brown & Christine Milne #ausvotes
Post election, @RichardDiNatale wants @AdamBandt to turn around & see a group of @Greens MPs, not @CliveFPalmer #ausvotes
If only we had @RichardDiNatale there to cut through the waffle & scrapping.... #peoplesforum pic.twitter.com/cqeKRD1YMt
2.08am BST
Here’s a couple of fantastic shots from the people’s forum last night courtesy of Mike Bowers for those who didn’t have time to catch it on Sky. You can really feel the brotherly love in that handshake. It looked firm. Real firm.
1.53am BST
And Labor is now looking to shift the focus to other issues, such as family violence. Here’s the ABC’s take.
The Federal Labor Party is promising an extra $65 million over the next six years for frontline family violence services, research and prevention organisations.
The plan would see $10.6 million spent each year on telephone counselling service 1800-RESPECT as part of the national plan to reduce violence against women and their children.
1.53am BST
Moving on to some other election issues of the day, and the Australian is reporting there’s been backlash on the superannuation policy from within the Coalition.
Malcolm Turnbull is staring down a backlash over his superannuation policies from conservatives who are threatening to vote against the Coalition in the Senate and sabotage the government’s double-dissolution strategy.
The Prime Minister, Scott Morrison and Minister for Finance Mathias Cormann are refusing to make changes to the budget superannuation hit on high-income earners, and government backbenchers and ministers are being given extra information to explain the proposals.
1.51am BST
Shorten’s now finished his speech. Here’s the last few lines.
In 49 days, millions of Australians will be walking through the gates of their local schools. In assembly halls and classrooms and gymnasiums across our country. Australians will be voting on the future of schools in this country.
And when that day comes, for that decision, my message to Australians is simple. Choose Labor, because Labor has chosen education. And I make a final promise to all of the teachers who worked so hard in education. You understand better than most that the sort of message our society gives our kids rests in what we prioritise. And I can promise every teacher in every school, this promise. We will restore the status of education and teaching to the rightful pinnacle it deserves to be. And we tell our young people that our schools are important. We tell them what we think is important as a nation, and it is education. Thank you, everyone.
1.47am BST
Shorten pulls out his first zinger of the morning.
Mr Turnbull thinks the fact that he went to school with his friend David Gonski is the same as delivering Gonski to our schools. Namedropping is not an education policy, is it?
1.43am BST
More on Shorten:
What we’ve seen in these remarkable schools is students falling in love with learning. But we see the teachers selling the raffle tickets...to help fill the holes in the school budgets. These schools, these communities, they deserve a government that will help them.
This is real money, real improvements.
1.41am BST
Shorten’s now kicking off his address in Brisbane at the education rally. He’s making the case for more - and better focused - investment in education around Australia.
We will give a ten year guarantee of the right resources. More individual attention to classroom support....
This is not hypothetical. This is not a bit of theorising. This is not about trickle down economics.
1.32am BST
Moving now to the polls. Here’s a short take from AAP on the Galaxy poll following the debate:
Galaxy Polls in Brisbane’s Courier Mail and Sydney’s Daily Telegraph, taken early in the first week of the two-month campaign, show Labor hasn’t done enough yet to pick up enough seats in Queensland or western Sydney.
The Telegraph’s poll of 500 voters in each western Sydney seat shows a swing back to Labor of 3.5 per cent, but it’s not enough. The government is still ahead in the key seats of Lindsay, Gilmore and Reid and could retain Banks, where the two party-preferred vote is 50-50.
1.28am BST
Here’s Bill Shorten now in Brisbane. He’s shortly to address an education rally there.
.@billshortenmp is a popular man, at least among ALP campaigners in Brisbane. pic.twitter.com/vxa5QdVPL2
1.21am BST
Just returning to the Coalition’s pathology announcement last night. One point of interest is changes to pathology rental arrangements, which the Coalition is proposing to find the money to reduce costs which will in turn allow for continued bulk billing.
Going back a couple of years now there have calls from the pathology sector to either cap rents on blood collection centres or make changes to how they are calculated. One particular criticism levelled in Australian Doctor has focused on GP clinics charging inflated rents for co-locate centres. The Australian Medical Association has also previously criticised the rental situation.
12.59am BST
Michelle Grattan also has a take on the debate in The Conversation. Here’s a brief excerpt below where she looks a little at what wasn’t talked about:
Also notable was what didn’t get asked. Much of the election debate this week has concerned Labor’s asylum seeker policy, but boats did not rate a mention. Nor did climate change.
Shorten came across as traditional Labor, focused on the importance of services. But he was also anxious at every opportunity to say how he’d pay for them. He stressed that decisions were about priorities.
He was blunt when pressed on privatisation, saying “the privatisation tide has probably gone too far”. Turnbull said these days the issue was more of a live one at state level. When he was pushed on Australia Post and ASC Turnbull tended to faff around. Shorten jumped in to say that Australian Hearing should not be privatised.
12.36am BST
A bit of analysis on the viewer numbers for the debate. Worth noting though that there were also several live streams of the debate that may have drawn a lot more viewers outside of the formal TV stats.
Probably the most salient point we can take from this is how timeless Basil Fawlty really is.
Leaders forum watched by just 39k people in capital cities. 240th most watched show, behind Fawlty Towers & Real Housewives of Beverly Hills
12.29am BST
Given it’s Saturday, this dose of post debate politics might be a little on the heavy side for all you Saturday morning readers enjoying a nice breakfast. If you want a great morning read though in the global politics ballpark, it’s very much worth checking out Jonathan Freedland’s piece about post-truth politicians. It unpacks the truly bizarre ways that liars become leaders.
In this era of post-truth politics, an unhesitating liar can be king. The more brazen his dishonesty, the less he minds being caught with his pants on fire, the more he can prosper. And those pedants still hung up on facts and evidence and all that boring stuff are left for dust, their boots barely laced while the lie has spread halfway around the world.
The proof is on show most visibly in the US, where Republican nominee-to-be Donald Trump enjoys a relationship to the truth that is chilly, occasional and distant. The Washington Post’s fact-checker blog has awarded its maximum dishonesty rating – four Pinocchios – to nearly 70% of the Trump statements it has vetted. And it’s vetted a lot. That doesn’t mean the other 30% turned out to be true. They just earned three Pinocchios rather than the full four, which means the Post found a shrivelled kernel of veracity wrapped inside the thick layers of fraud, distortion and deception.
12.23am BST
We’ll start to hear a bit more from the leaders and other key players shortly. Shorten is set to be in Brisbane today to address the Your Child, Our Future rally at the Brisbane Convention Centre. So expect a focus on education this morning from the Labor camp.
Here’s the morning media comment from the Labor campaign’s spokesman:
A Shorten Labor government will make sure all our kids, regardless of their postcode or parents income will have the skills they need to succeed. Bill Shorten and Labor believe investing in education is an investment in our kids. In contrast, Mr Turnbull is cutting $29 billion from your schools to give big business a tax cut.
12.20am BST
Let’s take a quick look at what the other papers are saying about the debate last night. The Daily Telegraph has taken a more circumspect line, despite Shorten being the people’s choice so far.
Class warfare exploded as the election centrepiece after Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten traded blows, but failed to land a knockout, during the first debate of the campaign in Western Sydney tonight.
One hundred undecided voters, chosen by Galaxy research, were given the opportunity to quiz both leaders on issues in the region and wider Australia.
Real estate agents and bankers: hardly the two professions most beloved by voters.
And yet, in the first political debate of the campaign, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull appeared to rush to their defence.
Fierce disputes over housing policy and banking regulation dominated the first televised clash between Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten last night, with an audience of undecided voters giving the debate to the Opposition Leader by 42 to 29.
Mr Turnbull intensified his attacks on Mr Shorten for proposing a $32.1 billion reform to negative gearing and capital gains tax over a decade, seizing on audience concerns over the cost of housing to warn of pressure on Australians from the Labor plan.
12.15am BST
For a bit of campaign catch-up, have a listen to our podcast with Lenore Taylor and Katharine Murphy. It’s got all the latest from the election so far.
Related: Australian politics live podcast, with Lenore Taylor and Katharine Murphy
10.16pm BST
My colleague, Paul Karp, has also pulled together an extremely helpful analysis with the five key moments from the debate. Complete with zingers.
Malcolm Turnbull called Bill Shorten out early for taking credit for the government’s good works (or following the opposition’s lead, depending on which side you believe).
10.13pm BST
The Coalition’s pathology plan is one of the big policy announcements from Friday. They were facing a potential backlash from Pathology Australia over their bulk-billing changes, but have now come to an agreement with this proposed measure.
We’ll be unpicking this a little more today but here’s the release from the health minister, Sussan Ley, on the announcement:
The Coalition has reached agreement with Pathology Australia that a returned Turnbull Coalition government will take immediate action to reduce regulatory cost pressures on pathology providers.
This includes legislating to address ambiguities and improve compliance regarding the charging of “fair market value” rents for pathology collection centres by landlords.
10.10pm BST
For all the readers out there this fine Saturday morning who don’t quite feel up to catching up on the entire debate, here’s a quick series of cuts from our video team setting out some of the key debate moments:
Related: Voters' questions and Bill Shorten's answers give Labor the edge in election debate | Lenore Taylor
10.08pm BST
So how did Bill Shorten get the edge in the leaders’ debate last night? Lenore Taylor’s analysis sets it out
Finally, 100 voters at the Windsor RSL have hauled the election out of the talking points and into the real issues. And the issues they wanted to talk about favoured Bill Shorten
They even got some answers in a serious and civilised policy debate where both prime ministerial contenders performed confidently and well.
10.06pm BST
Good morning, and welcome to our continuing coverage of the 2016 Australian election. This morning we’ll be bringing you all the reaction to the first leaders’ debate between Bill Shorten and Malcolm Turnbull, and some more updates on the Coalition’s proposed new health spending measures.
Here’s a quick summary of how the debate went last night:
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