PM insists he’s not taking election win for granted
Anthony Albanese says he has “a mountain to climb” – a line he’s used a lot recently – and implored Australians to vote for stability in a time of uncertainty.
This morning Peter Dutton has said he believes tomorrow’s result could be a miracle for the Liberal party, like the 2019 election.
Speaking to ABC AM Sabra Lane, Albanese is asked whether he’s worried this election could deliver a surprise result for the opposition. Albanese says he “certainly take[s] nothing for granted”.
I think 2019 shows the folly of pretending that you know the outcome of an election before the ballots are counted.
While both parties have been saying voters will be better off under their respective parties, neither will promise people will be better off in three years from now.
Lane asks whether Albanese will “guarantee” Australians will be better off by 2028. Albanese says:
As we speak today, Sabra, we have inflation down to 2.4%, we have wages increasing, we have unemployment low, and interest rates have started to fall. Every one of the key economic indicators is improving. Under the former government, we inherited interest rates going up, inflation with the six in front of it, wages going backwards…
Key events
Taylor defends vape tax plan
Sara then moves to the vaping tax, which she says would require the government to remove bans on vapes and make them more readily available.
Taylor says Labor’s current policies aren’t working:
They will not work, and in fact what they’ve done is encourage a tax on illegal vapes from criminal gangs. There’s already a tax there, and it’s coming from criminal gangs, and we know illegal activity around this is absolutely rampant.
But the government has been facing a decrease in revenue from the tobacco excise, because more and more people are moving to the black market.
In the March budget, Treasury forecasted a $6.9bn drop in the tobacco tax take over the forward estimates.
After some back and forth, Taylor says the tobacco excise has worked to reduce smoking rates, but with vapes:
We’ve only got a black market. That’s what we have right now … What we’ve got with vapes is a market that Labor has tried to make illegal. It has failed, it has failed dismally.
[We’ve promised] $350 million to law enforcement on top of the licensing regime and the safety standards to make sure that we get the criminal activity out of what is right now a rampant black market.
Taylor insists Coalition costings are ‘improving the position’
A little earlier this morning, Angus Taylor joined RN Breakfast to talk through the Coalition’s costings.
Host Sally Sara puts to Taylor that he and his party have said government spending has fuelled homegrown inflation, but the Coalition’s costings show they’re increasing deficits for the first two years if they win government.
Taylor responds:
We’re reducing the overall or improving the overall budget position by $14bn over the forwards and reducing $40bn of debt. We know that borrowing adds to interest rates as inflationary pressures, and that’s why we’re improving the position.
PM digs at Dutton over Ukraine
Moving to issues overseas, Albanese is asked if he believes that a peacekeeping force for Ukraine is a step closer, and whether it’s one Australia might contribute to.
He takes aim at the Coalition for breaking the bipartisan stance on defence, having objected to sending Australians to Ukraine on a peacekeeping mission.
I hope that it has … I have said, if there is peace in Ukraine, Australia would consider any proposal to participate as part of a coalition of the willing.
Under my government, we will stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes, we support their struggle for their national sovereignty, because it is also a struggle for the international rule of law. Peter Dutton broke with that bipartisanship by opposing any participation.
PM says Coalition ‘hiding’ shadow ministers from campaign
Albanese takes aim at Peter Dutton and his team, who he says have been hidden away.
The PM says he’s “proud” of the team he captains and that the public don’t hear from the Coalition’s shadow ministers.
They’ve had to hide people who are senior shadow ministers. I mean, people need to think about, I’m captain of a team, it’s a team that I’m proud of.
Can anyone name the portfolio that people have? I won’t embarrass them and people here by doing that again. But there are shadow ministers, I have no idea what their job is, no idea because you never hear from them.
Albanese defends urgent care clinics
Clare Armstrong asks the PM about whether the Medicare urgent care clinics are the best value for taxpayer money.
Reports have showed some clinics aren’t open for the hours they’ve been promised, and they’re far more expensive than the cost of someone seeing a GP.
Albanese says the clinics do more than a GP can.
What urgent care clinics have done isn’t just stop people going to a GP for more acute care. Here, there are x-ray services, there are the full suite of services here that people get when they come in … What they do, importantly, is to take pressure of emergency departments of hospitals… tens of thousands of people who have been to this clinic say that they would have gone to a hospital.
You can read more about the cost and value of the urgent care clinics from Natasha May here:
Albanese swipes at Coalition costings
The prime minister is asked whether he would consider taking a similar measure to the Coalition to introduce a tax on vapes.
Albanese says the vapes are being bought and sold on the “black market”, and then takes a dig at the Coalition’s costings.
These costings are, frankly, embarrassing for the Coalition. They are the shonkiest bit of figures.
PM bats away minority government questions
Anthony Albanese is doing a stand-up pretty early this morning in Brisbane, taking questions from journalists.
The minority government question is one the PM has tried hard to bat away, saying he’s trying to win in majority.
Sarah Ison asks if Labor falls short by just one or two, will he work with independents like Zoe Daniel? Again, he tries to bat the question away.
What we’ll do is we’re striving for majority government. And I’m not a commentator, other people are. My job is to maximise Labor’s vote in the next 48 hours. That’s what I’m intending to do.
“No deals?” the reporter asks.
I’ve made that clear. I refer to my previous 57 comments, to the 57 times I’ve been asked that question.
Another journalist asks “how bad” a minority government would be. Again he says he’s trying to get to a majority government:
I don’t want to lose any, so obviously – we’re on 78 at the moment – that’s my objective.
Dutton ‘not worried’ about criticism his policies aren’t up to scratch
Dutton says his nuclear policy is aligned with “left” wing governments in other major economies like the UK and Canada.
The newspaper editorials are coming in this morning, and there are some major criticisms of both parties.
Lane puts a critique from the Australian Financial Review to Dutton, that “the Liberals are politically estranged from the business community, and it’s described the Coalition’s policy on nuclear plants as fantasy”.
It’s a critique that I don’t agree with … our policy on nuclear is aligned with the Labor party in the United Kingdom, the Democrats in the United States, with the liberals in the United in Canada, certainly with the left-leaning parties in and the right-learning parties in all those jurisdictions as well, including in France.
There’s also growing internal criticism of Dutton from within his own party that his policies aren’t “up to scratch”, says Lane. She puts to him that one insider says it’s been the worst campaign in history, and that another said it couldn’t have gone worse.
Dutton initially sidesteps the question, but Lane pushes harder.
Lane: Do you disagree with that?
Dutton: Of course, insider talk from leftwing journalists. I’m not worried about that.
Lane: I can assure you, it hasn’t come from leftwing journalists. It’s come from within your party.
Dutton: Yeah, well all I’m worried about is how we can help families, and that’s what we’re targeting.
Dutton predicts ‘big surprises’ on election night
Following the prime minister, Peter Dutton joins ABC AM to deliver his final pitch to voters.
Sabra Lane asks where the Coalition’s campaign has gone wrong, when polling shows the party and Dutton have been losing support.
Dutton says he’s hopeful of a 2019 result (when Liberal prime minister Scott Morrison achieved what he called a “miracle win” against Labor’s Bill Shorten).
I think we’re seeing a 2019 situation, where you’ve got a lot of interesting contests playing on the ground, where we’ve had a very significant effort by great candidates. And I think there’ll be some big surprises on election night, because people have had enough.
Albanese on Trump campaign chief’s reported visit to Liberals
The prime minister says the “apparent appearance” of an adviser from the US campaign advising the Liberal party is “interesting”.
Yesterday, Tom McIlroy reported that one of the architects of Donald Trump’s 2024 victory claims he made an unpublicised visit to Australia to advise the Liberal party about “structural issues” related to Peter Dutton ahead of the federal election.
Sabra Lane asks Albanese whether the Trump factor has assisted Labor. The PM says:
Well, it is interesting the apparent appearance of one of the advisers to the American campaign from last year boasting about coming to Australia – indeed, arriving on the day of the budget reply, for just a three day visit.
Lane asks how quickly Albanese will visit the Trump administration if he wins government on Saturday.
Albanese won’t give a timeline but says:
At some stage I will, but I will act in a responsible way.
PM insists he’s not taking election win for granted
Anthony Albanese says he has “a mountain to climb” – a line he’s used a lot recently – and implored Australians to vote for stability in a time of uncertainty.
This morning Peter Dutton has said he believes tomorrow’s result could be a miracle for the Liberal party, like the 2019 election.
Speaking to ABC AM Sabra Lane, Albanese is asked whether he’s worried this election could deliver a surprise result for the opposition. Albanese says he “certainly take[s] nothing for granted”.
I think 2019 shows the folly of pretending that you know the outcome of an election before the ballots are counted.
While both parties have been saying voters will be better off under their respective parties, neither will promise people will be better off in three years from now.
Lane asks whether Albanese will “guarantee” Australians will be better off by 2028. Albanese says:
As we speak today, Sabra, we have inflation down to 2.4%, we have wages increasing, we have unemployment low, and interest rates have started to fall. Every one of the key economic indicators is improving. Under the former government, we inherited interest rates going up, inflation with the six in front of it, wages going backwards…
Krishani Dhanji
Good morning,
Krishani Dhanji here with you, thanks to Martin Farrer for getting us started.
We’re near the end of this campaign, it’s the final full day before the polls starting being counted, and both leaders will be zipping across the country to try and convert those who are still making up their minds.
Anthony Albanese is starting his day in Brisbane, while Peter Dutton is in Adelaide, both are doing a morning media blitz.
Expect a lot of interviews, some big press conferences, and lots of pictures.
Another kind of grand final
Make sure to check out this from our cartoonist David Squires in which he reimagines the election as a grand final playoff between the Reds and the Blues, with some teals and Greens too.
Poll has 1.5-point swing to Labor in past fortnight
The poll we mentioned earlier is the AFR/Freshwater Strategy poll, which has Labor leading the Coalition on a two-party preferred basis by 51.5% to 48.5%.
It represents a swing against Labor of 0.6% since the last election – but it’s a 1.5-point swing towards the ALP in the past fortnight, and 2.5% since the campaign began.
The paper says it would “most likely be enough for Labor to form government”. If that swing is replicated across all electorates (which never happens) it would see Labor lose two seats to a bare majority of 76, and the Coalition up two to 59.
Freshwater’s “more granular” analysis of the numbers predicts Labor in minority government with 74 seats, the Coalition 64 and the crossbench 12.
Campaign trail chuckles
And who said the last five weeks hasn’t been fun? Provided you didn’t watch the television debates, writes Caitlin Cassidy, there has been enough to keep us amused – from the Coalition leaders getting lost in Melbourne to Albo’s tumble to the Coalition rap described as “Kendrick Lamar meeting question time”.
Blue signs will once again populate outside a battleground seat early voting centre after the Liberal party won a last-minute court order preventing the local council from limiting it to one per candidate, Australian Associated Press reports.
Dozens of the party’s A-frame signs were removed from outside an early voting centre at Kew in the inner-east Melbourne electorate of Kooyong on Wednesday, three days out from the poll.
Liberal candidate Amelia Hamer was earlier directed to comply with a local council rule that limits candidates to just one sign each on public land.
The City of Boroondara argued the signs were a risk to pedestrians and road users.
Supreme court justice Kerri Judd on Thursday ruled in favour of the party’s injunction, brought by state director Stuart Smith, that restrains the council from removing Hamer’s signs outside the voting centre.
“I am satisfied the plaintiff would suffer greater damage if an injunction were refused and his claim were ultimately upheld,” the judge said in her ruling.
Hamer’s main rival for the seat, teal independent MP Monique Ryan, and all other candidates abided by the one-sign requirement.
Has either major party earned your vote? – podcast
With one day to go before the election, the polls paint a rosy picture for Labor. Governing with a majority is still a live option for the incumbent government – but pollsters have been wrong before, and a late night surprise is not off the table. So, after a long campaign which left many voters frustrated with the lack of big promises and big policy – have the major parties earned your vote?
In our Full Story podcast Newsroom edition, Bridie Jabour talks to editor Lenore Taylor and head of newsroom Mike Ticher about the choices progressive voters face as they head to the polls.
Listen here:
Welcome
Martin Farrer
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with some of the best overnight stories before Krishani Dhanji will take you through the last full day of campaigning.
It seems like political tensions have boiled over in some areas with New South Wales police launching multiple investigations in the last week into alleged violence, intimidation, harassment and antisocial behaviour related to the election. This has included the smearing of poo across a truck carrying an ad for the Liberal party. More coming up.
A Liberal-aligned thinktank running last-minute anti-Greens advertisements targeting young voters received more than $600,000 from the coal industry during last year’s Queensland election, disclosures show. At the same time, Labor and the Coalition have been accused of going to the election on a “unity ticket” to protect fossil fuels.
In what might well be the last poll before the one that really counts, Labor has a two-point lead over the Coalition on a two-party preferred basis. The Fin Review/Freshwater Strategy poll shows that Labor is on 51.5% to the Coalition’s 48.5%. If replicated tomorrow that puts Labor on track for a minority government. More campaign reaction coming up.
