With the public holidays now out of the way, the election campaign is finally gaining some steam and things are happening.
You may remember from last week, there was an anti-Adani convoy driving around Queensland and they’d arrived in a town that was fairly pro-coal mining. Well, in the early part of this week, while camped near the town there were reports of gunshots in the area. Even more shocking, during one of their rallies a man on horseback came tearing through the crowns and ended up knocking over a woman and injuring her. Organisers, including Bob Brown are very concerned about these actions, but they’re also somewhat relieved that more people weren’t injured, especially as there were children travelling with their parents on this convoy.
Meanwhile, people are trying to get clarity on Labor’s Early Childhood policies. Labor wants to increase the subsidies for parents sending their children to childcare, making it free for low-income earners and increasing the rebates for those on higher incomes. Labor has also said they will increase the income of Early Childhood Educators by 20%, apparently using taxpayer money. There will be no difference between the private and the public childcare centres however there are some questions over whether government intervention might stop private providers from raising their employees’ wages of their own volition. Labor says that it won’t finalise everything until they’re in government and they’ve consulted with everyone.
There were two debates this week, one on Monday in Western Australia aired on a Seven Network multichannel and the second later in the week aired on Sky News (a pay TV channel). Bill Shorten won the audience in both debates, which suggests his 80 or so “town hall” style events have also served as good practice for explaining things.
The second debate also gave us this moment:
Tanya Plibersek called it Morrison’s “Mark Latham Moment” – a flashback to the 2004 election and the rather aggressive handshake then Labor Leader Mark Latham (who is now a One Nation MLC in NSW) gave John Howard after leaving a radio studio that Howard was about to enter.
There have been a few things that have become apparent during these leaders’ debates. First, the government really has painted itself into a corner on their campaign points – all they appear to have is economic management and an anti-Labor sentiment, while the Labor party appears to have this war chest of promises, offers and policies. ABC Political Editor Andrew Probyn has suggested that the government’s campaign appears hollow and that they need to start inspiring voters rather than scaring them.
Second, the Labor party does need to be more clear on some of their policies. More than once, Labor has had to clarify a policy, and they are constantly questioned on the cost of some of their other policies. Now, as the Opposition, they do get cut a bit of slack when it comes to promises and their costs – but they have promised to release some costings in the next week.
Finally this week, eight candidates have either resigned or been disendorsed from their candidacies. It is now too late to replace any of them, and so they will still appear on the ballot paper. One Nation lost Steve Dickson over inappropriate behaviour at a strip club while on the infamous NRA trip to the USA. Al Jazeera, who put together the NRA sting say that the footage from the strip club was never part of the program because it wasn’t in the public interest. They also said that the footage from the strip club was aired without their permission. Regardless, Dickson is gone, along with another One Nation candidate Ross McDonald for inappropriate sexist Facebook posts.
Meanwhile Liberal candidates Jeremy Hearn, Peter Killin, Jessica Whelan have all resigned or been dumped for anti-Muslim and/or homophobic comments, and Labor candidates Luke Creasey and Wayne Kurnorth who have lost endorsement for sexist and anti-Semitic social media posts respectively. Finally the Katter’s Australia Party candidate for Dawson Brendan Bunyan has been disendorsed for comments that sort of cover all of the above. I’ll admit, Annabel Crabb’s election emails have helped me keep track of this, and you can sign up for the emails here.
Tweet of the Week
At the first debate, people were poking fun at the staging:
https://twitter.com/leachitup/status/1122789573082222592
Things I’ve Been Looking at Online
If you haven’t done Vote Compass yet, give it a go – ABC Vote Compass
Vote Compass shows the key election split is now age, not left and right – ABC Online
Zoë Norton Lodge on winning your seat “like a man” – ABC Online
Kara L 