The week began with Easter Sunday – one of the agreed “days off” this elections campaign, although the media did follow both Scott Morrison and Bill Shorten to their Easter Services. Morrison and his family worshipped at his local church – Horizon Church in Sutherland – while Shorten and his wife Chloe attended his parents in-law’s church St Andrews in Indooroopilly in Brisbane.
The week also saw a pause in campaigning on ANZAC day, and only two retiring parliamentarians attended overseas dawn services – Liberal MP Christopher Pyne and Labor MP Michael Danby attended the dawn service in Villers-Bretonneux to represent the government and the opposition. This has meant that we haven’t seen a great deal of policy promises this week. The Liberals have promised more help for drought-affected farmers. And Labor has continued to talk mostly on their health policy.
The AEC ballot draw took place…and the results are interesting. On the Victorian Senate ballot paper, you’ll see the Liberals in the first column, and Labor in the 24th (and last) column. In Queensland, One Nation and the United Australia Party have ended up first and third on the ballot paper.
With these ballot positions clear, the preference deals between parties are starting to take shape. The Liberal Party has done a deal with Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party that seems to be in part, a way to sure up the Liberal party in the hope they might retain government, but could also give Palmer a decent chance at getting a seat in the Senate. Palmer has said that he also spoke with Labor – however Shorten said that if he were to agree to a preference deal with Clive Palmer, it would be on the condition that Palmer finish paying off his Queensland Nickel employees who are still owed entitlements.
Anti-Adani Mine protesters have a convoy travelling around Queensland at the moment, raising awareness about what they see as the detrimental impacts of the potential mine. Towards the end of the week they ended up in “coal country” where they were met with quite a bit of resistance from pro-mining locals and some of the unions. However, they’re unfazed and will spend a few days in the area holding rallies before moving on.
There are questions over the WeChat accounts of Scott Morrison, Bill Shorten and several other senior MPs. WeChat – the Chinese version of WhatsApp or Messenger – is being used to engage with voters in the Chinese community, but there are questions over who owns or has started these accounts on the Chinese mainland. Not only that, but WeChat users have to follow Chinese censorship rules, which has led some to question if Bill Shorten and Scott Morrison who have both done Q&A sessions on their accounts have censored themselves. Scott Morrison refused to answer, while Shorten said that the translators were the ones who chose the questions.
The saga that has been dubbed #Watergate by the Australian media has continued into this week. On Barnaby Joyce’s authority, the government bought back $80 million worth of water – that experts believe doesn’t actually exist – from a company registered in the Cayman Islands. The company formerly employed Energy Minister Angus Taylor – and while Taylor says that neither he nor his family have any links to the company at the time of the buy back, it doesn’t exactly pass the “pub test”. Barnaby Joyce was interviewed on the ABC by Patricia Karvelas, but it did not go well.
Finally this week, controversy has followed Fraser Anning into the election campaign, with one of his supporters allegedly assaulting a news photographer during Anning’s candidate announcement at Cronulla Beach.
Tweet of the Week
Things I’ve Been Looking at Online
Mark Humphries’ take on the #watergate issue – ABC
Michael Rowland on the rise of vitriol as the election campaign continues – ABC
What we can learn from fashion on the campaign trail – SMH
Kara L 