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Follow all of Friday’s updates as they happen in our live blog.
Live updates
By Jessica Riga
Which leader has the momentum as we enter the final fortnight of the election?
Insiders host David Speers told News Breakfast that both sides are privately acknowledging that Labor is in front, but a lot can change in two weeks, especially with two debates still to go.
“In American campaigns, it is called the ‘big mo’ and it matters here as well. It is one of those things that can be fickle. It can shift every couple of days, who has the ‘big mo’.
“For the main part this week, it has been Anthony Albanese, particularly after that interest rate rise which did put the government on the back foot.
“The debates we are going to see in the next few days could also effect this ‘big mo’ as well. We will see how the two perform.
“You talk to either side privately and they both acknowledge Labor is in front now.
“Two weeks to go and we have seen this in previous campaigns, that can flip. No-one is banking anything right now but it is very hard to see. In the polls and talking to the parties and what I have been doing, going around marginal seats, not scientific but trying to gather intel … the Coalition, is going to struggle to get a majority. That is where things sit.”
By Jessica Riga
Richard Marles defends Anthony Albanese
Labor’s deputy leader has defended Anthony Albanese, saying he’s across the detail of the party’s key policy.
In a heated exchange with the media in Sydney, the Labor leader was unable to recite the six points of the party’s policy on the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
Mr Albanese said repeatedly that Labor would put people at the centre of the NDIS before he was seen leafing through a policy document, then elaborating.
Deputy leader Richard Marles says Mr Albanese has been integral to developing the policy.
“Anthony is absolutely across all of this and more than that has been right at the heart of forging the policy agenda we’ve put forward,” he says.
By Jessica Riga
Greens pledge five new birthing on country hubs in $144m federal election promise
The Greens have pledged $144 million to fund five dedicated birthing on country hubs across Australia in a bid to improve culturally appropriate healthcare for First Nations parents and babies.
The funding would be used to support the already successful Birthing in Our Community (BiOC) centre in Salisbury, Brisbane, and Birthing on Country at Waminda in the Illawarra region, and to establish new birthing on country centres at Alice Springs, Tennant Creek, and East Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory.
The Indigenous-led program meant women at the service were less likely to give birth prematurely, less likely to need a caesarean section and less likely to have their baby admitted to the neonatal care nursery, according to a 2019 study in The Lancet.
Deputy leader Senator Larissa Waters said birthing in community and birthing on country initiatives were key to improving outcomes for First Nations parents and babies.
“We know that First Nations parents can experience trauma when forced to be away from country when giving birth,” she said.
“If we are serious about meeting Closing the Gap targets for health, we need to be empowering First Nations health services to design and deliver programs,” she said.
By Jessica Riga
Analysis: Election campaign’s ‘gotcha’ questions are ugly journalism but hazards for Albanese and Morrison
Here’s Michelle Grattan’s latest analysis:
The public don’t have much regard for journalists and many people will be critical of the “gotcha” questioning that found Anthony Albanese on Thursday unable to recite the six points of his policy on the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).
Pursuing “gotchas” is as easy as shooting fish in a barrel. We’ve seen plenty of it recently.
A while ago, Scott Morrison didn’t know the price of petrol or bread. Because a leader can’t rattle off a list doesn’t necessarily mean they don’t know a policy, and usually there are deeper questions the public would like explored.
Having said that, the NDIS moment was unfortunate for Albanese.
And he wasn’t convincing when later on the ABC he denied he’d been caught out, although he’d win sympathy for his contention that “one of the things that puts people off politics, I think, is the sort of gotcha game-playing”.
By Jessica Riga
Albanese takes aim at Scott Morrison’s leadership and ‘gotcha’ questions on Q+A
In a wide-ranging Q+A appearance, Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese says Coalition leaders have become progressively worse, while denying he made a mistake when asked about the NDIS.
And while the Opposition Leader struck some blows, he was also held to account for missteps in his own campaign, including a failure to name the six points in Labor’s plan for the NDIS earlier on Thursday and, on Q+A, failing to answer a repeated question from Speers on whether pork-barrelling is indeed corruption.
While the episode was wide-ranging — and with Speers reiterating the Prime Minister has also been invited to appear — Mr Albanese used the final question of the night to deliver a pitch to Australian voters.
Asked if he would compromise on issues if there were a hung parliament, his answer was an emphatic “No” as he took square aim at the Scott Morrison-led Coalition.
“I will campaign for the next two weeks to make sure that Australia has the certainty of a majority Labor government, with 76 members at least in the House of Representatives,” Mr Albanese said.
Asked by Speers if he was confident he would get there, Mr Albanese said he was in a position he wanted to be in.
“When I became Labor leader, my objective was for us to be competitive, we’re at least that,” he said.
By Jessica Riga
Good morning!
Welcome to another day on the hustings, where we’ve reached the end of the fourth week of this mammoth six-week election campaign.
I’m Jessica Riga and I’ll be helping you keep across all the latest updates as they happen.
Now let’s get this party started.
