By Emily Sakzewski
‘The election is going to be close,’ Josh Frydenberg says
Despite Anthony Albanese’s win at last night’s debate, federal treasurer Josh Frydenberg says the Coalition’s internal polling indicates “the election is going to be close”.
“There’s obviously lots of battles that are playing out on the ground in different parts of the country, but again, last night’s debate helped to crystallise in people’s mind the most important issue at play here which is who is better able to manage the economy, who do you trust to keep taxes low, to create more jobs and of course to encourage and enhance small businesses.”
By Emily Sakzewski
How do you rate our political leaders?
Australians have ranked Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Labor leader Anthony Albanese on their trustworthiness and competency.
Neither have received full marks.
ABC Vote Compass asked Australians to rate both leaders on trust and competency on a scale from 0 to 10.
On competence, Mr Morrison was scored a three and Mr Albanese a five.
On trustworthiness, Mr Morrison scored a 2.8 and Mr Albanese a 5.2.
Overall, Mr Albanese received a rating of 5.1, and Mr Morrison 3.3. Greens leader Adam Bandt scored an overall average of 4.
La Trobe University’s Andrea Carson said Australians are typically harsh judges of their political leaders.
“This is consistent with the types of surveys that we see over time in Australian studies,” she said.
Read more of this story by reporter Emily Baker.
And tell us what you think and find out where you stand on the political spectrum.
By Emily Sakzewski
Key Event
I missed the debate. What happened?
In case you missed it, last night was the third and final leaders debate between Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese.
Minimum wage, the cost of living, housing and an anti-corruption commission issues all featured pretty heavily.
The Prime Minister also confirmed Alan Tudge, the currently stood-down Education Minister, will return to the job if the Coalition is re-elected.
Mr Tudge stood aside at the end of 2021 when the PM launched an investigation into claims from one of Mr Tudge’s former staffers, Rachelle Miller, that he was emotionally, and on one occasion physically, abusive.
Mr Tudge strenuously denies the allegations and the investigation did not find he breached ministerial standards, but he decided not to return to the front bench.
Ms Miller is set to receive a taxpayer-funded settlement worth more than $500,000, but we still don’t know exactly why that sum is being paid and Mr Morrison has said he has no “visibility” on the settlement.
By most accounts it was a more civilised affair than the second leaders debate on Sunday night, which descended into a bit of a shouting match.
Last night was also a different format from other debates. Seven had organised voters at various pubs to decide the winner.
So who won? Out of the 160 undecided voters in marginal electorates, 50 per cent voted in favour of Mr Albanese, 34 per cent in favour of Mr Morrison and 16 per cent were still undecided after the debate.
Read more of our debate wrap by political reporter Georgia Hitch.
By Emily Sakzewski
Welcome to our live election coverage
Good morning and welcome to Thursday’s live coverage of the federal election campaign, my name is Emily.
Today you’ll hear a bit about last night’s leaders debate where cost of living issues dominated, and we’re likely to hear more on the wage debate.
Let’s get into it.