Paul Daley has also had a look at the campaigns:
The former Liberal seat of Hughes is one the Liberals are hoping to win back as part of their election tally (sitting MP Craig Kelly resigned from the Liberals and is now running for Clive Palmer’s party)
Anne Davies has a story on a candidates’ forum there:
Several audience members walked out of a candidates’ forum in the southern Sydney seat of Hughes on Wednesday evening after the maverick MP Craig Kelly labelled mandatory vaccination in workplaces “an abuse of human rights” and “a very dark period in Australia’s history”.
Kelly, who quit the Liberal party last year and is now standing for the United Australia party, said Australia was violating human rights by allowing workplaces to insist on vaccination:
The people who engage in the mandates in this country, forcing other Australians against their free will and without their consent to force them into a medical intervention, are blackmailing people. It’s unAustralian and against everything we stand for.
Several people in the audience walked out, while other panel members looked perplexed.
Peter Hannam
It’s an odd world we live in and this election campaign is sometimes among the oddest bits.
The Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, and his climate and energy spokesperson, Chris Bowen, visited the Smart Energy Council’s conference in Sydney this morning. Bowen gave a standard speech to an audience of energy wonks and clean energy businesses.
Many have an eye to profit, sure, but others have worked out that a hotter world is not going to be great for families, communities, economies … and political leaders.
Albanese was a relatively last-minute booking (4pm yesterday, we hear). He and Bowen looked at solar panels built using technology developed by researchers (which wouldn’t be hard as probably half or more of them of globally have an Australian contribution).
There was also a refitted electric truck that will run 700km on batteries that can be replaced within minutes. Cheaper to run and without a supply line that runs (vulnerably) through thousands of kilometres.
But climate action might not get much coverage. Why? Because Albo couldn’t remember all six points of Labor’s six-point NDIS plan.
The press pack smelt blood. In a break, Albanese got an adviser to dig up the policy paper. A staffer duly handed it to him but unhelpfully did not open it to the relevant page. Up close, I could see Albanese’s hands trembling as he struggled to find the right page.
Trying to regain his footing, Albo is asked for his five-point aged care plan, and that he can recount.
Just metres away, leading US climate scientist Mike Mann is telling the audience about the challenges coming. The 50-plus degree temperatures punishing millions and millions of people on Asia’s subcontinent get discussed.
What kind of present faces them – let alone the future?
Worse health outcomes for those outside cities, NSW inquiry finds
Tamsin Rose
The New South Wales government has been handed 44 recommendations to fix dire healthcare issues in regional, rural and remote parts of the state in a scathing report released today aftger a year-long inquiry.
The inquiry found people living outside metropolitan areas had “significantly poorer health outcomes”, were more likely to suffer from chronic disease and die prematurely, and had inferior access to services – especially those in Indigenous communities. Two dozen findings were made in the report released this morning, including that there were significant financial challenges for regional patients when compared with people living in cities.
The report also that there was significant under-resourcing and the funding divide between the state and commonwealth governments “has led to both duplication and gaps in service delivery”.
The disadvantage and discrimination experienced in Indigenous communities was also highlighted in the report:
It is unacceptable that some First Nations people still experience discrimination when seeking medical assistance in some rural, regional and remote hospitals in New South Wales. Telehealth has created another barrier for First Nations people in terms of accessing culturally appropriate health services.
The inquiry also found there was a “culture of fear” within the department that meant people were less willing to come forward with issues. Among the extensive recommendations was a funding model review, greater engagement with local community groups and more funding for regional nurse practitioners.
The inquiry received more than 700 submissions and held 15 hearings across the state where doctors, patients and administrators outlined the extreme challenges faced in their communities including hospitals operating without doctors, the difficulty of recruiting GPs and the vast distances people traveled for care.
Nurses recounted horror stories including patients dying on bathroom floors, families with loved ones in palliative care being forced to administer intravenous painkillers themselves and cleaners and cooks performing nursing duties.
Stuart Robert transcript change
Paul Karp
This morning the acting education minister, Stuart Robert, bizarrely claimed to have been doing Alan Tudge’s job for “almost 12 months”.
Robert told ABC News Breakfast:
Well, I’m the acting education minister, Lisa, and have been for almost 12 months. So I’ve got full authority in terms of running the education portfolio, as well as skills and workplace and the other things that I do.
In fact, Robert has only been acting education minister since 2 December (five months).
Curiously, the Coalition transcript corrects the error, claiming Robert had said:
I am the acting education minister … and have been for a number of months.”
But the footage is there for all to see:
So not a great showing from either leader in those press conferences.
16.5 days to go.
Q: We have seen this often in last week or so in the campaign that when you stumble on an answer you can bring in a shadow minister or you defer to them immediately, is that part of the strategy in order to not see the sort of gaffes we saw on day one and the gaffe we have just seen today where you didn’t know your own policy?
Anthony Albanese:
No, that is not right. I do note there have been some bizarre articles which suggest that it is inappropriate for the treasurer, the shadow treasurer, to want to comment on Treasury issues. Jason Clare is the housing spokesperson, might not want to comment on housing policy or Chris Bowen might not want to comment on climate change and energy. I find that extraordinary. I am captain of a team and I am very proud of the team that we have. What we have yesterday, for example, was the education shadow, Tanya Plibersek with me. The education shadow answering questions on education as well as myself. Scott Morrison doesn’t have a team. He doesn’t have a team. He is one out when it comes to policies and when it comes to appearances. Alan Tudge is in witness protection. So many of the government ministers are in witness protection.
Q: What is your five- point plan for aged care?
Albanese:
It is nurses 24/7. It is making sure 215 minutes of care are given. It is making sure that there is better accountability in terms of for every dollar that is spent. It is making sure, as well, that there is better food and nutrition and we will have Maggie Beer help with that. The last and important part is better wages for people in aged care. Thanks, very much.
Q: What short-term incentives will you provide families who are struggling with the power increases now?
Anthony Albanese:
On that, you can’t fix transmission overnight. There is a time, in terms of construction. We will bring transmission into the 21st century. What this government has done is waste a decade on energy transmission. They have wasted a decade. when it comes to fixing the grid, they have wasted a decade because they have had a view that renewables, they have campaigned against them and said that renewables will increase costs. The truth is renewables will lower costs.
Chris Bowen:
Anthony has just provided the correct answer, a comprehensive answer. Our policies are designed over time to reduce power prices. This is a massive task, $20bn worth of investment in implementing the ISP. We have never suggested that would happen overnight. It sits alongside our other policies in relation to childcare and the other things we will talk about later today, which also impact on cost of living relief.
While Chris Bowen answers, Anthony Albanese flips through the NDIS policy document an adviser handed him.
Q: Do you not know what the six points are for the NDIS question that you were asked before?
Q: You don’t know your policy document …
Albanese:
That is not right.
Q: Are these the six points that will have to be handed to you by your adviser?
Q: You have just been handed the six points, Mr Albanese, what are they?
Albanese:
Our policy on the NDIS …
Q: To confirm, you have just been handed the policy document …
Albanese:
To defend and fix the NDIS, lifting the NDIA staffing cap, doubling existing funding for advocacy, fixing regional access and stopping waste.
Q: You didn’t know your policy.
Albanese:
[That isn’t true] It is to put people at the centre of the NDIS.
Q: It is reported that extra spending promised during the election campaign from both sides of politics is adding to inflation pressures and that the federal budget – the government’s federal budget was the cause of the interest rate hike this week. Will you guarantee that under a Labor government you will not be overspending to help with the cost of living pressures and in what way?
Anthony Albanese:
One of the big issues of this election campaign is the quality of the spend. What we will do is cut back on the waste and the rorts of this government. Today at ACCEI I will outline our plan for, penned your that will grow productivity. Our plan to grow productivity by having better industrial relations. Our plan to grow productivity through programs like this here. Our program to grow productivity through childcare that produces a return, all of the economists will say for every dollar invested you get $2 back.
Q: You have put proposal to have a 60% emissions reduction target for 2030. Scott Morrison said that would be catastrophic for the economy. Would a 60% emissions reduction target for 2030 be catastrophic?
Albanese:
Our policies for 43% by 2030. What I am interested in is the implementation of our policy. We don’t have the same policy as the independents or the Greens or Liberal party. What we have as a policy that will actually deliver.
Chris Bowen steps in to answer as well:
Absolutely. Our policy of 43% is more than the target. It is the modelled result of our policies announced. We have taken our policy, safeguards, electric vehicles, and had them modelled and they show a 43% emissions reduction. No other party can say that. The government can’t, the Greens can’t and the independents can’t. We are the only party going to this election with a comprehensive plan and with the evidence to show which levers we will pull to achieve our emissions reductions.
Q: Just on the Solomons: you were asked about this yesterday what your first action would be to try and repair the relationship. You gave a brief answer. Given the situation has escalated overnight with Manasseh Sogavare suggesting that Australia is treating the Solomons like children with guns, could you detail what you would do to repair that relationship?
Anthony Albanese:
What we would do to repair the relationship is not simple. The fact that the prime minister hasn’t picked up the phone to prime minister Sogavare says an enormous amount about what is needed, in terms of that relationship.
We have outlined a comprehensive Pacific plan. It is about increased aid, dealing with climate change, including hosting a Cop along with the Pacific Island nations. It is about people to people relations, including parliamentary visits. It is about making sure that we have a migration program that allows people from the Pacific to settle here. What they will do is make remittances back to the Solomons and back to other Pacific Island nations.
Q: Has Labor dumped its longstanding pledge to pay super on top of government-funded parental leave?
Anthony Albanese:
We announce our policies during the campaign. We haven’t announced that as a policy. We support paid parental leave. We can’t commit to everything that we committed to during the last campaign.
Anthony Albanese fails to list the six points from Labor’s NDIS plan
Q: In your speech later on today, you will talk about the legacy of Labor leaders. One of those legacies is the NDIS. Yesterday you talked about Labor’s six-point plan. What are the six points?
Anthony Albanese:
The six points are what we will do in terms of what was outlined by Bill Shorten. That is about making sure …
Q: What are the six points?
Albanese:
If you let me answer the question … What that is about is making sure that we take pressure off people who are, at the moment, having their programs cut. We will make sure that there is administrative efficiency. So much is being wasted by the claims that are going forward with legal battles for individuals. What we will do is put people at the centre of the NDIS.
Q: What are the other five points?
Albanese:
We will put people – it is all around the theme of putting people …
Q: What are the six points?
Albanese:
We will put people at the centre of the NDIS.
Q: What are the six points.
Q: What is your policy?
Albanese:
We will put people at the centre of the NDIS. All of our programs are based upon that.
The journalist keeps asking but Albanese does not answer.
Q: You are standing in front of an electric truck. Given how politically fraught climate policy was at last election, how confident are you that voter sentiment has changed?
Anthony Albanese:
I am very confident about the position that we are putting forward. It is comprehensive, fully costed. We have outlined it. We outlined it on December 3, from memory, last year. It has been out there for six months. What I am also confident of is that the government are incapable of dealing with the present let alone moving Australia forward into the future.
We saw that absurd front-page splash a couple of weeks ago now during the campaign from Angus Taylor where, when he was asked what was the basis of that – it was nothing and the idea that electric vehicles are not part of our future is just so absurd now. You have had the government creep towards reality but they are incapable of landing it. They have had 22 different energy policies and haven’t landed one. We have one policy, we will land it. It will create jobs. It will make a difference.
Anthony Albanese makes climate jobs pitch
Anthony Albanese is in Sydney, making a pitch for the jobs which could come with a switch to renewables. Chris Bowen is with him:
We are at the smart energy Expo. This is exciting. The future is here right now. What we need to do in Australia is to learn to commercialise our scientific breakthroughs. There isn’t a PV panel in the world that doesn’t have some intellectual property that came from Australia. From the Australian National University, from the University of New South Wales, what we haven’t always done is commercialise the opportunities, maximise the jobs and economic growth that can come from Australian scientific breakthroughs. Australia is suffering from a cost of living crisis under Scott Morrison. Australians know that the cost of everything is going up but their wages aren’t. Families are under real pressure. Scott Morrison has a plan for the election, Labor has a plan for a better future. Part of that is here right now.
