<em>Crikey</em> campaign scorecard: are we scared yet?

WHO WON THE DAY?

Bernard Keane, Crikey politics editor: While Turnbull is still struggling to free himself from the clutches of Labor’s Mediscare campaign, yesterday he looked far more the Malcolm voters want when he delivered a superb speech at the Kenbi land handover ceremony. Little of that made the news, however, which focused on Medicare and an early drop of the Coalition’s counter-scare on negative gearing. It’s getting down to one long ghost train ride at this point.

Simon Cowan, research manager at the Centre for Independent Studies: It was Turnbull’s day as, while he battled with a cold and criticism from the hard right that he didn’t torch the ABC studios on the way out of Monday’s Q&A, Shorten and Labor had a tougher battle with reality — desperately trying to turn a review of back office inefficiency into a Medicare privatisation scheme. Maybe having already spent all the money they could beg, borrow or shame out of multinationals on education, childcare and industry handouts, Labor felt they couldn’t believably promise another $50 billion in health spending. Not sure why they bothered, the past seven budgets clearly show how little the parties value credibility on budget repair.

John Connolly, founder of John Connolly and Partners public relations firm: Thank god there’s only 10 days left. According to the clicks that determine the most-read stories of our daily tabloids the politicians that are winning this election are: Donald Trump; Eddie McGuire; Adam Lambert (a singer); Richard Goyder (not much of a singer but he should have a go at politics when he leaves Wesfarmers because a WA sainthood comes with the CEO job at Wes) and the unions. What we know about Malcolm Turnbull is that he has the flu and he commented on Donald Trump. What we know about Bill Shorten is that a) he had a Scores moment like Kevin Rudd b) he has never worn someone else’s underwear and c) has never had sex against a washing machine. All this shows that the electorate are even more bored than last week and that means a Coalition win yesterday and when ever the next election is.

Kate Mills, journalist and CEO at ProfessionalMums.net: In the last few weeks of this interminable campaign, it’s hard to see who exactly is winning — at this stage it’s a case of which party managed to dodge the punches and avoid making too many mistakes. On that basis Labor notched up a win yesterday, but only because the Liberal party machine produced an excruciating advert that garnered attention for all the wrong reasons. The “fake tradie” advert that spruiked the Liberals trended on social media, which focused on his lack of protective gear, his expensive watch and asked whether he was a real tradesman or not. However, the clue to what Liberals are thinking was in the “fake tradie’s” closing plea for voters to “stick with the current mob for a while”. It’s certainly a progression from Malcolm Turnbull’s Veep-inspired rallying call for voters to simultaneously support “continuity and change” from a couple of months ago. The Liberal Party now appears to have dropped “change” from the agenda in favour of “continuity”. In the current political environment this can be considered progress. Meanwhile, I have a growing suspicion that the biggest winners from this election are going to be minority parties such as the Nick Xenophon Team. As we draw closer to the election the two main parties appear to be neck and neck, meaning there is all to play for in the Senate for small parties.

CASH TRACKER

Labor’s spending promises appear to have grounded to a halt, while the Coalition is stepping up their spending up in the north.

Coalition:

• $35 million for infrastructure at the Moreton Bay Regional University Precinct;
• $30 million for a jobs and investment package for Cairns; and
• $215 million to ease congestion on the M1 motorway between the Gold Coast and Brisbane.

Labor: 

• Nada.

CAMPAIGN DIARY

Malcolm Turnbull: The PM, who is Cairns hoping the warm weather will kill that cold, once again spoke to his old friend Alan Jones on 2GB this morning. Discussing Victoria’s CFA dispute he suggested that it was an insight into what a federal Labor government would look like, referring to Shorten saying he would run the country like a union. He also said he was not “mealy mouthed” when it comes to discussion the link between Islam and terrorism but said the key to a successful multicultural society was mutual respect. Speaking at a press conference in Cairns Turnbull said that the recent interception of an asylum seeker vessel which has been returned to Vietnam, showed that the challenge of border protection was “greater than it has ever been” and that Labor’s plan to abolish TPVs would send the wrong message to people smugglers.

Bill Shorten: Bill Shorten is in Sydney today and has also been busy on morning radio. On 2Day FM he said that 80% of Australians thought Trump was “a bit of an idiot” while in a hard-hitting interview on Kyle and Jackie O’s show he admitted, perhaps hoping for the Kevin ’07 effect, that he had been to a strip club “once or twice, way back in the day, uni days”. On WSFM Shorten called Turnbull’s comments regarding Labor’s border protection shameful, saying that Labor would turn back boats and would deter people smugglers. Shorten also defended his comments on Medicare privatisation as well as Labor’s negative gearing policy, after a recent report showed disallowing negative gearing would put upwards pressure on rent prices.

The Greens: The Greens have announced a plan to introduce a sugar tax. The 20% tax on sugary drinks would help combat Australia’s obesity problem while also raising up to $500 million a year, according to Richard Di Natale:

“The sweetest part of this policy will be the longer term benefits to Australians by reducing chronic disease and achieving better health outcomes.”

INDEPENDENT. ALWAYS.

We can only hope that the Glenn Lazarus Team doesn’t go the same way as the Palmer United Party following reports of a rift between Lazarus and his candidate for Wide Bay, Jannean Dean. Dean has attacked the Fraser Coast Regional Council over its “bad decision” to continue with a sports precinct development while Lazarus supports the project citing the childhood obesity problem. If the team can survive this conflict they will be cashed-up for the rest of the campaign according to reports that Lazarus has been receiving donations from unions. The Australian reported that the Queensland Council of Unions and the Maritime Union of Australia have praised Lazarus’ opposition to the ABCC and have supported him with cash and help handing out how-to-vote cards.

Nick Xenophon, who is no stranger to having to deal with candidates with skeletons in their closets, now faces a major headache after his candidate for Mayo, Rebekha Sharkie, has been linked to a racist anti-immigration group. Sharkie is listed on Facebook as being a member of the “human rights” group “Fuck off, we’re full” and has been unable to explain the connection.

Meanwhile, one independent candidate has risen above the petty politicking and the kissing of babies and cutting of ribbons that so often characterises federal election campaigns. Peter Charleton, running for the seat of Casey under the banner of the Australian Sovereignty Party, admits he has a challenge on his hands running against Liberal frontbencher Tony Smith. But he’s up for a challenge and has found a novel way to campaign …

ISENTIA DAILY LEADER INDEX

Turnbull was most popular (or at least mentioned the most) across all platforms yesterday.

HOW MANY PEOPLE HAVE VOTED?

Exactly 148,757 people voted at pre-polling booths yesterday and 464,663 people have voted since they opened, according to the AEC. At the last election, 2,317,323 voted at pre-poll booths.

A SCARE CAMPAIGN?

It seems wide sections of the media have already decided that Labor’s raising of the spectre of Medicare privatisation is an unfounded “scare campaign”, with the ABC and The Australian using the term unquestioningly. This idea has won support from some heavy-hitters after the new AMA president, Michael Ganno, as well as the chair of the Coalition’s 2013 Commission of Audit, Tony Shepherd, rejected Labor’s claims. Tony Sheppard told Lateline last night that the payment system was outdated and that outsourcing the payment system did not amount to privatisation.  

Michael Ganno likewise argued that the Coalition’s plan would not have been privatisation and told The Australian that: “The current system is old and many elements of it date well back to the early 1980s. They’re antiquated, they’re rusty and the system needs substantial investment.” Nonetheless, the Coalition has dropped its plans to potentially outsource the payment system, so Labor’s “scare campaign” appears to be cutting through. For a divergent view on the Medicare debate, see John Menadue’s piece for Crikey in which he argues that the Coalition may not have plans to privatise Medicare but they’ve been eroding it from within for a decade and a half.

WHERE’S TONY

Kevin Rudd was nowhere to be seen at Labor’s launch on Sunday and may as well have been in Siberia (he was in Saint Petersburg) but there will be no such expunging of the ghosts of governments past for the Liberal party. Tony Abbott will be “front and centre“, along with  John Howard when Malcolm Turnbull formally launches his campaign in the inner-western Sydney seat of Reid next Sunday.

ZINGER OF THE DAY  

MALSPLAIN OF THE DAY

QUIRK OF THE DAY

We all know that the most important part of election day is finding the best sausage sizzles and cake stalls. Now, finding those snags will be easier than ever, as Google has released a map that can help you find a sausage sizzle near you …

TWEET OF THE DAY

The National Party has had the wombat vote sewn up since 1977 when the press gallery first associated the country party with the short-legged marsupials. Perhaps no longer, as the Greens Richard Di Natale muscles in on their territory and ads another cute animal pic to a campaign, which has already been enlivened with the appearance of rats, clown fish and, of course, Mack Dog …

TL;DR

Nearly half a million people have already voted as we crawl close to election day. The PM is in Cairns, the Opposition Leader is in Sydney and both leaders have been busy on morning radio.