Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott took the campaign to the mean streets of Melbourne yesterday, where they both made spending announcements in vastly different policy areas. Gillard was first cab of the rank, announcing extra funding for people with disabilities in the marginal Labor seat of Deakin, while Abbott followed soon after with his announcement that law and order was a federal Coalition priority. Elsewhere, Mark Latham was busy dropping bombs on his own party, calling Kevin Rudd a “snake” for supposedly leaking cabinet discussions.

tracker30-7-10

So, after 12 days of stunts and gaffes, Gillard has travelled 11,563km, while Abbott has crossed 17,645km. Together that’s an incredible 29,208km — the equivalent of almost 20 million brown snakes.

Gillard:

  • Julia Gillard was in Blackburn in the seat of Deakin yesterday, where she pledged $182 million in extra funding for people with disabilities. The policy includes $12,000 annual rebates to assist with early intervention programs for young children with disabilities and an additional 150 supported accommodation places for people with severe disabilities. Gillard also offered incentives to business for hiring disabled workers.

Abbott:

  • Tony Abbott was also in Melbourne, where he promised to spend $179 million to tackle organised gangs and knife crime if the Coalition is elected. Abbott said the Coalition would target gang crime with a national squad and database. While law and order is typically the domain of state governments, Abbott claimed more could be done on a national basis. “The current government has let our country down when it comes to policing,” said Abbott.

Latham Watch:

  • Former Labor leader Mark Latham dropped a bomb on his own party last night, when he launched a vitriolic attack on Kevin Rudd over his supposed involvement in cabinet leaks. Latham accused Rudd of being the source of the leak and called the former prime minister a “snake” and said he should “be a man”. To quote:

“It’s the coward’s way to get on the blower with Laurie Oakes and say, ‘I’ll tell you this but you’re not allowed to identify me’. It’s the snake’s way … I challenge Kevin Rudd to be a man, to be honest, to have some honour, and actually if he feels this strongly about it, put his name to his words.”

Stunt Watch:

  • Tony Abbott was the king of the stunts yesterday when he took time out to visit the home of the mighty Essendon Football Club. The aim of the visit was to hear about the club’s mentoring programs for indigenous players, however the former rugby union player couldn’t resist having a kick with the players. Happily for Abbott the stunt didn’t go as badly as Howard’s infamous leg break, but it still looked like a pretty desperate play to Melbourne’s football obsession.

Tony Wright from The Age nailed it with his tweet: “The Manly ferry y’day, a footy team in Melbourne today, now TAbott’s off to Adelaide, will it be a church or a cheeky pinot noir?”

Gaffe Watch:

  • Julia Gillard made a bit of a gaffe yesterday, when she mistakenly referred to talks with Nauru about a regional refugee processing centre: “I don’t want to stop boats at sea, I want to stop them leaving shore and setting sail in the first place … That’s why I outlined my plans for a regional processing centre and why we commenced the dialogue with Nauru.” Gillard then continued with her answer, not noticing her mistake, or preferring to ignore it.

Quotable:

  • ”I will, as prime minister, have a proper system of cabinet government and that means that when you are in the cabinet room, you should have free and frank discussions … If there is anybody in my cabinet that does not respect the confidentiality of cabinet, then they will no longer be a cabinet minister.” — Julia Gillard promises to bring the pain if there are any cabinet leaks in a re-elected Labor government.

Where are they today?

  • In Perth, Julia Gillard has the internet on her mind. She’ll talk national broadband network with Communications Minister Stephen Conroy today, announcing 300,000 more homes will be hooked up.
  • Tony Abbott arrived in Adelaide late yesterday, shoring up support for his front-bencher Christopher Pyne in marginal Sturt. The Liberal leader is set to announce a $100 million community grants program around water use.
  • Bob Brown is on solid ground at home in Tasmania, while his deputy Christine Milne is due to unveil the Greens’ health policy today.

What is the tracker?

Crikey tracks each leader’s amazing race across the country via our Election Tracker. Each day we’ll plot the leaders’ movements, feeding in the key policy announcements and spending commitments, the best media coverage and social media chat, plus the campaign stunts and bloopers. You can also use the tracker as a hub for the best Crikey coverage.

Click on the tabs across the top to watch how many kilometres Gillard and Abbott have clocked up, the movements of other key players and finally our bloopers and stunts bonanza on the right. You can click on each stop to see what they’re up to, with links to extended coverage and detailed electorate information.