There is less than a month to go until the Federal Election and things are beginning to heat up on the campaign trail. Here is a wrap of what our pollies got up to in an attempt to woo voters.
Where were they?
Prime Minister Scott Morrison was in Adelaide today to tour marginal seats.
The PM stopped in Mayo and Boothby where he tried his hand at soccer, tennis and cricket with local kids.
No word on what his best sport was, but here is the PM in action, well kind of.
Morrison wasn’t the only Liberal penciling in some time for exercise today.
Treasurer, Josh Freydenburg, was at the Sydney Cricket Ground giving the footy a kick. He was there today to announce a funding package for new facilities for women athletes.
treasurer @JoshFrydenberg just drilled one from the Paddington end at the SCG pic.twitter.com/a2G5t1ACQ5
— Tom Rabe (@Rabe9) April 23, 2019
The Opposition leader, Bill Shorten was touring in Queensland.
He spent most of the day in Gladstone, in the Nationals-held electorate of Flynn where he was making a policy announcement on the Northern Australia Infrastructure Fund.
Today’s promises
Labor:
Skilled Migration Shorten announced his plan to overhaul Australia’s temporary skilled migration system. Shorten says a review of 457 visas is necessary to ensure employers do not hire cheap labor over capable locals.
NAIF Shorten also promised to replace the controversial northern infrastructure fund. Shorten condemned the $5 billion Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (NAIF) and said a Labor government would introduce a new fund.
Adani Pressed on all things Adani coal mine, Shorten said he would not be “bullied” by unions or environmental activists. He also refused to rule out a review of the government’s decision to approve the project.
Liberal:
Prime Minister Scott Morrison took the opportunity to make some promises to small business owners.
Small Business Funding The PM pledged a $100 million fund to help finance small businesses who are intent on expanding.
“This is for those businesses like a local brewery or restaurant that wants to expand interstate or even overseas, or maybe a family owned construction company wanting to grow so they can meet demand,” Morrison said.
Small & family businesses are the engine room of Australia & we’re backing them every step of the way as part of our plan for a stronger economy. We’re investing $100m to set up the Australian Business Growth Fund, giving them more access to finance to help them grow. pic.twitter.com/AjbfSQKYFz
— Scott Morrison (@ScottMorrisonMP) April 23, 2019
The Prime Minister also promised a re-elected Coalition government would create 250,000 new small and family businesses across the country over the next five years.
Quotes from the road
Labor leader Bill Shorten was on a roll today offering some pearlers.
He offered this comment on the back of a question about Clive Palmer’s surge of support in marginal seats.
“There is only one person who has been resurrected and I won’t compare Clive Palmer to him.”
He also had this to say about Liberal part candidate Gerard Rennick who accused the Bureau of Meteorology of rewriting weather records to fit in with global warming.
“The LNP has got a factory at an undisclosed location where they can find candidates so out of touch with the real world it is remarkable.”
Prime Minister Scott Morrison wasn’t exactly quiet either. He told reporters that Bill Shorten was ‘The godfather of GetUp” – the activist group campaigning against Adani Coal Mine in Queensland.
Elsewhere on the election trail
Young People have RSVPd to our democracies night of nights and the Australian Electoral Commission couldn’t be happier.
88.8% of all 18-24 year olds have enrolled to vote.
A record 96.8% of eligible Australians are enrolled for the 2019 federal election. This is the most complete electoral roll in history with youth enrolment also an all-time high of 88.8% (18-24 YOs) #ausvotes pic.twitter.com/CjIK5Dl5gX
— AEC (@AusElectoralCom) April 23, 2019
One of our most long-serving Prime Ministers, John Howard, went out for a walk today in the NSW seat of Reid. As he was out he got photobombed by Labor candidate, Sam Crosby.
Howard kept calm.
Cheeky. John Howard goes for a street walk in Reid and gets photobombed by Labor candidate @SamPCrosby. Look on his face suggests former PM will pay that pic.twitter.com/1Jat5eqEyF
— 𝕤𝕒𝕞𝕒𝕟𝕥𝕙𝕒 𝕞𝕒𝕚𝕕𝕖𝕟 (@samanthamaiden) April 23, 2019
That’s odd…
Rick Morton, from The Australian, reported that the Prime Minister’s office had turned off public flight tracking for charted media plans on the campaign trial.
That will make it harder for journalists to work out where the next stop on the election trail will be.
Lol, the Prime Minister’s office has turned off public flight tracking for both the chartered media planes on the campaign so journalists can’t figure out where we are going ahead of time. #ausvotes
— Rick Morton (@SquigglyRick) April 23, 2019
