Prime Minister Scott Morrison during a visit to Doblo’s Fruit Market. Source: AAP / MICK TSIKAS/AAPIMAGE

This blog has now ended

Rising cost of living dominates day 18 of election campaign as Labor, Coalition trade barbs

Prime Minister Scott Morrison during a visit to Doblo’s Fruit Market. Source: AAP / MICK TSIKAS/AAPIMAGE

Published 28 April 2022 8:16am

Updated 28 April 2022 4:23pm

Source: SBS News

Share this with family and friends

28 Apr 2022 4:09pm

That's a wrap!

Thanks for joining SBS News for day 18 of the election campaign.

Here's a look back on what was said by the Coalition and Labor campaign teams today:

Prime Minister Scott Morrison

"We have been a steady hand during the most immense pressures on our economy, and it's paying dividends, but it's still tough so now's not the time to risk it on Labor."

- On voters staying the course with the Liberal-National coalition at the next election.

"Well, I'm looking forward to (Anthony Albanese) rejoining the campaign. He's had a pretty quiet week. I remember when I was in iso, I had a very busy week, attending Quad summits and doing all sorts (of things)."

- On the Opposition leader finishing his week-long COVID isolation on Friday.

"I think to draw an equivalence between those two issues would be to misunderstand history. They are very different situations. We are in the middle of a global pandemic with a war in Europe. Those situations were not in place in 2007."

- On comparisons between himself and former prime minister John Howard, who lost an election that coincided with an interest rate rise.

Labor campaign spokesman Jason Clare

"Next time you're at Woolies or Coles and you're swiping your goods and you hear the beep, beep, beep - ringing in your ears will be Scott Morrison: not my fault, not my fault, not my fault."

- On expensive grocery prices as a result of rising inflation.

"This is the party of native title. This is the party of the apology. We want to be the party of the Indigenous voice to parliament."

- On Labor's commitment to hold a referendum to enshrine an Indigenous voice in the constitution.

The support cast

"Low wages are a deliberate design feature of this government's economic management. We also know a deliberate design feature of their budgetary management is rorts and waste ... We can't afford three more years. This profligate spending must end."

- Labor campaign spokeswoman Kristina Keneally on the Liberal-National coalition.

"We don't intend to over-promise. We're simply pointing out that if the prime minister wants to take credit for things that go well in the economy, he needs to take responsibility for the fact that Australians are getting absolutely slaughtered by this triple whammy."

- Labor Treasury spokesperson Jim Chalmers on the cost of living crisis.

"Australia's a big place and we're getting bigger and bigger and bigger. And therefore, there's not going to be cookie cutter requirements and people have to understand the policy structure (and) how it fits in for them."

- Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce on the challenge for the Liberal-National coalition to represent people in cities and regions.

-With AAP

28 Apr 2022 3:42pm

One Nation preferencing Labor in key seats

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has rebuffed suggestions Coalition MPs could be disadvantaged at the election after Pauline Hanson indicated One Nation would preference Labor over the Liberals in key seats.

It comes after Senator Hanson accused the government of doing a "dirty deal with the devil" by telling voters to preference the Jacquie Lambie Network (JLN) in the Tasmanian Senate race ahead of One Nation.

In an interview with The Australian, Senator Hanson said she would look to punish Liberals in marginal seats, particularly in Queensland and Victoria.

One Nation leader, Senator Pauline Hanson (centre) with her Senate candidates Raj Guruswamy (left) and George Christensen (right). Source: AAP / DARREN ENGLAND/AAPIMAGE

However, Mr Morrison said he was not overly concerned about the preference deals.

"There's further information to come on that, particularly in relation to Queensland, there's different arrangements in different states and territories," Mr Morrison told reporters in Cairns on Thursday.

"That's just all politics, what matters is the choice Australians have to make."

Among the seats most at risk by the preference deal are the Liberal electorates of Bass in Tasmania, held by Bridget Archer by just 0.4 per cent, and Leichhardt in Queensland, held by 4.2 per cent by Warren Entsch.

One Nation is also set to preference Labor over Liberals in inner-city electorates where coalition candidates are facing challenges from independents, such as Goldstein and North Sydney.

Pauline Hanson welcomes George Christensen to One Nation party

One Nation still plans to support Liberal conservatives and Nationals over ALP candidates.

"Labor is rotten to the core but the Liberals are just as bad because they only pretend to fight for conservative Australian values," Senator Hanson told The Australian.

"Their hypocritical deal with JLN is the last nail in the Morrison government's coffin."

While One Nation has indicated where its preferences would go to in key seats, it is still only a suggestion to voters ahead of the election.

‘Intimidating bully’: Jacqui Lambie joins criticism of Scott Morrison’s alleged behaviour

Opposition Treasury spokesperson Jim Chalmers told the Nine Network that Labor would not seek to do any preference deals with One Nation.

"Historically that's been one of the stands we've taken," he said.

"We don't control the preferences that come to us, but we don't do deals with her."

Tasmanian independent senator Jacqui Lambie hit back at the suggestions from One Nation that the Liberals had done a "deal with the devil" in telling voters to preference JLN candidates.

"That's the pot calling the kettle black," Senator Lambie told the Nine Network.

"When you are a mainlander and trying to run a campaign down here, it makes it very difficult, and it is only a two-horse race down here ... Pauline has just woken up to that and it has hit her hard."

- AAP

28 Apr 2022 3:31pm

Anthony Albanese opens up in emotional interview with Grace Tame

Former Australian of the Year Grace Tame broke down in tears during a heartfelt interview with Opposition leader Anthony Albanese, where he opened up about his relationship with his mother.

The child safety advocate put on a journalist's hat to interview Mr Albanese for InStyle Australia.

Ms Tame, 27, was moved by his explanation of who shaped his views on gender issues and policy.

Mr Albanese candidly shared the tough decision his mother had to make when she fell pregnant out of wedlock in the 1960s, as it was "the fashion of the day" that babies would not be kept by either parent.

"The most important role model that I had was my mum," he said.

The defining moments of Grace Tame’s time as Australian of the Year

"She was going to have got the news that my father had died and then lost the baby and I was going to be adopted out, because in 1963, when I was born, it was acceptable to be a widow but it wasn't acceptable to be an unmarried mother."

Mr Albanese said despite the challenges that lay ahead, his mother made the decision to raise him on her own and give him his father's surname.

His father had told his mother that he planned to marry a woman from his Italian home town.

"She was a strong woman who made the decision to have me, and to raise me by herself," Mr Albanese said.

"She worked originally when I was a bub, cleaning office buildings at night, looking after me during the day, she then had rheumatoid arthritis and was really crippled up."

'Our country can do better': Grace Tame, Brittany Higgins slam inaction on sexual assault

He said their two-person family, "just me and her", was "particularly close".

"It's one of the things that has focused me and [is] a part of who I am," Mr Albanese said.

"She always respected everyone and I grew up with the confidence of having a mum who lived a lot of her aspirations through me. She couldn't work. And so she's the most important role model in my life and she's very much still part of who I am today."

His answer left Ms Tame and fiance Max Heerey in tears.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to upset you there," Mr Albanese told her.

Ms Tame said she started crying because she respected his answer "so much".

"Max is crying! Oh, I want to give you a hug," she said.

Leader of the Opposition Anthony Albanese and 2021 Australian of the Year Grace Tame take a selfie after a citizenship ceremony and flag raising event in Canberra on 26 January 2021. Source: AAP / MICK TSIKAS/AAPIMAGE

Mr Albanese said his lived experience contradicted a common argument used against legalising same-sex marriage.

"So when, like, the marriage equality debate was on, for example, and one of the things that some of the opponents said was, you know, you need a mum, a dad and two kids — that's a family," he said.

"I hear that message and go, well, hang on, you know, families are diverse and made up of all sorts of different groups. The one thing that really, really matters - the essential ingredient - is love."

He said he had love growing up "in abundance".

"We struggled a fair bit, to say the least. We lived in a council house on an invalid pension but, you know, we had love in the family," Mr Albanese said.

The Labor leader said out of respect for his mum he didn't begin searching for his father until after her death in 2002.

"I didn't want her to think that she wasn't enough. Because she was enough for me," Mr Albanese said.

- AAP

28 Apr 2022 2:06pm

Kristina Keneally attacks Morrison government’s 'failure' over China-Solomons pact

Labor Senator Kristina Keneally has labelled Prime Minister Scott Morrison's handling of the China-Solomon Islands security pact "the most significant national security failure since World War II".

"The Australian government, the Morrison government, was warned that China was seeking to strike a deal with the Solomon Islands," Ms Keneally said.

"We saw yesterday the extraordinary commentary from the head of the office of national intelligence, Andrew Shearer, saying this was not an intelligence failure," she told reporters at a press conference alongside Labor MP Jason Clare in Sydney on Thursday afternoon.

China and Solomon Islands have inked a security pact. What does it mean for Australia's role in the Pacific?

"That means it was a government failure. It was a failure by Mr Morrison not to seek to speak to Prime Minister [Manasseh] Sogavare.

"It was a failure by Mr Morrison not to send his foreign minister to the Solomon Islands."

Ms Keneally was referring to Australia sending

Minister for the Pacific Zed Seselja to Solomon Islands

and not Foreign Minister Marise Payne

once the draft of the deal that could allow Chinese ships to be based in the Pacific was leaked

.

"Marise Payne should have gotten up from her desk and gone to the Solomon Islands.

"Mr Morrison dropped the ball here in what has been the most significant national security failure since World War II.

"And as a result, Australia is less safe and [China] does have a foothold now just 1,600km from Cairns.

"Mr Morrison has been caught asleep at the wheel. And as a result, Australia is less secure," Ms Keneally said.

Her comments came just hours after Ms Payne insisted Australia remained Solomon Islands' "security partner of choice", and the government would continue to work with Honiara to secure the region.

"No document signed and kept away from public view is going to change that," Ms Payne said, speaking to the United States Studies Centre on Thursday.

She admitted the deal is "the most significant and consequential realignment of our region" since WWII.

"The world is changing before our eyes. War stalks Europe again. Coercion troubles our own region once more," she said.

"An arc autocracy from Beijing to Moscow is challenging the rules-based world order."

- Akash Arora

28 Apr 2022 12:58pm

Anthony Albanese to return to election campaign tomorrow after COVID-19 isolation

Federal Opposition leader Anthony Albanese is set to return to the campaign trail on Friday after being forced to isolate with COVID-19.

Mr Albanese tested positive for the virus last Thursday, forcing him off the election trail for a week while he campaigned from the confines of his Sydney home.

He will officially launch the Labor Party's campaign in Perth on Sunday and says he is looking forward to coming out of isolation, but has been advised to cut down on his work hours.

Anthony Albanese tests positive for COVID-19 forcing him to isolate during election campaign

"My doctor tells me I have to take things easy, particularly in the first few days to not do the 16- and 20-hour days that I was doing," he told WSFM Sydney radio.

"But it will be good to be out and about," he said.

- AAP

28 Apr 2022 11:45am

Jim Chalmers calls Scott Morrison a 'pathological liar'

Opposition Treasury spokesperson Jim Chalmers has responded to earlier comments from the prime minister, saying: "Scott Morrison has an excuse for everything and a plan for nothing."

"When things are going well in the economy, Scott Morrison takes all of the credit but when times are tough for Australians, he takes none of the responsibility and we have seen that again today," he told reporters at a press conference in Carlton, Sydney, on Thursday morning.

Mr Chalmers was responding to Mr Morrison who said earlier that Australians understood the recently reported inflation was a result of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and COVID-19 pandemic.

Just 2 per cent of rentals in Australia are affordable for people on a low income

"[Scott Morrison] wants to talk about international comparisons and international developments, nothing that has happened around the world in the last few months excuses or explains almost a decade now of Coalition attacks on wages and job security.

"If you want to talk about international comparisons, the most important comparison is real wages. Australian workers are going backwards in real wage times faster than their counterparts in the United States.

ELECTION22 ANTHONY ALBANESE ELECTION CAMPAIGN

Labor Treasury spokesperson Jim Chalmers speaks to the media at Parliament House in Canberra on 27 April, 2022. Source: AAP / BIANCA DE MARCHI/AAPIMAGE

Mr Chalmers said the financial strife for Australians will continue if this government is re-elected.

"The big risk of re-electing Scott Morrison is another three years of attacks on real wages, which makes it harder and harder to keep up with the skyrocketing costs of living and to pay increasing costs on your mortgage.

"This Morrison government has taxed more, or more, and spent more than previous Labor government but delivered much less," he said.

Speaking about the expected rise in interest rates, Mr Chalmers said they will hurt Australians.

Morning Briefing: Interest rate tipped to rise as UN chief arrives in Kyiv and Aung San Suu Kyi's conviction criticised as 'politically motivated'

"It wasn't that long ago that Scott Morrison was running around, lying to the Australian people and saying, 'If you elect a Labor government, your interest rates will go up.'

"And that's blown up in his face. And what we're seeing with the interest rate rise, which most analysts and commentators expect will either happen next Tuesday or the month after, and then subsequent to that as well, is that someone with an average-sized loan of $595,000 will be $124 worse off a month," he said.

"The prime minister is a pathological liar when it comes to these issues. He was saying not that long ago there wouldn't be increased taxes under a Liberal-National government.

"There are increases in the budget they handed down last month. You can't believe a word that he says," Mr Chalmers said.

'People living in cars': Rising inflation is devastating for low-income earners, community groups say

Referring to Labor's Economic Plan and Budget Strategy, released on Wednesday, Mr Chalmers said his party will prioritise childcare policy.

"The responsible commitment we have made in this election cost a fraction of what this government has wasted and rotted.

"The most expensive we are taking on this budget is the policy on childcare and the total cost of that is less than what this government has admitted they are wasting on submarines that will never be built. We need a bit of perspective here," Mr Chalmers said.

- Akash Arora

28 Apr 2022 10:51am

'No plan for the future': Kristina Keneally blames Morrison government after inflation soars

Labor senator Kristina Keneally has accused Prime Minister Scott Morrison of lacking a plan for the country's future, after new data revealed inflation had soared to a 20-year high.

"People are struggling to make ends meet and what we see from Mr Morrison and his government is no plan for the future," Senator Keneally told Sky News on Thursday morning.

"They've got a plan to get them to the other side of the election, but they don't have the plan to grow the economy sustainably," she said.

Senator Keneally's comments come a day after the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported the

annual rate of inflation has soared to its highest level since 2001, fuelled by record petrol prices and increased dwelling construction costs

.

"Now that families across Australia are facing skyrocketing cost of living, falling wages and now a very real prospect of an interest rate rise, we need to have a better plan for the future.

"Where is Mr Morrison's plan? Where is his vision for the future? What we heard from him this morning ... lots of excuses, blaming other people, but no plan, no hope, no promise of a better future under Scott Morrison," she said.

- Akash Arora

28 Apr 2022 9:57am

Prime minister says Labor blaming his government for inflation is 'absurd'

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has addressed the media in Cairns, Queensland, where he has announced a $24 million plan to upgrade the Cairns Marine Precinct.

He blamed the Russia-Ukraine war and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic for the rising cost of living.

"We know where these pressures are coming from. We know the pressures of rising costs of living, of interest rates.

"[They] are coming from not just the war in Ukraine, which has caused an energy price rise the likes of which we have not seen for many decades, [but] that is [also] coming from the pandemic," he said.

The annual rate of inflation has soared to its highest level since 2001, fuelled by record petrol prices and increased dwelling construction costs, according to fresh data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday.

The consumer price index (CPI) surged by 5.1 per cent over the past year — up from 3.5 per cent — and rose 2.1 per cent for the March quarter.

Australia’s cost of living is soaring. Why is everything so expensive?

The prime minister also blamed the Labor Party, saying the Opposition was trying to pin cost of living issues solely on his government.

"I think Australians understand ... they're not ignorant of the issues that are happening around the world.

"They're not going to be fooled by the Labor Party trying to pretend that what is happening in Australia is happening in Australia alone.

"I remember the Labor Party tried to do that in the middle of the [COVID-19] pandemic, where they tried to blame the recession on the government. It was an absurd proposition," Mr Morrison said.

The prime minister said Australians now need to make the right choice.

"And the choice they have to make is between a government that has a strong economic plan, a prime minister that's done eight budgets, both as a member of the Expenditure Review Committee, as a treasurer and as a prime minister, and Mr Albanese, who's never done one."

- Akash Arora

28 Apr 2022 8:43am

Adam Bandt reveals Greens' coal levy plan as Coalition division on net zero continues

Greens leader Adam Bandt says his party will push for a new levy on coal exports if the party holds the balance of power in the federal government after the 21 May election.

The levy will fund climate disaster recovery and improve the budget bottom line by $51.9 billion, while aiming to create 805,000 jobs.

Mr Bandt will launch the policy titled "Powering Past Coal and Gas" on Thursday in Sydney.

Mr Bandt aims to establish his party’s ambition to reach net zero emissions by 2035 and produce negative emissions to lower pollution by more than 100 million tonnes a year by 2050.

The Greens’ policy announcement comes after days of infighting within the Coalition over its climate change goals.

Nationals Senator Matt Canavan said on Tuesday the government's plans for net zero emissions by 2050 were "dead".

From inflation to net zero: This is what happened on day 17 of the election campaign

On Wednesday, Nationals MP Michelle Landry, standing alongside Prime Minister Scott Morrison in Rockhampton, Queensland, told Mr Canavan to "pull your head in".

Mr Bandt’s plan takes aim at the major parties and calls for immediate action rather than continued debate on Australia's net zero emissions by 2050 pledge.

"Net zero by 2050 is an empty slogan for 'someone else's problem' ... we don't have another three years to waste," Mr Bandt said.

"Labor’s climate policy position is the worst it has been in a decade and not by accident ... and creating a climate-focused parliament with Greens in the balance of power is closer than you think.”

The Greens’ plan includes a $1 levy per tonne of thermal coal and $3 for coking coal, with that rate to rise each year.

- Akash Arora with AAP

28 Apr 2022 8:28am

Welcome to today's SBS News federal election live blog

Good morning.

It's the 18th day of the federal election campaign and we're here to keep you posted about all the noteworthy moments of the day.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison spoke to Sky News this morning and was asked, if he comes back in power, how he would deal with Emmanuel Macron, who has just been re-elected as the French president and who publicly called Mr Morrison a liar.

“From time to time there are always disagreements,” Mr Morrison said, referring to the failed $90 billion submarine deal between the two countries.

“We cancelled the … contract for a submarine that I knew wasn’t going to do the job.

“There’s no easy way to break that news and for people to note be upset,” Mr Morrison said.

He will be announcing a $24 million plan to upgrade the Cairns Marine Precinct today.

Meanwhile, Greens leader Adam Bandt says his party will push for a new levy on coal exports if the Greens hold the balance of power after the 21 May election.

The levy will fund climate disaster recovery and improve the budget bottom line by $51.9 billion, while aiming to create 805,000 jobs.

Mr Bandt will launch the policy titled Powering Past Coal and Gas on Thursday in Sydney.

- Akash Arora