This is the second in a series of weekly wraps on the week that was in the election campaign.
Sunday saw the Prime Minister hold a rally in Brisbane as an unofficial QLD launch (the main launch is scheduled for Sunday April 15 in Perth).
Featuring the candidate for Griffith Renee Coffee, the PM made his pitch for Queensland voters with a new pledge to reduce the price of batteries for households, small businesses and community facilities by 30 per cent if re-elected.
The PM then travelled to Victoria to stand with Premier Jacinta Allan and Daniel Mulino to commit to funding the Melbourne Rail line and then headed north to Darwin.
Late last week the PM got the jump on Dutton by announcing that the ALP would buy back the Port of Darwin, which had been set to be a major announcement for the opposition the following day.
The big policy announcement from the Government during the week was a $1 billion commitment to deliver more mental health care, covered by Medicare, if re-elected.
The middle of week was taken up with debate preparations then the PM headed to FNQ late in the week to the seat of Leichhardt.
The PM used a press conference in Cairns to restate the case he made at the QLD rally that he is hopeful of pick-ups from the Sunshine State.
Holding only 5 of the 30 Federal seats on offer, this is a low water mark for the ALP. With news the ALP is dropping extra funding on the ultra-marginal opposition leaders’ seat the PM stated he is hopeful in Dickson and also the seat of Bonner in addition to Leichhardt.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton spoke to a Liberal Party rally in Tasmania on Sunday as he announced $80 million to upgrade the Bass Highway between Launceston and Deloraine amongst a range of other big money commitments.
Dutton is working hard to pick up seats in Tasmania with the seat of Lyons at risk with the retirement of a long-term Labor Member.
Peter Dutton then started the week on Monday with a very unexpected policy backflip, walking back 2 policies they had been promoting only days earlier.
The Opposition scrapped their pledge to restrict work from home arrangements and sack 41,000 government employees. Work from home arrangements will now stay and the reduction in the public service will be achieved through natural attrition and hiring freezes.
Scrapping policies one week into an election campaign is an extraordinary move from a Leader and largely dominated news cycles for days.
Dutton then headed over to South Australia where he announced significant road infrastructure funding campaigning with former Member for Boothby Nicole Flint who is seeking to regain the seat back from the ALP.
He continued to spruik his plan to halve fuel excise, shaving 25c off a litre of petrol with multiple photo-ops at a fuel bowser.
Mid week saw both campaigns descend on Sydney for the debate, more on that below.
The Opposition campaign then headed back down to Victoria where they are hopeful of regaining the seat of Aston, lost unexpectedly at the by-election in 2023 and also the blue ribbon seat of Kooyong won by Teal Dr. Monique Ryan in 2022. The Liberal Kooyong campaign came under some pressure this week after the candidate, who had promoted herself as a relatable renter, was in fact the owner of multiple investment properties.
Meanwhile, Climate 200 backed campaigns saw an ad run with children reading quotes from Peter Dutton and his MPs on climate and energy policy.
The response from the coalition was bordering on hysterical with criticism that children should not be used in political advertising.
The Teal seats continue to be some of the most hotly contested races in the country although they appear to have been better behaved this week with no video’s emerging of signs being removed by candidate’s spouses.
Arguably one of the safest seats in the country, Bob Kattter always delivers an interesting campaign.
The 2025 run including the launch of the ‘Australian-made, NQ-crafted, and brewed’ Copperloade brewery Patriot Australia beer featuring the face of the fiercest defender of the North on it. National Distribution of the ale unknown at this stage.
Pauline Hanson popped up on the 7:30 report this week accusing the major parties of stealing One Nation policy ideas.
Late this week the Greens proposed a revised negative gearing and CGT policy, calling for the negative gearing and the 50 per cent CGT discount to be limited to one investment property only.
The Greens continue to fight hard ground campaigns seeking to defend their Brisbane stronghold.
The Debates
This week saw 2 debates. One between the Prime Minister and Opposition Leader and the other between the Treasurer Jim Chalmers and his Opposition counterpart Angus Taylor.
Both were hosted by Sky News which significantly limited the viewership.
For the leaders debate both the PM and the Opposition Leader were well prepared.
This was particularly impressive for the Opposition Leader whose father has suffered a health scare only hours prior to him taking the stage.
They both scored numerous hits on the other but it failed to deliver any real moments to takeaway so had little impact on the broader voting public during the week.
For those who missed it, the Prime Minister won in the room on the night.
The second debate was held between Jim Chalmers and Angus Taylor.
As was expected Chalmers delivered a strong performance, landing strong lines on job cuts and the Trump influence on the campaign.
Taylor, having nothing to lose and everything to gain, performed well repeatedly asking the Treasurer to apologise to the Australian people for increases in energy prices.
The Treasurer won the night but Taylor’s performance was better than expected.
The next public debate is scheduled for April 16 on the ABC.
SOCIAL SHARE