More than half a million voters had already gone to the ballot box on the first day of early voting, a new record for a federal election.
Having spent the Easter weekend in Sydney the PM headed down to Melbourne to support the marginal Labor campaign in Chisholm, a pick up from the 2022 election.
From there the PM headed over to support Josh Burns in Macnamara. The margin is deceptive here in this three-way contest with the Liberals and Greens, and has been considered a genuine risk of loss in Labor circles.
The PM and Labor are hoping to hold back the tide of anti-state Labor sentiment, and recent polling suggests they are faring better than first expected in Victoria.
He also spent time in Menzies with candidate Gabriel Ng and Foreign Minister Penny Wong. Menzies, held by Liberal Keith Wolahan, is in play following a redistribution.
News broke that Pope Francis had died early Monday evening, and the two major campaigns paused ahead of the third debate.
Photos of the Prime Minister at St Patrick’s Cathedral in Melbourne were running early Tuesday morning, and Dutton was snapped at mass in Sydney that day with former governor-general Peter Cosgrove.
While this is the first election in some time where both leaders are Catholic, public awareness of the PM’s Catholicism seemed to be higher.
The Pope’s death overshadowed the federal election on Tuesday.
The leaders headed back to Sydney and prepared for the third leaders debate, this time on Channel 9 – the first on a commercial, free-to air-channel for this campaign.
A much more heated affair than the first two, both leaders came out firing with the clear intent to take bark off the other.
Spruiking his key housing and health policies, the PM succeeded in landing the Dutton = risk message.
It’s a simple message, but it is working, backed by research taken across electorates.
Dutton has more to gain from the debates. Questioned about a drop in the polls, Dutton recalled the 2019 surprise win for Scott Morrison, and said there was every chance current polling was incorrect.
He hit his straps on the night, and while Albanese’s messages were well-delivered, Dutton landed enough blows for the three journalists asking the questions to declare him the victor 2-1.
It would prove to be the high point for the Opposition Leader’s week.
The Opposition released its defence strategy on Wednesday, and committed to spending 3 per cent of Australia’s GDP within a decade.
The announcement was made in the West Australian seat of Swan, at a defence manufacturing site.
This event was the first time the Opposition Leader and Shadow Minister for Defence Andrew Hastie were out on the campaign trail together.
Hastie is the member for Canning, which he holds on 1.2 per cent. He has been called out for minimising Liberal branding in his campaign material, putting himself in the running for the Socially Democratic podcast award for the Teal Temptation Trophy (where a major party member tries to look like a community independent.)
It was revealed on Wednesday the Opposition would reverse Labor’s scrapping of the activity test required to access the childcare subsidy.
This prompted a swift reaction from unions, business groups, peak bodies, and everyone who has ever criticised the lack of Liberal Party support for women. This swamped a $100 million commitment to deliver “flexible and innovative” early childhood education in regional and rural areas.
On Thursday, Peter Dutton was in Hobart, where he held a family violence roundtable and pledged $90 million to implement a range of measures aimed at prevention, early intervention and crisis response.
This announcement was overshadowed by repeated questions about the definition of a woman by the press pack, and asked to clarify the Opposition’s position on electric vehicle taxes.
(We’re still not entirely clear on where the Libs are at with the EV taxes, there are differing views between Dutton and Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor).
Meanwhile, Nationals Leader David Littleproud appeared at the National Press Club on Thursday, and said that his first Bill as Deputy Prime Minister would be to reintroduce live exports.
Littleproud also said that one of his proudest moments as leader had been the failure of the Voice referendum.
Also on Thursday, the Age’s Charlotte Grieve succeeded in her ongoing mission to locate the Liberal candidate for Bruce, Zahid Safi.
Greive has delivered a colourful blow-by-blow of her efforts, a paparazzi-style video of the moment she found him, and a breakdown of the question marks over his family’s multiple businesses purported to deliver NDIS services.
But the biggest campaign news on Thursday was the return of the Opposition’s public service purge.
Back in the first week of the campaign, we determined the biggest policy outcome for the week was the Opposition’s backflip on cuts to the public service and a return to office mandate on the APS.
A few weeks later, Peter Dutton has returned to half that policy, and said 41,000 public servants would be cut, and all of them from Canberra.
(In gymnastic terms, this may well be an Arabian: a type of somersault that starts out with a backward entry into a half twist that begins immediately after take-off, and then continues into a front flip.)
This news broke on the eve of ANZAC Day, ahead of the campaign pausing for the day.
The Prime Minister will attend the ANZAC Dawn Service at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra on Friday.
Having come back with a plan to scrap 41,000 public servants- all from Canberra- we’re not too sure if the Opposition Leader will be in the capital for Friday’s service.
Away from the campaign buses, we’ve noticed a rise in the Labor campaign focus on Liberal-held marginal seats. This change in tack shows renewed confidence in Labor-held seats to the point of directing energy to taking unheld seats. However, this can also suggest Labor has decided that some marginal seats have already been lost to the Liberals.
Towards the end of the week, the media had also picked up on a shift in the Labor campaign’s focus.
Before heading to Canberra, Albanese ended the week in the west, campaigning in Collie on a commitment to bring Western Australia’s freight rail network back into public hands as a job creation pitch.
Albanese looks calm. The policies and messages, long ago established in strategy meetings, are landing.
Importantly, this was achieved well before voting kicked off, giving voters a cohesive plan to vote for.
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