What we learned – Tuesday 8 April
Many thanks for joining us on the election campaign live blog – that’s where we’ll leave things for now.
But stay tuned, as we’ll be launching a separate live blog shortly to bring you all the key moments from tonight’s leaders’ debate, beginning at 7.30pm AEST.
For now, here were the main takeaways from the campaign trail today:
Anthony Albanese unveiled a $1bn mental health plan, which would include upgrading or establishing dozens of Medicare, Headspace and youth mental health centres.
His press conference was interrupted by climate protestors, who said Labor had approved more coalmines during its term.
Peter Dutton, meanwhile, spruiked his fuel excise promise and turned up the heat on the economy and the risk of a recession.
He faced more questions over his work from home policy backflip and a questionable now-ex-candidate.
The Greens are urging the Reserve Bank to call an urgent meeting to drop interest rates now, rather than when the bank next meets in May.
Nationals leader, David Littleproud, said the civil rights of an individual “need to be put aside” for the safety of a community, in response to concerns over youth crime.
And doctors in NSW hospitals went on strike for the first time this millennium, with today the first of three days of industrial action planned across the state’s hospitals.
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Marles calls on Hastie to clarify his views on women serving in ADF combat roles
At a doorstop earlier today, deputy prime minister Richard Marles asked shadow defence minister Andrew Hastie to clarify his views on women serving in combat roles in the ADF.
Ben Britton was dumped as the Liberal candidate for the seat of Whitlam after it was revealed he had expressed a string of controversial views on fringe podcasts before his preselection – including that women should not serve in ADF combat positions.
Hastie also said back in 2018 women shouldn’t be on the frontline of combat. Britton defended his views on 2GB today, saying:
My position is the same as Andrew Hastie, the shadow minister for defence, and the great Jim Molan — that women should not serve specifically in combat roles, specifically in the army itself.
Speaking at a doorstop earlier, Marles told reporters:
It is untenable to have a defence minister in Australia who feels that women should not be able to participate in combat roles. Now that Ben Britton has made these comments about Andrew Hastie, it is absolutely imperative that Andrew Hastie clarifies this matter.
In a statement earlier this afternoon, a spokesperson for Hastie said his comments were “made more than seven years ago based on his own experience serving in the Special Air Service Regiment”, and there was “no intent to change personnel policy in the [ADF] regarding combat roles.” You can read the full statement earlier in the blog.
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