What we learned today, Saturday 5 April
With that, we will wrap today’s blog. We’ll be back first thing tomorrow to bring you all the latest on the campaign trail, which will hopefully have no further injuries.
Until then, here are today’s major developments:
Flood victims in western Queensland unable to work due to the deluge will be eligible for a three-month disaster allowance after the commonwealth activated the special payment scheme.
Anthony Albanese visited Longreach in Queensland today to meet with victims of the devastating flooding event. He said to those affected by the natural disaster that “we have your back”, adding the emergency event was beyond politics.
The prime minister was forced to justify his announcement of a decision to remove the Port of Darwin from Chinese ownership on ABC Radio yesterday evening, hours before the Coalition announced the policy on a visit to the city. Albanese said the Darwin Port could be subject to compulsory acquisition.
While in Darwin, Peter Dutton accidentally injured a cameraman when he kicked a football with a “bit too much heat on it”. The cameraman is bandaged and OK.
Updated
Queensland flood response is proof of value of public service, Labor says
The minister for employment and workplace relations, Murray Watt, has been in Brisbane today, where he told journalists the government’s response to the flooding events in western Queensland was proof of the importance of public service workers.
He was aiming to contrast Labor, which has increased the number of public servants since gaining office, to the Coalition, which has pledged to slash 41,000 jobs. It is yet to disclose where those jobs will be.
Watt said:
There’s a view amongst some running in this election that public servants are a waste. They are not a waste at all when you think about the important work that public sector workers do, whether it be recovering from floods or anything else.
I think it’s absolutely incredible that we enter this election campaign with Peter Dutton and the Coalition promising to cut 41,000 public servants from right across Australia.
We now know that if you break that down state by state, in Queensland alone, Peter Dutton will cut 5,500 public sector jobs from all around our state.
Updated
