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National
Tory Shepherd and Amy Remeikis (earlier)

Sharma labels Deves’s comments on trans people ‘reprehensible’ – as it happened

Scott Morrison Australia Jenny NDIS Simon Birmingham
Wentworth MP Dave Sharma
Wentworth MP Dave Sharma says he didn’t back Liberal senator Claire Chandler’s ‘save women’s sport’ bill.
 Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

What we learned today, 21 April

Just as the day was winding down came the news that Labor leader Anthony Albanese has tested positive for Covid. He’ll isolate at home in Sydney for seven days, and we’ll have to wait and see what impact that has on the campaign. In other news:

See you back here tomorrow, where Amy Remeikis and the politics team will keep you in the loop on all the campaign twists and turns.

Updated

Katharine Murphy on Labor leader Anthony Albanese’s Covid positive plot twist:

The former senator and veteran Labor man Doug Cameron making his thoughts clear:

Updated

Fingers crossed the Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, didn’t pass it on (by all accounts, his team was being as Covid-safe as possible):

Updated

James Massola, the national affairs editor at the Age and Sydney Morning Herald, had a preview of Labor’s just-in-case-of-Covid plan:

Updated

Swift response from the Greens leader, Adam Bandt:

Updated

The foreign minister, Marise Payne, has been on Sky News, where host Tom Connell asks her about the possibility of China building a military base on Solomon Islands, after the countries signed a security agreement.

She says prime minister Manasseh Sogavare has assured her it would not be permitted.

“He’s been unequivocal about that,” she said.

That said, (she said):

Of course we are dealing with this deeply concerning decision very seriously.

Asked if the Australian government had any responsibility for that decision, she said:

Ultimately it’s a sovereign decision. That is their right and decision to make but we’ve been explicitly clear and in a respectful way ... we think it is not a constructive approach to regional security.

Updated

Anthony Albanese tests positive for Covid

The Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, has issued this statement:

Following a routine PCR test this afternoon ahead of interstate travel to Western Australia, I have returned a positive result for Covid this evening.

I have been testing regularly as part of my election campaign duties.

I will be isolating at home in Sydney for the next 7 days and will continue to follow health guidelines and advice.

While at home I will continue my responsibilities as alternative prime minister and will be fighting for a better future for all Australians.

I am grateful to know that I will have access to the world’s best health care if I need it, because of Medicare.

I am feeling fine so far – and thank everyone for their well wishes.

Updated

Thousands of applications for grants to support communities devastated by floods in the New South Wales northern rivers and western Sydney have not been processed, while thousands of others have been rejected.

Read the story here:

Updated

That ratio of tests to positive cases is pretty intense*:

* It’s not as straightforward as saying most tests are now coming back positive, because negative Rats aren’t recorded. Neither are false negative Rats. Still interesting numbers...

Updated

Read Ben Smee’s story below about the Nationals candidate Kimberly Hone.

The deputy prime minister, Barnaby Joyce, has come out to say he stands by Hone. The ABC reports that when asked about her comments, Joyce said:

You can say what you like in this country, because people have fought and died for it.

If you don’t agree with someone’s views that’s also your right.

Updated

“Well done, Australia,” says the electoral commissioner, Tom Rogers, confirming 96.8% of eligible Australians have enrolled to vote:

With many nations around the world campaigning to get even three-quarters of their population enrolled to vote, this result is a continuing source of Australian democratic pride.

The roll has increased in pure number terms by 804,652 since the previous federal election in 2019, a rise of 4.9%.

Updated

Labor leader Anthony Albanese’s day, including some more genius from his advance team – does that stand for “better off overall test”? AAP were there:

Labor leader Anthony Albanese arrives for a coffee meeting with the Labor candidate for the seat of Bennelong, Jerome Laxale, at the Top Ryde City mall in Sydney.
Anthony Albanese arrives for a coffee meeting with the Labor candidate for the seat of Bennelong, Jerome Laxale, at the Top Ryde City mall in Sydney. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP
Labor leader Anthony Albanese drinks a coffee during a meeting with locals at a cafe in the Top Ryde City Mall in Sydney.
Anthony Albanese drinks a coffee during a meeting with locals at a cafe in the Top Ryde City mall in Sydney. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP
Labor leader Anthony Albanese speaks to the media after visiting Manildra Shoalhaven Starches in Bomaderry, NSW
Anthony Albanese speaks to the media after visiting Manildra Group’s Shoalhaven Starches in Bomaderry, NSW. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

Updated

Action man Scott Morrison had his eyes on the prizes today on the campaign trail. AAP captured some great shots:

Prime minister Scott Morrison at Redcliffe Dolphins Stadium in Brisbane, in the seat of Petrie.
The Redcliffe Dolphins Stadium in Brisbane, in the seat of Petrie. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP
Prime minister Scott Morrison holds a Ghost Bat combat drone at Ferra Engineering in Brisbane, in the seat of Bonner.
Holding a Ghost Bat combat drone at Ferra Engineering in Brisbane, in the seat of Bonner. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP
Prime minister Scott Morrison plays lawn bowls at at the Living Gems Retirement Village in Caboolture, 60km north of Brisbane, in the seat of Longman.
Playing lawn bowls at at the Living Gems Retirement Village in Caboolture, 60km north of Brisbane, in the seat of Longman. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Updated

Blessed be. Prime minister Scott Morrison has apologised for saying he was “blessed” not to have children with disabilities. But the story doesn’t end there. Jane Lee and Katharine Murphy discuss the future of the NDIS in today’s Campaign catchup:

Like any good valet, Josh Butler is here to make your life easier. He’s pulled together today’s highlights – from doggos and a Judo flip to the NDIS and pork barrelling – in today’s campaign briefing:

For Darumbal woman Aunty Sally Vea Vea, the handover is a “settling” after past atrocities:

They treated killing us like a sport.

Prime minister's office ordered to process FOI request relating to altered City of Sydney documents

The prime minister’s office has been ordered to process a two-year-old freedom of information request from Labor for documents relating to the Angus Taylor/City of Sydney scandal.

In October 2019, Labor’s Mark Butler sought documents from the PMO related to the scandal over altered documents the energy and emission reductions minister’s office used to suggested City of Sydney had spent over $15m on travel – claiming the council’s travel outstripped the carbon impact of travel of federal ministers – when in reality the figure was just over $200,000.

Butler sought from the PMO communications and documents relating to the scandal, including talking points, emails, text messages, and encrypted communications between the PM, PMO, Taylor and Taylor’s office.

PMO refused the request on the grounds it would take too much time and divert attention from the work of the PMO. However after a two-year appeal to the office of the information commissioner, the PMO has now been ordered to process the request.

It is the third ruling of its kind from the OAIC in the past few weeks, with Guardian Australia winning a similar ruling for texts between Scott Morrison and his friend and prominent QAnon conspiracy theorist Tim Stewart. The PMO has also been ordered to process a request for text messages related to Barnaby Joyce’s time as drought envoy.

In refusing the requests, there was a consistent theme from the PMO that the processing of the requests would take too much time for the office and the prime minister considering how busy the office and the PM are, but in each instance that claim was rejected.

The acting freedom of information commissioner Elizabeth Hampton said in this ruling that she was not convinced the gravity of the work of the prime minister’s office was enough to exempt the whole office from FOI:

While the prime minister has significant responsibilities as the head of government, official documents held by the prime minister can be requested under the FOI Act, which carries an obligation to devote part of the resources of the office to this task. The PMO’s submissions regarding ‘most’ FOI requests requiring the FOI coordinator’s specialist attention are not persuasive.

All three orders will require decisions released before the election. The PMO has not responded to questions on whether it will comply with the OAIC ruling.

Updated

Back to the Wentworth debate – Sharma and Spender are getting some curly questions from the good burghers of Wentworth, including on why Sharma hasn’t pushed back more on the rightwing sentiment of the Liberals and why Spender is “splitting the moderate vote” by not running for a different seat.

Sharma defends his record, taking credit for being “one of the people” that pushed for more renewable energy support, crossing the floor against his own party on the religious discrimination bill, and pushing for more ambitious climate targets (even though, as Spender pointed out, the Liberals still have “Tony Abbott’s targets” of a 26-28% emissions reduction by 2030).

“Those are the sort of things I can do, but I’m also part of a team,” Sharma said:

I’ve argued in the past and I’ll continue to do that, but more ambitious interim targets ... I’ll continue to argue that.

Sharma and Spender were both asked if they had solar panels on their house or electric cars. They both said they didn’t have solar panels (Sharma said he lived in a terrace house, which made it impossible) and Spender said she had a hybrid car.

Campaign poster for Allegra Spender at Edgecliff train station in Sydney.
Campaign poster for Allegra Spender at Edgecliff train station in Sydney. Photograph: Blake Sharp-Wiggins/The Guardian

Updated

Paterson is having a crack at Labor’s foreign affairs spokeswoman, Penny Wong, and Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, for criticising the government’s failure to somehow prevent the deal going ahead.

He says he doesn’t know if they’ve had security briefings on the matter, and that they were “irresponsibly canvassing very sensitive matters”.

Liberal senator James Paterson is talking about that deal between Solomon Islands and China (he’s also chair of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security).

He’s on the ABC, and host Greg Jennett asks him when he knew about the deal. He says he was only aware when it became public, but that he had been aware before that of China’s intentions in the region. He says:

We have known for some time it’s the ambition of China to expand its presence in the region ... it did not come as a surprise and we did learn about the agreement as it became public.

There’s no doubt it’s a very serious challenge to our regional security.

Updated

We got experts to watch and analyse United Australia Party’s campaign ad so you don’t have to (unless you want to, like 15 million other people):

Updated

The press release for this didn’t mention the NRL in the all-caps header (DOLPHINS RECEIVE $15 MILLION FOR NEW COMMUNITY FACILITY) and I pictured the cheeky mammals frolicking in a nice playground under the sea:

Dave Sharma labels Deves's comments on trans people 'reprehensible'

Back at the Wentworth debate, Sharma has called the comments of Liberal Warringah candidate Katherine Deves on trans people “reprehensible”:

[They] should be condemned and they should be withdrawn, and I’m glad she has withdrawn those.

The Wentworth MP also said he didn’t back the “save women’s sport” bill from Liberal senator Claire Chandler, and wouldn’t support it if it came to a vote.

Earlier, the PM, Scott Morrison, said he had contacted Deves to “encourage her” today, saying her advocacy to prevent trans women playing in female sports “finds a lot of resonance with Australians who just want common sense to apply”.

Updated

Sky News is broadcasting a debate between the Liberal’s Wentworth MP Dave Sharma and independent Allegra Spender. The very first question is on which party Spender would support in the event of a hung parliament (which, after recent opinion polls, is looking a little more likely).

Spender said she was “open to work with either side of government”, saying she would “be legislating and voting on the basis of what’s important to this community”.

Sky host Kieran Gilbert pointed out there had never been a Labor member for Wentworth, and that Labor’s policies were closer than the Coalition to Spender’s own policies – Spender said she would work “issue by issue” in the event of a hung parliament.

But Sharma hit back, demanding Spender declare before the election who she may support:

I think you’re being dishonest with them ... you owe it to the public.

We have [policies], you can sit down and decide which one you’d like to support.

Updated

The Anzac Day dawn service in Sydney is expected to attract 10,000 people, AAP reports.

It’s the first in two years with no Covid restrictions. NSW veterans’ affairs minister David Elliott said it was also the first since the 80th anniversary of the bombing of Darwin, 80 years since the Kokoda campaign, 50 years since the withdrawal from Vietnam, and the first since Australian troops withdrew from Afghanistan.

Elliott said:

A lot of the contemporary veterans are feeling a bit vulnerable as a result of the situation of Afghanistan.

I would expect that you may see an increased number of younger veterans and their families.

A member of the Catafalque party stands guard at the Coogee dawn service on April 25, 2021 in Sydney.
A member of the Catafalque party stands guard at the Coogee dawn service on April 25, 2021 in Sydney. Photograph: Brook Mitchell/Getty Images

Updated

Climate change discussion has been conspicuously hushed so far this campaign. Adam Morton is here to turn up the heat, with the latest Temperature Check:

About that crash we mentioned earlier:

'Failure of Australian government policy': retired admiral on China-Solomons pact

Australia needs a clear policy on climate change if it wants to rebuild its relationship with Solomon Islands, retired admiral Chris Barrie said on Thursday.

Speaking to reporters following a conference on fuel security, Barrie said Australia was “kidding ourselves” about its relationship with its Pacific neighbour. Barrie said:

We have to stump up and be a good friend of countries in the Pacific like the Solomon Islands. That means a change to climate policy, to be honest.

Because they look at what we do in climate change and say, ‘where are you? When we’re facing the loss of our country, the loss of our identity, the loss of our culture, you call this part of the family? I’m sorry, it doesn’t work.’

Solomon Islands’ government signed a new security pact with China on Wednesday in what has been called the “worst Australian foreign policy failure” since the second world war.

Barrie described the moment as a “failure of Australian government policy” and pointed to the appointment of former politicians to diplomatic postings, rather than trained diplomats, as a contributing factor.

Also speaking at the conference was the independent MP Zali Steggall and Allegra Spender, a Sydney-based businesswoman running as an independent in the seat of Wentworth.

Chris Barrie, Allegra Spender, Zali Steggall and Kylea Tink
(L-R) The former chief of the Australian Defence Force and retired admiral, Chris Barrie; the independent candidate for Wentworth, Allegra Spender; the federal member for Warringah, Zali Steggall; and the independent candidate for North Sydney, Kylea Tink. Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAP

Steggall said the issue of fuel security was “incredibly important” in the wake of geopolitical conflicts in Ukraine and “even here in our backyard in the Pacific” but accused the government of “fake net zero commitments”. She said:

We know the government is absolutely doubling down and locking in reliance on oil and gas. We have only a handful of days’ supply and we are incredibly exposed – over 90% of our fuel is imported.

The one way we can achieve [fuel security] is by electrifying our fuel and our transport. We can do that because we are the most abundant continent in the world when it comes to solar and wind.

Steggall said she would work to legislate a plan to reduce emissions by 60% by 2030 in the new parliament:

We’re talking a lot about cost of living in this election, but let’s be frank. Cost of living is immediately impacted by global warming events.

Food, fuel, insurance costs, disruption to business, all of these are impacted by events like what we’ve seen with the floods on the east coast.

Action on climate change is not a ‘nice to have’.

Updated

The treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, has also been in Bennelong today with the Liberal candidate for the electorate, Simon Kennedy.

Ah, Bennelong. The Liberal MP and tennis legend John Alexander is putting away his balls (that’s a tennis reference) after more than a decade representing the seat. It’s been considered fairly safe Liberal territory since Alexander won it from Labor’s Maxine McKew in 2010.

McKew famously lifted the seat from former prime minister John Howard in 2007.

How do I know all this? I started with our excellent seat explorer:

Updated

I wonder if the advance team deliberately had Labor leader Anthony Albanese walk past signs saying Rats, vaccines, and boosters available:

Luke Henriques-Gomes has gone beyond the headlines about prime minister Scott Morrison’s “blessed” reaction to Catherine, whose son Ethan is autistic, to look at systemic failings in the NDIS:

I love a good graph, until they scare me:

Thanks, Amy Remeikis, and thanks all in advance for gentle treatment. I had the 2am wake-in-frights that I’d inadvertently swapped “Albanese” and “Morrison” somewhere along the way. Did not feel blessed.

Updated

Tory Shepherd is going to lead you through the late afternoon and evening. Be gentle – she is still recovering from last night’s debate coverage.

Make sure you check back for updates and stories from the Guardian crew. I’ll be back early tomorrow morning – please, take care of you.

Updated

Just back on the NZ prime minister – she is in Japan at the moment, where New Zealand is being honoured with a live musical performance featuring dancing kiwi fruit.

Anne Ruston told Sky News the government has accepted the aged care royal commission recommendation to have “nursing care” in all aged care homes, 24 hours a day, seven days a week but just needed to work out a “realistic” timeline to make it happen so the health system could handle it.

But that is not the government’s policy. It hasn’t accepted the “24/7” recommendation for registered nurses. What’s the difference? RNs can do things not all nursing staff can, including administering pain medications.

Ruston also said there was a 2024 timeline in the royal commission:

But there’s not.

Then there is this point:

Updated

Jacinda Ardern has spoken on the China-Solomon Islands security pact, as Eva Corlett and Daniel Hurst report:

Jacinda Ardern, the New Zealand prime minister, has spoken of Beijing’s “growing assertiveness” in the Pacific region as she challenged the motive for a security pact between Solomon Islands and Beijing.

Australia, New Zealand and the US are concerned the Solomons pact could allow China to establish a military base within 2,000km of Australia’s east coast. The text permits China to “make ship visits to, carry out logistical replenishment in, and have stopover and transition in Solomon Islands”.

Speaking to the BBC, Ardern said: “One of the reasons we’ve expressed this disappointment [is] … Australia and New Zealand both have heeded the call of the Solomons for support during recent disruption.

“And we’ve again highlighted that should any extended need exist, we are there to help and support. What gap remains that requires such an agreement with China?”

Queensland police say the car that crashed into Terri Butler’s office lost control, and that it was not a “targeted incident”.

Police have been able to review CCTV footage nearby and believe the car was speeding and overcorrected on Old Cleveland Road at Greenslopes.

The male driver lost control and crashed into Butler’s electorate office. He then drove off.

Police are still looking for the vehicle.

Updated

That contradicts what Scott Morrison said yesterday:

Well, first of all, I’d say this. The prime minister of Solomon Islands has made it very clear that they are not accepting of any base in the Solomon Islands. They are not. So that is a false claim that there’s no basis to make that assertion. It’s not there. That would be the first point that I would make.

Today, Morrison was a little more Dutton-leaning in his assessment.

Updated

Here are some of the ‘blunt’ comments Peter Dutton, the defence minister made on China on Sydney radio 2GB the prime minister mentioned in his earlier press conference:

I don’t think there’s any sugarcoating the reality of China’s actions, not just in the Indo-Pacific, but around the world. I mean, they’ve got this Belt and Road Initiative. It’s all about militarising ports across the world so that they can have a military presence. And I’m not going to pretend to your listeners that we are not coming into what I think are dangerous times. And the intelligence indicates that China’s own words and actions prove that. And we should be very conscious of it.

We’ve seen this deal between Russia and China now. And China operates in a very different world. Leaving the Solomon Islands aside for one moment, you know, they go in with bags of cash. I mean, they don’t operate by the same rules that we do.

They go into countries, they buy people off, and Australia doesn’t do that. And we can’t compete in that circumstance.

In the case of the Solomon Islands, guarantees have been given. I don’t think they’re worth much, but they’ve been given that they won’t set up a military port.

But that’s exactly what happened in the South China Sea. Where you know, assurances were given by president Xi to ... to president Obama at the time that there wouldn’t be a military presence. Well, there are now 20 islands with runways and military buildings on within the South China Sea. And that is what we are dealing with. So when we say that we’re coming into a dangerous time, [we’re] not making that up, that’s exactly what is happening.

Updated

Queensland police are searching for the driver of a vehicle that crashed into the Brisbane office of the Labor MP Terri Butler then drove off this afternoon.

There is no indication yet as to whether the incident was an accident. No one was hurt.

Butler’s office is on a main road in the suburb of Greenslopes.

Updated

Terri Butler says police are on the scene and the condition and whereabouts of the driver remains unknown:

On the subject of debates:

Updated

Labor MP's electorate office rammed by car

Ben Smee will have more detail on this very soon

The View from Murph

It’s been the morning after the night before. Scott Morrison for much of this morning has been battling criticism about his observation in last night’s leader’s debate that he and wife Jenny had been “blessed” to have two children without special needs. During a morning radio interview with Ray Hadley, Morrison dug in, arguing his observation was meant empathetically and in good faith.

But later at his press conference on the hustings, the prime minister apologised for his choice of words, telling journalists he understood how the comment may have been hurtful. Morrison referenced a conversation this morning with Dylan Alcott, the Australian of the Year and high-profile disability advocate.

Alcott had been critical of Morrison’s formulation this morning, noting people with disabilities just wanted equality, choice and control. Alcott noted he felt “blessed” to be disabled. With a campaign fire now running, Morrison flopped down full-body to douse the flames.

Morrison is also fighting controversy on another front. Rather than be blamed for Solomon Islands signing a new security deal with China, the prime minister wants to train attention on what he contends is Labor’s record on being soft on China.

We’re in the process of examining that particular contention in more depth, but suffice to say, the prime minister was rebuked by Canberra’s national security establishment (including the Asio chief, Mike Burgess) only a couple of weeks back for claiming differences that weren’t actually there. When that point was put to Morrison this morning, the PM said something along the lines of we run the government, not public servants.

Before I go, there was one more point of interest from this morning’s press conference.

Morrison was in the Queensland seat of Longman this morning. That’s one of Labor’s targeted seats in the 2022 campaign. The impression I’ve picked up over the past few days from strategists is Labor currently isn’t that hopeful of switching that particular seat to their column on election day.

But Morrison was pretty direct this morning – he indicated Labor’s scare campaign contending that pensioners will be put on the cashless debit card had some legs in the seat. Longman has a lot of retirees.

The prime minister suggested he was in Longman to combat the lies. This bit of sandbagging is interesting.

If you want to read more on Labor’s scare campaign, here’s a fact check from Paul Karp earlier this week. As Paul says, the Coalition at one point left this idea open. But the government has since ruled out this change for pensioners, repeatedly and comprehensively. No wiggle room.

Updated

National Covid summary

Here are the latest coronavirus numbers from around Australia today, as the country records at least 50 deaths from Covid-19:

ACT

  • Deaths: 1
  • Cases: 1,265
  • In hospital: 61 (with 3 people in ICU)

NSW

  • Deaths: 16
  • Cases: 17,447
  • In hospital: 1,641 (with 69 people in ICU)

Northern Territory

  • Deaths: 1
  • Cases: 655
  • In hospital: 49 (with 1 person in ICU)

Queensland

  • Deaths: 15
  • Cases: 9,281
  • In hospital: 578 (with 17 people in ICU)

South Australia

  • Deaths: 3
  • Cases: 4,079
  • In hospital: 241 (with 11 people in ICU)

Tasmania

  • Deaths: 1
  • Cases: 1,468
  • In hospital: 58 (with 1 person in ICU)

Victoria

  • Deaths: 11
  • Cases: 10,674
  • In hospital: 444 (with 35 people in ICU)

Western Australia

  • Deaths: 2
  • Cases: 9,314
  • In hospital: 248 (with 9 people in ICU)

Updated

Reconciliation Australia has released a list of election demands of all major parties, which it says will need the next parliament to be “brave and ambitious” about making change.

In a “‘roadmap for reconciliation” released today, it calls for the next government to:

  • Introduce legislation setting out support, a timeframe, and process, for a referendum to achieve a constitutionally enshrined Voice to Parliament.
  • Work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations, to appropriately fund and meet the targets of the national agreement on closing the gap.
  • Support truth-telling including investment in research to uncover the untold, and under-told, parts of our shared history.
  • Recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories with memorialisation, renaming electorates and other public places.
  • Strengthen the national curriculum to better include Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures.
  • Fund an “anti-racism framework” to guide actions by government, NGOs, business, police and the community.
  • Appoint a national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children’s commissioner to help reduce the numbers of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out of home care.
  • Strengthen cultural heritage protection through funding and engaging in a co-design process with the First Nations Heritage Protection Alliance and other First Nations stakeholders, and acting on the outcomes of that process to make necessary policy.

Karen Mundine, the CEO of Reconciliation Australia says:

We know that almost 90% of the Australian community support formal truth-telling processes, and the majority of Australians want more to be done by government to close the gaps in health, justice and employment.

The public is on board and our work shows it wants governments to step up too. Australians are looking for leadership and greater ambition on reconciliation.

Whichever party forms government, it needs to be brave and ambitious when it comes to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander affairs.

We ask the incoming government and all parties represented in the next parliament to be brave. Make change.

Updated

The View from Murph will be with you very soon

Q: Last night more voters in the room picked Anthony Albanese over you, a quarter remained undecided after [the hour long debate]. What does that say about your chances after last week’s campaign gaffes from Anthony Albanese, and ... if you don’t win, will you stand down as Liberal leader?

Scott Morrison:

What it says is ... there are 4.5 weeks left in the election and Australians are looking carefully. Many of them haven’t made up their mind. And they will be making up their mind over the next four and a half weeks.

What they know is what they don’t know about Anthony Albanese. What they don’t know about his plan. What they don’t know about his experience on national security. And on economics.

What they do know is what they do know about our government. The Liberals and the Nationals ... keeping Australians safe, keeping our economy strong because a strong economy means a strong future.

Thanks very much, everyone.

He doesn’t address whether he would stay on as leader. It was a fairly abrupt end to the press conference.

Scott Morrison
Prime minister Scott Morrison at a press conference after visiting Ferra Engineering in Wynnum in Brisbane, in the seat of Bonner. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Updated

Q: On Dom Perrottet [and texts]?

Scott Morrison:

Happy to touch on that. When I spoke to some close colleagues on the weekend, they asked me whether Dom had been contact and I simply said he had. I didn’t share any text messages.

I said he had been in contact. That wasn’t released to anybody.

Q: How did-

You’re the journalist, you talk to people who talk to people who talk to people. He did not and neither did I. They [the messages] haven’t been [leaked].

All that people know is the premier was in touch with me and indicated his support for the decision that we had made and that’s the truth. It was on the front page of the Daily Telegraph by his own words.

I am in regular text contact with leaders all around the world ... and I continue to be, and I will always be, because it’s an important part of my job to ensure I remain in regular contact and as a result, when it comes to my relationship with Dom Perrottet we work closely together. We’re creating jobs in NSW and here we are doing the same in Queensland and that’s what today’s announcement has been about to ensure we can do that.

Updated

Q: A hundred million dollars has gone in community funds to marginal electorates since the budget. How can that be described as anything other than pork-barrelling? Also, Dominic Perrottet has been the latest person whose private text messages to you have made the front pages. Why should foreign leaders trust you that you won’t release their private text messages?

Scott Morrison:

I’ll give you a good example [on grants].

Today you’re with me in Caboolture. We announced the program for the regional telecommunications dealing with periurban areas. More than half of the seats that benefited from the program were Labor seats, not Coalition seats. The majority were actually Labor seats.

So I just don’t buy it. What elections are, we go to the public, and like in Caboolture today, there we were with seniors who can only get one bar on their mobile phone or only 3G, and they need some additional mobile towers. So they raised that with Terry [Young], their local member, Terry raised it with us, and they expect us to do something about it. That’s what elections are. People expect the government to deal with issues on the ground in their communities.

Whether it happens to be facilities or services, health services or education services, support for important manufacturing jobs, we’re talk about them right here, additional jobs right here in the electorate of Bonnar. These are important things that need to be done. We respond to those, we are telling people very plainly – the Labor party are making their commitments in their places that they wish to make commitments, I make no criticism of that.

But people know what they can vote for. And what they could work for with me and my team, sitting here with Angus and Ross here in Bonner, is they can vote for a strong economy. They can work for a team that has produced a strong economy in one of the toughest challenges we have ever faced, or they can vote for an opposition.

And he spoke a lot last night, Mr Albanese, he spoke about how Labor were the party of big reforms – I make the point it’s always the Liberals are Nationals that have to work how how to pay for them – he spoke about the big reforms and talked about Bob Hawke.

As you know, during the Hawke Keating-government, no, [Albanese] wasn’t an economic advisor to the Hawke Keating advisor. He was an electorate officer for Tom Uren. What he wasn’t doing that he was at Labor conferences denouncing the Hawke-Keating government, conference after conference, I supported the Hawke government more than Anthony Albanese did, John Howard supported the Hawke government more than Anthony Albanese did.

So he’s no Bob Hawke. He is not even a Kevin Rudd. And I can assure you not John Howard. Over the last three years, he has sought to make a virtue not of being a big ideas man, but a no ideas man, because he wanted to be a small target.

So here we are just before the election ... he’s madly scrambling around, he has no plan, it’s a choice between a government you do know and ... an opposition you don’t.

Australians are making the choice because it’s a choice.

Liberal member for Bonner Ron Vasta, prime minister Scott Morrison and minister for energy Angus Taylor.
The Liberal member for Bonner, Ron Vasta, with the prime minister, Scott Morrison, and the minister for energy, Angus Taylor. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Updated

Q: On Katherine Deves, you said you don’t want her to be cancelled or silenced. My understanding is that she wants to speak out and would like to correct the record but it’s actually your campaign stopping her from speaking out. Will you let her speak in front of the media and if not, why not?

Scott Morrison:

Katherine is campaigning and I’ve been in contact with her today to encourage her. Katherine is passionate about the issue of women and girls in sport and I think the position she has set out on the issue is one that I think finds a lot of resonance with Australians who just want common sense to apply in the situation and for it not to be turned into a broader debate about other issues which I think distract from the main point, which is women and girls in sport, and ensuring that that debate can be had sensitively and properly.

Updated

Q: On Solomon Islands you said ... you know a bit about national security. Earlier this year when you and other ministers made similar comments about China, the head of Asio said politicising national security is, quote, “not helpful”. Why did you repeat that comment when our national security agencies are saying it’s not helpful, it’s doing Australia disservice?

Scott Morrison:

When you’re prime minister you run a government. Public servants don’t run the government. Prime ministers and the ministers run governments. And I chair the National Security Committee for a very long period of time as prime minister and have served on it in a number of capacities.

What’s important, particularly when we deal with issues that have been risen in an election campaign right now and challenges were being made about the government’s handling of a particular issue, then I think it’s perfectly reasonable for me to set out that when the Labor party has had to choose between taking a position in support of the government on matters of national interest, be it with our coercion that we faced from China because we’ve had foreign interference rules or we have said no on foreign investment sessions, or we’ve called out on major public health issues, then I would have expected in bipartisanship on national security that there would be a common view. But there wasn’t. There was criticism.

Bipartisanship, I don’t think should be set at a low bar. We set a very high bar when it comes to national security. If the Labor party wants to aspire to that, then I think they have to lift their game.

Updated

Q: Do you support Emma McKeon’s comments today that she won’t compete with trans women and you consider yourself a supporter of women’s sport?

Scott Morrison:

Yes and yes.

Q: Following on from that, would you be comfortable about your daughters competing against transgender people? Would you feel comfortable about your daughter competing against transgender people in sport?

Morrison:

Sports will make their decisions but my preference is for girls to play girls, for women to play women, boys to play boys, men to play men. I don’t think this is a terribly remarkable statement. I think it’s common sense.

For those who are trans, I want them to participate in sport as well. I want them to have opportunities for inclusion in sport and every Australian to be treated with dignity.

But we also have to have common sense here so whether it’s Emma, or anyone else who has made comments about this in support, and as Katherine who has been a champion of these, Katherine Deves [says], it’s a common sense position which I think Australians understand. They want it to be dealt with sensitively and respectfully and so do I.

But it’s a pretty straightforward common sense position which I think Australians agree with.

Updated

That answer continues:

To the other point, I meant no offence by what I said last night but I accept that it has caused offence to people and I have been in contact today and I apologised directly to Dylan Alcott about that.

I think people would also appreciate that I would have had no such intention of suggesting that anything other than every child is a blessing is true. Every single child is precious. And a blessing to every parent.

I don’t think that’s in dispute and I don’t think anyone would seriously think that I had intent of anything different to that. What I was seeking to do when talking to Catherine about her son, Ethan, last night and I had the opportunity to talk to Catherine after the debate last night, took her details, [the department will be in touch] about her particular case, Catherine certainly didn’t convey to me that she had taken it in that way.

But I can appreciate particularly in some of the ways it was communicated, and the way it was sought to be represented by our political opponents in the mill of an election, that it could have been taken in a different context and I’m deeply sorry about that. The points that Dylan Alcott [made] are right. It’s about equality and it’s about access and it’s about being able to live life on the same terms as everyone else.

That’s what the National Disability Insurance Scheme is all about. I it’s a very important scheme. I know Labor things it’s a very important scheme. It’s a very difficult scheme to run. There are challenges in running a scheme of that scale which is now bigger than Medicare. And every single individual’s case is different. Every single case is different.

I was simply trying to make the point last night – and I’ve often referred to my own children’s as a blessing, we were 14 years in the waiting to have our children – but my point is I wasn’t trying to imply that I could first-hand understand the challenges people face in those situations. I was seeking to respect the challenges they face. Not the opposite.

I would hope that people would accept that at face value and I deeply apologise for any offence it caused.

Updated

Q: You didn’t answer the question on when you found out about the potential deal between China and Solomon Islands because at the moment Zed Sesejla is saying the Government found out when the draft was leaked. Second that, will you apologise for comments made last night: Labor is says you should apologise for the comments regarding the NDIS story?

Scott Morrison:

I am pleased to address that issue and I’ve had a chat with Dylan Alcott about those issues today.

Going back to the other issue, what I was saying is [I won’t go into] specific details of an agreement ... I won’t go to those specifics as it goes into issues of national security so I won’t do that.

No, what I’m telling you, no, I’m sorry, I knew about national security. I’ve been on the national security committee for eight years. Anthony Albanese, I think he was on it for less than three months. So I know a bit about these issues and what you can and can’t say about national security issues.

What I have said very plainly is we have always been aware of the risk of an agreement like this. We’ve been aware of the Chinese seeking to obtain an agreement like this, as they have in Papua New Guinea and other countries in the Pacific, as they have done in African countries. And we know what they’ve done in those countries, as we have seen them do things in Sri Lanka and places like that. We have said how the Chinese operate in developing countries and how they seek to gain favour in those countries.

They don’t play by the same rules as transparent liberal democracies like Australia and the United States and Japan and India, the United Kingdom and France and other countries like that. They play by different rules so that makes our job difficult. These are sovereign nations making their own decisions.

Updated

Q: A number of retirees we spoke to at that retirement village said they are worried about the pension cut. It is clear your message it is just a Labor lie is not cutting through. What can you do now? Will you go into it, launch a counterattack and maybe letterbox some pamphlets of your own, will you complain to big tech? What do you do now?

Scott Morrison:

That’s why I was in Caboolture and I welcome opportunities to present right here, and my members are doing the same thing around the country:

Labour are telling a despicable lie to pensioners seeking to frighten them to vote for the Labor party. We are not extending the cash list debit card to pensioners, we are not forcing that on pensioners. That is an absolute lie. What I found interesting in talking to those pensioners this morning is they remember back in 2016 when Bill Shorten said we were going to privatise Medicare. He put it on a big bus! And it was a blatant and awful life.

Medicare has only got stronger under our government. Not weaker. I’ll tell you why, because a stronger economy means a stronger Medicare and this election is about having a stronger economy under the Liberals and Nationals, or a weaker economy under Labor who can’t manage money and can’t run a strong economy.

That is the message that I think is well understood particularly by older Australians who know that you have to work hard, you have to save, that you have to look after your finances if you want to achieve the things in life you want to achieve and they understand for governments, it’s no different, and they understand Labor can’t manage money.

Updated

Q: If they [Labor] are critical of you, they say they are on China’s side. If they are critical of anything your government does in the space, you say, well, you must be on China’s side. Is that your argument?

Scott Morrison:

Let me put it to you: do you think the relationship with China and the fact that they have imposed trade coercion on Australia because we put in place foreign interference laws, that we put in place tougher foreign investment laws, that we call them out on issues like the pandemic, do you think that was Australia’s fault or was it China’s fault?

... You put the question. I am simply saying ... that when we have taken decisions in the national interest, and when we have stood up for Australia and on the right thing for Australia, the Labor party has joined the chorus of other countries attacking Australia. And that is just a fact.

Updated

That answer continues:

Now we had a good discussion about this issue last night as you would have seen. I made a couple of points and Mr Albanese took some offence to what I said to him last night, but let’s just look at the record.

When our relationship with China started to descend, and when China was putting in place trade blocs on Australian products, wine and barley and various things like that, they said that was Australia’s fault, not China’s fault.

When I called out China for where the pandemic started and said there had to be an independent investigation into the origins of Covid, apparently this was the wrong thing for us to do. Labor said that Australia was at fault in calling for that, and our government was at fault for doing that.

When I cancelled a submarine contract for $90bn because it wasn’t the right submarine for Australia, and I can assure you there is no easy way to cancel a $90bn submarine contract with a friend such as France, but when France attacked Australia over that decision, they didn’t side with Australia, they sided with the French government.

And more recently now we have China seeking to influence through their means, which Peter was a bit more expressive about today. Did they blame China for doing that, or do they use it as an opportunity to attack the government? So when I look at that record, on each occasion have they backed the Australian government in standing up for Australia?

Why have they run the talking points, have they run the lines of those who are seeking to criticise Australia for the important decisions that we have taken in our national interest? That is why I made the claim I did last night because it is backed up by a Labor party who has played politics with national security, despite their claims to the contrary.

Updated

Scott Morrison again claims Labor party 'attacks Australia'

Question time at the Scott Morrison presser:

Q: You said the Solomon Islands and China deal was not a surprise. Zed Sesejla said he found out when the draft leaked. So when exactly did the government find out that this was a sealed deal?

Scott Morrison:

We have known for some time the risk of a deal such as this coming about. This is why the first place I went to after the last election was the Solomon Islands. And I spoke to the prime minister there on that occasion about the threats that China presented to the region, and we discussed those issues back on that occasion, and there has been an ongoing dialogue over that entire time.

And so we have been addressing those issues over a long period of time, that is why we further doubled down – I mentioned last night in the debate – the $39m financing investment we put in place for the transmission project. It is why we did the undersea cable, it is why we are the single largest provider of overseas development assistance to the Solomon Islands.

It is why we continue to lift our investment right across the Pacific, because what has emerged as a result of this issue in the Solomon Islands as it has been able to further elevate the awareness of other Pacific Islanders who are also very concerned about this, just as Australia and New Zealand is, and as prime minister Arden said today – we have discussed this many times – this is a matter we are looking forward to discussing as part of the Pacific Islands forum.

The threat of this has been around for a long time and I can’t go into all the details as to how Australia is able to know the specific information, as they are security matters, but what I do know is we have always been very conscious of that threat of China being able to influence a nation in our region, and you know, Peter Dutton I thought put it pretty well today.

China, they don’t play by the same rules as liberal, transparent democracy. This is a secret deal, and the arrangements that are there are not public. And, you know, Peter may have put it a bit more bluntly this morning, but he makes the right point, that we are dealing with an autocratic nation that is not playing by the normal rules on how they seek to influence other nations in our region, and other nations in our region I can assure you are very aware of that.

Updated

While we wait for Angus Taylor to stop speaking, here is an update on ACT’s covid restrictions, via AAP:

On the eve of Covid-19 isolation rules being ditched for household contacts of people with the virus in NSW and Victoria, the ACT is expected to follow suit.

The seven-day home quarantine for household contacts will be scrapped in NSW at 6pm on Friday and 11.59pm in Victoria.

Close contacts will have to undertake daily rapid antigen tests, wear masks indoors and work from home where possible.

They will also have to notify their employers and avoid high-risk environments like hospitals and aged care settings.

The ACT health minister, Rachel Stephen-Smith, has indicated the nation’s capital will make a similar announcement on Thursday.

“The ACT government is keen to ensure that ACT public health directions are consistent with settings in NSW and Victoria to the greatest extent possible, taking account of our local circumstances,” she told the ABC.

Updated

Scott Morrison press conference

The prime minister is in Brisbane, with Angus Taylor, talking manufacturing and how he doesn’t think the opposition understands “that we make things in Australia”.

But not cars.

AAP has an update on business confidence:

The strong rebound in confidence among small businesses seen in late 2021 proved short-lived as the impact of the Omicron Covid-19 variant and rising costs took their toll.

National Australia Bank’s small and medium enterprise business survey for the March quarter showed its confidence index dropped six points to nine index points, softening across firms of all sizes.

The SME business conditions index also eased, down five points at six points.

“Unfortunately, conditions remained very weak for SMEs in the hospitality sector, which has continued to face disruptions from the pandemic,” said NAB’s chief economist, Alan Oster.

“SMEs in the property and construction sectors also saw conditions slip in the quarter, which could reflect a range of factors impacting the property market, including Omicron as well as slowing house price growth.”

Costs also remained elevated with labour and materials availability continuing to be a constraint for a large share of firms.

Updated

Scott Morrison will hold his press conference very soon.

Given Scott Morrison people may not have heard what he actually said last night, here is the video:

Given the Coalition has had the steerage of the NDIS for the past nine years or so, and the complaints about funding being cut, and plans being re-done without consultation with those the plans are for/families/carers and the government is funding lawyers to argue against AAT rulings, this doesn’t seem to be the defence some government MPs think it is.

Updated

Food relief groups call for support

It hasn’t come up in the campaign as much as it should, but the cost of living is really biting.

Australia’s major food relief groups have come together to ask for more attention from the Coalition and the Labor parties, given the stress on their services:

Australia’s national food relief sector has come together to ensure those experiencing hardship are not forgotten in the lead-up to the Federal election and beyond. Foodbank, OzHarvest and SecondBite are calling on all sides of politics to deliver improved food relief funding and tax incentives to help reduce food waste and feed more people.

The three charitable organisations work towards the common goals of eradicating hunger and halving food waste by 2030. They act as a vital frontline safeguard in times of individual and community adversity, whether prompted by disasters such as the recent floods, global pandemic and Black Summer bushfires, or everyday poverty and inequality.

Together, the organisations are providing food relief to more than a million people per month across Australia, distributing more than 85 million kilograms of food and groceries in the 2021 financial year. Yet despite these record volumes, the current community need is not being met, and Federal Government funding for the food relief sector is not confirmed beyond next financial year.

Ahead of the Federal election, Foodbank, OzHarvest and SecondBite are seeking three key commitments from all the parties and independents to ensure vulnerable people have consistent and reliable access to food:

    1. Sustained and adequate funding for food relief

    2. The establishment of dedicated disaster preparedness and emergency food relief programs

    3. The introduction of a national food waste tax incentive, making it easier for the food sector to redirect its surplus for food relief

Updated

We stan Joesphine’s concern for the climate.

Updated

It’s the Reserve Bank (an independent statutory body) which sets the cash rate, which interest rates are based on.

But this graph shows how governments are considered to have that power.

Updated

Scott Morrison should be holding his press conference very soon.

He is in Queensland, in the electorate of Longman (which is held by the LNP). Labor is targeting it, but is unlikely to see a win there.

175,000 Australians watched the first leaders' debate on TV

The leaders’ debate on Sky News Australia on Wednesday night had 175,000 viewers nationally, according to ratings figures from OzTAM.

The Sky News People’s Forum was the most watched program on subscription TV last night where it beat Gogglebox (111,000) and Paul Murray Live (85,000).

The Morrison v Albanese contest had a bigger audience than the Friday night contest in 2019 between Morrison and then Labor leader Bill Shorten (95,000), according to analysis by TV Tonight.

However, the last free-to-air debates on Seven and the ABC in 2019 drew 550,000+ and 600,000 respectively.

The OzTAM figures do not include those who watched it via a free livestream on skynews.com.au and news.com.au, or those who watched through the Flash news subscription service.

SBS on Demand also produced a Mandarin and Arabic version and the program was broadcast on free-to-air TV via Sky News Regional.

The highest-rating program on free-to-air on Wednesday night was Seven’s The Voice (629,000 metro viewers). The Mad as Hell season finale on the ABC won its slot with 401,000.

Scott Morrison (R) shakes hands with Anthony Albanese, during the first leaders’ debate of the 2022 federal election campaign.
Scott Morrison (R) shakes hands with Anthony Albanese, during the first leaders’ debate of the 2022 federal election campaign. Photograph: Jason Edwards/News Corp Australia/AFP/Getty Images

Updated

Our New Zealand friends are seeing inflation take off, with March quarter headline CPI coming in at 6.9%.

The reading will be watched by a few on this side of the Tasman not least because we are also a smallish open economy, largely at the whim of global markets.

The consensus CPI expectation, according to the ANZ bank, was 7.1%. (Might be a bit mean but we do wonder how many people form the “consensus” given the NZ economy is a lot tinier than, say, Victoria or NSW’s economy.)

Of interest to Australians will be what’s been rising in price, not least because we get the first-quarter CPI result on 27 April. The RBA minutes this week said they expect a figure of “above 3%”, which wasn’t very insightful as inflation was already running at 3.5% for 2021.

As the ANZ noted, food prices added the most (one-third) to the quarter-on-quarter increase of 1.8%. Thank Russia’s invasion of Ukraine for that.

Fuel prices were up 32.5% on a year earlier, and 8.8% higher for the quarter. NZ, as in Australia, cut its fuel excise late last month but only for three months (versus six months here).

The 25 NZ cent cut (from about $NZ0.70 to $NZ0.45) will ease some of the price pressure in the current quarter and - along with the NZ Reserve Bankalready lifting the interest rate – has economists hoping the CPI spike may be near its peak.

Anyway, whatever the Australian CPI number is, it’s unlikely to nudge the RBA to lift the cash rate target at its May meeting. June, though, looks a strong bet.

What the 27 April number may do, though, is put “cost of living pressures” back on the election campaign agenda.

The issue was largely absent from last night’s “leaders debate”, which was a surprise but perhaps points to the success the government had with its budget neutralising the issue through the $3bn fuel excise halving. We’ll see whether it stays neutralised.

Updated

Apple to roll out child safety feature to iPhones in Australia

Apple will soon roll out a new iPhone feature in Australia that will, when enabled, scan messages sent to and from children detecting whether nudity is in the photos.

The feature, called communication safety in Messages, can be switched on by parents, and when a message detected to be a nude photo is detected trying to be sent or received, it will be blurred, and will warn the child it may contain sensitive content.

It’ll direct the child to child safety resources online, and the child will be given an option to tell an adult about it.

The scanning is all on-device, meaning Apple never sees the messages, the photos, or harvests any data from the analysis.

Customers and staff inside an Apple Store in Sydney
Customers and staff inside an Apple Store in Sydney Photograph: Loren Elliott/Reuters

Apple said:

Messages analyses image attachments and determines if a photo contains nudity, while maintaining the end-to-end encryption of the messages. The feature is designed so that no indication of the detection of nudity ever leaves the device. Apple does not get access to the messages, and no notifications are sent to the parent or anyone else.

The company first launched the product in the US, but will now expand it to other markets including Australia.

My colleague Alex Hern wrote about the product in depth for the UK announcement overnight.

Updated

How would a Labor government handle China?

Anthony Albanese:

The issue with Beijing will be problematic. Regardless of who is in government because the stance of Beijing has changed. I have said that repeatedly. But my philosophy, and I will finish with this. My philosophy is consistent with the Biden administration ... where he speaks about competition without catastrophe. We have to recognise what is happening in the region, we have to recognise that China is more forward-winning. They are seeking to increase influence in the region and we need to respond to that. We have to call out the behaviour of China inputting sanctions against Australian businesses, because that sanctions against Australian jobs. And it is entirely inappropriate.

The press conference ends.

Updated

Labor instigated Medicare, the NDIS and the aged pension, so what “big thing” does Labor offer this campaign?

Anthony Albanese:

My big thing is taking clean energy and using that to bring back manufacturing to this country, and to have Australia become a renewable energy superpower. That clean energy to drive jobs and advanced manufacturing. Jobs that exist for domestic purposes, but also export. We see in the Sun Cable project, to get an example. An opportunity that’s there. Sun Cable project gave Australia renewable energy, solar energy, powering Singapore. Powering Singapore. An extraordinary project. We have an incredible opportunity to make more things here and in coming days, hopefully you will be with us, we will be visiting places where we want to make more things here.

Updated

Q: Just on religious freedom, you have said if you win in May, you will legislate the National Integrity Commission this year. Will you also do the Religious Discrimination Act this year and as part of that, will you abolish those exemptions in the Act that allows schools to discriminate against transgender and gay people, will that happen this year?

Anthony Albanese says he won’t put a time table on all Labor’s legislation and then says:

Since the government, let’s be clear about what happened here, since the government introduced legislation, it was amended consistent with what the prime minister wrote to me and said should happen with the legislation. They then withdrew it. The government promised, like prior to the 2019 election, that they would get this done. Scott Morrison always goes missing. And he always blame someone else. And in this case, in this case he has blamed as of his own party. Members of his own party. I mean, we sat until about five o’clock in the morning in order to get this legislation through.

Because the government had not prioritised it. They were too busy doing sports rorts, too busy with their scheme on commuter car parks. There were too busy on the other priorities.

We will get, all of our policies will be a priority. All of our priorities will be a priority. And yes this time, one of the things that I’m doing, to be very clear, about one of the big differences between me and Scott Morrison, I am running in this campaign to be Australia’s prime minister to implement the policies that I am taking to the selection, whether it be the NBN, whether it be cheaper childcare, the establishment of the national reconstruction bond. A Religious Discrimination Act, a national anti-corruption commission, this term. This term.

I will be held to account. I will be held to account for that. One of the things I would do is what characterises as prime minister, which as he always goes missing and he always blame someone else.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese during the first leaders’ debate of the 2022 federal election campaign in Brisbane on Wednesday night.
Labor leader Anthony Albanese during the first leaders’ debate of the 2022 federal election campaign in Brisbane on Wednesday evening. Photograph: Getty Images

Updated

Q: Can I just ask you on NDIS. Senator Linda Reynolds has said that your plan for expert reviews will add time and bureaucracy. Can you guarantee that won’t happen? And also what did you make of Mr Morrison’s comment last night regarding being blessed not to have had to dealt with those NDIS issues?

Anthony Albanese:

Well, on the latter, I was asked about this before, but ... But I’m not a commentator. But I was asked about that before. I think that – all children are a blessing for parents.

And the first bit – NDIS – NDIS, look, we have outlined the policies about removing the distant bureaucracy that’s occurring.

We heard from the mother of young Ethan last night the problems that are occurring in practice. People are having their plans cut because a bureaucrat somewhere who isn’t in touch with what their issues are are making decisions. Ellie, who I spoke about last night as well, I know that she – I saw one of the things that she tweeted last night as well. You know, her circumstance, quite frankly, we had some of you were at the press conference with Ellie and Dougie. Dougie, I think, was from Canberra, just telling their stories about the impact.

The NDIS is about our humanity. It’s a proud Labor reform and what’s happening is that people are having programs cut, the idea that someone can be told that colostomy bags are no longer part of their plan and when they asked, “Well, what am I supposed to do?”, they get told, “Can’t you just reuse them?” even though they’re very susceptible to infections.

And the consequences of that, the consequences of that are far more dire in terms of a potential hospitalisation, acute care. We need to make sure that we get this right. I’m very confident that Bill Shorten’s plan that he’s put forward and that we have endorsed and we’re going to this election on is about putting people back at the centre of the NDIS. That’s what it’s about.

... If there are unfair cuts have been made, absolutely. People should get the care that they need and some of these cuts – inevitably there are changes made to people’s plans that they work through, but they need to be ones that actually improve the capacity to have a quality of life. Where there are cuts that have been made that make it worse for people’s quality of life, that make them less employable, that make them less able to participate in society, that should not happen.

Updated

Q: Just a quick question on local matters. Gilmore has a huge homeless issue and lack of housing issue. What is Labor going to do about that?

Anthony Albanese:

We’ll have a Housing Australia Future Fund. Our fund will have 20,000 additional social housing units, but will also build affordable housing units for essential workers. Now, of that 20,000, I know that domestic violence is an issue right around the country as well. We’ll make sure that 4,000 of those units, those dwellings, are available for women and children escaping domestic violence. In addition to that, we have additional funding for emergency housing, we have a specific fund as well for Indigenous housing, for fixing up Indigenous housing in areas as well. So we have ...

... Homelessness is a huge issue, particularly in our regions. And what we know is the biggest group where homelessness is growing is older women. It’s older women who just can’t find anywhere to rent. The prime minister told them they should just go buy a house, that was their solution.

Updated

Q: Peter Dutton has said that China won’t waste any time expanding its presence in the Pacific in the wake of that deal with the Solomons. If you’re elected next month, what will your government do to address that?

Anthony Albanese:

We’ll actually not go missing. We’d turn up. Where has Peter Dutton turned up? I tell you what – the people of the Pacific know. They have all seen the video of talking about how funny it is that countries are going to go under water. They have all seen it. And these are the people in that video – Scott Morrison and Peter Dutton – who are negotiating with the Pacific. How do you think they feel? How do you feel the people of Tuvalu, the leadership of Kiribati, the leadership of our Pacific Island neighbours feel about this?

This government have gone missing.

They had enough notice to engage and do something about this.

China is more aggressive. China is more forward-leaning. We all accept that. The difference is how do you respond to it? Do you respond to it by trying to play domestic politics? Or do you respond to it in a strategic way - in a strategic way – that makes a difference? And we have been warning about this for some time.

We opposed the extradition treaties being signed between China and Australia because they have a different view about the rule of law and about human rights and yet the government condemned us and said we were undermining business opportunities by doing that.

I make this point as well: The government of which I was a part and leader of the government in the House of Representatives, the Gillard government, did a deal and put US marines in Darwin.

This government sat back and went missing while the port of Darwin was sold to a company with direct links to the Chinese Communist party. Clearly not in Australia’s interest for that to happen. So in terms of national security and taking these issues seriously, we will. We will engage with our partners, we’ll engage with the region, we’ll take these issues seriously because we have to.

Updated

Q: Mr Albanese, how will your federal Icac be in the landscape of state and territory bodies of a similar nature, for example, Peter Malinauskas in South Australia as opposition leader supported a model that is much weaker than Scott Morrison’s, for example, one that you say is not good enough?

Anthony Albanese:

Well, we’ll support our own model and Mark Dreyfus has outlined the principles in our model – one that’s allowed to have public hearings, one that has independent powers investigation, one that can subpoena and take action in order to ensure that it produces outcomes. Look, we need to – we need to restore faith in our politics and be very clear – Scott Morrison in 2018 announced before the last election when he was prime minister, he stood up and did a press conference, he didn’t have to do it, he stood up and said, “We’re going to have a National Integrity Commission”, as he called it. We could call it a National Anticorruption Commission. He then did nothing until the 2019 election was called.

The 2019 election was called and he said, “We will legislate a National Integrity Commission.” We have gone three years and he hasn’t even introduced the legislation into parliament and during this election campaign, he has made it very clear that there will be no National Anticorruption Commission if he is re-elected. That is very clear. So it’s a stark contrast – if you want a National Anticorruption Commission, you have to vote for a Labor government because it’s only a Labor government that will get it done.

Updated

Q: Can I ask: how many of your other colleagues shared that position that you had back then?

Anthony Albanese:

Everyone supports our position. The Labor party’s position is very clear – we support boat turnbacks. And what’s extraordinary here is that this is an example of the prime minister looking for divisions where there aren’t any. The truth is boat turnbacks have worked. The truth is that the Labor party have been very clear about supporting boat turnbacks. I support it. Everyone in my team supports it. We’ll implement it.

Updated

Q: Can I ask a question of your candidate. You’re a signatory to a document in 2015 which says you fiercely opposed turning back the boats. What is your current position? Does it remain the same?

Fiona Phillips:

I absolutely 100% support Labor’s policy. Absolutely.

Q: Why have you changed uyour mind when you were a fierce advocate for not turning back the boats recently.

Phillips:

There’s been two conferences since then and as MP, I absolutely support Labor’s policy.

(Anthony Albanese tries to move back to the microphone)

Q: Sorry I’m asking the question of the candidate. Can you articulate the reason why you changed your mind? We now understand Mr Albanese has.

Q: And when did you change your mind?

Albanese:

She has answered that.

Reporter: She hasn’t.

Phillips:

I like many members have gone to national conferences and just like we should we discuss items and I support that position. Absolutely. That’s what I did in the 2016 election and the 2019 election. So nothing has changed. I support Labor policy. I support regional offshore processing and if required and safe to do so boat turnbacks.

Q: Do you think the prime minister is downplaying the prospect of the Chinese military base being built in the Solomons given we heard Barnaby Joyce say that it could become a little Cuba.

Anthony Albanese:

Well, Barnaby Joyce’s comments were quite extraordinary. He, again, you think he had nothing to do with this.

He is the deputy prime minister of the country and the deputy prime minister of the country who was allowed to make a public comment on one of the few occasions in this campaign has said that this is like Cuba, likening it to the Cuban missile crisis that occurred on the doorstep of the United States. We know that the Solomons is a strategic destination. We know during World War II some of the fiercest and most important battles for control of the Pacific occurred there. And we know that the United States very much relies upon Australia and sees Australia as playing that key role of partners in the Indo-Pacific and that Australia and Scott Morrison has just gone missing. The United States is sending Kurt Campbell, its senior representative in this region. I have known Kurt a long period of time. He is a world-respected figure. We sent a junior person across there for what is a really serious matter and is beyond my comprehension that in spite of all of the speculation that has occurred, there’s been no action. Marise Payne on the Insiders program said that basically this was all under control. It’s quite clear that it wasn’t.

Updated

Q: When did you change your mind [on boats], Mr Albanese?

Anthony Albanese:

I have answered that. I make a public statement at the time.

Q: Do you think it was insensitive last night the prime minister saying how blessed he and his wife were who had children who didn’t suffer autism?

Anthony Albanese:

I think every child is a blessing for parents.

Updated

Anthony Albanese press conference

Q: Mr Albanese, if I can about some comments last night. In 2015 you said that you couldn’t ask someone to do something you couldn’t see yourself doing yourself regarding boat turnbacks. You said if people were on a boat and putting families and children, you yourself couldn’t turn that around. When did you change your mind? What was it specifically that made you change your mind given it sounds like quite a strong view you head in 2015?

Anthony Albanese:

When I announced it. When I announced it at the time. Labor supports turning back the boats.

Leader of the opposition, Anthony Albanese.
Leader of the opposition, Anthony Albanese. Photograph: Jason Edwards/News Corp Australia/AFP/Getty Images

Updated

Criticism of 'blessed' comments is 'bad form', says Scott Morrison

Scott Morrison is asked about the criticism of his comments in the debate last night, where he said he was “blessed” not to have a child with a disability and says:

It took us 14 years to have Abbie and we refer to her as our miracle child and then we’re blessed with Lily. What I was saying in good faith and Catherine who I was speaking to whose son, Ethan had an autism, eh, um, disabiliy, she didn’t take it that way.

I was just simply saying that it’s tough and I’m grateful that these hardships that I and Jenny haven’t had to deal with. They’re other things. But it’s tough and it’s hard. Of course there is no greater love than a parent has for a child, and particularly a child who has special needs, and and it is a blessing.

But I was just simply trying to say in good faith, look, I haven’t walked in your shoes, Catherine, I’m not gonna pretend to say that I understand it as well as you do.

And that’s all and the fact that Bill Shorten and others seek to leap on that and twist the words and turn it into something I just thought showed really bad faith and tried to take something that was meant in a good spirit and just use it for political purposes in the middle of the campaign.

So that says more about him.

And I know others have jumped on that. And then they probably haven’t heard exactly what I said.

And so I can understand if I they were just listening to Bill Shorten that they’d say that but I thought that was just pretty poor from Bill.

Ray Hadley says it is something he has said many, many times himself and he has friends who have children and grandchildren with disabilities.

Morrison:

It’s a hard road and it’s the very definition of limitless love. I think. It really is. And I just think they’re amazing Australians and their kids are and we love them all. And we really respect what they do and supporting families with special needs and disabilities shouldn’t be a partisan thing.

We support the NDIS we’ve had to fund it. It’s hard to fund and and it’s a big commitment and we believe in it. It shouldn’t be something that is being torn apart and used and partisanised in this way. I just thought it would just bad form.

Updated

Given Ray Hadley and Scott Morrison are still talking about boats, it is worth pointing out that Morrison has not identified any intelligence that there is any issue. Labor has said it will keep turning back boats when safe to do so.

Scott Morrison plays lawn bowls at a retirement village in Caboolture on Thursday.
Scott Morrison plays lawn bowls at a retirement village in Caboolture on Thursday. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Updated

It’s straight into another spiel on the economy, before mentioning that the mobile reception in Caboolture is “not great” and announces another reception blackspot program.

Caboolture is just outside of the Queensland capital, it is not exactly the sticks. The Coalition has been in power for almost a decade. Make of that what you will.

Then it moves on to the Labor scare campaign over putting pensioners on the cashless debit card.

Then, without irony, it moves on to the Coalition scare campaign on Operation Sovereign Borders (which is treated very seriously).

Updated

Scott Morrison is in Longman, and tells Ray Hadley that “you’re very popular up here, mate”.

Morrison is at a retirement home.

Scott Morrison at a retirement village in Caboolture, north of Brisbane, in the seat of Longman, on Thursday.
Scott Morrison at a retirement village in Caboolture, north of Brisbane, in the seat of Longman, on Thursday. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Updated

Ray Hadley’s “analysis” continues, asking his listeners “who do you trust” to protect the borders, and drops in this pearler:

Anthony Albanese who doesn’t know his beeeeeeeeep [they actually used the sound effect] from his Albo?

Updated

Scott Morrison is late for Ray Hadley, so he is filling in time.

He says that Kristina Keneally is in “witness protection” and then adds “with all due respect” because “she has had the virus”.

“But she can still talk,” he says.

The Labor campaign has moved away from Queensland and is now in the electorate of Gilmore. Labor holds the seat with a 2.6% margin and the Liberals want it back, putting in former NSW state minister Andrew Constance against Fiona Phillips.

Labor think they can hold on to the electorate, but both sides are throwing a lot at it.

Scott Morrison will speak with Sydney radio 2GB’s Ray Hadley in the next 15 minutes or so.

Labor's Katy Gallagher says PM's comment 'deeply offending'

Labor senator Katy Gallagher, who has a daughter with autism, was asked about Scott Morrison’s “blessed” comment on the Seven Network this morning. She said it was “deeply offending and deeply upsetting”:

Gallagher:

As the parent of a wonderful daughter with autism, I was really upset by that comment. I found it really offending and quite shocking. And it’s something that people who have a disability, children with autism, it’s the kind of response they get all the time, that people are blessed not to have what they have when in actual fact every child is a blessing.

Certainly my daughter Nat enriches my life and my partner’s life every day. She’s wonderful. And I think that again just shows a lack of connection with everyday people’s lives. I mean, there’s millions of us who live with children with a range of different needs. And to have a prime minister say he was blessed not to have one of those is deeply offending and deeply upsetting to those of us who have that wonderful addition in our family.

Shadow finance minister Katy Gallagher.
Shadow finance minister Katy Gallagher. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

Updated

And you can add the Australian of the Year Dylan Alcott to that list Luke just reported (former Australian of the Year, Grace Tame’s tweet is below).

Updated

Disability advocates react to Scott Morrison's 'blessed' comment

Amy brought you Liberal senator Hollie Hughes’s defence of Scott Morrison’s “blessed” comments earlier. As Amy mentioned, Hughes’s son Fred is autistic, and Hughes is a big supporter of the NDIS, even criticising the government over its handling of the issue at times.

Respected disability advocate Craig Wallace, meanwhile, had this to say:

But it would be fair to say that for many, many others, the prime minister’s comments have been deeply hurtful.

Nicole Rogerson, the founder of Autism Awareness Australia, a group that Hughes has widely praised, posted this pointed response to Morrison.

The organisation itself was even more scathing:

Here is some other reaction to the comments from autistic people and those with autistic children.

And if you watched the debate, you would have heard Anthony Albanese talk about a woman who had been told by the NDIS that she would now have to re-use her colostomy bags.

That woman was Elly Desmarchelier, a disability advocate who had this to say about Morrison’s comments.

Updated

This morning, on Sky News, Zed Seselja, in listing what he said was Labor’s “misrepresentations” on the Pacific situation, didn’t list the August warning as one of them:

Well, Penny Wong has fundamentally misrepresented the situation and, in fact, completely misdiagnosed the response. So, Penny Wong and Anthony Albanese and the Labor party have made false claims about cuts that aren’t there. We are spending a record amount when it comes to aid in the region, when it comes to security arrangements in the region, when it comes to our Covid response. We have stepped up in every way. And the Labor party haven’t said what they would do differently, but we know what they did do differently – they did a lot less in the region when they were there. They cut defence spending, and now what they are saying, and what Penny Wong said again today and what Anthony Albanese has said is that it’s, in fact, about climate change and the climate change response, which is just an absurd argument, which goes, I think, to their fitness for office.

Updated

Yesterday afternoon, the Pacific minister Zed Seselja disputed Labor’s claim that the Morrison government had been warned China was looking to establish a military presence in Solomon Islands in August last year:

So she’s [Penny Wong] claimed, and I think she’s shown herself to particularly be unfit to be foreign minister. She’s claimed that this is a resolve to cut aid. That’s not true. We have actually substantially increased the aid budget to the region since we came to office. So when the Labor party were in office, they were spending a lot less when it came to aid, and indeed a lot less on other co-operation, like defence co-operation in the region. So that’s the first lie. The second lie was that we knew about it in August. That is simply not true.

Q: And what was the earliest knowledge that you had?

Seselja:

We found out about it when we saw that leaked draft. So Penny Wong is simply making that up. That’s not true and our officials have confirmed that.

In March, Matthew Wale, the leader of the Democratic party, the Solomon Islands opposition, told the ABC he had tried to warn Australia in August. He said:

I have intimated as much to the Australian High Commissioner and officials that this was in the offing, even as far back as last year — all the indications were there and the Australian government did nothing about it — so I’m extremely disappointed in the Australian government.

Honiara, the capital of Solomon Islands.
Honiara, the capital of Solomon Islands. Photograph: The Guardian

Updated

Josh Frydenberg is on the campaign trail today, campaigning in Sydney’s west with the Liberal candidate for Bennelong, Simon Kennedy.

Sitting MP John Alexander announced he would retire at the election. The Liberals are expected to hold on to the seat.

Updated

NSW records 16 Covid deaths and 17,447 new cases

New South Wales has recorded 16 Covid deaths and 17,447 new cases in the past day.

More people have died of Covid so far this year in Australia than in 2020 and 2021 combined.

Updated

Victoria records 11 Covid deaths and 10,674 new cases

Victoria has released its Covid numbers for the past 24 hours, with 10,674 new cases and sadly 11 deaths.

Updated

Simon Birmingham was doing the media rounds this morning.

We’ll bring you more of that interview a little later.

Updated

Australia won't challenge Assange ruling, Birmingham says

Finally, asked if Australia believed, as at least 25 human rights organisations do, that Julian Assange should not be extradited to the United States, Simon Birmingham said:

No, we have confidence in the independence and the integrity of the British justice system. This is a process that will be able to continue to work through that system. There remain appeal rights for Mr Assange, depending on decisions that have [been] made and we’ll continue to provide, where it is taken up, appropriate consular assistance.

Updated

Asked about Scott Morrison describing him and his wife as “blessed” not to have children with disabilities, Simon Birmingham said:

I think he was expressing the type of sentiment many Australians would understand, in terms of the circumstances where we all want to see. It’s why Australians support the NDIS, and the record investment we’re making, which has grown its funding to now be greater in totality than that of Medicare.

... It’s a vast and complicated system supporting 500,000 different Australians in different circumstances. It won’t get every single case right in terms of how it engages, but that’s why the PM took the time out afterwards to sit down with that mum and that make sure that he was able to get the details and to go back to the agency, as I’m sure he will today, to ensure they will get in touch with her.

Q: I’m talking about the language, it’s the language we’re discussing, the idea he and Jenny have been blessed by not having a child with a disability. People from within your own party have said it’s not right that people with a disability are continually portrayed as being a burden on those around them.

Birmingham:

Well, it’s certainly not that. It is simply the case that, as a country, all Australians, I think, understand the need for us to provide additional support and we can understand as well the circumstances for family members and for others helping people living with disabilities are not always easy circumstances. And that for many of us, we are fortunate not to deal with some of the challenges faced in those cases.

Updated

Q: But senator, I do want to take you up on that. This was the debate we were having in the dying days of the parliament, and all the national security experts and veterans in the field say it was unhelpful and that the ALP was anything other than supporting Australia’s policy, so why are you continuing this line of attack?

Simon Birmingham:

The Labor party have created the points of difference in the way they expressed themselves and the language they used. When last in office, let our investment in our defence forces whittle away to the lowest share of the economy. We brought it back to 2% of the GDP, and having that credible investment is what has enabled us to strike new defence pacts and partnerships with countries like the United States and the United Kingdom, making us a credible partner for defence and strategic investment in areas of artificial intelligence, in missile equipment and investment, and the nuclear-powered submarines.

Updated

Simon Birmingham paints Labor as weak on China

In the lead up to the election, the government has tried very hard to present Labor as being “weak” when it came to China, breaking the bipartisan pact that national security is not a political wedge. This culminated when in the last sitting week of parliament Scott Morrison accused Labor’s Richard Marles of being a “Manchurian candidate”.

Former ASIO head Dennis Richardson and current ASIO boss Mike Burgess chastised the use of national security as a political tool.

But last night in the debate, during an exchange about the Solomon Islands-China security pact, Morrison brought back echoes of that moment, when he asked:

“When it comes to standing up to China, they’ve criticised me for being too strong, I was called a racist for closing the borders, I was protecting Australia.

“What I don’t understand is, when something of this significance takes place, why would you take China’s side?”

Anthony Albanese called it “an outrageous slur”.

This morning, though, Liberal SA senator Simon Birmingham wasn’t backing down from it:

I think we have seen a Labor party, who when China were making decisions to apply trade sanctions and tariffs against Australia, Labor seemed to want us to reach a compromise with China rather than to stand up for Australia.

Anthony Albanese spoke at the National Press Club not that long ago – he suggested we should negotiate or settle some of the points with the Labor party – sorry, with China. Well, ultimately, we have to stand up for Australian interests.

We’re not going to trade away beef producers in Queensland or winemakers in South Australia or fresh seafood exporters from Tasmania. We’re going to stand up for all of those industries and for Australia’s interests in term of having a peaceful and prosperous and secure region.

Simon Birmingham says the Coalition won’t ‘trade away’ winemakers and agricultural producers.
Simon Birmingham says the Coalition won’t ‘trade away’ winemakers and agricultural producers. Photograph: Loren Elliott/Reuters

Updated

Q: Before you go, I want to ask about more now-deleted tweets uncovered from Liberal candidate Katherine Deves. This one suggesting a link between cross-dressing men and trans women being sexual predators, even serial killers. Are you concerned by the language that Katherine Deves has used over the years?

Hollie Hughes:

Look, Ms Deves has deleted those social media profiles. She has apologised for the language she used. I do believe some of the language was inappropriate.

But we’ve also got to have some brave discussions when it comes to these issues. And sometimes, you know, we’re talking about now, the use of a word, sometimes people say things in the moment that they don’t actually mean, or they are overstating.

Q: She seems to have said a lot. There’s an awful lot of tweets.

Hughes:

There are tweets from a candidate in the Hunter who used photographs of naked women with big guns saying that size didn’t matter when you had 130kg behind it. There’s substantial tweets from a Labor candidate in the Hunter and everyone has gone silent on those. If everyone wants to cry about one set of tweets, they should be crying about them on both sides of politics.

Q: Does Katherine Deves have your full support?

Hughes:

I have never met Ms Deves. But yes, she’s the candidate for Warringah, and what I would like to see is the seat of Warringah return to the Liberal National party, not a candidate who wants to fundamentally shut down our economy, who makes ridiculous claims about how climate change needs to be addressed, who also has referred to every single parent who has problems with perhaps a 15-year-old trans teenage woman or girl* using their daughter’s change room. That apparently makes us transphobic as parents having concerns about that. Saying goodbye to Zali Steggall in Warringah would be a very good thing. For that, Ms Deves has my full support.

*Trans women and girls are women and girls

Updated

Q: Sounds like a bit of damage control here, Senator Hughes.

Hollie Hughes:

We have just recently funded $1.2m to autism awareness Australia for a further project on autism, ‘What Next?’ It’s telling them the choices available to them in their life and how they can get assistance. We have put some money up for this.

Q: I want to talk just briefly about the actual NDIS and the import of that question last night. Because the mother said the funding was cut by 30% at a first review with no explanation given. Labor says the NDIS needs a sweeping review and that’s what it will do if it wins government. Simon Birmingham says it’s a great scheme and we’re happy with how we’re running it. It can’t be both, can it?

Hughes:

It is a great scheme and it’s made a significant difference. That mother ... and her son ... I hazard a guess they went to an early intervention preschool.

There’s problems around intensive early intervention. A lot of this is driven by the autistic adult community, who suggest using best practice behavioural interventions is somehow torturing those children. So there’s ideological problems within the autistic community. And some of the problems that we’re seeing in the early childhood stream in particular are because those within the agency are pushing back about good quality intensive early intervention. These are the fundamentals those children should be accessing. One thing I would say, the early childhood stream does need some review. Because I believe there are some ideological objections to children with autism getting intensive early intervention because there’s a band and a barrage of autistic adults who claim the kids don’t need it.

Updated

Q: Senator Hughes, I know you have spoken about your son Fred over the years. You spoke about him in your maiden speech in 2019. And you’ve been an advocate for people with disability. You’re now refuting the thoughts of people with disabilities who last night, certainly on social media, were saying, when is the population, when is the community, when are leaders going to stop looking at us as a burden?

Hollie Hughes:

Look, it’s not looking at us as families or our children as a burden. It’s a recognition that we do have additional challenges. My son is a blessing but I can tell you, as I said, there were days I did not feel particularly blessed. There were very challenging days.

For some of these people coming out, people in the autistic community who have been diagnosed in their later life, they didn’t experience the challenges we did as parents in the early days. Anyone who has children with a disability or without a disability will say there’s days that are challenging.

If you want to talk about the word blessed as the biggest problem we’ve got facing us as parents and carers of those with a disability, this is why the disability community struggles to make constructive gains, because there’s lying underneath it a significant, almost permanent rage machine. And when the NDIS came in and a lot of people got funding for the first time, they had to find somewhere else to direct their rage. There’s significant issues with the NDIS. I have my own challenges with the agency.

... Find something of substance and stop focusing on a ridiculous notion that somehow or other the prime minister was in any way denigrating people with a disability, or their families and the experiences they go through. In fact, Scott understands better than most if for another other reason, I’m constantly in his ear about it.

Updated

'To focus on one word is missing the point': Hollie Hughes defends Morrison's comment

Liberal senator Hollie Hughes, who has an autistic son, has appeared on ABC News Breakfast to defend Scott Morrison for saying he was “blessed” to have children without disabilities:

To be honest, I did not think of anything of them at all. I know Scott and Jenny had tried for 14 years to have their children and they are blessed with two beautiful daughters. I certainly didn’t take anything negative away from it.

And I really do think that people are missing the point of the substantive issue here. If they want to focus on one word. As you and I have discussed previously, I’m a mother of an autistic son. I have three children. I know there were days, very early on, when my son was younger, that were really, really hard. I didn’t feel particularly blessed.

I now have a teenager daughter. There’s days I don’t feel particularly blessed either. To focus on one word is missing the point. I recently chaired the Senate autism – select committee into autism, on the whole of life experience of autistics and their families.

For anyone who wants to get upset about the use of one word, I suggest they read that report. We have a much higher suicide rate within the autism population. We have a higher unemployment later than the general disability population. There’s issues we can be angry about. The use of the word blessed is symptomatic of those who don’t like Scott and want to find something to cling to.

Liberal senator Hollie Hughes.
Liberal senator Hollie Hughes. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

Updated

The prime minister’s choice of language, saying he had been “blessed” to have children without disabilities, is going to be remembered for some time.

Updated

Scott Morrison was very keen yesterday to make sure it was known that there was no military base as part of the security pact between the Solomon Islands and China:

The prime minister of Solomon Islands has made it very clear that they are not accepting of any base in the Solomon Islands. They are not. So that is a false claim that there’s no basis to make that assertion. It’s not there. That would be the first point that I would make.

Yesterday, Barnaby Joyce contradicted him:

We don’t want our own little Cuba off our coast and that is not what is good for this nation, not what is good for this region.

And it looks like the defence minister Peter Dutton has done the same thing:

Dutton chastised China for “not playing by the same rules”, AAP reports.

“You can expect the Chinese to do all they can now that they’ve got this agreement signed,” Dutton told Sky News when questioned on whether troops would move in.

“[China said] the South China Sea would not be militarised [and] today, they’re militarised. They’ve got airstrips. They’ve got fuel depots. And that’s the reality of China under President Xi.”

Defence minister Peter Dutton.
Defence minister Peter Dutton. Photograph: Scott Radford Chisholm/AAP

Updated

In case you didn’t see it last night, here was Murph’s take on the debate

The first thing to say is the questions from the audience were sharper and more substantive than most of the questions put to the two leaders over the past week and a half of the campaign.

Voters wanted to know about housing affordability, the nursing workforce, the absent national integrity commission, funding packages under the national disability insurance scheme, the future of renewables and battery technology, the treatment of sole traders left out of jobkeeper during the pandemic, regional security, youth participation and the health of Australia’s democracy.

Not one pop quiz about the unemployment rate (which dominated the first 72 hours of the campaign) or question about the life and times of the unfortunate Katherine Deves (which is continuing to dominate it).

Updated

Good morning

Welcome to another day in the campaign where things are really starting to get messy.

Anthony Albanese was judged as the winner of last night’s debate by a slim margin (although even the Sky After Dark commentators begrudgingly awarded him the night).

But it’s one of Scott Morrison’s comments that is still being spoken about.

When asked by a woman with an autistic son about the future of the NDIS under his government, Morrison said he and his wife Jenny had been “blessed” to have two children without disabilities.

That set off a firestorm of hurt and disbelief online, as people with disabilities and parents of children with disabilities sought to remind the PM that all children were blessings. The counterfactual to Morrison’s statement is what has upset people. He said:

Jenny and I have been blessed, we have two children who haven’t had to go through that.

And so for parents, with children who are disabled, I can only try and understand your aspirations for those children.

The finance minister Simon Birmingham was asked about it on the ABC this morning, and tried to keep focus on how the NDIS now had a bigger expenditure than Medicare, pointing out that the PM took time to sit with the woman after the debate last night, to hear more of her story.

Given the sheer amount of stories about NDIS funding being cut, not everyone can sit down with the prime minister to discuss their story and needs and receive personal guarantees someone from the department will be in touch.

Birmingham also tried to turn attention to Labor supposedly being weak against China after both Albanese and Morrison fired up over national security in last night’s debate.

It is going to be that sort of day.

You have Katharine Murphy, Daniel Hurst, Sarah Martin, Paul Karp and Josh Butler to make sense of it, with Amy Remeikis on the blog for most of the day.

It’s going to need all of the coffee. All of it.

Ready or not, let’s get into it.

Updated

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