Anthony Albanese has used his National Press Club address to announce that a Labor government would strip hundreds of millions of dollars from two government grant programs and put the money to better use, in an effort to improve the budget bottom line.
Look back on Wednesday's live coverage as it happened.
Key events
- Albanese flags budget repair with changes to community development grants fund, regionalisation fund
- The wage price index rose 0.7 per cent in the March quarter
- More than 3 million Australians have already voted
- The cost of fuel will rise later this year
- What is the PM doing to limit COVID deaths?
- Morrison says his 'bulldozer' approach has 'served the country extremely well'
- Union boss says 'of course there will be job losses' in Coalition's cuts to public sector spending
- Nationals MP says claims of job losses as a result of Coalition's promised cuts to public sector spending is 'scaremongering'
- Labor defends the late release of its policy costings
- What's happening with wages today?
Live updates
By Emily Sakzewski
That's all for today
We're going to leave our live coverage here for the day, folks.
Thank you for joining. We'll be back with more live coverage tomorrow.
By Emily Sakzewski
Heads up: there might be some election worker shortages this weekend
The electoral commission says some recruitment difficulties could lead to some polling places being unable to open on election day.
The areas of concern are:
- Capricornia, Flynn, Kennedy and Leichhardt (QLD)
- Barker and Grey (SA)
- Durack and O'Connor (WA)
Electoral Commissioner Tom Rogers said the impact will be limited and the vast majority of Australia's 7,000 polling places will be open.
"While the impact will likely be limited, and limited to certain areas, voters in identified regional locations who have not accessed an early voting centre, or postal vote, may not have a polling venue in their town on election day," Mr Rogers said.
"The list of affected areas will reduce as we get closer to Saturday and many local residents will have already accessed the alternative forms of voting available in the Australian system."
By Emily Sakzewski
These remote residents will have to make a 500km round trip to vote this weekend
Voting on election day is a tradition for people living in the East Pilbara town of Marble Bar.
But residents who want to vote on May 21 will have to undertake a 500km round trip to Port Hedland to put forward their preference for the seat of Durack.
They have been told by the Australian Electoral Commission they could have voted at a mobile booth which was run in the town from 10am until 1pm on Tuesday or they could attempt a postal vote.
Failing that, they could make the long drive to Port Hedland.
But residents have described the three-hour voting window as difficult to make and Marble Bar's remote location meant mail was often slow and backlogged.
Marble Bar usually runs a polling booth on election day to service town residents as well as people from surrounding mines, stations and travellers.
Yarrie Station owner Annabelle Coppin, who lives 90km north of Marble Bar, said people accepted that living remotely meant having to drive fairly long distances to get to the polls.
But she said driving to Port Hedland would be an all-day affair.
"People work so voting on a Tuesday is pretty impossible," she said.
She said postal voting was an ineffective alternative.
"Our postal vote only arrived this week, that's how late it was because our mail is so slow," she said.
By Emily Sakzewski
By Emily Sakzewski
Would Labor advocate an increase in payments for welfare recipients?
Anthony Albanese says every budget will consider payments for pensioners and for people on JobSeeker.
He also points out the largest increase in pensions in Australia's history happened when Labor was in government.
"We will do what we can within the fiscal constraints," he says.
"We will inherit is $1 trillion of debt whereby people who are on minimum wages are going backwards and today we saw a thud in the gap between wages and inflation, today, so we do need to address that."
And that wraps up the questions at Anthony Albanese's press club address.
By Georgia Hitch
What would Albanese be looking to achieve in his first visit to Indonesia?
Anthony Albanese said last week that, if elected, he was planning to go to Indonesia on his first official trip, but that the Quad meeting in Japan had thrown a spanner in the works.
Instead, he said Indonesia would come second but has been asked today why Indonesia and what he's looking to achieve by visiting there.
Albanese: "Indonesia is a really important partner for Australia. That has been the case for a number of decades and as a minister in the former government, I went to Indonesia more than any other country. We developed a program called ITSAP - the Indonesian Transport Safety Assistance Package. I think that we need to develop much closer relationships with many of the partners in our region and Penny Wong, as our foreign shadow, has made some significant announcements about how we would deal with countries to our north. Is I would intend for Indonesia to be the next visit after the Quad leaders' meeting. And for that to happen as soon as possible to be organised.
"Indonesia will grow to be an economy that's substantial in the world. We live in a region whereby in the future, we will have China, India and Indonesia as giants. We need to strengthen that economic partnership. And one way that we can do that is by strengthening people-to-people relations as well. Indonesia is an important nation for our economy, for those social relationships as well. I want to see more engagement and cross work, and assisting in areas that they need. I did that as a minister in government and I know that it was really appreciated.
"There would be, in areas like maritime safety for example, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority have done extraordinary work and indeed have brought Indonesian maritime safety experts to here in Canberra. It's bayed in Canberra. I was in India leading a delegation just a few years ago in 2018 and we launched there the Australia-India Alumni Association. That's strong. It's so close, it's about to be a superpower in the world. We need to strengthen the relationship with Indonesia and that would be a priority for me."
By Emily Sakzewski
Why didn't Labor release its costings earlier?
As Anthony Albanese has mentioned transparency, Laura Tingle asks why political parties don't release their costings of individual policies as they are announced. And would Mr Albanese commit to bringing some of those standards back?
"With every single policy, we've released how much it would cost over the forward estimates as we've gone on," Mr Albanese starts.
"Every day I have stood up and in the media releases, there has been costings."
"We have been transparent the whole way along. We are releasing our costings tomorrow. I had had some detail today which I flagged yesterday in one of the 18 questions I took at a media conference yesterday. I flagged that I would have more to say today about our costings because I respect the National Press Club and always have."
By Georgia Hitch
When will see a real decrease in the number of women killed by domestic and family violence?
The question now is from Lanai Scarr at the West Australian.
She's asked if Anthony Albanese is elected Prime Minister, when will we see the number of women killed halved - as is the target of the draft national plan on women's safety, or reduced even more than that.
Here's Albanese's reply:
"I think from memory, the number of women who died last year was 43. So one every nine days. That's almost one a week. We want that to be reduced to zero is the ideal, obviously. It is a tragedy that too many women and their children live with domestic and family violence, and that tragically, that can lead to murder, call it for what it is, by a partner or by a former partner.
"Government can't do this alone, of course. Government needs to work with civil society to call this out for what it is. We've put forward some really practical options as well. One of them is, and I announced today, another of the announcements today, again reiterating our view that ten days family and domestic violence leave should be law in this country. If women are faced with having tocontinue to work, are worried about putting food on the table, then it leaves them more vulnerable. The other thing that we need to do is to make sure that women and children escaping domestic violence have somewhere to go. And that's where our Housing Australia Future Plan has 4,000 of those 20,000 homes reserved for women and children escaping domestic violence.
"It's why we have $100 million allocated for emergency housing. Tonight, we know, because every night it happens, a woman and perhaps a woman with children, will be turned away from a shelter because there simply isn't room. They'll be forced to sleep in their car or they'll sleep in a park or they'll sleep on a friend's couch. worse still, they'll return to a violent situation. We need to do much better than that. And I am committed and I believe a government certainly that I lead will be absolutely committed to doing what we can to reduce the numbers of women in terms of fatalities, murders. But also to reduce domestic and family violence across-the-board."
By Emily Sakzewski
How does Anthony Albanese regard China?
The journalist cited Chinese diplomatic sources saying whichever party is elected, they will seek fresh talks on some level. But is China to be trusted? And will he pick up the phone to President Xi?
Anthony Albanese says he thinks the relationship with China will remain a challenging one regardless of who wins the election. But he pivots to talk about Australia's other diplomatic relationships, most notably the tension with the French over the scapped submarine deal and leaked text messages.
"What we've seen is a whole series of Australia's international relations being damaged," he said.
"You know what weak is? Weak is leaking a private text message with an ally. That's weak.
"The first thing that I will be doing [as prime minister] is meeting with our allies... Meeting with President Biden, meeting with Prime Minister Kushida, meeting with Narendra Modi."
He doesn't directly answer the question about picking up the phone to Xi Xinping.
By Emily Sakzewski
How does Albanese square Labor's tax cut policy with his modest upbringing?
It was an interestingly-worded question, so here it is in full:
Question: Would the young man in the council flat approve of the man here endorsing stage 3 tax cuts which give people on more than $200,000 a tax cut of more than $10,000? Or would the young man in the council flat approve of a family on 500,000 getting a 26,000 childcare subsidy? Aren't you just endorsing this tax cuts policy to win the election? And won't you change your mind afterwards by blaming economic circumstances?
Albanese: The young lad in the council flat had a mum who told that young man that he could be anything he wanted to be. When I speak about no-one left behind and no-one left back... no-one left behind is about protecting the disadvantaged. That's why I don't support a real-wages cut for people on minimum wages. That's why. Simple as that.
The other thing about no-one held back, is people aspiring to a better life. That's what Labor does.
Labor governments give people the opportunity to get ahead.
By Georgia Hitch
Plans to shore up gas supply
This next question from Greg Brown at The Australian is about how the Opposition Leader would help local firms given gas prices are soaring.
The question is pretty lengthy but has some important context so I'll pop the whole thing below.
Question: Mr Albanese, you've spoken a lot in this campaign about growing the manufacturing sector. Spot prices in the wholesale gas market are soaring at the moment. And local businesses are saying that the energy costs could force them to close. Last year, you backed a call from unions to inurge Scott Morrison to invoke the Australian Domestic Gas Security, which would effectively limit the amount of gas that we send overseas to lower prices for our local firms. If you win on Saturday will you pull the trigger on that mechanism?
Albanese: "What we know is that if you look at a state that has made sure that its businesses have access to gas - go to WA where we were yesterday. It's been very successful. It's been very successful in WA. We will work with industry, constructively, to make sure that they can continue to thrive. We think that in terms of manufacturing, there are enormous opportunities. If you look at where this debate has gone in terms of power for industry - remember that there was a fellow called Josh Frydenberg who used to stand up and give speeches in Parliament about saving Liddell and Liddell staying open. Doesn't do it any more and Liddell is closing on their watch.
"The changes that are occurring through are the energy market that are occurring, that are driven by prices and by the market, and where the cheapest form of new energies are. Need to be channelled, we need to work with them, and that's what we will do with businesses. I've sat down with businesses, whether it be a company like Rio for example, with their Alumina manufacturing. What are Rio doing just outside of Gladstone? They're looking at hydrogen. There are businesses that are responding. The truth is that business is so far ahead of this government that they can't see where the government is."
An interjection with Greg Brown asking for short-term prices, would he support pulling the trigger on the mechanism?
Albanese: "If you're asking what I might do down the track. We would take advice down the track. What we would do is work with business to provide investment certainty to make sure that we reduce energy costs for business. That is what we would do. And we would be, in terms of powering Australia is mode neutral in terms of where the market is going. This government have been like swimming against the tide. And that is why they haven't been successful."
By Emily Sakzewski
How would a Labor government deal with complaints within the team?
Question: If elected prime minister, and you were made aware of a complaint about the behaviour of a member of your team, what would you do?
Anthony Albanese says the Labor party has processes to ensure safe workplaces, and that was established by Bill Shorten.
"So that is a very clear process that we have in place that ensures confidentiality, that ensures that people can have the confidence to come forward.
"In addition to that as well.. we need to recognise that every workplace needs to be a safer workplace, that's why we'll adopt the 55 recommendations from the Respect at Work report from Kate Jenkins.
"The Government responded to some of those, but they left out a critical one as well which is the obligation on employers to do what they can to have a safe work place."
By Georgia Hitch
How would Albanese govern under the same standards he's set for the government?
Question: Do you promise to govern under the same set of standards you have set for the Government in Opposition? And if so, how would you achieve that?
Albanese: "By being up-front. By being up-front. By putting in place for a start, a national anti-corruption commission would be a good idea. We have, I think, less confidence that I feel from the Australian public in the national government than has been there for a long period of time. John Howard, I had criticisms of. I had a lot of criticisms. But he didn't have the stench and the taint that this government has around it. John Howard, when ministers did the wrong thing, stood them down and stood them aside. These guys are a revolving door, where they step down, like Stuart Robert or Sussan Ley and they're back. Barnaby Joyce is back as Deputy Prime Minister.
"The truth is that we need to build confidence in Government, and in the integrity of Government. To do that, you need a national Anti-Corruption Commission, but you also want to govern in a way that is far more transparent, far more open, one that accepts responsibility for the high office that the Prime Minister and other ministers hold."
By Emily Sakzewski
Is it a problem Albanese hasn't worked in an economic portfolio?
The journalist asks: "Is Scott Morrison right when he says that you're not up to the job?"
Anthony Albanese said it was wrong for the PM to asses that the infrastructure portfolio was not an economic one.
"I'll make that point. But he's also wrong in terms of not understanding, not having a comprehension of what Australia needs to do.
"What I've done during this campaign is outline a plan for economic growth, a plan for investing in infrastructure, the NBN, childcare, making things here, our Powering Australia Plan, that will all contribute to economic growth."
By Georgia Hitch
Will Albanese be flexible on the better off overall test?
Question now from Phil Coorey at the Australian Financial Review.
He's asked if Anthony Albanese is prepared to be flexible, if elected, when it comes to industrial relations, including on the "better off overall test" or BOOT which says workers have to be better off if their conditions are tweaked.
The government tried to tweak the BOOT in the pandemic to allow employers to not meet the test, but was unsuccessful.
The Opposition Leader replied by saying you only remove the test if "you don't want people to be better off overall".
Albanese: "It's pretty simple, really. What you can have is through genuine negotiation, improvements that increase both business profitability and wages. That's the Keating model. That anticipates the Keating model, including through the social wage that he did as well that made people better off. Our childcare plan is an example of something that will make families better off. But what occurred, to be clear about the government's system, was that they had negotiations that were very constructive. They had negotiations with big business and unions."
"They had negotiations with small business, and I refer you to the elements of my speech today about small business and unions and flexibility. There was great progress made and then the government came out with legislation that didn't reflect any of the negotiations that had taken place. I've had direct discussions with small business and with the Business Council of Australia and other businesses, as well as with unions about the prospect of sincere real change that provides win-win. I think we can get win-win with small business, but we can also get wins with larger businesses and unions as well. We have common interests.
"This has been a thing well back - I've been speaking about it for a very long period of time. You can't have union members if you don't have successful employers. And we have common interests here. Business recognises it. Unions recognise it. What they haven't had is a partner to bring people together. They'll have it under a Labor government I lead."
By Emily Sakzewski
How would a Labor government curb the COVID death rate?
The journalist asks, with Australia averageing 45 deaths from COVID-19 a day, what would a Labor government do to curb the deaths.
Mr Albanese says there needs to be a national strategy approach.
He also points to increasing messaging about booster shots.
Earlier today, when asked a similar question, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Australia was "living with COVID" and that we would not be going back to threats of shutdowns.
By Emily Sakzewski
How would Anthony Albanese deal with the Quad?
If Anthony Albanese wins the election, he will be representing Australia as Prime Minister at the Quad meeting on Tuesday with India, Japan, and the United States.
The journalist asks what changes Mr Albanese might bring to the Quad, and what the challenges would be.
The Labor leader points to climate change as one challenge.
"We are in the naughty corner at UN Framework Convention on Climate Change conferences - that's the truth.
"One of the ways that we increase our standing in the region, and in particular in the Pacific is by taking climate change seriously, and the Biden Administration and Australia, I think, will have a strengthened relationship in our common view about climate change and the opportunity that it represents."
Mr Albanese says there will be more trust.
"I won't leak text messages to international leaders.
"I will engage in an up-front way, in a mature way, and I look forward in particular to some of the policy changes that we're putting forward, increasing our standing globally."
By Emily Sakzewski
What safeguards do Australians have over Labor's $15 billion national reconstruction fund
Anthony Albanese promises transparency.
"What we'll establish is essentially the model that has worked really effectively with the Clean Energy Finance Corporation model."
Mr Albanese says this will happen at arms-length.
"They won't be political decisions. They'll be decisions based upon a proper analysis."
By Emily Sakzewski
First question asks Albanese if he will be able to deliver on his promises
The first question is from Laura Tingle. She asks Anthony Albanese, in minimising wedges, whether he has locked himself in this election so significantly on a wide range of policies that he won't be in a position to deliver on what he says?
Mr Albanese says Labor will deliver on exactly what it has committed to over its first term.
"That's why we have been responsible in the commitments that we put forward, given the extraordinary amount of debt that we will inherit if we're successful on Saturday," he said.
By Emily Sakzewski
Albanese flags budget repair with changes to community development grants fund, regionalisation fund
Labor is set to release its costings tomorrow on how it plans to pay for its policies, and the impact the announced plans will have on the budget if it's elected.
But in his speech Anthony Albanese gave an indication of what the party was planning to do that he said would add $750 million back to the budget.
"I announce today that Labor will reduce the uncommitted funding in the community development grants program by $350 million, and we will return the $400 million regionalisation fund back to the budget.
"These two decisions alone will repair the budget by three-quarters of a billion dollars."
