Polls point to big Labor win but on-the-ground campaigns still close
As Australians started to roll into polling booths on Monday, both the major parties’ campaigns ramped up, in a week where the Leaders faced off in two separate debates.
Labor has been campaigning on slow wages growth for months leading up to the election, and this week was dominated by it – but unions and business groups are split on how best to deal with rising inflation and an increasingly unstable economic outlook.
In this edition:
- Who went where: Leader’s diary
- PM ramps up national security debate
- Is Albo home and hosed?
Who went where: Leaders’ diary
The Prime Minister spent the first day of pre-polling in Nowra on the south coast of NSW in the regional seat of Gilmore, where former NSW Transport Minister Andrew Constance is hoping to win the seat back from Labor.
He spent Tuesday in Sydney, making local infrastructure announcements with his candidate for Bennelong, where the Liberals are hoping to hang onto the inner-city seat vacated by retiring MP John Alexander.
His campaign then headed for the Hunter, where Labor is battling to hang onto coal seats such as Shortland – where the PM announced a plan to invest in clean energy technologies.
Thursday’s visit to Tasmania was the third for the campaign – the Coalition is desperate to hang onto their marginal seats here and their re-election chances will depend on it.
The Prime Minister then headed back up to Victoria, visiting a winery in the regional Coalition-held seat of Casey to make an announcement supporting wine exports.
He started the weekend in Victoria too, paying a visit to Assistant Treasurer Michael Sukkar’s seat of Deakin on Saturday morning.
The PM’s campaign then made it’s way to Queensland for the Coalition’s official launch in Brisbane on Sunday.
Albanese, who had faced criticism for the slower pace of his campaign after returning to the hustings following COVID, started week five in Sydney before declaring at the morning press conference that he’d be campaigning in three states that day.
He flew to Adelaide for a local health announcement with the new South Australian Premier, and then onto Melbourne that night.
He fronted the media with Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews in marginal Liberal-held Chisholm to pledge over $2 billion for the city’s Suburban Rail Loop project.
Back in Sydney on Wednesday, the Opposition Leader was in the traditionally-safe Liberal held seat of North Sydney talking up his Party’s childcare policy ahead of that night’s final campaign debate.
Committed to ramping up the pace of his campaign, the Labor Leader on Thursday jetted to Central Queensland to support his candidate in Flynn for the morning before heading to Brisbane to spend time at a pre-poll booth with Brisbane candidates.
He was then back up to Cairns in Leichhardt on Friday, a seat he and Labor have really been focused on this election.
On Saturday, he was in Darwin to make a major health policy announcement and catch up with brand new Northern Territory Chief Minister Natasha Fyles.
Albanese also ended the week in Brisbane, fronting a Labor rally with the Queensland Premier just down the road from where the PM was launching the Coalition’s campaign.
PM ramps up national security debate
The Prime Minister was back talking national security and defence capability on Monday, re-announcing a previously announced plan to boost the Navy’s helicopter capability.
In the second-last week of the campaign, the PM was focused on local commitments in marginal seats, with infrastructure, defence and energy pledges made from the Hunter to Tasmania.
He faced Albanese in a debate for the third and final time on Wednesday, with the Opposition Leader once again called the narrow winner in what was a more civilised performance than the scrap on Nine a few days earlier.
The Coalition on Thursday promised new cyber security standards in a continuing effort to make Australia a top ten data and digital economy by 2030, while also announcing plans to grow Australia’s tech workforce by targeting women.
On Friday the Coalition called out Labor’s opposition to Temporary Protection Visas as a risk to Australia’s border security. The same day, Defence Minister Peter Dutton called a press conference to announce a Chinese spy ship had breached Australian waters and was conducting surveillance up and down the west coast.
The Prime Minister promised $20 million to get more kids playing sport on Saturday before heading to Queensland for the official campaign launch on Sunday. Holding the launch so late in the campaign is a bid to capture the momentum in the last week, and the PM looked energised during his nearly-hour long address to the Party faithful.
Housing affordability was thrown back into the spotlight as a major election issue, with the Coalition announcing plans to allow people to use their super to invest in their first home, as well incentives for older Australians to downsize to free up supply.
It set up a final-week showdown with Labor and the superannuation industry, who are strongly opposed to the Government’s super plan.
The PM also announced a $375 million cancer research and treatment centre for Brisbane.
Is Albo home and hosed?
Health and education are core issues for Labor and on day one of pre-polling, the Opposition Leader fronted the media twice – once in Sydney and once in Adelaide – to spruik policies on both.
With Tanya Plibersek, he announced Labor would pay for top students to study teaching at university, before jetting to Adelaide to announce an upgrade to a major Adelaide medical centre.
The Opposition Leader’s $2.2 billion pledge for Melbourne’s suburban rail loop project was pointedly made in Chisholm, the Coalition’s most marginal Victorian seat and one Labor is hopeful of gaining.
Ahead of the debate on Wednesday evening, Albanese was focused on selling his signature childcare policy which has come under fire from the Government for it’s $5.4 billion pricetag.
Labor on Friday announced a $1 billion fund to invest in Australian tech businesses, targeting key areas including quantum computing, artificial intelligence, robotics and software development, and more money for the Great Barrier Reef in Leichhardt.
The Opposition Leader and his health spokesperson Mark Butler on the weekend unveiled plans for a $1 billion investment in primary healthcare, and a new taskforce which would advise an Albanese Government on Medicare and GP access issues. The Government slammed the announcement, saying it amounted to little more than a $1 billion slush fund.
Albanese appeared on Insiders Sunday morning where he was forced to clarify again, as he had been all week, his Party’s position on an increase to the minimum wage.
He ended the week in Brisbane with Premier Palaszczuk, pledging upgrades to the Bruce Highway and talking up their $1 billion investment in an advanced manufacturing fund.
He heads into the final week with a commanding lead in the polls and will be hopeful of securing the win on Saturday. But it’s still looking uncertain Labor will be delivered government off the back of a significant national swing, and more likely it will come down to just a few marginal seats.