PM makes pitch to the regions as record inflation figures point to election rate rise
Politics took a pause on Monday as Australians marked Anzac Day, but it was business as usual on the campaign trail from Tuesday as both major parties made strategic pitches for key votes in marginal seats.
Wednesday’s inflation figures put pressure on both parties to outline plans to tackle the rising cost of living as Labor unveiled their Budget repair plan. We’ve detailed all the week’s major announcements in your Week Three Election Wrap below.
In this edition:
- Who went where: Leader’s diary
- Pressure on the PM as inflation rises above expectations
- Albo out of iso to launch Labor’s campaign in the West
Who went where: Leaders’ diary
In the Northern Territory for Anzac Day, the PM delivered a speech at Darwin’s dawn service together with Labor’s Deputy Leader Richard Marles.
He then travelled to Queensland, where he spent the next three days visiting key Coalition seats in north and central Queensland that helped deliver his 2019 election win.
For the second time in three weeks, the PM’s campaign headed back to Tasmania with more local announcements and support for MPs fighting to hold onto some of the most marginal seats in Australia.
The Coalitions’ week three itinerary reveals they’re focused on sandbagging those seats the Coalition picked up or that swung strongly to the party at the last election in the regions, amid some determined campaigns by independents in the cities for traditional Liberal strongholds.
With the Leader of the Opposition in isolation until Thursday night, Labor’s campaign rolled on with senior frontbenchers picking up key campaign responsibilities.
Marles stayed on in Darwin after Anzac Day to make a major defence and foreign policy announcement on Tuesday, and Labor’s economic team fronted a press conference in Canberra on Wednesday to detail their Budget repair plan.
Shadow Defence Minister Brendan O’Connor was in WA on Thursday to announce a new defence research agency, before Albanese and most of his shadow ministerial team also made their way to the West on Friday ahead of Labor’s Sunday campaign launch.
It’s the first time Labor has held a campaign launch in Western Australia since the 1940s, marking the importance of their campaign to pick up marginal Liberal-held seats in Perth, where they’re hoping to take advantage of the retirement of incumbent MPs Christian Porter and Steve Irons.
Pressure on the PM as inflation rises above expectations
It was not a day for politics, and both campaigns reflected this on Anzac Day at the start of the week.
But Tuesday was a new day, and the PM was on the hustings in Townsville talking energy policy – spruiking $275m for new hydrogen hubs in Townsville and Gladstone and promising support for small businesses looking to boost their energy efficiency. Townsville was a key target seat for both the Coalition and Labor at the last election but the LNP’s Phillip Thompson, an Afghanistan veteran, is well-supported in the defence electorate and both parties seem confident of an LNP hold here.
The PM then travelled onto the central Queensland seats of Capricornia and Flynn, delivering a strategic speech in Rockhampton aimed at regional Queenslanders – largely credited with helping him hold onto government in 2019. He pledged 450,000 jobs for the regions, while insisting Labor misunderstood regional Australia given their lack of representation in rural and regional seats.
Wednesday also brought the unwelcome news of a 20-year high inflation rate, leading most commentators and economists to predict the RBA will lift historic low interest rates next week – the first time they’ve done so in an election campaign since 2007.
In Cairns on Thursday, the PM used his daily press conference to highlight his government’s cost of living package and talk up Australia’s economic recovery since the COVID-19 pandemic struck, urging Australians to stick with proven, safe hands rather than risk the uncertainty of Labor. Coalition strategists will hope any rate rise causes wary Australians to err on the side of caution rather than vote to change the government at a difficult economic time.
The PM flew into Tasmania again on Friday, announcing more support for the hydrogen industry and local infrastructure upgrades. On Saturday he announced a major change to the cost of PBS-listed medicines, getting the jump on a similar announcement planned for Labor’s campaign launch the next day.
He was back in Sydney by Sunday to announce a children’s e-safety package and youth mental health and suicide prevention initiatives.
It was a solid week without any major distractions for the Coalition barring some minor scuffles in the Nationals around climate policy, but the PM really failed to capitalise on his opponent’s long stint away from the campaign trail. Sunday night’s Newspoll revealed a slight lift in his approval rating hasn’t shifted the two-party-preferred lead still held strong by Labor.
Albo out of iso to launch Labor’s campaign in the West
Facing another few days in isolation, the Leader of the Opposition was phoning it in to the election campaign, targeting Sydney, Perth and Adelaide primetime radio shows on Tuesday morning to sell Labor’s Pacific defence policy. Capitalising on last week’s news that the Solomon Islands had signed a regional security pact with China, Labor hopes to position themselves as stronger supporters of the Pacific region than the Coalition, increasing Australia’s foreign aid budget and funding for the Pacific Maritime Security Program.
Timed with the announcement of new inflation figures, Labor’s economic team of Jim Chalmers, Katy Gallagher and Andrew Leigh on Wednesday unveiled their Budget strategy targeting multinational tax avoidance, promising a review into the Coalition’s grant programmes and removal of the public service staffing cap. It was a small-target strategy aimed at locking in the votes of the ALP base.
Thursday’s defence research agency announcement promised to leverage the AUKUS alliance announced by the PM in September last year and link Australian industry with more opportunities under the strategic agreement.
Out of isolation on Thursday night, Albanese flew to Perth on Friday ahead of Labor’s campaign launch, attracting some criticism from the travelling press pack for not holding a full press conference on his first official day back on the campaign trail.
But he well and truly hit the hustings in the West on Saturday, visiting a suite of marginal seats with local announcements for Labor candidates attempting to boost the ALP’s federal representation in WA.
Sunday’s campaign launch was well-attended by his frontbench, state Premiers and former PMs but notably missing his Deputy Richard Marles (who himself was isolating with COVID after testing positive on Friday) and (curiously and with little explanation) high-profile shadow education minister Tanya Plibersek.
In his speech, Albanese announced several of Labor’s key election policies including a big pitch to voters on housing affordability, a plan to boost electric vehicle infrastructure and affordability, a $1 billion fund to help process rare earths and minerals in Australia, an expected cut to the cost of PBS-listed medicines and pledge to boost the pay and conditions for working women.
Lacking the reform agenda of the former PMs he claims to emanate, Albanese’s federal election strategy is still relying on small-target, low-hanging fruit policies designed to appease the ALP base and evoke minimal contest among their target, swinging voters. With the primary votes of both major parties so low, it’s unsurprising neither Leaders are taking big platforms for change to the election, instead hoping to merely hang onto those who would ‘traditionally’ vote their way.