While Coalition sources are still making semi-confident noises in their briefings to the press gallery, Scott Morrison seems to have spent most of past week-and-a-bit sandbagging second-tier seats rather than carving out a pathway to victory, while Bill Shorten has remained on the offensive. In the first three weeks of the campaign, Morrison spent roughly as much time in Labor as in Coalition-held electorates, but going back to last weekend, the only prime ministerial visit that seemed in any way targeted at a Labor-held seat was in the New South Wales Central Coast seat of Dobell last Sunday – and that might equally have been pitched at its marginal Liberal-held neighbour, Robertson.
Morrison’s efforts yesterday were devoted to the Melbourne seat of Deakin, which the Liberals believed they had nailed down in more optimistic times earlier in the campaign. Similarly, Friday brought him to Capricornia, one of a number of regional Queensland seats the Coalition was supposedly feeling relaxed about due to the Adani issue. The visit was to Rockhampton, but the announcement of a new CQUniversity mines and manufacturing school equally applied to Gladstone, located in the similarly placed neighbouring seat of Flynn.
Morrison has also spent a lot of time on seats where the Liberals are under pressure from independents. Tuesday was spent straddling the Murray, where Cathy McGowan’s support group hopes to bequeath Indi to Helen Haines on the Victorian side, and Albury mayor Kevin Mack is taking on Liberal member Sussan Ley in the New South Wales seat of Farrer. On Thursday he went to Cowper, which it is feared the Nationals will lose to Rob Oakeshott.
Most remarkably, Morrison also spent the entirety of a trip to Melbourne last Friday in Kooyong, where he made pronouncements on themes not normally considered staples of the Liberal campaign, namely recycling and protection of threatened species (insert Josh Frydenberg joke). The danger there is that the seat will lose the blue-ribbon seat to ex-Liberal independent Oliver Yates. Still more striking is the fact that Bill Shorten felt the seat worth a visit yesterday, if only to be photographed with puppies at Guide Dogs Victoria.
You can find my accounting of the leaders’ movements in spreadsheet form here.
In other news, the last Sunday newspapers of the campaign are typically the first to bring editorial endorsements, although both the Fairfax titles have squibbed it today, as has Perth’s Sunday Times. The four News Corp papers that have taken a stand have all gone as you would expect. The online headline in the Sunday Telegraph says it is “time to end the worst period of political instability and cynicism since federation” – which you should do, naturally, by returning the government. Granted that this makes more sense if you read the whole thing, though very few will of course. In Victoria, the Coalition gets the endorsement of the Sunday Herald Sun, as it did before the state election in November, for all the good it did them. The Brisbane Sunday Mail’s effort is headlined “Australians can’t afford a reckless pursuit of utopia”; the Adelaide Sunday Mail says it’s “time for a steady hand”, i.e. not Bill Shorten’s.
Also today: the latest episode of Seat du jour, tackling the Perth seat of Hasluck.
“Jenny and I”?
The Royal Couple.
PeeBee @ #399 Sunday, May 12th, 2019 – 12:13 pm
Maybe she’s out, you know, in “the environment”, somewhere.
meher baba says:
Sunday, May 12, 2019 at 11:36 am
beguiled again: “Annabel Crabb looks like a characture with her jet black hair and thick pancake”
———————-
Those were not my words. I was making a reference to the wonderful invention of a new word “characture,” in the commenter’s description, which I thought was an amusing combination of character and caricature. I probably should have resisted the temptation, though, to link it to the description of Ms. Crabb.
“jenauthor says:
Sunday, May 12, 2019 at 12:09 pm
Enough of this Morrison shit – am watching Bill on Facebook live instead”
You could also watch Giggle & Hoot!!!
Good God!
Stump speechs for a local candidates.
They must be worried.
Sounds like a new GoT character:
Genian Aye.
Just switched the TV back to the launch. Sound off. Scott is being brave, but he looks lonely.
McShoutyFace
“We’ve increased funding for state schools (ever since we slashed it).”
Katrina Hodgkinson when she was National State member for Burrinjuck once said to me before a function I was arranging , “I don’t do Acknowledge Country”.
Drove through Toorak this morning to attend a MDay breakfast, I was surprised by the number of Katie Allen posters. Most were defaced!
Words such ‘fake’, ‘cancelled’ and decorated with upside down smiles.
Last week, I was driving through Kooyong and saw some poster with Josh’s face on them. Most had his two front teeth blacked out.
What all this means? I have no idea.
Oh please. Wasn’t Scotty one of those sounding the alarm about people in Melbourne afraid to go out at night because of African crime gangs.
He’ll be down to filling potholes soon.
I can’t watch anymore. He’s listing freeways.
There is no good reason for one human to kill another human, that includes armed forces killing other armed forces. I have no respect for those among us who chose to become trained killers and went overseas to kill foreigners. War needs to end, yet Australia still sends trained killers overseas, and those who send them overseas are guilty of deaths of those who die. STOP ALL KILLING, VALUE HUMAN LIFE, ALL HUMAN LIFE.
Edi_ maybe take a breather?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEaKX9YYHiQ
Melissa spotted in the audience!
I SAW HER, she is real!
That takes some cheek, thanking Greg Hunt for his work on the GBR.
Has Scomo talked about the unsuccessful SA experiment with solar energy yet?
Oh there he goes, it is now ‘good’ and he did it!
Will LNP launch non-attendees have to supply a medical certificate or a note from Mum?
And does Australia have substantial industry apart from selling houses to each other, and has the real estate franchise ever seen a subsidy it can’t instantly add to its bottom line?
ScoMo has questions to answer.
Why would I take a breather?
I was responding to what our murderer in chief Scott Morrison was saying. Bill Shorten will be the same, he will lead a government that will support the killing of humans. There should be no greater responsibility of a human than to ensure fellow humans are not killed. We have the responsibility to protect everyone’s lives. Yet as a country we train killers, we allow the murder of babies, we do not welcome those fleeing for their lives but lock them up in overseas camps. There is nothing good about a government or a party that supports these things. They are not good enough to rule this country.
I agree with guytaur that this sounds like a valedictory speech.
‘Operation Soveriegn Borders is this governments greatest achievements’.
Oh Scott, you are too modest, it’s your’s, own it.
The old windbag is going over time. Must flick to Landline.
Have neither seen nor heard the word “Liberal” yet,
Scott Morrison is so proud of treating refugees like shit, where are your Christian values Scott? Jesus would never treat anyone like that.
Finally it ends. I can only imagine how Michael Kroger is going to spruik this.
BB
Have neither seen nor heard the word “Liberal” yet
Someone’s finally told them what it means?
And Bill Shorten is going to do exactly the same.
OK, so Josh is the only minister present on-stage.
torchbearer: “Are people really complaining that aboriginal welcome ceremonies aren’t entertaining and animated enough to keep their interest, so they therefore are not authentic or worthwhile?
A welcome and/ or acknowledgment are a few words of respect that mean the world to us indigenous people. Sometimes in life you just do things that are kind and polite, that is an end in itself.
They do not have be ancient, or entertaining, they can be a new invention (what the hell is wrong with that)…people really over think these things, or look for some offense when there is none there.”
I perhaps should have been clearer. I don’t really have a problem with Welcome to Country ceremonies as a form of courtesy. I remember when they came on the scene in a big way a few decades back at large meetings of indigenous people, at which time they were sometimes referred to as “protocols” and were typically focused on the idea that the traditional owners of one district would welcome indigenous people from all other districts. Then the idea was expanded to include welcoming whitefellas, and then someone came up with the idea that us whitefellas, whether any indigenous folk were present or not, could start welcoming ourselves to country through largely empty formalities called “acknowledgements.”
It’s this latter practice that I have trouble with, as I find it to be rather empty and insincere.
David Speers already pulling apart Scotty’s first home buyers announcement. What will this do to the market? Is this an admission from the govt that house prices are in fact unaffordable for first home buyers?
Jennet: The most reclusive of them all. The environment minister.
That Green campaign with the missing posters has had its impact. Yes Labor people gleefully co opted this one 🙂
Probyn paraphrased: History started in August 2018.
It is so very sad that we have such a morally bankrupt Prime Minister and the next Prime Minister is not much, if any, better. It brings me to tears when I think about it.
Kroger: Today you saw the most authentic Morrison you’ve seen in the entire campaign. I know the guy well, and what you saw today is the man he is.
Morrison’s Campaign Launch has been a disaster.
I am going to enjoy watching the MSM try and spin this into the success it most certainly wasn’t.
Social Media will destroy the launch once they get a hold of the video and pictures.
Fess
Does anyone take anything Kroger says seriously these days?
Sky After Dawn journos are very impressed with what they saw from Morrison.
Vic:
He’s always good for a laugh.
Love this from Shorten: More chance of a press conference from the Tassie Tiger than the current Environment Minister
I would think the biggest up side for labor out of the Morrison love fest was the “ very very limited “ emphasis on climate action.
Fess
Wonder how many undecided voters even watched the launch.
Today will e busy with mothers day luncheons and the like
meher baba …so white fellas being to asked to accept ONE aboriginal custom seems ”empty and insincere”, yet indigenous people have to accepts thousands of European customs unquestioningly, and all the rituals of a few Middle Eastern religions as well…???
Victoria,
Exactly.
It will be a passing moment on the news tonight.
Jennett declares Magik Munney!
First Home Buyers scheme will not cost anything.
Speers makes the point that Scotty’s first home buyer deposit guarantee would expose taxpayers to hefty risk if people default on their loans or the bottom drops out of the housing market.
It’s such a Liberal thing: socialise the losses and privatise the profits.
This is basically about stopping the bleeding.
If you’re pulled over by that pitch, you weren’t really undecided.