Pope Francis dies recap: PM’s words of condolence after death of ‘modernist’ Pontiff
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PM’s words of condolence after Pope’s death
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says “the prayers of more than a billion people from all nations in every walk of life go with Pope Francis to his rest” today.
“Pope Francis’ compassion embraced all humanity, and today he will be mourned by Catholics and non-Catholics alike,” he said.
“He urged us to remember all we hold in common and he asked the world to hear the cry of the Earth, our common home.”
He says Francis was “very much a modernist” and that his messages had echoed in Australia’s region during his historic visit to Indonesia and East Timor.
At the end of his scripted remarks, Mr Albanese says he has asked for all Australian flags to fly at half-mast tomorrow.
“My sincere condolences to everyone for tonight, it will be a very difficult evening,” he says.
AEC investigates 47,000 unauthorised pamphlets ‘exposing’ teal
The Australian Election Commission (AEC) is investigating 47,000 unauthorised pamphlets targeting independent MP for Wentworth Allegra Spender.
“The Australian Electoral Commission has received complaints regarding the distribution of an unauthorised pamphlet opposing the Member for Wentworth,” it said in a statement on the eve of the launch of pre-polling for the May 3 election.
The AEC said the pamphlets lacked any form of authorisation meaning that voters had no way of identifying the source of the communication.
“The AEC takes these matters very seriously and has worked quickly to identify and make contact the entity responsible for these pamphlets. The AEC investigation is ongoing,” it said, adding that breaches of the Electoral Act of this nature “can attract civil penalties”.
The leaflets, bearing the title, “Allegra Spender Exposed,” accuse the independent MP of misleading the electorate, promising to “outline her shortcomings”.
Ms Spender welcomed the AEC’s actions, pointing to a “number of dirty tricks” in a “negative campaign being run against me” and urging all political parties and candidates in the seat to call this behaviour out and report any relevant information.
“This pamphlet spreads false, misleading, and offensive claims about me – and does so anonymously,” she said.
“The public deserves to know who is behind this cowardly attack and what their motivations are.
“These kind of negative smear campaigns turn people off politics, and rightly so.”
Biggest spenders on social media election ads revealed
An analysis of political social media ads has revealed which party has spent the most so far and the independent MP splashing lots of cash.
The Nightly’s Ellen Ransley has crunched the numbers and discovered the Labor Party poured more than half a million dollars into advertising on Meta in 30 days, almost $349,000 of which was spent in a single week of the election campaign.
The Liberal Party in the same period spent $383,300 between March 18 to April 16 on Facebook and Instagram, while their spend between April 10-16 was $72,762.
The Nightly’s fresh analysis of the Meta ad library also found Curtin independent MP Kate Chaney was the highest spending parliamentarian, shelling out almost $105,000 in the 30-day period — about a third of which was spent in the past week.
Climate 200 spent almost $362,000 in the 30-day period, $133,000 of which was in the last seven days. Independent incumbent MPs and candidates in Kooyong, Bradfield, Wentworth and Flinders all spent above $50,000 in the 30-day period, while Ellie Smith – taking on Peter Dutton in Dickson – spent $46,000.
Clive Palmer’s Trumpet of Patriots has also ramped up its social media spending as the May 3 election nears. The newly formed party spent just over $324,000 in the last 30 days of which $170,000 was in seven days.
Political marketing expert Andrew Hughes said he would expect ad spending to increase across the board from Tuesday, when pre-poll opens.
Dutton: ‘No doubt we can win election’
Peter Dutton has played down the Coalition’s slide in the polls, which has been revealed by a series of polls in recent days.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that we can win the election,” Mr Dutton said.
“I pointed out before, in 2019 I think there was a big undercurrent of anger against the then government or the then opposition, than people realised. I think that’s the case against the now government as well,” he said.
The Opposition Leader is referring to the shock result of the 2019 election when bookies and polls showed Labor on track to win but the Coalition seized victory in the final week.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also mentioned the 2019 result on Monday as a reason not to be complacent in the final days of campaigning.
“I think if you have a look into what happened in 2019. There weren’t too many people predicting a Coalition victory,” said Mr Dutton.
“I think there are a lot of people who are just busy with work, busy in their lives. Many Australians don’t even know there’s election coming up.
“There is an enormous soft vote out there, as you know. That’s what you’ll see in a lot of polling,” he said.
Mr Dutton refers to “anger in the suburbs,” proposing that a lot of people will be “expressing a real protest vote in this election,” and asking themselves if they have been better off under a Labor government.
Dutton: ‘What does Labor have to hide?’ over Russian request to Indonesia
Peter Dutton has asked what the Government has to hide over Russia’s alleged request to Indonesia, to grant its war planes access to an Air Force base 1,300km north of Darwin.
The Coalition has repeatedly asked for a briefing on what the Government knew, and when, about the request.
Labor and the Indonesian Government have confirmed Russia will not be given access to the base but have not revealed if a request was actually made.
“Today, the government’s language keeps changing, which just seems strange, and we have asked for a briefing. It’s still not forthcoming from the government.
“So what do they have to hide? I just wish this Prime Minister could be open and honest with the Australian people and he hasn’t been in relation to this issue.
“The fact is that the Prime Minister has questions to answer here, and for six days he’s refused to,” Mr Dutton said.
Dutton: PM ‘loose with the truth’ on child protection system
Mr Dutton has called domestic violence an “abomination,” pointing to horrific estimates that 37 per cent of women aged 16 and over experienced sexual assault when they were a child.
“The whole area of protecting women and children is incredibly important to me,” he said, adding that the new funding will help provide support to “stopping that scourge.”
“There’s no more egregious crime in our community” than harming women or young girls, particularly in a place where somebody should feel safe, whether it’s in their family home or in a car or in a workplace, he said.
The Coalition’s National Child Sex Offender Disclosure Scheme would be modelled along the lines of a similar system in the UK, called “Sarah’s Law.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said earlier on Monday that his government would not be supporting the plan as there is already a national child defender system in place.
Mr Dutton has accused Mr Albanese of being “a bit loose with the truth,” as the current system is not accessible to members of the public.
“The Prime Minister is wrong, either deliberately or just doesn’t understand how it works.
“Our scheme, as we propose, as it operates and allows parents or guardians to make applications to the police if they’ve got concerns about a particular individual and has contact with their child,” he said.
“And then it’s at the discretion of the police as to whether that information is disclosed, but if the child is at risk, then the information is disclosed.
“I don’t understand why the Prime Minister wouldn’t be supporting this on a bipartisan basis,” he says.
Opposition Leader spruiks $750m fund to tackle crime
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton is in Melbourne and talking up the Coalition’s latest $750m package to tackle crime.
Mr Dutton has vowed to “stand up” to “crime gangs” if elected, announcing the new funding to implement a national drug strike team and a 12-month pilot of a National Child Sex Offender Disclosure Scheme.
The latter would allow parents to find out whether an adult who interacts with their child is a convicted sex offender.
Mr Dutton called the new plan a “real gamechanger” in relation to “how we can help keep our communities and our homes, our towns and suburbs safe.”
“It is about providing police with the necessary tools that they need, so building up the laws and making them stronger, by providing support to community groups and by bringing all of the Commonwealth powers and agencies together to make sure that we can tackle crime alongside the state and territory police,” he added.
“I think Australians underestimate how big an issue this is at this election, people do feel unsafe,” he said.
The Coalition has switched to promoting its agenda as the party that’s tough on law and order as it enters the penultimate week of campaigning.
“The Commonwealth Government has a particular role to play, because we have border protection, and those services are supposed to be stopping the illicit tobacco and the drugs coming into our country, but this just hasn’t been a priority for this government,” said Mr Dutton.
The party is focussing on knife crime, drugs trafficking and organised crime, as well as surging forces towards the border.
As pre-polling opens on Tuesday, Mr Dutton asked:
“Are you safer in your own home, in your own community, in your own business?”
‘There is one word that I will say’: PM’s warning over election complacency
Anthony Albanese has warned his colleagues and voters not to make any assumptions about the election result despite Labor pulling ahead in the polls with two weeks to go in the campaign, harking back to the party’s shock loss in 2019.
Early voting begins on Tuesday and the latest polling shows Labor consolidating a lead over the Coalition, with Newspoll on Monday putting its primary vote above 2022 levels.
However, pollsters and party insiders on both sides warn that this election, more than ever, will be a seat-by-seat prospect and the national two-party preferred indicator may not reflect the final result.
The Prime Minister had a cautionary tale ready to roll when asked about the polls on Monday morning: remember 2019.
Campaigning for the first time in the NSW South Coast seat of Gilmore – which was Labor’s most marginal seat after the 2022 election, won by just 373 votes – Mr Albanese cast his mind back to Scott Morrison’s “miracle” victory in an election that everyone from party insiders to pollsters to bookies to Coalition staffers expected Bill Shorten to win.
“There’s no complacency from my camp. I assure you of that, and this election is certainly up for grabs,” he said.
“There is one word that I will say . . It’s a year: 2019.
“I remind colleagues that 2019, the bookies paid out (on a Labor win). And guess what? That didn’t occur. That was a very unwise thing to do.”
‘Russian propaganda’: Albanese skirts questions over base
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has stressed he will not promote “Russian propaganda” while denying his Government is underplaying reports Moscow requested access to an Indonesia Air Force base 1,300km north of Darwin.
Russia’s alleged moves on Australia’s doorstep became a wildcard election issue last week when respected defence journal Janes reported Moscow asked Jakarta to station “long range” military aircraft at the Manuhua Air Force Base in the province of Papua.
The Coalition is ramping up pressure on Labor to reveal what it knew and when about the reported proposal but the Government and Indonesian authorities have only confirmed Russian warplanes will not enter the base, not whether a request was made.
Protester erupts at PM over ‘disgusting’ housing crisis
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese faced angry protesters during a visit to Batemans Bay in the ultra-marginal NSW seat of Gilmore, with one woman unleashing a fiery tirade over housing conditions.
As Mr Albanese spoke at a local health clinic, demonstrators outside voiced frustrations over housing, AUKUS, and hospital funding.
“We want our homes fixed, we want the government to intervene clean it up so indigenous people and non-indigenous people have nice clean houses. Our children are neglected, this is disgusting. Where’s Albanese? Where is he?” One protestor shouted.
She later cited mushrooms growing in her home as emblematic of substandard housing.
Police monitored the group as the PM campaigned in the key Labor-held seat.
PM warns no complacency as Labor holds steady Newspoll lead
The Prime Minister says there is “no room for complacency” in the Labor camp after the latest Newspoll added to a voting trend in his party’s favour.
New polling released on Sunday revealed Labor remained ahead of the Opposition 52 to 48 per cent on a two-party-preferred basis.
“There’s no complacency from my camp. I assure you of that. And this election is certainly up for grabs,” he said, referring to 2019, when bookies and polls showed Labor on track to win but the Coalition seized victory in the final week.
“People will start voting tomorrow. And so I do find it rather perplexing that the coalition don’t have policies out there, and when they do their policies which, seemingly, for example, are unaware of the National Child offender system,” he says.
“They’re unaware of so many things and that they still have not been anywhere near a nuclear reactor site. They say this is front and centre of their energy policy, but Peter Dutton will not go anywhere near one of these sites.”
