Federal election 2022 live: Deves backtracks on apology; Albanese says PM ‘has no plans for the future’

Speaking to ABC News Breakfast this morning, Catherine King was also asked about Labor’s timetable (if it won the election) for the religious discrimination bill:

We need to consult again with both religious organisations, with LGBTIQ+ groups, we don’t want – we want to make sure we’re able to protect religious freedoms and people’s religious expression, but we don’t want to introduce new discrimination.

That’s what the government’s bill did. It had their own members, particularly in some of the inner-city seats saying they couldn’t support it. I didn’t get into parliament to put more discrimination on people. I want to remove discrimination from people, including people who have religious faith, but I don’t want to make it worse for other people.

Labor MP Catherine King. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

Updated at 18.26 EDT

Labor’s big announcement today is a train loop around Melbourne, a $2.2bn investment over five years Labor says will help address Melbourne’s growing infrastructure crowding.

Daniel Hurst, who pressed Peter Dutton on the Brereton reforms at last week’s national press club debate, much to Dutton’s displeasure, has an update on just how many reports Dutton has received so far:

Peter Dutton’s department says the defence minister is in possession of six reports from the oversight panel regarding the Brereton reforms – but he is yet to disclose any details about what they found.

Meanwhile, the Office of the Special Investigator is considering further allegations of war crimes against Australian defence force personnel allegedly committed in Afghanistan, in addition to the matters specifically referred to it for investigation by the Brereton inquiry, a letter tabled in parliament shows.

The former defence minister, Linda Reynolds, established an oversight panel in late 2020 to give the Australian community confidence the ADF was putting in place lasting cultural reforms. She promised to report “regularly to the parliament on their reports to me”.

But Dutton, who took over as minister in late March 2021, has never spoken about the Brereton reforms in parliament, even though the number of reports from the panel is growing.

Updated at 18.09 EDT

Albanese: ‘I don’t know you would go into politics if you don’t want to leave a legacy’

Anthony Albanese says, in response to Scott Morrison’s criticism of him that the prime minister has no legacy:

This guy had no plan for this term says that he wants to be prime minister but doesn’t want to leave a legacy.

I don’t know why you would go into politics if you don’t want to leave a legacy.

I spoke about my legacy in my first term. First speech to parliament.

That’s what people do and then they then they work on it.

My first speech was about nation building and infrastructure. It’s about greater equality.

… This this prime minister has no plans for the future. He struggles with the present. I want to change people’s lives for the better. I want to talk about cheaper childcare. I want to talk about women’s equality. I want to talk about First Nations recognition in our constitution with an enshrined voice to parliament.

I want to build new industries through the national reconstruction fund. I want to make more things here, I want to act on climate change.

I want a national anti-corruption commission is setting up politics. My opponent, my opponent has nothing except fear campaigns and personal abuse.

Opposition leader Anthony Albanese. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

Updated at 17.57 EDT

Asked about Indigenous recognition in the constitution, Anthony Albanese says:

I will sit down with First Nations people after the election, about a timetable, sit down with the Coalition of peaks and others who’ve been involved in the Uluru statement from the heart.

This is a very generous offer of First Nations people they had their hand out in friendship.

It’s a generous statement. It’s a wonderful statement. And the idea that we don’t recognise that Australian history didn’t begin when the first fleet arrived, that we should be proud of our 65,000 years at least, of having the oldest continuous civilisation the plant on the planet that should be recognised in our constitution.

Now we do want obviously for it to be successful. And just as I offered, I offered the prime minister in the first meeting that we had after I became Labor leader.

I said this should be a priority. We should get this done. I would expect that if we’re successful, I’ll reach out across the parliament to ensure that there’s as much support as it needs to be of course on a bipartisan basis for this change.

Updated at 17.58 EDT

Anthony Albanese is asked whether or not he supports the ACTU’s submission to the Fair Work Commission for a 5.5% increase to the minimum wage, but won’t give a yes or no answer.

The 5.5% is higher, of course than the inflation rate. What I say is that people can’t afford to go backwards. The current minimum wage is just $20.33.

Asked again, he says:

I’ve said the people the Fair Work Commission, in my view, should not allow people to go backwards. People are really struggling out there. And the idea that people’s minimum wage can’t keep up with the cost of living in terms of inflation, is in my view, something that the Fair Work Commission should bear in mind.

Updated at 17.59 EDT

Anthony Albanese is speaking to ABC radio RN for the first time this campaign. He is asked about Clive Palmer’s suggested preference flows against Labor in key seats the opposition needs to win if it is to win the election.

We are we’re not completely shocked by that. But what we will do is continue to seek out people’s first preference at this election, including in those key seats, but there are seats right around the country, people’s vote [is very powerful] every individual’s vote is powerful.

Sarah Martin has covered off that preference suggested story there:

(cont from previous post)

Over 450 people filled Avalon theatre to hear from five of the Mackellar candidates in a forum that was chaired by ABC presenter Geraldine Doogue, who promised (and delivered) a far more orderly debate than the Nine Network leaders’ debate on Sunday night.

The event, organised by Avalon bookshop Bookoccino, was the first time Scamps and Falinski had faced off in person.

Scamps specifically ruled out supporting a wealth tax in response to an audience interjection and accused Falinski of putting “words in her mouth” and “feeding on fear” when he asked whether she would back the taxes proposed by economist Richard Denniss, if Labor won.

In a sometimes testy exchange, she said “small business” was the backbone of the electorate, and that her policy choices would support small business and wage increases.

But Scamps seemed to not understand Falinski’s question about whether she would guarantee confidence and supply for the party who formed government in the event of a minority government. She eventually said she would guarantee both.

Falinski, who chaired a recent parliamentary inquiry into housing costs in Australia and named it as a priority, came under pressure from Doogue who asked him what he would actually do about the problem.

He ruled out changes to capital gains tax and scrapping negative gearing, saying favourable tax treatment for housing accounted for 4% of the rise in housing cost.

He warned ending negative gearing for mum and dad investors would result in Australia ending up with thousands of houses being owned by corporations as had occurred n Berlin.

He said the biggest shifts could come from increasing supply of housing through densification, more efficient planning system and land releases. He proposed negotiations with the states similar to the national competition framework where federal funding would be withheld unless progress was made.

But all five participants seemed reluctant to support, or clearly opposed greater densities and fewer environmental controls in Mackellar, one of the least densely populated areas of Sydney.

The surprise star performer of the evening was the Greens’ candidate, 18-year old Ethan Hrnjak, who said the Greens were the only party advocating a 75% cut in emissions by 2030 – the number the IPCC said in its last report was needed to ensure global heating was kept to 1.5C.

He received rousing applause for his case for action as well as his advocacy for more spending on mental health.

Updated at 17.52 EDT

Independent candidate Sophie Scamps and Liberal MP Jason Falinski face off in Mackellar

Independent candidate for Mackellar, Sophie Scamps, has faced a barrage of questions about who she would support and how she would vote on key issues such as tax if she wins the seat of Mackellar on Sydney northern beaches in 10 days time.

Scamps, who insists she will will make up her own mind after consultation with people in Mackellar, came under fire from her main rival, Liberal MP Jason Falinski, who warned that community independents were “an artifice” and were being funded by “ dark money” from a group of millionaires out of Sydney and Melbourne.

Scamps replied that taking the funding from Climate 200 was necessary to match the power of the parties, and that 10,000 people had donated to the group set up by Simon Holmes à Court because they were deeply concerned about the Liberals’ failure on climate change.

The two bickered over how much was being spent – she said $1.2m and he said $2m – a figure he labelled as “an unprecedented spend in a single seat.”

Scamps said that she would wait to see what the major parties offered but the independents did not intend to act as a bloc, setting the stage for protracted negotiations if neither party has a majority.

Mackellar independent candidate Sophie Scamps.

Updated at 17.53 EDT

Good morning

It’s legs 11 with just 11 days left in the campaign.

Thank Dolly. I’m not sure any of us could handle much more.

Scott Morrison’s handpicked candidate for Warringah, Katherine Deves, has backtracked on her apology for her previous social media comments (some as recent as earlier this year) in an interview with Sky News.

Chris Kenny: So when you said that the gender reassignment surgery for teenagers was mutilation, that was inappropriate?’

Katherine Deves:

Look, that is actually the correct medico legal term. Look, it’s very emotive and it’s very confronting, and it’s very ugly. So of course, people are going to be offended.

But when you look at medical negligence cases, that is the terminology that they use. It is also contained in the Crimes Act of New South Wales.

So was she apologising?

Well, I’m apologising for how people might have perceived it, and the fact that it is confronting and it is ugly, and I certainly don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. But that is the correct terminology.

Deves says she is speaking for the “quiet Australians”.

Labor’s Catherine King was asked on ABC this morning if she was surprised Deves had walked back her apology.

No, I think this is an incredibly divisive debate and I think the prime minister has chosen a very divisive candidate to run in that seat and I think it’s really awful to see that happening in the context of a federal election campaign.

Meanwhile, aged care staff are planning to go on strike today, protesting low pay and conditions.

Thousands of staff are planning to walk off the job across the nation, in action which was flagged last month. The union is calling for at least a 25% pay rise.

King says Labor backs the pay rise:

A couple of things we have said, this is a damning indictment on the government. How can you have a royal commission where its interim report titled Neglect tells you there’s a problem with residential aged care and basically do nothing about it? We said 24-7 nursing staff, minimum times for people to – for workers to be with residents, again, that basically brings in more staff into residential aged care and we have said we’ll make a submission to the Fair Work Commission in relation to the waged case.

Scott Morrison is in Sydney, while Anthony Albanese is in Melbourne, where he is expected to campaign with Daniel Andrews.

Given there is less than two weeks in the campaign now, where the campaigns go tells you where the seats are to be won. It’s only going to rev up.

As usual, you will have Katharine Murphy, Paul Karp, Daniel Hurst, Sarah Martin and Josh Butler to help you make sense of it, and a very caffeinated Amy Remeikis on the blog.

Ready? Me either.