Australian election briefing: Morrison challenged on transgender comments while Albanese pinned on wages — plus Goliath the crocodile’s pick

Thirty days down, 11 to go.

Just as the Coalition seemed to have nearly put the Katherine Deves issue to bed, insisting she’d apologised and moved on, the controversial Warringah candidate popped up to tell Sky News that actually, she didn’t regret or reconsider her views on transgender Australians; and stood by her “mutilated” description.

The prime minister, Scott Morrison, who has insisted she had apologised and that her comments were really about trans women in sport, finally had to engage on the substantive issue. Almost immediately, he appeared to claim (wrongly) that young people were undergoing gender reassignment surgery, which is actually not available to people under 18. His press conference, announcing a major infrastructure project in a key electorate, was hijacked yet again by the comments of Deves, who he yet again stood by and refused to condemn.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese found himself in some hot water of his own, pinned down in successive media appearances and forced to commit to a specific number he wanted to see the minimum wage increase – a clarification he had thus far avoided.

The leaders are set to square-off again in Sydney on Wednesday, in the final election debate.

Where the leaders were

The leaders had near-identical days, and both kept their eyes firmly on Sydney. Albanese began the day in Melbourne, making a $2.2bn commitment to the 90 kilometre Suburban Rail Loop, to “link every major rail line” in Victoria.

He was joined at the press conference in Chisholm (Coalition-held, 0.5%) by Victorian premier Daniel Andrews, before going to Deakin (Coalition, 4.8%) for yet another coffee shop photo op.

Morrison also had an infrastructure announcement, also announced alongside his party-mate premier Dominic Perrottet in Sydney. The PM dropped $220 million to upgrade Epping Bridge, in the contested seat of Bennelong (Coalition, 6.9%) which Labor suddenly has its eyes on.

Morrison then went to the inner-Sydney seat of Reid (Coalition, 3.2%) to attend a jobs fair, where a passer-by asked him to do more to help Afghan refugees.

Both ended the day in Sydney.

Today’s big stories

Tudge-y subject: Exiled cabinet minister Alan Tudge has been found! After weeks avoiding media questions on the campaign (and inspiring ‘Where’s Wally?’ memes), he said he is willing to return to the frontbench if the Coalition wins the election, while also claiming he is “unaware” of the reasons his former staffer Rachelle Miller is getting a taxpayer-funded payout of more than half a million dollars. “I’ve been very busy in my local electorate here,” he told Sky News.

Morrison backs Deves: the PM has again excused the incendiary comments on transgender people from controversial Warringah candidate Katherine Deves, as well as wrongly insinuating that young Australians can undergo gender reassignment surgery. Deves walked back her apology for saying transgender people were “mutilated”, with Morrison claiming “gender reversal surgery for young adolescents” was a “significant issue” that parents were “very concerned” about.

Warringah MP Zali Steggall called it “disgusting”, citing transgender Australians as “a vulnerable group, with already extremely high suicide rates”.

Housing: Standing alongside Morrison in Bennelong, NSW premier Perrottet left open the prospect of supporting federal Labor’s home equity scheme, saying he is open to “new ways of thinking” on housing affordability. Publicly contradicting the federal Coalition’s opposition to the policy, Perrottet told media it was “important that we’re open-minded” to ideas about addressing housing problems.

Maths lesson: Labor has had to clarify the details around Monday’s big-ticket teacher announcement, after the Coalition claimed Albanese “cannot count”. Outlined as part of a $146m policy for 5,000 students to get up to $12,000 a year in a bursary, the Daily Telegraph noted the bursaries only had $50m put aside – and quoted finance minister Simon Birmingham claiming the maths didn’t add up. News Corp reported the policy actually only gave 1,000 new scholarships each year, starting in 2023. Albanese, responding to the story, said his costings over the four-year forward estimates period “are completely accurate”, noting “this is two-year and four-year degrees. We’ve said 1,000 places a year. Not all of those are within the forward estimates.”

Wages: Albanese has endorsed a minimum wage rise of at least 5.1% to keep up with inflation. After talking up wage rises and cost of living issues in the election, but recently finally admitting he can’t guarantee the pay packets of Australians would go up under Labor, Albanese said on Tuesday he didn’t want to see people go “backwards” due to inflation rising. He stopped short of backing an Australian Council of Trade Unions call for a 5.5% increase.

Factcheck: are Pauline Hanson’s claims of voter fraud in Australian elections true? – video Quote of the day I’m not a surgeon.

– the answer given by Morrison, twice, when asked (twice) what was the “correct terminology” to refer to someone undergoing gender reassignment surgery.

By the numbers: 5.1

The percentage increase to the minimum wage that Albanese said he “absolutely” supported, to match the inflation rate. The ACTU wants 5.5%. The Coalition is already tearing into Labor for what it calls an “unprecedented” intervention into the Fair Work Commission’s deliberations on the minimum wage. Expect this to factor into Morrison’s economic attacks in coming days.

The big picture

Ah, the magic of democracy – rocking up to a polling booth, obtaining a well-earned sausage or treat from the cake stall, and having to run the gauntlet of dodging a labyrinth of A-frame signs and being greeted by the very candidates vying for your vote. Labor MP Anika Wells and Liberal member Trevor Evans were both jockeying for support at this polling booth, trying to lock in as many last-minute votes as possible.

Whoever makes it through the corflute maze gets a snag. Photograph: Darren England/AAP Federal member and Labor candidate for the seat of Lilley, Anika Wells (centre) and federal member and LNP candidate for the seat of Brisbane, Trevor Evans (right) try to charm voters. Photograph: Darren England/AAP Watch: election tips

Betting markets are already running hot with election wagers, but a big tip of another kind was made on Tuesday – Goliath the crocodile, the massive saltwater citizen of the Cairns Zoo, picked Coalition stalwart Warren Entsch to hold his seat of Leichhardt.

Just as we get octopuses and pandas picking the winners of various sporting competitions for media stunts, the north Queensland zoo turns to its most fearsome reptiles to tip an election result. With Entsch and Labor challenger Elida Faith holding chunks of meat out over the water, Goliath picked the snack offered by the sitting LNP member, thus casting his own ballot for Leichhardt’s local MP at this poll.

Labor has been eyeing off the tropical electorate as a possible election pickup, but Goliath’s endorsement might take that off the table…

Listen: Full Story’s campaign catchup

Daniel Hurst was on Full Story’s podcast today, talking about his story which revealed Peter Dutton 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.

Full Story Campaign catchup: why the secrecy over Australian Defence Force cultural reforms?

Sorry your browser does not support audio – but you can download here and listen https://audio.guim.co.uk/2020/05/05-61553-gnl.fw.200505.jf.ch7DW.mp3