Federal election 2022 live updates: Jason Clare says Albanese was ‘standing up’ to Morrison’s ‘try-hard bully-boy stuff’ in debate

Tasmanian premier tests positve for Covid after NBL game

Tasmanian premier Jeremy Rockliff has tested positive for Covid-19 and will isolate for a week.

Rockliff said he woke on Monday morning with mild virus symptoms and took a rapid antigen test.

“I have tested positive for Covid-19 and will now follow public health advice and isolate for the next seven days,” he said in a statement.

“Due to being fully vaccinated, including my booster, I am feeling well and will recover while working from home.”

Rockliff attended the Tasmania JackJumpers’ NBL grand final series game against the Sydney Kings in Hobart on Sunday afternoon.

Tasmanian premier Jeremy Rockliff (centre) woke on Monday and took a RAT, which was positive for Covid. Photograph: Linda Higginson/AAP

He became the island state’s 47th premier in early April in a Liberal party room vote, after Peter Gutwein quit politics following two years in the top job.

Health authorities, meanwhile, have said being vaccinated against flu this winter is especially important with coronavirus still circulating in the community.

NSW chief health officer Kerry Chant last week said getting a flu shot was just as important as being vaccinated for Covid-19 as flu cases spike with international borders reopening after two years.

Cases of flu in NSW have more than doubled in recent weeks to 1024.

Updated at 19.53 EDT

Q: Dominic Perrottet says a minority government is good for democracy. Do you agree?

Anthony Albanese:

I want a majority Labor government. That is my position and I will be working every day for 76 … I think we should have 150 Labor members in the House of Representatives. That is my starting point. I think we will fall short of that. But my objective is 76. Thanks, very much, see you in Adelaide.

And the press conference ends.

Updated at 19.24 EDT

Q: The debate got fiery last night by both you and Scott Morrison. You mentioned disillusioned voters last night, what are they meant to make of two leaders shouting at each other?

Anthony Albanese:

Scott Morrison didn’t have anything to say except shouting. He only had smears and that smirk throughout it all.

Last night I put forward ideas about cheaper childcare. Our ideas about cheaper energy bills and dealing with climate change, our ideas about making more things here, our ideas about lifting living standards through practical measures to lift wages.

Our plans for more affordable housing, for addressing those issues, whether it be social housing or our help to buy program.

They are the positive policies we put forward. I ask to you think about what were the policy measures that Scott Morrison said he would do in his fourth term if he’s elected?

If he is given three more years, we can’t afford three more years of the same, three more years of smears and scares. That is all this government has got. In their drops to newspapers, breathtakingly reported like Labor has an off-budget program to build social housing, using the interest from the housing Australia Future Fund, then if that is all they’ve got, they are out of time and ideas.

Updated at 19.22 EDT

Q: You have gone to this election promising to increase wages, given the fact that inflation is going to be double what wages growth is, isn’t that a massive hole in your central platform that you won’t be able to deliver on something you’re promising now?

Anthony Albanese:

Not at all. There are two approaches towards wages at this election. Scott Morrison and his government, who want low wage growth to be a key feature of their economic architecture, they have said that.

Explicitly they have said that, the former finance minister and Labor which understands that we don’t want people to be left behind, we don’t want peoples’ living standards to be falling and that is our approach.

That is why we support wage increases for aged care workers. That is why we want to change the definition of the way that areas like the gender issues operate, so there has only been one successful case in the 21 that have been taken over recent years, going way back and in 2012 – you asked the question and now you get the answer.

That is the way it works. In 2012, we successfully, as the Labor government, put forward a submission for the social and community services award.

What that did was lead to an increase in pay that kept communities sector workers working in that sector. That led to higher wages, particularly for women in that sector. That is what we did.

We will continue to make practical measures that make a difference, including same job, same pay and just one difference as well that I can’t understand this government. Government had legislation before the parliament to outlaw wage theft and make it a crime and they withdrew it. They withdrew it even though it had overwhelming support.

It says it all about this government. At the same time, they had legislation which wanted to get rid of the better off overall test. You only want to get rid of the better off overall test if you don’t want people to be better off overall.

Updated at 19.23 EDT

Q: On last night you [said] negative gearing being a good thing. That is the exact opposite of your party’s policy from the last election. Did you not support that policy and just not speak up at all? Doesn’t negative gearing contribute to an overheated housing market?

Anthony Albanese:

We weren’t successful at the last election. We have come up with a better housing policy that we are taking to this election.

Updated at 19.18 EDT

Q: On your economic plan, Labor’s budget spending plans are going to see the nation’s debt balloon by another $52bn to pay for your climate change and affordable housing programs. With deficits set to increase by $10bn under your government, doesn’t this threaten your attacks on the Coalition over economic management and will you commit to budget repair?

Anthony Albanese:

They are getting desperate, aren’t they?

Here we have spending that is on the same basis as the National Broadband Network, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation that they tried to abolish.

This is an investment that produces a return. You only have off budget commitments if it produces a return to the government. For example, our housing Australia Future Fund will see $10bn invested through the Future Fund, by the way, which was established and Peter Costello and others were appointed to and the interest on that, the interest on that to be used to invest in social housing. This is good policy. It makes sense and it will make a difference.

Updated at 19.20 EDT

Q: You had a meeting with the Archbishop this morning. What did you discuss with him and are you concerned about religious voters going away from the Labor party?

Anthony Albanese:

Not at all. I know his Grace very well. You won’t be surprised by that, given I am an ex student of this school. We meet regularly and when I meet with a Catholic Archbishop or my local priest, it is not the subject of public information, it was a private chat, wasn’t terribly political.

It is on a personal level, I regard Anthony Fisher as someone who is a friend, he is Archbishop, and we discussed a range of personal issues and it included Catholic education and how important it is.

Updated at 19.15 EDT

Q: On wages, you said last night you will try to lift real wages but you couldn’t guarantee it. Why won’t you make that guarantee and is that the ambitious message you want to take to voters?

Anthony Albanese:

I am very confident that working with business and unions – you will recall – I think you were at the speech I gave at the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry last week, a serious speech of half an hour to 150 business leaders.

The Reserve Bank over a long period of time has warned that one of the weaknesses in the economy was the falling real wages. They referred to that consistently over a number of years.

The truth is we have had flatlining wages over 10 years. The key to lifting wages is lifting productivity. One of the things I will do, first things I will do is to convene a full employment summit.

We will have a full employment white paper. We will work with business and unions to enterprise bargaining but we will change the Act so secure work is an objective of the Act.

We will make gender pay equity an objective as well. We have a range of policies aimed towards that. The other thing we need to do is to recognise that so many people are doing it just so tough.

Half a million Australians are working three or more jobs. People in the aged care sector are earning as little as $22 an hour.

The minimum wage is $20.33. If you are working $22 an hour in what is a tough job – it is tough physically but it is incredibly tough emotionally and on people’s mental health which is why people are leaving the sector.

We need to address that. Our clear objective is to lift up living standards. That is our objective. That is what we will work on. It stands in stark contrast.

The prime minister last night – I got two questions to the prime minister, one of them I thought was pretty easy, which is should people be paid the minimum wage? You know what he said? “It depends.” He couldn’t even say that Australian workers should be paid the minimum wage.

Updated at 19.17 EDT

Q: During the religious discrimination debate you said a Labor government would act to protect all students, gay and transgender. How soon will this occur if Labor wins government?

Tanya Plibersek:

Labor has been very clear that we support action to protect people of faith from discrimination on the basis of religion. We have been consistently clear that we don’t want to see any child discriminated against, any legislation will be done in the normal way. If we form government we will consult widely on the legislation. We don’t want to do what Scott Morrison has done which is divide the nation by introducing this type of legislation. Labor leader Anthony Albanese and shadow education minister Tanya Plibersek. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

Updated at 19.14 EDT

Anthony Albanese tells the press pack they are going to three states today and there will be a number of opportunities to ask him questions.

Labor announces new teachers’ policy

Anthony Albanese and Tanya Plibersek are at Albanese’s old high school to talk teachers and getting high-achieving students into teaching degrees – and career changes:

Last night I outlined positive plans for Australia’s future. Scott Morrison was left with just smears, scares and a smirk. That is all he has got after three terms of government, asking for another three years. We can’t afford to waste another three years. We can’t afford three more years of the same, with a government that won’t acknowledge the problems that are there, let alone provide solutions for it. This government thinks that people have got it easy. The truth is that they haven’t. We are facing real challenges and one of the challenges is how we become a smarter country, how we deal with education and training and that is what today’s announcement is about.

Updated at 19.12 EDT

NSW reports three Covid deaths

Victoria has posted its covid update for the last 24 hours

Three lives were lost in NSW

Updated at 19.03 EDT

Bridget McKenzie also refers to the “teal” independents (of which the Nationals are facing their own threat in Nicholls) as “groupies”.

Asked why she calls them that, McKenzie says:

“Well, they don’t want to be called a political party. I am very, very happy to call them Simon Holmes à Court’s political party if you like.”

In case it needs to be said, receiving support or funding from the same group doesn’t make you a political party – there are multiple businesses and billionaires which donate to the different political parties at the same time in Australia.

Updated at 19.02 EDT

In her interview with ABC radio RN this morning, Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie had the lines and she delivered them.

We saw last week, Albanese can’t even handle the campaign press pack, it begs the question how is he going to handle Xi Jinping or Putin?”

Which is a ridiculous line by any measure.

When asked how much of a drag Scott Morrison was on the Coalition vote, McKenzie said:

Well, you don’t have to like him, but you have to recognise who is actually up to the job of being prime minister of a country of about $2 trillion in incredibly difficult times.

But she was also put under pressure by the “Barnaby line” – a phrase coined by Gabrielle Chan.

I think, those people who bother to get out of capital cities and have a look around, realise that we are a very diverse party, we are very diverse.

Gabby lives in regional Australia, on a farm.

Updated at 18.58 EDT

Dave Sharma plays down preferencing UAP on Wentworth how-to-vote material

Liberal MP Dave Sharma has played down the significance of directing his voters to preference the United Australia party candidate in second position in his ultra-marginal electorate of Wentworth, insisting he hasn’t endorsed the party’s policies.

Appearing at a candidates’ debate hosted by the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies on Sunday night, Sharma was asked about his how-to-vote material which urges voters to preference UAP candidate Natalie Dumer second, given the party had “platformed neo-Nazi” voices in the past.

Sharma responded by saying “preferencing someone does not amount to an endorsement of their policies” and that “it’s just something you need to put on the ballot paper”.

He said that given the “historical pattern” of voting in Wentworth, the Liberal candidate finished first so preferences made little difference.

Sharma added: “I would say to each of you who are Wentworth residents, number the boxes however you’d like.”

Sharma’s comments that preferences aren’t an endorsement of a party’s policies follows his criticism of Allegra Spender, the teal independent challenging him in Wentworth, for not including any preference directions to voters on her voting pamphlets.

“She will not say who she will support in a hung parliament, all but guaranteeing the chaos of minority government. She even refuses to disclose her preferences so as not to show her hand,” Sharma told SBS news last week.

The Liberal party holds Wentworth on a slim margin of 1.3%, and at Sunday’s debate both Sharma and Spender were appealing to the 12.5% of the electorate who are Jewish.

(L-R) Independent candidate for Wentworth Allegra Spender, Liberal member for Wentworth Dave Sharma and Labor member for Kingsford Smith Matt Thistlethwaite at a debate hosted by the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies on Sunday. Photograph: Steven Saphore/AAP

Updated at 18.49 EDT

Anthony Albanese will be holding his press conference at his old high school this morning as part of Labor’s teacher scholarship announcement.

That’s expected to be held fairly early this morning.

Updated at 18.33 EDT