PM to appear on A Current Affair; Albanese pressed on Labor costings ahead of Thursday release

A teaser for tonight’s A Current Affair says host Tracy Grimshaw asks prime minister Scott Morrison:

Do you think you slightly over egged the part about ‘I saved the country’?

Here’s a flashback to the last time the two went head to head, from Amanda Meade:

Yet another complaint lodged with the Australian Electoral Commission over campaign shenanigans – Natasha May reports:

Eden Gillespie

A man has been arrested after police issued emergency declarations across two Brisbane suburbs.

Police were called to Hamley Street in Wooloowin around 1pm on Tuesday after a number of “suspicious items” were located there, sparking an emergency declaration to be issued under the Public Safety Preservation Act.

Police said “the exclusion zone” included 100m surrounding Hamley Street, including Adamson and Kedron streets.

Police have urged members of the public to avoid the area and for those within the exclusion zone to remain indoors until further notice.

A second emergency declaration has been issued for a number of streets in Coorparoo, including Stanley Street East, Tiber Street, Halifax Street, Milsom Street, Adina Street, Norman Avenue, Rome Street and Thackery Street.

It remains unclear what the suspicious items were.

Police have asked anyone with further information to contact Policelink by providing information using the online suspicious activity form.

Updated at 03.45 EDT

A couple of snaps of the campaign trail action from AAP:

Scott Morrison plays carpet bowls at the Palmerston 50+ Tuesday Club in Darwin, in the seat of Solomon. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP Anthony Albanese and WA premier Mark McGowan (right) visit the Metronet Manufacturing facility in Perth. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

Updated at 03.48 EDT

Today’s postcards from the campaign trail are in. Daniel Hurst, Josh Butler and Paul Karp have everything you need to know in the election briefing:

In a hard-hitting edition of A Current Affair, Tracy Grimshaw grills Scott Morrison tonight at 7pm on Channel 9 and 9Now.

With the federal election just four days away, and up to 1 in 4 voters undecided, viewers won’t want to miss this must-watch interview with the prime minister.

Updated at 03.06 EDT

Josh Butler has been battling to get those texts, which were meant to be reports on his work:

Paul Karp has been on the road with the media pack following Scott Morrison. He’s giving Jane Lee the lowdown in today’s Campaign catchup:

Updated at 02.50 EDT

7,873 Australians have died of Covid:

Paterson says there was a risk the deal would be leaked, and indeed some details were, and it had to be revealed to as few people as possible:

Because it was highly classified and highly sensitive negotiations that by the very nature of it couldn’t be revealed any more than on a need-to-know basis until it was signed, sealed and delivered.

Updated at 02.39 EDT

Next up is Liberal senator James Paterson, who chairs the parliamentary joint committee on intelligence and security. That’s particularly relevant because prime minister Scott Morrison didn’t fully brief Labor on the Aukus deal with the US and the UK.

Paterson says:

To the reporting that suggests that there was a requirement to inform Labor many months in advance, the prime minister has emphatically denied that that was ever asked by the United States. And it wouldn’t have made any sense anyway because at that point, only the prime minister and a handful of core and key ministers were aware of the deal.

Subsequently the national security committee of cabinet was informed, but the entire cabinet wasn’t informed until much closer to the announcement and it would be utterly absurd to inform the opposition leader and his team before the full elected cabinet of the Australian government was informed.

Updated at 02.44 EDT

Kelly asks Sharkie what she thinks about the competing housing policies from the major parties. Neither of them deal with the housing supply shortage, she says, and she’s not seeing anything substantial to deal with homelessness.

Sharkie confirms she would speak to the Coalition first, in the case of a hung parliament. She says she’s disappointed in both parties, and has several issues on her mind, but:

It is not a partisan view, I would talk with the government in the first place because they are the incumbent government.