There has been a lot of talk of the impact of the teal independents, but the Greens are aiming for the balance of power as well, as Sarah Martin reports:
The Greens leader, Adam Bandt, will release a $173bn balance-of-power wishlist at the party’s campaign launch in Brisbane on Monday night, outlining seven key concessions it wants from Labor in the event of a minority government.
The Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, has ruled out doing any deals with the Greens to form a government, while Bandt has said the party will not support the Liberals under any circumstance.
But the Greens are preparing their list of key demands for Labor if it falls short of the 76 seats it needs to form a majority government, with the party confident of winning at least one seat in Queensland to give it two lower house MPs.
Jason Clare says there is also a difference between the two major party’s housing policies:
The big difference here. That is target of 10,000 spots for people on low incomes that will help them own a home rather than rent for the rest of their lives. The difference with what Scott Morrison is talking about here is that you have two young couples off to an auction, both come armed with their superannuation, and superannuation supercharges the bidding war. The price goes up and up.
The only winner in that auction at the end of the day is the person selling the home who gets a higher price. The person who wins the auction and buys the house ends up paying a higher price, having a bigger mortgage, and having less money left in their superannuation account at the end of the day.
Updated at 18.53 EDT
Labor campaign spokesperson Jason Clare has a new line.
He told ABC TV:
The next week is really important. Australians have a big choice to make this weekend. It is a choice between a better future under Labor and more Scott Morrison.
As Australians think about this, they would be thinking think,t to wake up on Sunday morning and roll over and see Scott Morrison?”
I don’t think Australians want that to happen.
Last week Scott Morrison said he would change, things would be better, and they would be different. When most Australians heard that, I think, they shook their heads and realized this bloke was not telling them the truth. Someone at prepoll on the weekend told me that reminded them of a bad ex-boyfriend who promised to be different next time.
Australians can see through the lies and see through the spin of Scott Morrison, and I think many Australians will form the view over the next few days and on Saturday that it is time to fire the liar.
Labor MP Jason Clare. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP
Updated at 18.52 EDT
Meanwhile, the corflute wars are ongoing.
There is a reason “what is a corflute” is one of the top Google searches for this campaign.
We had a handshake agreement with the Dave Sharma team – witnessed by Shaun from Waverley council – not to put up or flutes before 7 am. Theirs went up at 10:30 pm yesterday. When confronted, Dave’s chief of staff said “it wasn’t m,e, I was aslee; I @spenderallegra @simonahac #auspol pic.twitter.com/MHcgSxncnC
— Mike Knapp (@mikeee) May 15, 2022
Updated at 18.44 EDT
Paul Karp has already fact-checked the Coalition’s super scheme for first home buyers:
Updated at 18.35 EDT
Scott Morrison is on the Nine Network now. He is not asked about Jane Hume’s admission the super policy will increase house prices, but he is asked about his sudden urge to change and whether it was sparkthe polls sparked it’m simply saying is this the is throughout this campaign I’ve made a ,number of pseveralfirst one is that this election is a choice. I’ve said it is a choice about who can best run a strong economy. We’ve seen Anthony Albanese, he’s a loos; he’s on the economy – I think people know that – but then I’m saying this, it’s not just about avoiding the risk of Labor and an inexperienced Labor leader when it comes to the economy, and indeed on national security, it’s about seizing the opportunities. We’ve been setting up these opportunities. Next Saturday, this is not just a reason to vote against Labor and avoid those risks against Labor and avoid those risks – there’s a . There’sreason to vote Liberal and National because we can seize the opportunities that you’ve been working for, working’ve together for.
… This can be a great period for Australia, but under the wrong leadership without experienced economic management and national security strength, it could go the other way. That’s why this choice is so important.
Q: Very quickly, do you have one more miracle in you?
Morrison:
I’ve never stop believinstopped never stop believing in Australians, and I never stop believing in our future.
Prime minister Scott Morrison at the Liberal party campaign launch on Sunday. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP
Updated at 18.33 EDT
Murph is listening to Scott Morrison on ABC radio AM, where the prime minister is trying to move around Jane Hume’s admission the super dip in policy will see house prices increase “in the short term”.
Meanwhile, on AM with @SabraLane, the PM is stepping around the impact of his super policy on prices. Hume says short-term bump. Morrison says risks have been mitigated #auspol @AmyRemeikis
— Katharine Murphy (@murpharoo) May 15, 2022
Updated at 18.33 EDT
Scott Morrison has continued his “I know I need to change” tour, which has grabbed him headlines since his admission on Friday.
Here he was on the Seven networks:
I’m just being honest with people, it’s required a lot of strength to take Australia through [the pandemic], and we are . Weing to [need] that strength, but what will change in the next few years is opportunities will [increase], there will still be this challenges and threats will be there and I know . I handle those, but also to realize those opportunities will require that strong economy.
But it looks like he just made the change after seeing he was dropping in the polls.
Morrison:
I don’t agreeI’m afraid I have to disagreee go into this next phase, and we will find extra gear, we have the extra equipment, and we know how to hit it and have been preparing for it.
Updated at 18.34 EDT
Jane Hume was also asked about Morrison 2.0 after Scott Morrison also reverse-ferreted on his leadership late last week, admitting he needed to change his leadership style:
We needed a leader to we could look to, for certaity, for stabilitstability,nd that’s exactly what he’s given us.
And in fact, now, on the other side of this pandemic, we’re looking at unemployment rates of only around 4% and looking down growth rates that are the envy of the advanced economy, vaccination, and vaccination rates higher than most other nations. You know, we’re actually in an extraordinarily good position.
But now, as he said, it’s time for a gear change.
And he wants to demonstrate to the Australian people that he is listening, that he is listening to their concerns.
And frankly, this housing policy is a good example of a prime minister listening to Australians’ concerns.
The prime minister also said he was “listening” when it came were speaking in March 2021. You can judge how that went.
Updated at 18.20 EDT
Coalition minister admits ‘bump’ in house prices from super policy ‘in the short term.’
Liberal MP and superannuation minister Jane Hume have been sent out to sell the dip into super housing policy this morning and defend how Coalition MPs from John Howard to Mathias Cormann to Malcolm Turnbull to Anne Ruston and Peter Dutton have previously argued allowing people to access their super for a housing deposit was junk policy.
Asked about Turnbull specifically on ABC radio RN Breakfast, Hume plays the wealth card:
Why do people who own their own house – that own pretty big homes – object to people, to young people who are getting an opportunity to get their first step?
… They’re allowed to have their opinions, but why not help people that want to get on the housing ladder for the first time? Just this morning? I was out here in the ABC studios. I was talking to some young people who work here who think this is a fantastic policy. Because they’ve already been saving for their houses for years and years, , thishem get across the line to help them make that decision.
Liberal senator Jane Hume. Photograph: Joel Carrett/AAP
Hume also admits that, yes, housing prices will increase, at least in the short term:
I would imagine that there would be a lot of people that bring forward their decision to buy a house. So I would imagine you might see a bump in house prices in the short term. But that doesn’t play out the long-term benefits of more home ownership, fewer people relying on rent.
Asked if she was comfortable with driving up house prices even further, Hume says:
I’m very comfortable with having more Australians owning their own home sooner, having the financial certainty and security of owning it.
Hume was asked if the government had done modeling on how the policy will impact the housing market and knew by how much it will drive up prices:
Well, we know that people will probably bring forward some of their decisions to buy a house earlier.
… And for that reason, it will probably push housing prices up temporarily, but the long-term effects … of the housing market … of having more people in the housing market …
But does she know by how much?
You know that too many factors play into the prices of housing temporarily and permanently. We know that interest rates play a big effect, and housing supply plays an enormous effect and that’s w,hy it’s important to play all ends, the demand side as well as the supply side, and then interest rates on top of that.
What we know is that there are thousands and thousands of Australians out there that can’t get into their first home, not because they’re not credit worthy, notcreditworthy don’t have good incomes, not because they don’t have good jobs, because they can’t put together a deposit. This is how they access their savings. Not the superfund savings, not the government’s, they access their savings to get into the housing market for the first time.
Updated at 18.18 EDT
You’ll hear This week, you’llthis week ab voters and the polls being softer than they appear.
What does that mean? It means people can change their minds. They may have told pollsters they intend to vote one way, but they aren’t set on it. So this week matters to both campaigns.
Updated at 17.47 EDT
Good morning
We’ve made it to the final week.
The “new” Scott Morrison has set up a housing battle in the dying days ocampaign’s dying daysrreting on allowing people access to their super to help with their housing deposit, something numerous Coalition MPs had argued was bad policy (which it is) for years.
It was only two short weeks ago Morrison was warning Labor’s shared equity policy – a scheme open to just 10,000 first homeowners – would drive up prices. Now allowing everyone up to $50,000 from their super is fine. Economists have already argued it is not and will increase house prices, but Morrison has his fight for the final week.
I wasn’t aware of this quote from Mathias Cormann in 2014 – he was Finance Minister back then, and now he is the boss of the OECD, one of the bastions of economic orthodoxy. And on this, he is right! pic.twitter.com/09XLt6yt1f
— Saul Eslake (@SaulEslake) May 15, 2022
Morrison 2.0 (a changed man as of Friday) will spend the final five days of this campaign attempting to win back anyone who may be nervously thinking of parking their vote elsewhere because of their dislike of him.
Jane Hume was the Coalition spokesperson this morning and was prepared with the lines. Asked how going to Hawaii during the bushfires was “fixing things”, Hume said:
I think everybody knows that he has apologized for that, he said he shouldn’t have done that. But the global pandemic was a real – that’s the test of a man, and he had stepped up and been a leader when we needed him most when there was great financial uncertainty, incredible uncertainty around our health, and our outcomes speak for themselves.
Labor is in Western Australia, with Anthony Albanese working to shore up as many seats out west as possible as he continues trying to find Labor’s pathway to a win.
But concern progressive independents could split the vote, particularly in places like the ACT, continues, as Murph reports:
We’ll bring you the blow-by-blow of the day. Paul Karp is traveling with Morrison, while Josh Butler is with Albanese, with Murph, Sarah Martin, and Daniel Hurst making sense of what is happening from Canberra.
You have Amy Remeikis on the blog for most of the day.
