| The PM makes promises to firefighters and the Opposition talk Medicare, again | Good afternoon,
It was a cool, winter's day of campaigning for our politicians, but the issues of asylum seekers, the CFA and Medicare kept the heat on the major parties.
Here's what you need to know.
1.THE PRIME MINISTER TOOK AN AWKWARD PAUSE BEFORE ANSWERING QUESTIONS ON ASYLUM SEEKERS
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull bided his time before answering a question on the Coalition's announcement it had intercepted a boat of asylum seekers earlier this month.
A journalist asked "as a moderate member of the Liberal Party, how personally do you feel about having to resort to a scare campaign on asylum seekers?"
Those at the press conference noted the amount of time the Prime Minister waited before answering the question.
"What I have described is the facts ... these people smugglers are more aggressive than ever," Mr Turnbull said.
"They have agents in Australia, they have access to technologies, smartphones and social media that weren't available in John Howard's day.
"They are very adept marketers, let's not kid ourselves. They are among the most evil criminals in the world but they are very smart in the way they use social media.
"They market and they will market the change, a Labor change to temporary protection visas is an enormous opportunity and there will be more boats and more people smuggling. There is no question about that."
Today the PM also met with volunteer firefighters in Geelong.
He has told them if re-elected, he would amend the Fair Work Act to ensure the Victorian Government couldn't "have its way".
2. THE CFA DISPUTE COULD HAUNT LABOR'S HOPES IN VICTORIA
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten could face backlash from CFA volunteers as their stoush with the Victorian Government over a new enterprise bargaining agreement deepens.
The industrial relations row has already felled a state minister and the CFA's board as the United Firefighters Union presses its case for a new agreement.
Mr Shorten, who visited Adelaide today, said the matter was about safety and that the dispute would be resolved.
"What it's about is the safety of Victorians," Mr Shorten said.
"What it's about is the speedy resolution of this dispute."
He spruiked his big-ticket funding for the state, which includes $500 million towards the AdeLINK tram project and the 2,000 local jobs it will reportedly bring over four years, $59 million to the Manufacturing Transition Boost package and $100 million for steel maker Arrium, which they Labor says will secure more than 3,500 jobs.
Labor has also launched yet another attack on the Coalition about its plans for Medicare, this time on children's vaccination records.
Labor's health spokeswoman Catherine King has said those records could be sold off to private providers under a conservative government.
While the Coalition has ruled out privatising any part of Medicare, Ms King has called on Mr Turnbull to "guarantee that he won't privatise the confidential vaccination records of Australia's school children".
3. DEPUTY PM BARNABY JOYCE ANNOUNCED FUNDING FOR REGIONAL AUSTRALIA
Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce was in the beef-producing town of Casino, in northern New South Wales, to open the annual PrimeEx field day and announce the Coalition's $240 million agriculture policy.
Mr Joyce said the policy would build on his Agriculture White Paper.
The policy included $20 million over five years to fund research on eradicating pests like wild dogs and feral pigs and $8.3 million to improve animal welfare in the live export industry.
4. SENATOR RICHARD DI NATALE ADDRESSED THE NATIONAL PRESS CLUB
Greens Leader Richard Di Natale spoke at the National Press Club today, and put the focus on asylum seekers.
Senator Di Natale said there were other options to the current border protection policy, which he said was "inflicting cruel and harsh treatment on innocent people".
He said he made no apologies for wanting offshore detention centres closed.
"We are harming people in our offshore network ... We've got kids that are self harming ... We've got families that will be damaged permanently ... We've lost some of the moral clarity that is needed here," he said.
On the make up of the Senate, he said he expected to see "a broader range of views", but wouldn't hazard a guess as to which parties would get over the line.
ELECTION SPOTLIGHT: MOST MEN OPPOSE GENDER QUOTAS
About half of Australian women support the idea of using quotas to increase the number of women in parliament, but a majority of men are opposed to the idea, Vote Compass data shows.
Debate flared last year over the best way to bring more women into politics, on both sides of the House of Representatives.
You can see the Vote Compass results on gender quotas here.
FROM THE DRUM: VICTORIAN FIRESTORM SENDS SHORTEN SCRAMBLING
Victorian Labor's handling of the Country Fire Authority industrial dispute threatens to spark a political firestorm that could tear through Bill Shorten's federal hopes, writes Chris Earl.
COMING UP NEXT: - Opposition Leader Bill Shorten will be on 7.30 AEST
- Finance Minister Mathias Cormann will be on Lateline at 10.25pm AEST
- Penny Wong will be on RN Drive at 6:06pm AEST
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