| Leaders talk tax, tourism dollars for Tasmania and the Turnbull bus gets stuck | Good afternoon,
Well, here we are halfway through the federal election campaign. How are we all feeling? Here's hoping the PM's "never been a more exciting time" pep talk is giving you the strength to power on. We've still got a month until polling day people.
Fortunately, things are likely to get pretty interesting from here.
For now, let's take a look at what happened on the trail today:
1. THE PAST COMES BACK TO BITE BILL SHORTEN
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten faced a grilling by reporters today. They put it to him that while he had been criticising the Coalition's proposed cuts during the campaign, in 2011, he actually proposed them.
He responded: "There's no comparison between 2011 and now. The truth of the matter is you can only ever do company tax cuts when the nation can afford to do them."
The PM had to answer questions on the same topic, particularly about when his side's proposed company tax cuts would deliver the 1 per cent boost to economic growth he previously touted.
"With smaller businesses, you will see more rapid response. With larger businesses, it will take longer," he said.
The 1 per cent growth figure has been questioned because modelling done for Treasury doesn't support the claim. Check out the latest in our politics blog.
2. PM RULES OUT GST HIKE IN NEXT TERM OF PARLIAMENT
While campaigning in South Australia, Malcolm Turnbull ruled out raising the GST in the next term of Parliament.
Talking on Adelaide radio, the PM was asked: "Are you saying that the GST is dead, never ever?"
He replied: "Well what I'm saying is that under, well yes, it is not something that we would contemplate in the next term of Government."
3. BILL SHORTEN PROMISES BIG DOLLARS FOR TASMANIAN TOURISM
The Opposition Leader was reunited with the Bill Bus in Tasmania today.
Mr Shorten made a major pledge to the state's booming tourism industry, promising $44 million for a tourism infrastructure fund.
Labor holds just one Lower House seat in Tasmania but it's targeting the three marginal seats it lost to the Coalition in 2013 - Bass, Braddon and Lyons.
4. DO YOU WANT MAYO ON THAT?
The PM was in the SA seat of Mayo today where he promised $3.75 million for a new sporting complex at Mount Barker.
It has traditionally been considered a safe Coalition seat, formerly held by Alexander Downer, but the introduction of the Nick Xenophon Party combined with Jamie Briggs' scandal in a Hong Kong bar has thrown the Coalition quite a curve ball.
ELECTION SPOTLIGHT: THE BUS GETS STUCK
The Turnbull campaign almost lost its media pack in the Adelaide Hills today, but it wasn't intentional.
The bus carting the journos from event to event got stuck while going up a hill and needed a push from the travelling media to get it back on track.
FROM THE DRUM: BARRIE CASSIDY
The election campaign this week fell off a cliff, pushed squarely in the back by the most ineffective leaders' debate in a generation, writes Barrie Cassidy.
It should have been an opportunity for the leaders to break through; to engage, persuade, and genuinely articulate the key messages. Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten did none of that.
They were wooden and stilted, painfully restrained as they struggled to remember their word perfect talking points.
Want more? Check out our Australia Votes homepage for all the latest election news and analysis. |  | | | About this email You received this email because you are subscribed to ABC News email alerts. This message was sent to you at starnewsposting@gmail.com. Please add newslists@your.abc.net.au to your email address book to see images by default and stop the email being treated as spam. This email address is not monitored - Please don't reply to this email. This service may include material from Agence France-Presse (AFP), APTN, Reuters, AAP, CNN and the BBC World Service which is copyright and cannot be reproduced. Add or remove topics | Unsubscribe | Contact Us |
|
0 comments:
Post a Comment