Natasha May
Nurses, midwives and educators criticise Coalition’s last-minute decision to scrap prac payments for students
The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF) has added its voice expressing “extreme concern” that a Coalition government under Peter Dutton would axe paid prac placements.
From July this year, eligible students including nurses and midwives will receive over $300 per week while undertaking their mandatory 800 hours of clinical placement training.
The ANMF federal secretary, Annie Butler, said Dutton’s announcement that a Coalition government if elected, would axe paid prac placements, as well as university-loan debts and fee-free Tafe, which would combine to have a devastating impact on the predominantly-female nursing and midwifery workforce:
We know that placement poverty is a real issue for students who lose income from their regular paid jobs and then have to pay for a whole range of everyday costs, like finding an affordable rental property, parking, tolls, childcare, uniforms and other clinical tools whilst they’re training.
It’s certainly impacted our ability to build the nursing and midwifery workforce, with students forced to quit their courses and abandon their chosen profession.
That’s why the commonwealth prac placement, which will be implemented by the Albanese government, is so welcome as it will help alleviate the financial burden experienced by students as they complete their essential clinical training – and in turn will encourage a generation of new students into nursing and midwifery.
The ANMF has experienced a government with Peter Dutton as health minister, which didn’t go well for nurses, midwives and care-workers. We’re concerned that a government led by Peter Dutton wouldn’t be any different. The ANMF has been asking Peter Dutton and the Coalition if they’re supporting nurses and midwives this election – now we know the answer.
Our professions can’t risk a government led by Peter Dutton.
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Labor leads the Coalition 51.5-48.5 on a two-party preferred basis in the latest average. The two-party preferred vote share has been trending for several weeks towards a repeat of the last election.
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You can find more granular breakdowns of the polling, including by demography, on our tracking page.
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Off the back of Taylor’s interview, finance minister Katy Gallagher joins RN Breakfast and absolutely rips into the shadow treasurer.
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At the end of Taylor’s interview, he was asked about comments from ACT chief minister Andrew Barr, who says cutting the public service by 41,000 will leave the territory economy in crisis, which Taylor called an “insult” to anyone who doesn’t work in the public sector.
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Gallagher says cutting 75% of the Australian public service workforce will have an impact.
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I think we just had 10 minutes there of Angus Taylor demonstrating why he shouldn’t be treasurer of this country and why you can’t take a risk on Peter Dutton. He was all over the shop.
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You can’t sack 75% of the commonwealth APS in Canberra and not affect the economy. I mean, you just can’t.
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Following the prime minister, Peter Dutton joins ABC AM to deliver his final pitch to voters.
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Sabra Lane asks where the Coalition’s campaign has gone wrong, when polling shows the party and Dutton have been losing support.
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Dutton says he’s hopeful of a 2019 result (when Liberal prime minister Scott Morrison achieved what he called a “miracle win” against Labor’s Bill Shorten).
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I think we’re seeing a 2019 situation, where you’ve got a lot of interesting contests playing on the ground, where we’ve had a very significant effort by great candidates. And I think there’ll be some big surprises on election night, because people have had enough.
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The prime minister says the “apparent appearance” of an adviser from the US campaign advising the Liberal party is “interesting”.
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Yesterday, Tom McIlroy reported that one of the architects of Donald Trump’s 2024 victory claims he made an unpublicised visit to Australia to advise the Liberal party about “structural issues” related to Peter Dutton ahead of the federal election.
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Sabra Lane asks Albanese whether the Trump factor has assisted Labor. The PM says:
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Well, it is interesting the apparent appearance of one of the advisers to the American campaign from last year boasting about coming to Australia – indeed, arriving on the day of the budget reply, for just a three day visit.
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Lane asks how quickly Albanese will visit the Trump administration if he wins government on Saturday.
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Albanese won’t give a timeline but says:
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At some stage I will, but I will act in a responsible way.
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Anthony Albanese says he has “a mountain to climb” – a line he’s used a lot recently – and implored Australians to vote for stability in a time of uncertainty.
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This morning Peter Dutton has said he believes tomorrow’s result could be a miracle for the Liberal party, like the 2019 election.
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Speaking to ABC AM Sabra Lane, Albanese is asked whether he’s worried this election could deliver a surprise result for the opposition. Albanese says he “certainly take[s] nothing for granted”.
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I think 2019 shows the folly of pretending that you know the outcome of an election before the ballots are counted.
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Albanese alongside Labor’s candidate for Longman in Queensland, Rhiannyn Douglas (right), at a Medicare urgent care clinic in Morayfield this morning”,”caption”:”Anthony Albanese alongside Labor’s candidate for Longman in Queensland, Rhiannyn Douglas (right), at a Medicare urgent care clinic in Morayfield this morning.”,”credit”:”Photograph: Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images”}},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”
While both parties have been saying voters will be better off under their respective parties, neither will promise people will be better off in three years from now.
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Lane asks whether Albanese will “guarantee” Australians will be better off by 2028. Albanese says:
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As we speak today, Sabra, we have inflation down to 2.4%, we have wages increasing, we have unemployment low, and interest rates have started to fall. Every one of the key economic indicators is improving. Under the former government, we inherited interest rates going up, inflation with the six in front of it, wages going backwards…
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Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with some of the best overnight stories before Krishani Dhanji will take you through the last full day of campaigning.
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It seems like political tensions have boiled over in some areas with New South Wales police launching multiple investigations in the last week into alleged violence, intimidation, harassment and antisocial behaviour related to the election. This has included the smearing of poo across a truck carrying an ad for the Liberal party. More coming up.
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A Liberal-aligned thinktank running last-minute anti-Greens advertisements targeting young voters received more than $600,000 from the coal industry during last year’s Queensland election, disclosures show. At the same time, Labor and the Coalition have been accused of going to the election on a “unity ticket” to protect fossil fuels.
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In what might well be the last poll before the one that really counts, Labor has a two-point lead over the Coalition on a two-party preferred basis. The Fin Review/Freshwater Strategy poll shows that Labor is on 51.5% to the Coalition’s 48.5%. If replicated tomorrow that puts Labor on track for a minority government. More campaign reaction coming up.
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Key events
The props are front and centre today – while Albanese had a giant medicare card when visiting a campaign office in the seat of Dickson, Adam Bandt’s brought his own card, and his giant toothbrush.
The red toothbrush has been with Bandt since the beginning of the campaign, and no points for guessing it’s because of the Greens’ push to get dental into medicare.
Bandt has also joined the millions of other Australians voting early – heading to a pre-poll centre today.
Natasha May
Helicopter crashes in Victoria’s Bellarine Peninsula
Moving away from the election campaign for a moment.
A helicopter has crashed in Victoria’s Bellarine Peninsula this morning, with its three passengers managing to make it to shore before being taken to hospital with serious injuries.
Police say it’s believed the chopper was seen crashing into water off Point Lonsdale just after 10am.
All three people managed to make it to shore and were located by passersby who contacted emergency services.
A man and woman were airlifted to hospital with serious injuries, while another man with serious injuries was taken via road, according to police who say none have been formally identified.
The exact circumstances surrounding the incident are yet to be determined, police say. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau will investigate the crash with assistance from police.
Natasha May
Nurses, midwives and educators criticise Coalition’s last-minute decision to scrap prac payments for students
The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF) has added its voice expressing “extreme concern” that a Coalition government under Peter Dutton would axe paid prac placements.
From July this year, eligible students including nurses and midwives will receive over $300 per week while undertaking their mandatory 800 hours of clinical placement training.
The ANMF federal secretary, Annie Butler, said Dutton’s announcement that a Coalition government if elected, would axe paid prac placements, as well as university-loan debts and fee-free Tafe, which would combine to have a devastating impact on the predominantly-female nursing and midwifery workforce:
We know that placement poverty is a real issue for students who lose income from their regular paid jobs and then have to pay for a whole range of everyday costs, like finding an affordable rental property, parking, tolls, childcare, uniforms and other clinical tools whilst they’re training.
It’s certainly impacted our ability to build the nursing and midwifery workforce, with students forced to quit their courses and abandon their chosen profession.
That’s why the commonwealth prac placement, which will be implemented by the Albanese government, is so welcome as it will help alleviate the financial burden experienced by students as they complete their essential clinical training – and in turn will encourage a generation of new students into nursing and midwifery.
The ANMF has experienced a government with Peter Dutton as health minister, which didn’t go well for nurses, midwives and care-workers. We’re concerned that a government led by Peter Dutton wouldn’t be any different. The ANMF has been asking Peter Dutton and the Coalition if they’re supporting nurses and midwives this election – now we know the answer.
Our professions can’t risk a government led by Peter Dutton.
Bandt says Greens will ‘keep Dutton out and push Labor to act’
The Greens have also been making their final pitches to voters to “keep pushing” Labor and to “keep Dutton out”. Leader Adam Bandt told reporters in Melbourne:
If you’re concerned about the housing and rental crisis, we can’t keep voting for the same two parties and expecting a different result at this election.
Greens will keep Peter Dutton out and, in becoming a minority parliament, push Labor to act.
The Greens have centred their campaign on reforming housing and rental policy, climate action and getting dental into Medicare.
And they have centred a lot of their attention on winning from Labor the seat of Wills, which is in inner-city Melbourne and on a 4.6% margin.
Bandt says voters are moving away from the major parties in large numbers and he expects the major parties will need to have discussions with the growing crossbench after election night.
People are shifting away from the major parties in droves, because the major parties are just offering Band-Aid answers, right, and just tinkering around the edges while the big problems, like the housing crisis, the cost-of-living crisis and the climate crisis get worse.
Now I expect that there will be discussions after the election, because there’s going to have to be, because with more voices in a diverse parliament we’re going to have to work together.
While Albanese’s been donning the green and gold card, Peter Dutton has been donning the fluoro hi-vis, visiting a produce market in Adelaide this morning.
Makin is a Labor held seat, on a pretty safe margin of 10.8% at the 2022 election. It’s been held by Labor since 2007.
False claim made in Labor ads on Coalition cuts – report
A Labor ad campaign targeting battleground seats is falsely claiming that Peter Dutton has said he’ll cut $350bn in spending if the Coalition wins government, AAP reports.
AAP FactCheck has identified thousands of dollars of funding for federal election advertisements in seats including Gorton and Hawke in Melbourne’s west and Lyons in Tasmania.
The ads claim that Dutton has cut billions from hospitals, before claiming he has said he’ll “cut $350bn more” over an image of a person lying in a medical crash cart.
Labor says the ads don’t claim Dutton will cut billions from hospitals specifically and instead refer to Coalition plans to wind back other Labor programs such as free Tafe.
Labor also pointed to various statements Dutton has made about wasteful spending and claims that Labor has lifted spending by nearly $350bn since coming to power in 2022.
But Dutton has never said the Coalition will cut $350bn.
The opposition leader has also pledged to match Labor’s funding for essential frontline services like hospitals.
Labor aren’t the only ones making some false claims ahead of polling day this weekend.
Experts told AAP FactCheck Dutton’s claim that Labor took $80bn out of defence is wrong.
Instead, they say, the Albanese government has increased defence spending.
Union condemns Coalition’s ‘hidden’ vow to ditch student prac payments
The tertiary education union has slammed the Coalition for promising to strip “prac payments” for student midwives, nurses, social workers and teachers.
The Labor government introduced the payments to support students who have to do practical work to finish their studies, often with no pay, and sometimes in remote locations.
Yesterday’s costings from the Coalition show they’ll cut $556m out of the payments.
Dr Alison Barnes, president of the National Tertiary Education Union, says Dutton should “look [students] in the eyes and say it, not hide it in an 11th-hour document that’s been dumped to reporters within 48 hours of the poll”.
When undertaking pracs they aren’t able to earn a living wage, and these prac payments give them a stipend to cover their accommodations and food costs.
This is just the latest example of where Peter Dutton is targeting students and our universities and Tafes. Now, however, he has silently committed to taking money out of students’ back pockets.
PM spruiks the big and small of Medicare
The PM hasn’t left the campaign plane without his Medicare card, but today he had a giant one while visiting the Dickson campaign office (Dickson being Peter Dutton’s seat).
And he, of course, had his usual one for good measure.
Ahead of the visit to Dickson, Albanese did a walk through an Medicare urgent care clinic in the seat of Longman, held by the LNP on a 3.1% margin. It’s also where he did his press conference earlier this morning.
Nearly 40% of voters cast ballots early
Almost 7 million Australians have voted so far, surpassing the total number of people that voted early at the last election.
As of this morning, the Australian Electoral Commission says just under 5.7m have gone to pre-poll booths, more than 150,000 people have voted at mobile and remote polling booths and 1.1m postal votes have been returned.
Out of around 18.1 million total voters, that’s nearly 38%.
Clear case of repetition
Politicians always say they’re being “clear”, even when they’re trying to obfuscate their point.
It’s something we’ve seen from both sides during this election campaign (and by pollies from the beginning of time).
The Australia Institute has gone and counted the times Peter Dutton has said the words over the past five weeks:
And you can see it in video from the Guardian’s excellent visual team here:
Hume says it’s too early to discuss replacing Dutton
Shadow finance minister Jane Hume was asked on ABC News Breakfast a little earlier about whether she sees shadow treasurer Angus Taylor as a future leader of the party.
Hume says it’s “too early” to have those conversations.
You do not read the entrails until you have gutted the chicken. We will be working for every vote up until 6 on election day.
Asked whether she wants to keep her finance portfolio, Hume says: “I hope so … but that is entirely up to the leader.” She adds:
Democracy sausages are my favourite meal. If I was on death row and they asked me what my last meal would be? A sausage in bread with onion and tomato sauce.
(I love a democracy sausage, though I can’t say I’d pick that as my last meal.)
Hume was asked before that why the Coalition will record bigger deficits than Labor under the first two years of their plan. She said it was about fixing household budgets.
We need to not just address the commonwealth budget but also household budgets as well. People have gone backwards under Labor.
Just going back to Anthony Albanese’s interview on Nova earlier, the PM was asked to pick an old-school banger to play.
What did he pick?
There’s no better singalong than Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again by the Angels.
The hosts say they: “Did not see that one coming!”
Albanese laughs, and quickly adds:
And almost every one of your listeners just got the joke.
(Have a Google if you’re not sure what he’s referring to there.)
Asked whether he’d like to dedicate the song to anyone, Albanese says:
You know, it’s obvious who it’s dedicated to.
How will PM spend election night?
Speaking to Nova radio earlier, Anthony Albanese said (perhaps unsurprisingly) that Saturday night will “either be a really good night or a really miserable one for me and for everyone in the room of supporters”.
Albanese says he’ll spend the night in his electorate in the inner west of Sydney, and will have a local event where he’ll give his speech.
Last time around I did [it at] a local club in my electorate, it was pretty late, so let me just say this – the audience was pretty loose, but they’d been watching the show for about five hours.
The results come in, and so they were pretty excited, because it had been quite a while before Labor had won an election.
I’ll have my event, election night event, at local venue in the inner west of Sydney, and so I’ll give a speech – it’ll either be a really good night or a really miserable one for me and for everyone in the room of supporters.
And what song will Albanese walk on stage to on the night if he’s victorious?
It’s a song we’ve heard throughout the campaign – Sounds of Then (This is Australia) by GANGgajang.
The hosts try to convince him to play “pink pony club” by Chappell Roan (which I personally would endorse) and Albanese calls it “a great song”, but seems like he’ll stick to GANGgajang.
Major parties’ primary vote headed for record low, poll tracker says
Josh Nicholas
The major parties are shaping up for historic low primary votes, continuing a downward trend from the past few decades, according to Guardian Australia’s poll tracker.
Labor’s estimated primary vote is steady at 30%, and the Coalition 33%, after we added two new polls from DemosAu and Freshwater. If born out in the results on election day, both parties would see a more than two point drop from the last election.
The estimated primary share for the Greens is about 13%, according to our model, which would be about a one point increase on the last election. Others and independents, a group that includes One Nation and the teal independents, are on 23%, up about four points.
It is unclear how this will translate into seats given the increase in the number of electorates that are three-way contests, rather than coming down to a fight between Labor and the Coalition. Our model suggests polls are overestimating support for Labor, as has been seen at previous elections. But there is still a lot of uncertainty, as you can see in the graphic below.
