Maybe it’s just that everyone is away for Easter. But this election campaign is shaping as an almighty dud so far. Today’s line-up is a big, fat nothing burger:
- Peter Dutton is hideous at AFR;
- Chinese candidate hates poofters at ABC;
- ALP playing small target (except it isn’t) at Domain;
- ALP changes website at The Australian;
- Shorten interviewed by grumpy journalist at The Australian;
- Jabba Christensen pumping public purse in Philippines at The Australian;
- LNP dill drinks coffee at New Daily;
- ALP to attack state education rorts at Domain.
- Zali Stegall has tiff with ex-husband at The Australian.
A couple of the stories matter. This one at the AFR:
Labor has claimed the Coalition would take the axe to health, education and welfare following revelations a future government would have to curb spending by up to $40 billion a year to keep the budget in surplus and pay for its big-spending tax cuts.
Following the report in Tuesday’s The Australian Financial Review, Labor has begun a new ground and digital campaign saying the spending reduction amounts to an average cut of $4800 for every household in Australia.
This is similar to a campaign the government launched last week claiming the extra tax burden of $387 billion under Labor over the next decade equated to $5400 per household.
That looks like Mediscare 2.0 taking shape.
This won’t help the LNP, either, at Domain:
A panel of government-appointed experts has uncovered “integrity issues” with the Coalition’s flagship climate change policy, triggering a warning that some of the emission reductions claimed by Australia may not be genuine.
The findings relate to the Abbott-era Emissions Reduction Fund, established in 2014 to replace Labor’s so-called “carbon tax”. The Morrison government extended the fund in February with a $2 billion injection of taxpayer funds, and renamed it the Climate Solutions Fund.
The direct action initiative gives financial incentives, in the form of credits, to projects that reduce carbon emissions or draw them from the atmosphere, such as by revegetating land.
And Big Australia Bill wouldn’t want to do this again given the onus is upon him to prove his trustiness:
Labor leader Bill Shorten has triggered a political clash over superannuation after telling voters he had “no plans” to increase taxes on their nest eggs despite taking four policies to the election to raise at least $18.9 billion over a decade.
More than one million Australians could pay more tax on their super under Labor plans, including stricter caps on payments into funds and a bigger contributions tax for workers on higher incomes.
There’s the usual line-up of cheerleading from both sides at the respective media outlets but nothing of consequence.
Basically, it’s a dead bore election for a number of reasons:
- the ALP has done a great job of selling big policies long in advance so they aren’t vulnerable;
- the LNP has no ballast in any of its rolling fear campaigns for much the same reason and no alternative vision;
- the candidates are dead boring;
- the culture wars overlay to everything makes it all trivial and anodyne;
- immigration is off the agenda so that’s a huge hole that can’t be discussed,
- the pollies are better at their jobs than the journalists and fake news is just countered by other fake news on each side leading to zero sum debate.
If this goes on then the ALP will win in a canter. The LNP needs a sense of crisis to spook the polity. Not only is there no fear abroad, the entire election is shaping as a nothing burger.
