Federal election 2019 live: Scott Morrison says voters have 'clear choice' at May 18 poll

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Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced May 18 as the date of the federal election, sending voters to the polls within weeks.

Look back over our live coverage of campaign day zero.

Topics: federal-elections, government-and-politics, elections, federal-government, political-parties, liberals, nationals, alp, australia

First posted</s>Australian election set for May 18. Prime Minister Scott Morrison focuses on economy in response to troubling poll numbers</s>Prime Minister Scott Morrison has called the 2019 federal election.

 

In a press conference on Thursday, 11 April, Mr Morrison confirmed weeks of speculation announcing that the election for Saturday, 18 May.

The Prime Minister framed the election as “a clear choice” about how the nation will be managed for the next three years.

Mr Morrison met the Govenor General Sir Peter Cosgrove at Government House in Yarralumla.

 

Uniting Church President Dr Deirdre Palmer has previously called on Uniting Church members to consider the wider community in the lead up to the election.

 

“As the contest for hearts and minds begins ahead of this year’s Federal Election, I urge Australians to give priority to justice, compassion and inclusion,” said Dr Palmer.

 

Electoral rolls will close on 18 April, meaning that first time voters and those who have moved since the last election have a week to get enrolled or update their details on the Australian Electoral Commission’s website. 

 

Candidates have until Tuesday, 23 April to nominate for either the House or Senate. 



The House of Representatives is set to gain an additional electorate, bringing the total number of seats to 151.

 

Micah Australia have conducted a number of pre-election forums on Australia’s aid program.

 

The Uniting Church in Australia Assembly has released the vision statement, Our Vision for a Just Australia. It outlines the church’s vision for Australian society in an election year.



Image credit: ABC News.



Jonathan Foye is Insights’ Editor</s>Australia’s prime minister has said the nation will go to the polls to elect a new government on May 18.

Australia’s prime minister has said the nation will go to the polls to elect a new government on May 18.

Prime minister Scott Morrison’s announcement came after he advised Governor-General Peter Cosgrove as representative of Australia’s head of state, the Queen, to set the election date.

Mr Morrison’s conservative coalition is seeking a third three-year term. But Mr Morrison is the third prime minister to lead a divided government in that time and only took the helm in late August.

Opinion polls suggest his reign will become one of the shortest in the 118-year history of Australian prime ministers on election day.

The polls suggest centre-left opposition leader Bill Shorten will become the eighth prime minister since the country plunged into an extraordinary period of political instability in 2007.

The election pits Mr Shorten, a former labour union leader who has presented himself as the alternative prime minister for the past six years, against Mr Morrison, a leader who the Australian public is still getting to know.</s>Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced the date of the next federal election.

Mr Morrison announced on Thursday the election will be held on May 18, after meeting with Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove to dissolve the Parliament.

'Earlier this morning, I visited the Governor-General here in Canberra and he accepted my advice for an election to be held on 18 May,' Mr Morrison said.

The conservative coalition is seeking a third three-year term. But Mr Morrison is the third Prime Minister to lead a divided government in that time and only took the helm in late August.

Opinion polls suggest his reign will become one of the shortest in the 118-year history of Australian Prime Ministers on election day.

The polls suggest center-left opposition leader Bill Shorten will become the eighth Prime Minister since the country plunged into an extraordinary period of political instability in 2007.

In announcing the date of the election, Mr Morrison said Australia was the 'best country in the world'.

'But to secure your future, the road ahead depends on a strong economy. And that's why there is so much at stake at at this election,' he said.

'It's a choice between a government that I lead and the alternative of a Labor government led by Bill Shorten.

'I believe in a fair go for those who have a go.'

Mr Morrison said voters could be assured he would see out his term as Prime Minister should he be elected despite the leadership spill that saw him replace Malcolm Turnbull last year.

'We changed the rules in the Liberal party... those rules say that at the next election on May 18, if the Liberal-National Government is returned, if I'm re-elected as Prime Minister, then I will serve as Prime Minister because the rules have been changed to prevent the things that happened in the past,' he said.

The election pits Shorten, a former labor union leader who has presented himself as the alternative prime minister for the past six years, and Morrison, a leader who the Australian public is still getting to know.

Australians face the starkest policy choice in a generation with an election to be held in just five weeks.

Mr Shorten is odds-on favourite to be Australia's next prime minister, despite the government campaigning strongly against his renewable energy and negative gearing policies to help younger people afford a home.

Betting agency Sportsbet is predicting the biggest federal Labor majority in 76 years, in an election where four Liberal ministers would lose their seat.

More than 16.2million voters are heading to the polls in five weeks in an election which could see a government voted out of office for only the eighth time since World War II.

Mr Morrison arrived at Government House in Canberra on Thursday morning to speak to Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove about dissolving Parliament.

Mr Shorten told Daily Mail Australia last month his policy agenda was the most ambitious since Gough Whitlam won the 1972 election by campaigning on the theme, 'It's Time.'

His Labor Party is vowing to have Australia source 50 per cent of its energy from renewable sources by 2030.

Labor also wants half of all vehicles sold in Australia within 11 years to be electric or hybrid cars, a very dramatic increase from the 0.2 per cent market share they have now.

The Opposition also wants to slash carbon emissions by 45 per cent by 2030.

Labor's plan is much more ambitious than the Coalition's goal of a 28 per cent reduction in carbon pollution over the same time frame.

The Opposition is also vowing to scrap negative gearing tax breaks for future purchases of existing property, so fewer investors are competing with younger Australians wanting to buy their first home.

Labor has promised to stop wealthy retirees, who don't pay income tax, from getting tax refunds for when they receive share dividends.

The Opposition says its winding back of negative gearing and its tax crackdowns on shareholders will save $80billion over the next decade.

The government, which lacks a parliamentary majority, is opposed to both of these policies and has been campaigning fiercely for the Baby Boomer vote.

Mr Morrison, who became PM in August, will call a May election, days after his Treasurer Josh Frydenberg delivered a Budget giving annual tax cuts of up to $1,080 for 10 million Australian workers earning up to $126,000 a year.

Mr Shorten has vowed to match the tax cuts and give even more to lower income earners on less than $40,000 a year, who were promised $255 a year in the Budget.

His Budget-reply speech also offered a $2.3 billion policy whereby the Commonwealth would pay the medical bills of cancer sufferers - five years after the Opposition Leader's mother Ann died of breast cancer.

The Liberal-National party Coalition has last week unveiled the first Budget surplus in 12 years - something a federal Labor government hasn't delivered since 1989 when Bob Hawke was prime minister.

The government, however, is plagued with disunity, having disposed Tony Abbott in September 2015 before right-wing forces brought down his prime ministerial successor Malcolm Turnbull in August 2018.

Both major parties are committed to sending asylum seekers to offshore processing centres at Nauru and Manus Island in Papua New Guinea.

Labor, however, is open about them being allowed to move to New Zealand, following an offer from Kiwi Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.

When Labor was last in government former prime minister Kevin Rudd in 2008 dismantled the Pacific solution.

This led to a surge in boat arrivals, rising from just three in the 2007-08 financial year, to 117 in 2009-10.

Or put another way, the number of asylum seekers surged from 25 to 5,327, figures from a Parliament House research paper showed.

The policy change also coincided with the deaths of 48 people, mainly asylum seekers from Iran and Iraq, as their boat sunk and washed on to cliffs at Christmas Island in December 2010.

The Coalition has now lost 50 Newspolls in a row to Labor, trailing the Opposition 46 to 54 per cent after preferences.

If replicated at the election, the government would suffer a 4.4 per cent swing against it causing the Liberal and National parties to lose 12 seats.

Betting agency Sportsbet, however, has Labor picking up 23 seats from the Coalition, which would see its seat numbers swell to 93 in the expanded 151-member House of Representatives.

The Liberal and National parties would see their seat tally plummet from 75 now to 53, marking the worst electoral drubbing for the conservative side of politics since 1943.

This would give Mr Shorten the biggest federal election majority since March 1996, when John Howard's Liberal-National Coalition defeated Paul Keating's Labor Party in a landslide.

It would also mark the biggest Labor majority since John Curtin was prime minister during World War II.

Mr Shorten is on course to be the first prime minister since 1914 to have won an election after taking over as Opposition Leader from the time his party was defeated at the polls.

Sportsbet predicted ministers Peter Dutton, Christian Porter, David Coleman and Ken Wyatt would lose their seats.

The betting agency is predicting the Liberal Party will lose to Labor the seat of Boothby, in Adelaide's southern suburbs, which it has held since 1949.

It also had former independent Rob Oakeshott as the short-priced favourite to pick up Cowper, on the New South Wales Mid-North Coast, from the Nationals, where former minister Luke Hartsuyker is retiring.

But the betting market had the Liberal Party winning back former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull's old seat of Wentworth, in Sydney's eastern suburbs, as another former PM Tony Abbott narrowly held on to his nearby electorate of Warringah.

Veteran election analyst Malcolm Mackerras was less optimistic about Mr Shorten's chances of a Labor landslide, predicting it will win 83 seats, up from the 69 it won in 2016, and factoring in an electoral redistribution in two Liberal-held seats in Victoria.

'I think he's performing very well,' he told Daily Mail Australia.

The Coalition, under his scenario, would see its seat tally drop from 75 to 64, as the Liberal Party regained the northern Victorian electorate of Indi, where independent Cathy McGowan is retiring.

Mr Turnbull's old seat of Wentworth could also be another Liberal gain, as Dave Sharma defeated independent Dr Kerryn Phelps, who won an October by-election and pushed the government into minority territory.

Mr Turnbull's arch nemesis Mr Abbott was tipped to lose his Sydney northern beaches electorate of Warringah to winter Olympian Zali Steggall, with Sportsbet and opinion polls showing a close contest.

'I think Sharma has a slightly better chance of winning Wentworth than Abbott has of retaining Warringah,' Mr Mackerras said.

'Dave Sharma is thought to be a very good candidate who belongs to basically the moderate side of the party.

'More particularly, people put Kerryn Phelps in to express their anger about the Liberal Party sacking Turnbull. Now that anger's over, they'll say, 'Well, Sharma's a good candidate'.'

Mr Mackerras saw Attorney-General Christian Porter losing his Perth-based seat of Pearce, Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton losing his Brisbane electorate of Dickson and Aged Care Minister Ken Wyatt losing his eastern Perth electorate of Hasluck.

Mr Mackerras, an honorary fellow with the Australian Catholic University, however, predicted Immigration Minister David Coleman would hold his marginal south-west Sydney seat of Banks, despite its narrow 1.4 per cent margin.

It overlaps with the state seats of East Hills and Oatley, which recorded swings to the Liberal Party at the March state election.

Mr Mackerras said while Mr Morrison wasn't particularly popular across Australia, his Liberal Party had stronger support in that part of Sydney, which for six decades had supported Labor at a state and federal level.

'I think in southern Sydney, he's doing very well which is part of the reason why I think Banks will stay with the Liberal Party,' he said.

'Apart from that, I just don't think people think much of him.

'He doesn't come across to me as being at all competent.

'He certainly doesn't come across as deserving to be Prime Minister.'

He also predicted the Nationals would keep their most marginal seat of Capricornia, in central Queensland, despite assistant minister Michelle Landry holding it by a very slim 0.6 per cent margin.

Dawson, in north Queensland, would also stay with the Nationals , with renegade backbencher George Christensen campaigning for the government to fund a coal-fired power station.

'Areas that are near to possible new coal mines stay will stay with the Nationals,' Mr Mackerras said.

'They're close enough to the Bowen Basin developments.'

Even before the election begins, electorate distributions in the Liberal-held Victorian seats of Corangamite and Dunkley already favour Labor, which means sitting government members Sarah Henderson and Chris Crewther will need to increase their vote to keep their jobs.

Betting agency Sportsbet has Labor picking up 23 new seats from the Coalition. This would see Labor end up with 93 seats out of 151, giving it 61.6 per cent of seats in an expanded House of Representatives. This would be Labor's biggest majority haul of seats, in percentage terms, since 1943 when John Curtin was wartime prime minister. This would also be a bigger win than Bob Hawke's 1983 victory and Kevin Rudd's 2007 defeat of John Howard. It would mark the biggest landslide since 1996, when John Howard's Liberal-National Coalition defeated Paul Keating's Labor Party, which had been in power for 13 years. The Coalition's seat tally would plummet from 75 now to 53, marking its worst defeat in 76 years, before the Liberal Party was founded. Were the betting predictions to materialise, Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton would lose his Brisbane seat of Dickson while Attorney-General Christian Porter would be defeated in his Perth seat of Pearce. Aged Care Minister Ken Wyatt, the first indigenous member of the House of Representatives, would also lose his eastern Perth seat of Hasluck while Immigration Minister David Coleman would lose his south-west Sydney seat of Banks. Former prime minister Tony Abbott is also in danger in his Sydney northern beaches seat of Warringah, against independent challenger and Winter Olympic champion Zali Steggall, although he is narrowly favoured to stay in Parliament. Former independent Rob Oakeshott is the favourite to claim the New South Wales Mid-North Coast seat of Cowper from the Nationals, where former minister Luke Hartsuyker is retiring. The Liberal Party could regain the northern Victorian seat of Indi, following the retirement of independent Cathy McGowan. Dave Sharma also has short odds of regaining former PM Malcolm Turnbull's seat of Wentworth, in Sydney's eastern suburbs, which former Australian Medical Association president Dr Kerryn Phelps won as an independent in an October 2018 by-election. Were Sportsbet's scenarios to materialise, Mr Oakeshott would be one of five crossbenchers in the lower house, along with Greens MP Adam Bandt, Centre Alliance's Rebekha Sharkie, maverick Bob Katter and independent Andrew Wilkie.</s>Scott Morrison is widely tipped to visit Governor-General in Canberra on Thursday, when he will call the federal election for May 18.

The prime minister made plans to fly to the nation's capital late on Wednesday evening to see Sir Peter Cosgrove at Yarralumla, The Daily Telegraph reported.

Mr Morrison will make a direct pitch to families, small business operators and seniors when it's expected he pulls the trigger on a May 18 election.

On Wednesday night he released a video featuring his family and asking voters to think long-term.

'The next 10 years are important for everybody, in every stage of life,' he says.

More to come.</s>SCOTT Morrison has confirmed the federal election will be held on May 18.

Speaking from Parliament House this morning, the Prime Minister finally put an end to speculation over the date.

"We live in the best country in the world," Mr Morrison said. "But to secure your future, the road ahead depends on a strong economy. And that's why there is so much at stake at this election."

He commended his government for delivering the "first budget surplus in more than a decade", saying the Liberal Party would keep unemployment down, secure borders and guarantee funding for schools, hospitals and infrastructure.

He then took aim at the Opposition, saying: "You will have the choice between a government that is delivering a strong economy and will continue to do so, or Bill Shorten's Labor Party whose policies would weaken our economy.

"It's taken us more than five years to turn around Labor's mess. Now is not the time to turn back. Keeping our economy strong is how we secure your future, and your family's future."

Taking questions, Mr Morrison bypassed the suggestion from a reporter that his government is unstable.

He said the government had delivered on bringing unemployment down, bringing a stronger economy and increasing funding for schools and hospitals.

"The choice that is going to be made by Australians on May 18 is like it always is at every election. Who do you trust to deliver the strong economy which your essential services rely on? Who do you trust to deliver the strong economy and the budget management that these services can be funded?"

Asked to explain the Liberal Party's six-year history of toppling leaders, the Prime Minister said: "That's why after I became Prime Minister we changed the rules in the Liberal Party... and those rules say that if I'm re-elected as PM, then I will serve as your PM because the rules have been changed to prevent the things that have happened in the past."

Earlier this morning, Mr Morrison had a brief official meeting with the Governor-General at his house in Canberra.

The timing here is no accident. Mr Morrison has basically given himself total air-time to spruik his party's policies and discuss how his party plans to campaign during the election, while most of the nation is tuning into the morning headlines.

Throughout this morning, every TV channel has been covering the Prime Minister's every move in Canberra.

Elections are traditionally called on a Sunday, with many expecting Mr Morrison to confirm the date last weekend.

But the former marketing man has held out until today.

Announcing it this morning guarantees him a bigger space to sell his message to voters.

The two men vying for the nation's top job are set to go head-to-head with the next federal election to be called this morning.

Mr Morrison, who has held the position for just over seven months, is widely expected to name May 18 as the election date.



 Mr Morrison will detail his plans for the next election.

Then will come the election campaign, which will run for about five weeks, before voters head to the polls. A minimum of 33 days is required for the campaign, which will see the party leaders hit the streets and pull out all the stops.

It comes days after Mr Morrison and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten each announced their respective party's plans for the 2019-20 Budget.

Off the back of its almost-successful "Mediscare" campaign in 2016, Labor is again seizing on health as the key issue for the May election.

Mr Shorten on Thursday unveiled what he described as the most important investment in Medicare since Bob Hawke created it - a plan to fund six million cancer scans, bulk-bill an extra three million cancer specialist appointments and guarantee every drug recommended by independent experts gets on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.

Health consistently emerges as the top issue for voters when it comes to elections and will undoubtedly be a hot-button topic this time around. While the Coalition is rated favourably on national security and the economy, Labor scores better on health and education.

In contrast, The Liberals are peddling trust and economic stewardship as the hallmarks of the party's leadership.

The Coalition's Budget on April 2, which matched Labor's unfreezing of Medicare rebates and sought to neuter Labor's appeal to low- and middle-income earners, set up attack points on a surplus, tax reform and infrastructure. The Coalition is also expected to campaign heavily on Labor's higher tax for higher income earners and Mr Shorten's unpopularity. A key strategy in the Coalition's armoury will be exploiting polls data that suggests voters have a dim opinion of Mr Shorten as a leader and are suspicious of his unionist background.

With the addition of a new ACT seat, 151 MPs will be elected along with and half of Australia's 76 senators. To win majority government, either party needs to win 76 seats in the House of Representatives. The Coalition goes into the election holding 74 lower house seats; Labor has 69. Labor needs to gain seven seats on a uniform swing of 1 per cent from the 2016 election. After a redrawing of electoral boundaries and the Wentworth by-election, the Coalition starts notionally with 73 seats with Labor on 72.

WHAT THE POLLS SAY

The April 8 Newspoll put Labor ahead of the Coalition, on 52 per cent to 48 per cent two party-preferred, but an Ipsos poll that same day showed a stronger lead of 53 to 47.

The Newspoll results showed Mr Morrison's rating as preferred prime minister lifted three points to 46 per cent, well ahead of Bill Shorten on 35 per cent.

Mr Shorten has consistently slagged behind both Malcolm Turnbull and Mr Morrison as preferred prime minister, despite Labor leading the Coalition in two-party terms for more than 1000 days.

Mr Morrison has had less than a year to boost the government's popularity since claiming the leadership of a party riven by personal vendettas and infighting over key policy.

In contrast, Mr Shorten has guided Labor since its big election loss in 2013, using methodical policy announcements aimed at reducing generational inequality and combating climate change to boost his party's popularity, even as surveys show he's not personally popular with many voters.

"Voters seem impressed that Labor has tried to present a vision for how Australia should look and has presented detailed policy," said Paul Williams, a political analyst at Brisbane's Griffith University, told Bloomberg.

"Despite the fact he remains unpopular with most voters, Shorten seems to have grown into the job."

After he delivered Labor's Budget reply on April 4 in the House of Representatives, Mr Shorten was drawn on his "lacklustre" popularity by 7.30 host Leigh Sales

"Wait until you meet me and see our fair go plan in action," he said when asked what he would explain that to the average Australian voter.

There are 151 seats up for grabs in the 2019 election, but some matter more than others, with the results of about 16 electorates across the country acting as indicators for which side is likely to win. Among them is the marginal NSW mid-north coast seat of Cowper.

Former independent MP Rob Oakeshott, who helped deliver Julia Gillard minority government in 2010, is taking another shot at returning to parliament and vying for the seat in the wake of Nationals MP Luke Hartsuyker retiring. He faces the Nationals' Patrick Conaghan, and could benefit from Labor and Greens preferences.

The Liberals controversially preselected former Labor national president Warren Mundine for the NSW South Coast seat of Gilmore being vacated by MP Ann Sudmalis. The man who was to be the Liberal candidate, Grant Schultz, is standing as an independent with the support of some disgruntled local party members. The Nationals are standing former NSW minister Katrina Hodgkinson. Given the 0.7 per cent margin, Labor's Fiona Phillips is hopeful of winning the seat amid the coalition chaos.

In Queensland, Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has held the seat of Dickson since 2001, but the margin has narrowed after the 2016 election and subsequent redistribution. The mortgage-belt seat covers Brisbane's northwestern suburbs and encompasses some rural areas. Grassroots campaigning by GetUp and others is putting pressure on Mr Dutton, who was hit by a 5.1 per cent swing away from him in 2016. Labor's Ali France is hopeful of doing well, but will require a strong showing from the Greens' Benedict Coyne to win.

Victoria Health Minister Greg Hunt will battle ex-Liberal Julia Banks, who is giving up her seat of Chisholm to run as an independent for Flinders. A redistribution has chipped away at Mr Hunt's margin, but he's held it since 2001 and is a born and bred local. Green, Labor and minor party preferences could benefit Banks.</s>Prime Minister Scott Morrison is expected to announce the date of the federal election today, sending voters to the polls within weeks.

Follow our live coverage as the campaign begins.</s>Australia’s prime minister has called for a May election that will be fought on issues including climate change, asylum seekers and economic management.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison advised Governor-General Peter Cosgrove as representative of Australia’s head of state, the Queen, to set the election date.

I’m proud of how far our country has come over the past few years. And I know there is still more work for us to do to make life better for all Australians. My vision for Australia is about everyone having the chance to realise their full potential. pic.twitter.com/KJyRSj6zPz — Scott Morrison (@ScottMorrisonMP) April 10, 2019

Mr Morrison is expected to announce that Australia will go to the polls on May 18.

Mr Morrison’s conservative coalition is seeking a third three-year term. But Mr Morrison is the third prime minister to lead a divided government in that time and only took the helm in late August.

Opinion polls suggest his reign will become one of the shortest in the 118-year history of Australian prime ministers on election day.

The polls suggest centre-left opposition leader Bill Shorten will become the eighth prime minister since the country plunged into an extraordinary period of political instability in 2007.

The election pits Mr Shorten, a former labour union leader who has presented himself as the alternative prime minister for the past six years, and Mr Morrison, a leader who the Australian public is still getting to know.</s>SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison plans to call an election on Thursday, with a likely polling date of May 18, the Australian Broadcasting Corp, Sky News and other media reported, without citing sources.

Morrison arranged to fly from Melbourne to the national capital Canberra late on Wednesday so that he could ask the governor-general the following morning to dissolve parliament for an election campaign, media reported.

Australia needs to go to the polls by late May to elect a new parliament as the current three-year term ends.

A spokesman for Morrison was not immediately available for comment.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison calls an election for 18 May.