Easter break not all peace as Labor lob eggs over wages
Dominic Giannini |
Penalty rates are at the centre of Easter campaigning as Labor and the coalition trade barbs and look to sway undecided voters ahead of early voting.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese started Sunday at St Mary’s Cathedral with partner Jodie Haydon, welcomed by Sydney’s archbishop ahead of mass while Opposition Leader Peter Dutton attended a community BBQ in Ipswich.
Both issued Easter messages, with Mr Albanese wishing Australians a weekend of “everything you want it to be” and Mr Dutton saying it was a time to remember that “what’s important is family, our friends and our society”.
Pre-polling opens on Tuesday ahead of the May 3 election.
The traditional lull in campaigning over the Easter long weekend didn’t stop each party’s attack dogs being sent out early as Labor uses the public holiday to say it will protect penalty rates while the coalition accuses it of a scare campaign.
Employment Minister Murray Watt accused the Liberals of wanting to scrap penalty rates after Labor pledged to legislate protections.
Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie called the move “an absolute political stunt” as the coalition said it wouldn’t support legislation, instead leaving it up to the independent Fair Work Commission.
“You’ve got the Labor Party coming out saying … somehow the coalition’s got penalty rates in their sights, that is not correct,” she told Sky News on Sunday.
“We believe the independent Fair Work Commission is the responsible body to set penalty rates as they are to set minimum wages and you shouldn’t have parliament or the government getting involved in that independent process.”
Senator Watt denied interfering with the independent body.
“What we’re doing is setting the parameters of what must be included in awards and what cannot be removed from awards and we think that penalty rates are an important part of people’s pay packet,” he said.
Labor has also been accused of running a scare campaign over health policy, claiming the coalition would shut urgent care clinics to pay for its nuclear policy.
The crux of the argument comes from Labor insinuating where Mr Dutton would cut spending to pay for his nuclear power plan – set to cost hundreds of billions of dollars – as the opposition hasn’t outlined its full cost-saving measures.
“This guy has got more cuts in store than Freddy Krueger,” Senator Watt said.
Senator McKenzie accused Labor of spreading lies about its health policy while coalition health spokeswoman Anne Ruston branded it a “desperate scare tactic”.
“Zero, the coalition will not be cutting any existing urgent care clinics,” Senator McKenzie said.
The coalition hasn’t pledged to match new clinics Labor is announcing in the campaign, reviewing them on a case-by-case basis, but will reveal its own suite of future clinics, the full list of which is yet to be released.
Labor has been buoyed by recent polling swinging in its favour, putting a majority government in reach, while the Greens are confident there will be a hung parliament.
Greens leader Adam Bandt has written to the secretaries of Treasury and Prime Minister and Cabinet departments to request they prioritise briefing future ministers on negative gearing and capital gains discount reforms.
Reforming housing tax breaks is a key demand from the Greens, but its leverage isn’t certain as it fights to retain three out of its four lower house seats.
The coalition insists it isn’t a write-off, with Liberal frontbencher Michael Sukkar saying if it was “a slave to polls”, it would have given up in 2019 when Scott Morrison was behind before an unexpected win.
“We are in it to win it and I can assure you there’s no one on our side waving a white flag,” he told the ABC’s Insiders program.
AAP
