Hello and welcome to the second Friday of the campaign, which will see Peter Dutton begin the day in Perth for a breakfast hosted by a media company and Anthony Albanese start in the Northern Territory to try and defend Lingiari.

AAP reports the latest YouGov polling shows the Coalition is still trying to find some footing this campaign:

Latest YouGov polling, released to AAP, reveals Labor has gained ground to forge ahead 52.5 per cent to 47.5 per cent over the coalition in the two-party preferred vote.

The result is the best for Labor in months and slightly higher than its polling of 52.1 per cent at the 2022 election.

The coalition’s primary vote is now down to 33.5 per cent – lower than at the 2022 election.

And while privately Coalition MPs have conceded they will not win enough seats this election to come close to government (based on the trend, their own polling and that the vibe for change isn’t there) that doesn’t mean Labor is a shoo-in for majority government either.

Lingiari is one of the seat’s Labor needs to defend, but Franklin, Wills, Dunkley, McEwen, Gilmore and Patterson are among those on the bubble (it’s thought Aston will go). And while there are some Labor believe themselves to be a chance of winning – like Brisbane, Leichhardt and Bullwinkle, it’s still a hard path to majority.

And we have four weeks to go. Names on the ballot papers will be set in stone after today and early voting begins on April 22, right after the easter break – voters will make up their minds in a lot of places next week so they can switch off.

The next two weeks are short weeks – campaigning will continue, but it will be in holiday mode, and most voters won’t be paying attention.

Which is why there is growing anger in the Coalition camp over how this campaign has been handled, the decisions which were made and why the policy cupboard is so bare. Anyone paying attention could probably point to that, but anyways.

You have Amy Remeikis and at least three coffees this morning, with the big brains at the Australia Institute at your disposal.

Ready? Let’s get into it.