And on that note, we are going to wind down the blog for the day.

We have another big day of campaigning to cover tomorrow, with the major parties keen to try and appeal to as many voters as possible before they head to the polls – in their millions.

We would love to know from you what you think has been missing from the campaign – send us a message at amy.remeikis@australiainstitute.org.au and let us know what has mattered to you, that you are not seeing this election.

Thank you for all your messages, thoughts, questions – and yes, even the occasional complaints. We take everything you say to us seriously and we really value you taking the time to not only visit the blog, but also let us know your thoughts.

We have a pretty intense time ahead of us, so we will be doing more recaps, more analysis and more fact checks – and trying to help you as much as possible ahead of you casting your vote.

But we are also looking towards the next term and what Australia will look like. We are here to try and shape it to some of your desires, guided by the principle of – imagine if Australia was brave?

What does that mean to you?

We hope you think big. As always, take care of you Ax

Patricia Karvelas has asked Ed Husic about Donald Trump’s latest reverse ferret on the tariffs, this time saying that while the number ‘won’t be zero’ the tariff on goods coming from China will be ‘substantially’ lower.

Q: Do you see that as promising or should we not hold our breath?

Husic:

I am very careful about not reading too much into an announcement made one day, then something else changes, we will get another announcement. I think you have to be able to deal with the actual, what decision is actually being made and put into effect, is important.

Australians do not want to have in particular announcement is made and then backtracked and then we are not going to a decision, sounds familiar and the Australian context, but effectively Peter Dutton has mimicked a lot of that in terms of taking plans, changing them and I don’t think that serves the public well so in the US context, it has caused obviously a lot of instability in terms of global trade, absolutely, that has played through, not just about the instability it has caused, the way it has translated, for example, predictions about what that I to growth here and overseas, the way it will inhibit trade, the way it has inhibited, has an economic impact, and by extension, jobs, is concerning and we need to be in a stronger footing. If there is headway, if, for example, what has been suggested materialises it will be good and keep it rolling but let’s wait and see.

And there you go:

I’m writing from the National Press Club, where Assistant Minister for Charities Andrew Leigh (Labor MP) and Shadow Assistant Minister for Charities Dean Smith (Liberal Senator) are discussing the charities sector. (It is very pointedly not a “debate”.) 

As the Press Club description notes, “Charities employ over 1.4 million Australians and contribute over 8% to our GDP. Beyond their economic impact, charities and community organisation are at the heart of our communities, our connectedness, our wellbeing and resilience.” 

Australia Institute research finds that the charity sector is about as large as Australia’s retail sector or its education and training sector. Charities employ many times more Australians than the fossil fuel industry does.   

But despite its size and importance, the charity sector is neglected and mistreated by politicians.  

Charity advocacy is muzzled indirectly, including by the threat of withdrawing funding, and directly, including through legal pressure like non-disclosure agreements.  

When the Labor and Liberal parties did a deal to change election laws earlier this year, they made it very difficult for charities to continue to advocate for political reform. But for-profit corporations got special treatment: the political parties scrambled to provide business lobby groups with a higher donation cap to allow them to continue to run multi-million-dollar political campaigns.  

These restrictions on charities are on top of earlier limits on charity advocacy passed during the Morrison Government with the support of the Labor Party. At the time, Andrew Leigh promised to “revisit this framework” in government – which did not happen.  

For an excellent story on what is happening in Gaza, read Nour Haydar’s report on her interview with Mohammed Mustafa for the Guardian’s Full Story podcast (which Nour hosts)

From the story:

When Israel shattered the ceasefire in Gaza last month and resumed its large-scale bombardment, the British-Australian doctor Mohammed Mustafa had just clocked off at the emergency department of what was the last fully functioning hospital in Gaza City.

“It was so intense that the windows blew off their hinges and I had fallen out of my bed,” he tells Guardian Australia’s Full Story podcast.

The 35-year-old emergency physician from Perth was on his second medical mission in the besieged territory volunteering for the Palestinian Australian New Zealand Medical Association at al-Ahli Arab hospital, also known as the Baptist hospital.

Children and women began arriving at the hospital with extreme injuries, including burns and missing limbs. Mustafa knew many would not survive the night.

“The department was so full that it spilled out on to the streets and we were cutting people’s chests open to put in chest drains in the streets,” he says.

“Because I am 6’2” and about 18 stone I ended up just carrying two or three people at a time on my back, on my chest, carrying them and just running to the CT scanner to get people in.”

Back to the final question in the PM’s press conference, Albanese is asked:

On the Smart Energy Council report [when it comes to nuclear] at the top end it says that Coalition’s nuclear plan could cost $600bn and in a best case scenario it could cost as little as $116 billion so do you accept if the Coalition gets it right, that cost could be below 600 billion?

Albanese:

I noticed Peter Dutton not only got nasty with the Prime Minister but with the Smart Energy Council. When ever anyone disagrees, he gets nasty. He said he would smile more but we have seen the opposite.

Taking a group like the Smart Energy Council because they dare to disagree with him and point out the holes in his policy… What the council has done is look at the work for the Liberal Party [offering] and found massive holes in it, for example…they assume a 40% smaller economy.

They have assumed no aluminum, no steel making, no heavy industry because that is what a 40% smaller economy looks like, there are holes all through their costings, you could make the case Smart Energy Council has been conservative because when you look at the cost blowout around the world, with a Hinckley or wherever, there are massive cost blowouts in nuclear and Peter Dutton and Ted O’Brien have no answers.

In case you missed it – a Coalition spokesperson has been forced to clarify some of Peter Dutton’s earlier comments about whether the Coalition would recognise West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. That is in Palestine but Israel has attempted to claim it as part of its own territory for years. The Morrison government made plans to recognise the illegal claim, which was reversed by Labor in 2022. Dutton said he would go back.

As SBS reports:

Also on Wednesday, Dutton suggested he had no plans to reinstate a decision by former prime minister Scott Morrison that recognised West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel — a move that was reversed when Labor came to power in 2022

“We don’t have any plans to change the current arrangements,” he said.

But a spokesperson for the Opposition leader clarified he meant the Coalition had no plans to change its current position, which is to recognise West Jerusalem.

The spokesperson said this was outlined in a speech by Opposition foreign affairs spokesman David Coleman in a speech to The Sydney Institute in March.

“When Labor announced its shambolic decision in 2022, the Coalition expressed its strong opposition and affirmed that our position remained that West Jerusalem is the capital of Israel,” Coleman said at the time. “This continues to be our position.”

The journalists who’ve obviously spent much of the day on a plane, are shouting over the top of each other, much to the PM’s amusement.

So non-Canberra press gallery people, if you yell out, you go back down the queue.

Maybe they’re on a sugar high after loading up on easter eggs.

The presser returns to policy and the coalition’s defence spending announcement today.

Peter Dutton hasn’t been able to defend his defence policy today. This is once again a media release in search of a policy, a media release in search of some detail. He is unable to say where the money would come from, except for saying, confirming, that they will put up income taxes this election campaign is a choice between Labor that will lower your income tax and the Coalition that will increase your income taxes, but that doesn’t cover the amount that they’ve announced as well. So, on top of that, there’ll be more cuts needed. He also hasn’t been able to say what the money would be used for. It’s extraordinary that you make this announcement with a very large figure in the tens of billions of dollars. You can’t say what you will use the money for. You can’t say where all the money will come from. This is an opposition that have not done the hard work, whether it’s defence policy, whether it’s nuclear policy, they can’t explain any of how it would actually roll out. And then they have a team that for most of the campaign are in hiding and haven’t been able to come forward at all. And Mr (Shadown Defence Minister Andrew) Hastie is just one example of that.

The Prime Minister is asked about comments made by Labor’s candidate for the Queensland seat of Flynn, Helen Madell.

Ms Madell, a clinical psychologist who counselled child sexual abuse victims, reportedly criticised the late Pope Frances for his “ongoing support for paedos” in an old social media post.

She made a mistake that shouldn’t have happened and people, if they go back through their history on social media, I’m sure there’s lots of people have said things they regret. She has said she regrets it and that’s entirely appropriate.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese takes a swipe at a journalist from The Australian, who asks him about placing the Green second on the how-to-vote card in his seat of Grayndler.

The organisational wing do the how to vote cards. The Australian are really obsessed with promoting the Greens in Grayndler. And I congratulate you on your determination to get them known. But I’ll make this point – people should vote number one for the Australian Labor Party, and I know what the name of the Labor candidate is in Grayndler and he’s run a number of times. The last time round I won on primary votes, my preferences didn’t get counted. That’s what happens in Grayndler, and we’ll be continuing to advocate for a number one vote, not just for myself in Grayndler, but for my friend Chris Bowen in McMahon, and for Labor candidates everywhere. That’s our determination, and I’m not about promoting the Greens candidates, whatever their name is.