AAP has an update on Peter Dutton’s visit to Al Madinah Mosque in Leppington:

Muslim leaders from a mosque toured by Peter Dutton have distanced themself from him as debate about his migration policy heats up.

The opposition leader pledged $25,000 for CCTV and security for the Al Madinah Mosque in Leppington on Sunday but leaders later wrote to Mr Dutton saying his visit shouldn’t be seen as “an endorsement of any sort” and asked for an apology.

The letter, reported by the Daily Telegraph and seen by AAP, referred to previous remarks made by Mr Dutton about Lebanese-Australians and a lack of condemnation of Islamophobic incidents in contrast to his strong rhetoric on anti-Semitism.

His visit was an opportunity for them to share their views about the challenges Australian Muslims faced so he could come up with appropriate policies, the leaders said as they called for a public apology for Mr Dutton’s comments about some Lebanese-Muslim migration being a mistake.

Asked about the letter and whether he would publicly apologise, he didn’t respond directly but said all communities and places of worship deserved safety.

“The point that I’ve made consistently through my career is that people should be able to live in our country, in our society, particularly in the 21st century, peacefully and with freedom,” he told reporters in the Hunter on Monday.

“I don’t tolerate attacks on mosques, not on churches, not on temples, not on any place of worship.”

He pledged to keep envoys for Islamophobia and anti-Semitism put in place by Labor if they were making a difference.

The Liberals’ rhetoric on the war in Gaza, including a call to block all refugees coming from the strip, has put a large chunk of Muslim, Palestinian and Middle Eastern communities offside.

Mr Dutton’s pledge to cut permanent migration by 25 per cent – although he is yet to reveal from which programs – also has some feeling like multicultural communities were being used as a scapegoat for infrastructure and housing shortages.

Labor frontbencher Michelle Rowland, who represents the diverse Sydney electorate of Greenway, accused successive state and federal Liberal governments of ignoring infrastructure needs in the area, while Mr Dutton pointed the finger at population increases.

“Irrespective of where people’s country of origin may be, they’re experiencing the same infrastructure deficit as their neighbours,” she told AAP.

“It just demonstrates the way they’ve been let down to date.”

Anthony Albanese took a swing at the senate (he meant the Greens) for not passing Labor’s environmental protection agency, which might have been an agency, but wasn’t exactly designed to protect the environment.

The crossbench, including the independents and Greens wanted the EPA to have more powers. And in lieu of that, some actual commitments like a nationwide ban on native forest logging. That is when Labot (under Anthony Albanese’s orders) pulled the legislation from the senate. Albanese has blamed the senate for not passing the laws saying Labor didn’t have the votes. The crossbench said Labor stopped negotiating).

Sarah Hanson-Young responded to Albanese’s comments this morning that Labor would bring in EPA legislation in a second term, after again blaming the senate for not passing the legislation in the last term.

Hanson-Young:

Australia’s environment laws are weaker now than at the last election. Labor cannot be trusted to deliver on the environment, they have failed over and over again. But the Greens will force them to act.

The Greens are essential in the new parliament to clean up Labor’s mess and hold them to account. We must ensure that our environment is protected from the destructive influence of corporate interests and that real action is taken to address the climate and extinction crises.

Only with more Greens in parliament can we restore our ecosystems, safeguard our wildlife, and transition to a sustainable future.

The Greens will fight for robust environmental laws and a climate policy that prioritises nature over profit.”

And there was high-vis at Peter Dutton’s campaign announcement this morning, so you know what happened:

There was a baby at the WA health announcement with prime minister Anthony Albanese this morning, so you know what happened:

Given all the talk of energy, it is probably also worth reminding that the Greens announced an energy policy earlier in March.

The Greens want to turbocharge electrification, so people move off gas faster. As part of that it wants to

Make available low interest loans and grants for battery storage support:

Up to $5,000 in grants and $10,000 in low interest loans for households

Up to $10,000 in grants and $50,000 in low interest loans for small businesses.

Support to electrify would also see grants and low interest loans made available:

Up to $10,000 in grants and $20,000 in low interest loans for households

Up to $25,000 in grants and $100,000 in low interest loans for small businesses

Another friend of the blog has sent this photo in, which they said was spotted in Melbourne.

Sometimes the simplest throw-away phrases can take off, if it seems to fit.

A friend of the blog has made a link to an op-ed Elon Musk had published in the Wall Street Journal a little while ago, where he laid out the plans to slash the public service. (The Guardian has written a story on the main points here.)

The op-ed read:

Requiring federal employees to come to the office five days a week would result in a wave of voluntary terminations that we welcome: If federal employees don’t want to show up, American taxpayers shouldn’t pay them for the Covid-era privilege of staying home.”

Does that sound familiar?

Here is Liberal senator Jane Hume not so long ago (as reported by the ABC)

Federal public servants would be required to work from the office five days a week under a Coalition government, with Shadow Finance Minister Jane Hume saying the workforce had shown a “lack of respect for the work that went into earning the taxes they spend”.

“While work from home arrangements can work, in the case of the [Australian Public Service], it has become a right that is creating inefficiency,” Senator Hume said.

And Dutton himself:

Our desire is to get public servants who are, at the moment, refusing to go back to work … and that is not acceptable,” Mr Dutton said.

“There will be a commonsense approach as there always has been, but I am not going to tolerate a position where taxpayers are working harder than ever to pay their own bills and they’re seeing public servants in Canberra refuse to go to work.”

Note that it is not ‘refuse to work’ it is about going into the office (in that quote)

Dutton has suggested that public servants who have care responsibilities could ‘job share’ which is a) a pay cut – to share a job you would have to not work full time in that job and b) there is no one job sharing in the public service at the moment, nor anyone recording job sharing in any of the data I could find. There are about 60% of public servants who have recorded some sort of work flexibility arrangements. Often, flexible work arrangements come at the expense of other perks like increased pay.

The best thing about the election campaign so far has been the acknowledgment by the Liberal Party that there is no gas shortage. The Liberal Party is now on a joint ticket with the Greens and Independents. (Come on in ALP, the water is fine!)

But the problem with gas is not just that we exports 80% of it.

Our analysis of Origin’s annual report for 2023-24 showed the price to consumers was $36.8/GJ and just $15.0/GJ for business – so they are charging consumers 2.5 times what they are charging businesses. And we are even being conservative because we aren’t counting the GST paid by consumers.

It costs a bit more to supply consumers but nothing like those figures – gas basically is gas is gas is gas – and this is just rampant price discrimination against consumers that essentially means we are all subsidising business – because our higher gas prices mean businesses can get it cheaper.

At AGL the difference was more extreme. Consumers paid $38.1/GJ versus $11.9/GJ for business. So consumers were paying 3.2 time the amount the AGL was charging businesses!

In the half year update for the last 6 months of 2024, AGL reported that it increased the prices it charges big business by 1% relative to the same six months a year earlier. How did consumers do? Not good. Consumer charges rose 5%.

In the last 6 months of 2024, AGL consumers paid over three times what business pays ($38.8/MWh compared with $12.4/MWh). Had consumers paid the big business price they would have saved $420 in that half year, or $840 in a full year.

So the problem is not just that most of Australia’s gas goes overseas, it’s that Origin and AGL so dominate the local gas market that they can rip off consumers.

They are the Coles and Woolies of the gas industry and they are all taking the piss.

Over on Sky News and Labor’s Sam Rae is ‘debating’ the Liberal’s Keith Wolahan for a segment, and both have made some choices.
Rae’s hair, which is famous within the parliament for its bouffant, is down slightly, which is one reason why some of his colleagues have dubbed it a recession indicator.

Wolahan is wearing a gilet (zip up vest) with his name on the front, we assume because as a moderate Liberal Sky viewers are probably not used to seeing him and would need help working out which one is the ‘Liberal’ in this conversation.

Both stick to the usual lines – only poll that counts is election day yadda, yadda, yadda and we all lost seven minutes of our lives.

Time for coffee number four!

OK, so it has been a fairly calm day so far, but there has still been quite a bit. So let’s see what we have learned.

Peter Dutton started the day in the Hunter region, where the Coalition are trying to get the seat of Paterson.

Dutton attempted to make energy the issue of the day, but left open many questions on what the Coalition’s gas policy would actually do.

Dutton is unable to say if the Coalition’s policy will make energy ‘immediately’ cheaper, instead pointing to Labor’s policy being more expensive. Dutton still points to modelling showing the Coalition’s nuclear plan would be ‘44%’ cheaper, but neglects to mention that it is also for about 45% less power.

Anthony Albanese started the day in Perth, where Labor is looking to shore up WA seats.

He attempted to make health the issue of the day with a $200m funding announcement to extend a WA hospital.

There is no forthcoming response to the Coalition’s $400m youth mental health funding announcement from Labor as yet (if there is one coming at all)

Albanese is also brewing up a new attack line which was gifted to him from Dutton, who said he would like to live in Sydney if he was prime minister, instead of Canberra. Albanese:

It’s extraordinary that I’m a Sydneysider who’s lived there my whole life, but I’ve chosen to work and live in the national capital – I do spend time in Sydney, obviously. My electorate is there. But I believe the Prime Minister should live in The Lodge. Secondly, I believe there’s been a lot of hubris from Peter Dutton. We’ve seen that. I’ve seen the comments. He says he likes the harbour. You know, everyone likes the harbour. But your job is to be close to where the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet is, where meetings happen almost every day – almost every day when I’m in Canberra, I’m in a meeting. I’m in the Cabinet Room, I’m in the secure room working away. So it’s up to him to make those declarations, I guess. But certainly I don’t take the privilege that I have of being Prime Minister for granted.

This will probably take hold in a way no policy announcement will. Dutton wanting to be Mr Harbourside Mansion is everything Labor has been trying to paint him as, and he walked right into it, himself, because of a chatty conversation with Sydney radio 2GB