Hello and welcome to day 11. Both the campaigns will be hanging close to Sydney ahead of the first debate, which is hosted by News Corp. So expect a lot of Sydney areas today.
The Wombat trail (a shorter Nationals campaign trail) is underway and is in Cowper, where the Nationals are in a lot of trouble against the community independent, Caz Heise. It’s one of the unseen electoral battles of this campaign, but the Nats are worried about it (as they should be)
Also unseen this election campaign is the amount of work that the Greens have been putting in. It’s not as big a campaign, but it is very targeted – Adam Bandt has been spending time in Perth, Melbourne and Brisbane (as well as other spots here and there) where the message has been on the bigger picture issues a minority parliament may face. Labor is working on winning majority government and it is not out of the question, but a hung parliament is still very likely. That doesn’t mean that there will be a coalition between Labor and the Greens, but that the Greens will be among the negotiations needed – not just in the House, but also the Senate.
And of course, the world continues to make itself known in the Australian campaign, despite the leaders best attempts to ignore it. The damage inflicted by Trump’s tariffs are still sending shock waves through financial markets, and Israel’s continued slaughter of Palestinian civilians is still going unanswered by most Australian leaders. But none of these issues are going away.
We’ll take you through all the major events of the day, and the debate, so get your coffees, or your matchas ready. You have Amy Remeikis with you for most of the day – send any questions through to amy.remeikis@australiainstitute.org.au and I’ll do my best to get them answered for you.
Ready? Let’s get into it.
