We move on to the first question – housing.

Q: Can you honestly say your plans will make housing any more affordable in five or ten years or simply push prices higher?

Albanese:

Yes, we can. We have a plan not just for demand but for supply. A plan through the Building Australia Future Fund to build more public housing a plan for private rentals to get increased supply through the build-to-rent scheme. A plan as well to get first homeowners, to give them a fair crack, particularly young people. A 5% deposit, rather than 20, will mean that instead of paying off someone else’s mortgage, that I can pay off their own mortgage. That is important going forward. That will boost demand.

(Q) Can’t you just do the supply things? Why do you need to push up demand?

We need to do both. We need to particularly give young people a fair crack. We have a comprehensive $43 billion Homes for Australia plan, making sure whether it’s increased social housing or increased private rentals or increased homeownership through the help to buy scheme that will assist. The key is supply. That’s why only Labor is offering a plan at this election to increase supply of housing.

Matt Grudnoff:

Both major parties will not make housing more affordable. Both are just juicing demand. Both leaders should be asked to make a commitment to have house prices increase less than incomes.

Greg Jericho:

“Can you honestly say your plans will make housing any more affordable in five or ten years or simply push prices higher?”

The 100,000 new homes – will help.

5% deposit will push prices higher

$50,000 super will push prices higher

Mortgage tax deductions will push prices higher.

The $5bn on “infrastructure” by the Libs will do nothing except give property developers a leg up. Sukkar couldn’t even say the suggestion it would deliver 500,000 homes was based on modelling

Anthony Albanese:

Thanks to the ABC and thanks, Peter for agreeing to the second debate.

I’m really optimistic about Australia’s future, if we seize the opportunities that are right in front of us. Because of the hard work Australians have done over the last three years, we have turning the corner. We have inflation that is down, real wages that are up.

We have unemployment that is very low at just 4.1% and interest rates have started to fall. They started to rise before the last election. We know there is much more to do. That’s why we have a plan to cut taxes, not raise them.

A plan to make sure that we make things here in Australia through our Future Made in Australia plan. Strengthening Medicare through more urgent care clinics. Lifting the bulk billing rates and having cheaper medicines, making sure we cut 20 per cent off everyone’s HECS debts and give free TAFE to provide opportunities and a 5% deposit is what you will need for first home buyers. We know we live in difficult times.

I am very confident that with the right leadership we can see it through. I want to trust the Australian people. I want to back us and build Australia’s future.

Peter Dutton:

Thank you, Anthony for being here and thank you to every Australian who has taken an interest in what I think is an important election.

As we approach May 3, many Australian also ask are you better off today than you were three years ago? As I have spoken to thousands of Australians, young families, pensioners, people in small businesses, it’s obvious to me that people don’t feel better off. People have faced an existential cost-of-living crisis.

People have seen food prices go up by 30%. Their mortgages have gone up on 12 occasions. Our plan is to get our country back on track to help young Australians realise the dream of homeownership again, to make sure we can help manage the economy so we can get inflation down.

If we do that, that will lower interest rates. We want to help people with the cost-of-living crisis, make sure we can give $1200 back to Australians, money they worked hard for and reduce their petrol price by 25 cents a heart.

Matt Grudnoff says this is the wrong question: Who is best likely to make things better over the next 3 years is what people should be focused on.

Greg Jericho is already losing his mind over the ‘groceries prices have gone up by 30%’ line “lies, lies, lies” he says. He did the figures last week – it is 12%. Still bad, so why does Dutton need to over exaggerate it?

There is no stop clock, but David Speers will try and ensure there is equal time.

Peter Dutton won the toss and gets the first word.

In the meantime, the AFR has released its latest polling showing the parties are on 50-50 on the 2PP preferred measure,

Phil Coorey reports:

This represents a 1 percentage point improvement for Labor since the campaign started when the Coalition held a 51-49 lead, and the first time the Coalition has not led the two-party vote since July last year.

Dutton, who has had a chequered campaign so far, dropped 4 percentage points as preferred prime minister, affording Anthony Albanese a clear lead of 46 per cent to 41 per cent.

The campaign will go into abeyance over Easter before hostilities resume on Monday, ahead of pre-poll voting beginning Tuesday and the election on May 3.

The debate opens up with some voters’ questions.

Health, education, housing, energy, nuclear, helping the world, maintaining democracy, Trump and maintaining Australia’s standard of living were among the issues canvassed.

And with a very dramatic introduction from David Speers and some music that sounds like the Hobbits are about to take Helms’ Deep, the debate begins.

It’s nice to watch some great journalism ahead of one of these debates. Laura Tingle is one of the best political analyst minds in the country and we need to protect her at all costs.

Hello! You have Greg Jericho, Matt Grudnoff and Amy Remeikis with you for the second leaders debate.

We are ready, if not willing.

I have the Krupnikas, candles and incense burning (and some salt by the doors, because you can never be too careful) and am as ready to do this as I’ll ever be. Thanks for joining us and hope we all make it through intact!

The Australian’s Ewin Hannan (perhaps the best industrial relations reporter in the country) has written on the Fair Work Commission’s review into wages for feminised industries, which was ordered by the Albanese government.

You can find the whole story here.

Hannan reports:

Releasing its historic review into the undervaluation of wages in feminised industries, a commission expert panel found workers covered by five awards had been the subject of gender-based undervaluation and should receive what unions representing early childhood employees are calling “life-changing” pay rises.

The recommended percentage increases are as high as 31 per cent for some health professionals; 27.8 per cent for early childhood workers and up to 10.9 per cent for pathology collectors.

The recommended increases of up to 27.8 per cent in early childhood are above the 15 per cent pay rise implemented through a recent ground-breaking multi-employer agreement in the sector, with the United Workers Union on Wednesday framing the deal as a “downpayment” to address gender undervaluation.

That’s going to be something the government needs to respond to.

On the housing policies being put forward, Jacqui Lambie says:

Well, first of all, what bothers me is the Liberal Party should have got this all done 12 months ago. They have been in opposition for three years, they don’t look like they’re in opposition at all. They’re really struggling with that. They should have had costings, they had plenty of time to get it ready and looking like a real smart outfit.

They failed to do the work to make them look like a credible opposition. That’s really worrying for me.

Either way, it doesn’t matter what policies you look at, we have a tradie constraint out there, we know that much.

Trying to – trying to get – the building products and things like that, that is going to be a strain, especially if we don’t know what is going on with the US, we know it’s straining, it will cause more strain.

And they’re not looking at the other things. We would have really liked for them to pick up negative gearing and have a look at that.

I don’t know what scared them in 2019, it’s very different circumstances now. It got through to people out there, 75% of those people have one house, 25% we have a problem with. We’re happy to grandfather that. What does it look like? We need to put more policies on the table, it will take courage.

And good luck, Lambie says, to either political party wanting to make an impact in Tasmania over the next two weeks:

There’s no Trump fans down here in Tasmania, I need to be honest with you.

…Other than that, they’re really just trying to get through the cost of living. I’ve seen a lot with the caravans, they’re not flying their kids away, they’re doing all they can in their caravans, the caravan parks are full, that’s what it looks like. I don’t know how they’re going to go in the next two weeks campaigning. How difficult is it, when no-one wants to see your face, let’s be honest. You’re on school holidays with your kids. It’s going to make it a little bit difficult out there.