Key events
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it’ll be Krishani Dhanji with the main action.
We’re on the campaign trail with the leaders of the two main parties this morning and that means we’re in South Australia with Anthony Albanese, and in Victoria with Peter Dutton. The prime minister is expected to spruik $150m in federal funding for a new healthcare centre at Flinders hospital in Adelaide’s southern suburbs, while the centrepiece of the Coalition leader’s day will be a pledge to cough up $1.5bn in federal cash for the Melbourne airport rail link project.
The backdrop to these campaign stops is some mildly good poll news for Albanese on two fronts. First our own Guardian Essential poll of the current election period shows Labor has ticked ahead of the Coalition on a two-party-plus basis and although Albanese’s personal approval rating has dipped slightly, Dutton’s has also fallen. The poll overall shows that Labor would fall just short of a majority if the election were held today. However, a separate poll by Roy Morgan has Labor winning a clear majority. More on these polls coming up.
Part of Labor’s very well-timed upturn could be down to a slightly better economic outlook. With inflation continuing to fall and interest rates heading downwards for the first time since he took power, Albanese has been able to promote a different narrative in recent weeks. But there’s a flipside to interest rates heading down: reports from the two main property analytic firms today which show house prices beginning to rise again. The Reserve Bank is expected to keep the cash rate on hold when it meets today. We’ll have the verdict at 2.30pm.
Labor is continuing its attack on the Coalition’s energy policy, with Labor’s minister Chris Bowen lashing the gas reservation plan that the opposition leader unveiled last week as a flagship election policy to bring down power bills. Speaking on ABC’s 7.30 last night, Bowen said the policy was being made up “on the run” and was in any case just a reheated version of a policy floated by the Morrison government. More coming up, plus our own forensic look at the Coalition energy plan.