The second Sunday of the campaign saw Prime Minister Kevin Rudd hit the city of Adelaide, announcing two new policies.

PM Rudd with Kate Ellis at Common Ground in Adelaide – a project to assist homeless people to live independently. pic.twitter.com/2iBTOELpKY

— bruce hawker (@brucehawker2010) August 17, 2013

Labor policy announcement

• Labor announced those who do not vaccinate their children will not get the $726 Family Tax Benefit A end-of-year supplement, under a re-elected Labor government.  Tony Abbott said he supports this policy.
• Kevin Rudd also announced a $357 million pledge for health services funding, including a redevelopment of Sydney’s Westmead Hospital,

Coalition policy announcement

• An Abbott government would give every woman in Australia six months’ leave on full pay when they have a baby from 1 July, 2015.  The payments would be capped at $150,000 and the scheme would be funded by a 1.5 per cent tax on Australia’s 3,000 big businesses.

Must read

Guardian Australia‘s Lenore Taylor has written an excellent piece looking at paid parental leave in light of the Coalition’s policy announcement.

Quote of the day

Day 14’s quote comes from Guardian Australia journalist David Marr. On the ABC’s Insiders program, the topic of costings was being discussed, and how the Coalition is refusing to release any data until the final week of the campaign.

When fellow columnist Gerard Henderson said that he didn’t recall Marr complaining about Labor not realising its costings in the 2007 campaign, Marr responded with this beauty: “Oh Gerard, you personalise everything in the most poisonous way.”

To which, for the record, Henderson replied with: “It’s not poisonous.”

So it was personal, then.

Tweet of the day

The former-Labor-now-independent member for Dobell, Craig Thomson, was a little confused about the new Coalition policy regarding company tax cuts and new levies.

Try explaining to business you will get a 1.5% tax cut and also pay a 1.5% levy #confusebusiness

— Craig Thomson (@DobellThommo) August 17, 2013

Thanks for the clarity.

Slip of the day

We’re going to stick with the Insiders theme with this award, which again features the Sydney Institute’s Gerard Henderson.

After the airing of a snippet from Peter Slipper’s doorstop press conference earlier this week, where his wife was by his side talking up his political talents and human decency, Henderson had this to say:

“Where do you get an adoring wife like that from?”

Wrap by Liam Quinn and Erdem Koç. Follow them and send them tips on Twitter – @Quinn_LP and@erdemkoc.