Asylum seekers was again a hot topic on day 16, as Labor’s Papua New Guinea solution faced its first legal challenge with an asylum seeker sent to Manus Island launching an action in the High Court. And a boat carrying up to 120 people capsized off Christmas Island.
With @JanelleSaffin & @tanya_plibersek announcing that we will have new stroke care coordinators across Oz. KRudd pic.twitter.com/JaIGaNxoE5
— Office of Kevin Rudd, 26th PM of Australia (@MrKRudd) August 19, 2013
Labor policy announcement
- It was all about health, as Kevin Rudd and Health Minister Tanya Plibersek announced a re-elected Labor government would invest in a new $250 million Medial Research Innovation Fund to help commercialise new medical treatments and healthcare technologies. Half the money would come from the government, the other half from private investment.
- Mr Rudd also announced $47.5 million in funding for 19 centres of research excellence in areas such a indigenous health, genomics and national clinical trials of new drugs, if re-elected.
Coalition policy announement
- Tony Abbott was in Geelong, where he visited disability employment service. He announced a Coalition government would set up a bipartisan committee to oversee DisabilityCare’s genesis, which would be fully operational in 2019.
Must read
Again, this is in the form of a “must watch”. The band Super Best Friends released its music video “Round and Round”, which features some familiar faces in this election campaign.
It’s a good laugh. Check it out:
Quote of the day
Those following Kevin Rudd around have been persisting with questions about how dire the situation is for Labor in the polls.
Mr Rudd drew on a sport analogy to assist him with his answer.
“We’re not even at half time yet….I believe people will make up their minds closer to the event.”
The problem is of course – to stick with the analogy – it’s difficult to come back from 10 goals behind.
Not impossible, but difficult.
Tweet of the day
The Minister for Education, Bill Shorten, had a swipe at his opponent Christopher Pyne on Twitter for not coming to his party.
Pyne declined invite to debate future of edu @PressClubAust today as “he’s travelling”-he’s an Adelaide MP who travelled…to Adelaide today
— Bill Shorten (@billshortenmp) August 19, 2013
Slip of the day
The latest Liberal slip of the tongue – or in this case, keyboard – has forced a candidate to resign from the campaign.
Coalition hopeful Kevin Baker, who ran a website containing offensive material including references to domestic violence, incest and child abuse has resigned, leaving the seat of Charlton without a Liberal representative for the upcoming election.
“I deeply regret the posts made on my website and decided that it was not appropriate to continue as the party’s candidate,” Baker said.
Oh well, at least he’ll have more time to moderate pages now his career in politics is over.
Wrap by Liam Quinn and Erdem Koç. Follow them and send them tips on Twitter – @Quinn_LP and@erdemkoc.
