Most commentators agree debate around immigration policy is the lowest it has ever been.
The United Nations affirmed this, finding Australia guilty of almost 150 violations of international law over the indefinite detention of 46 refugees in one of the most damning assessments of human rights in this country by a United Nations committee.
So much for the “lucky country”.
Campaign selfie: PM @KRuddMP , Penrith pic.twitter.com/BU8Mp8HzXu
— andrew meares (@mearesy) August 23, 2013
Labor policy announcement
- Kevin Rudd announced a re-elected Labor government would ensure changes to the way businesses lodge their business activity statements – rather than quarterly, this would be done yearly. It would cover about 1.35 million businesses with a GST turnover of under $20 million a year and come into place from 1 July 2014.
Coalition policy announcement
- An elected Coalition government would allocate an additional $420 million in border protection measures including a boat buyback scheme for Indonesian fishermen, spending $20 million to “enlist Indonesian villages to support people smuggling disruption including a capped boat buy back scheme”
Must read
We have two must-reads today:
You can’t rule anything out of this campaign yet, says the host of Insiders on ABC TV, Barrie Cassidy. And he says Rudd may have found something which can “cut” through to the electorate, which he argues in this piece in The Drum.
Waleed Aly, on the other hand, argues we’re in an era of “micro-politics” – and this has been evident in both the 2010 and 2013 campaigns.
Quote of the day
Day 19’s award goes to the Education Minister, Bill Shorten. In case you missed the general rhetoric from Labor over the past 10 days or so, it has been about the failing of the Coalition to provide any costings of policies so far.
Labor claims the Coalition has several “holes” in its costings.
Said Shorten, in a press conference: “The Titanic had a smaller hole than what the Coalition has in their costings.”
Tweet of the day
The Coalition’s boat buy-back policy had the social media world buzzing with chatter in the afternoon.
We found this tweet quite hilarious.
If anyone has any busted arse tinnies they want to off load there will be big dollars for them in Bali after Sept 7. #election
— H.G Nelson (@hg_nelson) August 23, 2013
Slip of the day
Perhaps this award should be called “crush of the day” – this poor little boy found himself at the centre of Rudd’s campaign in a shopping centre.
When Rudd referred to Labor “thinking about the little guy” in his morning press conference, it’s doubtful he was referring to this.
A little boy caught in the shopping centre crush #ausvotes @abcnews pic.twitter.com/d70VxrbjBr
— Anna Henderson (@annajhenderson) August 23, 2013
Wrap by Liam Quinn and Erdem Koç. Follow them and send them tips on Twitter – @Quinn_LP and@erdemkoc.
