An Easter long weekend will give Labor and the coalition a chance to reset their campaigns after a taxing few days as leaders traded increasingly heated barbs.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese side-stepped questions over power prices and got tricky with reporters over tax policy while the coalition has had a series of gaffes, including falsely attributing statements to international leaders.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton sought to bring the debate back to income tax policy on Thursday as he floated reform to stop bracket creep before conceding it was only an aspiration for the next term.
The coalition has promised to cut the fuel excise in half, saving motorists 25 cents a litre, and give a one-off tax sweetener of up to $1200, but it will repeal Labor’s tax cuts that would give Australians up to $536 a year.
Promising to return bracket creep in the future while repealing tax cuts now made no sense, Mr Albanese said.
“I’ve got an idea for him, how about he commit to not lifting them in the first place?” he told reporters in Brisbane.
Mr Dutton went on the offensive over tax talk, accusing Mr Albanese and Labor of being tricky over Treasury negative gearing modelling.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers admitted he “sought a view” about the policy but added the prime minister denied “commissioning” the research during the Wednesday night leaders’ debate, which was a different thing.
The government had no plans to change negative gearing or capital gains tax concessions, Dr Chalmers said.
Labor attacked the coalition over its own relationship with the truth after Mr Dutton wrongly said Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto had made a public statement about a Russian request to station military planes when he hadn’t.
Mr Dutton admitted he made a mistake but wasn’t the only coalition frontbencher forced into an about-face.
Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie also backtracked and apologised for comments claiming Russia and China wanted Labor to win the election.
She said the Russian defence minister and Chinese president “both have made very public comments that they do not want to see Peter Dutton as the prime minister” before acknowledging she couldn’t verify those claims.
Some 12 hours later, Senator McKenzie found herself in another tangle as she misattributed a quote from the Chinese premier to the president when defending the crux of her earlier statement.
“It’s pretty clear from President Xi’s public commentary that he finds Albo a very handsome boy, he’s been very complimentary about the prime minister,” she said.
It was Chinese Premier Li Qiang who commented “people were saying that we have a handsome boy coming from Australia” when Mr Albanese visited Beijing.
Independent senator David Pocock said it was prudent for politicians to ensure they had their facts straight when talking about world leaders.
“We keep hearing that we’re in really tense and delicate times when it comes to geopolitics … so you would probably expect people to really think through what they’re saying,” he told AAP.
Climate and energy policy tripped both leaders up in their debate, with Mr Albanese repeatedly refusing to say when power bills would come down and Mr Dutton side-stepping whether climate change impacted natural disasters.
That resulted in accusations he was not being serious about climate action.
He clarified his comments at a press conference on Thursday.
“I believe in climate change and that is a reality, it’s why we’ve adopted our position in relation to net zero by 2050,” he said.
Mr Albanese takes a slight lead over the opposition into the second half of the campaign as Mr Dutton’s support drops, according to the latest poll from Freshwater.
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