• The Australian
• May 19, 2016 9:17PM
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Who won Day 12?Read David Crowe’s verdict here.

8.50pm:Shorten talks about crash

Bill Shorten opens his speech at the Champions of the West Awards by revealing he changed it on the way from Maitland to Tester’s Hollow - when a car tried to overtake the Opposition Leader’s convoy and crashed into an oncoming vehicle.

“The police, fireys and ambos were on the scene in minutes – as ever, they worked with calm, with skill and compassionate professionalism,” Mr Shorten says.

“One journalist – Penny Evans from the local ABC – had toys and children’s books for the little boy. I spoke to his Mum for some time.

She’s a single parent. She was shocked, she was embarrassed, she was concerned for her son. She didn’t have car insurance – only third party. Suddenly she’s without a car.

“I told her the first thing that came into my mind, I said ‘accidents happen but your boy was buckled safely in his seat. You are a good mum’.”

Mr Shorten tells the room the car crash is one example of what the election is really all about.

“It’s unscripted, impossible-to-anticipate moments like these which puncture the bubble that politicians and journalists and commentators so often find ourselves encased in,” he says. “They remind us what our country, our democracy, what elections should really be about: people. Everyday people, striving for the best and helping each other.”

7.58pm:Police raid Labor offices

Meanwhile, Australian Federal Police officers have raided a Labor office in Melbourne in an investigation that appears to be linked to the leak of confidential documents from the company building the national broadband network. Read the full story here.

7.36pm:Two leaders cross paths

Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten have crossed paths for the second time of the marathon election campaign, attending an awards ceremony in western Sydney.

Malcolm Turnbull remarked: “Bill’s wearing a blue tie!” Picture: Richard Dobson

Both leaders greeted diners as they arrived at Bankstown Sports, a club famous for Paul Keating’s “true believers” election victory speech in 1993.

While the Opposition Leader tasted some churros on his way to the event - called the Champions of the West Awards 2016 - the Prime Minister politely declined the offer.

Attendees include NSW premier Mike Baird, Scott Morrison, Liberal senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, Labor MP Jason Clare, Australian cricketer Michael Clarke and Miss Universe Australia...

The PM meets 2015 Miss Universe Australia Monika Radulovic.

Turnbull made an election pitch to the voters of western Sydney, telling them his government will be “tireless” in its support for the region.

“Every element of my Government’s agenda will deliver economic growth and more jobs for Western Sydney,” the PM said.

“We will be tireless as your government in support of western Sydney’s spirited enterprise, securing western Sydney’s prosperous and exciting future.”

Mr Turnbull re-announced the promised $50 million for the upgrade of the notorious Appin Road - a commitment matched by Labor, and said the government’s 1 per cent small business tax cut and decision not to touch negative gearing would help thousands of locals.

4.15pm:Bowen brought to book

Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen has taken a break from selling his party’s policies to sell his book.

The Money Men examines the careers of 12 Australian treasurers. \

Mr Bowen declared Mr Keating Australia’s finest treasurer. The worst in the nation’s history also shared Mr Bowen’s political stripes.

“He was our most academically prepared treasurer ... and he was a disaster,” Mr Bowen said of Jim Cairns, who was treasurer during the 1974 loans affair.

3.25pm:‘It’s that terrible sound’

More from the scene of this afternoon’s crash: The Labor candidate for Paterson, Meryl Swanson, was traveling with Mr Shorten at the time of the accident.

“It’s that terrible sound... the dull thud when there’s a car accident. Your heart sort of goes into your mouth and you think “God what’s happened,” Ms Swanson told media at the scene.

“It’s been an awful accident. The best news is that no-one’s been seriously injured.”

The scene of the car crash in Testers Hollow. Picture: AAP

Both drivers were trapped in their vehicles before being released by VRA rescue. The driver of the Mitsubishi was a 33-year-old woman who was traveling with her 2-year-old son. She returned a negative result for a breath test.

The mother and her young son were both assessed by NSW Ambulance Paramedics at the scene and found to be uninjured.

2.45pm:‘This road is a problem’

The opposition leader’s car, a police car and a car driven by Cessnock mayor Bob Pynsent were pulling over on Cessnock Road when the accident occurred, reports AAP.

“Two vehicles behind us had a head on ” Mr Pynsent told AAP.

Mr Pynsent said the road was a problem and he wanted to talk to Mr Shorten about it.

“The reason we were there is it’s a problem to our local government area,” he said.

“It’s narrower than most of rest of the road and it has flooding issues.”

While Mr Shorten has cancelled his afternoon campaign events he is expected to attend a Sydney event tonight.

2.30pm:The scene of the accident

2pm:Shorten leaves crash scene

The crash scene at Testers Hollow. Picture: Jason Tin

1.40pm: Shorten suspends campaign for day

Labor has suspended its campaign for the rest of the day because of the car accident, with Mr Shorten’s main concern being for the people in the collision. No Labor candidates or MPs will be doing any press conferences.

“The Leader of the Opposition’s priority is the wellbeing of the people involved in the accident,” a campaign spokesperson told The Australian.

AAP reports that while the woman and her child being comforted by Mr Shorten were not injured, a woman in her 20s in the other car had to be freed by emergency service workers. She suffered minor facial injuries and pain in the knee and was taken to John Hunter Hospital for treatment.

It’s understood Mr Shorten was travelling in a Comcar within a convoy made up of that vehicle and AFP vehicles.

A planned media conference was cancelled and Mr Shorten will no longer take a campaign walk through Maitland mall.

Mr Shorten was travelling with Labor candidate for Paterson Meryl Swanson and Cessnock mayor Bob Pynsent.

1.30pm:Head-on car crash near Shorten convoy

Bill Shorten is providing comfort to a woman and a child in his car, after a head-on collision involving two other vehicles near the Labor leader’s campaign convoy in rural NSW.

Emergency crews are on the scene at Testers Hollow near Maitland, trying to extract someone who is still trapped in their vehicle.

The accident occured in the past hour and allegedly happened as Mr Shorten’s convoy was pulling over to the side of the road.

The Australian understands a police vehicle had indicated with its lights that the convoy was attempting to pull over when the accident happened.

1.10pm: Shorten confirms Feeney flat

Bill Shorten has come to the defence of Labor frontbencher David Feeney, confirming the MP had provided an appropriate declaration in relation to a Canberra apartment across the road from Parliament House, reports Joe Kelly.

Mr Feeney came under fire this week after it emerged he had not listed on his pecuniary interest register a $2.3 million negatively geared property in Northcote, in his Melbourne seat of Batman.

The revelation came as a setback to the Labor campaign, which seeks to impose new restrictions on negative gearing by limiting the practice to new properties from July 2017 and halving the capital gains discount.

While Mr Feeney has not specifically listed the Canberra apartment on his register of interests, there is a declaration relating to the family trust of his wife, Liberty Sanger.

Ms Sanger, who works as a lawyer for Maurice Blackburn, owns the Canberra apartment through the family trust.

Mr Shorten today said the declaration of the Liberty Sanger Family Trust on the register was appropriate and within the rules.

“I expressed my displeasure yesterday on the record to you and directly to Mr Feeney about his failure to declare a property,” Mr Shorten said when pressed on the issue by The Australian.

“I understand in terms of his wife’s declarations today, that’s all been done according to the rules.”

While he defended Mr Feeney, Mr Shorten dodged a question on whether he had previously stayed at the apartment in the upmarket suburb of Forrest.

1pm: Karl vs Dutton

Here’s the audio of Peter Dutton defending himself on immigration today.

And here’s Nine’s Today show host Karl Stefanovic having a go at the Immigration Minister this morning, accusing him of being “unAustralian” and cherry-picking statistics.

12.45pm: High Noon

If you’re enjoying The Australian’s live election blog, be sure to sign up to our daily election newsletter. High Noon brings you the lowdown on the showdown of 2016. A daily report from the hustings of those who stand tall and those who stumble, the pledges, the wedges and what real people are talking about — delivered each lunchtime to your inbox.

Follow this link to sign up

Here’s a taste of today’s:

Good Day, Bad Day

Good Day: Jason Ball. Success in politics hinges largely on knowing your audience and one cannot accuse Greens candidate for the inner-Melbourne electorate of Higgins, Jason Ball, of not knowing his: he is employing geographically targeted advertisements on gay hook-up app Grindr. High Noon expects incumbent local member and Assistant Treasurer Kelly O’Dwyer will not follow suit. And with a 9.9 per cent margin, that will come as little surprise.

Bad Day: Bill Shorten. Labor was gifted the moral outrage of the Left in the wake of Peter Dutton’s refugee remarks, but Shorten failed to capitalise. The comments reinstalled border security as a campaign issue, much to the opposition’s chagrin, and despite a frenzied race to tie Turnbull to Dutton, Shorten failed to land a killer blow. The PM skated through largely unscathed and it was Labor immigration spokesman Richard Marles who found himself on the wrong end of a fierce interrogation by Leigh Sales.

12.15pm:Shorten’s major Medicare pledge

Labor leader Bill Shorten has unveiled his plan to unfreeze the indexation of rebates paid to GPs under the Medicare Benefits Schedule - a move he says will stop patients being hit with a $20 charge when they visit the doctor, reports Joe Kelly.

The move is the most expensive commitment made so far by Labor in the long election campaign, with the Opposition Leader making the announcement at a doctor’s surgery in the NSW central coast Liberal seat of Dobell alongside Labor candidate Emma McBride.

Mr Shorten said the freeze amounted to a “GP tax,” but was forced on to the back foot after receiving questions about a previous Labor decision to introduce a temporary freeze on the indexation of the rebates.

Attempting to draw election battlelines around health policy - seen as a traditional area of Labor strength - Mr Shorten said he would stand up to defend bulk billing as well as Medicare.

Read the full story here: Shorten vow to end ‘GP tax”

Bill Shorten, in Wyong, NSW, today, is attempting to draw election battlelines around health policy. Picture: Kym Smith

11.50am: Dutton distraction from Feeney

The Prime Minister accused Bill Shorten of “demonising” Immigration Minister Peter Dutton yesterday as a way to distract from Labor MP David Feeney’s failure to declare a $2.3 million home in his electorate, which he also negatively gears.

“Bill Shorten is only interested in the politics of this issue,” Mr Turnbull said. “And you can see the way he leapt on it yesterday to demonise Peter Dutton as a means of distracting attention from Mr Feeney’s rather careless accounting for his real estate interests. That was all politics yesterday.”

Mr Dutton sparked a furore after claiming the Greens’ proposal to boost the humanitarian intake to 50,000 would see “illiterate and innumerate” refugees taking Australian jobs but also “languishing” in unemployment queues.

11.45am:Jobs data out

Australia’s unemployment rate fell slightly last month, mainly due to lower participation in the workforce, as employers and jobseekers digested the Reserve Bank’s latest interest rate cut, as well as the federal budget and political uncertainty before the July 2 election.

The number of people employed grew by 10,800 in April versus a downwardly revised 25,700 in March, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, less than economist’s median estimate of a 12,000 rise.

The unemployment rate stayed the same at 5.7 per cent versus 5.8 per cent expected, as the labour-force participation rate unexpectedly fell to 64.8 per cent.

While the lower-than-expected jobless rate may slightly diminish the chance of another cut next month, the Reserve Bank’s recent cut was motivated by lower than expected inflation, and the market is expecting further cuts based on the RBA’s expectations that inflation will remain low.

A slightly lower jobless rate could also help Coalition’s chances in the upcoming election.

Detracting from the strength of the headline data, the rise in jobs was only in the part-time category.

Part time jobs rose by 20,200, while full-time jobs fell by 9,300, the ABS said.

Forward indicators of the labour market such as the NAB Survey employment index and SEEK’s Job Ads indicators had pointed to a 16,000 rise in jobs, according to National Australia Bank economists.

Quarterly wages data yesterday undershot expectations for the March quarter.

March quarter GDP figures are due early next month.

- David Rogers

11.40am: Best pics from the morning

Here’s a few good snaps from the day so far:

The PM in a high-vis vest with a high-vis tie to match at the Omni Tanker factory in the southwest Sydney seat of Macarthur. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

Boots on the ground in Macarthur: spot which belong to Malcolm Turnbull. Picture: AAP

Bill Shorten before making a major announcement on Medicare in Wyong on the NSW central coast. Picture: Kym Smith

11.30am:PM ‘revels in diversity’

As the Peter Dutton issue bubbles along, the Prime Minister says he “revels” and “rejoices” in Australia’s diversity and lashes out at the Labor Party for proposing an increased humanitarian intake he claims would be “too much” for the country.

Declaring the settlement of refugees a “serious” issue”, the Prime Minister said Australians expected the government to “manage that process well” and dismissed opposition plans to double the intake as “just political”.

Mr Turnbull lauded himself as one of the “great admirers” of the country’s religions, races and cultures.

“Barely a day goes past when I don’t celebrate that we are the most successful multicultural nation in the world and we are built on immigration. We glory in it,” Mr Turnbull said after he toured a business in southwest Sydney.

“We are great at knocking ourselves, Australians. We are very critical (but) there are many things we can be very proud of. I revel an I rejoice in the diversity of our nation.”

Mr Turnbull said doubling the current refugee intake to 27,000, as Labor wants to do, would “strain” the nation’s resources.

“It will strain the system both in terms of giving good settlement services and in terms of the budget and what the Greens are proposing and of course this is what Labor is doing, let’s be clear, Labor is crab-walking to the Left in order to get closer to the Greens,” he said.

“And the Greens of course want to quadruple our refugee intake. Of course they have given no thought to what it’s going to cost or how you’re going to integrate those people.”

10.30am: Steel workers claim Turnbull neglect

The AWU and South Coast Labour Council have attempted to hijack the PM’s tour of Omni Tanker in southwest Sydney, rallying outside a locked gate as Malcolm Turnbull told those gathered that the tanker business was a great example of everything the government wanted to

achieve. The men were too far away to be heard and the event went on without a hitch.

Union reps Arthur Rorris and Wayne Phillips called on Malcolm Turnbull to visit the Port Kembla steelworks and and “talk to the workers whose jobs are hanging by a thread”.

“Where is the jobs and growth, where is the certainty for Port Kembla and regional Australia?” they posed to The Australian.

10.15am: Dutton defends himself

As independent MP Andrew Wilkie calls for no less than his head, Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has staunchly defended his controversial comments about illiterate and innumerate refugees taking Australian jobs and languishing on unemployment benefits.

On Ray Hadley’s 2BG radio show this morning Mr Dutton warned of the terrorism threat posed by softer immigration controls.

“Let’s be honest enough to have these discussions, and that’s what the Australian people want, and that’s why I’m not going to stand back from what I said. I believe in what I said,” Mr Dutton said.

“We have some problems in this country, in Melbourne for example, where have some problems within a particular part of the community there – the Somalian community – where some of these young kids are running riot in the city, causing all sorts of trouble.”

Mr Dutton said he was driven as Immigration Minister to “keep people safe in this country”.

“I very strongly believe that the threat coming across our borders, when you look at what’s happened in Brussels and Paris, United States, United Kingdom and elsewhere, this is a bigger issue at this election than it’s ever been,” he said.

“Mr Shorten cannot even get to first base when he says to people that he wouldn’t be able to stop people-smugglers because of the divisions in his own party.”

Peter Dutton at the 2GB studio in Canberra last week. Picture: AAP

Earlier Mr Wilkie, a progressive independent Tasmanian MP, demanded Mr Dutton’s immediate resignation.

“Peter Dutton’s recent claims that illiterate refugees will take Australian jobs is racist, are disgusting, and must be condemned,” Mr Wilkie said.

“This really gives the game away when it comes to Australia’s current refugee policy. This is proof that the government’s border protection policies are just all about racism, fear and division.

“We can do better than this kind of reckless fearmongering. We can do better than cruel policies like offshore processing, towbacks and mandatory detention. And we can do a lot better than Peter Dutton.

“If Peter Dutton won’t resign, then Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has to step up and sack him. If Turnbull doesn’t, it makes him every bit as bad as Dutton.”

Mr Wilkie, a former intelligence whistle-blower, is expected to easily retain his Hobart-based seat of Denison, which he has held since 2010.

9.55am:PM almost Omni present on public transport

We’re currently waiting for Malcolm Turnbull to arrive at Omni Tanker - an innovative, jobs growing business in southwest Sydney. The PM has, as he almost always does, caught public transport. This time he’s taken a train to make a roads announcement.

Look familiar? This was the PM on Sunday, when he also visited the seat of Macarthur.

9.45am:Dutton’s a decent bloke: Vanstone

Amanda Vanstone, a former Howard-era immigration minister and Liberal moderate, has defended Peter Dutton as a “decent bloke” and criticised Bill Shorten as an “opportunist”.

Ms Vanstone said there was broadscale support for Australia’s regular refugee program, but even Labor MPs were concerned about ensuring the program functioned well.

“A Labor member came to me once when I was immigration minister and said to me: ‘Amanda, you’ve got to do something about the African intake,’ which we had increased on the advice of the UN, ‘I’ve got too many in my electorate and it’s causing some dysfunction in the community’,” the former senator told ABC radio.

“He was actually right. He was not a racist – not a by a long shot – what he was saying is: ‘you’ve got the balance wrong for this year, just watch it for this year’.

“That guy’s a decent bloke and I think Dutton is. Shorten’s got it wrong; he’s just being an opportunist here.”

Ms Vanstone conceded there would “always be a couple of people” who opposed new immigrants, but governments should “not take any notice of them”.

9.35am:The Feeney attacks continue

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann has seized on the latest revelations about David Feeney’s impressive negatively geared property portfolio to sharpen his attack on the ALP’s housing affordability policy.

The Australian today reported Mr Feeney stays at a unit owned by a family trust during parliamentary sitting weeks, claiming travel allowance of more than $270 a night. The unit was not itself declared, as parliament’s semi-opaque system for declaring MPs’ interests allowed Mr Feeney to declare only the existence of the trust.

It has separately emerged that Mr Feeney’s tenants in a $2.3 million home at Northcote, in Melbourne – which Mr Feeney had omitted entirely from his register of interests - have signalled their support for the sitting MP’s Green rival, Alex Bhathal.

Senator Cormann said the controversy engulfing Mr Feeney exposed the opposition’s “hypocrisy” on the topic of negative gearing.

“All of these Labor members of parliament after, if Labor’s policy was to be implemented, would continue to be able to negatively gear their existing investment properties. That is an opportunity get ahead that Labor is proposing to take away for mum and dad investors,” Senator Cormann told reporters in Canberra.

Senator Cormann said there was “nothing wrong” with Mr Feeney claiming travel allowance to stay in the family-owned property, as do MPs from both major parties, and it was “fine” that Mr Feeney recognised he’d omitted the Northcote property from his register of interests and corrected it swiftly.

“All members of parliament, as part of their remuneration and work expenses arrangements do get relevant payments for time spent in Canberra. That is not the issue,” he said.

“The issue is Mr Feeney and a number of other, in fact many other Labor members of parliament, are negatively gearing their investment properties.”

“There is nothing wrong with that, except that it exposes complete hypocrisy within the Labor Party.”

Labor’s policy would restrict negative gearing arrangements to new properties from July next year. Properties bought before then, such as Mr Feeney’s, would be exempt.

9.15am:Asylum-seeker jobs?

Peter Dutton is expected on Ray Hadley’s radio show this morning after the furore surrounding his remarks on asylum-seekers yesterday.

Judith Sloan has written on this today, saying the Immigration Minister got one bit of the story on refugees wrong, claiming they take jobs away from Australians. The real, sad thing is that so few refugees have jobs even years after they have arrived.

Read her full piece here: Few arrivals in work years later

9.05am:Who goes there?

Let’s re-cap where various political figures are headed today.

As mentioned earlier, Malcolm Turnbull is making a roads announcement in southwest Sydney - at a company in the industrial suburb of Smeaton Grange that makes specialised carbon fibre tanks. These tanks transport “aggressive, corrosive” chemicals. Why would Malcolm Turnbull make a roads announcement at a tank company? It’s all about Australian innovation

and entrepreneurship, of course!

Bill Shorten is also starting his day in the nation’s first city and is expected to formally announce his plans to unfreeze Medicare benefits.

The Minister for Finance and Campaign Coalition spokesperson, Senator Mathias Cormann is making himself available to media at Parliament House in Canberra.

Wangaratta’s Anglican bishop, John Parkes, will present independent Indi MP Cathy McGowan with a letter outlining the Anglican diocese’s call for a more humane asylum-seeker policy at the Wangaratta.

Labor spokesman for higher education Kim Carr, is in Mackay and will join Labor’s candidate for Dawson, Frank Gilbert, to tour the Central Queensland University Trade Training Centre.

Labor rural and regional health spokesman Stephen Jones and Labor’s candidate for Herbert, Cathy O’Toole, are in Townsville.

Opposition assistant treasury spokesman Andrew Leigh will join the MP for Bendigo, Lisa Chesters, in Bendigo for a Negative Gearing and Housing Affordability Forum.

Labor infrastructure spokesman Anthony Albanese will be in Sydney and join Labor’s candidate for Barton, Linda Burney, to announce a national plan for cycling.

Opposition families spokeswoman Jenny Macklin and education spokeswoman Kate Ellis are in Melbourne today and will visit a local school.

And later...

Tonight Mr Turnbull will join Bill Shorten at The Daily Telegraph’s Champions of the West awards ceremony, with 23 finalists who “dedicate themselves to improving the lives of those around them and where they live”.

8.55am:Barnaby has cancers removed

Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has revealed he took Monday off the election campaign trail to have a series of melanomas surgically removed from his neck and face.

The surgery followed a procedure in January to remove a stage-one skin cancer from his right arm after it was detected by a professor at an event that cricket legend Allan Border was running at Parliament House to promote melanoma awareness last year.

The Nationals leader, 49, told the Herald Sun said he was healthy and would use his experience to spread the word about cancer awareness.

“Yes, they’re cancers,’’ he confirmed, when asked about the marks on his face.

Barnaby Joyce campaigning near Echuca, Victoria, yesterday. Picture: Alex Coppel

8.45am:Planes, trains and automobiles

Both leaders are on the ground in Sydney:

8.30am:Beaten to the punch again

Regarding Mr Turnbull’s roads pledge in western Sydney this morning. It’s the same announcement Labor made yesterday - $50 million to upgrade Appin Rd between Rosemeadow and Appin. It’s the second time in a week Labor has beaten the government to an announcement, after health spokeswoman Catherine King committed $15m for the Northern Territory’s PET cancer scanner a day before the PM.

8.05am: Turnbull makes Appin roads pledge

Malcolm Turnbull has committed $50 million to unclog roads and clear access to low-cost housing in southwestern Sydney, moving to sandbag the imperilled marginal electorate of Macarthur.

The Prime Minister, in a joint statement with local MP Russell Matheson, said the targeted works between Rosemeadow and Appin would improve safety for 12,000 daily commuters.

Appin Rd is one of the city’s major arterial roads connecting southwestern Sydney to the Illawarra. It’s notoriously dangerous and renowned for crashes.

“The Appin Road Safety Review showed there were 76 casualty crashes over the five years prior to 2012, including five fatalities,” Mr Turnbull said.

“Our investment is not just about safety. The upgrade of Appin Rd will help fast-track the development of thousands of new homes, putting downward pressure on housing affordability for Western Sydney families.”

Mr Matheson’s ultra-safe margin of 11.4 per cent was slashed to 3.3 per cent by a redrawing of electoral boundaries last year, prompting an abortive factional powerplay to find a safer seat for the endangered MP.

7.45am:In defence of Dutton

Josh Frydenberg has also defended Peter Dutton’s tough talk about illiterate and innumerate immigrants taking Australian jobs and languishing on unemployment benefits.

“What he was referring to were some of the challenges, the real challenges that we face with resettlement,” Mr Frydenberg, the federal government’s only Jewish MP, told Sky News.

“The numbers speak for themselves; 44 per cent of females who come into this country through the refugee intake do come in without an understanding or comprehension of spoken English, and 33 per cent of men come in. 15 per cent of these people who come in through the program have never been to school.”

“It’s through no fault of their own and we in Australia have given them a better life.”

Mr Frydenberg, asked if he was critical of Mr Dutton, said: “I’m not critical of Peter Dutton. In fact, I’d echo what the Prime Minister has said: he’s been a fantastic Immigration Minister.”

“The language that you use, you can argue over that, but in terms of what immigrants do for this country, it’s a great net-positive.”

Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese said Mr Dutton’s comments were “aimed at vilifying ... every migrant to this country”.

David Crowe has assessed how the Dutton issue played out politically. It was a ludicrous argument from Dutton but moral outrage from Shorten did not win the day. Turnbull is holding to the line that worked for John Howard.

Read his analysis in: Wrap of the day

7.30am:Healthy debate

Resources Minister Josh Frydenberg has defended the Coalition’s record on health, saying bulk-billing rates had increased from an average 79 per cent under Labor to 85 per cent despite the freeze in indexation.

Australians will be promised a reprieve from Coalition budget cuts that push up the cost of visiting the doctor, as Bill Shorten launches a $2.4 billion plan to end the freeze on indexation of Medicare benefits payable to doctors.

Mr Frydenberg told Sky News: “The data shows that the bulk-billing rates have actually increased under the Coalition, and the funding rates also continues to increase, so that’s what we’re relying on.

“At the same time, we’re putting money – whether it’s public dental systems, whether it’s the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, whether it’s the extra spend on public hospitals – we are increasing health spending.”

Catherine King, the opposition health spokeswoman, said the freeze in indexation had tested doctors’ ability to absorb the additional cost.

The previous Labor government also froze the Medicare Benefits Schedule, although Ms King said that was never intended to increase out-of-pocket costs for patients.

“What this (government freeze) is actually about is shifting costs directly on to patients… This has been a GP tax by stealth,” she said.

7.20am:Where are the leaders today?

Bill Shorten, starting the day in Sydney, will announce one of his biggest spending commitments so far – a $2.4 billion pledge to again index Medicare benefits to inflation – but his campaign is in jeopardy of being further rocked by revelations about ALP frontbencher David Feeney’s impressive property portfolio.

Malcolm Turnbull, also in Sydney, is expected to make announcements relating to road infrastructure in the city’s southwest, while Greens leader Richard Di Natale and the party’s sole lower-house MP, Adam Bandt, are expected to continue their campaign in inner-Melbourne.

We’re also preparing for a live hand grenade to lob into the campaign later today, with the release of the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ official unemployment figures testing the government’s claims of “jobs and growth”.