In the final episode before the election, politicians battle it out over Newstart rate, climate change and housing policy

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

News Corp Australia has triggered a rare moment of unity in the fractious 2019 federal election. Representatives from the Liberals to the Greens, appearing on Monday night’s Q&A on the ABC, hopped into the media giant over its coverage of Bill Shorten and his speech referencing his mother’s life story.

First homebuyers' scheme: who gets it and will it work? – explainer Read more

Last week the Daily Telegraph criticised Shorten on its front page for what it said was a deliberate omission that she had become a barrister late in life. The Labor leader had spoken on Q&A about how his mother, Ann, had been thwarted in her early ambition to study law and instead took a teaching scholarship.

The Liberal’s campaign spokesman, Simon Birmingham, said the story “should not have been written and should not have been published”.

“Bill dealt with it,” he said. “Scott dealt with it. I think in terms of media commentary and the way the media runs, Australia’s a country with a free media, [people] are free to choose not to read a newspaper that they think is biased, just as they’re free not to watch a television program that they think is biased.”

But the Greens leader, Richard Di Natale, went a step further. “News Corp is a malignant influence on our democracy,” he said to applause.

ABC Q&A (@QandA) How would a Labor government handle a hostile Murdoch press intent on undermining its policies? #QandA pic.twitter.com/bx0YTS4iiW

“They’re not a media outlet. They’re the propaganda arm of the hard right of the Liberal party and becoming increasingly hysterical. They incubate hate. And the question really is what do we do about it?”

His answer? To strengthen the regulator and give more money to the ABC, a move predictably greeted by applause from the ABC audience.

But most of the last Q&A before this weekend’s federal election was taken up with a largely respectful debate about climate change and whether the Coalition had done enough to reverse global warming, which Di Natale said was putting the human race in danger.

Birmingham insisted that the Coalition would meet or exceed the Kyoto targets that Australia signed up to.

Labor’s deputy leader, Tanya Plibersek, emphasised the need to take “real action” towards the international commitments on climate change. “We have said we will have a climate change ambassador who would work with the South Pacific in particular,” she said.

Helen Haines, the independent standing in the Victorian seat of Indi, linked it to the problems of the Murray-Darling basin and said rural people were prepared to make sacrifices to achieve a transition to an economy that addressed climate change.

Di Natale predicted that the Greens candidate Julian Burnside would win in the plum Liberal seat of Kooyong because the Liberal vote had collapsed.

“The PM of the country brings a lump of coal into the parliament and waves it around,” he said. “It was an embarrassment. An international embarrassment.

“And the Liberal party, you vote for the Liberal party, you’re voting for the destruction of the Great Barrier Reef, the collapse of the Murray-Darling basin, more floods and more fires.”

ABC Q&A (@QandA) What will the panel do to address the impact of climate change and water scarcity, particularly in rural areas? #QandA pic.twitter.com/bbXvZCevH6

He also said the Greens were closing in on Higgins and could snatch it from the Liberals.

The program canvassed how the Liberals’ policy to lower first homebuyers’ deposits to 5% would work.

“The government will be a mortgage insurer?” asked Tony Jones, the presenter.

“Essentially. That’s right,” Birmingham replied.

“It’s about making sure rather than young people having to spend years extra paying rent and trying to still save, they’re able to get that first rung on the ladder of owning a home. They’re able to start paying their mortgage rather than paying rent. And build equity in their property. It sits alongside other things that we have done as a government, such as the utilisation of superannuation accounts.”

Labor has immediately said it would match the policy, though it is now coming in for criticism from economists who warn that the plan could potentially push up house prices and trap young homebuyers with unsupportable levels of debt and negative equity should the housing market continue to fall.

Birmingham said it would be up to the banks to ensure people did not get in over their heads. “In the end the same standards apply that banks are currently applying in terms of analysing the income, spending, saving habits and value of the property somebody is purchasing,” he said.

“It’s about bringing forward that transaction potentially by years which can make a huge difference for young people.”

Birmingham appeared to acknowledge that no modelling had been done before the policy was announced but said the government “had looked at the lived experience of NZ, which has had the policy in place for 10 years.”

Plibersek said Labor was supporting it because it would make a modest difference to first homebuyers. But she said Labor’s policies on abolishing negative gearing on future investments in existing property would have the biggest impact on levelling the playing field for them.

“Joe Hockey said get a better job,” she said. “Malcolm Turnbull said get rich parents and now, six days out from an election, Scott Morrison says, ‘I’ve got all the answers with this new scheme.’”

First homebuyers' scheme: who gets it and will it work? – explainer Read more

Only the Greens said they saw risks in the policy. Di Natale agreed with Labor that negative gearing was the real issue but warned the low deposit measure could lead young people into taking loans they could not afford.

“It’s not a sensible idea and I am disappointed that Labor has backed it in,” he said.

The representatives of both major parties also struggled with questions about Newstart.

Plibersek acknowledged in response to an audience question that she could not live on $39 a day and said Labor would review the payment.

But Birmingham accused Labor of trying to give impression it would increase Newstart when it hadn’t actually budgeted for it. “You sound like you’re in opposition,” Jones said as he pressed for Birmingham to say what the Coalition would do.

Di Natale drew wild applause when he said: “It is completely unacceptable in a county like Australia.”

Haines agreed and promised that if elected she would work from the crossbenches to address the level of Newstart.