In a nutshell

Today is the beginning of the business end of the campaign, with the opposition leader, Bill Shorten, starting to unveil his party’s spending priorities, and the prime minister, Scott Morrison, attacking Labor for how the party will pay for them. Expect this to be the theme of the next 19 days as we inch closer to polling day: spend, spend, spend v tax, tax, tax. Both sides will be focused on Labor’s policy agenda because, quite frankly, the Liberals’ small target strategy leaves their policy cupboard somewhat bereft.

Labor’s $4bn childcare announcement on Sunday, which commits to free or almost free childcare for almost a million low-income families, was designed to get people to pay attention to what has been a lacklustre campaign so far. Pre-polling started on Monday and so now is the time to roll out the big guns. Childcare costs are a massive cost of living concern for families and the policy could see families save about $2,000 a year.

The announcement was dovetailed with a pledge to fund a pay increase of 20% over eight years for early education workers, costing $537m across the forward estimates.

For the Coalition’s part, Morrison was announcing a $1bn investment in shipbuilding, pledging to build two minesweepers and a hydrographic vessel in Perth in the mid-2020s.

In response to Labor’s big ticket childcare announcement, Morrison responded by saying the “big subsidy” could push prices up, and turned to the opposition’s economic credibility.

“Bill Shorten is spending like there is no tomorrow,” he said. “They have learned nothing while they have been in opposition and, if they get back into government, you can expect them to spend, spend, spend and you’ll pay for it.”

Both leaders were in the wild west ahead of Monday night’s debate between Shorten and Morrison – the first time a leadership head-to-head has taken place in Perth during an election campaign.

Elsewhere on the trail

Clive Palmer, who’s busy buying his way into parliament with a $30m advertising blitz (and counting), decided to dish the dirt on preference negotiations, revealing he spoke to Labor before finally sealing a deal with the Libs. But speaking in Brisbane, Palmer said he believed he could actually win the election and took aim at the media for assuming “our democracy won’t allow this to happen”. And, in true Palmer style, he then refused to answer any questions. We have tasted this crazy flavour before, friends.

The big picture

Shorten picked the children’s classic The Very Hungry Caterpillar to read at a childcare centre in Perth on Monday. Morrison used the image to accuse Labor of “chomping into your wallet”.

Bill Shorten reads to children at the Goodstart early learning childcare centre in Nollamara. Photograph: Darren England/AAP

Required reading

Amid the debate over funding commitments, it is worth keeping an eye on spending promises. This spendometer from the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age suggests the Coalition is slightly ahead of Labor, committing $55bn compared with Labor’s $52bn so far, with still three weeks to go. This piece on the electorate of Farrer, written by Guardian Australia’s Gabrielle Chan, is well worth your time. The seat, held by the Liberals’ Sussan Ley on a 20.5% margin, could well be in play on election night given the depth of community anger over water management.

Tweet of the day

This was awkward. After spruiking polling in the seat of Curtin where Louise Stewart is running as an independent, the whole thing turned out to be fabricated. A trap for young players.

I’ve been made aware today that a purported poll conducted in Curtin appears not to have been done by Reachtel. I’m working with Reachtel to determine the origins of the poll, which was passed to our campaign by a third party. — Louise Stewart (@1LouiseStewart) April 28, 2019

Federal Election 2019: Liberal Party’s blue-ribbon seat of Curtin ‘hanging by thread’, according to new poll https://t.co/hPZ9lM9NZV — Louise Stewart (@1LouiseStewart) April 27, 2019

What next?

Both leaders will be in Perth tomorrow, where five government-held seats are in Labor’s sights. There will no doubt be visits to the marginal seats of Hasluck, Swan and Pearce, but also keep an eye on any visits to the safer seat of Stirling, which the Liberals are worried about. Cowan, Labor’s most marginal seat, is also one to watch. The government is hoping to wrest the outer metro Perth seat held by Labor’s Anne Aly back to its side of the ledger.

