On the Australian election trail it was supposed to be a day about tax with the Coalition attacking Labor – but the home affairs minister had other ideas

Hello, and welcome back to the campaign catchup – our take on the good, bad and ugly of the election trail. (PS: only 35 days more of this.)

In a nutshell

It was the first full day of election campaigning, and the Coalition was hoping to seize the agenda by talking about Labor’s $387bn “tax hit on the economy”. Scott Morrison was up bright and early and got his message out. But the thought of the day met some interference from he-who-would-like-to-smile-more, Peter Dutton, who thought it might be a good idea to attack his Labor opponent in Dickson, Ali France.

The government’s opening salvo on the first full day of campaigning was the release of what it said was Treasury modelling of Labor’s tax plan. (Just for the record, Treasury later said it sort of was, and sort of wasn’t.) Morrison described it as “Bill Shorten’s plan is to increase the tax burden on Australians by $387bn over the next decade” and declared “because Bill Shorten and Chris Bowen can’t manage money, they’re going to come after yours”.

Labor began hitting back last night, accusing the government of “politicising” Treasury (despite Wayne Swan having previously done the same thing) and of “lying” about tax increases by including measures the government itself is yet to legislate, namely the second and third stages of the Coalition’s tax plan, which Labor opposes.

“This government is lying about taxes,” Bill Shorten said. The government was about “unsustainable subsidies and rorts and looking after the top end of town” and when Labor wound back some of the largesse the government attacked it for increasing taxes.

And then, late in the day, Treasury “clarified” the use of its numbers, with its secretary, Philip Gaetjens, writing in response to Chris Bowen’s queries that it did not cost Labor’s policies per se, but looked at a bunch of numbers the government sent it. “We were not asked to cost another party’s policies and would not do so … ”

Play Video 1:59 Federal election week one roundup: Coalition short-circuits over electric cars – video

The letter then went a bit further and distanced itself from that $387bn figure the government has been claiming, saying, “We did not provide a total.” Which takes a lot of the sting out of the government’s attack and gives Labor an opening to hit straight back. Which it did.

Not that the government got too much clear air with its tax attack anyway, thanks to would-be-prime-minister Dutton, who decided today would be a great day to observe that his Labor opponent in the seat of Dickson, disability advocate and amputee Ali France, was using her disability as “an excuse” to not move to the electorate. Not that he was saying that of course – he was just reporting a concern he had heard from people in his electorate. It went as well as you would expect.

France, who lost her leg shielding her young child from an out of control car in a shopping centre carpark lives about two kilometres outside the Dickson electorate border and works in the seat. She has said she could not find wheelchair-accessible accommodation in Dickson, but would buy a home in the electorate and modify it to her needs if she won. Dutton’s phrasing was blasted by Labor and the Greens and disability advocates. Shorten called the comments “disgusting”.

Morrison defended Dutton and said he believed the comments had been “taken out of context”, while other government MPs said Dutton was just articulating the concerns of his electorate. Dutton resisted calls to apologise, and instead doubled down.

It’s going to be a looooong, long 35 days.

Elsewhere on the trail

Both leaders stayed in Sydney today, with Shorten hitting up Reid and Bennelong (both seats Labor is hoping to take from the Liberals) and Morrison visiting the western Sydney seat of Lindsay (which he hopes to take from Labor). Still in Sydney, Tony Abbott continued his “team Tony” campaign, but couldn’t stay away from the issue of climate, telling reporters the “so-called settled science is not quite as settled as people say. And that’s my position.” Meanwhile, his key challenger, Zali Steggall couldn’t say if she would support the Coalition in the event of a hung parliament, because of it’s climate policies.

The big picture

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Who needs the sun when you have hi-vis? Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

Required reading

The tax thing – what are the acts about Labor’s tax plan?

The unbearable madness of the electric car debate – in video

The miserable life of the reporter on the campaign trail – being snubbed by the prime minister

Tweet of the day

Phoebe Bowden (@PhoebeBowden) The start of @ScottMorrisonMP’s campaign with the media involved a lot is high vis, but nothing high risk.. visits to two businesses and a road.. not really pressing the flesh with the people. #AUSVote2019 #auspol pic.twitter.com/HTQdyqbdtk

What next?

Both campaigns have stayed pretty close to home so far, taking in seats not too far from the leaders’ respective electorates. The weekend should see them stray further afield, with a few pretty packed days before hostilities are paused for Good Friday and the coming Easter weekend.