Here’s All The Shit That Happened On Day 6 Of The Federal Election Campaign

The day started with whip-wieldin’, God-fearin’ MP George Christensen, who had his busy travel schedule under the microscope again.

The Nationals MP has been criticised in the past for his trips to the Philippines. Last year News Corp revealed he had spent 294 days in the Phillipines between 2014-18, a figure the senator attributed to general church shit and also his new partner, who lives in the country.

The scoop today was that Christensen had spent more than $3000 in taxpayer coin to subsidise his own trips, using the money to fly between Canberra, other capital cities, and the Philippines.

In response, Christensen referred his own expenses for review – and then he got royally owned on Twitter after someone found his tweet lambasting other MPs for billing holidays on the taxpayer.

A message he sent… while in the Phillipines. Christensen has since deleted the tweet.

Overnight, Peter Dutton said his electoral opponent Ali France was ashamed to be Australian, which could be a hamfisted attempt at making people forget that he said she was using her disability as an excuse just a few days ago. Neither of the statements really scream vote winner. Kicking lots of goals up north, Peter!

The early rumours predict the battle for Dutton’s seat of Dickson is going to be very, very close.

Bill Shorten tried his best to put out a fire, telling ABC Radio Perth that he didn’t ask Melissa Parke to step down as Labor candidate for Curtin. Parke sensationally quit as a candidate for Julie Bishop’s old seat after she reportedly likened Israel’s treatment of Palestinians to apartheid.

“She has strong views,” said Shorten. “I like Melissa. It didn’t work out on this occasion.”

“I like my team and I think that politics is better suited when you say positive things rather than everyone piles on.”

Shorten, who was in Western Australia, spent the day again dodging questions over whether Labor will release a report on the economic impact of the party’s emissions reduction policy.

On wages, the opposition leader did say his party wouldn’t just be re-introducing penalty rates, but also cracking down on labour hire companies. This, said Shorten, would increase the minimum wage.

There was also chat about the very real issue of women in the workforce getting paid less and how Labor planned to fix this problem, but more info on that will come in the future. What a tease!

Suddenly, the day also became about websites: Bill Shorten’s site had overnight somehow lost sections on the party’s plan for superannuation and also negative gearing. Treasurer and Deputy Leader Josh Frydenberg couldn’t help but exploit that issue, and using his time to eagerly attack both Shorten and Shadow Treasurer Chris Bowen over the issue.

Meanwhile, Greens leader Richard Di Natale, like the rest of his party, tried to wrestle Labor into agreeing to stronger action on climate change. That angle wasn’t helped by Labor’s candidate for Canberra Alicia Payne, who chose not to attend an environment-focused election forum because she believed it was a stunt designed to wedge her party into facing tough questions on the Adani coal mine.

The Adani issue is a tough one for Labor, as the party tries to both win marginal seats in Queensland that would benefit from the mine, while also campaigning on climate.

Labor did make one aggressive move, with the five state and territory Labor Treasurers writing to ScoMo asking for urgent confirmation that a federal  surplus wont be built on cuts to hospitals, schools and infrastructure.

Not exactly rushing to reply to them, Scott Morrison had a fairly straight-forward day, sticking to the party’s policy lines on climate.

He also went to a carrot farm in Tasmania, I guess?

The High Court decided that a law that banned property developer donations to political parties was good and fine, ruling in favour of a Queensland state law that was introduced to crack down on corruption.

Oh and the sweaty boys at right-wing think tank the IPA called for a royal commission into the Bureau of Meteorology, which, honestly, might work out in ways they don’t anticipate. They also want to sell the ABC – very original!

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