So let's look back on the day that was:
- Coalition leader Tony Abbott is continuing to demand that Labor respect his mandate (should he win Saturday's election) and allow him to repeal the carbon price;
- no fear, says Labor;
- this brings us back to the prospect that an Abbott led government would have to go to the polls again early in its term if it was unable to get enough support for its plans to wind back the carbon price;
- Liberal candidate Fiona Scott has blamed asylum seekers for Sydney's traffic congestion; and
- the Reserve Bank of Australia left interest rates on hold giving Labor another reason to talk about its record on economic management.
As always, thanks for your company and for making contributions.
Alex Ellinghausen and Andrew Meares will be back tomorrow but Judith Ireland will sit in for me while I have a day off. I will be back with you on Thursday for the last two days, polling day and the day after.
Until then, go well.
Coalition leader Tony Abbott tours a brickworks in Longford, Tasmania, on Tuesday. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen
The Age's economics editor, Tim Colebatch, has written this piece about how things might look after Saturday should Coalition leader Tony Abbott become prime minister.
"It is not clear what the Coalitoin's plans are, apart from ending the carbon tax and mining tax and stopping the boats," Tim writes.
"We know that new Coalition governments always tell us the budget is in worse shape than Labor said, and that they will have to make cuts they did not announce in the campaign so we can get back to surplus. In this case it might be true, particularly if Joe Hockey takes the sensible step of telling Treasury to use forecasts rather than projections for growth beyond the next two years."
And that's it for Mr Rudd who has to get to Melbourne.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd speaks to the media in Launceston on Tuesday. Photo: Andrew Meares
Mr Rudd is speaking about the Reserve Bank of Australia's decision to keep interest rates on hold.
"It is good news for Australians who are paying off their mortgages and for small business operators too," Mr Rudd says.
Interest rates are at 60 year lows, Mr Rudd says, which is "a very important consideration when you look at overall cost of living issues".
"If you listened to [the Coalition] and you'd walked off planet Mars you'd think the economy was going to fall over tomorrow lunch time," Mr Rudd says.
Mr Rudd says low interest rates, strong economic growth and low unemployment are not economic credentials that should be risked by voting for the Coalition.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd speaks to the media in Launceston on Tuesday. Photo: Andrew Meares
Nearly one million people - 953,941 - people have already voted, according to the latest figures from the Australian Electoral Commission.
That's an awful lot of people who will be away/working/in hospital on Saturday.
If you need to find out where your nearest pre polling station is you can click here.
Time to do my usual "pointing you in the direction of things I should have pointed out earlier' routine.
Economics writer Matt Wade has this report on the gender pay gay. New government figures show that it is now 17.5 per cent which means the average full time female worker earns $266.20 less each week than the average full time male worker (that's an annual difference of $13,842).
(I haven't heard anything from either of the major parties about this today which is weird because I would have thought someone would have linked to the debate over paid parental leave.)
Moving along to matters environmental.
Fairfax Media's Hobart correspondent, Andrew Darby, has written this piece about the Coalition's push for the third ever World Heritage listing reversal.
The Age's environment editor, Tom Arup, looks at Labor's desire to claim federal oversight of national parks should it retain office on Saturday.
Labor leader Kevin Rudd at the simulator and clinical information centre at the University of Tasmania in Launceston on Tuesday. Photo: Andrew Meares
Way back at 9.39 am I directed you to the Fairfax/Nielsen results for an opinion poll that was conducted in Queensland.
I now have a video in which Nielsen's John Stirton decodes the figures.
Poll washout in Sunshine state
Nielsen's John Stirton decodes the latest poll figures from Queensland. Labor hoped to gain momentum up North, but the numbers are heading South.
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People familiar with the minor party fringe might remember the ultra nationalist party Rise Up Australia which wants to fight the "Islamification" of Australia and "keep Australia for Australians".
Its leader, Danny Nalliah, is anti abortion and anti same sex marriage. He once conducted an exorcism on Canberra's Mount Ainslie and also blamed Victoria's Black Saturday bushfires on the State Parliament's decision to end the decriminalisation of abortion.
Despite this, Labor is preferencing the party in its top four on how to vote cards in one in five of the 77 House of Representatives seats in which Rise Up is running candidates.
The Reserve Bank of Australia has announced that interest rates will be left on hold leaving the official cash rate at 2.5 per cent.
Economics correspondent Peter Martin explains why in this video.
No rate cut
The Reserve Bank has kept interest rates on hold, leaving the official rate at 2.5 per cent. Peter Martin explains why.
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Wonder what it's like inside the office of politician trying to hang on to his/her seat?
The Age's state political reporter, Richard Willingham, poked his nose inside the south east Melbourne office of Attorney General Mark Dreyfus.
"The virtues of Kevin Rudd are not bellowed down the phone, rather the volunteers are asking people what issues concern them," Richard writes.
"For the past months, the scene has been replicated in dozens of seats in Victoria as Labor embarks on a new style of campaigning in the state."
In today's Fact Checker/PolitiFact instalment the team looks at Labor leader Kevin Rudd's claim on Monday that there were "multiple state elections in recent times when people have come from behind in the last week and they've come from much further behind than we are".
What did they find? You'll have to click here to find out.
Or you could watch the video in which economics correspondent Peter Martin explains his findings.
Comeback kidding?
Kevin Rudd says political parties have been further back in the opinion polls than Labor is now and still won in multiple state elections. Peter Martin fact checks the claim.
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Team Rudd was on its way to Launceston airport when the bus turned around and headed back into town. This is so that Labor leader Kevin Rudd can be on hand to give a rapid response to the Reserve Bank of Australia's interest rate decision (due at 2.30 pm).
But this raises the prospect of Team Rudd clashing with Team Abbott which has just left Adelaide bound for Launceston.
Carl the simulator patient was on hand for Kevin Rudd's visits to the University of Tasmania in Launceston on Tuesday. Photo: Andrew Meares
Now - closing statements from both men.
Mr Burke: "The goal posts have shifted day after day in terms of the political debate. What hasn't shifted one iota is a policy that will work."
Mr Morrison: "You cannot reward a government that is the guilty party for this level of failure....This government, on borders, deserves to go."
And that's it for the immigration debate.
(Greens leader Christine Milne will address the National Press Club tomorrow. Labor leader Kevin Rudd will have his turn on Thursday.)
Both are asked by a school student how their parties live up to the Christian ideal of compassion.
Mr Morrison: "You need to deliver on the [United Nations] Convention but you also have to make sure that your compassion is genuine for all the parts of your policy."
Mr Burke: "These places we have [under the refugee program] are the most precious gifts of life you can give someone."
Both are asked if they have any regrets about their parties' actions over the past six years.
Mr Morrison: "I haven't been convincing enough to get the government to move earlier in these areas....This portfolio is difficult. Engaging in this policy is like walking on a razor blade most days."
Mr Burke regrets Labor's actions in 2009 when there were big changes in Sri Lanka, Iraq and Afghanistan and policy should have been changed to to respond to the "new pipeline".
Mr Morrison is asked why he continues to describe people who arrive by boat as "illegal".
Mr Morrison says: "I have always referred to illegal entry."
Mr Burke says "the motivation behind the use of language is fundamentally different".
"The use of the term 'illegality' or 'illegals' is an attempt by the Liberal Party to politicise, and dare I say, demonise," Mr Burke says.
"You will never find a member of my party standing up and complaining about an 8 year old child attending a funeral."
Both men are asked if they agree with Liberal candidate Fiona Scott who said asylum seekers were responsible for traffic congestion in western Sydney (see 11.04 am post).
Mr Morrison: "We've had 50,000 people show up under the government's policy....The area that concerns me is the stress that's putting on local resettlement services....People are being, quite frankly, dumped into the community."
Mr Burke: "The answer to your question is no. The comments, I think, would rate as some of the silliest of the campaign were it not for Scott's comments about boat buybacks."
Mr Morrison is asked what he will do when the first boat arrives if he is minister after Saturday.
"People would be transferred through a transit port directly to Manus Island or Nauru," he says.
"In terms of the tactics at sea that's a matter for border protection command....The people smugglers will encounter our tactics at sea and on land."
Mr Burke says: "At no point then did Scott Morrison say we would turn back the boat....I believe a lot of these comments they come out with work in the political cycle of the day but do not work out over time."
"You may not know when the first boat arrives," Mr Burke says, "because they have taken that off the table".
Mr Morrison will not commit a Coalition government to publicly announcing each boat arrival (as happens now).
"Those decisions shouldn't be in the hands of politicians," Mr Morrison says.
Mr Morrison offers one the great truisms of Australian political life: "As I'm sure Tony will agree there's not too many people trying to get our jobs on either side of the political fence."
Now both men are taking questions.
If you lose on Saturday, will you let the other side implement its policy?
Mr Burke: "No matter what happens in the election you will never find me....trying to send a message out to people smugglers saying it's okay to come."
Mr Morrison: "We will always hold the government to account. We will always be consistent."
(So that's a no from both then.)
My apologies that this means I missed Mr Burke's opening statement (it was Kevin Rudd's fault).
Mr Morrison is giving his opening statement.
"Costs, chaos and tragedy is the price of the decision by Kevin Rudd to abolish the policies of the Howard government," Mr Morrison says.
"No government should ever be allowed to fail this badly with such tragic consequences."
Mr Rudd has finished and I'm switching to the immigration debate between the Immigration Minister Tony Burke and his Coalition counterpart Scott Morrison.
Just fyi - I am sticking with Mr Rudd's press conference. When he finishes I will go straight to the immigration debate at the National Press Club.
Back on climate change and Mr Rudd is now refusing to talk about what Labor might do on carbon pricing should the Coalition win office on Saturday.
"I'm not going into hypotheticals....We're in it to win it," Mr Rudd says.
He then refuses to answer consecutive questions along the same lines on the grounds that he will no deal with "infinite hypotheticals".
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd at the University of Tasmania in Launceston on Tuesday. Photo: Andrew Meares
Mr Rudd says life will change after Saturday if the Coalition is elected.
"Don't think next week will be the same as this week. Don't think next year will be the same as this year," Mr Rudd warns.
Mr Rudd is now speaking to the media in Launceston, Tasmania.
He is not giving an inch on Labor's post election approach to carbon pricing.
"Carbon pricing is fundamental to how you deal with climate change," Mr Rudd says.
"Any other approach is intellectually dishonest."
And here's the Coalition's campaign spokesman, Mathias Cormann, repeating the Coalition's inclination for another election if its plans to repeal the carbon price are unsuccessful.
Double dissolution on the table
Shadow assistant treasurer Mathias Cormann says the Coalition is confident their Direct Action policy will reduce emissions by 5%, but is willing to go to a fresh poll if Labor blocks the carbon tax repeal.
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Coalition leader Tony Abbott is double daring Labor about its position on the carbon price after the election (see 10.18 am post).
"I am absolutely confident that a Labor Party that has just lost an election....will run a million miles away from this toxic tax," Mr Abbott says.
"The last thing the Labor Party will do is commit political suicide twice by continuing to support this toxic tax."
(It's an interesting tactic this one. Mr Abbott has promised to have a double dissolution election if Parliament does not support his plan to wind back the carbon price. This would mean an election early on in his - still hypothetical - first term. But Mr Abbott has also been promising stable government. Mr Abbott is setting up Labor to take the blame for forcing him to call another election.)
What next for Kevin Rudd?
Political strategists Jannette Cotterell and Greg Turnbull ponder the question in this video interview with online political editor Tim Lester.
What next for Kevin?
Strategists Jannette Cotterell and Greg Turnbull discuss what Kevin Rudd might do next as hopes of a Labor victory fade.
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So far this campaign has been pretty protest free. It's one of the reasons why neither of the major parties gives any advance warning about where they are going.
So points to the enterprising climate protesters who managed to track down Coalition leader Tony Abbott this morning (although my favourite protester of the campaign is still Nemo).
Protestors wait for Coalition leader Tony Abbott at Penrice Soda Holdings in Port Adelaide on Tuesday. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen
Four sleeps to go.
Coalition leader Tony Abbott during his visit to Penrice Soda Holdings in Port Adelaide on Tuesday. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen
South Australian independent Senator Nick Xenophon has hit upon a sure vote winner.
Senator Xenophon - who is up for re election on Saturday - wants to move an amendment to the laws that prevent parliamentary proceedings from being used for humorous purposes.
"Under the [Parliamentary Proceedings Broadcasting Act 1946] the Joint Committee on the Broadcasting of Parliamentary Proceedings can impose conditions under which proceedings can be rebroadcast or excerpts used," Senator Xenophon said.
"Under the current rules programs such as The Chaser, The Project and Gruen Nation are banned from using images of parliamentary sittings for the purposes of satire or ridicule. They don't have anachronistic laws like this in the US but they probably do in Kazakhstan. Pollies do and say stupid things all the time in Parliament - me included - we shouldn't have a special legal protection from being sent up."
(Personally I'd like a law that stops the same shows from using the magical images captured by Andrew Meares, Alex Ellinghausen and other photographers without attribution but we all know it's not a perfect world.)
Meanwhile, a Palmer United Party candidate who lives in Townsville admits that he had never been to the electorate he is contesting in Victoria. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Bradley Ferguson, who wants people to elect him to the Victorian seat of Wannon, told ABC local radio it was a "fair question" about his principal place of residence.
Democracy and free speech are great and we all complain about politicians being too bound by the party line but sometimes, well, the old saying about thinking before you speak wouldn't go astray.
Fiona Scott, the Liberal candidate for the Sydney seat of Lindsay, told the ABC's 4 Corners program last night that the reason immigration was such a big issue was because "our traffic is overcrowded".
"Go sit on the M4, people see 50,000 people come in by boat - that's more than twice the population of [the suburb of] Glenmore," Ms Scott said.
You can read more about Ms Scott's comments here.
"You guys don't have to break the habit of a lifetime and love the Coalition," Mr Abbott says.
Coalition leader Tony Abbott during his visit to Penrice Soda Holdings in Port Adelaide on Tuesday. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen
Coalition leader Tony Abbott is speaking in Osborne, Adelaide.
"I can't wave a magic wand and make tough markets easy markets [but] I will do everything I humanly can to make sure the environment the government creates is as easy as possible for businesses like this to survive and, hopefully, to expand and flourish," Mr Abbott says.
"I regard myself as a conservationist...[But] what one Parliament has done another Parliament can undo."
The carbon price is hurting, Mr Abbott says, but "this tax will be gone" under a Coalition government.
What a re-election pitch!
Proud to have had all my printed election material printed here on the Central Coast. No other candidate can claim this #proudlylocal
— Craig Thomson (@DobellThommo) September 3, 2013
So what do you think (see 10.18am post)? Should an Abbott government increase funding for its direct action climate policy if it fails to meet the pledged emission reduction target?
You can have your say in our online readers' poll which you can find here.
Wag the dog.
A Tasmanian quarantine dog checks the media covering Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on arrival in Launceston, Tasmania. Photo: Andrew Meares
Meanwhile, Coalition leader Tony Abbott has acknowledged for the first time that his $3.2 billion "direct action" carbon abatement policy may not reach its promised 5 per cent cut in emissions by 2020 and will not be strengthened with extra money.
In his speech to the National Press Club yesterday Mr Abbott ramped up the pressure on Labor not to stand in his way to dismantle the carbon price should he win government on Saturday.
But Labor has signalled it would try to stymie Mr Abbott's plan, which could mean Australians face another election early in the Coalition's first term of government.
Both Labor leader Kevin Rudd and Climate Change Minister Mark Butler dismissed Mr Abbott's argument that Labor would have to abide by any "mandate" the Coalition had to repeal the carbon price.
Breaking news reporter Jonathan Swan has more.
The Age environment editor, Tom Arup, also filed this analysis piece on what it would mean should Australia abandon its commitment to the 5 per cent greenhouse gas emissions reduction target.
It's lite (milk) with one, thanks.
Coalition leader Tony Abbott meets with Kathy Carey and her children Matthew Carey and Gracie Carey in Adelaide on Tuesday. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen
Remember when one of the reasons to replace Julia Gillard as prime minister was that Kevin Rudd would do better in Queensland?
A Fairfax/Nielsen poll shows Mr Rudd has failed to lift the party's fortunes with more voters now trusting Coalition leader Tony Abbott than Mr Rudd.
The polling is particularly interesting when you look at what people are saying about the minor parties. It shows billionaire Clive Palmer's Palmer United Party is polling as strongly as the Greens - both are on 8 per cent. This would give the PUP a chance of a Senate spot.
It also puts the PUP in the box seat - along with Katter's Australian Party - to decide the outcome in some close seats because of the flow of preferences.
Chief political correspondent Mark Kenny has the full story.
"I've got my brick so no one ever gives me any trouble," Liberal MP Christopher Pyne said as he left a constituent's house in Adelaide.
Liberal MP Christopher Pyne departs after a visit to a home in Adelaide on Tuesday. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen
Of all the cars I imagine Coalition frontbencher Christopher Pyne driving around in, a ute is not the first one that springs to mind. But, clearly, I had him incorrectly pigeonholed.
Liberal MP Christopher Pyne departs from a visit to a home in Adelaide on Tuesday. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen
So there I was making a cup of tea and all these blokes just walked in.
Deb Schmusch makes a cup of tea for Coalition leader Tony Abbott during his visit to her home in Adelaide on Tuesday. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen
Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work we go.
Team Rudd has just arrived in Tasmania while Team Abbott is campaigning in Adelaide.
A reminder that I will bring you the debate between Immigration Minister Tony Burke and his Coalition counterpart Scott Morrison from the National Press Club in Canberra from 12.30pm.
(And a further reminder that Greens leader Christine Milne will address the same venue tomorrow followed by Labor leader Kevin Rudd on Thursday. )
The media covering Labor leader Kevin Rudd prepare to leave Brisbane on Tuesday. Photo: Andrew Meares
Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of the federal election campaign.
It's a pleasure to have you with us as Andrew Meares, Alex Ellinghausen and I take you through the day.
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