Federal Election 2019: day 2 Labor focuses on health, Coalition on tax costings

Another great day of election campaigning is behind us. Only 34 more full days to go...

Today, the main thrust from the Coalition was around apparent Treasury costings of Labor's tax policies, which they claimed would cost the Australian people $387 billion. The Prime Minister stuck to his plan, always bringing things back to the Liberal Party's economic record, their budget surplus and their conservative fiscal management.

Opposition leader Bill Shorten's tactic was different. His focus was on announcements, the future and positivity, as he outlined in his election pitch yesterday. He wouldn't be drawn too much into the tax costings conversation, preferring to talk about his plan to tackle cancer.

Already on the first full day's campaigning the difference in styles is very noticeable.

The oddest moment of today was the Prime Minister admitting that he played Back In Black by AC/DC to rev up Josh Frydenberg before his budget speech.

Here are some must read stories from the day, have a great weekend:

This is how the coalition can win.

Scott Morrison's media treatment shows his dark side.

Inside Morrison's bid to cling to power

Greens Senator Rachel Siewert says it is refreshing Newstart is on the election agenda, for the first time in over a decade of campaigning for an increase to it.

"At long last the dire poverty that people on Newstart are condemned to live in is being recognised, now it must be turned into action," she said.

Opposition leader Bill Shorten today said in his midday press conference that he thought Newstart should increase.

"The major parties need to get on board with the community, economists and the social services sector and commit to raising the rate of Newstart as a priority after the election," says Ms Siewert.

Forget the niceties that were the hallmark of the Coalition's laborious eight-week, 2016 election campaign, writes the AFR's Phillip Coorey.

He thinks this 5 week campaign could be one of the meanest ever.

Read the full story here.

Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen has just released a letter to the media that he has received from secretary to the Treasury Philip Gaetjens.

It is in regards to the Coalition's claims this morning that official Treasury costings showed the cost of Labor's proposed tax policies would be $387 billion.

Mr Gaetjens says Treasury received requests from the Treasurer's office outlining a number of policies to be costed and supplying the details and speicfications. Treasury did so and provided the costings to the Tresurer's office prior to the commencement of the caretaker period.

"In providing specific costings to the Government at its request, Treasury advised that they were all costed on a standalone basis but with interactions between the individual proposals not taken into account. For this reason we did not provide a total." Mr Gaetjens writes.

He writes that if the Government requests costings, Treasury will seek to do what is asked, however he notes they were not asked to cost another party's policies, it was a generic request.

"We were not asked to cost another party's policies and would not do so if the request was made specifically to 'cost Party X's policy'".

Mr Gaetjens maintains Treasury conducted itself to the "highest standard and in the same manner as when requests were made by previous governments".

The Australian Financial Review's senior correspondent Aaron Patrick with a great piece analysing how Scott Morrison's professional history in advertising has come into play early in the campaign.

He writes:

Even when he finally decided to call the election that will likely terminate five-and-a-half troubled years of Coalition power, the government of Prime Minister Scott Morrison couldn't help playing favourites.

As Morrison made his way in a two-car convoy through Canberra's spacious streets on Thursday morning to advise Governor-General Peter Cosgrove to dissolve the House of Representatives, newspapers from Hobart to Townsville already had the news.

"It's on," Murdoch Family papers written the night before confidently declared.

How the story got out isn't clear. But if the announcement of an election - an event integral to human freedom - became just another opportunity to reward or punish certain media outlets, voters might have questioned Morrison's sincerity when he informed the rest of the country the election would be held May 18.

Read the full story here.

On Thursday evening the old Hawthorn Town Hall building on Burwood Road became a den of climate lions - led by aggressive, high profile rival candidates Oliver Yates and Julian Burnside - and Josh Frydenberg had no option but to roll with the punches.

The Treasurer and federal MP for the traditionally safe Liberal seat of Kooyong shouldn't be in any danger - he won by 12.8 per cent in 2016. But this time he faces a concerted attack on at least three fronts and has to shore up the vote anywhere he can, even if it meant putting up with his "moral compass" and the Morrison government's climate and energy credentials coming under fire.

Yates, recently resigned dissident member of the local branch of the Liberals and former chief executive of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation - a federal green bank which the government tried unsuccessfully to close under Tony Abbott - didn't mince words about Frydenberg's record as energy and environment minister from 2015 until last August's Liberal party coup.

"With the greatest respect to our hardworking current member for Kooyong, I do question his moral compass because it seems to spin between pleasing big donors and internal factions whilst sacrificing your future to protect his own," Yates said to rousing applause from the audience of about 600 at the Kooyong candidates' climate forum organised by local group Lighter Footprints.

Frydenberg isn't in grave danger of losing Kooyong, which embraces leafy inner to middle suburbs Hawthorn, Kew, Balwyn, Canterbury, Camberwell, Surrey Hills and Mont Albert. He is a $1.20 favourite on Sportsbet.com.au from the Greens' Burnside at $4.40, Labor's Jana Stewart at $12 and Yates at $31.

Still, local Liberals aren't leaving anything to chance with the man who could be their leader if thy loses the May 18 general election badly, which means the prodigious fundraising of Frydenberg supporters such as Rich Lister Solomon Lew will not spill over into imperilled neighbouring seats - such as Chisholm and Deakin - as much as in past elections.

All day we have heard from the Coalition about the treasury costings they dropped yesterday, showing Labor's proposed taxes will cost $387 billion.

However, The Australian Financial Review's chief political correspondent Phillip Coorey says the figure is exaggerated.

Read his analysis here.

Both leaders are in western Sydney today.

So now is a good time for a quick look at the marginal seats they will be fighting over.

Check out our graphic below.

John Kehoe with a great piece on what is going on between the parties and Treasury, after the government's release this morning of official costings of Labor's tax policies...

Labor is pressuring Treasury to disclose any role it had in estimating that a Bill Shorten government would impose $387 billion in higher taxes on the economy, as the professional future of secretary Philip Gaetjens hangs by a thread.

Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen is furious the Morrison government released analysis claiming to be Treasury modelling on Labor's tax increases that showed the tax-to-GDP ratio would be 25.9 per cent by 2029-30, the highest in history.

It is understood Labor contacted Treasury and the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet on Friday morning seeking confirmation or denial that Treasury was involved in costing the Opposition's policies.

The public service is now in caretaker mode and independent of government.

Read the full story here.

One of the tax changes the opposition leader has been touting all day is stopping people claiming accounting fees on tax.

He calls it a rort that must be shut down and only benefits the wealthy.

"One of the rorts we want to shut down, did you know that if you want to deduct millions off your tax, you get your accountant to do it. Did you know you can also claim as a tax deduction the hundreds of thousands dollars you give to your accountant to deduct millions out of the tax system, you can even claim what you pay the Government as a tax deduction," Mr Shorten said earlier today.

Mr Shorten went on to claim that in not shutting down this deduction, the Coalition is defending the wealthy.

"Why on earth is this Government defending the ability of the super wealthy to pay their accountants, to minimise their tax and then even claim the cost to pay their accountants."

"It is a sweet deal, but it has got to stop, this nation can't just keep funnelling money out of the top end when we have got waiting lists in our hospitals, massive out of pockets for people who have been diagnosed with cancer. It's about priorities, I'm for middle- and working-class people."