Prime Minister Anthony Albanese campaigning in NSW Hunter region

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Australia's political leaders are campaigning for a sixth day today as they make their pitches to voters ahead of the federal election.

Transcript

00:00He's okay. As you can see, we're on the bus back from the Hunter region to Sydney now.

00:06He was speaking at a mining and energy union conference in the Hunter region, just sort

00:10of near Cessnock. He was, we should be able to show you some pictures. He was sort of

00:14positioning himself to take a photo and took a bit of a step back and there wasn't really

00:18much stage there to step onto. So he sort of slipped and fell. He jumped on ABC Newcastle

00:23Radio a short time later and said it wasn't a fall. It was just a misstep. But look, he

00:27did certainly bounce back pretty quickly. And apparently he is completely okay. He was

00:31talking to this union event about Labor's IR laws, in particular, the same job, same

00:36pay laws. This is where contractors are required to be paid the same as ordinary employees.

00:41It's something Labor wants to be talking about. Interestingly, the coalition has said they

00:45wouldn't repeal those laws were they to win government. So setting up a bit of an IR tussle

00:50there perhaps. Look, the Hunter region is an interesting one. It's interesting we've

00:54landed here because this is a bit of an electoral battleground too. That seat of the Hunter

00:58used to be a real sort of jewel in the Labor crown. It was an absolute heartland Labor

01:03seat, but it's become a much tighter contest, particularly with the nationals of the past

01:08couple of elections and Labor's working hard to try and hang on to that seat from this

01:13challenge from the coalition. It is a mining region, certainly a coal mining region and

01:18agricultural region too. The nationals would absolutely love to have it. But Labor, you

01:22know, seemingly out there campaigning, trying to hang on to that one because it's fairly

01:26critical to Labor's chances of holding on to government. The Prime Minister earlier

01:30was in the seat of Paterson, which is just nearby, sort of centred on the Port Stephens

01:35area. Speaking at the Maitland Hospital, announcing that a new, I think it had already been announced

01:40that a new urgent care clinic will be set up in Maitland. And the event was gate crashed

01:44by protesters, which is interesting. We've seen a bit of this campaign. Protesters popping

01:48up at Peter Dutton's events and now at Anthony Albanese's events too. Security's been a little

01:53bit of an issue in this campaign. It'll be interesting to see if that carries on for

01:57the next few weeks too. And what else has the PM been up to in the Hunter today? Yeah,

02:03look, so there was certainly that event in Paterson. Paterson's a particularly interesting

02:07seat too, because that's got the issue of offshore wind. There's an offshore wind farm

02:12proposed off the coast of sort of Port Stephens down to Newcastle. It's a bit of a sensitive

02:17issue in that part of the world. There's been significant protests about it. Labor

02:22indicating that it does support the offshore wind industry, but it's the local MP there,

02:26Meryl Swanson, questioned on this today. So the project has to stack up. So certainly

02:31leaving open some wiggle room and acknowledging the concerns of some locals in that area.

02:36It's interesting that we've landed in the Hunter at this point in the campaign. It might

02:39tell you something about what Labor's thinking about this part of the world. It certainly

02:43wants to hang onto these seats too. The other big theme of course today, Joe, has been tariffs.

02:48The Hunter is of course a trade exposed area. I'm not sure if it was, you know, that's the

02:52reason we went there today necessarily, but it was that much sort of forethought into

02:55it. But it has been the dominant news issue of today. You'd have to say the PM appearing

03:00in Melbourne this morning to respond fairly quickly once those tariffs have been announced

03:04and making a fairly strong response to pushing back on the US saying this is not the actions

03:09of a friend as you heard in that grab there before while you were talking to Stephen Jedgett.

03:14So that's really obviously the dominant news issue of today. But as that goes on, you know,

03:19the campaign rolls on too. The PM's been pretty keen to push back on Peter Dutton's rhetoric

03:24around tariffs as well. A suggestion that Anthony Albanese is a weak leader and incompetent

03:29and should have been able to secure a different outcome on tariffs. The Prime Minister appealing

03:33for bipartisanship, saying that these sorts of issues should be somewhat above politics.

03:37Okay, Tom, and do you have any idea where you'll be this time tomorrow?

03:44Joe, I truly wish I did. No, look, I think actually we will be in Sydney,

03:48at least for the start of tomorrow. That's where we're heading now. And Anthony Albanese

03:52is expected to appear in an event that had been scheduled in advance tomorrow morning.

03:56So we do know where we'll be tomorrow morning, which is a bit of a nice change from the usual

04:01campaign routine. This time tomorrow afternoon, though, Joe, I can't promise you anything, sadly.

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