Election campaign diary: The home straight’s mostly gaffe-free final countdown

Samantha Dick
May 17, 2019, updated May 17, 2019

The final push of the election campaign trail came to an end on Friday, as emotional tributes flowed for the late former Labor prime minister Bob Hawke.

The widely-respected former leader died on Thursday aged 89, just two days before Australians head to the polls.

It comes as the Australian Electoral Commission confirmed that more than four million Australians have already cast their votes at pre-polling, with a whopping 533,000 votes in total cast on Thursday alone.

Where were they?

Prime Minister Scott Morrison spent the day spruiking fellow Liberal candidates in Queensland, starting in the electoral division of Herbert before making his way to Cairns and Gladstone.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten remained in Sydney, where he paid his respects to Bob Hawke and his family.

Promises, promises

Liberal: There were no more new Liberal policies announced on Friday.

Instead, Scott Morrison appeared in Herbert to promote Liberal candidate Phil Thompson, a veteran, mental health candidate and Queensland’s Young Australian of the Year.

In Cairns, he showed support for Liberal National member for Leichhardt, Warren Entsch, before finishing the final day of campaigning in Gladstone, where he attended a retiree forum with candidate Ken O’Dowd.

Big day campaigning today. Now in Gladstone for a retiree forum with Ken O’Dowd, listening to concerns about the impact Labor’s Retiree Tax will have on them. Over 1m Australians will be hit by this tax. Only a vote for Ken & the Liberal-Nationals will stop Labor’s higher taxes. pic.twitter.com/pjgaNWgs8M

— Scott Morrison (@ScoMo30) May 17, 2019

The prime minister moved to distance himself from Warringah MP Tony Abbott’s controversial statement about the passing of Bob Hawke, in which he claimed the late Labor leader had a “Labor heart and a Liberal head”.

Statement on the death of The Hon Bob Hawke AC, GCL: pic.twitter.com/M8fzbFlVTE

— Tony Abbott (@HonTonyAbbott) May 16, 2019

The statement attracted widespread criticism from people who accused Mr Abbott of attempting to use the death of Bob Hawke as an opportunity to score political points.

Channel Nine’s Weekend Today host David Campbell wrote: “Read the room, mate”, while Olympian and former Labor senator Nova Paris wrote, “What an awful statement. Shame on you.”

Former prime minister John Howard, meanwhile, defended Tony Abbott, arguing that the statement was “just Tony’s way of expressing reality”.

Mr Morrison said: “They’re not words I obviously used.”

Labor: There were no more new Labor policies announced on Friday.

Bill Shorten spent the whole day in Sydney paying tribute to Bob Hawke, whom he called “Labor’s greatest son”.

“Every Australian carries a monument to Bob Hawke with them, their Medicare card,” Mr Shorten said.

“A green-and-gold promise that the health of any one of us, matters to all of us.”