…. back in the game?

Only Australia’s No1 family newszine The Bug will keep you up-to-speed with each and every day of the campaign though the cutting-edge analysis of our in-house political experts, how the mainstream mediocre is behaving and a close watch on poll trends and betting markets.

Let’s kick off The Bug‘s unparalleled look at Monday’s events on the hustings by focusing first on how the mainstream mediocre handled a couple of Peter Dutton backflips/walkbacks/policy axings.

The news media we monitored seemed reluctant to group together what was clearly the day’s campaigning highlights: Dutton’s ditching of work from home for public servants and his planned 41,000 PS sackings.

For whatever reasons, many bulletins kicked off with just the WFH issue. Some later roped in, almost as an afterthought, the PS sackings. One media reluctantly mentioned both policy ditchings but then used the singular to end its report.

Sure, the final axing of one of Dutton’s few policy promises came after only a day earlier declaring that only Canberra-based PS would be required to work in the office five days a week, so a backtrack first before a complete ditching was newsworthy. But shirley two of a rare group of policies being axed on the one day deserved equal billing? We suspect both issues would have been beaten up more than this morning’s scrambled egg mix by our dreadful mainstream mediocre if Albanese and Labor had axed those policies.

We should add, being as fair as we also try to be, that some TV news commentators did stress the immense damage that those policy dumpings could cause to the LNP campaign. ABC TV news and Nine News Queensland were quite good in that regard, and yes, we’re still suffering mild shock symptoms.

So how damaging will those announcements will be to Dutton and the LNP’s election fortunes? Or as our heading suggest: can one drop-kick put the Opposition back in the game?

So, did anything else happen on DAY ELEVEN, Monday April 6?

***

Yes, it did! We finally saw an explanation emerge for the Coalition’s major policy reverse on the issue of public servants working from home (WFH).

A Liberal Party source said the initiative to scrap WFH came from Peter Dutton himself.

“Peter has been musing quite openly about living in the prime minister’s official Sydney residence, the harbourside mansion Kirribilli House,” the source explained. (below)

“He’s obsessed with the idea of moving in with his family and realises it’s the greatest address in the nation. He’s already made enquiries about how to change its name to Kirrilly House.

“When he becomes PM – his words, not mine – he plans to stay there as much as he can, so he’ll effectively be working from home himself.

“He realised he can’t be seen as a hypocrite, so the WFH policy had to go,” the source said.

***

Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor on Monday called for the opposition to be given special briefings by Treasury during the government’s caretaker period on the impact of US President Donald Trump’s tariff policy.

The Bug understands that Treasury officials had anticipated such a request and had already prepared a simple PowerPoint presentation illustrating the impact of the Trump tariffs on the Australian and global economies. (below)

“We have kept it pretty simple to match Mr Taylor’s knowledge of all matters economic and financial,” a Treasury official said.

***

Seeing we kicked off with a look at how the mediocre handled those policy ditchings, let’s elevate our media….

We’ve decided to award it collectively to all the hosts at Sky LNPNews for what they did very little of yesterday: covering Dutton’s two monstrous – and we suspect very damaging – policy cremations. Various after-dark sessions would no doubt have had to be extended if Labor had done that.

***

On the polling front, a new poll lobbed overnight, with Roy Morgan lifting Labor by half-a-per cent to 53.5/46.5 two party preferred.

If our state-school maths holds up – and it rarely does – that makes the two-party preferred averages of the five opinion polls we’re now keeping an eye on – Newspoll, Resolve, Roy Morgan, YouGov and Redbridge – drum roll please….

Labor: 51.7 (was 51.6; Coalition 48.3 (was 48.4). Pretty much the 2022 election outcome that gave Labor a parliamentary majority by the slenderest of margins.

As mentioned before, Guardian’s Essential Poll thinks it’s professional or clever or somehow responsible not to publish a two-party-preferred figure. The Bug calls bullshit on that. Nevertheless, its latest primary figures suggest however a slight Labor lead.

***

Given the calamitous day Dutton and the LNP had on the hustings yesterday, shirley the betting markets we’re also monitoring have continued the drift to Labor. Not so, it appears.

Here are the odds we snared at around 9.35pm last night (Monday), compared with roughly 24 hours earlier.

Sportsbet: Labor $1.40 (unchanged); Coalition $3.00 (unchanged)
Ladbrokes: Labor $1.40 (unchanged); Coalition $2.75 (unchanged)
TAB: Labor $1.40 (unchanged); Coalition $3.00 (unchanged)
bet365: Labor $1.40 (unchanged) Coalition $3.00 (unchanged).

We might have to recheck those figures. Either poll punters have run out of money or everyone has just lost interest in what the pollies are saying.

***.

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