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.

Tuesday’s campaign highlight – if you could call it that – had to be the first leaders’ debate that no-one could watch on free-to-air television.

The Murdochs probably planned it that way, suggesting they suspected how it was likely to go, given the Opposition’s campaign is falling apart faster than a Chinese broom bought at Bunnings.

But we do salute the graphic (at top) we harvested from X last night. We have no idea if it’s legit or a pisstake but if it is in fact a real posting by the Queensland LNP, we suspect Dutton won the debate award for the least amount of hair displayed on stage? Got your own ideas, BUGgers? Greater number of lies? Taller? Better glasses?

So, did anything else happen on DAY TWELVE, Tuesday April 8?

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Indeed it did! For starters, Peter Dutton yesterday continued to channel his inner Donald Trump by pre-emptively blaming Anthony Albanese and the Labor Party for any recession caused by Donald Trump’s tariff policy. (below)

Apparently Albanese is selling out our nation in Dutton’s eyes by deliberately failing to stop the Trump tariffs – something Dutton continues to assert he alone in the world could achieve.

Just how he would achieve that, like his costings and other pesky policy details, apparently will all be revealed later. Much later we suspect.

On Tuesday Dutton also continued to peddle his gas diversion plan with claims it would deliver significant savings to households. (below)

Yet again, just how he would achieve that, like his costings and other pesky policy details, apparently will all be revealed later. Much later we suspect.

His plan has the gas industry worried because it would upend the assumptions existing gas producers have relied upon to structure their business plans and investments.

Despite the fact many suspect the plan to be a thought bubble which was first floated in Dutton’s budget reply speech, we must acknowledge that it is a solid policy in one respect – if anyone knows anything about diversion it is Peter Dutton.

A smaller policy announcement yesterday was made by Shadow Education Minister, Victorian Senator Sarah Henderson.

It involves a Coalition government supplying free books to low-income families to help boost literacy levels.

The Bug understands that the modest $3.8 million policy would have big and positive environmental impacts by rescuing from remainder bins thousands of cheap copies of non-woke, far Right wing books the Libs and Nats think our kiddies should be consuming, such as Tony Abbott’s Battlelines that might otherwise go to landfill. (below)

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Now for our uncoveted ….

Why is Sky LNPNews cleaning up this award more often than not? Yesterday, the LNP publicity outlet was still banging on about Albanese’s stumble, with just one example below.

Another whinged on about Albanese lying that he had not fallen. Yes, he did fall and, yes, he is lying but who the fuck cares. That Sky LNPNews is still pushing this nonsense shows its desperation in searching for something solid to bag Labor about. Not a good sign for their beloved LNP.

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No new polls lobbed overnight, so our two-party-preferred averages of the five opinion polls we’re now keeping an eye on – Newspoll, Resolve, Roy Morgan, YouGov and Redbridge – stay at…

Labor: 51.7; Coalition 48.3. 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 again calls bullshit on that. Nevertheless, its latest primary figures suggest however a slight Labor lead.

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And how did the online bookies fare on the day after Dutton ditched two of his very few well-thought-out policy offerings.

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

Sportsbet: Labor $1.40 (unchanged); Coalition $2.87 ($3.00)
Ladbrokes: Labor $1.40 (unchanged); Coalition $2.75 (unchanged)
TAB: Labor $1.36 ($1.40); Coalition $3.10 ($3.00)
bet365: Labor $1.36 ($1.40) Coalition $3.20 ($3.00).

Early Wednesday morning, Sportsbet had followed TAB’s and bet365’s leads and had Labor at $1.36 and $3.10.

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