Australia’s No.1 family newszine The Bug continues its exhaustive and exhausting coverage of the federal election campaign, with its crack team of journalists still wondering if the Governor-General might have the power to call a halt to proceedings and order the federal poll this weekend.

Last night’s leaders’ debate on ABC TV is likely to result in legal action after the Liberal Party claimed that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had been caught red-handed facilitating the production of a grossly misleading TikTok video designed to attack Opposition Leader Peter Dutton.

The social media video uploaded and widely viewed last night soon after the debate ended, is based on heavily edited comments made by Mr Dutton captured during preliminary off-camera banter between the two leaders prior to last night’s election debate on ABC TV.

A Liberal Party source said in what appeared to be a conversation deliberately initiated by the PM as the two leaders waited at their lecterns for the start of the debate broadcast, Mr Albanese had asked Mr Dutton about the prospects of his local NRL team, the Brisbane Broncos, in upcoming matches.

In response to Mr Albanese’s apparently leading questions Mr Dutton casually and innocently remarked that the Broncos would be beating both the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs on the 24 April and the Penrith Panthers on 4 May in round eight and round nine NRL games to be played at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium.

The Liberal Party alleged that the Labor Party had obtained a copy of the pre-broadcast footage of Mr Dutton’s answers and heavily edited them to have the Opposition Leader say: “They’re eating the dogs, They’re eating the cats.” (below)

The Bug understands that the Liberal Party was seeking a court order this morning to block the video and was considering a separate action against Mr Albanese.

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No new polls over the last 24 hours so if our maths is correct, the average of the polls we are monitoring now has Labor a neat 53 to 47 2PP.

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And as to those bookie odds, at around 9.40pm last night (Wednesday), here are the odds from the betting agencies that we are monitoring, compared with 24 hours earlier!

Sportsbet: Labor $1.20 ($1.20); Coalition $4.25 ($4.60)
Ladbrokes: Labor $1.22 ($1.18); Coalition $4.25 ($3.50)
TAB: Labor $1.22 ($1.28); Coalition $4.25 ($3.80)
bet365: Labor $1.20 ($1.28) Coalition $4.60 ($4.60).
Neds: Labor $1.22 ($1.18); Coalition $4.25 ($4.75).

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Let’s give this one to arguably the finest analytical mind in all of Australia when it comes to politics – yes, the person who single-handedly took only two years to make Tony Abbott what he is today, a fucking laughing stock of an ex-PM – and, yes, we’re talking about Peta Credlin.

Take a look at this Sky LNPNews online plug from yesterday, and the snappy three or four paragraphs that it opens up to.

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Sky News host Peta Credlin claims the Labor government has “gone missing” on national defence, following Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s attack against Opposition Leader Peter Dutton.

“A government that’s failed always tries to make it all about the Opposition,” Ms Credlin said.

“A government that’s gone missing on national security issues always tries to find a spine during a must-win election.”

So why is this campaigning genius and policy wonderkind saying these things? It’s all about damage control after Peter Dutton shot his mouth and his foot off by claiming the Indonesian president had commented publicly on claims that Russia was seeking permission to base military aircraft in Papua.

The president said no such thing. Dutton was ad-lying… sorry, ad-libbing … as he tried to make political capital against Labor. His later excuses for saying the president had gone public on the issue were absolute crap, and Albanese, Wong, Marles and many real journalists got stuck in. It’s why LNP publicist Credlin had to come to rescue.

It was all Albanese’s fault! His government has gone missing on national defence! Hers was a clusterfuck of illogical nonsense and disjointed dribble, that Abbott in his prime minister would have swallowed hook, line and sinker, which probably explains where he is today.

To Credlin’s far-right, Rupert-oriented mind, Labor getting stuck into a desperate Dutton saying anything to salvage his floundering campaign showed the government had somehow gone missing on national security. Risible rubbish. Pure bullshit. Sky LNPNews at its absolute worst.

BREAKING OVERNIGHT: The Bug has been handed exclusively copies of emails sent between members of the Liberal Party’s national campaign committee. Of the strategies and tactics being used as the campaign reaches the halfway point, one writes: “Forget the current trend among the pollsters. I think we’re going to do better than expected come May 3”. “Let’s hope so,” another replies. If Albanese had opted for a seven-week campaign, we’d have been lucky to match the two seats we won at the 2021 WA election the way this cunt’s been performing so far.”

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