The Liberal Party is finally launching its official election campaign less that a week out from polling day, still way behind in opinion polls, although they were wrong about the outcome of the last election.
The prime minister has promised to change his ways in an attempt to lure undecided voters, but Liberal deputy Josh Frydenberg, who is seen as a future leader, still believes Morrison is the right man for the job.
Asked on ABC’s Insiders program on Sunday whether the coalition would be faring better under his leadership, the treasurer said: “No.”
“Scott Morrison is the right person to lead both the government and the country.”
He believes there has been a benefit from having stability at the top of the party and says the prime minister has done an outstanding job in difficult times.
According to the latest Newspoll estimates from May 10-13 which surveyed 1,532 voters, Morrison leads Labor leader Anthony Albanese as preferred prime minister by 43-42, down from 44-42 the previous week.
Morrison will address the party faithful in Brisbane on Sunday, promising an expanded housing policy to help older Australians build their superannuation.
Under the coalition’s expanded housing policy, up to A$1.3 million (US$901 million) empty nesters and pensioners will be able to access incentives to downsize their house, in a plan to help more families get a home.
Australians over the age of 55 will now be able to downsize their property and invest up to A$300,000 (US$208,036), per person, in their superannuation fund outside of the existing contribution caps, from the proceeds of a sale.
Pensioners who downsize their home will also be given greater flexibility by exempting the proceeds of the sale of the property from the assets test for longer.
This change means pensioners will now have two years to structure their assets following the sale of their home without impacting their pension.
“We are now giving Australians more choice to decide how they want to live the next stage of their life by removing financial barriers for people wanting to downsize their home,” Morrison says.
Currently this benefit is available to Australians over the age of 65 and making this change will see up to 1.3 million people become eligible to access it.
Housing Minister Michael Sukkar said it had been a successful policy since 2017.
“We now it works, we know it is freeing up housing stock, those larger family homes for other people to be able to purchase,” Sukkar told Sky News’ Sunday Agenda program.
“It is removing the barriers to downsize and essentially for couples being able to put up to $600,000 into a concessionary taxed environment like super.”
Labor senator Murray Watt said his party would always back a good idea.
“We will support this one. We think this is a good idea worth taking on,” he told Sky News.
“But the realty is that just one announcement from this government after nearly a decade in office is not going to fix the housing crisis we see in Australia.”
Meanwhile, Albanese will also address supporters in Brisbane, where he will announce the opposition’s $1 billion election commitment for Australia’s advanced manufacturing industry.
Labor’s fund aims to build the nation’s industrial base and create new opportunities in key manufacturing industries such as transport, defence, food processing, medical science, and renewables.
A re-elected Morrison government would establish a $375 million Queensland Comprehensive Cancer Centre.
The centre, expected to be based in Brisbane, would house cancer services in one facility as a one-stop shop, and treat all cancer types.
“This builds on recent investments we have made in Western Australia and South Australia to establish a national network of centres,” Morrison says.
