Key posts
- PM will name his pick for health minister in coming days
- Morrison will promise to create of 1.3m jobs in five years
- This morning’s headlines at a glance
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PM will name his pick for health minister in coming days
Social Services Minister Anne Ruston is tipped to be given the health portfolio this weekend in a government move designed to assure voters there will be a smooth transition in the key policy field given Health Minister Greg Hunt is retiring.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison will name Hunt’s replacement as part of a shift towards health policy after the economy and employment dominated the first few days of the campaign.
Social Services Minister Anne Ruston is tipped to be given the Coalition’s health portfolio. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
Ruston, who is also the Coalition’s campaign spokesperson, is seen as the leading option to become the designated health minister just as the government is being urged to make a series of major policy commitments.
It comes as Morrison is being repeatedly challenged over the status of Alan Tudge after the education minister stood aside last December but kept his cabinet rank during an inquiry into his relationship with a former adviser, Rachelle Miller.
Read the full story here.
Morrison will promise to create of 1.3m jobs in five years
Prime Minister Scott Morrison will ramp up his economic attack on Anthony Albanese with a promise of 1.3 million jobs over the next five years, seizing on the opposition leader’s campaign stumble where he could not remember Australia’s unemployment rate and official interest rate.
Yesterday, Albanese was forced into a series of public apologies after he was quizzed by journalists and could not name the Reserve Bank’s cash rate of 0.1 per cent and incorrectly said the unemployment rate was 5.4 per cent, not its current measure of 4 per cent.
Labor leader Anthony Albanese after a doorstop in Launceston yesterday.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
The Coalition immediately seized on the gaffe as evidence of its assertion that Albanese lacks the experience to manage the economy, forcing the Labor leader to call a press conference to try to stem the political damage.
“I’m human. But when I make a mistake, I’ll fess up to it, and I’ll set about correcting that mistake,” Albanese said from Devonport.
Morrison will be in Sydney today to announce his jobs pledge, a commitment that was first made in December by Treasurer Josh Frydenberg when he said the government would create 1 million jobs in four years.
Read the full story here.
This morning’s headlines at a glance
Good morning and thanks for your reading our live coverage.
It’s Tuesday, April 12. I’m Broede Carmody and I’ll bring you some of the day’s biggest stories as they come to hand.
Here’s what you need to know before we get started.
- Prime Minister Scott Morrison will campaign on jobs and taxes in Sydney today. Meanwhile, Anthony Albanese remains in Tasmania. The Labor leader will make mental health a key focus of today’s election hustings. Yesterday, Albanese failed to name the country’s unemployment or official cash rate. However, the Labor leader found an unlikely ally in former Liberal prime minister John Howard. When asked about the gaffe, Howard had this to say: “So what?”
Former PM John Howard has dismissed Anthony Albanese’s recent economic gaffe. Credit:Brook Mitchell
- Speaking of the economy, Finance Minister Simon Birmingham and shadow treasurer Jim Chalmers will appear on the ABC’s RN Breakfast later this morning. And David Crowe reports that Social Services Minister Anne Ruston is tipped to become the country’s next health minister should the Coalition win the May 21 election.
Social Services Minister Anne Ruston is in the running to be the country’s next health minister should the Coalition win government. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
- And in overseas news, the mayor of the Ukrainian port of Mariupol says his city’s death toll could reach 20,000. It comes amid reports that Russia has used a poisonous substance against Ukrainian troops. Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 and the Ukrainians are preparing for a renewed Russian offensive in the country’s east.
Inside the Mariupol theatre.Credit:AP
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