The Prime Minister has wrapped up a busy first day of campaigning, hitting three electorates across two states. After spending much of the day in Queensland, including Peter Dutton's electorate, he stopped by the once bellwether seat of Eden-Monaro in southern New South Wales.
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00:00It's something of a surprise, I suppose, to be back in Canberra, but of course the Prime
00:05Minister is on the Insiders program here on the ABC tomorrow morning, so back in Canberra
00:11ahead of that media appearance tomorrow, but it has been a particularly busy first day.
00:16We started the day, of course, in Queensland, which itself was something of a surprise too.
00:21Queensland hasn't been seen as the centrepiece of this election.
00:26The focus has been thought to have been New South Wales and Victoria primarily, but it
00:30seems the Prime Minister wanted to make a bit of a statement.
00:33He held the first press conference of his re-election campaign in Peter Dutton's own
00:38seat of Dixon on Brisbane's outskirts.
00:41He then moved up to Bundaberg in the seat of Hinkler, which is a very safe coalition
00:45seat on a margin of more than 10%.
00:48The Prime Minister was asked about why he felt the need to, what exactly was the message
00:54he was trying to send by campaigning in these fairly safe coalition seats.
00:58It would be remarkable if Labor could manage to flip either of them during the campaign,
01:02an extraordinary surprise if Labor could pull off either victory in either of those seats,
01:08but the Prime Minister was keen to say that Labor is on the offensive on this campaign.
01:12He wants to be winning more seats in this election, not just defending the seats that
01:16Labor already holds and holding onto power as a result.
01:20Here's what the Prime Minister had to say on that earlier.
01:23I'm out to win here, I'm out to win Brisbane, Griffith and Ryan, I'm out to win Leichhardt,
01:27I'm out to win Bonner.
01:29You'll see us out and about during this campaign.
01:32I want a majority Labor government.
01:35I want the last seven elections have produced seven different Prime Ministers.
01:41Since 2004 was the last time that a Prime Minister who'd served out a term was re-elected
01:47and that was John Howard.
01:48I think that one of the things that characterised my government isn't just what we have done,
01:54isn't just what we will do going forward, it is the stability.
01:59Labor has been trying to play to its perceived strengths, what it thinks are the strongest
02:04themes for it in this election campaign.
02:06It started on health, visiting an urgent care clinic in that seat of Dixon in the outer
02:12suburbs of Brisbane there.
02:14Some of Labor's biggest policy commitments this election so far have been in the health
02:17space, the $8.5 billion for bulk billing for example or commitments to open 50 new urgent
02:24care clinics should they be re-elected.
02:26So Labor always feels on fairly safe ground in that sort of territory.
02:30It's also been talking up industry policy, its Buy Australia campaign which it sees as
02:36something of a response to the new tariff regimes we're seeing coming in including from
02:41the Trump administration.
02:42It should be noted that's a much smaller policy, only worth about $20 million, starting with
02:47an advertising campaign and steps like that to try and encourage Australians to buy more
02:52goods made in Australia.
02:53The Prime Minister also doing smaller, perhaps more kind of campaign style events.
02:57He visited a local swimming pool in Bega this afternoon in the seat of Eden Monaro in southern
03:03New South Wales, down on the south coast of New South Wales.
03:06So doing some more of I suppose a traditional ribbon cutting as well.
03:10But those two themes, health and industry I suppose, might give us a glimpse as to where
03:14Labor wants to be in this election campaign.
03:17It sees those as the issues that could perhaps try and push voters to re-elect Labor for
03:23another term.