Day 17 of the election campaign and the big item of discussion is the LNP-UAP preference deal with the smell of PHON around as well. Bill Shorten has come out with the blunt assessment "A vote for Scott Morrison is a vote for Clive Palmer and Pauline Hanson... if they are successful, of the most extreme right-wing government in Australia's history", and it's hard to fault that claim. Palmer is a lazy and indulgent rent-seeker, interested in little more than his own fortunes, Hanson is the leader of ignorant and conspiratorial racists, and Morrison is of course an ultra-conservative God-botherer. The LNP preference deal continues to ruffle feathers in the LNP itself as well, with the former MHR Ewen Jones referring to Palmer as "vacuous" and that it "shocks and disgusts me that people would even countenance voting for his party". Jones was the member for Herbert, where Palmer's Queensland Nickel refinery which collapsed in 2016 leaving hundreds of employees out of work and owed millions in entitlements.
https://www.theage.com.au/federal-election-2019/no-way-in-the-world-form...
In the Fake News department, a campaign as weird as it is offensive has been circulating in the WeChat social media targetting Chinese voters claiming that Labor intends to use the Safe Schools program to introduce gay sex lessons in primary schools, along with the banning of "gendered words" such as "dad", "mum", "brother", "sister", "boy", "girl", "pregnant" etc. Gladys Liu, Liberal candidate for the Victorian seat of Chisholm, and activist against Safe Schools, who recently was revealed to be making some rather poor taste remarks about LGBTI rights, denied having anything to do with the campaign.
https://www.theage.com.au/federal-election-2019/safe-schools-scare-campa...
The final item of news for the day is that Labor has promised $120 million for Tasmanian tourism, including $50 million for MONA, which is planned as the flagship item for Tasmanian tourism. The Tourism Industry Council chief Luke Martin is certainly happy, describing the announcement as "jaw-dropping"; "It's certainly not expected, the scale of it is certainly beyond what we were hoping for".
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-04-27/bill-shorten-mona-millions-whats-...