Oz Politics Blog

Yesterday: Howard won and lost the debate about the debate. While there will only be one debate this Sunday night (the win), Channel 9 will broadcast the debate with a worm (the loss). There is speculation that Labor will release its tax policy immediately prior to the debate.

Labor issued a policy statement on tackling poverty. Labor also announced that it would use an independent panel rather than the Charter of Budget Honesty mechanism to verify its election costings.

As far as I could tell, there were no policy announcements on the Coalition’s website for yesterday.

Today: Two national polls are out today, a Galaxy (53-47: DT, CM, Hun and Tiser) and ACNielsen (54-46: SMH and Age). While both point to a comfortable Labor win they suggest a lift in Howard’s stocks.

A Newspoll in northern Tasmania predicted that both Bass and and Braddon would be won by Labor, but at 51-49 Braddon would be a very close contest.

The usual opinion poll graphs are here. You may need to hit the refresh or reload button on your browser to see the latest graphs.

The usual opinion poll graphs are here. You may need to hit the refresh or reload button on your browser to see the latest graphs.

Yesterday was the third full campaign day since the election date was announced. At high noon yesterday, the House of Representatives was dissolved, the writs were issued and the Caretaker Conventions came into effect.

At 8pm yesterday, the electoral roll closed for most new enrolments. People who are currently enrolled, but who need to change their address details have until 8pm Tuesday 23 October 2007.

Bureaucrats across Canberra were relieved to see that the Senate estimates hearings scheduled for November will not take place. However, it may only be a short respite as the Senate may decide to reschedule or replace those hearings.

The Coalition announced that Australia is the eighth lowest taxing country in the 30 member OECD and that it would offer plebiscites on the Northern Territory local government reform proposals to those communities that want one.

Labor announced that it would fund additional nurses, invest in the Peel-Kwinana growth corridor, provide grants to small business to implement family friendly work practices and fund additional roads in SE Queensland

There was some youtube biff betrween the major parties about whether their adds were a scare campaign or legitimate scrutiny.

Today, in the Oz, George Megalogenis explores the electoral strategy behind the $34 billion of tax cuts.

Yesterday saw the traditional debate about the debate we have before every election. The Coalition wants one 90 minute debate (this Sunday) and Labor wants three. The Coalition wants it worm-free, while Labor is a friend of the worm. Labor also called for an independent Election Debate Commission.

Labor announced it would release surplus Commonwealth land to help housing affordability. The Coalition had made a similar announcement previously.

Labor committed to building a bypass around Bega.

Sportingbet issued a media statement (no link unfortunately): ‘Since Prime Minister John Howard declared the election race open on Sunday, the majority of punters across Australia have supported the Coalition. Sportingbet Australia has seen “the outsiders”, the Coalition, commanding 73% of the bets placed on the election, by keen punters across the nation. And the odds of a Howard victory have tightened over the weekend from $2.90 into $2.75, while the ALP wobbled out to $1.45 from $1.40.’

The Poll Bludger analysed polling of the youth vote.

Mumble has those all important election links.

Adrian has a gig writing his Cablog at NineMSN under the rubric of Cabpoll.

This morning, the Australian published a Newspoll follow-up from its weekend poll on the issues people rate as important for this election and the party best able to address those issues.