FEDERAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN: DAY 36
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WHERE THE LEADERS ARE CAMPAIGNING
* Prime Minister Scott Morrison: is starting the day in Tasmania, before heading up the east coast.
* Labor leader Bill Shorten: is in Perth
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WHAT THE COALITION WANTS TO TALK ABOUT
How a Labor would be a union-led government and how the coalition is the only safe bet for the economy.
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WHAT LABOR WANTS TO TALK ABOUT:
Wages and industrial relations. Bill Shorten will give a set speech at a Perth business breakfast to outline his industrial relations policy and plans to stop wages theft.
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WHAT IS MAKING NEWS:
* Former PMs. Paul Keating, Bob Hawke and John Howard have all entered the election campaign. Keating took full aim at Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton, while Howard has declared Bill Shorten more divisive than Hawke. Hawke, meanwhile, has written an open letter where he declares Shorten's union background would be an asset as prime minister- as it had been for him.
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* ACTU president Michele O'Neill goes before the Fair Work Commission's minimum wage case hearing in Sydney. She's the first ACTU boss to do so since Bob Hawke in the 1970s. The peak union body wants a six per cent minimum wage increase. The decision will be handed down later in the year.
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* While some are getting ready to sizzle democracy sausages in three days time, millions of others have already voted. At the close of business on Monday, the AEC said about 2.6 million voters had already cast their ballots at pre-polling stations. That compares to 1.5 million at the same stage of the 2016 election. About 400,000 had voted on Monday alone. A further 1.3 million people had applied for a postal vote as of Friday. Applications for postal votes close at 6pm on Wednesday. The AEC is warning voters to return their ballots as soon as possible because they will only be counted if they are received within 13 days of the election.
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THEY SAID WHAT?
* "Bob Hawke may have risen to greater heights in the union movement than Bill Shorten but Bob Hawke was far less beholden to the unions than Mr Shorten is." - John Howard.
* "Thanks to the preference deal he's done with Scott Morrison, Clive Palmer can turn up on day one with a political IOU almost as big as his ego." - Bill Shorten.
* "That has the PM's endorsement as the best mullet I have seen." - Scott Morrison to Launceston footballer Jarrad "J Rod" Cirkel.
