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.
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