Check back here through the day for updates from the state election campaign.
1.57pm Liberals claim costings “black hole”
It didn’t take them long, but the Liberals reckon they’ve found a $5 million mistake in Labor’s costings.
They quote a media release from February which says the Flinders Medical Centre Development and Flinders Neonatal Unit would cost a total of $72.4m. In today’s costing document, the total is $67.5 million.
11.13am Labor releasing costings
Premier Jay Weatherill is releasing the costings of Labor’s election policies – full story here. Labor has kindly costed the Liberals’ promises as well.
Weatherill says Labor’s promises will cost $670 million over four years; the Liberals will spend $1.05 billion over the same period, according to Labor’s figures.
10.30am Apprenticeship cash
The Liberals are promising to spend $12 million to encourage employers to train more apprentices.
They say they will give $1,000 to employers who take on a new apprentice during the next two years.
Liberal Leader Steven Marshall said many small businesses were struggling to employ apprentices because of a lack of business confidence.
“Providing employers with incentives to create more jobs is critical to growing our economy,” he said.
8.45am More trouble for Electoral Commission
Things just got worse for Electoral Commissioner Kay Mousley – she just told ABC Radio breakfast that the Arabic translation on “Easy Vote” cards sent to 1.14 million voters is “gibberish”. She says they’ve put up a Facebook link to a translation that makes sense.
The Easy Vote cards are meant to expedite the voting process on Saturday.
7.45am Xenophon’s hopes
Independent senator Nick Xenophon has managed to dominate the early stages of the final week of campaigning – without even being a candidate.
Yesterday, the Electoral Commission Kay Mousley was forced to make an embarrassing apology after communication about a Xenophon complaint in relation to Labor election posters went horribly awry. She meant to write to Xenophon that the Labor material was NOT misleading (and therefore his complaint was dismissed) – but she accidentally left out the word “not”.
The debate is about a Labor and union campaign against Xenophon’s candidates for the Legislative Council. The campaign says Xenophon wants to wind back penalty rates (which he does, but only for certain small businesses). Xenophon says his penalty rate position has been misrepresented and, in any case, it’s a federal, not state, issue.
A short time ago, noted psephologist Malcolm Mackerras told ABC radio breakfast that he didn’t believe the Xenophon team would win an upper house seat in Saturday’s election.
7.30am Country health jobs.
Labor is promising to shift health jobs to country areas. Health Minister Jack Snelling said Labor would create two “hubs” in Mt Gambier and Whyalla, with 33 jobs transferred to each.
Last week Liberal health spokesman Rob Lucas promised to decentralise the health bureaucracy.
7am Libs promise another audit
A Marshall Government is going to spend a lot of time reviewing and auditing things.
Today its promised another audit – this time of the safety impact of fixed speed and red light cameras.
The audit will be accompanied by a $1 million independent authority which will give people an avenue to review expiation notices without going to court.
There’s no word on the overall budget impact, apart from the $1 million spend on the new body.
