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Morrison buoyed by Albanese stumble but trust, issues still surround PM

The 9NEWS Federal Political reporting team take a look back at the first week of the campaign.

ANALYSIS: Albanese stumbles but Morrison carrying the scars of office

Scott Morrison won the first week of the six-week election campaign, while Anthony Albanese boosted the Coalition's confidence and raised anxiety levels in his ranks.

The spiral began on day one, with the Labor leader not being able to name the unemployment rate or the Reserve Bank's official cash rate.

There was no excuse, the Labor leader knew it, Scott Morrison knew it, too, and promptly campaigned on jobs policy to keep attention on the issue.'

Albanese stumbles on reporter's question

As Nine Political Editor Chris Uhlmann summed up "I can't remember a worse first day to a campaign than the one Anthony Albanese just had."

By the end of the week the list of blunders had broadened; initially saying there was no need for offshore processing of refugees, before being forced to clarify statements he'd made earlier in the week over the costings of one his major policies, Labor's urgent care plan.

Scott Morrison's troubles are different. He is carrying the scars of office, the weight of people's anger and things promised but not delivered.

This week he was forced to fend off questions about his record on the pledge to set up an national integrity commission, and on failing to deliver building projects from the last election.

There is no doubt creeping into Labor minds. Anthony Albanese is still the favourite to win this election, but Scott Morrison has seen the frontrunner stumble.

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On the road: Morrison team buoyant after week one but questions of integrity and trust hover

The Prime Minister started the campaign with a clear nod to the past, a visit to the bushfire-hit electorate of Gilmore on the New South Wales south coast, writes Jonathan Kearsley, who spent the week following Scott Morrison.

He appeared with by his prize pick as candidate, former New South Wales state minister and a face of the bushfire recovery, Andrew Constance.

A small contingent of protesters gathered outside the gates of a cannery business playing the ukulele and singing "April Sun", a reference to the Prime Minister's appearance on 60 Minutes.

https://twitter.com/jekearsley/status/1513327016862711810

Inside, the Prime Minister's focus was on the economy, but questions circled around whether Mr Constance stood by comments made in the wake of the fires, that the Prime Minister "got the welcome he deserved" when Scott Morrison visited the town of Cobargo.

It was set to be a bumpy start to the campaign, but it was superseded by Opposition leader Anthony Albanese being unable to say the unemployment rate, or Reserve Bank's cash rate on interest rates, which the Prime Minister initially tentatively weight into.

But by Tuesday, when he flew to Sydney to campaign in the Labor seat of Parramatta, the language was stronger, "he didn't miss it by that much, he missed it by THAT much", the Prime Minister emphasised.

PM tries to capitalise on the unemployment gaffe by the opposition leader

Scott Morrison continued his campaign offensive in Labor's seat of Macquarie before trying to defend the Liberal held seat of Lindsay with a local announcement to invest in a training centre for assistance dogs.

Wednesday took the Prime Minister to Victoria and the Viva Refinery outside Geelong, again in Labor territory in Deputy Labor Leader Richard Marles' seat of Corio, but appearing publicly alongside the candidate for neighbouring Corangamite, a seat the government believes it can win from Labor.

READ MORE: The Federal Election in interactive charts

Scott Morrison didn't want to be knocked off his feet, but his glasses were knocked off his face during an afternoon visit to a sports stadium in Torquay on Victoria's surf coast.

This was clearly about localised campaigning.

The Prime Minister promised $500,000 to upgrade a sports stadium that was only opened in January last year.

The campaign then took him to Tasmania and the most testing day of the Prime Minister's campaign so far.

EXPLAINER: How the Australian government is elected

Scott Morrison faced a series of questions over broken promises on small-scale infrastructure and road projects, and the lack a National Integrity Commission.

He would also campaign in the Labor-held seat of Lyons before a horrific crash involving some of his personal protective officers brought a somber end to the day.

A car carrying two Tasmanian and two Australian Federal Police officers was hit by another vehicle and flipped rolling down an embankment near Elizabeth Town.

All four officers were alive, but taken to hospital. The Prime Minister was not been involved in the crash but sent his thoughts to the police and their families as he took his campaign into Victoria.

Good Friday was an unofficial truce on campaigning, but it didn't stop Scott Morrison from heading to church in the marginal Liberal-held seat of Chisholm before visiting children to pledge money for an appeal for Victoria's Royal Children's Hospital.

But Good Friday also coincided with the Jewish festival of Passover and the Prime Minister joined Josh Frydenberg at a synagogue in his electorate as the treasurer faces a challenge from an independent.

On the sixth day of official campaigning the Prime Minister kept an Easter theme again visiting Chisholm, and a shop filled with Easter Bunnies and bilbies.

Again, the pressure was on integrity as Labor announced plans to legislate an integrity commissioner before the end of the year, and faced questions over past tweets from his hand-picked candidate for the Sydney seat of Warringah.

Scott Morrison has faced intense questioning over his backing of Warringah candidate Katherine Deves

It emerged Katherine Deves had called transgender children "surgically mutilated and sterilised" and NSW Liberal Matt Kean pushed the call for her to be disendorsed.

The Prime Minister has so far resisted that call.

Then came a big risk, a very public appearance at Sydney's Royal Easter Show. Labor had been taunting the Prime Minister accusing him of being unwilling to meet members of the public.

https://twitter.com/jekearsley/status/1515185242696720387

His media visits until this point had been limited to businesses, and work sites.

It would be a test of public perception.

It ended with a moment one of his closest allies said has "put the wind in the sails" of the campaign.

Farmer Rocky Allen approached the Prime Minister, handing him a cap and told him he was from Cobargo.

It's the New South Wales town now synonymous with the Prime Minister's immediate response to the bushfire, where he received a rather uncomfortable welcome.

On Saturday Mr. Allen, who is the son of the mayor who accompanied Scott Morrison on the day after the fires, told the Prime Minister, "You're welcome back to Cobargo anytime".

Given the week was dominated by mistakes and missteps from the Opposition Leader, the Prime Minister and his team are buoyant heading into week two.

But this is a six-week campaign, he starts from a long way behind in the polls, and the spotlight is still on questions of integrity and trust.

One week down. There's five to go.

THEY SAID IT

"Google it, mate" – Greens leader Adam Bandt returns fire after journalist's 'gotcha' question about the current WPI.

SOCIAL CLUB

Fiona Willan take you inside life on the campaign trail.

https://twitter.com/Fi_Willan/status/1514915367675568131

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Fog blankets Sydney Harbour

A blanket of fog has smothered Sydney Harbour this morning bringing in a chilly start to Easter Sunday.

Like a second city above the clouds, city skyscrapers poked through the heavy fog.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge was completely enveloped in the fog, against the backdrop of a sky filled with pink, yellow and purple hues.

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Like a second city above the clouds, Sydney skyscrapers poked through the heavy fog that blanketed the city. A blanket of fog has smothered Sydney Habour bringing a mistier start to Easter Sunday.

And the low-lying cloud cover looked like rolling waves as it moved over the city.

The Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) says after the fog clears up Sydney-siders should expect a mostly dry and relatively sunny day, with temperatures set to reach a maximum of 24C.

A shower or two is forecast for the north coast of New South Wales and cloud is expected to develop over the far southwest later in the day.

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Clive Palmer 'knocked unconscious' in campaign launch fall

Clive Palmer says he was knocked out for about 20 seconds when he fell during a rehearsal for his United Australia Party campaign launch.

The billionaire was taken to hospital from yesterday's rehearsal on the Sunshine Coast after tripping on the stage.

"I found at 68 I couldn't jump as high as I could at 64," he told Sky News on Saturday. 

READ MORE: Why Clive Palmer could be Labor's unlikely ally in the battle for WA

"I hit the platform on the side rather than on top and fell backwards, hit my head, was knocked unconscious for 20 seconds."

Mr Palmer said "everything was fine" when he woke up but the people around him urged him to get checked out.

"I went and got a brain scan, which was very reassuring and found that I had a brain but that it wasn't damaged," he said.

"So I'm okay, everything's fine."

It was the big-spending mining magnate's second stumble in recent weeks, having tripped as he left the stage following his National Press Club address on April 7.

Despite the stumble, he still managed to kick off the $70 million campaign today under a huge tent at his Coolum golf resort.

Hundreds of yellow-shirt-clad supporters gathered to hear from Mr Palmer and UAP leader Craig Kelly, who said the party would push for the enactment of a bill of rights.

"Save Australia, we must. Save Australia, we will," Mr Palmer said.

Mr Palmer, the party founder and chairman, has pledged to put the Liberals, Labor and Greens last on how-to-vote cards.

He is running for the Senate this year, having failed to return to Parliament in 2019 despite his party spending more than $80 million on its campaign, most of which came from Mr Palmer's Mineralogy company.

The massive political spending, vastly outstripping even the major parties, has drawn criticism from some corners.

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Giant pandas eat cake to celebrate US zoo milestone

The "cake" was made from frozen fruit juice, sweet potatoes, carrots and sugar cane and it lasted about 15 minutes once giant panda mama Mei Xiang and her cub Xiao Qi Ji got hold of it.

Washington's Smithsonian's National Zoo's most famous tenants had an enthusiastic breakfast on Saturday in front of adoring crowds as the zoo celebrated 50 years of its iconic panda exchange agreement with the Chinese government.

Xiao Qi Ji’s father Tian Tian largely sat out the morning festivities, munching bamboo in a neighbouring enclosure with the sounds of his chomping clearly audible during a statement by Chinese ambassador Qin Gang. The ambassador praised the bears as “a symbol of the friendship” between the nations.

READ MORE: Man charged over stealing puppies in Adelaide

Giant pandas Mei Xiang, left and her cub Xiao Qi Ji eat a fruitsicle cake in celebration of the Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, 50 years of achievement in the care, conservation, breeding and study of giant pandas.

Pandas are almost entirely solitary by nature, and in the wild Tian Tian would probably never even meet his child. He received a similar cake for lunch.

In addition to hailing the 1972 agreement sparked by President Richard Nixon's landmark visit to China, Saturday's celebration also highlighted the success of the global giant panda breeding program, which has helped bring the bears back from the brink of extinction.

Xiao Qi Ji's birth in August 2020 was hailed as a near miracle, due to Mei Xiang's advanced age and the fact that zoo staff performed the artificial insemination procedure under tight restrictions shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic shut the entire zoo.

At age 22, Mei Xiang was the oldest giant panda to successfully give birth in the United States.

Normally they would have used a combination of frozen sperm and fresh semen extracted from Tian Tian.

But in order to minimise the number of close-quarters medical procedures, zoo officials used only frozen semen.

“It was definitely a long-shot pregnancy,” said Bryan Amaral, the zoo's senior curator for mammals.

READ MORE: Clive Palmer 'knocked unconscious' in UAP campaign launch rehearsal fall

The giant pandas at the Washington Smithsonian National Zoo are digging into their ice cream cake.

In honour of that long shot, the now 20-month-old cub was given a name that translates as "little miracle".

His birth in mid-pandemic sparked a fresh wave of panda-mania, with viewership on the zoo's panda-cam livestream spiking by 1,200 percent.

“I know how passionate people are about pandas," Mr Amaral said.

“I'm not surprised by that passion at all.”

Sure enough, crowds started streaming straight for the panda section at 8am when the zoo opened.

Sisters Lorelai and Everley Greenwell, age six and five, ran toward the enclosure chanting “Pandas! Pandas!”

They watched the cub tumble around, try to wrestle his mum and tear the zero off the giant 50 emblazoned on the ice cake.

“They knew this was coming,” said their mother Kayleigh Greenwell of Mount Ranier, Maryland, said of her girls.

“We've been talking about it all week.”

READ MORE: Russia bans UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson from country over war sanctions

The giant pandas had the ice cream cake breakfast in front of adoring crowds as the zoo celebrated 50 years of its iconic panda exchange agreement with the Chinese government.

The zoo's original 1972 panda pair, Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing, were star attractions at the zoo for decades, but panda pregnancies are notoriously tricky and none of their cubs survived.

Mei Xiang and Tian Tian arrived in 2000, and the pair has successfully birthed three other cubs: Tai Shan, Bao Bao and Bei Bei – also by artificial insemination. All were transported to China at age four, under terms of the zoo’s agreement with the Chinese government.

Similar agreements with zoos around the world have helped revitalise the giant panda population. Down to just over 1000 bears in the 1980s, the species has since been removed from the lists of animals in danger of extinction.