The People's Forum, Greens envy, and at sea on asylum seeker policy | Tuesday 17 May 2016

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Pidgin Politics

News & Politics


Paula, Margo and Wes are back for week two of the election campaign, wiping their brows after a slog of a week that somehow included a leaders debate, a national press club appearance from the shadow treasurer and a week’s worth of media coverage of a single question on Q&A. First up we go over the entrails of the People’s Forum: the first debate of the campaign and an open forum for 100 (allegedly) undecided voters to ask questions of the two leaders. The room called it for Bill Shorten, and we tend to agree, but what about the mechanics of the debate itself? And where were the Greens?   Staying on the Greens, as their numbers across both the lower and upper houses increase, isn’t it about time we started to see them at events like this? We talk about the cut-through the Greens are getting despite this seeming oversight and ask whether it’s actually playing into their hands to omit them from the discussion.   Asylum seeker policy caused quite the headache for Bill Shorten in an otherwise stellar opening week of the campaign, with Labor candidate for Melbourne Sophie Ismail making a public statement that it’s time for offshore processing to cease, calling into question Labor’s policy on asylum seeker processing. Margo thinks that disunity might be death on this issue, but Paula says their might be something else going on in a tight Greens/Labor fight in inner city seats. And Wes? Wes is just angry about offshore detention.   Finally, we asked for questions from our twitter audience and got a doozy from Francis Oblomov (@francisd62) who asked:   Murdoch extremism was ignored in Qld election. How much power will it have in this?   Remember to follow @PidginPolitics on twitter so you can answer the callout for next week’s podcast or find us on Facebook.