Election Tracker: Day 16 — Tone on a boat in Cairns … Julia gets real in Sydney …

Day one of Real Julia is in the can and it was pretty much business as usual on the hustings, as Tony Abbott revelled in Gillard’s PR snafu. Julia was in western Sydney yesterday, where she spoke frankly about her epiphany of realness. Tony was in the tropics, where he announced increased funding for tourism operators. Over on Twitter, all the talk was of ‘flag-gate’, as the PM ‘controversially’ scribbled her John Hancock on the Australian flag.

So after 16 long days of spin, Gillard’s Real Julia Junta has notched up an eye-popping 18,999km, while Abbott’s Toned Down Troops have fought their way through an emissions-choked 28,163km. Together that’s a total of 47,162km — the equivalent of more than 26 million Australian flags.

Gillard:

• Julia Gillard began her day in Emu Plains in western Sydney, where she announced a $668 million increase in the Family Tax Benefit for parents of older teenage students. The substantial increase will lift the maximum benefit payment for student children aged between 16 and 18 years from $51.24 a fortnight to $208 from January 1, 2012. “This policy is affordable, it will be fully offset, not one cent going on the budget bottom line,” said Gillard.

Abbott:

• Tony Abbott was campaigning in the tourism mecca of Cairns yesterday, where he announced a $90 million Coalition pledge to help attract visitors to Australia. The package includes a $40 million fund that would provide grants of up to $100,000 to build infrastructure for tourism projects. Abbott took the opportunity to meet with the staff of a local Great Barrier Reef ferry service while making the announcement. “You make me feel very powerful, sitting up here,” Abbott told the captain from the bridge of his catamaran.

Bishop:

• If you’re in the mining industry, you’re in Kalgoorlie this week, as the Diggers and Dealers blokefest kicks off in the notorious outback party town. Julie Bishop, the deputy opposition leader, was confused why there wasn’t a pollie in sight: “I would’ve thought if you weren’t at Diggers and Dealers, you weren’t where it was happening,” she said. The owner of the well-known Palace Hotel, Ashok Parekh, agreed, telling ABC news he was catering for the expected influx of wealthy miners by flying in extra skimpies: “We do bring more in, probably 15 for the week because there’s a lot of people who come here to Kalgoorlie and we need a lot more staff working.”

Flag-gate:

• It was the controversy that wasn’t. The Twittersphere was in a spin for about ten minutes yesterday, as Gillard signed an Australian flag on the campaign trail. Apparently, writing on the flag contravenes appropriate protocol.



• However, as others pointed out later, Gillard isn’t the first PM to sign an Australian flag:

Debate Watch:

• Gillard acquiesced to Abbott’s demands for another leadership debate last night, with one major caveat: the debate must be held on the same night as the Liberal Party campaign launch. Unsurprisingly, Abbott refused the offer, saying he won’t change his schedule to suit the whims of the prime minister. “She should not change her mind with the campaign half over because the faceless men have advised her that she needs to appear more real,” he said in a statement.

Baby Watch:

• Meanwhile, the Gold Coast Bulletin is on the case to expose Gillard’s baby-kissing tactics:
  

Quotable:

• “If I can use a footy analogy — there are times when the coach says to the players play safe, lock it down, short passes, keep possession of the ball. I think we’ve been playing our election campaign like that but you see the best of the players when they’re really going for it. I’m going to be really going for it now.” — Julia Gillard trying to explain the concept of ‘Real Julia’.

Where are they today?

• Tony Abbott remains in Brisbane today, where he’ll unveil the Coalition’s reworked paid maternity leave scheme. The policy will cut the levy on big business to 1.5% while pushing the start date back to 2012.
• Bob Brown in is Perth this morning, before flying to Darwin later today with a press conference scheduled for 3pm.
• The common consensus is that Julia Gillard will remain in Sydney today, however there were no announcements from her office as we went to press.

What is the tracker?

Crikey tracks each leader’s amazing race across the country via our Election Tracker. Each day we’ll plot the leaders’ movements, feeding in the key policy announcements and spending commitments, the best media coverage and social media chat, plus the campaign stunts and bloopers. You can also use the tracker as a hub for the best Crikey coverage.

Click on the tabs across the top to watch how many kilometres Gillard and Abbott have clocked up, the movements of other key players and finally our bloopers and stunts bonanza on the right. You can click on each stop to see what they’re up to, with links to extended coverage and detailed electorate information.