Australia politics live updates: Morrison to make election promise on jobs, Albanese focuses on Medicare

Good morning and welcome to day two of the official campaign – just 39 to go. Yesterday was a bit of a doozy of an opener.

Scott Morrison had to “clarify” the record to make it clear that Alan Tudge was STILL a member of his cabinet. “Technically” was Morrison’s answer.

Technically in that Tudge remains a member of the frontbench, who has chosen themselves to step aside and in the event the Coalition wins a fourth term, will be back on the frontbench. So not just technically, then.

That was despite Morrison’s comments on 4 March that Tudge was not returning to the frontbench. It’s all very difficult to keep track of.

And you can bet that Anthony Albanese would have spent at least part of last night being quizzed on the cost of a range of items, as well as the various rates which guide the Australian economy, after being unable to answer what the cash rate was or the unemployment rate yesterday.

But he had an unlikely supporter in all that – John Howard, who declared “who cares” while campaigning with Ken Wyatt in Western Australia. When asked what the unemployment rate was, he also couldn’t answer the question and said he thought it might have a “3” in front of it (it’s 4%).

Albanese very quickly fessed up to messing up and said that is what he would do if prime minister – admit his mistakes and then move to fix them. The Coalition already has its attack ads ready. What a day. (There wasn’t any mention of the time Morrison accidentally endorsing Beijing’s position on Taiwan not so long ago.)

So what is on the agenda for today?

It’s jobs and the economy for the Coalition with Scott Morrison wanting to create 1.3m new jobs over the next five years, using existing measures – and it is pretty much just what happens with population growth. It’s also an announcement which has been made a couple of times in the past – Morrison last made it in 2019.

The Liberal campaign is in Sydney – I’d expect it to head to Sydney’s west today.

Anthony Albanese and Labor are still cleaning up after yesterday. Labor’s announcement is on increasing access to mental health care. The Labor is still in Tasmania.

You have the entire Guardian brains trust at your disposal as we go through day two, as well as Katharine Murphy, Sarah Martin, Paul Karp, Daniel Hurst, Mike Bowers, Gabrielle Chan and Josh Butler focused on the election.

It’s a four coffee day. Ready?

Let’s get into it.