Friday: the best of Guardian Australia’s 2022 federal election coverage every weekday afternoon

A nthony Albanese and Scott Morrison are steeling themselves for the campaign’s final fortnight. Under mounting pressure from journalists on the election trail, both the Labor leader and the prime minister tried to get on the front foot on Friday, pushing back and going on the attack.

After being peppered with tough questions on Thursday, Albanese took it up to his travelling media pack, claiming one reporter’s line of questioning was “an example of what puts people off politics”. As questions flew, he declared “I’m in charge” – and rather than resiling from the previous day’s furore when he couldn’t immediately name the points of Labor’s NDIS plan, Albanese instead spoke passionately about his late mother and why disability support services were important to him personally.

“I grew up with a mum who was not diagnosed properly with rheumatoid arthritis ... and didn’t get the assistance that she needed for her health,” he said.

“Those simple things that the NDIS provide to improve people’s lives. That is what the NDIS is about. That is what a government that I lead will be about, providing real help.”

Mr Albanese, former soccer star and human rights activist Craig Foster and businesswoman and gender equity advocate Sam Mostyn help pack food hampers inside the community centre @canberratimes pic.twitter.com/wTJT3kR1el

Morrison, on the west coast, went on the attack on Albanese himself, branding him “weak” and even taking a potshot at his Covid recovery. Asked at a business lunch whether he thought the Labor leader may be suffering from brain fog, Morrison scoffed, saying “if that helps him get through the day, good luck to him”.

Morrison went on to say people were starting to ask whether Albanese was “up to it”.

With just 14 days to go, the campaign is getting more personal, the tactics more bare-knuckle.

Albanese held a morning press conference at a local community centre in his neighbourhood of Marrickville in Sydney’s inner west. After helping pack boxes for those in need, and chatting with soccer legend-turned-community advocate Craig Foster, the Labor leader said farewell to journalists until an event in Parramatta (Labor-held, 3.5%) on Friday evening.

A week post-Covid, Albanese shrugged off a question about whether he was “still going to need to rest into polling day”, as a journalist noted “the pace of your campaign is starkly different to that of Scott Morrison”. He listed off his daily program on Thursday – including a press conference, radio and TV interviews, a speech, an hour-long solo grilling on Q&A and a slate of private meetings – and defended it as “a pretty heavy program”. Journalists on the bus noted the Labor leader hadn’t announced much new policy recently.

pic.twitter.com/BJd6pIcOXD

Morrison was in Perth, for a series of defence-related media ops. He visited a facility making drones in Cowan (Labor, 0.9%), then announced a $108m pledge to train 1,500 people in defence manufacturing and technology. A further announcement shared more details of a plan to upgrade equipment and tech for Australia’s special operations forces, under the previously-announced Project Greyfin.

The PM later attended a business lunch hosted by the West Australian newspaper. In a speech, he took a crack at Albanese, accusing him of running a “small target philosophy of leadership”.

“Small target means a small leader. A small leader is a weak leader. And a weak leader is a risk to Australia,” he said.

“You can’t hide behind someone else when you don’t know the answers.”

Turnbull backs independents: former PM Malcolm Turnbull has spoken of the benefits of “teal” independents challenging Liberal MPs, saying their success would “thwart” the “capture of the Liberal Party” by more hard-right elements. Morrison, unsurprisingly, said he doesn’t agree with his predecessor, claiming a vote for independents was “chaos”.

Corflute-gate: some mysterious mischief went down overnight, with hundreds of “fake” campaign posters going up in Liberal-held electorates being challenged by climate-focused independents. The posters, appearing near-identical to the authentic ones, claim the candidates are running for the Greens. Independents in Mackellar, Hume, Hughes and Warringah also reported their own corflutes being shredded, stolen or covered in graffiti in what they claim is a “coordinated” attack by parties unknown. The electoral commission is investigating, and Penny Ackery’s campaign in Hume has reported it to the police.

I know the @AusElectoralCom is investigating but this is the type of tactic you need to resort to when you can’t stand on your track record or have a vision for the future. It’s also why I support @zalisteggall’s Stop the Lies Bill to outlaw lying in political advertising #auspol pic.twitter.com/gphj2wuKma

Paid parental leave: Labor has confirmed it has dropped its 2019 policy of paying superannuation on government-funded parental leave. Tanya Plibersek admitted “it isn’t possible for us to fix every problem” in the first term of a possible new government.

Where’s Alan Tudge? Auspol’s favourite guessing game continues. The Sydney Morning Herald reported it had tried to track down Tudge, ostensibly still a cabinet minister campaigning for election, for weeks – but had no luck, after calling and knocking on his door. He “has held no press conferences, issued no policies and conducted no interviews”, the paper reported.

Thanks very much for that contribution.

– Albanese to a small child who ran into his press conference.

Surprise journalist jumps in at Albo’s press conference. #auspol pic.twitter.com/LKbypDHrWQ

The number of dollars Josh Frydenberg says his son Blake got from the tooth fairy.

“I told him that when the Tooth Fairy visited me … I only got 50 cents!” the treasurer told a Victorian chamber of commerce event.

His Labor shadow, Jim Chalmers, also reportedly said his own children got $20 a tooth. It seems nobody is safe from inflation, not even the fairytale kingdom.

Thousands of students around the country left class for the latest School Strike 4 Climate on Friday. Against the backdrop of the election, students and supporters called for more and faster action on climate change – with the major parties both committed to 2030 emissions reduction goals below that which climate scientists say is necessary to halt irreversible global heating. Some protesters took the opportunity to reference Morrison’s (cooked or not?) chicken curry.

Journalists are testing Labor leader Anthony Albanese on his ability to recall policy details and to stand up to the press pack, but are these the right questions to ask to assess whether he’s fit to be prime minister? Political editor Katharine Murphy and Jane Lee discuss how much the political theatre of the election campaign matters for your vote.

Sorry your browser does not support audio - but you can download here and listen https://audio.guim.co.uk/2020/05/05-61553-gnl.fw.200505.jf.ch7DW.mp3