Voting in Australia's federal elections has officially begun, with pre-polling stations across the nation opening.
The Prime Minister received a confidence boost going into the first leaders' debate with the latest Newspoll, commissioned by The Australian [[monday 29th]], showing the contest is tightening.
The coalition gained ground in the two-party preferred vote, improving by a point, but Clive Palmer's United Australia Party is shaping as a major influence in the election.
Deputy Labor leader Tanya Plibersek says the coalition's willingness to partner up with Clive Palmer shows the level of governance it's willing to accept.
"I have been thinking a lot about Scott Morrison and Clive Palmer and the conclusion I've come to is they're just the same. Scott Morrison can afford to protect every tax loophole for the top end of town but he can't afford to pay childcare workers properly. Clive Palmer can afford to put his face on every billboard in the country, but he can't afford to pay his workers properly. They are peas in a pod," Deputy Labor leader Tanya Plibersek said.
Clive Palmer, however, says Labor's willingness to attack the Liberal party for doing a preference deal with his party is contradictory.
He says their criticism shows Bill Shorten's true nature, claiming the Labor Party had also approached him for a preference deal.
While the latest Newspoll shows Scott Morrison remains ahead of Bill Shorten as the prefered Prime Minister, when it comes to key issues such as immigration, an exclusive poll conducted by S-B-S News shows what Australians think about it.
The S-B-S News-commissioned Essential Research poll questioned more than one-thousand voters about their attitudes towards immigration.
When asked whether they saw immigration positively or negatively, 51 percent were positive, 35 percent negative, while 15 percent were undecided.
Under half of those who see immigration as a positive say it brings economic growth and just under a third say it creates cultural diversity.
Of those who saw immigration negatively, almost 40 percent think new migrants often fail to assimilate and just under 20 percent believe immigration makes terrorist attacks more likely.
