The leaders of both major parties have stepped off the campaign trail, this time to inspect flood-inundated areas of Tasmania.
It presented an opportunity for the Prime Minister to announce a disaster assistance package for affected households and businesses partly funded by the Commonwealth.
Labor, meanwhile, is challenging the Coalition to back up its budget claims by releasing 10-year policy costings, saying it will do so itself in the coming days.
As recovery efforts continue across Tasmania, the Prime Minister and the Opposition Leader have departed briefly from their election messages.
Bill Shorten observed the work of State Emergency Service staff in Launceston, then travelled to Latrobe, where two people had still not been accounted for.
"I'm particularly impressed by the professionalism of our SES volunteers, working closely, I might add, with the Tasmania Fire Service and police. But what we also see is communities rallying around each other."
In Devonport, a marginal seat held by the Liberals, appearing with Premier Will Hodgman, Malcolm Turnbull announced disaster assistance for 18 local government areas.
The aid includes immediate grants for families and longer-term help to cover the costs of housing repair, household items and temporary living expenses.
"We are activating the national disaster relief and recovery arrangements, and this provides support to households, to businesses, to farmers, of course, to local councils to rebuild infrastructure. This is funded jointly between the state government and the federal government. After the bill gets to $19 million, we pick up 75 per cent of the cost."
Meanwhile, Labor's Treasury spokesman has called on the Government to release its 10-year policy costings, arguing the Coalition is avoiding it because the numbers do not add up.
The Opposition says, in government, it would balance the budget in 2021, the same year as promised by the Coalition.
It is projecting more deficits over the four-year estimates period but, in the long term, promises to structurally strengthen the budget.
Opposition Treasury spokesman Chris Bowen says he wants to know what parts of the Government's proposed measures come from the 2014 budget and have not passed parliament.
He says the Coalition must detail how it will implement measures due to come into effect before the election.
"Is the Government really saying they're going to apply those measures retrospectively to the 1st of July after the election, they're going to apply those measures retrospectively? If they're not going to apply them retrospectively, then their budget figures are mythical, are mythical. And the Treasurer needs to account for those two things today: the 10-year plan and how much of his four-year plan is based on measures from the 2014 budget with heroic assumptions that they'll pass the parliament."
Treasurer Scott Morrison argues the Government has been clear enough about how it intends to achieve its budget goals.
"Our budget has a projection to return the budget to balance in 2021. It's very clear how we get there. And the trajectory of our deficits falls to less than $6 billion over the budget and forward estimates. And how those figures are arrived at are there for everyone to see in the budget."
The Greens have focused on child care on the day, proposing policy they say recognises families need more help with associated expenses.
But they say they also believe the current funding system separating the Child Care Benefit from the rebate is unsustainable.
Early childhood spokeswoman Sarah Hanson-Young says the Greens' plan would bring $370 million a year to the budget.
She has told Sky News the party wants to ensure low- and middle-income families can afford child care.
"We want to work towards a single means-tested payment to ensure that families that need the most help get it but, also, that no child is left behind. We need to make sure that we don't just see child care as some type of babysitting service, that it is part of the early learning, that it is the important steps of education before children get to school. And in that sense, we're saying we need to guarantee access to 24 hours a week for every child and that the level that parents would be expected to pay for that would be based on their income."
In Sydney, a coalition of Indigenous groups and organisations gathered to release what is known as the Redfern Statement.
They are calling on the incoming government to address key policy deficiencies affecting Indigenous Australians.
Former Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Tom Calma says they want specific targets in family violence, incarceration, disability and out-of-home care.
Dr Calma, co-chairman of Reconciliation Australia, says they also want key funding restored.
"We ask that they reinstate the $534 million that was taken out of the Indigenous Affairs portfolio in the 2014 budget, and we also want them to commit to working with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leadership to establish a Department of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs."
Elsewhere, independent candidate Tony Windsor accused Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce of conflict of interest over alleged donations by the mining company Santos to the Nationals.
Mr Windsor, seeking to retake the New South Wales seat of New England from him, has questioned payments allegedly made to the party in the lead-up to the 2013 election.
Mr Windsor says the donations started after he introduced legislation to the parliament proposing federal assessments of large-scale mining applications.
"$80,000 was donated to the federal National Party. The first payment occurred on the 15th of September, 2011, three days after I first introduced the 'water trigger' for consideration into the federal parliament. Then there was a stream of 16 payments. One month later, in June 2013, leading up the 2013 election, $22,000 was actually paid."
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