The Prime Minister pays his respects to the Pontiff

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The Prime Minister and opposition leader have paid tribute to pope Francis. The leaders have scaled back campaign events in light of the Pontiff's death. The decision comes despite it being a crucial day for the election with early voting opening.

Transcript

00:00Flags are flying at half-mast across the nation and the election campaign has paused

00:09but not stopped as tributes flow in for Pope Francis following his death in Rome overnight.

00:16We now know that there are plans to send the Governor-General Sam Mostyn to Pope Francis's

00:22funeral whenever that may be in the next couple of weeks because she's already going to be

00:27in Europe for Anzac Day commemorations. As you say the Prime Minister was in Melbourne this morning

00:33and he's paid tribute to Pope Francis describing him as one of the the greatest and most significant

00:40leaders of the Catholic Church and really praised him as well for some of his advocacy for social

00:46change. We did hear from Mr Albanese too making some personal reflections on his Catholic faith

00:52which is something that we don't hear all too often. He did though also reaffirm his belief

00:58in a secular democracy. Have a listen. Look I try not to talk about my faith in public.

01:07I say I was raised with three great faiths, I've said that a number of times and

01:11at times like this I think what people do is to they draw on who they are and certainly my

01:24Catholicism is just a part of me and one of the things about the Holy Father is that

01:32he for so many Catholics I think his humility for the way that he embraced the poor, the way that he

01:46embraced the social justice message that I see as the message of Jesus Christ is really important for

01:57so many Catholics. And Olivia early voting does start today. Yes so as we know the federal election

02:06isn't until May 3 but Australians are able to cast their ballots from today and we are seeing

02:13an increase in Australians opting to vote early. What does this mean for the campaign more broadly?

02:20Well it means that there is less time really for the major parties and the minor ones at that to really

02:26cement their policies in the minds of voters and try and win undecided voters over. So we have seen

02:35a bit of a fragmentation in the campaign more generally over the weekend with Easter. There are further

02:41public holidays next week with Anzac Day and also school holidays as well. So both campaigns will be

02:48very much mindful of this and really trying to drive their messages home to Australians before

02:55election day proper. As I say more generally there's been a bit more of a sombre tone to campaigning today

03:02but both leaders will go head to head tonight in the third debate of this election campaign. It will be

03:09the penultimate one before polling day.

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended