Day 18 of the federal election campaign

FEDERAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN: DAY 18

WHERE THE LEADERS CAMPAIGNED:

* Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull: Rockhampton, in the seat of Capricornia the coalition holds with a wafer-thin margin of 0.8 per cent.

* Labor leader Bill Shorten: Darwin, in the marginal seat of Solomon held by Country-Liberal MP Natasha Griggs by 1.4 per cent.

WHAT THE COALITION TALKED ABOUT:

* Plans for more dams in Queensland.

* Labor's economic record; its leader "Billion Dollar Bill" and his "spendometer".

WHAT LABOR TALKED ABOUT:

* New indigenous health commitments.

* An age-friendly policy for older Australians.

* $10 million towards a learning and leadership centre run by AFL legend Michael Long.

WHAT MADE NEWS:

* PM emphatically denies there is a link between the Indonesian government and people smuggling.

* Labor dumps its plan to restore the schoolkids bonus after it ends in July.

* Treasurer Scott Morrison insists Labor still has a black hole in its budget costings despite opposition backdowns on the schoolkids bonus and age pension reform producing an $8 billion saving.

* The number of Australians being paid pensions while living overseas has almost tripled in two decades, costing taxpayers nearly $800 million a year to maintain.

* Telstra wins the contract to provide Australia's first national cervical and bowel cancer screening register.

THEY SAID WHAT

"I'm just stating the bleeding obvious."

- Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce about the link he drew between a temporary ban on live cattle exports and an increase in asylum-seeker boat arrivals from Indonesia.

"At best, it represents an over-analysis of the subject."

- Former Indonesian foreign minister Marty Natalegawa responds.

TWEETED:

@billshortenmp: "Let us find the time - and make the effort - to ask why Australia sends more young Aboriginal men to jail than to university."