Federal election 2022: Hung parliament in the offing? Better finally talk climate action then

The ghosts of elections past have returned to fight again in 2022 with Prime Minister Scott Morrison raising the spectre of asylum seeker boats and Labor leader Anthony Albanese leading off on a return to "Mediscare".

There are also scare campaigns bubbling along on the government side of a Labor retiree tax and on that Labor side over potential expansions of the cashless welfare card.

It is not easy to listen to the negative lines of attack, but it is hard to really blame the leaders when it has worked for them before.

On border protection, the major parties are basically in lockstep in supporting the Morrison government's Operation Sovereign Borders but Labor does not support temporary protection visas for people found to be refugees. It prefers regional resettlement instead, which the government already does as well.

After a spot of temporary confusion by the Labor leader over visas, Mr Morrison was in his happy space talking about Labor, "losing control of borders" and giving a "green light" to policy failures.

"Just bear with me," he said, as he implied - with completely no basis - that the ALP will restart the boats.

Over in the Labor camp, the proposed new health minister or spokeswoman (depending on the election result) Anne Ruston has reignited the almost election winning "Mediscare" line.

Talk of messing with Australia's universal healthcare system - that was plans to outsource the management of Medicare's back-office business - almost lost the 2016 election for the Turnbull government. And that was helped by robocalls and text messages.

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As has been pointed out by Labor, Ms Ruston has said in 2014 - when the Abbott government was trying to introduce a Medicare co-payment - that she believes Medicare is "unsustainable". She has been having a hard time since Sunday ruling out plans to cut Medicare.

It took several goes on Sunday before she said this, "Our government has been absolutely clear that we are not cutting Medicare."

Psst.

There's a particular something not really being discussed by the major parties in the federal election.

A little something that has been called by David Attenborough, "The biggest threat to security that modern humans have ever faced" and something that always features at the top of polls of election issues.

There's a lull in major party discussion on this little something, as every time, it seems, they talk about this thing it is used as a weapon.

It is sadly obvious, even as Australia experiences devastating floods and fires, it is just too hard to have a mature debate about climate action.

But hey want to talk about policy? The policies are there, but it is not a policy heavy election, with the major parties shifting to full negative campaign mode.

A mature debate needs to be had on climate change now as Australia could very well be heading to a hung parliament.

Polls show Treasurer Josh Frydenberg is in a spot of bother in his Melbourne seat of Kooyong. Climate 200 backed challenger Monique Ryan wants Australia's greenhouse gas emissions reduced by at least 60 per cent by 2030, "in line with Zali Steggall's Climate Change Bill".

That's a bare minimum for either the Coalition or Labor to get her over the line to guarantee supply. And at 26-28 per cent below 2005 levels and 43 per cent, respectively, neither side is anywhere near that signature request.

In the past day, Mr Albanese has talked of Australia's becoming a "renewable energy superpower for the world" when asked about campaign stumbles, while Mr Morrison talked of "management of fuel loads" as an example of climate action. That's about it.

Both sides insist they are in it to win, but neither have ruled out deals with "teal" independents, if need be.

If we are not seriously talking in the election campaign about climate action, we may well have to straight after.