What we learned, Wednesday 30 April
We’re going to wrap up the blog for the day, thanks for spending the day with us. It’s been a frantic ride as we all careen towards election day, but as a reminder, here’s what happened today:
The Coalition have been on the attack today over accusations that if re-elected, Labor would try to legislate an Indigenous voice to parliament. It comes after comments from Penny Wong to a Betoota Advocate podcast where she spoke of her disappointment the referendum had failed and said that she thought future generations would look back on opposition to the voice in the same way that people now look back on opposition to same-sex marriage. Albanese has ruled out legislating a voice.
The Coalition have seized on these comments, with Peter Dutton saying today: “If you want to understand what this government would do with the Greens, if they get elected, they will introduce the voice by legislation. We will block it. So if you want to vote for Labor and the Greens, you get the voice.”
Peter Dutton has ruled out offering a cabinet post to Pauline Hanson in minority government, despite One Nation doing a preference deal with the Liberal party. The opposition leader said he “wouldn’t be mucking around” with independents and minor parties. The preference deal with One Nation has come up a few times today in interviews with Coalition members, including with Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie who said she “doesn’t know” whether Pauline Hanson’s Senate burqa stunt was Islamophobic, adding: “People can wear what they like, we are in a free country.”
Peter Dutton has taken another swipe at the national broadcaster, saying that people looking to host a good election night party need alcohol (consumed responsibly, he adds) and “not watching the ABC”.
Sussan Ley has confirmed the Coalition’s costings will be released tomorrow. Labor has been attacking the Coalition for not having yet revealed its numbers, claiming the opposition will have to “cut” services to pay for their nuclear plan.
Donald Trump has confirmed he’s aware that Anthony Albanese is keen to talk to him about tariffs, telling reporters outside the White House: “They are calling and I will be talking to him.”
And in one of the weirdest twists of the campaign, Albanese received an endorsement today from Joe Exotic, AKA the Tiger King, which he was asked about after a National Press Club speech. He dodged the question of whether Labor had sought or paid for the endorsement from the convicted murderer and Netflix star, but when pressed said “I think the point of that question was to ask the question rather than to get a serious answer – I hope!”
Updated
Tax offset policy could complicate Australia’s tax system, expert says
Continuing from our last post:
It’s worth noting the Coalition’s proposed tax offset for new small businesses may not blow that big a hole in the budget – in part because very few businesses may even be eligible.
The policy is part of a Coalition promise to increase the number of small businesses which are defined as those with under 20 workers and less than $10m in annual sales, by at least 350,000 over the next four years.
That’s a wide range, capturing 97% of businesses in Australia. But only a small share of those are making profits above their expenses, let alone in their first three years, the ANU’s Robert Breunig warns:
“Most small businesses in Australia don’t actually make a [taxable] profit, so this isn’t going to affect them … It’s really benefiting a very, very narrow part of the business community, and one that may not actually need that kind of stimulus.”
Breunig said the measure would further complicate Australia’s unbalanced tax system in favour of small businesses:
We have a bit of a fetish about small businesses … It’s better to have rules that apply equally to everybody.
Accounting body CPA Australia’s business adviser, Gavan Ord, agreed existing and many new businesses wouldn’t benefit from the tax break but said they could gain from other Coalition-proposed help for business:
Existing businesses will miss out [but] Australia needs to encourage the establishment of more new businesses … The policy intent is sound.
Updated
Experts warn Coalition’s proposed tax breaks for small business could blow out into billions
We’re expecting the Coalition to release its policy costings tomorrow, and there’s one proposal that deserves a closer look, tax experts say.
One Coalition-proposed tax break for new small businesses could blow out into the billions depending on how tightly it’s designed.
The opposition has said it would let some new companies pay as little as 6.75% tax on profits in their first year, at a cost to the budget of $214m over four years, or about as much as its tax-deductible business lunches policy.
But the tax break could cost double that or more if existing businesses made themselves eligible by restructuring or just de- and re-registering to become ‘new’, said taxation professor Chris Evans, from the University of New South Wales:
It would be a multiple of that [$214m] if it were abused … If I’m not operating as a company, the first thing I’m going to do is incorporate in order to be able to access this.
Asked whether existing businesses that de- and re-incorporated or would be eligible for the scheme, the Coalition said it would consult on the legislation’s design and would include integrity clauses to protect against “artificial arrangements”.
But Evans said businesses had historically found ways to get around such clauses and some would still try to access the break, blowing out costs. Robert Breunig, director of the Tax and Transfer Policy Institute at the Australian National University made a similar warning:
You can put in place lots of regulations and rules and tell people not to do stuff, but when you create strong financial incentives to do things the incentives tend to have a big effect on behaviour … It would be really hard to control that with integrity measures.
Updated
Legislation introduced to give Queensland police ability to issue on-the-spot domestic violence orders
Turning away from the election for a moment:
Queensland police could be handed the power to issue an on-the-spot 12-month domestic violence order under new legislation introduced into parliament today.
A person issued a “police protection direction” would be bound by a number of conditions, including not committing domestic violence. They might also be issued other orders like that there be no contact with a named person.
Unlike other domestic violence orders, it wouldn’t require approval by a judge.
Queensland police have been found to have regularly misidentified the victim and offender in domestic violence matters. In 2017, the domestic violence death review revealed that of the 27 women murdered by an intimate partner in Queensland, nearly half had been deemed the aggressor by the police.
The CEO of the Queensland Council of Social Service, Aimee McVeigh, said the legislation is “dangerous and will not improve the safety and well being of women and children”. She said the government should instead implement the recommendations of numerous inquiries into domestic violence.
This reform is squarely focused on police efficiency, and we do support the police and the Queensland Government looking at ways to make the system more efficient, but that shouldn’t come at the cost of the safety and wellbeing of women and children.
Minister for Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence, Amanda Camm, said there were “significant safeguards” included in the bill, such as requiring a more senior police officer to sign off on an order.
She said:
Police have come a long way. I speak to young police officers who are so engaged in their training around domestic and family violence and want every tool at their disposal to protect victims, and that is what this legislation is about.
The police minister, Dan Purdie, said about 97% of the 60,000 orders put before the court each year were approved unamended.
“So the court stats indicate that, overwhelmingly, police are getting it right,” he said.
Updated
ASX 200 closes at highest level since early March
The Australian share market has risen for a rare five days straight to close at its highest level since early March, as Australian businesses shook off an inflation surprise and continued tariff uncertainty.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 surpassed 8,100 points early on Wednesday then lost some ground after data showed inflation had been a little stronger than expected in the first three months of 2025, before recovering those losses and landing at a level it hasn’t seen since 5 March.
On a longer view, though, the market is still no higher than it was in September last year, because gains at the end of 2024 were wiped in a long slide following Trump’s inauguration.
Commonwealth Bank led the big four banks in gains, with its share price picking up 2.22%, while Coles Group lost -0.75% after releasing its results today, and goldminers including Ora Banda and Northern Star lost some of their recent gains.
Updated
Bridget McKenzie says she ‘doesn’t know’ whether Pauline Hanson’s Senate burqa stunt was Islamophobic
Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie has refused to answer questions about whether she considered it Islamophobic for Pauline Hanson to have worn a burqa into the Senate, as she did in 2017, saying “people can wear what they like, we are a free country”.
The comments came as McKenzie was quizzed on the ABC about the Nationals preferencing One Nation in some seats, while preferencing the Greens last.
McKenzie said the Nationals were “very, very comfortable to be putting the Greens at the bottom of our preferences”, saying of the party: “they are antisemitic, they are anti-mining, anti-agriculture … and everything that makes us great.”
But when asked by ABC presenter Patricia Karvelas if McKenzie thought One Nation was Islamophobic, McKenzie replied: “I don’t know. That is a question you need to ask Pauline Hanson.”
“How can you not know? She came into the parliament wearing a burqa,” Karvelas said. “When she did walk in, in the burqa, did you think that was offensive?”
“I can’t comment, I guess, PK, on what people choose to wear … I don’t agree with what everyone chooses to wear,” said McKenzie, adding later: “People can wear what they like, we are in a free country.”
Updated
Chalmers ‘not taking any vote for granted’ despite favourable polls
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, has said he does not take the outcome of the election for granted, despite polls that have increasingly been suggesting that the result will fall Labor’s way.
“I don’t take the outcome on Saturday for granted. I think it will be extraordinarily close … we are not taking any vote for granted, any outcome for granted, we think it will be close,” he told the ABC.
Chalmers said that after after his National Press Club speech in Canberra today, the prime minister would visit six states over the next couple of days, which showed “we will work hard for every vote”.
Updated
Liberals ‘very clearly not’ the same party as in 2022, James Paterson says
James Paterson, the Liberal campaign spokesperson, has said the Liberal party is “very clearly” not the same party as in 2022.
“Very clearly we’re not, we have a new frontbench, we have new policies, we have a new agenda and our agenda is about getting our country back on track,” he told the ABC.
Asked about Anthony Albanese’s comments that Australia needs stability at a time of global uncertainty, Paterson said the change that a lot Australians are worried about is “a change to a re-elected Albanese government, but this time in minority, having to cobble together some kind of Coalition arrangement with the teals and the Greens”.
What we are offering the Australian people is a strong Coalition … [that] would govern in our own right.
Paterson has also disputed claims that the Liberal party’s preferencing of One Nation candidates in some seats was similar to Labor’s preferencing of Greens candidates, which it has been critical of, with Dutton calling the Greens an “antisemitic Jew-hating” party.
Paterson says that though One Nation is preferenced second in some seats on Liberal how-to-vote cards, those were not in any seats that One Nation had a shot at winning, which he said differed from seats where Labor has preferenced the Greens.
“Our preferences will not go to elect any One Nation candidate anywhere [in the] lower house around Australia,” he said.
Updated
Albanese responds to ‘Tiger King’ endorsement
And here’s video of that moment we mentioned earlier in which Anthony Albanese responded a question about being endorsed by Joe Exotic, AKA the Tiger King.
Updated
Dutton claims Labor would bring back ‘voice by legislation’ despite Albanese ruling it out
Peter Dutton has once again filled up the campaign car of his local candidate with petrol, in another campaign visit to a truck stop.
In Scoresby, in Labor-held Aston, Dutton pumped $66 of unleaded into the car of Liberal challenger Manny Cicchiello. As we said earlier, it’s his 15th petrol station visit of the campaign, to promote his plan to cut the fuel excise by 25 cents a litre.
Giving some brief comments to the media while he fuelled up the campaign car, Dutton was critical of Anthony Albanese’s speech to the national press club today, claiming the PM was ignoring the cost of living crisis.
“Everybody is worse off under this prime minister, and only by voting for your Liberal or National candidate can we get rid of a bad government,” he said.
We asked Dutton a quick question about the voice referendum, and whether the Coalition still supported local and regional voices, which Dutton said in 2023 was their policy. It comes after comments from Penny Wong to a Betoota Advocate podcast where she spoke of her disappointment the referendum had failed. Albanese has ruled out legislating a voice.
The Liberal leader did not directly answer our question, but said if the government tried to legislate – which again, they’ve ruled out – the Coalition would block it.
“If you want to understand what this government would do with the Greens, if they get elected, they will introduce the voice by legislation. We will block it. So if you want to vote for Labor and the Greens, you get the voice,” he claimed.
“Say no to the voice by legislation.”
In August 2023, after opposing the voice referendum, Dutton told The Australian newspaper: “The beauty of our proposal is we propose constitutional recognition as well as a local and regional advisory body in legislation, not in the constitution.”
“In legislation you can make changes. No law can change the constitution,” he said.
The opposition leader has since scrapped his plan for a referendum purely on symbolic recognition.
Updated
Thank you all for joining me on the blog today, I’ll leave you with the fabulous Kate Lyons to steer you through the rest of the afternoon.
I’ll see you back here bright and early tomorrow morning!
Voting 101: How do you actually vote on election day? – video
More than four million of you have already voted, but that means there are still approximately 14-ish million people who need to head to the ballot box very soon.
So, for anyone who needs an introduction or refresher on what happens on election day, and what the ballots all mean, Matilda Boseley has you covered:
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Turnbull reiterates call for Aukus ‘backup plan’
Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, who’s spent much time in the public eye recently criticising the Aukus deal, is on the ABC, again calling for Australia to consider a backup plan.
Turnbull calls it a “terrible” deal, and says going back to the French would be “ideal”, though pretty difficult.
Now for anyone who’s fuzzy on the details, Turnbull had originally negotiated a deal for diesel (rather than nuclear) submarines with France.
That then got torpedoed by his Liberal successor, Scott Morrison, who negotiated the Aukus agreement for nuclear subs with the US and UK.
Turnbull says:
French subs would be one [alternative], but I think it’d be very hard to execute … I think that would be the ideal plan, but execution difficulty, probably 11 out of 10. But I think the other alternatives are ones that involve no submarines.
Turnbull later clarifies that he’s not saying Australia should “pull out” of Aukus, but that Australia could be faced with a decade or more of having no submarines if the US struggles to increase its building of submarines.
Updated
Dutton visits 15th petrol station of campaign
Peter Dutton continues his campaign swing through Melbourne’s suburbs, and you’ll never guess where the bus has stopped now.
That’s right, we’re now at Dutton’s 15th petrol station photo-op of the campaign – that’s 15 – at a truck stop in Aston. Dutton’s plan to cut the fuel excise by 25 cents per litre is getting a major airing in his campaign material, the backdrops of his press conferences, and his photo opportunities.
More to come shortly, but you can bet that he’ll fill up the tank of a Liberal campaign vehicle, then go inside and buy a few snacks from the shop – just like he’s done for the previous 14 petrol station visits.
The truck stop was playing Abba’s “SOS” over the stereo when the media bus pulled up.
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One Nation leader says Dutton needs a ‘backbone’
Pauline Hanson says she trusts Peter Dutton but he lacks a backbone, after her One Nation party made a preference deal with the Liberals.
Hanson told 2GB radio earlier today that Dutton has been “very lax” in getting his message to voters.
People don’t warm to Peter Dutton, he’s been very lax in getting his message across.
I like him, he has got fantastic principles and policies and I do trust him … but the fact is that he’s sitting on the fence. I wish he’d come out with a backbone and be the leader that people want, and stand up and stop back-pedalling.
But Coalition strategists have told Guardian Australia that Dutton’s move to put One Nation above Labor and other parties on some how-to-vote cards could damage support in metropolitan and inner-city areas.
You can read more on that report from Tom McIlroy here:
Updated
Dutton campaign makes a pit stop at Melbourne patisserie
The next stop in the frenetic final week of Peter Dutton’s campaign is Montano’s, a patisserie and cafe in the seat of Aston in outer-eastern Melbourne, write reporters on the campaign trail.
Liberals are trying to regain the seat after it was sensationally won by Labor at a 2023 byelection, securing a margin of 3.6%.
Liberal candidate Manny Cicchiello joined the opposition leader on Wednesday afternoon with Victorian Liberal senator Sarah Henderson.
Arriving at the patisserie, Dutton received a mixed reception with one passerby muttering “here comes the big potato” while a car tooted its horn in support driving past.
Inside, Dutton and his wife, Kirilly, greeted the proprietors, Helen and Nick Montano, who have operated the business for almost 10 years.
The group went behind a refrigerated display case filled with cakes, tarts and other treats, with Dutton proceeding to stuff two cannolis, a chocolate eclair, a jam donut and piece of vanilla slice into a takeaway container.
“We need a bigger box,” Dutton remarked, prompting Henderson to later comment: “It’ll be as sweet as victory on Saturday.”
In a now-familiar routine, Dutton then quizzed the pair of small business owners about the tough operating environment facing their cafe.
“It’s been really tough,” Montana replied, saying that the elevated cost of living had dented demand from local consumers. “Everyone is spending money on their mortgages, on their bills,” she said.
Updated
The campaign trail doesn’t often follow fashion, but it seems Peter Dutton’s tie has drawn a little attention today.
You can see in the photo below, Dutton is sporting a tie by luxury menswear label (and favourite designer of former Labor PM Paul Keating) Zegna.
That tie doesn’t seem to be on the Australian site (it is available in Hong Kong), but similar silk ties retail for about $605.
One keen-eyed reporter noticed the designer accessory during Dutton’s earlier presser at a Melbourne charity. At the end they yelled out, “Mr Dutton, what’s on your tie?”, but the opposition leader walked away.
Updated
Dutton has yum cha in Chisholm in bid to woo Chinese Australian voters
While Albanese’s been at the National Press Club, Peter Dutton has been in the seat of Chisholm, which the Liberal party is hoping to win back from Labor.
Trying to woo the significant population of Chinese Australians in the area, Dutton had some yum cha.
The Liberal party suffered backlash from the Chinese community in areas like Chisholm, with its hawkish stance on China.
And particularly over its language on China, following the outbreak of Covid-19. You can have a bit more of a read of that here.
Updated
Victorian premier Jacinta Allan weighs in on federal election
The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, has held a press conference at Melbourne Museum to mark the opening of the new Lego Star Wars exhibit.
It’s the first press conference she has held in a week and may be her last before the federal election, so she has been asked how she thinks the poll will go. Federal Labor had been very concerned early in the campaign that her government’s unpopularity would hurt their chances in the state but have been more optimistic recently.
Allan says:
Victorians are weighing up their choices, a choice between a Labor government that has invested significantly in rebuilding a GP system that was brought to its knees by a Peter Dutton Liberal National outfit that cut into our health system, that cut into our GP system, that cut into infrastructure here in Victoria and has said they would do it all over again.
Asked whether she got the impression voters were differentiating between state and federal Labor, she said “people weigh each election on its merits”. Allan went on:
Every election is a point in time … It’s a very special thing that we can live in a democracy, and we all can equally exercise our right to vote, have our voice and have our say on what is important.
As for the rumours federal Labor had requested she lay low in recent weeks, Allan said she had not received any directive then talked reporters through her recent commitments.
It’s been a very busy program.
Updated
PM shoots down idea of negotiating deal with crossbench in event of hung parliament
Our reporter Dan Jervis-Bardy asks the PM whether Labor – in the context of global uncertainty – would consider negotiating a deal with the crossbench in the event of a hung parliament, rather than negotiating on a legislation-by-legislation basis.
Albanese gives him a one word answer, “No”.
Dan asks him to elaborate.
I’ve elaborated every time, as I did before the 2022 election. I was asked the same thing. I mean I do find it quite ironic that a group called “the Coalition” are speaking about majority government.
There’s more back and forth on getting supply and confidence to govern in a hung parliament.
If no party wins an overall majority, the Coalition and Labor will look to members of the crossbench to guarantee “confidence and supply” (and you can read more about that here).
Albanese says again that he’s “campaigning for a majority”.
Another journo gets the final question, asking whether Albanese would undertake a review of Aukus in the event of a hung parliament, which several crossbenchers have been calling for.
Albanese gives another one-word answer, “No”.
And that ends his National Press Club address.
Updated
Albanese asked about endorsement by Tiger King’s Joe Exotic
Celebrity endorsements aren’t particularly common in Australian politics, and this one’s come right out of the blue.
The Tiger King’s Joe Exotic – who is currently in jail for murder – has taken to social media to tell his supporters to vote for Albanese:
Keep Australia safe and awesome. All of my friends in Australia vote for @albomp
A journalist asks Albanese how he feels about that endorsement … cue lots of laughter and some confused looks in the audience.
“Good to see some levity!” Albanese says.
I have, ah, a very passionate, ah, support for one particular animal – Toto – and I’m looking forward to voting with her on Saturday.
The journalist follows up, asking, “No payment to the Tiger King”? Albanese replies:
He’s in jail. Isn’t that the question? I wasn’t even aware of I think the point of that question was to ask the question, rather than to get a serious answer, I hope.
And Albanese adds that wasn’t a criticism of the questions. It’s nice to have something to chuckle at.
Updated
Albanese won’t revisit EV tax break
While the Coalition has promised to repeal the tax break for electric vehicles (after previously saying they wouldn’t change the policy), Albanese is asked by Andrew Probyn whether Labor would consider changes when it costs the country half a billion dollars a year.
Albanese says the reason it costs so much is because it’s been “very successful”.
One of the reasons why it costs more is that it’s been very successful. Is that more people are participating in it. And it was designed to support lowering our emissions by addressing a change which is occurring.
Updated
Don’t ‘verbal’ the foreign minister when she’s in the room, says Albanese
Chloe Bouras asks the PM about Penny Wong’s comments to the Betoota Advocate podcast on the voice referendum.
She says: “Wong seemed to suggest it may not be gone for ever. Which is it? Where to here on recognition and reconciliation? Do you agree with the comparison to marriage equality?”
Anthony Albanese says that’s not what Wong said “at all”.
She’s right here, so probably not a great idea to verbal Penny Wong while she’s sitting there.
Chuckling, he adds:
I’ll just give you that tip for free. Ask any of the cabinet colleagues – they’ll explain to you why it’s a bad idea.
To the substance of the question:
We supported a voice to parliament. I did it out of conviction. Not out of convenience. It’s not easy to win a referendum in this country …
We put it to the Australian people, which was the gracious request. I think that was something I said I would do, and we did. We also said we would respect the outcome, and we have. What we are now working towards is practical reconciliation.
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PM asked about Labor’s ‘Mediscare’ campaign against Dutton
Mark Riley asks whether the PM believes that voters are better off than they were three years ago.
It’s a line the opposition has been using has made a centrepiece of their attack on Labor.
Albanese starts off saying that Australians would be “worse off” under Dutton, but then says Australians are looking forward.
Just as people vote either this week or on Saturday, what they’ll consider is who has the best offer for them in three years’ time.
There’s been plenty of attack on the opposition in his address, and in his answers to journalists’ questions.
Albanese has been accused of using a “Mediscare” campaign against the Coalition, and Andrew Clennell asks why Albanese has had to “exaggerate” in this campaign.
Just days ago, he [Dutton] was saying that Medicare is not sustainable. Sussan Ley has stood up in the parliament and spoken about the Liberal party doesn’t value things which are free. Medicare’s free. Free Tafe.
Clennell pushes back, asking if Albanese is saying that Dutton will abolish Medicare. Albanese says:
He tried to abolish bulk billing. He tried, and then he tried, also, to introduce a tax – a payment – every time people visited a hospital.
Updated
PM asked about tax treatment of trusts
Albanese is drawn back to the question of increasing the tax base by Phil Coorey.
Coorey says it’s a “known secret” Treasury wants to go after the tax treatment of trusts – and was something Labor looked at in 2019. Is that something Albanese would consider after the election?
The PM starts the answer by talking about lower taxes, which is the opposite of increasing the tax base.
After a pushback, Albanese then tries to turn the attention back to the Coalition by accusing them of not having released their costings, while saying Labor’s plan is fully costed.
What about the proposed changes to tax on superannuation that the government tried to legislate in this term, asks Tom Connell.
Albanese won’t bite on that either, and says Labor’s costings are “out there”.
Sarah Ison also follows up with a question on superannuation taxation reforms, asking whether Labor would pursue a “compromised version” to replace taxing unrealised capital gains with a higher tax base rate for super accounts more than $3m.
Albanese says he’s not changing Labor policy at the press club.
We have our policy. We’ve had legislation. It’s been before the parliament. That’s our policy.
Updated
Albanese says Australia has ‘very strong’ regional trade relationships
Laura Tingle asks Albanese whether – in the current climate of global uncertainty – should Australia be joining a regional free trade bloc?
Albanese says Australia has “very strong trade relationships” in the region, which he says his government has built on.
He name checks Indian PM Narendra Modi, and the premier of China as having visited Australia.
We have built up really significant economic relationships, and what will be the third-largest economy in the world as well. We’ve improved our economic partnership with India. I think there’s a great deal in which that can grow. The US tariffs need to be put into perspective. Exports to the United States are under 5% of our total exports.
Tom Connell throws in a follow-up, asking whether we need a “refresh” following Donald Trump’s second ascendancy to power.
Albanese says:
You don’t need a refresh to tell any Labor prime minister, the party of John Curtin, that we need to defend ourselves.
Updated
PM sidesteps question on how to increase the taxation base
Moving on to the economy, Michelle Grattan asks what the government will do over the next decade to increase the taxation base.
The budget is looking at deficits over the next decade.
Albanese spruiks his “top-up” tax cuts to decrease the tax rate for the $18,200 to $45,000 tax bracket.
You’ll note that won’t increase the taxation base but decrease it, so will Albanese reveal whether there are other taxes or revenue raising measures that are being considered?
He won’t, and repeats the line that the Coalition will undo those top-up tax cuts.
We know that the Coalition is saying that they’ll jack up income taxes and they’ll undo that.
Updated
PM questioned about bulk billing rates
The first question from journalist Tom Connell asks about bulk billing and says the Australian Medical Association and RACGP have said they can’t see rates increasing to 90% by 2030. Connell asks how much bulk billing will increase by 2028.
Albanese says he knows the AMA “haven’t always been great fans” of Medicare, and says he’s not “shocked” that not all doctors are on board.
He won’t say a specific percentage point that bulk billing will reach by 2028, just that the aim is to achieve 90% by 2030.
Doctors under our scheme will go from getting – if they’re in a fully bulk-billed clinic, will go from earning around about $280,000 to above $400,000. The modelling that we’ve done shows that it will be in their interests to have fully bulk-billed service and throughout the country.
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Australia needs stability ‘at a time of global uncertainty’: Albanese
Hot off the heels of Canada’s progressive Liberal party winning government, Albanese makes the case for stability with Labor at a time of global uncertainty.
In times of global economic uncertainty that is the stable and responsible approach that our people deserve and our nation needs. At a time of global uncertainty, when so much in the world is unpredictable, Australians can be sure of where Labor stands and what Labor stands for.
Albanese has spent some time blaming the Coalition for their record in government.
He then takes aim at the opposition over their criticism and attacks on Labor.
The Liberals and Nationals have spent three years raging about problems that their decade in office created.
The Liberals have not learned, they have not changed.
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Labor MPs in audience for PM’s press club address
On Labor frontbench watch, we can see foreign affairs minister Penny Wong, deputy PM Richard Marles, treasurer Jim Chalmers and finance minister Katy Gallagher are here to watch the address.
I’ve also spotted health minister Mark Butler, and Andrew Leigh and emergency management minister Jenny McAllister.
Without fail, Albanese has brought his trusty Medicare card, and has whipped it out about four and a half minutes into his address.
Updated
Albanese addresses National Press Club
Anthony Albanese is addressing the National Press Club in Canberra, making an impassioned plea to Australian voters.
All the lines and arguments he makes are ones we’ve seen on the campaign trail, and his pledge “no one held back, no one left behind” is one that’s stuck since the 2022 campaign.
The prime minister starts with a broad look at the challenges that have been “thrown” at Australia from around the world.
Through everything the world has thrown at Australia over the last three years, for all the challenges our nation has faced, our government has held true to those enduring Australian values of fairness, aspiration and opportunity.
It has been less than three years since Australians voted out the Morrison government. My colleagues and I know there is more work to do. That is what drives us.
He then homes in on Medicare – a staple of the Labor campaign, and an issue Labor has used to attack the Coalition.
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Dutton campaigns in Melbourne seat of Chisholm
Peter Dutton has now come to the Melbourne seat of Chisholm, held by Labor. It’s a seat the Coalition would love to win back, if they have much chance of retaking government.
Dutton is at a Chinese restaurant, meeting leaders of the Australian Chinese community.
He’s also with Liberal candidate Katie Allen, the former MP who was unseated as the member for Higgins at the last election.
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Australian sharemarket dips and dollar gains
The Australian sharemarket has dipped and the dollar picked up after March’s inflation data came in slightly higher than analysts had expected.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 had ticked above 8,100 points on Wednesday morning for the first time since early March, but lost most of this morning’s gains to fall back towards 8,070.
Inflation was flat at 2.4% in the year to March but the less bumpy trimmed mean measure fell from 3.3% to 2.9%. That figure, which is the one the Reserve Bank keeps in mind when calling interest rates, dropped below 3% for the first time since December 2021, but came in slightly above the market’s expectation of 2.8%.
Australia’s dollar shot back up above 64 US cents after hovering below 63.9 cents, while picking up some ground against the Chinese yuan, UK pound, Japan’s yen and the Euro.
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Union asks Dutton to reveal plans for school curriculum before election
The Australian Education Union (AEU) has hit out at the Coalition for neglecting to detail plans of their flagged reforms to the Australian curriculum ahead of the federal election.
Its president, Correna Haythorpe, said the Coalition had “attacked teachers throughout this campaign, with Trump-style fake claims of indoctrination and woke agendas”.
But with only days to go and millions of Australians having already voted, they have failed to outline the actual changes they will make to the Australian curriculum, if elected to government.
With plans for school funding to be tied to a curriculum based on Mr Dutton’s ideology, the Australian people must immediately be told what the Coalition’s plans for the curriculum would look like before they vote, as promised.
Read more on this story here:
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Shoppers cutting back on treats, meat and alcohol due to cost of living, Coles says
Circling back to the Coles quarterly financial results announcement, the company’s chief executive officer, Leah Weckert, has said customers are still cutting back on certain purchases because of cost-of-living pressures.
In the media briefing earlier this morning, Weckert said shoppers were still buying fewer “treats” such as confectionary, chips and biscuits, and less meat, alcohol and bottled water.
Weckert said:
Treats sort of top of the list of things people are cutting back on.
The second most significant one is alcohol and so deprioritising drinking occasions.
Meat: so going meat-free a couple nights a week and doing a vegetarian meal, which is typically a more affordable meal for the family.
And then the other one I pulled out was bottled water, so going back to drinking tap water or filling your reusable water bottle instead of buying bottled water.
Weckert said there hadn’t been “a lot of impact” on how much fruit people were buying, as “Australians love fresh food”.
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Chalmers warns of Coalition costings ‘con job’
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has said the Coalition’s failure to release costings for its policies three days out from the election is “utterly unacceptable” and is due to the Coalition’s unwillingness to account for the “savage cuts” he says they will need to make to pay for their policies.
The reason they have not released their costings yet is because they don’t want to come clean on the savage cuts they will need to make to pay for their nuclear reactors and what that means for Medicare or pensions and payments.
Peter Dutton has said on a number of occasions the there will be cuts to the budget but he won’t tell Australians what they are until after the election. That’s completely and utterly unacceptable. We need to see the Coalition’s costings, they need to take full account of their disastrous nuclear policy, and is to be a realistic costing of long lunches and mortgage deductibility and petrol.
He also warned journalists to “keep an eye out for some dodgy assumptions around productivity, pumping up their numbers” when examining the Coalition’s costings, when they are released.
Keep an eye out, remembering David Littleproud said they’ll start building nuclear reactors the day after they are elected, make sure they have fully accounted for that … We don’t want to see another costings con job.
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Chalmers 'really pleased' as underlying inflation falls into RBA target band
Treasurer Jim Chalmers is speaking live now, responding to the drop in core inflation, announced by the Reserve Bank today which he has called a “proof of the responsible economic management, which has been a defining feature of this Albanese Labor government”.
We’re really pleased to see headline inflation in the bottom half the Reserve Bank’s target range again, at 2.4 % and especially encouraged to see trimmed mean underlying inflation within the Reserve Bank’s target and as well, at 2.9%.
This means underlying inflation is now at its lowest level in three years. This is a powerful demonstration of the progress that Australians have made together in the economy. This is proof of the responsible economic management which has been a defining feature of this Albanese Labor covenant.
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Election pledge to keep the ‘BoM of fire management’ online
Labor has been called to match a Coalition pledge to extend the life of a satellite fire mapping tool described as the “BoM of fire management”.
The North Australia and Rangelands Fire Information (Nafi) service, used by land managers across remote and regional Australia – where 99% of bushfires happen – expects to run out of funds by June.
The Coalition has committed $2.5m to keep the service running for three years. The Nationals leader, David Littleproud, said the ability to track fire activity saved “not just lives but livelihoods”.
Rohan Fisher, senior research fellow at Charles Darwin University, described the NAFI as like the “BoM of fire management” with more than 250,000 users.
John Connor, Carbon Market Institute chief executive, said the tool was a “crucial foundation” for the $80m Indigenous-led carbon abatement industry stretching from the Kimberley to Cape York, and should have stable funding.
It’s a clear public good, not just for the Indigenous carbon industry, but the whole resilience of northern Australia.
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Continuing from our last post …
Lethal humidity is a growing concern among scientists, as intolerable bouts of extreme humidity and heat are on the rise across the world. Humidity is more dangerous than dry heat because it impairs sweating – the body’s life-saving natural cooling system.
The number of potentially fatal humidity and heat events doubled between 1979 and 2017, and are increasing in both frequency and intensity, according to a 2020 study published in Science Advances.
During 2023 – which was the hottest year on record, more than 47,000 people in Europe are estimated to have died from heat, according to a study published in Nature.
A coroner found Keith Titmuss died of heatstroke after a Manly Sea Eagles pre-season training session in November 2020. You can read Scamps’ apology earlier in the blog here.
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Sophie Scamps’ full comments on lethal humidity in February
As we flagged earlier, independent MP Dr Sophie Scamps has apologised to the family of Keith Titmuss after linking his death to climate change, and the growing concern about lethal humidity.
At a doctors for the environment event in February, she was asked – as a medical practitioner – to “describe a patient or an event from your practice that started you making a connection between climate and health”.
Scamps responded that it was “hard to pinpoint a patient” but pointed to the bushfires because “we were all inhaling the smoke” and mothers were worried about the impacts on their unborn children. She then continued:
One of the things that really struck me, we’ve got this thing called lethal humidity now. With every rise in one degree of temperature, you have seven degrees increased percent in humidity. So the death of that young man, and I’m not saying – the death of that young man, the rugby league player, when it was 33 degrees, very humid day, died from heat stress after training session – that type of lethal humidity is something that the medical fraternity is getting more and more concerned about.
Apparently, the human body can survive – if it’s dry heat – up to 54 degrees Celsius, it’s pretty hot. But with high humidity, that level comes down to kind of 33C, 30C, even 31 degrees, so it’s something to consider.
She went on to note air pollution and plastic pollution, and “how that relates to dementia and our cognitive impairment”.
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Underlying inflation fall puts interest rate cut on cards
A Reserve Bank rate cut on 20 May appears locked in, after new data showed the key measure of underlying inflation dropped below 3% for the first time in three years.
Headline inflation – which includes the impact of government cost-of-living policies such as rebates – held steady at 2.4% in the year to March, the Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show.
Crucially, the RBA’s preferred gauge – the trimmed mean rate of inflation – fell from 3.3% in the year to December, to 2.9% in March.
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Dutton has ‘no knowledge’ of any Liberal volunteers’ links to Chinese Communist party
Yesterday the Australia Electoral Commission referred to its integrity taskforce footage of Monique Ryan volunteers saying they were directed to vote for her by groups accused of ties to Beijing’s foreign influence operations.
Dutton is asked if he’s confident there are no volunteers with the Liberal party who have links to the Chinese Communist party.
Dutton says he doesn’t have any knowledge of volunteers with links to the CCP.
I don’t have any knowledge in relation to that, and I mean without speaking out of school, generally if there was a concern, then the director general of Asio would raise a concern if there is somebody of concern to them. I’m not aware of any reports out of that or from the organisation.
This morning The Australian newspaper reported that the organisation in question, the Hubei association, was involved in recruiting volunteers for Labor cabinet minister Clare O’Neil.
O’Neil told Sunrise she did not make any requests for assistance from the organisation, and her office had “politely decline[d] that offer of support”.
Dutton says O’Neil, like Ryan, should refer her matter to the AEC.
I think the focus is clearly on Clare O’Neil and Monique Ryan ... There are huge issues for Clare O’Neil to address and she should refer her matter to the AEC as well.
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Dutton reiterates opposition to Indigenous voice
Asked whether the Coalition would oppose any attempt to legislate an Indigenous voice to parliament in the future, Dutton says he doesn’t support the voice.
I think the prime minister should have heard the voice of the Australian public when they voted no in the referendum. Clearly they haven’t. Now it would be one of the first items of business for a Labor-Greens government to introduce legislation to put in place the voice and treaty and truth-telling etc.
The answer is in response to comments by Penny Wong – to a Betoota Advocate podcast – reflecting on what people will think about the voice debate in the future.
She said that like the marriage equality debate, Australians would look back on the voice and say, “Did we even have an argument about that?”
Dutton and the Coalition, during the referendum debate, supported legislation for a voice over a change to the constitution.
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Dutton rules out offering cabinet post to Pauline Hanson in minority government
Pauline Hanson won’t get a seat at Dutton’s cabinet table, despite One Nation doing a preference deal with the Liberal party.
Dutton says he “wouldn’t be mucking around” with independents and minor parties.
I wouldn’t be mucking around with independents and third parties at this election. I really wouldn’t. We don’t want to see a European situation where you’ve got a handful of Greens and left-leaning teal candidates holding the government to ransom.
He’s asked a follow up on whether the Liberal party shares values with One Nation, but Dutton skips over the reporter.
Like yesterday, Dutton’s choosing to avoid or ignore a lot of the follow-up questions during the presser today.
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Dutton defends members of Brethren group volunteering for Liberals
The Coalition has been questioned over involvement by the Exclusive Brethren, a secretive Christian sect that has been volunteering for the Liberal party in marginal seats, despite the fact that its members don’t vote.
Yesterday Dutton said that it allowed people of all religions to volunteer with the party.
He’s asked again whether the Brethren share the values of the Liberal party.
People of Christian faiths support both sides of politics and people of no faith support both sides of politics. People ultimately can make a decision about who they want to support in a democracy.
The reporter pushes on whether there are shared values between the sect and the Coalition, when the sect “treats women as second-class citizens and doesn’t tolerate homosexuality”?
Dutton won’t budge on the point, and says again that people of different faiths support the party.
He then attacks the Greens, calling them an “antisemitic, Jew-hating” party as he did yesterday, and says Jewish people have been “particularly aggrieved … by the antisemitism we’ve seen in our society”.
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Coalition pledges $2bn Pacific funding rise
The Coalition has promised to increase funding to the Pacific region by $2bn by increasing funding through the Australian infrastructure financing facility for the Pacific (AIFFP) in loans and grants from $4bn to $6bn.
Dutton is asked whether that’s in an effort to distance himself from Donald Trump, who has frozen significant amounts of foreign aid.
Dutton says it’s not, and that the Coalition are “good partners and good friends” in the region.
No, it’s a continuation of the support we provided in the region. Over the course of Covid we provided support to our near neighbours in the Pacific. We are good partners and good friends … We’ve invested a lot into relationships in the Pacific and with near island nations.
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Dutton swipes at Labor’s ‘big taxing’ ahead of new inflation figures
The ABS will release the latest monthly and quarterly inflation figures in about half an hour, and Dutton is asked if inflation falls, is that a vindication of Labor’s success?
Dutton says he hopes inflation does fall, but attacks Labor as a “big taxing” government.
Let’s hope that CPI comes down because interest rates have risen on 12 occasions under the government. They’ve only come back once. And a big-taxing Labor-Greens government will be a disaster for the economy.
The latest monthly CPI figure for February was 2.4%.
This morning Jim Chalmers said a headline figure with a two in front of it would be “a powerful demonstration of the progress that we’ve made together as Australians on inflation”.
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Dutton won’t say if candidate should be disendorsed over Plibersek comments
Dutton is asked about comments by a candidate in Fowler who made disparaging comments about Tanya Plibersek amid reports her daughter had experienced domestic violence.
Yesterday Dutton said that the candidate, Vivek Singha, had apologised and that he (Dutton) didn’t endorse the comments, but he wouldn’t say whether Singha should be disendorsed.
Dutton is asked again whether he should be disendorsed, having just spoken about the need to support women and children facing family violence.
Dutton: I’ve made it clear that I don’t endorse or accept the comments.
Reporter: You do endorse the candidate.
Dutton: He’s apologised for it.
Reporter: Would you call the prime minister weak if he did the same thing?
Dutton: There’s a question at the back.
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Dutton pressed on Coalition use of consultants amid planned public service cuts
Dutton won’t rule out spending more money on private consultants in the public service, following his promise to cut the sector by 41,000 staff.
What we’re going to do is spend taxpayers’ money wisely – and that’s exactly the approach that the Howard government had. We want to make sure that we respect people’s money.
The reporter pushes back, asking specifically about consultants.
Dutton just repeats the line that taxpayer dollars are spent “wisely”.
An audit found that the former Coalition government spent more than $20bn on consultants in its final year in office.
Dutton is asked for more details by two reporters, but won’t shed any further light on whether he’ll bring on more consultants.
He’s asked by the second whether he’ll guarantee there will be no cuts to Asio, the Australian Secret Intelligence Service or the Australian signals directorate. Dutton says:
Yes.
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Dutton deflects question on Trump likeness
On to questions, and there’s no doubt Trump and Canada’s election will continue to be a feature of press conferences today.
Dutton is asked about comments by Albanese on News.com.au that voters see the opposition leader as aligned with Trump.
Dutton, when asked these sorts of questions, has tried to maintain some distance with the US and says the election is only between himself and Albanese. He repeats the point:
This election is a choice between three more years of Labor under Mr Albanese, which I don’t think Australians can afford.
He doesn’t address the substance of the question on whether he is aligned with Trump.
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Dutton praises charity volunteers
Dutton is speaking to media following his tour of the charity in Dunkley.
He says the organisation has particularly helped “mums and their kids” facing difficult situations.
Finances and fights about money and stretching a family budget to places it just can’t go is a very significant element of relationship breakdowns and tensions and I really want to acknowledge the wonderful work of the volunteers here today.
Dutton then begins his campaign spiel, appealing to voters with his promise of a fuel excise cut, tax rebate, policies on tackling crime and home ownership.
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Victorian charity ‘struggling to keep up’ gets Dutton visit
Peter Dutton and his wife Kirilly have toured crisis support charity MSFIN in the seat of Dunkley, say reporters on the Coalition bus.
The charity provides essential material aid like clothes, prams, nappies, food, and household items to vulnerable families, through donations.
The Duttons were joined by Dunkley Liberal candidate Nathan Conroy for the tour before helping pack a few support boxes.
The charity receives 10-12 referrals a day and has already helped 3000 individuals since the start of the year.
Manager Charlotte Davies said the grassroots organisation, which started in a garage, was in desperate need of funding as referrals increased amid rising cost-of-living pressures.
Davies said the charity was “struggling to keep up”.
We only rely on donations to fill our shelves. It’s a really hard time for our charity.
[There are] more and more dual income families needing support.
The Liberal leader met with several volunteers during the walkthrough before helping packing food support boxes.
“Not your first rodeo? You’ve moved house a few times before?” Davies asked as Dutton was packing a box. Dutton responded: “Kirilly loves moving house.”
Davies is the only paid employee at the charity, which has relied on volunteers to operate for the past eight years.
Dunkley, in Melbourne’s south-east, is considered a key seat the party is hoping to win from Labor’s Jodie Belyea, who won it at the March 2024 byelection.
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Early voters top 4 million
Just over 4 million people have voted so far in this year’s election, according to the Australian Electoral Eommission.
With 18 million people on the electoral roll, that means more than 22% of the population has completed pre-poll.
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Coles CEO claims it is not reviewing any ‘particular’ range amid cuts
Weckert has said Coles does “not have a particular range review in play”, after suppliers raised concerns about the supermarket’s decision to get rid of about 2,500 products.
The Coles operations and sustainability officer, Anna Croft, revealed during an investor presentation last year that the company would be “simplifying” its range.
Coles later confirmed it expected to remove about 10% of its product range, a decision it said was about improving the shopping experience for customers, but some suppliers have claimed was driven by the supermarket looking to increase its profits.
As Guardian Australia previously reported, Coles then wrote to suppliers on 21 February alerting them to a “major” range review.
Asked during this morning’s media briefing for an update on the range review, Weckert said:
We don’t have a particular range review in play.
What we’ve sort of talked about in the past is we’re constantly working to optimise our range, so we want to make sure that we’re able to bring more innovation in for customers.
As you can appreciate, the one thing which is finite in our business is the amount of ... shelf space that we have.
And so when we look to bring in new products and new innovation, we’re constantly looking at: are there products that aren’t performing well that we would remove to make room for that innovation?
You can read more here:
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Coles revenue jumps to $10.4bn amid higher Easter egg prices
The Coles group has grown its sales revenue by 3.4% to $10.4bn across its supermarkets and liquor stores in the first three months of the year, up from the $10bn it recorded during the same period in 2024.
The strong results were mainly due to revenue from Coles supermarkets, which increased by 3.7% to $9.4bn, according to the company’s quarterly financial results released this morning.
Excluding tobacco, sales revenue increased by 4.7%.
In a briefing with journalists this morning, the Coles chief executive officer, Leah Weckert, said more customers were shopping online, with e-commerce sales up 25.7% in supermarkets and 18.2% in liquor.
Weckert said there had been price deflation in “number of categories”, including fresh produce items such as broccoli and tomatoes, and packaged goods including cereal, tea and cleaning goods.
She said there were other categories that were still experiencing inflation, such as coffee and chocolate, which she said was due to suppliers passing on the rising cost of ingredients.
She said:
If you take cocoa, for example, as an ingredient that has increased more than 180% in the last 12 months.
That is something that suppliers have been very proactive in passing on, and is one of the reasons that we saw Easter eggs more expensive during the Easter period.
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Australian dollar hits new high after tariff shock
The dollar yesterday reached its highest level against the American dollar since December, approaching 64.5 US cents.
It has spent nearly two weeks hovering below US64c, marking a full recovery for now from the Trump tariff-induced shocks in early April that sent it plummeting from 63c to 59c.
Inflation data out later today could see that move. Price hikes could continue to slow down after falling to 3.2% in the year to December, on the trimmed mean measure the Reserve Bank keeps in mind when calling interest rates.
The market expects that figure to fall to 2.8% in the year to March, though Commonwealth Bank analysts note a surprise higher number could push the Australian dollar higher, as it would discourage the RBA from cutting rates much further below their US counterparts.
The Australian dollar recovered its losses just a week or two after the initial tariff announcement against the Chinese yuan, UK pound, Japan’s yen and Indonesia rupiah and Indian rupee.
It still hasn’t recovered against the euro after falling from 0.58 to 0.54 in early April. At 0.56 the dollar is still only halfway back, though CommBank analysts reckon it’s “very undervalued” and expect it to push back to 0.57.
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Hume says Coalition couldn’t release costings earlier
Shadow finance minister Jane Hume has also confirmed the Coalition’s costings will be out tomorrow, and told Sky News they couldn’t have come out sooner because the numbers needed to include all their promises.
Costings can’t be released until people have finished announcing policies. Even Labor, up until a couple of days ago, were announcing $2 billion worth of payments to the states.
Host Laura Jayes asks Hume whether the Coalition will be “upfront” with voters on their costings.
So far the Coalition has promised to cut major spending programs, like the $10bn housing Australia future fund – but that fund is an “off-budget” measure, meaning that cutting it won’t have much of an impact on the budget bottom line.
Hume says (something her Coalition colleagues have repeated a lot) that her party will “guarantee” their budget bottom line will be better than Labor’s.
All of our costings will be made very clear tomorrow.
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The key security challenges facing Australia’s next government
The world is a more dangerous place.
Global conflicts have doubled over the past five years, according to Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (Acled). In 2024 alone, one person in eight across the world was exposed to conflict: political violence increased by a quarter, by factors worse in countries that held elections.
Australian political leaders of all stripes couch it in a shared aphorism: the most “challenging strategic circumstances since world war two”.
So what are the key global national security challenges the government will face after the election?
You can read our full analysis here:
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Sophie Scamps 'deeply sorry' after lethal humidity comments linked to NRL player death
Independent MP Dr Sophie Scamps has apologised to the family of Keith Titmuss over her comments in reference to his death, at a doctors for the environment event in February.
A coroner found Titmuss died of heat stroke after a Manly Sea Eagles pre-season training session in November 2020.
Scamps was accused of linking his death to climate change, saying at the event:
That type of lethal humidity is something that the medical fraternity is getting more and more concerned about.
Scamps spoke to 2GB this morning to apologise.
If there’s any distress or upset, deeply, deeply sorry, that was never … my intention at all.
She added:
I didn’t actually mention the young man by name nor did I say it was directly linked to climate change. The question was - what are doctors worried about with increasing temperatures…
And it is very unfortunate that I’ve upset the family. But it’s all about, even healthy young people, our bodies are not adapted to dealing with humidity.
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Labor minister linked to group associated with Chinese communist party, report claims
There are reports in the Australian newspaper this morning that housing minister Clare O’Neil has been linked to an organisation which been associated with the Chinese communist party and its foreign influence operation.
The Australian reports that a Chinese-Australian Labor party member had been organising with the Hubei Association to recruit volunteers for O’Neil’s electorate.
O’Neil told Sunrise this morning, on her regular panel with Liberal frontbencher Jane Hume, that her staff “did not make any requests for assistance from this organisation”.
The organisation offered assistance to the office … and my team did exactly the right thing, which is politely decline that offer of support.
O’Neil wouldn’t say whether she would refer the matter to authorities, and attacked Hume, who was pushing her to refer it.
Jane, you actually sound a bit wild right now. This is totally desperate.
The same group made headlines yesterday over links with independent MP Monique Ryan.
A video, reported by the Age newspaper, showed two people wearing Ryan T-shirts and saying Ji Jianmin, president of the Hubei Association, told them to vote for the teal MP.
Ryan told Sky News yesterday she had contacted the Australia Electoral Commission (AEC) and the Department of Parliamentary Services about the issue, and told them to investigate if there were any concerns.
Certainly no one’s been compelled to volunteer for me, but I’m grateful for those people who’ve come out to volunteer on my camp.
The AEC confirmed the matter had been referred to its integrity taskforce.
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PM would ‘be happy’ with election texts ban
Albanese takes a stronger stance on whether or not texts from political parties during the election campaign should be banned, saying it’d be a “reasonable” thing to ban them.
But (and it’s a big but) Albanese says a ban might not fit in with other “legal requirements”.
I wish that were the case. I’m not sure that that fits with our democracy and the capacity of people to campaign. Well, I certainly think that would be a reasonable thing to do…
Epstein: To ban the texts?
Albanese: I’d be happy with that, but I’m not sure that it would fit in with other legal requirements about people having access.
The PM says he hasn’t received any texts from the Trumpet of Patriots, but his fiancée Jodie Heydon has.
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PM says Dutton ‘dials everything up to 11’
On to other matters, Epstein asks Albanese about Peter Dutton’s accusations that the Greens are a “Jew-hating” party.
The PM says Dutton and the Coalition “engage in a lot of hyperbole”:
I’m not a commentator on Peter Dutton’s language. I think in general Peter Dutton dials everything up to 11. I think that is part of his character.
Epstein then turns to Penny Wong’s comments on the voice to parliament to the Betoota Advocate podcast.
Wong, reflecting on the referendum, said it might be thought of like the marriage equality debate in the future, saying “and I thought all this fuss, it will become something like, people go, did we even have an argument about that?”
Albanese says Wong didn’t imply that a referendum was inevitable:
She spoke about how people will look back on what the issues were. That’s very different from saying it’s inevitable. She did not say that at all.
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PM says ‘not at all’ embarrassing he can’t get hold of Trump
Anthony Albanese is in Melbourne this morning and is joining ABC radio.
No surprises the first question to him is on when Trump will return his calls.
Trump has said he’s aware Albanese has been trying to get in touch: “They are calling and I will be talking to him.”
Raf Epstein asks if it’s “embarrassing”? The PM responds:
Not at all … it was a light-hearted throwaway comment from the president. I assure you I’m not staying up at night trying to ring anyone at the moment. I’m in an election campaign.
I’m sure if we are successful we will have a discussion after Saturday.
Epstein asks if there’s a guarantee there will be a conversation after Saturday.
Albanese says: “No, but I’m sure that will occur.”
Epstein then plays a clip of a US reporter cold-calling the president (bold move!) and asks if Albanese would do the same (though notably Albanese seemed to imply Trump didn’t have a mobile phone on Sunday during the final leaders’ debate).
Albanese turns the question back, saying “what do you think?” – ie I don’t think he’s going to take that approach.
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What to do about those unsolicited political text messages?
As we get closer to the election, the messaging from parties is coming in thick and fast ... and to your mobile phone.
You may be one of many receiving text messages from parties vying for your vote, but one party seems to be really ruffling voters’ feathers – the Trumpet of Patriots.
ABC News Breakfast has been asking pollies this morning whether those texts can be stopped. Jim Chalmers responded:
A lot of people are raising it. I’d be lying to you if I said I think deeply about this part of the electoral law. My job is to focus on the economy.
Tasmanian independent senator Jacqui Lambie said all parties sent unsolicited texts so the laws were unlikely to change.
All the parties do it, the only thing is that Clive [Palmer] has more money. The only time you see majors come together, doing electoral reform, when it suits themselves, and they want to get the independents out. It’s filth. That’s where we’re at. They won’t change those laws because they do the same thing.
And Angus Taylor just joined News Breakfast too – his advice was to just delete them.
I understand people’s concerns. I would say … do what I do if you’re not interested in them, just delete them.
Look, if political parties want to do this, the great thing about our democracy is you can just completely ignore it.
Here’s a look at why you may be getting the Trumpet of Patriot “spam” text messages.
Seems like the status quo will continue for the time being.
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Just a drill: emergency services descend on Melbourne airport
Leaving politics for a moment…
If you’re near Melbourne airport this morning you may notice an unusually large presence of emergency services – but the airport’s operator says there is no cause for concern.
From 9am, the airport is hosting a major emergency services training exercise, running into the afternoon.
The drill is designed to simulate the response to a major aircraft crash and involves several agencies including Ambulance Victoria, the Australian federal police, Aviation Rescue Fire Fighting, Fire Rescue Victoria, Victoria police and others.
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O’Neil and Hume get pally – for a moment
A little earlier on Sunrise this morning, host Nat Barr asked Clare O’Neil and Jane Hume to say something nice about each other (it’s something she’s said she’ll do all week).
It’s also a nice break from all the testy boxing matches between all the pollies as we get to the pointy end of the election campaign.
O’Neil went first, complimenting Hume’s wardrobe.
I have lots of nice thing to say about Jane but I will choose this morning that she’s a really snazzy dresser – and I don’t say that just because we so often come on the show wearing exactly the same thing!
Hume then complimented O’Neil on her ability to juggle three young kids and life in politics.
Clare works exceptionally hard. She [makes it] look seamless and easy. It’s not easy. She is doing an exceptional job with those competing demands of family and professional life. I tip my hat to her.
Turns out it’s also Hume’s birthday today – so O’Neil also wished her a happy day.
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Wong compares Indigenous voice to marriage equality battle
Penny Wong has compared the voice to parliament to marriage equality, suggesting the public will reflect on the bitter fight over Indigenous recognition in 10 years’ time and ask “did we even have a debate about that?”.
In an interview with the Betoota Talks podcast, the foreign minister was asked about the failed 2023 referendum, when 60% of voters rejected a proposal to enshrine an Indigenous advisory body in the constitution.
Wong said the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, pushed ahead with the vote amid warnings it was doomed to fail because he was not a “pull-the-pin kind of guy”.
He thought it was the right thing to do.
The foreign minister then compared the push for a voice to parliament to marriage equality, which was finally achieved in 2017 after a long-running fight in which she was a central figure.
I think we’ll look back on it in 10 years’ time, and it’ll be a bit like marriage equality, don’t you reckon? Like I always used to say, marriage equality took us such a bloody big fight to get that done.
And I thought all this fuss, it will become something like, people go, did we even have an argument about that? Kids today, or even adults today, barely kind of clock that it used to be an issue.
Albanese shut the door on reviving the voice proposal after being asked during Sunday’s election leaders’ debate if he still believed in it.
It is gone.
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New inflation figures out today
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) will release the latest monthly and quarterly inflation data later today.
The current inflation rate for the month of February is 2.4%.
RN Breakfast host Sally Sara asks Jim Chalmers whether it would be a “failure” if that number doesn’t drop further.
Chalmers appears to give himself a bit of leeway, saying anything with a “two in front of it” is positive.
I think any headline inflation rate today with a two in front of it is a powerful demonstration of the progress that we’ve made together as Australians on inflation. If you think about when we came to office, inflation was 6.1% and it was rising sharply.
Sara then asks whether Chalmers should be giving more regard to the warning from ratings agency S&P. He responds:
I take the contributions from the ratings agency seriously, just as I take the IMF analysis seriously as well. The point that I’ve made in relation to the ratings agency is they can be reassured by our two surpluses, by the fact that we’ve got this deficit down.
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Chalmers and Wong on the Indigenous voice’s future
Treasurer Jim Chalmers says the prime minister has already ruled out establishing an Indigenous voice to parliament in a second Labor term.
Foreign minister Penny Wong spoke to the Betoota Advocate podcast about Indigenous reconciliation, and said people will reflect on the voice debate in the future, similarly to the marriage equality debate: ‘did we even have an argument about that?’.
We’ll have more on that shortly.
Chalmers was asked by the Today show a little earlier, whether he would rule out bringing the voice back.
I think the prime minister has already done that. You know, we’re looking forwards, not backwards. We were disappointed about the outcome back then, but we’ve been looking forwards and not backwards. And it’s not part of our agenda.
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Dutton quips on campaign bus mishap – and his skincare regime
Dutton yesterday cut short a press conference when asked about his previous comments critical of the media in the preceding days.
Asked about the pictures that went viral from Monday, when the tour bus carrying his campaign media got wedged on a Sydney street, Dutton praised the Murray’s company but made a light-hearted explanation of how the incident occurred.
I just think they’re drinking and eating too much on the plane, those journalists, the extra weight on the bus, that’s the only explanation.
Elsewhere in the interview, one of the hosts tells Dutton “you’ve got great skin” and asks about his self-care routine. The Liberal leader jokes “no one’s ever said that to me before”, adding that he uses “some basic moisturiser”.
I wish it were true. I’m 54 but I look like I’m 64.
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Dutton advises viewers to 'forget the ABC' on election night
Peter Dutton admits he’s “running on fumes” at the back end of the election campaign, but managed to find the energy to take another shot at the ABC during a morning FM radio interview in Melbourne.
The Liberal leader begins the day in Melbourne, after appearing on a late-night Sky News show last night, and joined Fox FM this morning for a lighter interview.
People obviously are over the ads and just want election day out of the way and get on with their lives. I get all of that.
But you know, we live in the greatest country in the world. It’s worth fighting for and protecting and defending and that’s what the debate is about.
The hosts asked Dutton for his tips for a good election night party.
I think alcohol is the first essential ingredient, I’m sure of that, responsible drinking as well, but not watching the ABC would be a good start.
For the young ones, listening at home, forget the ABC. And if you do that, you can probably start with a good night.
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Albanese and Trump will talk ‘at some stage’, Chalmers expects
The treasurer is now on ABC RN Breakfast and is facing more questions on what’s going on in the US – and why the PM hasn’t gotten a call back when it’s been reported that Trump is aware of the requests.
Chalmers says again that the government has been “engaging” at all levels with the US administration.
That engagement has been ongoing. Prime Minister Albanese has already had a couple of conversations with President Trump in recent months. We flagged an interest in more discussions, and I think what President Trump said today just reflects that.
Chalmers seemed hopeful that there would be another leader to leader call, but didn’t have details on when that could be.
There’ll be another conversation at some stage. I’ll leave it to the colleagues to give a better sense of when that might be.
Chalmers said the country was facing “volatile” times, and said it wasn’t a time to change government.
Volatile times like this are the worst possible time for a volatile leader like Peter Dutton, and I think that’s one of the things that’s at stake on Saturday.
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Chalmers says Labor ‘engaging’ with US amid reports PM can’t reach Trump
Nine newspapers report Donald Trump is aware the prime minister has been trying to call, but hasn’t yet picked up the phone.
Trump was asked by Nine papers during a doorstop whether he would speak to the PM:
They are calling and I will be talking to him, yes.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers is doing the media rounds this morning, and is asked on News Breakfast how much contact the government has had with the White House.
Chalmers says the government is “engaging” (something they’ve been saying since January).
We’ve made it really clear, James [Glenday], for some time now that we’re engaging with our counterparts in the US as the Australian people would expect us to. We’re speaking up for and standing up for our national economic interest.
He won’t provide any details on why that call hasn’t been taken.
Labor might be buoyed by the success of the progressive Liberal party in Canada’s election yesterday, but Chalmers won’t say whether they’re hopeful that the result can be replicated here.
He does use the opportunity to attack Peter Dutton, claiming the Coalition is trying to “import” policies form the US.
Ours is a different country and a different contest, but I think Australians do know that Peter Dutton has been importing his policies, his politics, his slogans from the United States, and Australians don’t want to see the Americanisation of our health and our education or our politics.
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Coalition to release costings tomorrow – Ley
Sussan Ley has confirmed the Coalition’s costings will be released tomorrow, as the party is put under pressure to reveal how they’ll pay for their promises.
Labor has been attacking the Coalition for not having yet revealed its numbers, claiming the opposition will have to “cut” services to pay for their nuclear plan.
So far the Coalition has said it opposes more than $100bn of Labor spending and promises to rewind programs like the housing Australia future fund and the rewiring the nation fund. Ley told Sky News:
Not long to wait now. Pete [Stefanovic], the costings will come out tomorrow, but let’s not forget on the matter of costings, Labor has spent $5 billion in 20 days trying to buy this election.
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Good morning,
Krishani Dhanji here with you, thanks to Martin Farrer for getting us started.
We have just three days to go now, and Anthony Albanese and much of his frontbench will be in Canberra today for the PM’s press club address. That will be the main focus of the Labor camp.
Meanwhile, Peter Dutton is starting the day in Melbourne, which we know will be crucial for the Coalition, and there are several seats the party has its eyes on to win from Labor.
It’s getting exciting folks!
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Housing crisis has never been worse – Anglicare
The affordability of rental properties has dropped, according to the latest snapshot survey complied by Anglicare Australia, and it paints a bleak picture of the rental market.
The quick findings of the survey (which looks at 51,238 rental listings) found that:
352 rentals (0.7%) were affordable for a person earning a full-time minimum wage.
165 rentals (0.3%) were affordable for a person on the age pension.
28 rentals (0.1%) were affordable for a person on the disability support pension.
Three rentals (0%), all rooms in sharehouses, were affordable for a person on jobseeker.
No rentals were affordable for a person on youth allowance.
The results come at the tail-end of an election cycle where both the major parties have been silent on rental issues.
Anglicare Australia’s executive director, Kasy Chambers, said:
Australia’s housing crisis is the worst it has ever been.
We keep hearing that this election is about living costs, but housing is the biggest cost facing Australians. The housing crisis is climbing the income ladder, and people on lowest incomes don’t stand a chance.
She said there were 74 electorates in Australia without a single affordable rental for someone on the minimum wage.
Chambers called for capital gains tax and negative gearing deductions for new investors to be phased out over 10 years.
Instead of spending billions on tax breaks for investors, the government should be building the housing we need.
If the next parliament fails to take action, this crisis will only get worse.
Trump says he ‘will be talking’ to Australian PM
Donald Trump has confirmed he’s aware that Anthony Albanese is keen to talk to him about tariffs – and says he’s planning to place a call.
The US president made the comments while leaving the White House today. Asked by a reporter if he would be “speaking to the prime minister of Australia at all”, Trump responded:
They are calling and I will be talking to him.
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Key event
Ask Me Anything podcast election special
In this special Ask Me Anything edition, our political reporter Krishani Dhanji and economics editor Patrick Commins give you the answers you need on everything from energy policy to where the prime minister should live and how your preferences work.
Listen here:
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Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then Krishani will take the reins.
Anthony Albanese has congratulated Canada’s newly elected prime minister, Mark Carney, who rode a wave of anti-Donald Trump sentiment in the country to win a comeback victory for his Liberal party. One political strategist says this morning that he will be watching the results closely to see how the Trump factor affects Australia – whether it’s a drift against the kind of rightwing policies championed by Peter Dutton’s Coalition or whether the trend away from the two major parties is reversed as voters “seek security”. More coming up.
Albanese will address the National Press Club in Canberra today as he continues with his campaign amid another poll – this time in the Nine newspapers – showing him comfortably ahead by 53-47 on a two-party preferred basis. Dutton, meanwhile, begins his day in Melbourne.
One key issue on the campaign has been housing and the crisis in the sector is “the worst it’s ever been”, a leading charity has warned as it urges governments to step up and build. Fewer than one in 100 full-time workers on the minimum wage can afford places to rent, the annual rental affordability snapshot for Anglicare Australia has found. Also today we’re expecting the latest inflation data.
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