Hello readers, and welcome to today’s election edition of Afternoon Update.
It’s the final week of the campaign and Labor is spruiking its financial management credentials as it releases the costings for its election policies.
If re-elected, Labor will save $6.4bn from “non-wage” expenses over the next term of government, the finance minister, Katy Gallagher, said, with the savings to come from further reducing the public sector’s reliance on contractors and consultants.
In unveiling the costings, the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, also called on the Coalition to release its own costings, as he labelled Peter Dutton as the “biggest risk” to Australia’s AAA credit rating and household budgets.
“It is long past time for the Coalition to come clean on their secret cuts to pay for their nuclear reactors. They need to come clean on what their secret cuts for nuclear reactors means for Medicare, for pensions, and payments, for skills and housing, and other essential investments in the budget,” Chalmers said.
Today’s big stories
Fresh from being declared the winner of the final leaders’ debate on Sunday night, Anthony Albanese began the week with a blitz of early voting centres and marginal electorates across Sydney and the New South Wales Central Coast.
This included appearances in the marginal seat of Bennelong in Sydney’s north – an electorate which elected a Labor MP in 2022, but in which the Liberals are now notionally favourites on a 0.04% margin after a recent redistribution.
Also on Monday, Albanese admitted more needed to be done to address violence against women and children in Australia. During a morning radio interview, he said listeners should watch the Netflix TV drama Adolescence, which explores the topic, and encouraged schools to screen the show.
What they said
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“That wouldn’t be a phrase that I would use.”
This was how shadow finance minister Jane Hume described party leader Peter Dutton’s accusation at the Coalition campaign launch on Sunday that the ABC and the Guardian are “hate media”.
While Hume did not embrace the characterisation of the media outlets employed by her boss, she did claim – during an interview on ABC radio – that “the ABC has and the Guardian have been very tough on [the] Coalition”.
How social media saw it
The Coalition’s signature energy policy – beyond its nuclear power ambition – has been to establish an east coast gas reserve to reduce domestic prices.
While the merits of the scheme have been fiercely contested, it has drawn attention to the local gas industry.
This observation, from the research director at progressive thinktank the Australia Institute, suggests not all local gas industry projects translate to local jobs.
The big picture
Last week, a truck hired by the Liberals to attack Labor became wedged under an overpass in Melbourne, while another truck hired by the party crashed into an early voting centre in Western Sydney.
On Monday, Peter Dutton became the focus of the latest Coalition auto mishap, when a bus that was part of his campaign entourage – carrying journalists shadowing his movements – got stuck on an inner-Sydney bike lane divider early on Monday morning.
A team of volunteers – largely camera operators, we’re told – helped dislodge the bus, before the Coalition campaign headed north to the NSW Central Coast and Newcastle, to a string of seats it’s targeting.
Watch
It’s Australia’s dorkiest election debate: should you vote above or below the line when filling out the Senate ballot paper? What difference does how you vote actually make – and do you need to number every single box?
In this episode of Voting 101, Guardian Australia’s Matilda Boseley explains what to do when you’re faced with that giant white ballot paper at the voting booth
And in other news …
Dutton claims majority of veterans don’t want welcome to country at Anzac Day ceremonies
The big issues Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton aren’t talking about this election
Labor says the CSIRO put a $600bn price tag on Coalition’s nuclear dreams. It’s not quite right
Peter Dutton still coy about details on skilled migration cuts and EV policies
Sole CCTV operator using bathroom when Bondi Junction attack began, Sydney court hears
Tracy is about to begin chemo and she’s also getting evicted. Welcome to Australia’s housing crisis
Australian election 2025 poll tracker: Labor v Coalition latest opinion polls results
Daily word game
Today’s starter word is: NINE. You have five goes to get the longest word including the starter word. Play Wordiply.
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