Good afternoon and welcome to today’s election edition of Afternoon Update.
In the shadow of Pope Francis’s death overnight, the federal election campaign must go on. The day was not for “overt politicking”, as Peter Dutton put it, but a moment to reflect on the pontiff’s legacy and connect with Australian Catholics. As commonwealth flags flew at half mast, Anthony Albanese began the morning with mass at Melbourne’s St Patrick’s Cathedral, after which a partially cleared campaign diary gave him time to pause.
The leader of the opposition also spent time in reflection, including at a service at Sydney’s St Mary’s Cathedral.
Both leaders will meet tonight in Sydney, for the third leaders’ debate.
With the pope’s funeral falling during the pointy end of the campaign, it is likely the governor general will attend as a representative of Australia, rather than the PM. Albanese confirmed he had spoken with Sam Mostyn, who was on her way to Turkey for Anzac Day commemorations, about heading to Rome.
Today also marked the first day of early and remote voting, with corflute-adorned polling booths opening their doors across the country. Eleven days to go, folks.
Today’s big stories
Clive Palmer’s Trumpet of Patriots party is investigating the alleged “tampering” of its how-to-vote cards after supporters of the rightwing outfit were encouraged to preference Climate 200-backed independents in several seats. Palmer said it wasn’t the first time Trumpet of Patriots operations have been “hacked” – but did not provide evidence to support claims of interference.
The Labor MP Jerome Laxale said he was “sick of seeing betting odds linked to live sport”. The member for Bennelong expressed his “disappointment” in the Albanese government’s failure to restrict gambling ads and called on the party to “honour the legacy” of the late Peta Murphy if re-elected.
Meanwhile, how might the upper house look on 4 May? In 2022, the elected Senate had a clear progressive majority. That is likely to continue in 2025 – but there are a number of close races, with potential for minor parties to pick up more seats.
What they said
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“It doesn’t suggest that either of them are actually winning the election. [The] question is who is losing it faster.”
Jessica Elgood, director at Ipsos Public Affairs, says polling data suggests neither the PM nor the opposition leader are doing a great job of winning voters over. With Peter Dutton’s approval rating at 27% and Anthony Albanese’s “not much better”, Australians don’t view either as a great politician, Elgood told the National Press Club.
How social media saw it
Today – Earth Day – it was confirmed that Santos received federal approval to start production from its Barossa offshore gasfield, off the coast of the Northern Territory. The development is projected to add more than 270m tonnes of heat-trapping CO2 to the atmosphere over its life.
“More than 100x emissions from the 🇦🇺 electricity system,” the independent senator wrote on social media.
“Our approvals system is broken. We need urgent reform.”
The big picture
And, we’re off. Pre-polling drew voters to booths around Australia today, including this one in Sydney. Early voting is on the rise, with almost a third of votes made before election day in 2022. Fun(ish) fact: in 2022, there were 12 days of pre-polling. This year, we’re a day down. Early voting centres open progressively and not all will keep their doors open until 3 May – check where and when you can vote here.
Watch
The PM popped into the Guardian Australia offices last week – and here’s the result. In this special edition of the Full Story podcast, political reporter Josh Butler and host Nour Haydar asked Albanese about Donald Trump, Gaza and, of course, Dutton.
And in other news …
Over 100 US university presidents sign letter decrying Trump administration
Ukraine war briefing: Putin suddenly open to bilateral talks with ‘Kyiv regime’
Gunman who killed 23 in racist attack at El Paso Walmart pleads guilty to murder
Daily word game
Today’s starter word is: NIGH. You have five goes to get the longest word including the starter word. Play Wordiply.
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