What we learned, Wednesday 23 April
Many thanks for joining us for another whirlwind day on the campaign trail – here are all the main takeaways from day 27:
A Coalition government announced that if elected, it would boost Australian defence spending to the 3% of GDP over the next decade – the figure demanded by the Trump administration of America’s allies.
Peter Dutton refused to specify where the additional $21bn in pledged defence spending would be allocated, nor where the money would come from, committing only to releasing the Coalition’s costings before the 3 May election.
Speaking to reporters, the shadow defence minister, Andrew Hastie, said Australia can’t take security from the US for “granted”.
The defence minister, Richard Marles, labelled the Coalition’s announcement as a “pathetic whimper”, and the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, demanded answers from the Coalition and for them to release their costings.
Liberal frontbencher Jane Hume has promised the Coalition’s costings will come “next week”. The opposition’s election commitments now total more than $50bn – not including the new defence announcement, according to Labor analysis.
Dutton committed to redoing security checks for thousands of Palestinians from Gaza granted visitor visas in Australia, and doubled down on introducing questions on antisemitism in citizenship tests.
The Coalition also confirmed it would axe Labor’s tax breaks for electric vehicle drivers – just two days after Dutton ruled out scrapping it.
Labor announced $78m to fast-track the qualifications of 6,000 tradies, as Anthony Albanese visited his electorate of Grayndler in the morning.
The prime minister also campaigned at Collie in WA, at the site of a proposed nuclear site from the Coalition that he says Dutton “refuses to visit”.
The health minister, Mark Butler, went head-to-head with the shadow minister for health, Anne Ruston. The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, and shadow treasurer, Angus Taylor, also faced off for the second time.
More than half a million voters have already handed in their ballots, according to the Australian Electoral Commission.
Krishani Dhanji will be back with you bright and early tomorrow morning. Until then, take care and enjoy your evening.
Updated
AEC identifies person behind unauthorised pamphlets targeting Allegra Spender
The Australian Electoral Commission says it has identified a lone individual allegedly responsible for distributing unauthorised pamphlets in Wentworth, targeting Allegra Spender.
In a statement tonight, the AEC said it would not be providing the name of the person, but it has confirmed the individual acted alone and has never been affiliated with any party, and is not contesting the election.
A written undertaking has been sought and received by the AEC from the individual responsible for the unauthorised pamphlets that they will not distribute any further copies of the material or any other unauthorised electoral matter during the 2025 federal election period. The AEC accepts this undertaking and at this stage does not consider an injunction is required.
The AEC said it is “considering its litigation options” and a final decision would be made after the election.
Voters are reminded to stop and consider the source of all messages relating to the 2025 federal election.
Coalition pledges to remove EV tax break, two days after Dutton said it wouldn’t
The Coalition has confirmed it would axe Labor’s tax breaks for electric vehicle drivers – just two days after Peter Dutton ruled out scrapping it.
On Monday, Dutton was asked if the Coalition government would repeal a tax break available to drivers who purchase an EV worth less than $91,387 through a novated lease. Here was his response:
No, we’ve said that what we’re opposed to is the government’s big tax on hybrids.
(That back-end of the statement was a reference to penalties for breaches of emissions caps under new vehicle efficiency standards, which Dutton has promised to scrap.)
But today, the tax breaks were seemingly back on the chopping block after the Coalition included them in a list of “wasteful spending” it would repeal if it won the 3 May election.
The press release – which was issued under the name of Dutton, his shadow treasurer, Angus Taylor, and the shadow finance minister Jane Hume – read:
The Coalition will: Unwind Labor’s taxpayer-funded and badly designed electric car subsidies, saving upwards of $3bn over the forward estimates and $23bn over the medium term.
Updated
Dutton makes 13th campaign visit to a petrol station
Here’s the latest from the pool reporters on the ground, as the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, makes his 13th campaign visit to a petrol station – this time in Perth’s outer northern suburbs.
Dutton was driven into the fuel stop by Liberal candidate for Pearce, Jan Norberger. A ute driver loudly revved his engine as Dutton and Norberger filled up at the bowser and chatted about the opposition’s pledge to temporarily halve the excise on fuel.
Norberger said cash-strapped voters in the suburb of Alkimos, about 40 minutes north of Perth’s CBD, had to drive long distances and would benefit from cheaper petrol.
If you’re a pensioner here, you drive.
Dutton, who had his tie removed and had two buttons undone on his white business shirt, has been hitting up service stations across Australia since early in the campaign.
He was initially criticised for failing to hammer home the fuel policy announced days before the campaign. Dutton paid $56.92 for the petrol, did not ask for a receipt, and told the service station worker that his business would receive a boost from the excise reduction.
The opposition leader’s son Tom joined him for the event but was not involved in any way. Senator Linda Reynolds was also in attendance.
Updated
Peak body critical of Coalition’s plan to reinstate childcare activity test
The peak body for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children says the Coalition’s plan to reinstate the childcare activity test is “incredibly disappointing.”
Catherine Liddle, the CEO of Snaicc – National Voice for our Children, says this would further disadvantage vulnerable children who stand to benefit from quality early childhood education and care the most.
Reinstatement is a damaging move that will ultimately set back Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children … Many families require affordable childcare to be in place before they can re-enter the workforce – this policy puts them at a disadvantage.
Closing the Gap starts with our children and with the most recent data update revealing that outcomes around developmental readiness for big school are worsening, we simply cannot afford to remove equitable [early childhood education and care] subsidies for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.
Griffin Longley from Minderoo Foundation’s Thrive by Five campaign also said the Coalition’s plan would prevent 126,000 children from accessing early childhood education.
The activity test was designed as an incentive to get into work but it did the opposite. It made life harder for families already facing significant hurdles and that is why it was abolished. Bringing it back from the dead would further disadvantage children who can benefit most from early childhood education, setting them up for success at school and beyond.
Join host Matilda Boseley and political reporter Josh Butler live on Tell Me More!
Guardian Australia’s Tell Me More live streams are your chance to ask your burning election news questions to the people who wrote that news in the first place.
The federal election is now 10 days away, it’s starting to feel a bit scary real. But do not worry if there’s stuff you are still confused about – this is a no judgment zone and there are no silly questions.
This evening our host Matilda Boseley is joined by political reporter Josh Butler to recap the past week of political news and answer anything and everything you still don’t quite understand.
If you have a question you want answered, simply pop it in the comments on YouTube or TikTok or email australia.tellmemore@theguardian.com.
Updated
Man charged for alleged NSW justice department data breach
Moving away from the election campaign for a moment:
A man has been charged after an investigation into the alleged unauthorised access of the NSW department of community and justice online registry website.
In March, cybercrime squad detectives began investigating the unauthorised access to 8,769 restricted documents held by the NSW DCJ between 29 January and 20 March.
The source of the compromise was identified as an account linked to a registered user of the online registry. At about 6.30am today, officers executed a search warrant in Maroubra and seized two laptops.
A 38-year-old man was arrested and taken to Maroubra police station, where he was charged with accessing/modifying restricted data held in a computer, as well as using a carriage service to menace/harass/offend and stalk, relating to an outstanding warrant.
He was refused bail to appear in Waverley local court tomorrow.
Updated
Alleged assault outside polling booth in Sydney
An elderly man was allegedly assaulted at a polling centre in Sydney’s inner west earlier this afternoon.
NSW police said the alleged assault occurred around 1pm in Ashfield, with paramedics treating a man in his 80s. He was taken to Royal Prince Alfred hospital in a serious condition.
A 17-year-old boy was arrested at the scene and taken to Burwood police station where he is assisting with inquiries, police said.
A crime scene has been established and will be examined by specialist police. Anyone with information, who was in the area at the time or who has dashcam or mobile footage is urged to contact Crime Stoppers.
Updated
Husic says Coalition defence announcement ‘like policy through a Costco aisle’
The industry and science minister, Ed Husic, was also up on Afternoon Briefing just a moment ago to weigh in on the Coalition’s defence announcement. He said:
What we got from the Coalition today [was] just an announcement to say that they would spend more. They cannot tell us where money is coming from and they cannot tell us where they will spend it.
Host Patricia Karvelas said the Coalition had indicated it would repeal Labor’s tax cuts to pay for more defence. Husic said this still doesn’t answer what the defence investment will be spent on.
They have a shopping list of things that they might spend it on and it sounded like when I was listening to the opposition leader it was kind of like defence policy through a Costco aisle – I will take this, I will take that – but he is not committing to it, and then suggested that we will not make procurement decisions in the middle of an election, when just a few weeks ago he announced the policy to buy F35s. Another backflip …
This is not defence policy, it is a bumper sticker and that reads ‘we will spend more’.
Updated
Should Australia contribute troops to the ‘coalition of the willing’ peacekeeping mission in Ukraine?
Andrew Hastie said Peter Dutton had already ruled this out and that there’d been “no formal offer” and “no formal strategy”.
Being an Australian who has been sent by former governments to serve overseas in a war zone, one thing I have learned is that I always want to know what our political leadership is trying to achieve. And so I think it is a very reasonable expectation that there is an offer, number one, and a clear strategy …
We want to continue training Ukrainian troops as we have done in the UK and send leading technology to give Ukrainians the edge in battle, and we will continue to discuss this issue with world leaders – or at least Peter Dutton as prime minister will. So I do not think there is any inconsistency. We will not send young Australians and put them at risk without a clear plan or strategy.
Updated
Hastie says Trump is ‘hard to predict’ and Australia must be able to defend itself
Earlier today, Andrew Hastie said Australia can’t take security from the US “for granted”. Asked what he meant by this, Hastie said Australia has always had a strong relationship with the US – but “leadership matters.”
And President [Donald] Trump is rebalancing the terms of trade and security with all of their partners, and so the message for us is we need to be able to be strong on our own two feet.
Yes, we have a deep relationship with the United States, but a lesson from Ukraine is often times you have to demonstrate strength yourself if you want your friends to help you.
Hastie said that on “all the other touch points” Australia has with the US it is very strong, but “President Trump is someone who is hard to predict and we need to be able to defend ourselves.”
We want to have a good relationship with Indonesia, with Malaysia, with Papua New Guinea, with the other Pacific islands, with Singapore. These are all important partnerships, and by investing in our defence force as well, we help them with their security too.
Updated
Hastie denies Coalition plan to lift defence spending to 3% of GDP inspired by Trump
Let’s go to the shadow defence minister, Andrew Hastie, who just spoke with the ABC’s Afternoon Briefing about the Coalition’s defence investment announcement.
The Coalition’s policy is to get defence spending to 3% of the GDP by 2035 – the exact figure nominated by the Trump administration. Host Patricia Karvelas asked if this was inspired by the request from the Trump administration for nations to reach that figure?
But Hastie said “not at all,” instead saying the “world has changed over the last five years”.
We’ve seen the rise of authoritarian powers, a war in Ukraine, we have seen strategic disorder in the Middle East and President Trump is reposturing the United States with America first, so the world has changed and Australia needs to be able to stand on its own two feet.
Updated
Mutual accusations of lying at treasurers’ debate
The sparring between Jim Chalmers and Angus Taylor in today’s debate threatened to get bogged down in mutual accusations of lying.
The flashpoint was around income taxes, and was set off by Chalmers saying taxes would be higher under a Dutton government (the Coalition have said they won’t support Labor’s promise to cut the lowest marginal rate).
Meanwhile, Taylor accused his opposite number of fiscal profligacy, but was unable to explain how the Coalition planned to pay for its expensive campaign promises, not least this week’s commitment to a major and long-term lift in defence spending.
Chalmers, for his part, said cost of living pressures were easing and there were better times ahead. As Donald Trump’s trade war casts a shadow over the global economy, Chalmers said now was the “worst time to risk” a Coalition government.
The most important thing we can do in this difficult global environment is make our economy more resilient. And we make our economy more resilient by rebuilding incomes, tax cuts for every Australian taxpayer, rolling out ongoing cost-of-living relief, and (making) our industries deeper and broader.
Taylor shot back, saying:
That picture might help the treasurer but it’s not what people are experiencing around Australia.
Updated
Taylor promises he would return ‘common sense’ to workplace rules as treasurer
Angus Taylor has promised a Coalition government will remove the roadblocks to businesses investing and hiring, saying as treasurer he would return “common sense” to workplace rules, slash red tape, and fix regulatory “overreach”.
In a sometimes spicy debate with Jim Chalmers hosted by the Business Council of Australia and the Council of Small Business earlier today, Taylor said: “we’re seeing regulatory overreach in this country, it’s holding back investment, it’s holding back productivity and the prosperity of all Australians.”
Referring to the Coalition’s plans to cut the public service, Chalmers responded:
I think if Angus really wants faster approval times, then sacking 41,000 people, some of whom are responsible for processing approvals, is a strange way to get around it.
Taylor again asked voters whether they were better off than they were three years ago, and spruiked the Coalition’s plan to make the instant asset write-off permanent for small businesses.
He stopped short of saying that as treasurer he would lower the corporate tax rate, but appeared to leave the door open to what was obviously a very receptive audience.
Updated
Coalition pledges more and cheaper flights into Darwin by relaxing foreign airline restrictions
The Coalition has put forward a plan to boost tourism and connectivity for Darwin by allowing foreign airlines to operate domestic flights to and from the Northern Territory, loosening laws that they say have kept air fares sky-high to the top end.
The opposition transport spokesperson, Bridget McKenzie, said that if the Coalition forms government, it will establish a two-year trial in the NT allowing cabotage – the name for the right of a foreign airline to sell tickets to commercial domestic services within another country.
Currently, only Australian airlines – an industry in which Qantas and Virgin Australia dominate more than 98% market share – are permitted to operate and sell tickets to domestic flights. An exception also exists for New Zealand carriers.
Under the cabotage trial, the Coalition is hoping foreign airlines, likely carriers based in Asia, would operate flights into Darwin as a first stop in Australia, and then fly on to any other Australian destination, with airlines able to sell tickets to that internal leg to locals or tourists as though they were a stand-alone domestic flight. Darwin has previously hosted non-stop Qantas flights to and from European cities.
Qantas and Virgin Australia have been staunchly opposed to loosening cabotage restrictions. In its submission to the aviation green paper in 2023, Qantas warned if foreign airlines could operate domestic flights, they would only run on the busiest routes such as Sydney-Melbourne.
However, the Coalition’s proposed trial would be limited to the NT, in a hope to challenge the dominant airlines currently serving Darwin domestically, with domestic air fares to and from the Top End notoriously expensive. It estimates it will uplift the NT economy by $101m during the trial, and bring in an additional 25,000 additional tourists. McKenzie said:
The Coalition wants to get the cost of NT flights down to boost tourism and increase options to travel to see family or do business with other states. Air travel is not a luxury for the Northern Territory – it’s a necessity. This policy is a practical, strategic step to fix what Labor has failed to address: connectivity, competition, and opportunity for the Top End.
Updated
Bowen questioned if cost of Coalition’s nuclear plan could be below $600bn
A reporter asked about a report from the Smart Energy Council, saying the Coaliton’s nuclear plan could cost $600bn – but in a best-case scenario could cost $116bn.
So if the Coalition gets it right, could the cost be below $600bn?
The energy minister, Chris Bowen, argued the Smart Energy Council had found “massive holes” in the Coalition’s plan, saying:
For example, they don’t have a first of a kind premium and they assume for a 40% smaller economy … They have assumed no aluminium, no steel making, no heavy industry, because that is what a 40% smaller economy looks like.
There are holes all through their costings. You could make the case the Smart Energy Council has been conservative because when you look at the cost blowouts right around the world … there are massive cost blowouts in nuclear, and Peter Dutton and Ted O’Brien have no answers.
Updated
PM says Coalition plan to ditch activity test will disadvantage women
Anthony Albanese is now criticising the Coalition’s plan to get rid of the activity test, saying this would disadvantage women seeking to get back into the workforce.
All of the analysis says the activity test stops women with kids being able to get back into the workforce and participate, and therefore benefit not just themselves and their families but benefit the economy as well …
This is in opposition that, if they have any policies, they are either taken from overseas or they are taken from the reversal of reforms we have put in place.
PM calls out lack of detail in Coalition’s defence announcement
The prime minister has taken another question on the Coalition’s defence investment – interjecting “what is it that they have announced?” – and said Labor has announced $57bn additional funding for defence over 10 years.
Anthony Albanese continued, saying:
I haven’t seen any specific programs from this defence announcement today. I find it extraordinary that you try to get a headline with a big number, and then there’s nothing of what the big number should be invested in. What is it that they are saying we should invest in our capability, and how should we pay for it? They’re the big questions which are there now.
We’ll always continue to invest in our capability. Later this year we will begin, for example, producing missiles made here in Australia. So there are manufacturing benefits behind our defence industry programs as well.
Updated
PM says Dutton’s team ‘in hiding’ for most of campaign
Anthony Albanese was asked for his thoughts on the Coalition’s defence investment, announced today, and their nuclear plan, in comparison to what Labor is spending?
The prime minister said Peter Dutton was “unable to say where the money would come from, except for confirming that they will put up income taxes”.
This election campaign is a choice between Labor, that will lower your income tax, and the Coalition, that will increase your income taxes – but that doesn’t cover the amount that they’ve announced as well. So on top of that, there’ll be more cuts needed.
On the defence investment from the Coalition, Albanese said Dutton “also hasn’t been able to say what the money would be used for.”
It’s extraordinary that you make this announcement with a very large figure in the tens of billions of dollars [and] you can’t say what you will use the money for …
This is an opposition that have not done the hard work – whether it’s defence policy, whether it’s nuclear policy – they can’t explain any of how it would actually roll out. And then they have a team that, for most of the campaign, are in hiding and haven’t been able to come forward at all – and [Andrew] Hastie is just one example of that.
Updated
PM flags ‘more to say’ on Labor’s plan for men’s health
Anthony Albanese said he would have more “more to say” in the days ahead about Labor’s plans for men’s health.
It comes after Labor MP Dan Repacholi called for a minister for men position, and has spoken about his experience taking weight-loss drug Mounjaro.
The prime minister said Repacholi, the Hunter MP, was an “extraordinary Australian” who has been advocating for men’s health, and said:
The fact that Dan, as a public figure, as someone who is a five times Olympian, a Commonwealth [Games] medallist, such a champion bloke is prepared to talk about that is a very positive thing, and I think he’s a great role model for people.
On the issue of men’s health, we’re going to have more to say in coming days about our men’s health strategy that we will be announcing, as I said, in coming days, and we’ll have more to say on that.
Updated
PM responds to report in The Australian about Grayndler preferences
Anthony Albanese has been asked about a report in The Australian today, taking aim at him for preferencing the Greens candidate for Grayndler second on his how-to-vote card.
The PM said the “organisational wing do the how-to-vote cards” but added:
The Australian are really obsessed with promoting the Greens in Grayndler, and I congratulate you on your determination to get them known.
But I’ll make this point – people should vote number one for the Australian Labor party … We’ll be continuing to advocate for a number one vote, not just for myself in Grayndler, but for … Labor candidates everywhere. That’s our determination, and I’m not about promoting the Greens’ candidates, whatever their name is.
Updated
PM says Dutton ‘not up for having discussions’ with locals around proposed nuclear sites
Anthony Albanese is now taking questions from reporters, and is also taking aim at Peter Dutton for not visiting the sites of the Coalition’s seven proposed nuclear sites.
He hasn’t been here. He hasn’t been to Liddell. He hasn’t been to Callide. Yesterday, he was in Orange. He could have dropped by to Lithgow, [but] deliberately went to Orange rather than Lithgow. He is not up for having discussions with local communities, and they’ve been all over the shop – they’ve said they [would] consult communities, what would happen if they agreed, what would happen if they didn’t [agree].
Updated
Bowen takes aim at Dutton for not visiting sites of proposed nuclear sites
Wrapping up his comments, Chris Bowen argued there are two reasons the Coalition “won’t talk about nuclear”.
Firstly, they’ve worked out that the Australian people know this policy is dog, and don’t want it. And secondly, because they haven’t done the work and they can’t answer the questions. That’s why Peter Dutton isn’t here. That’s why he won’t go to the nuclear sites. And that’s why he’s unable to answer basic questions.
Updated
Bowen questions where water would come from for Coalition’s nuclear sites
The climate change and energy minister, Chris Bowen, is next to speak to reporters in Collie – also taking aim at the Coalition’s nuclear policy.
He described nuclear as the “dark lord of policies – the Voldemort, the policy whose name cannot be mentioned by [the Coalition]” and said:
They will do anything to avoid talking about it. And in fact, Peter Dutton has not been within 50km of one of his proposed nuclear reactors in this election campaign.
He snuck into Collie last year, had a brief and secret meeting with the council and left without talking to the community. And after that meeting, the mayor said he was unable to answer basic questions about his proposal for Collie.
Bowen also questioned where the water will come from for the Coalition’s seven proposed nuclear reactors, saying:
He said recently he’d done the analysis. Well, if he’s done the analysis, he hasn’t released it. It’s a secret document. The opposition has no plans, no detailed analysis of where the water will come from.
Updated
WA premier touts battery project at Collie
The Western Australian premier, Roger Cook, said there had been “exciting progress” at Collie with its battery energy storage project – with 500 workers and 640 batteries, and 160 inverters.
We’ll be ready to see this site fully commissioned by October this year. And this is an important part of what we’re doing as a nation. This is the energy transition that you can see right in front of you.
When we started this project, we said it was the biggest in Australia. By the time we finish it, it won’t even be the biggest in Collie … This battery is now on track to make sure that every this summer and every summer going forward, we have strong, reliable, renewable and gas-fired energy sources which will continue to power this state into the future.
Updated
Albanese continues to criticise Coalition’s nuclear plan
The prime minister said that at Collie, batteries are being placed “very close to where the transmission lines have been traditionally”.
Anthony Albanese continued to take aim at the opposition leader, saying:
Peter Dutton talks about nuclear power, but isn’t prepared to back it up, and certainly isn’t prepared to consult local communities about whether they want these nuclear power, energy powers, in their local communities …
We think that there’s an enormous contrast at this election, and there’s a choice that Australians have: to continue to have renewables backed by gas, backed by batteries, backed by hydro … or whether we put that all on pause, pretend that this transformation isn’t happening [and] have nuclear energy sometime in the 2040s, paid for by taxpayers.
Albanese also criticised the fact Dutton hasn’t revealed details of the Coalition’s costings for its nuclear plan yet.
Updated
Albanese campaigns at proposed WA nuclear site that Dutton ‘refuses to visit’
Anthony Albanese is addressing reporters in Collie, around 200km south of Perth.
He pointed to the Collie power station behind him, which will close in a few years, and said:
What we’re seeing here is jobs created in construction – but importantly as well, clean energy. This transformation is real and it’s happening right now.
And what will not happen here, of course, is a nuclear power station. We have [Peter] Dutton, who refuses to visit this site – but he refuses to visit any of the sites, any of the seven sites [of the Coalition’s proposed nuclear reactor sites].
He hasn’t been near any of them, and you would think that there was radiation coming from these sites because he just won’t come and won’t talk about what his plans actually are.
Updated
Australia urged to walk away from gas for renewables
About three in five people believe adding renewables – such as wind and solar with battery storage – is a better solution to meet Australia’s energy needs than increased gas production, AAP reports.
More than half believe fracking brings more problems than benefits to local communities, according to a YouGov survey commissioned by environmental financing advocacy group Market Forces.
Labor has committed to opening new gas fields as part of Australia’s transition to net zero emissions, while the Coalition has promised to increase gas supply to try to lower energy prices.
Market Forces does not take positions on political parties as it focuses on the private sector, but analyst Kyle Robertson said expanding new gas fields was incompatible with the goals of the Paris agreement:
We’re still a massive exporter of fossil fuels and both major political parties support that. We need to walk away from our expansion plans, not just domestically, but also for projects that will be exported overseas.
A majority of people think expanding gas does not benefit them or the nation, the YouGov survey found.
Fracking in particular is a sore spot for many Australians, with two in three believing it is harmful for the environment and just under half opposing the practice, which is banned in Tasmania, Victoria and 15 countries due to environmental and health risks.
Almost half of them believe expanding renewable energy is a better option, while 42% believe it is harmful for the environment.
Updated
Good afternoon! Emily Wind here, I’ll be with you for the next few hours here on the blog.
Thank you for joining me on the blog today. I’ll leave you with the fabulous Emily Wind who will bring you the prime minister’s press conference in WA, and the rest of the afternoon news.
I’ll be back with you bright and early tomorrow!
Albanese to speak at proposed Coalition WA nuclear site
While Peter Dutton has been criticised for not visiting the sites and consulting with communities where the Coalition has proposed seven nuclear plants, Anthony Albanese has decided to go to one instead.
He’s landed in Collie, which means both leaders are in the west this afternoon. Collie sits around 200km south of Perth. It’s in the seat of O’Connor, which has been held by the Liberals for decades on a pretty safe margin.
He’ll be up speaking shortly.
Updated
Peter Dutton visits Perth defence manufacturing facility – in pictures
The opposition leader made the announcement to increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP in five years and 3% of GDP in 10 years at the facility.
But he was also plagued by questions on how the Coalition was going to pay for it.
Updated
Nursing body ‘disappointed’ after health ministers’ debate
The Australian College of Nursing says it is “disappointed” the leaders in the health debate were silent on the role nurses can play in addressing the primary health care crisis and did not articulate a vision for genuine reform.
Their national director of professional practice, Karen Grace, said:
The health minister and shadow health minister spoke a lot about the primary health care crisis and workforce shortages, but failed to grasp the opportunities presented by the scope of practice review.
There was no mention of the necessary primary health care reform that would unleash the potential of nurses and multidisciplinary team members to improve access to healthcare.”
ACN calls on all leaders to stop perpetuating the outdated notion that healthcare can only be provided by doctors – it’s time to recognise the value of other healthcare professionals and the even greater contribution they could be making to delivering patient care.”
Updated
Taylor says Coalition would reverse casual employment changes and deregister CFMEU
Taylor says the Coalition won’t change multi-employer bargaining and intractable bargaining laws that were made by Labor during this term.
When asked by the moderator, Laura Jayes, what the Coalition will do on industrial relations laws, Taylor says a Dutton government would deregister the CFMEU construction union, reinstate the Australian Building and Construction Commission, and establish racketeering laws to prevent criminal activities by organisations.
He adds that they would also go back to a prior definition of casual employment.
Updated
Chalmers and Taylor facing off in second treasurers’ debate
Aren’t you lucky because we have yet another policy debate today – between the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, and shadow treasurer, Angus Taylor.
There’s not a huge amount new that’s been said so far in the debate. There’s been a big focus on the uncertain global economic environment and what either party would do about it.
Chalmers focuses on wages increasing and taxes decreasing, while Taylor repeats the “are you better off than you were three years ago” line and promises to restore household budgets and the government’s budget.
They’re in a room full of mostly business people – so unsurprisingly there’s also a focus on productivity and cutting red tape for businesses. Taylor also adds that he thinks that regulators like Apra and Asic should be focused on regulation but shouldn’t be “overreaching”.
Updated
Butler ‘talking to other operators’ to minimise possible Healthscope fallout
Circling back to the health minister’s debate, Butler was asked about the viability of one of the nation’s largest private hospital providers, Healthscope, and said he is talking to other operators in the system to ensure there are contingency plans if Healthscope’s 38 hospitals nationally were to close.
Butler said:
We’re watching very closely what is happening between Healthscope and their lenders and their landlords, because that could have a very serious impact on some parts of the private hospital market, where the health scope hospital is strategically very critical.”
I don’t want to get into a judgment about ownership. I will say, though, that … we’re talking to them and to other operators in the system to ensure that if something goes askew, that patients aren’t impacted.”
Pressed further on what he meant about talking to other operators, Butler said, by way of example, that when Healthscope withdrew its maternity services in Tasmania, because it was a very significant part of the market and private births accounted for one in three births in the state, he started a discussion with the state government and another operator, Calvary, to fill the gap by an injection of commonwealth funding.
There’s no one single discussion. Healthscope is the second largest private hospital operator. It’s got some hospitals in markets that have a large number of private hospitals, and it’s got some hospitals in markets where it’s strategically very critical. So of course, particularly in that second category, we’re watching very closely.”
Updated
Coalition promises national security strategy
Peter Dutton has promised a new national security strategy, to respond to increasingly complex strategic circumstances across the globe.
The Coalition says the strategy will help provide certainty to security agencies, government and industry.
It will provide an overarching vision for Australia’s security, core objectives, detail key risks, provide an assessment of the global threat environment and outline Australia’s national security priorities.
In a statement, Dutton said:
It has been more than a decade since Australia had a national security strategy, and the world looks very different today than it did back then.
It is past time we confronted our new strategic reality, and our strategy will serve as a roadmap to guide the difficult decisions we will need to make to protect Australia’s interests in the years ahead.
Updated
Butler and Ruston trade barbs about Coalition’s public service cuts
Unsurprisingly, the public service cuts policy has come knocking on the door at the NPC, and Ruston is asked what impact the cuts will have on the health department.
The opposition has said (and Ruston repeats) that the cuts will have no impact on frontline services.
We have a crisis in workforce. It’s the biggest crisis, I think, that is facing healthcare at the moment, because without the workforce to be able to deliver the outcomes in healthcare, we cannot possibly deliver them. So what we want to see is – we want to see an efficient investment in frontline services … We need to make sure that we are focused on delivering services to Australians – not public servants sitting behind desks in Canberra.
Butler retorts that by leaving out frontline services and national security workers, there will be just 60,000 jobs left to cut from.
That leaves on the analysis of the Public Service Commission a little over 60,000 jobs in the frame for 41,000 jobs going. That includes all of the Department of Health.
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Butler rejects Coalition’s bulk-billing figures; Ruston accuses Labor of sending health system backwards
As always in these debates, the debaters next get to ask each other a question.
Anne Ruston asks Mark Butler when will he recognise that Australians are experiencing a “very, very difficult” time getting affordable access to a GP.
Butler says he’s recognised that fact from day one in government, and also takes the opportunity to push back on the Coalition’s bulk-billing figures.
I think I’ve recognised that from the first day I became health minister. The first thing I’d say is that 88% figure that the Coalition continues to use has been completely rejected by doctors’ groups. The College of GPs said it was misleading and highly skewed.
Butler then asks Ruston why Australians should trust Peter Dutton on health considering his track record.
Ruston says she’s “quite amazed” Butler wants to talk track records, and accuses Labor of sending the health system backwards.
Every single metric that’s before Australians suggests that our health system has only gone backwards under your reign.
Instead of talking about something that didn’t happen a decade ago, I think we need to be focusing on what’s happening right now … I think Australians deserve better than their politicians fighting and lying and scare campaigns.
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Butler and Ruston asked about putting dental into Medicare
Back to the press club, Mark Butler and Anne Ruston are asked about the Greens’ push to put dental on Medicare, and whether there is any possibility of either party pursuing what the Australian Dental Association have proposed – a seniors dental benefits scheme, like the one that exists for children.
Butler says the idea of a senior scheme is “interesting” but “expensive”. He says he’s “tried to be honest” that his focus is on rebuilding general practices. However, he acknowledges that:
I think over time it would make sense to bring the mouth into our universal health insurance system. Logically, it doesn’t make sense in the longer term to continue to exclude that part of the body.
Ruston says her focus is on primary care and strengthening the economy so people can better afford essential services:
There’s absolutely no doubt the focus right now of the Coalition is to make sure that we deal with the crisis that is primary care … First and foremost, that has to be addressed. But also the other really big piece of this puzzle is making sure that we’ve got a strong economy, because a strong economy affords us to be able to provide the essential services.
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Circling back to Peter Dutton’s press conference for a moment, Sara Tomevska asks Dutton whether he still plans to introduce questions on antisemitism in the citizenship test, re-vet the 2000 people who have come to Australia from Gaza, and whether the Coalition would move to recognise the capital of Israel as West Jerusalem.
Dutton says the Coalition won’t move the capital, but says yes to the citizenship questions and to re-vet people from Gaza.
Pushed back on whether this means Dutton doesn’t trust the current vetting process, he just said again, “we’ll conduct proper security checks”.
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Do the Coalition’s claims about bulk billing stack up?
Anne Ruston has gone back to the line Peter Dutton has also used that bulk billing nationally has fallen by 11% since Labor came to government.
Lucky for us my colleagues have already factchecked the Coalition’s claims and found:
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare says the bulk-billing rate peaked in 2020 and 2021 at 89% after the Morrison government doubled the bulk-billing incentive for six months and required bulk-billing be applied to a number of services.
In 2022 it fell back to 85% before dropping to 77% in 2023 and 78% for the first 10 months of 2024.
Between 2021 and 2024 the fall was 11 percentage points, but that includes more than a year under the Morrison government.
You can better understand the numbers around bulk billing here:
Labor have been plugging the line that the Coalition will cut funding from Medicare and close urgent care clinics.
Earlier Ruston said the Coalition “rules out any cuts to Medicare” and promised to keep all clinics open.
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Ruston accuses Albanese of ‘behaving like a political vulture’ in Mediscare campaign
Today in the latest of the National Press Club’s election debates, the health minister, Mark Butler, is going head-to-head with the shadow minister for health, Anne Ruston.
Going first, in her opening statement, Ruston continues the line Dutton ran in the leaders’ debate last night accusing Albanese of mounting a scare campaign over Medicare funding. Ruston says:
Australians rightly are proud of Medicare, which is why it has been so disappointing to see the prime minister, the leader of this country, behaving like a political vulture, preying on hard-working, elderly, sick and vulnerable Australians, using this as a campaign to fuel his Mediscare campaign. Prime minister, Medicare is not a plaything of yours. It belongs to the Australian people.
Butler, going second, says “Australians aren’t mugs” and won’t believe Dutton’s promises there won’t be cuts on health.
When Peter Dutton was health minister, he looked Australians in the eye and promised that there would be no cuts to health. And then in his first budget, he cut $50bn from public hospitals…
Australians aren’t mugs. Australians know that Peter Dutton needs to find $600bn to fund his nuclear power plant. They know that when Peter Dutton says no cuts to health, he also says he will make cuts to fund that power plant, but that Australians will only find out after the election where that axe is going to fall. Peter Dutton also says the best indicator of his future action is his past performance. Well, his past performance as health minister was truly abysmal.
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Our reporter Sarah Basford Canales, who is with the opposition leader, gets the last question and asks why he hasn’t visited a community slated to host one of the Coalition’s seven proposed nuclear plants.
Dutton has been critical of Labor, saying they haven’t done adequate consultation with communities in the NSW Illawarra region where offshore windfarms have been earmarked.
Dutton lays down those criticisms again and, despite pushback, says he’s been to Bunbury and the Hunter.
We’ve spoken with the community, we’ve made our decision and we’re happy to consult with people in government.
Updated
Telling journos that the costings will come later isn’t flying with the press pack today.
Several reporters have asked Dutton exactly where the money is coming from to pay for the defence commitment and other promises.
Dutton says again that the Coalition hasn’t promised recurring spending like Labor’s top-up tax cuts – so as one journo puts it to him:
What you are saying is that you are paying for this policy by repealing income tax cuts, you are paying it through bracket creep and slugging ordinary taxpayers rather than spending restraint and finding cuts elsewhere.
Dutton answers, but again won’t say where any savings will come from:
A great Coalition government will always be better on national security and economic management.
After several more questions, Dutton says:
We will find savings as we have been clear, as John Howard did in ’96, where Labor has invested into programs, where that money is not being spent efficiently. We have given guarantees in relation to health and education and other areas of commonwealth expenditure.
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Dutton says he is still opposed to sending peacekeepers to Ukraine
Would the Coalition stand with allied forces as part of a peacekeeping mission in Ukraine?
Anthony Albanese has spoken to the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, and other leaders about the prospect of sending a “small” team of peacekeepers to Ukraine.
Dutton has previously said the Coalition would not support that.
Dutton says he’s still opposed to the idea, and says the previous Coalition government provided more help “than any other country”.
I’m opposed to us sending in, in an ill-defined way, to an ill-defined mission, our troops on the border with a nuclear powered country like Russia, with a lunatic in charge of Russia, not knowing what would happen next.
We provided more than any other country when we were in government.
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Andrew Hastie says he does not ‘resile’ from previous comments about ADF and gender
Hastie is challenged again on his views on whether women should serve in the defence force.
The shadow defence minister, who has previously served in the ADF, said back in 2018 that the “fighting DNA of a close combat unit is best preserved when it’s exclusively male”.
This morning he said that he did support women in combat roles, and just said it again:
The Coalition policy is that all combat roles are open to women. It’s been our longstanding position.
The one thing that we’ll, one thing that we will insist on is high standards because, in combat, there’s no points for second place.
Pushed on whether those “high standards” mean that there are currently lower standards for women, Hastie says “hardly”, and has accused the government of using the issue as a “political prop”.
I’m saying we have one standard, all Australians, regardless of your background, your race, your sexuality, your gender, your religion, every single role in the ADF is open to you, and we want more Australians to join … He [Marles] uses women in the ADF as a political prop.
Hastie says he won’t “resile” from his past comments but confirms “nothing is changing”.
I am not going to resile from what I have said in the past … I said what I said but the thing that the Australian people need to know, under a Dutton-led Coalition government, we will have a policy that is open to all Australians for combat roles. Nothing is changing.
Updated
Dutton says Coalition’s defence spending not just due to China
Dutton says the Coalition’s increase in spend isn’t solely to do with China.
He says China, under its Communist party, has “ambitions” in relations to Taiwan but that’s not the only reason for this announcement:
China, under the CCP, is a very different country and has ambitions in relation to Taiwan and a naval blockade in the region is not out of the thinking of the defence experts. Let’s be frank about it but it’s not just that.
It’s the fact that when you look at what’s happening in Europe, the prospect of Russia emboldened going into countries beyond the Ukraine and Europe like that has Nato countries deeply concerned at the moment.
Updated
Dutton fails to specify where defence funding will come from
Moving to questions, the first goes to Mark Riley who points to Hastie’s comments on RN Breakfast this morning that theres always a “trade-off” when making an announcement. He asks where that trade-off is going to be.
Dutton doesn’t answer exactly where the funding will come from.
His goes first to how the former Coalition government provided temporary support during Covid for jobseeker and jobkeeper, and says that unlike Labor’s permanent tax cuts the Coalition isn’t “baking in” spending.
We have no commitments in relation to that recurrent spend. And the reason in part that we’ve left to a later point in the campaign the announcement is to get a better understanding of where the finances are and how much money we can put into defence.
The Coalition has said they will release their costings before 3 May.
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Andrew Hastie says Australia can’t take security from US for granted
Hastie adds that the US’s “America first” model means Australia has to step up its spending.
The US has been calling for Australia to increase its spending on defence to 3% of GDP.
Hastie says Australia can’t take security from the US for “granted”:
America is moving to a ‘America first’ posture. We still have a strong relationship with the United States but we can’t take anything for granted. The world has changed.
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Andrew Hastie accuses Labor of ‘weakening’ Australia
Andrew Hastie – who has raised eyebrows for not being featured more prominently in the Coalition campaign – takes the mic to give everyone on stage with him a shout out, including Dutton’s children.
Hastie says Australia has seen the rise of authoritarian powers, war in Ukraine, war in the Middle East, and attacks the Labor government for “weakening” the country.
They’ve cut our infantry fighting vehicle program. They’ve cut two supply ships, the fourth squadron of F-35s. They’re cutting and weakening this country and that’s why this announcement is so important.
As he said earlier this morning, Hastie reiterates the workforce crisis the ADF is facing. He blames Labor for that.
Last year, almost 90% of all defence applications were withdrawn. Young Australians can’t get into defence because of the bungle this government is seeing in recruiting. We have a retention crisis. We’re not keeping good people in uniform, people who have had a good experience and we have a readiness crisis.
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Dutton sells Coalition’s defence spending plan
Peter Dutton is stepping up to address the media from Perth this morning, spruiking the Coalition’s announcement to increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP over the next five years.
He’s at a defence facility, and standing with his shadow defence minister, Andrew Hastie.
Dutton says Australia has a role to play on the global stage, in making his defence announcement.
What we announce today is a record investment into defence which will be of particular benefit here in Western Australia, South Australia and other defence hubs around the country. Australia has an important role to play on the global stage and our own region but, most importantly, a good Australian government will always invest into keeping us safe.
If we’re to preserve peace and stability in our region, and to be a good ally with partners, Australia needs to invest in defence.
Updated
Labor’s lead on a two-party-preferred basis continues to grow, according to Guardian Australia’s poll tracker. Labor currently sits at 51%, about one point below its mark at the last election. There is still a bit of uncertainty in the polling, which you can see in the chart below.
Labor’s primary vote is now 29% and has been increasing for the past several weeks. The Coalition is at 34% according to our model. Both major parties are still down on their results at the last election. Much of the change in primary vote had been going to Others and Independents.
But the primary share for Others and Independents fell this week after trending upwards for a few months. This may be because the declaration of candidates has taken place, and pollsters are now asking tailored questions for each electorate.
You can find more granular breakdowns of the polling on our tracking page.
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Palmer releases new HTV card after alleged ‘hack’
We’ve got an update on the how-to-vote drama for Clive Palmer’s Trumpet of Patriots. First, a quick refresher:
Palmer’s new political outfit this week sparked confusion and anger in rightwing circles after encouraging supporters to number left-leaning, Climate 200-backed candidates second or third in several seats as part of a wider strategy to punish the major parties.
The party’s candidate in the Victorian seat of Flinders, Jason Smart, took the extraordinary step of telling voters to put him last on the ballot in protest against what he described as a “shocking and sinister”.
As the backlash raged, Palmer claimed – without evidence – that Trumpet of Patriots’ how-to-vote cards had been “interfered with” and he launched a full investigation. The party subsequently removed how-to-vote cards for 18 seats from its website while it updated its advice for supporters.
The new cards have now been uploaded, showing teal-esque candidates further down the recommended ballot paper in several seats. For example, in Flinders, the Climate 200-backed candidate, Ben Smith, has been dropped to fifth, which places him below Labor but above the Greens and Coalition.
In Monash, Trumpet of Patriots is now encouraging supporters to number Liberal turned independent Russell Broadbent second on the ballot rather than Climate 200-backed Deb Leonard, who has been dropped to eighth spot.
Curiously, there hasn’t been much of a change in Wannon, where former Triple J presenter Alex Dyson – who is also backed by Climate 200 – remains third on Trumpet of Patriots’ updated card.
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Dutton touring defence facility ahead of press conference
Peter Dutton has arrived at the warehouse, flanked by two of his children and some of his frontbench.
The opposition leader is looking at some of the company’s satellite technology before a press conference.
Dutton’s children, Bec and Tom, are here so clearly earlier press conferences with his other son, Harry, haven’t deterred from placing his family front and centre.
Michaelia Cash, his shadow attorney general, and Andrew Hastie, the shadow defence minister, have joined the visit this morning.
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Dutton visits Perth defence facility
Peter Dutton is in the inner-city Perth seat of Swan this morning, where he’s visiting a defence facility to spruik today’s opposition funding announcement.
Swan is held by Labor MP Zaneta Mascarenhas on a 12% two-party margin but is being challenged by the Liberal candidate, Mic Fels.
The Blacktree Technology warehouse in Perth’s Belmont holds a lot of satellite technology but there are only a few employees hanging around awaiting the opposition leader’s arrival.
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Labor and Coalition shy away from thought of falling house prices
Housing affordability is at the centre of debate in this election, but both major parties haven’t said that they want house prices to actually drop, to help get young people in to the market.
The main phrasing we’ve heard is that the pollies want to see “sustainable growth”, but they won’t put a number on that, or say how soon that growth might become sustainable.
Our economics editor, Patrick Commins, has looked into this for us, and the answer is … not great.
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Coalition nuclear scheme would cost Australia up to $5.2tn by 2050 – thinktank
The Coalition’s nuclear plan would cost the economy at least $4.3tn by 2050, according to analysis by thinktank Clean Energy Finance.
The independent group says it looked at the economic implications of the nuclear pathway modelled by Frontier Economics (which was commissioned by the Coalition).
It says the pathway would hollow out Australian industry and lead to higher total energy costs, more carbon pollution and a loss in GDP.
The group says these flow-on costs to the economy would accumulate to $4.3tn to $5.2tn. The biggest cost, they say, would be $3.5tn in cumulative undiscounted lost GDP to 2050.
The modelling by Frontier Economics found the nuclear plan would cost $331bn.
CEF director and report author Tim Buckley says the nuclear plan will lead to a “weaker” economy.
The largest share of the Frontier-modelled ‘savings’ in energy transition investment comes at the cost of delivering much weaker outcomes for Australia, including an assumption the Australian economy’s GDP is $300bn lower annually by 2051.
This represents an astonishing $3.5tn in cumulative GDP forgone.
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Early voting eclipses last election as polls open
More than half a million voters have already handed in their ballots, according to the Australian Electoral Commission.
It beats pre-poll numbers back in 2022, when 310,000 people had put in their ballots on the first day of early voting.
The AEC also says they’re sending millions of postal vote ballots, with 2.39 million people applying for a postal vote with 2.2m packs distributed so far. They’re encouraging any Australians who still need a postal vote pack to apply this week.
Yesterday was a busy start to the voting period.
— AEC ✏️ (@AusElectoralCom) April 22, 2025
Nationally, around 542k votes were cast at early voting centres. This compares to 314k for day 1 in 2022.
Around 19k votes were cast with mobile voting teams & so far, approximately 2.2m postal votes have been distributed. pic.twitter.com/yzFWOp7DW2
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Teals are ‘Greens in good shoes’ – Hume
Laura Jayes asks Jane Hume about what it means for the Coalition that many of the Teal independent candidates fighting in blue ribbon seats would have been in the Liberal party just a couple of years ago, and what that means for the trajectory of the party.
Hume co-wrote the Liberal review into the 2022 election, which found that the party was quickly losing support from Australian women and needed to preselect more women in winnable seats.
But Hume pushes back, saying none of the so-called teal independents would have been in her party.
I think that that is a convenient excuse of the teals, that they were disaffected Liberals. But they’re not. They’re simply greens in good shoes. Really, absolutely, you could not possibly say that Zoe Daniel was a Liberal…
They went into the last election with three abstract nouns as their campaign slogans: gender, integrity and climate. Well, if you’re serious about supporting climate, well, why would you not support a nuclear energy future with zero emissions?
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Coalition to release election-pledge costings next week – Hume
Liberal frontbencher Jane Hume has promised the Coalition’s costings will come “next week” as the party is put under more pressure to reveal how it will pay for its multibillion-dollar promises.
Sky News host Laura Jayes is hammering Hume for details on what the Coalition will have to cut to pay for policies like the $21bn for defence promised today. Hume won’t budge.
On the issue of the 21 billion for defence, let’s face it, the most important responsibility of any government is to keep its citizens safe…
There is a concerted effort to go line by line through the budget as much as we can to see where that wasteful spending is occurring.
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Chalmers challenges Coalition to identify cuts and trade-offs funding $21bn defence and nuclear plans
Treasurer Jim Chalmers is demanding answers from the Coalition to release their costings, after the opposition announced an increase in defence spending by $21bn.
We heard the shadow defence minister on the radio this morning, when asked how he will pay for this defence spending, say that there will always be trade-offs.
The problem is that the Coalition is not telling the Australian people where the cuts will come from to pay for their nuclear reactors, or where the trade-offs will come from when it comes to this defence spending that they have announced late in the campaign.
The treasurer is pushed by reporters on when Labor’s own costings will be released for some of the new announcements that have been made during the campaign. Chalmers remains coy on the timing.
Labor has said that a lot of their costings have already been budgeted for – either in the March budget or midyear update released in December. Chalmers adds:
We’ve only made about $5 billion or so of additional commitments since the Pefo (pre-election economic and fiscal outlook) that weren’t budgeted for in the budget. And so we will tally that up or reconcile that, and we’ll release that before long.
Pushed again for when we can expect those numbers, Chalmers says that “our costings will be released in plenty of time”, and then shifts the focus to the opposition, saying they still haven’t released their costings for the tax-free lunch policy.
Updated
Nationals MP accused of sidestepping Victorian constituents
Darren Chester had called for “conversation” around Peter Dutton’s nuclear policy, but several constituents say their attempts to raise concerns have been ignored.
The Victorian Nationals MP in a region earmarked for a nuclear reactor by Peter Dutton has failed to meet with key constituents and community groups despite calling for “conversation” on the issue.
The Loy Yang coal-fired power station in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley, in Chester’s Gippsland electorate, is one of seven locations shortlisted for nuclear reactors under the energy policy the Coalition will take to the 3 May election.
You can read the full story by Benita Kolovos and Lisa Cox here:
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Tradie qualifications to be accelerated under Labor pledge
Labor has announced $78m this morning to fast-track the qualifications of 6,000 tradies, continuing its focus on the housing crisis.
The government says the money will help experienced but “unqualified” workers get qualifications through additional training, and help them get recognition if they’ve done prior work.
Labor says it’s based on a similar and successful program in NSW, which has seen more than 1,200 students get their trade qualification in an average time of seven months, and they’ve cited research from Master Builders Australia that shows an extra 2.4 homes would be built each year for every new qualified tradie.
No doubt the PM will have more to say on this when he addresses the press this morning (perhaps even out the front of a housing construction site).
Updated
If you need a light recap of where things are at with just a week and a half left until polling day, I’ve got you covered.
You can have a little look back at what’s happened and what’s to come, here:
Anthony Albanese is in Sydney this morning following last nights leaders’ debate.
He made a quick stop in his own electorate of Grayndler at a women’s community health centre.
Meanwhile, Peter Dutton will be off to a slightly later start this morning, over in Perth.
Seems fitting to make the defence announcement in the west, which would base the Virginia class submarines.
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Coalition defence boost to include new fighter jet squadron – Hastie
Earlier on during his interview with RN Breakfast, shadow defence minister Andrew Hastie laid out the Coalition’s new defence commitment.
To recap – the Coalition says it will spend $21bn to increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP over the next five years, and then increase it to 3% of GDP over the next decade.
How will the money be spent? Hastie says it will go to an additional F-35 fighter squadron, which the Coalition announced last month, and to increase recruitment and retention in the defence force.
We need to build our general purpose frigates, and we’re going to boost sustainment, which has been run down under Labor as well.
The Coalition hasn’t said how this will be paid for, and promised costings will be released before the election (so within the next 10 days). Hastie says:
There will always be trade-offs when you’re making decisions of state…
But what price do we put on defence? And I think, with the growth of authoritarian powers, with the war in Ukraine, with the changes in the Indo-Pacific region, with the Trump administration moving deeper into an America First perspective and position, we need to be able to defend ourselves.
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Coalition defence policy a ‘pathetic whimper’ – Marles
Richard Marles is continuing his scathing response to the Coalition’s defence pledge, appearing on all the morning shows and using mostly the same lines.
The deputy PM and defence minister accuses the opposition of having promised defence spending during their terms in government without budgeting it.
They were the ones when they were in government who gave us $42bn worth of defence announcements without putting a cent behind them. Literally a quarter of what defence was expected to procure, the Liberals had no money for, and when they did spend money, there were 28 different projects running a combined 97 years…
This [promise] is a pathetic whimper.
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Coalition backs having women in ADF combat roles – Hastie
Shadow defence minister Andrew Hastie says he and the Coalition support women serving in combat roles in the defence force.
Hastie tells ABC RN Breakfast that he spoke to Australia’s secretary of the defence and the ADF chief and conveyed the Coalition supports that position.
Questions on the issue were raised when it was revealed the now disendorsed candidate Benjamin Britton had said women shouldn’t serve in combat roles.
Hastie had made similar remarks back in 2018.
This morning he said:
The Coalition has a strong position, and that is that all combat roles should be open to men and women. I signalled that to the secretary of defence, Mr Greg Moriarty, and the chief of defence force last week in my caretaker brief, as part of the caretaker conventions. They have a very clear picture of where the Coalition stands.
Pushed on whether this means women should meet the same physical standard as men, Hastie says:
It’s one standard for all the combat roles in the ADF [that] are open for men and women, and the Coalition will insist on one standard for all, which is fair and equitable.
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O’Neil and Hume in Sunrise spat
Labor frontbencher Clare O’Neil and Liberal frontbencher Jane Hume have clashed this morning on their regular Wednesday Sunrise panel.
Things got a little tense over the Coalition’s work from home policy (which they’ve now dropped) and the Coalition’s accusation that Labor has been “mud slinging”.
Hume and opposition leader Peter Dutton have both been saying in recent days that Labor’s been throwing mud and that’s been causing a drop in support for the Coalition.
You can have a read of just how messy things got (and this is only a portion of the transcript):
Hume: You’re seriously suggesting you haven’t thrown any mud?
O’Neil: Sorry, do you mind if I speak, Jane?
Hume: Sling away!
O’Neil: This work from home issue, it was a terrible thing to do.
Hume: And it’s not our policy. It’s not our policy. It’s not our policy…
O’Neil: You are being so incredibly rude, Jane.
Hume: You’re talking about something that is irrelevant.
O’Neil: This is a democracy and I’m a politician trying to have my say. I listened to you politely.
Updated
Hume says Labor ‘mud slinging’ affecting women’s support for Coalition
Shadow finance minister Jane Hume says the Coalition have a “pep in their step” following last night’s leaders’ debate. (You’ll have no trouble guessing who she reckons won.)
Hume tells the Today show she had a “much more buoyant” feeling than she’d expected down at the pre-poll booths in Tassie yesterday. Bass, held by Liberal MP Bridget Archer, and Braddon, held by outgoing Liberal MP Gavin Pearce, are two must-hold seats for the Coalition.
But when it comes to the question of why women aren’t supporting the Coalition, Hume says it’s a casualty of the “mud slinging” by Labor.
I have no doubt that some of the mud that the prime minister and the Labor party has slung at Peter Dutton over this last campaign has begun to stick. That’s truly unfortunate, because only a Coalition government will deliver the empowerment to Australian women.
Hume was a co-author of a post-mortem into the Coalition’s 2022 loss, where a declining female vote was a significant factor. One of the recommendations was getting more women into local branches, and preselecting more women in winnable seats. You can see how the Coalition have done on that front here:
Updated
Ley says cost of Coalition promises will be ‘fully transparent’ before election
The question of how the Coalition will pay for their defence commitment, and other election promises, still needs to be answered.
Deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley is on Sky News and is probed on when those figures will come out (particularly with voters already headed to the polls).
Ley says:
Our costings will be released in the lead-up to election day, fully transparent, demonstrating a better bottom line. Everything will be there.
Updated
Marles insists he retains ‘deep’ trust in US despite Signal chat scandal
ABC News Breakfast host James Glenday asks Marles about the latest reports of US defence secretary Pete Hegseth sharing sensitive military information with his wife, brother and personal lawyer on an unclassified messaging system.
Does Marles worry about the information he shares with Hegseth? Marles says:
I don’t and obviously I’m not going to comment on the reports in the United States. But we have a very close relationship with the United States when it comes to defence. It is deep, it is organic and it is trusted.
Marles says he has “complete confidence” in the way the two countries engage and exchange information.
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Marles says can’t trust Liberals on ‘anything they say’ about defence
Deputy PM and defence minister Richard Marles is doing the rounds today, responding to the Coalition’s promise to boost defence spending to 2.5% of GDP over the next five years.
Marles tells ABC News Breakfast the opposition hasn’t outlined what that extra $21bn would be spent on in the defence force, or where the money would come from.
I just don’t think you can trust the Liberals when it comes to anything they say in respect of defence.
There are some reports that the 2.5% is a target, there’s no explanation of how they’re paying for this, where the money’s coming from, or really is there an explanation of where the money is being spent on?
Marles says Labor has invested the “biggest peacetime increase in defence spending since the second world war” and the government will continue to assess what level of spending “there needs to be”.
Under the current government’s trajectory, defence spending would rise from 2.02% of GDP this year to 2.3% by 2034.
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Key event
Good morning,
Krishani Dhanji here with you, thanks to Martin Farrer for getting us started this morning.
The countdown continues with just 10 days to go of the campaign – although for many of you it might feel even shorter if you’re preparing to vote early.
And the campaign is back in force, after a momentary pause during the day yesterday, following the death of Pope Francis. All barbs were out last night during the leaders’ debate, which you can read about here.
This morning’s big announcement is the Coalition’s promise to spend $21bn extra on defence, and we’re already seeing plenty of reaction to it. We’ll bring all that to you as it comes in.
Updated
And here are the five key takeaways from the debate, one of which being “do we really need another one on Sunday?”
Coalition poll pledges top $50bn
The Coalition’s election commitments now total more than $50bn – not including the new defence announcement, according to Labor analysis which it is using to pressure Peter Dutton to reveal his own numbers as the 3 May poll fast approaches.
With just 10 days left in the election campaign, neither Labor or the Coalition have released their election costings, which would detail the impact of their commitments - including any proposed cuts – to the budget bottom line.
Labor will on Wednesday release its own analysis of the Coalition’s election promises, which puts the cost of proposed spending at more than $50bn.
The figure tallies up the cost of almost 25 policies, including;
$10bn one-off income tax cut for low-to-middle income earners
$6bn to halve the fuel excise for 12 months
$5bn housing infrastructure program
$1.5bn for Melbourne airport rail
$1bn for gas infrastructure fund
The overall figure does not include the Coalition’s commitment to increase defence spending, or its promise to match Labor’s $8.5bn boost to Medicare, which is already accounted for in the budget.
The figure also doesn’t factor in costs for Dutton’s proposed nuclear reactors, which aren’t slated to be built until the mid-2030s onwards.
The opposition leader is planning to bank savings from a slimmed-down federal public service and make unspecified cuts in other areas.
In a statement, the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, said Dutton must “come clean on his secret cuts and even harsher cuts”.
Every extra dollar of spending by the Liberals means an extra dollar cut from health and education.
Their dodgy and deceptive figures already show a budget black hole worth billions and they’ve got tens of billions of unaccounted spending on top of that.
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Dutton to pledge big defence spending boost
Australia will sink billions of dollars more into defence under a future Coalition government, as Peter Dutton looks to bolster the country’s armed forces, AAP reports.
Fresh off the third leaders’ debate, the opposition leader pledged to spend $21bn over the next five years on defence, which would take its share of Australia’s gross domestic product to 2.5%.
The level of defence spending as a percentage of Australia’s economy would then rise further to 3% within the decade.
While the Coalition said it would use the money to reinstate a fourth joint strike fighter squadron, it did not say where else the funding would go.
Dutton said the extra spending on defence was needed in uncertain times globally.
The prime minister and the deputy prime minister regularly tell Australians that we live in the most precarious period since the end of the second world war. Yet over the last three years Labor has done nothing about it.
The Coalition will strengthen the Australian defence force and support our servicemen and women to keep us safe today and into generations ahead.
The announcement comes after Dutton and Anthony Albanese clashed at the third leaders’ debate in Sydney, with the opposition leader narrowly declared the winner.
As both leaders slung accusations of lying to each other during the hour-long debate, Albanese emphasised a need for stability following uncertainty from US president Donald Trump.
Albanese will begin today campaigning in Sydney, while Dutton will be in Perth.
If you missed the leaders’ debate, here is our full story by Henry Belot.
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Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with some of our top overnight stories before I hand the news baton to Krishani Dhanji.
Peter Dutton has blamed poor polling during the election campaign on Labor attack ads rather than his own performance, including two mistakes and ditching a policy to force some public servants to work from their offices. The third debate was a mostly lacklustre affair that livened up when the leaders were asked to name the other’s biggest lie. Nine’s three-person panel awarded the contest to Dutton by a vote of 2-1.
The opposition leader launches a big defence policy today, with a promise to lift defence spending to 2.5% of the economy. More on this soon.
Amid more turmoil on the world’s financial markets thanks to Donald Trump’s economic policies, there are concerns that the Australian Treasury has underestimated the threat posed by the US trade war after the International Monetary Fund slashed its outlook for Australia’s economic growth in 2025. It forecast annual output will be $13bn lower this year than predicted in January and that real GDP growth will drop to 1.6%, from 2.1%. More coming up.
And in more money matters, we’re reporting this morning that Australians would have to wait 70 years for affordable housing if property values follow the “sustainable growth” path advocated by the two major parties. A leading economist calls the claims a “con”.
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