All the key takeaways from the treasurers' debate
Thanks for following along with us tonight for the treasurers’ debate, as Jim Chalmers and Angus Taylor went head to head for the first time. Here are the key takeaways from the debate:
The treasurer kicked off the debate by saying Labor’s economic plan has Australia well-placed to face “uncertain times in the world,” by building on the progress from the past three years.
In his opening remarks, the shadow treasurer claimed Australians were worse off now than they were three years ago.
Chalmers took aim at the Coalition more broadly, saying the party was “full of these kind of Doge-y sycophants who have hitched their wagon to American-style slogans and policies”.
Taylor, meanwhile, argued Chalmers was overseeing a “lost decade”, while taking aim at Labor’s budget.
The treasurer accused Taylor of being “evasive” when asked what the Coalition would cut to fund its nuclear reactors.
Chalmers accused Taylor of using “made up numbers” to attack Labor’s economic credentials, after being asked if he would apologise for Labor’s promise of a $275 reduction in energy prices at the last election.
Taylor promised the Coalition would guarantee health and education spending.
He also repeatedly pointed to the Coalition’s fuel excise cuts and its plan to stop wasteful spending.
In closing, Chalmers said the election was a choice between “responsible economic management” or “Dutton’s Coalition of cuts and chaos,” repeating his warning against their “secret cuts”.
Taylor, instead, pointed to his experience in business and economics and said Australia “can’t afford another three years like the last three”.
Krishani Dhanji will be back with you bright and early tomorrow morning, for yet another day on the campaign trail. Until then, take care and enjoy your night.
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Are Australians better off than three years ago?
Many times throughout tonight’s debate, the question of whether Australians are better off today than they were three years ago was raised.
Our economics editor, Patrick Commins, says it’s not black and white:
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Taylor gives closing remarks
Angus Taylor is also giving his closing remarks, saying that “Australians can’t afford another three years like the last three”.
Before I came into politics, I spent 25 years in business and economics, advising people at the highest level in business, starting businesses and working in our family farm, I want to take that experience to be the treasurer, if I get the opportunity, of this great nation to work with every Australian to get our country back on track.
And with that, the treasurers’ debate has wrapped up.
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Chalmers gives closing remarks
Giving his closing statement, Jim Chalmers said this was an important moment for the economy to decide “whether we go to the world more resilient under Labor or more vulnerable under the Coalition”.
And this debate and Angus’s inability to come clean on his secret cuts to pay for his nuclear reactors has made the choices really clear – whether we build on the progress that we’ve made together, or whether we take Australia backwards …
There could not be a more important time for responsible economic management, which has been the defining feature of this Albanese government. And there could not be a worse time to risk Peter Dutton’s Coalition of cuts and chaos, which would make Australians worse off and take Australians backwards, because when Peter Dutton cuts, every Australian will pay.
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International student numbers discussed
Asked if Australia needs more or less migrants, Angus Taylor responded:
Right now, we’ve had over a million people in just two years, which is double what was sustainable, and we’ve had half the housing we needed to support that. And so we’ve said very clearly, those numbers are too high, and that’s why we will impose student caps.
Jim Chalmers said Labor also had a plan for student caps. Taylor quipped, “Well, these are real student caps, not pretend ones.”
Chalmers and Taylor asked about power of Greens
Jim Chalmers has ruled out a coalition with the Greens, as Labor has repeatedly done throughout this election campaign, after being asked about Adam Bandt’s comments at the National Press Club today.
Asked if it would be “dangerous” for the Greens to hold more power after this election, Chalmers replied:
Well, that’s in the hands of the Australian people who’ve got the ability to elect a majority Labor government under Anthony Albanese.
Angus Taylor argued it would be “extremely dangerous” for Labor and the Greens to team up, and said:
We heard it from Adam Bandt today. He wants to do probably what Jim wants to do, because we know he’s asked for Treasury to do modelling on this [negative gearing changes].
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Taylor quizzed on Coalition’s energy policy and costs
Andrew Clennell asked Angus Taylor why he delayed a decision on electricity price rises past election day:
Now you’re … releasing modelling claiming your gas reservation policy will cut power prices by a meager 3%, and your only other power price solution is 15 years away in nuclear. Why in 2022 did you hide that price rise from the Australian people?
Taylor responded “I absolutely didn’t,” and said:
In fact, what we saw in my time as energy minister is a cut in electricity prices of between 8% and 10% depending on whether you’re a small business, large business, or a household … If you can get gas prices down, it’s not just gas prices that come down for consumers – they clearly do – but also the price of food, the price of building materials, so much of our economy is energy.
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Chalmers defends government spending in budget
Andrew Clennell has now been brought in to ask Chalmers and Taylor each a question.
He asked Chalmers about the spending outlined in the budget:
Isn’t this the opposite of your hero Paul Keating’s so-called beautiful set of numbers? Given these numbers, are you prepared to rule out cuts if you are re-elected, and haven’t you left Australia in a weak position in terms of a fiscal buffer for a global economic crisis?
The treasurer responded and said the budget was “$207bn stronger than when we came to office, and that’s made room for those investments”:
The deficit this year is half as big. We’ve made a structural difference to the budget in areas like the NDIS and aged care and also interest costs. And so we are getting the budget in much better nick, and we’re doing that without ignoring our responsibilities to people who are doing it tough.
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Chalmers rejects notion government is ‘politically scared’ to undertake big tax reform
The host, Ross Greenwood, argued that both major parties were “politically scared to undertake big tax reform”. Jim Chalmers rejected this:
That’s not true, Ross. Three rounds of income tax cuts, including lifting thresholds and cutting rates … Build to rent tax reform, production tax credits, multinational tax reform … there’s been more tax reform done in this term of government than for a long time now …
We have found ways to provide substantial tax breaks and tax relief and all of the ways I’ve described, including the production tax credits that [Taylor] opposes.
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Chalmers and Taylor have back-and-forth on health and education
Jim Chalmers has now asked Angus Taylor if he would repeat the same commitment to no cuts to health or education that his party took to the 2013 election.
The shadow treasurer responded:
We will bring a bill into the parliament to guarantee spending on essential services, including health and education.
Chalmers cut in:
Angus and Peter Dutton have both said the best indicator of future [performance] is what’s happened in the past. Now, in their first budget, after promising no cuts to health and education, they cut $80bn.
Taylor then responded:
I’ve been very clear about [our] health and education guarantee, in fact, right to the point where [on] health, we have already committed over $9bn to ensure that we deal with your mess where bulk billing has gone down sharply in your time in government.
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Taylor asks another question on $275 power bill reduction promise
Angus Taylor has now been given the chance to ask Jim Chalmers a question, and turned back to the $275 promise.
Chalmers began by quipping:
Angus wrote down that question, and then you asked it, and he didn’t have the ability to think up a second question.
The treasurer continued, again bringing up the cost of the Coalition’s nuclear policy:
If you really cared about living standards, you wouldn’t have opposed our cost-of-living measures, and you wouldn’t be taking to this election higher income taxes, lower wages and secret cuts to pay for the nuclear reactors, that you still haven’t mentioned.
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Chalmers accuses Taylor of using ‘made-up numbers’ to attack Labor’s economic credentials
Jim Chalmers was asked if he would apologise for promising a $275 reduction in energy prices under Labor that did not eventuate. He responded:
The $275 figure that you referring to from the modelling in 2021 predated two important developments. The first one was Angus intervened to hide a big price rise before the last election. We didn’t know about that when we talked about that modelling. And the second thing is, there’s been a major land war in eastern Europe, which has caused a global spike in energy, inflation.
Now, despite that, Australia now has – according the OECD – the lowest inflation in the developed world, and that’s because we’re doing two things …
He was cut off by Angus Taylor, who said Labor “promised 97 times that electricity prices would come down by $275” and was making excuses.
Taylor claimed people were $1,300 a year worse off than was promised, but Chalmers responded, “That is a made-up number.”
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Chalmers says Taylor had ‘multiple’ opportunities to ‘come clean’ on cuts to fund nuclear, but didn’t
Angus Taylor said “you’ve got to make sure you’re not spending money that doesn’t need to be spent”, and listed off a bunch of numbers.
Jim Chalmers interjected, saying he “just made those numbers up”:
He won’t even talk about the $600bn he needs to find to fund these nuclear reactors. They can’t find those $600bn without cuts, including in areas like health and education, like they’ve done before, and that’s why he’s had multiple opportunities to come clean tonight, and he won’t do it.
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Chalmers and Taylor on cost-of-living measures
Back at the treasurers’ debate, Jim Chalmers has been outlining the centrepieces of Labor’s budget – cost-of-living relief, energy bill rebate, strengthening Medicare, cheaper medicine, student debt relief and the tax cut – and said:
When Angus Taylor, in a minute, tells you that he cares about the cost of living, remember that he wants lower wages, higher income taxes, and there is no ongoing cost-of-living relief if Peter Dutton wins the election … Labor is doing more for you to help with the cost of living in an enduring way and in an immediate way.
Taylor responded that “you’ve got to beat inflation sustainably”, and said strong economic management meant “slashing red tape – not essential services”.
He also pointed to the Coalition’s fuel excise, saying “immediate cost of living relief that really works is the focus”.
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Jewish Community Forum wraps up in Melbourne
All eyes are now on the treasurers’ debate, but we’ve just wrapped up at the Jewish community forum at Temple Beth Israel in St Kilda.
Benson Saulo ended his closing statement with a vow to stand with the Jewish community in Macnamara:
I’m really proud to be able to stand here and to put my hand up and say that I will stand with the Jewish community here. I will stand with Israel and I will stand as a strong representative for Macnamara in parliament … you know that you have a friend in me. You have a strong advocate in me, and I continue to fight for and address the issues that we are seeing right across our communities and around cost of living, around privacy and antisemitism.
Josh Burns said with a Labor win likely, it’s important to have an advocate for the community “inside the room”.
We are heading towards being re-elected in this country, and I think that the Coalition are slipping right now as they have not outlined a vision for our country. And I think that the interests of the Jewish community needs to be served by people inside the room, someone who is existential for and someone who cannot turn away from this community. Now, I love this community. I grew up here. I went to Mount Scopus. I played basketball for Maccabi. Now I am, every time I’m in the newspaper, it says, “Josh Burns, who is Jewish”.
To this, the same man from earlier interjects, describing Burns’s comments as “useless bullshit”. He was promptly ejected.
After a vote of thanks from Daniel Aghion from the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, just as the event was wrapping up, another man yelled out:
Josh, you are a friend of Israel but your Labor mates are not.
There’s been some heated moments, but both Burns and Saulo have been highly complimentary of each other and most of the crowd has been respectful, after repeated warnings from moderators and the local rabbi.
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Chalmers says Taylor ‘evasive’ on cuts because he is going to election with three policies
Jim Chalmers was asked if he would reverse the $20bn to forgive student debt to save money – but he ruled this out:
It’s a very important investment, and we’re proud of it, and we will do it if we win the election in a few weeks.
He turned the spotlight back on Angus Taylor and said the reason he was “so evasive when you asked him to come clean on his cuts” is because he is going to the election with just three policies:
First of all, to increase income taxes on every Australian taxpayer. Second of all, lower wages. And, thirdly, secret cuts to pay for nuclear reactors. And you can’t find $600bn to pay for those nuclear reactors without coming after Medicare, just like Peter Dutton did when he was the health minister.
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Angus Taylor is asked: how do you manage an economic downturn when a government has got to cut?
He responds that you need to “give the private sector the confidence to grow”.
The host says that he is “talking about a possible downturn, [and] there’s no growth in the downturn”.
Taylor replies:
Well, you know, if you get business investing, you can avoid a downturn … We’ve said grow the economy faster than spending. We’ve also said there’s $100bn of spending that Labor has committed to, Jim’s committed to, that we think is unnecessary at this time.
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Shadow treasurer argues Chalmers overseeing ‘a lost decade’
Angus Taylor is back up, and has argued that “GDP per capita has gone backwards for 21 months in a row under your so-called stewardship, Jim [Chalmers]”.
There was a bit of back-and-forth as he spoke, with the shadow treasurer saying:
There is no plan. This is incredibly important. Your plan that you put out in your own budget doesn’t have our standard of living going back to where it was when you came into government until 2030 or beyond … This is a lost decade that you’re overseeing, Jim, a lost decade.
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Chalmers says budget in ‘much better state’ than three years ago
Jim Chalmers said he expects the Australian economy to continue to grow, when asked about the state of the budget.
He argued it was in a “much better state” than it was three years ago, and continued:
The average unemployment rate under this Albanese government is the lowest of any government in 50 [years] … It means that we go into this uncertainty around the world from a position of strength, and what we’ve been able to do, which is unusual in the world, is get inflation much lower than what we inherited from Angus.
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Taylor defends Coalition history of dealing with Trump
Responding, Angus Taylor said he’d seen “the first piece of nonsense from Jim tonight”, and defended the Coalition’s history of dealing with Trump and the US.
When we were last in government, of course, we did take on the Trump administration, and we avoided tariffs. As a result, Jim went over to the US not long ago, got the photo opportunity, but he didn’t come back here with what we needed, which is free access to the US market.
Chalmers labels Coalition ‘Doge-y sycophants’ over response to US tariffs
The treasurers were played part of this exchange from US senators over the tariffs placed on Australia:
Jim Chalmers responded first, saying he had met with Senator Mark Warner in the past and appreciates his support.
A lot of the sentiments that he expressed in that clip are points that the prime minister has made himself.
The treasurer pointed to the need to make the economy “more resilient [and] our markets more diverse”.
Here, I think we’ve got the first contrast of the debate tonight … because we’ve got a prime minister standing up for and speaking up for Australia, and we’ve got an opposition leader and an opposition which is absolutely full of these kind of Doge-y sycophants who have hitched their wagon to American-style slogans and policies, and especially cuts which would make Australians are worse off.
And now they wonder why nobody believes them when they desperately try to pretend to unhitch their wagon from some of the policies and cuts that we’ve seen in the US.
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Taylor gives opening remarks: ‘Who do you trust to manage the economy?’
Angus Taylor also began by saying we are living in “tumultuous times” – and argued Australians are worse off now than they were three years ago.
The choice of this election is, who do you trust to manage the economy? … Labor promised the world. They promised lower electricity prices. They promised lower mortgage costs. They’ve promised a lower cost of living and easier lives. The reality has been different.
He argued the Coalition would “fix our housing and energy markets, [and] provide immediate relief at the bowser as we fix our budget”.
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Chalmers gives opening remarks: Australia ‘in good stead in uncertain times’
Jim Chalmers begins his opening remarks by noting these are “uncertain times in the world”, but that Australia is well placed thanks to Labor’s economic plan and “the progress that we have made together as Australians.”
When this government came to office, inflation was much higher and rising. Real wages and living standards were falling sharply, and we were already on track for more than $1tn of debt.
And since then, inflation has come down considerably, our real wages and incomes and living standards are starting to grow again, unemployment is low … we’ve got the debt down and growth is rebounding solidly in our economy as well.
So all of this puts us in good stead in uncertain times, but we know that there’s much more work to do.
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Treasurers' debate begins
The treasurers’ debate is now beginning in Sydney on Sky News, with Jim Chalmers and Angus Taylor standing opposite one another behind two podiums.
The host, Sky News’s business editor, Ross Greenwood, noted this was the first debate between the two.
Jim Chalmers will give the first one-minute opening remarks, and there will be three key topics:
Australia’s future
Cost of living
Boosting business and competition
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More heckling at Jewish Community Forum
There’s more heckling when Josh Burns is asked about how he’s felt personally, as a “Jewish guy from Melbourne”, about the events of the last 18 months.
He said images he has seen of the events of 7 October will stay with him for the rest of his life, alongside the Adass Israel synagogue in Ripponlea, in his electorate, burnt down.
But I know that for every day I’ve been in this position to represent our community, I have used my voice. I’ve tried to get outcomes for our community that I’ve been inside the room trying to get things done.
To which a man in the crowd shouts, “Bullshit”.
Another says, “lies”.
But it’s worth noting, there’s more people who are unhappy at the outburst, who are also shouting at the men not to interrupt.
Josh Burns says no funding allocated to Unrwa for 2024-25 because ‘standards have not yet been met’
At the forum, a question on the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (Unrwa) has led to the most heckling from the crowd of Josh Burns. Someone in the crowd is unhappy there was $20m allocated in the 2023-24 budget to the aid agency.
Back in 2024, Australia was among more than a dozen donor countries to suspend funding to Unrwa in late January, after the Israeli government alleged that 12 Unrwa staff members were involved in the 7 October Hamas-led attacks on Israel. At the time, the foreign minister, Penny Wong, said the $20m was delivered prior to the accusations.
Burns began saying that after the revelations, the government came to an agreement with Unrwa that included security guarantees – but he was interrupted by a heckler. He replied:
Just wait, you might get the answer.
He then continued with his answer:
Because of the high standards that we have set, there is no funding that has been allocated for the 24-25 financial year as a result, because those standards have not yet been met.
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Liberal Macnamara candidate says Labor has ‘priorities around the wrong way’
Benson Saulo, however, said Labor has “priorities around the wrong way”.
To know that there’s still over 50 hostages being held in Gaza or somewhere, many of those lives already being lost, then to think that our foreign policy is to overturn a stance that we have around ensuring that Israel has the right to exist, has the right to defend itself, and has the right, as every nation does, to bring to justice those that seek to do harm against their own citizens …
Yes, we are a strong believer in a two-state solution. But how can you negotiate with bad actors? How can you come to the table in a willing and open negotiation when you know there’s 50 of your own citizens being held hostage with the terrorist agents, with a terrorist organisation that seeks the destruction, the eradication of Israel and Jewish people?
So right now, when we see the shifts in foreign policy, when we see the weak action here … what I say to that is Labor has priorities wrong and Labor does not have the best interest of the Jewish community [at heart].
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Burns calls on Macnamara community to ‘re-engage with the Labor party’
Circling back to the Jewish Community Forum in Melbourne: one of the moderators, Naomi Levin, said there are many in the room who feel “betrayed by the Labor government’s stance on Israel,” pointing to a “repeated commitment” by senior members of the party to recognise a Palestinian state, shifting its votes at the UN and an “inability of ministers to condemn antisemitism even after clear incidents of Jew hatred without also calling out Islamophobia at the same time”.
She asked Labor MP Josh Burns:
How do you justify this to those in our community who feel a sense of betrayal from the Labor government, which in the past, has always been a friend of Israel?
Burns responded that “everyone in this group” wants to see peace:
But as the prime minister said last week, until Hamas ... is no longer governing the people of Gaza, we are not in a position to move forward on recognition.
Now, I understand that there have been some things that people have disagreed with, but there have also been things that those of us inside the Labor party who have tried to maintain a sensible and strong position, maintaining Israel’s right to exist and defend itself, ensuring that there is a constant voice for hostages to be released, ensuring that there is people inside the room continuously engaging with high levels of the Israeli government. I was on the first plane of Australian[s] … to Israel.
I’m not pretending it’s perfect, but I am saying to all of you that we can’t disengage from the Labor party. And we have to re-engage with the Labor party as a community, we can’t have it so that one side of politics is only for the community, and the community is only for one side of politics, it will end up very, very badly. As long as I’m in there, I will carry that and do what I can on behalf of our community.
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Testing under way on powdered substance delivered to shadow minister’s office
Tony Pasin, the shadow roads minister, said a staff member at his Mount Gambier office opened an envelope containing a powdered substance earlier today.
In a statement, Pasin said the “appropriate authorities were advised and attended the office,” and the substance was undergoing testing.
I take the health and safety of my team very seriously and I am grateful that initial assessments indicate no-one has suffered any harmful effects.
I thank the first responders who acted quickly with diligence and professionalism.
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Chalmers shares post ahead of tonight’s debate
Jim Chalmers says he is grateful for the opportunity to “join my counterpart for a wide ranging debate on the economy tonight”.
In a post to X earlier this afternoon, the treasurer said:
This election is a choice between Labor helping with the cost of living and making our economy stronger and more resilient in uncertain times – or Peter Dutton’s plans for lower wages, higher taxes and secret cuts to pay for nuclear reactors, which will make Australians worse off. Tune in to Sky at 7.30pm
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Treasurers' debate to kick off in half an hour
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, and his Coalition counterpart, Angus Taylor, will go head to head in spruiking their economic visions for Australia in a debate this evening.
It follows a leaders’ debate between the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, last night, the first of two in the coming weeks.
Albanese won 44 votes out of 100 at the debate in western Sydney, Dutton won 35 and 21 people remained undecided.
Tonight, Sky News will host the debate between Chalmers and Taylor, kicking off at 7.30pm AEST – in about half an hour.
It will be hosted by Sky News’s business editor, Ross Greenwood, and the pair will discuss a variety of topics including the cost-of-living crisis, tariffs and debt.
You can read more about the debate, and other upcoming debates in this election campaign, below:
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What we learned on the campaign trail today
In less than an hour, the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, and shadow treasurer, Angus Taylor, will go head-to-head in a debate on Sky News.
We’ll bring you all the key moments from this right here on the blog. But in the meantime, here are the main takeaways from the campaign trail today:
Most of the day 12 campaign action centred on the Coalition’s gas plan and modelling estimates that it would drive down household gas bills by 7%.
The climate change minister, Chris Bowen, condemned the Frontier Economics analysis as a “scamphlet”.
Hours earlier, the Coalition energy spokesperson, Ted O’Brien, was vague about when the plan’s promised savings would kick in and acknowledged there was “likely to be a lag” on when it translated to lower power bills.
The Greens leader, Adam Bandt, told the National Press Club his party would insist on changes to negative gearing tax breaks in a hung parliament. You can read all the details of their proposal here.
Anthony Albanese firmly ruled out any changes, as did the industry minister, Ed Husic, who said “we aren’t doing it”.
The education minister, Jason Clare, also ruled out revisiting potential reductions on tax concessions for property investors.
By the end of today, the S&P/ASX 200 was down 1.8% and had lost more than $40bn in value, erasing most of the rebound in prices that occurred a day earlier.
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Liberal candidate says he can ‘absolutely’ win seat of Macnamara
Benson Saulo, however, says he can secure enough first-preference votes to win the seat:
I want to say here that we can absolutely win the seat. I understand the frustration and the anger towards Labor, and you’re not alone. It’s right across the electorate, the amount of people that have historically voted Labor across Port Melbourne, Middle Park, Albert Park, who look at what’s happening here at the state level, what’s happening at a federal level, and are determined to kick Labor out, and it’s with that that I’m encouraged by the work that we are doing.
Saulo said he has 500 corflutes out across the electorate, 60 billboards and a “significant amount of uplift in our engagement right across the electorate”. He said he would also advocate for issues young people feel passionate about such as climate change and housing:
While Josh points out that there’s a contingent of young voters that are out there that are really passionate about climate change, about housing, this is something that me as an individual within a party, [I’m] deeply passionate about. As an Aboriginal person, I view ourselves as custodians. I’m thinking about what the next generation will inherit.
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Burns takes first question at community forum
The first question is to Josh Burns, who was asked if he would put the Greens last on his how-to-vote card.
Burns said that the unique makeup of the seat means if he doesn’t secure enough first-preference votes, the Greens will come into second place and likely win the seat.
That is the biggest concern … I really like Benson [Saulo]. He’s a nice guy, but he’s not the person I’m worried about winning this seat. The only people who can win this seat are me or the Greens …
Think about the people who make up this electorate, the young progressive people from Elwood, from St Kilda, from Windsor, from South Melbourne, from Southbank. We are a proud and large Jewish community, but we’re only 10% of the electorate of Macnamara.
And the preferences – regardless of what the Labor party says – are not going to the Liberal party from those young people. And they’re Labor-Greens voters who are ultimately decided … I’m asking you not just to keep out the Greens. I’m asking you to support me in this election.
Guardian Australia has reported that the Labor party is likely to run an open ticket in the ultra-marginal Melbourne seat, which would encourage voters to place Burns first on ballots but not dictate preferences.
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Liberal candidate for Macnamara makes opening remarks at forum
Benson Saulo is now up, talking about his upbringing, his Aboriginal mother and Papua New Guinean father, who lived in regional New South Wales.
He said two things have stood out to him since he settled into the Macnamara electorate after moving back to Australia after his time as a consul general. The first, he said, was the “significant failure” of the government during the voice referendum to not have a “plan B”.
There was really nothing beyond this idea of pushing through something that was uncertain, that something was untested, without bipartisan support … then ultimately, for it to fail. I woke up the day after and there was no plan B, there was no vision for what Australia looks like, what reconciliation journey looks like going forward.
He said the other thing that stood out was the government’s “silence” after 7 October:
Here in Australia, what the greatest travesty was what we saw on the steps of the Opera House, [when] the Israeli flag was burning, where we heard chants that we’d never think that we would ever, ever hear in our life. And then we heard complete and utter silence. There was silence from our leaders. There was silence from the Labor party. There was silence when we heard these horrible chants that suddenly spewed out from the Opera House on to our streets to … our CBD, week after week.
Saulo said he has spoken to people in the community who he says do not “feel like the government has their back”.
What the community here is really hoping for is some clear, tangible action to address antisemitism and clear-sighted leadership, which I believe that only a Peter Dutton Coalition government can actually deliver. And I’m really proud to be able to stand with the likes of Peter Dutton, James Paterson and also our very own David Southwick (MP for the state seat of Caulfield), where we are calling out acts of antisemitism, where we are going to support and work with the community.
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Burns says it has been ‘difficult’ inside Labor party at times over last few years
Both the Labor MP Josh Burns and Liberal candidate Benson Saulo have been introduced to the crowd and they seem to have a favourite – Saulo got a huge round of applause.
Rebecca Davis, one of our moderators, has again asked for “respectful conversation”, “no shouting, no interrupting and no attacks on the individual”.
Now to Burns for his opening statement, which began with a joke that Saulo has “brought a few of his friends tonight”.
I’m not here to sugar-coat it. I’m not here to describe anything that hasn’t been probably the most difficult two years of my personal and professional life, it has been. Each and every person in this room knows how difficult it’s been for our community and being a member of parliament at the time when we’ve seen antisemitism at a point in which we never thought it would ever happen to our generation, but it did.
He said it’s been “difficult” to be a member of the Labor party at times over the last couple of years.
Personally, inside the Labor party, of course, it’s been difficult. Of course it has. And there’s been moments of time where I’ve spoken out against some of the policies of my party … I’ve done so because I felt that our community needed a voice inside the conversation, inside the room and inside government.
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Rabbi opens Jewish Community Forum with appeal for crowd to be respectful
Back to the Jewish Community Forum in Melbourne: Rabbi Allison Conyer is opening with a plea to the crowd to be respectful of different views in the synagogue this evening:
As Jews and as Australians, we want our voices to be heard, and in order to be heard, we also need to listen … We recognise that human beings disagree. We can look at the same thing and have many different opinions and it’s not necessarily about right or wrong. It’s about understanding.
Conyer says disagreement is “healthy”, and continues:
Some of us came here knowing exactly what we want to hear. Some of us came here a bit confused. Some of us came because we’ve got something we need to say. But I ask all of us to remember, as Jews and as Australians, that disagreement is healthy, creating social discourse is healthy.
There is no one right way … I hope that all of us can come with an open mind and an open heart and learn and be heard and listen to what is going to be said.
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Join Matilda Boseley and Patrick Commins on Tell me more
Guardian Australia’s Tell me more is your chance to ask your burning election news questions to the people that wrote that news in the first place.
This evening, host Matilda Boseley is joined by the economics editor, Parick Commins, to chat about what a Trump trade war could mean for Australia, both economically and in the upcoming election.
If you have a question you want answered, simply pop it in the comments on YouTube or TikTok or email: australia.tellmemore@theguardian.com
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Greens candidate won’t be speaking at Jewish Community Forum
At the last election Labor, the Liberals and the Greens were separated by only a few hundred primary votes. Labor ended up winning off the back of the Greens’ preferences.
The Greens say they only need a few hundred votes to overtake Josh Burns and win the seat. But their candidate, Sonya Semmens, won’t be speaking at the event.
Last week, we reported that Semmens was told she was not welcome at the event, with the co-hosts saying it was due to the Greens’ conduct since the 7 October attacks and accusing them of spreading antisemitism – a charge the party denied.
Semmens told Guardian Australia yesterday she would now be allowed to attend the event but would not be permitted to answer questions or outline her policies on stage, as a local candidate would generally do at such a forum.
A couple of people have arrived at the event wearing T-shirts with the slogan: “Can’t vote Greens, not this time.”
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Jewish Community Forum about to kick off in Melbourne seat of Macnamara
As we wait for the debate between Jim Chalmers and Angus Taylor to kick off later this evening, another event is about to begin in the ultra-marginal seat of Macnamara in Melbourne.
The Jewish Community forum will hear tonight from the Labor MP, Josh Burns, and the Liberal candidate, Benson Saulo.
The event is hosted each election by the Australian Jewish News, Australia Israel and Jewish Affairs Council, Executive Council of Australian Jewry, Jewish Community Council of Victoria, Temple Beth Israel, Zionism Victoria and the Zionist Federation of Australia.
But it has greater significance this year, amid the fallout of the Israel-Hamas war. In Macnamara, 10% of the population is Jewish, making it the second-largest Jewish electorate in Australia.
Burns, who is Jewish, is one of Labor’s most pro-Israel voices. He visited Israel after 7 October and criticised his government’s decision to vote at the UN for an end to Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories and to recognise the “permanent sovereignty” of the Palestinians.
But he’s been criticised by his community, who have claimed he hasn’t done enough to combat a rise in antisemitism at home.
The event tonight is being moderated by Rebecca Davis from AIJAC and Naomi Levin from JCCV.
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Dutton says Coalition ‘can’t’ put dollar figure on savings from gas policy for households
Peter Dutton was also asked if the Coalition can put a dollar figure on how much its gas policy would save the average household – but he said “we can’t”.
Because the way in which the system works is that we have an economy-wide benefits … We’ve said, OK, we’ve got an abundance of natural gas. We need that as we transition and decarbonise in our energy system. We want to make sure that we can deliver that at the cheapest possible price, and we want to divert more of the gas that is coming out of the ground here into domestic use.
That means that the wholesale price of gas goes down by about 23% and the reason you can’t quantify the exact dollar is that there is that economy-wide benefit to this gas policy.
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Dutton weighs in on how election campaign going so far
Peter Dutton was also on ABC Sydney Radio earlier this afternoon, to weigh in on how the campaign’s going so far.
He said most people are just “busy with their lives” right now and likely “won’t tune in, probably for another week or so”.
A lot of people delay having to make a decision. They weigh it up, you know, closer to the day. There are those people who are tragics that are following every word of it … Hopefully we’re able to, you know, at least grab some of their attention to talk about some of [our] plans.
The opposition leader was asked how damaging the Coalition’s backflip on its work from home policy has been. He said the party had “clarified that, we admit that we’ve made a mistake, and we’ve been able to move on from it”.
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DZY lawyers say high court ruling will pave way for more survivors to challenge past settlements made in unfair circumstances
Continuing from our earlier post: Lawyers for an abuse survivor say a high court ruling earlier today will pave the way for more survivors to challenge past settlements made in unfair circumstances.
The survivor, known as DZY, settled for $100,000 when confronted with insurmountable legal barriers to his planned civil action against the Christian Brothers in 2012, including a time limit on bringing historical abuse claims and the so-called “Ellis defence”, which the church used to avoid legal liability.
But new laws introduced across the country allow survivors like DZY to challenge past settlements made in unfair circumstances. DZY took a case to the high court seeking to have a past decision not to pursue compensation for economic loss set aside.
In a ruling today, the court declined to do so. But it also ruled that the power to set aside settlements was not limited to cases where either the time limit or the Ellis defence forced survivors into accepting paltry amounts.
DZY’s lawyer, Judy Courtin, said the ruling was “good news” for survivors who had entered into “highly inadequate settlements and signed deeds of release which really served only to protect the Church institutions and State bodies from providing genuine compensation to the victims of child abuse”.
Courtin told Guardian Australia:
DZY is delighted that this high court decision will benefit other victim/survivors. It is this admirable unselfishness and towering courage that make DZY a person worthy of great respect and admiration. If only the churches would take a leaf out of his book.
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Dutton grateful for ‘thousands’ of well wishes after father’s heart attack
Peter Dutton was also asked about his father’s condition, after he suffered a heart attack just before last night’s leaders’ debate. The opposition leader said:
Obviously it’s on your mind, and I’m just really lucky, I’ve got amazing siblings who are there with dad at the moment, and he’s good.
I spoke to him this morning. He’s got some great care where he is, and he’s very appreciative, as I am, as our family is, for literally thousands of messages, well wishes that have come in. And I’m really, truly grateful and very touched actually by that, and yeah, I hope to get to see him very soon.
Dutton claims Albanese has ‘sympathy’ for Greens policies
Peter Dutton was asked to weigh in on the Greens’ policies outlined today at the National Press Club – including changes to negative gearing – and said:
There is an enormous amount of sympathy in Anthony Albanese’s leftwing government for the sorts of things that Adam Bandt is putting on the table. I think he would get a receptive hearing to all of the impacts, as you point out, to Forestry, etc, from the Labor party, because that’s what Tanya Plibersek believes. And Anthony Albanese is the most left-leaning prime minister or leader of the Labor party since Gough Whitlam, and he has a natural sympathy for these arguments as well.
At a press conference just this afternoon, the PM clearly ruled out changes to negative gearing (see post) and any deals with the Greens (see post).
But still, Dutton claimed on Sky News:
The prime minister will jump into bed with the Greens after the election if it means that that’s what he has to do to get into government.
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Dutton reacts to outcome of last night’s leaders’ debate
The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, has been speaking with Sky News this evening – and was asked about the outcome of last night’s debate.
Anthony Albanese won 44 votes out of 100, Dutton won 35 and 21 people remained undecided.
Dutton suggested that not all voters were as undecided as they claimed, saying:
It was a great audience. And, look, I thought it was a really free-flowing conversation. I suspect there were some people in the audience who probably weren’t as swinging as they might have made out to be, but that’s OK.
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Private dinner fundraiser with Scott Yung and Tony Abbott cancelled
A private dinner fundraiser with the Liberal candidate for Bennelong, Scott Yung, and former prime minister, Tony Abbott, has been cancelled.
Invitations seen by Guardian Australia show the private dinner event at Le Montage – which describes itself as a “luxurious venue that embodies resort-style, noir and designer characteristics” – was scheduled to be held on 24 April.
The event was a federal fundraiser for the Bennelong Forum. It is not known why the event was cancelled and Yung, the Coalition and Abbott have been contacted for comment.
Yung held a similar dinner fundraising event with former prime minister John Howard on budget night last month. Tickets were $220 a head according to invites.
Bennelong is held by the Labor MP Jerome Laxale with a margin of just 0.1%.
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Albanese rules out deal with Greens and refers to ‘previous 324 answers’
Wrapping up the press conference, Anthony Albanese was against asked whether Labor would make any preference deals with the Greens?
I’m asked about it every day. Very clearly, those things are a matter for the organisational wing.
What I’m responsible for is what the parliamentary party does. What we do is we will seek to be a majority government. We won’t negotiate with the Greens before, during, after the election, about those matters.
I’ve been very clear about that. I’ve been clear about that for a decade, and I refer you to my previous 324 answers.
PM takes aim at Coalition gas policy and ‘cookers’ in ‘his party room’
Just back tracking a little bit: earlier in Anthony Albanese’s press conference, he took aim at the Coalition’s gas policy and said:
There’s a bit of talk today about gas from Peter Dutton. Well, you know, he doesn’t need gas for his cookers. If he wants to find cookers, he can look at his party room, it’s full of it.
He got rid of the Whitlam candidate. Now another one has problems. This guy here is a shocker and people shouldn’t vote for him.
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Jim Chalmers ‘doesn’t need advice’ ahead of debate with Angus Taylor, PM says
The prime minister was also asked if he had any advice for the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, ahead of tonight’s debate, and said:
Jim Chalmers doesn’t need advice to debate Angus Taylor, with respect …
I saw the interview that Angus Taylor had with Billi FitzSimons. I did see that online during a flight, and my goodness, Billi FitzSimons really towelled him up, towelled up the facts that he got wrong.
A reminder that we’ll be bringing you the treasurers’ debate live right here on the blog – I’ll bring you more details on this soon.
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PM firmly rules out any negative gearing changes
Anthony Albanese also ruled out any changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax, saying:
Yes! How hard is it? For the 50th time.
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Albanese on Trump’s ‘arse-kissing’ comments
A reporter asked about comments from Donald Trump that he’s sick of world leaders calling him “kissing his arse” – is Anthony Albanese now feeling vindicated for not calling him, as Peter Dutton has suggested?
Albanese said he hadn’t seen the comments from Trump but “that’s not the way I deal with leaders”.
I deal as an equal with countries that I engage with. I had a discussion with Keir Starmer on Friday night … the two conversations I’ve had with President Trump are ones in which I stand up for Australia’s national interest and I will always do that.
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Albanese spoke with Dutton ahead of last night’s debate after news of father’s heart attack broke
Anthony Albanese said he spoke with Peter Dutton ahead of last night’s debate, after he heard news the opposition leader’s father had suffered a heart attack.
We had a private discussion. I wished him well and, of course, I wish – and I’m sure all Australians wish – his father well at this difficult time.
Peter is obviously very busy campaigning and that’s understandable, but of course, our health and the health of family members always comes first.
Dutton told reporters earlier today that his father is doing well, and is a “tough old bugger” so “he’ll be fine”.
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Albanese addressing reporters in Cairns
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has been speaking to reporters from Cairns in Queensland.
A local reporter asked if the government would intervene in the sale of Cairns airport to make sure it stays Australian-owned – pointing to similar moves with the Port of Darwin.
Albanese said the Cairns airport was an “important asset” but that governments “only intervene in terms of ownership if there is market failure”.
We’ll await that process. If there’s any bids, there’s a need to go through the Foreign Investment Review Board.
I’ll tell you what we’re not doing is doing what the commonwealth government did under the former government, which is to provide a cash incentive to flog off assets. That’s what occurred with Darwin port.
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Paterson says Trump’s tariffs on Australia ‘completely unjustified and should be abandoned’
Moving to the US, James Paterson was asked about Donald Trump’s suggestion that pharmaceutical experts from the US are likely to be hit with tariffs.
He said this would be “very concerning if it was true”.
It would be doubling down on the wrong policy the president has adopted so far with tariffs towards Australia … I would hope the president would recognise the damage that has been done by this policy so far, to stock markets around the world and the troubling predictions of a recession in the United States – or even globally and here in Australia – and recognise that this is not worked as intended and change course.
He can set the trade policy for the United States but I would say at least in respect to Australia, it’s completely unjustified and should be abandoned and I would not welcome in any way any sort of tariff on pharmaceutical exports either.
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Paterson defends savings outlined in Coalition gas policy modelling
Sticking with the Coalition’s gas policy: host Patricia Karvelas noted that for households it’s a 3% reduction – aka $50 a year, and a reduction of a dollar a week.
That’s not very much, is it, she asked?
James Paterson turned the spotlight back on Labor, and pointed to energy price increases over the past three years:
Imagine how much more it will increase in their second term if they’re successful. We’re saying we can bring down prices.
Karvelas said the Coalition had “mocked the idea of not much money in tax cuts, but you think a dollar a week for a gas reduction is enough?”
Paterson answered that “I’m not sure what else you’re suggesting we do here,” and also pointed to the Coalition’s nuclear plan:
We’ve got immediate relief that will be tangible and far bigger than Labor’s tax cut in terms of petrol tax relief, and over time that will drive lower prices through reduced gas prices – and also by transitioning our energy system into a nuclear-powered, emissions-free energy system.
Paterson claims gas prices will be lower under Coalition policy
The shadow home affairs minister and Coalition campaign spokesperson, James Paterson, is also up on ABC Afternoon Briefing – asked to clarify when households will see the full benefit of the gas price reduction?
He argued the benefits would “start to flow initially as soon as the policy is introduced.”
We’ll sit down with the gas companies early on after we’re elected, if we’re successful at the election, to make it clear we expect them to supply the domestic market.
We’ll introduce legislation to drive that gas back into the domestic market and benefits will start to flow – but they won’t all come straightaway.
Paterson was pushed for a timeline but said “I can’t give you the precise day”, continuing:
We can’t fix it on day one. Labor has done a lot of damage to our energy system. We will start to work straightaway and the benefits will flow throughout our first term.
Will people see any impact this year? Paterson said “I think they will,” and claimed “gas prices will be down under us through this policy.”
'We aren't doing it': Labor minister rules out negative gearing changes
Ed Husic was also asked about Adam Bandt’s speech today, where he announced the Greens would insist on changes to the negative gearing tax breaks if there is a hung parliament.
Why not revisit these ideas? Husic said it was “simple” – the prime minister has ruled it out.
We aren’t doing it. So from our point of view, that’s the end of the story.
We believe that in tackling housing affordability, the biggest thing we need to do is to be able to improve supply, increase supply.
Husic took aim at Bandt for “teaming” up with Dutton to block legislation in the Senate, and said:
You’ll have to forgive me, I’m not necessarily rushing to embrace an idea that Adam Bandt has on housing affordability because he’s decided now he wants to make it a priority. When we needed him and he could have helped and we could have got things moving quicker, he really wasn’t there.
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Husic argues Coalition gas policy needs to be looked at ‘sceptically’ as he labels Dutton a ‘fake and a flake’
Ed Husic was also asked about the Coalition’s gas plan – to create a domestic gas reservation for the east coast – after long-awaited modelling was released today:
Weighing in on the policy, Husic argued you have to “take what they’re saying sceptically.”
It doesn’t take them long to backtrack and, you know, policy-cordial offerings that we wait to be watered down by the Coalition at some point. They’re not going to stand by them. You have to take what they’re saying sceptically.
When it comes to gas, Peter Dutton is hot air. He’s a fake and a flake on this stuff.
When we needed him to stand with us to cap gas prices back in 2022, he didn’t do what Labor and Liberal premiers at the time did, regardless of politics … The only person who opposed us – Peter Dutton and the Liberal party.
Husic continued, arguing the Coalition “can’t even have a policy they take into the election survive a couple of days before they change it.”
Husic says Australia has to be ‘prepared’ and ‘think ahead’ amid potential future tariffs
Asked how Australia can prevent further tariffs from the United States, Ed Husic said the key was to “think ahead as a nation”.
It is why you saw the prime minister announce last week an economic resilience package, including … a $1bn manufacturing retooling fund … I have also taken the step of asking the anti-dumping commission to take a much closer look at the prospect of material being dumped in Australia, in an effort to side-step the impact of the tariffs as well.
Husic said there was “no point speculating on other tariffs, where they’re going to go, how they’re going to behave in terms of the US.”
You can see these things will just continue. We have to be prepared. That’s what we’re doing as a government.
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Husic responds to interaction between US senators over tariffs on Australia
The industry minister, Ed Husic, has labelled Donald Trump’s tariffs as “enormously counter-productive and not in anyone’s interest”.
Speaking to ABC Afternoon Briefing this afternoon, Husic responded to a video from the US, where Democratic senator Mark Warner slammed the 10% tariffs on Australian imports as “insulting” and “ridiculous.”
Asked what he made of the comments, Husic joked:
I reckon I might see if I can get an honorary Order of Australia for Senator Warner. Good on him. I like the cut of his jib.
The minister said Warner was right to point to Australia’s trade surplus with the US, and the close relationship between the two countries, and said:
Everyone will lose from what the Trump administration is doing here. It is senseless and counter-productive.
How should Australia respond, then, if the US think they’re running the score? Husic said the US shouldn’t “be engaged in further action against a friend like Australia”.
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Catholic order wins clergy abuse case against survivor who had challenged unfairness of past settlement
A Catholic order this morning won a crucial clergy abuse case in the high court against a survivor who had challenged the unfairness of a past settlement.
The survivor, known as DZY, was confronted with insurmountable legal barriers when he initially sought to sue the Christian Brothers over his sexual abuse as a child, including at the hands of Brother Robert Best.
He was told that two legal barriers gave him poor legal prospects: the then legal time limit on bringing historical abuse claims, and the so-called “Ellis defence”, a now quashed legal precedent allowing the Catholic church to avoid legal liability because it was an unincorporated association.
DZY accepted an $80,000 settlement for the sexual assaults he endured, which was topped up with $20,000 when it emerged during a public inquiry the Catholic order had failed to disclose relevant material to his lawyers.
State and territory governments across the country have in recent years passed reforms allowing abuse survivors to set aside past settlement amounts if they were made in unfair circumstances and where a court rules it to be just and reasonable to do so.
DZY asked the high court to use the new laws in Victoria to set aside an earlier decision by his former lawyers not to claim compensation for the economic loss that he suffered as a result of the abuse and its related trauma.
The high court ruled against him.
In a decision earlier today, it agreed with a previous court ruling that his decision not to pursue a claim for economic loss was unrelated to the legal barriers he faced at the time. Instead, it was related to concerns that it may have forced him to pay back Centrelink benefits.
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NSW Forestry Corporation issues statement after high court judgment
We reported earlier that the NSW Forestry Corporation had lost an appeal in the high court that could now open the door for community groups to challenge environmental breaches by the state-owned logging company.
In what the South East Forest Alliance described as a landmark judgment, the court dismissed forestry corporation’s argument that a section of the state’s forestry act prevented groups or individuals that met the common law test for standing from commencing legal proceedings to enforce compliance with logging laws and protect threatened wildlife.
The forestry agency has made a short statement to say it is considering the judgment.
A spokesperson said the agency’s appeal in the high court “sought clarity on who can bring enforcement action in relation to alleged breaches in forestry operations”. They said the agency was reviewing the judgment and would consider the next steps.
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Successful trial for electric cars to operate as batteries on wheels in Australia
Electric cars are finally ready to operate as batteries on wheels in Australia after a successful trial by a team of electricity, technology, research and vehicle firms, AAP reports.
Electricity distributor Essential Energy announced the long-anticipated arrival of vehicle-to-grid technology at the Smart Energy Conference in Sydney today in partnership with the CSIRO, Sigenergy and AUSEV.
The launch comes six months after the federal government outlined standards for the technology, allowing bi-directional chargers to be approved for use in homes by the Clean Energy Council.
Vehicle-to-grid technology (V2G) works by connecting an electric car to a charger that can manage the flow of electricity, either using it to recharge the vehicle’s battery or feeding it from the car back into the electricity network.
In this way, electric vehicles can power a home’s lights during a blackout or support the national grid during periods of high demand.
While V2G compatibility will only extend to the converted electric utes initially, which start at $169,900, Essential Energy and CSIRO are in talks to expand trials to other vehicle models.
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Palau president delivers barb at Dutton over ‘water lapping at your door’ hot mic joke
The president of Palau has delivered a pointed barb at Peter Dutton while strongly backing an Australian bid to host a UN climate conference on behalf of the Pacific, arguing that it would boost regional solidarity and he would be “deeply disappointed” if the attempt was abandoned under the Coalition.
Speaking at a renewable energy conference in Sydney today, Surangel Whipps Jr described seeing two-thirds of an island in his archipelago country disappear under water in his lifetime.
For those of us in the Pacific who have lived through storm surges, rising ocean levels and increasingly high tides, the phrase ‘water lapping at our door’ is not a metaphor or a punchline. It’s our fear and reality.
The comment was an apparent reference to a 2015 incident in which Dutton, while immigration minister, was overheard on a hot mic joking with then-prime minister Tony Abbott about delays during a visit to Papua New Guinea, saying “time doesn’t mean anything when you’re about to have water lapping at your door”. Dutton later apologised for the incident.
You can read more on this below:
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Good afternoon! Emily Wind here – I’ll take you through the rest of our election coverage, as well as the treasurer’s debate later this evening.
And with that, I’ll be handing over the blog to my colleague, Emily Wind. Thanks for reading our election coverage this morning. I hope you have a great afternoon.
3,000 NSW doctors take part in industrial action demanding pay parity and safe working conditions
On the second of three days NSW doctors are striking, another 3,000 doctors have participated in industrial action, demanding pay parity with other states and safe working conditions.
The NSW Health deputy secretary, Matthew Daly, confirmed that – as the doctors’ union promised – patient safety in emergency and critical settings has not been compromised, with emergency departments performing at the national benchmark.
However, the walkouts have affected non-urgent services. At a press conference at 1pm, the NSW health minister, Ryan Park, said 614 elective surgeries had been cancelled since the industrial action began yesterday morning.
As part of that cumulative total since yesterday, 4,000 outpatient clinics had been cancelled, including for 445 for cancer patients, Park said.
The strike action has resulted in 34 beds closing, with 33 of those beds in short-stay units for patients transferred from an emergency department.
Park said the majority of the short-stay bed closures had been at Wyong hospital, which was due to its being a recipient of an emergency department relief package that gave them more of this type of bed.
The industrial action has also led to the employment of eight additional locums across metro Sydney, the minister says.
Park said:
The government understands there are challenges with doctors’ wages in New South Wales compared to other jurisdictions. No one is hiding under a rock and pretending that we’re not aware of discrepancies.
But trying to make up 12 years of wage suppression in 12 months is also not feasible and I want doctors to understand that.
If you haven’t already read it, Juliette McAleer today shared her perspective on why, after spending six months in hospital as a patient, a system that she believes exploits its workforce also endangers patients:
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Bandt speaks on Gaza at the National Press Club
The Greens leader, Adam Bandt, also spoke about the Israel-Gaza war at the National Press Club earlier. Here’s what he had to say:
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Where does the major parties’ merchandise come from?
Election campaigns are expensive ordeals.
Campaign ads running in marginal seats across the country don’t come cheap and party organisers need cash to pay for them. Beyond donations and private dinners, one way major parties raise money is through merchandise.
Among clothes sold by the Liberal party, including sweatshirts with the slogan Back on Track, are T-shirts manufactured by AS Colour. According to the AS Colour website, its products are manufactured in Bangladesh, China and Vietnam.
The majority of its cotton products, including T-shirts, are manufactured in Bangladesh. The shirts, including one with the logo “I’m leaving Labor in 2025”, are selling for $40 a pop.
Labor is also selling shirts for the same price but its website states they are “designed and printed in Australia”.
When asked where the shirt itself was made, a Labor source said its shirts were made by Bluegum and 100% Australian made. That’s saved the party a few blushes, given its Future Made in Australia policy.
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Bandt says negative gearing changes could be implemented ‘by the end of the year’
Taking a final question, Adam Bandt was asked if the Greens are “trying to move away from the image of being the party of activism”, with a softening of its demands regarding negative gearing?
Under the Greens’ proposal, negative gearing and the 50% capital gains discount would be grandfathered and restricted to one property to protect “mum and dad investors”.
Bandt said his party is trying to “chart a pathway to real change”, saying:
We know that even the Labor party was considering changes to negative gearing under pressure from us during the course of the last year, during the housing debate. Even the Labor party was looking at some of this.
What we’re trying to do is put on the table something that we think that could be implemented by the end of the year. And we think it’s more urgent now with the potential for interest rate cuts, fallout from Trump.
With that, Bandt’s appearance at the NPC has wrapped up.
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Bandt asked about influence of independents versus Greens
Adam Bandt was asked why the Greens think they have “such a strong hand to play” when voters are shifting more to independents than Greens?
The Greens leader said “we understand the need to cooperate and to come up with an arrangement that forms stable, effective and progressive government”.
That’s our preference, is to ensure that, in the coming minority parliament, that it runs for the full three years and that we get stuff done … We will go into any discussions with goodwill and with open mind. I think that’s what people would expect.
Asked if there are any red lines for the Greens, Bandt replied:
The red line is we won’t support Peter Dutton.
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Bandt says there is ‘expectation’ and ‘obligation’ for government to work with Greens in event of minority parliament
Our own Dan Jervis-Bardy asked Adam Bandt if he thinks Anthony Albanese is being “disingenuous” when he says Labor won’t be doing any deals with the Greens.
Bandt said there was an “expectation” in the next parliament – likely to be minority – that “we work together”.
We’re putting on the table what we would like to see.
Again, I would be absolutely astounded if Anthony Albanese or anyone else says, ‘No, I don’t want to get dental into Medicare. I’m not going to talk to anyone. And I’m going to take my bat and ball and go home.’
I understand people will campaign and say things during the course of the election campaign but, at the end of the day, if that’s what the Australian people decide, then we’ve got an obligation to work together.
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Bandt argues ‘many people’ will be changing vote based on response to Gaza
Another reporter asked why Gaza wasn’t mentioned in his speech, and whether this indicates a “softening” of the Green’s position, or “recognition” this doesn’t reflect well with the Australian electorate?
Adam Bandt rejected the characterisation and said from day one, the Greens condemned the 7 October attacks and taking of hostages, as well as the looming invasion on “2.2 million people walled into an area half the size of Canberra, 40% of whom are under the age of 15, [with] nowhere to go”.
Amnesty International says there’s a genocide occurring. We’ve said that. If you don’t necessarily believe us, listen to Amnesty International. There are now international courts that have issued arrest warrants for the extremist prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
We have just said from day one that the people of Palestine, and the people of Israel, are both entitled to live in a just and lasting peace and have their rights to self-determination recognised under international law.
Bandt argued that at the upcoming election, there would be “many people who are going to change their vote” on the basis of this issue.
Because there are things that the Australian government could do that would actually make a difference. We did it when Russia invaded the Ukraine.
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Bandt says election will be ‘penny drop’ moment for major parties
A reporter read out various critiques of the Greens party from Labor, including the prime minister, and asked: will you still support them with your preferences? And can you work collaboratively?
Adam Bandt said the Greens’ position is clear: “We’ll keep Dutton out and get Labor to act.”
But at the end of the day, the government can’t convince a third of the country to vote for it. The opposition gets a third of the vote, a bit more, [and] about a third of the country is voting for someone else.
And I think this will be the election that the penny drops for the major parties, that they can get together and change the electoral rules to try and prop up the system in their favour, but it’s not going to work …
I would be astounded – as to your question about being able to work together – if the prime minister or anyone else refused to respect the parliament that the Australian people choose. If he can convince 51% of the population to vote for him, then OK, but that’s not what’s happened.
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Bandt says Australia has chance to deepen relationship with countries impacted by US tariffs
Sticking with Aukus and Trump, Adam Bandt claimed that both major parties have “completely 100% put us in Donald Trump’s pocket and given us next to no room for manoeuvre at all”.
He argued that Australia should be a “force for peace and de-escalation”, and said:
We are in a position to now start joining with those other countries that Donald Trump is attacking and saying, “We need a new way of doing things that puts peace first” …
Economically, there are other countries now that are bearing the brunt of Trump’s tariffs. We should be exploring and deepening relationships with them.
Bandt said Australia has a “not very proud history of following the United States into every war it has chosen to go into”, and right now, shouldn’t be “signing up in advance to go off and join whatever war Donald Trump wants to fight next”.
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Bandt continues opposition to Aukus deal and says Australia needs to ‘detach’ from US
Adam Bandt was asked if the Greens intend to make their backing for a potential minority government contingent on cutting military spending and dumping Aukus?
He said the party would “announce more as we go on” but argued the party can “win the argument about Aukus on its merits”.
Now is precisely the wrong time for Australia to be joined at the hip to Donald Trump. Not only are these Aukus submarines never going to arrive – because they’re not building them fast enough, and the US government has said they don’t consider giving them to Australia as a priority – but … they’re not about defending our country, they’re about joining Donald Trump in his next attack that he wants to make on someone else.
Bandt argued Australia’s position should be “about defending Australia, not joining in Donald Trump’s next war of aggression”.
He also pointed to Rebecca Shaw’s article for Guardian Australia, saying “we’re watching the world being burned down by powerful men – we just didn’t know they would be such losers”.
There are millions of us across this country right now who do not want Australia to go down the US route. Who want to detach ourselves from Donald Trump and to look after us in this country.
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Bandt defends Greens’ ability to push for change using balance of power
A reporter pointed to the Greens’ 2022 campaign launch, where it outlined several policy priorities – such as no new coal and gas, free childcare, dental in Medicare – and said the party wasn’t able to achieve “the vast majority of those during this term of parliament with the balance of power in the Senate”.
What will they do differently this time?
Adam Bandt said it was “clear from this parliament already that Greens pressure works”, pointing to $3.5bn extra for public and community housing, and the right to disconnect.
As we head towards the election, Labor decided to adopt our policies to make supermarket price gouging illegal after they voted against it in parliament – but now are supporting it …
One of the things I’ve noticed about this place over the years is that they all say, “No, no, no, no, no” until they say yes. The Greens were the only one pushing for marriage equality for years. All the other parties said, “No, no, no,” and then they said yes. We were the only ones pushing for a National Anti-Corruption Commission. They said, “No, no, no, no, no,” until they said yes.
He argued that the policies being put forward by the Greens are “things that I think would stand the next government as a beacon of progressive reform that would go down in history”.
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Bandt makes election pitch as he wraps up speech to National Press Club
The Greens leader, Adam Bandt, has been speaking at the National Press Club in Canberra today.
As we flagged earlier, he announced the minor party will insist on changes to the negative gearing tax breaks if there is a hung parliament. He also claimed the global stock market turmoil caused by Trump’s tariffs has made reform even more necessary and urgent.
Under the Greens’ proposal, negative gearing and the 50% capital gains discount would be grandfathered and restricted to one property to protect “mum and dad investors”.
Bandt just wrapped his speech, making this pitch to voters:
The Greens are within reach of winning seats right across the country and, in the minority government, we can make things happen. We’re within reach in Wills, Macnamara, Richmond, Sturt and Perth. We can combine our position in the lower house, with the strongest team of senators that our party has ever had, where we currently hold the balance of power and continue to have a strong say.
He is just about to start taking questions from reporters, so stay tuned – we’ll bring you all the highlights.
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NSW Forestry Corporation high court appeal dismissed
The Forestry Corporation of NSW has lost an appeal in the high court that may open the door for community groups to challenge alleged environmental breaches by the state-owned logging company and bring public interest cases involving logging of threatened species habitat in NSW to the courts.
The court dismissed forestry corporation’s argument that a section of the state’s forestry act prevented groups or individuals that met the common law test for standing from commencing legal proceedings to enforce compliance with logging laws and protect threatened wildlife.
The South East Forest Alliance described it as a “landmark judgment”.
The alliance brought the initial proceedings in the NSW land and environment court in 2024 alleging the forestry agency had failed to comply with conditions meant to protect species such as the greater glider during native forest logging operations.
Spokesperson Scott Daines said:
This judgment confirms that organisations with a deep and ongoing commitment to environmental protection can hold government-owned entities accountable to the law.
Forestry Corporation tried to shut down this case before it even began. That strategy has failed.
The NSW Greens environment spokesperson, and former environmental lawyer Sue Higginson said the decision marked the end of “a dark era” and “the end of the rule that only the Environment Protection Authority can prosecute the Forestry Corporation” for alleged environmental breaches.
She said:
The high court has now rightly opened the door for public interest cases to be brought against the continued logging in our native forests.
Guardian Australia has sought comment from the NSW Forestry Corporation.
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Dutton says government won’t ‘book any revenue’ from gas policy when asked if it is constitutional
Peter Dutton has been coy when asked whether the Coalition’s gas policy would breach constitutional rules.
Dutton held a press conference in western Sydney a short time ago, alongside McMahon candidate Carmen Lazar and the opposition’s energy spokesperson, Ted O’Brien.
The opposition leader was asked whether the Coalition’s plan to make east coast LNG exporters to reserve more gas for domestic supply would apply to producers in Western Australia and, if the answer was no, if that was constitutional.
Dutton didn’t answer directly, saying:
It applies to our east coast market reservation. And we’ve been very clear about the fact that we don’t believe that we book any revenue out of that measure.
We’ve been working on this for a long time. We want to get it right, and what we do is we take away the advantage in exporting that gas, and we apply those gas producers who otherwise would have sold our gas to foreign markets to put that gas into the market here.
Now, by removing the advantage that they have in exporting the gas, we increase the supply here by 50 to 100 petajoules.
We reckon this exchange might have something to do with section 51 (iii) of the constitution, which rules out setting different levies/duties for different states on the production or export of goods.
Unlike the east coast, WA – which produces most of the country’s gas – already has rules ensuring some of it must be kept for the local market, which has kept prices in the state well below the national average.
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PM says he will revisit environmental law reform if Labor is elected for a second term
Anthony Albanese has said he will continue to “advance” Labor’s agenda for environmental law reform if elected for a second term because it’s in the interest of both extractive industries and the environment.
The prime minister said at a press conference this morning - which was held at Sydney’s Paddy’s Markets with the environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, and the NSW premier, Chris Minns, that he was “hoping to get the numbers in the Senate this time”.
It comes after Albanese killed off a potential deal with the Greens last year to establish an environmental watchdog to manage compliance with national environmental laws after intervention from the WA premier, Roger Cook.
Albanese confirmed in March that he would revive the plan if re-elected, however, he said it would not be “the same model”.
Asked by Guardian Australia this morning about the details of the plan, and whether this commitment could be trusted after he shelved the legislation last year, Albanese responded:
We will continue to advance our agenda ... I discussed with the WA Chamber of Minerals and Energy, I’ve had discussions with environmental groups, and my minister has been leading those discussions.
We know that it is in the interests of both the environment and sustainability, but also of industry [for there to be] a proper reform of an Act that is not fit for purpose that has been there since the Howard era.
We will deal with that in a second term in an appropriate, consolidated way.
Plibersek, who is also the MP for Sydney, responded to a question earlier in the press conference by claiming that people in her electorate were happy with the Albanese government’s record on the environment. She said:
When I door knock in Sydney and I talk about Labor’s record on the environment, I get a fantastic reception.
Since coming to government, we have protected an extra 100 million hectares of land and ocean in this country.
Since coming to government, we’ve added more than one million tonnes of recycling capacity to Australia.
Since coming to government, I have approved enough renewable energy to power every single home in Australia. More than 80 projects.
We’ve got a fantastic record on the environment. We’re the only party of government that is serious about acting on climate change. That’s why I get such a great response.
Updated
Australian gas industry criticises the Coalition’s election policy
Australia’s gas industry has run the rule over the Coalition’s gas policy announced late last night, and they have come out with some heavy criticism.
The Coalition says if elected it would set limits on how much gas LNG companies can sell overseas and impose a charge to make selling gas to the domestic market more attractive.
But Australian Energy Producers chief executive, Samantha McCulloch, said the report from Frontier Economics of the Coalition’s price controls “leaves many unanswered questions about how the policy would work and reaffirms industry’s fundamental concerns”.
She said it was “yet another heavy-handed intervention that will drive away investment and risk exacerbating the supply pressures in the longer term.”
McCulloch pointed to Coalition statements in 2022 when the government introduced price caps, when shadow resources minister Susan McDonald said price caps would be a disaster and would damage domestic supply.
McCulloch said:
Rather than increasing gas supply, the Coalition’s policy risks reducing domestic gas production and supply because there would be no incentive to produce sub-economic gas, and it would damage already suppressed investor confidence.
The modelling also ignores the material infrastructure constraints that limit how much gas from Queensland can be sent to the southern states, with the pipes already running at full capacity during peak periods – a point the Coalition made less than six months ago.
Updated
Climate change and energy minister labels Coalition’s gas policy analysis a ‘scamphlet’
The climate change and energy minister, Chris Bowen, has criticised Frontier Economics analysis that claims the Coalition’s policy could lower gas prices, describing it as a “scamphlet”.
Giving a media conference at a Smart Energy Council conference in Sydney, Bowen brandished the 15-page report, which he said was “alleged modelling” and included only 135 words on the impact on electricity prices.
I’ve seen longer menus in a restaurant than this …[Coalition frontbencher] James Patterson told the Australian people they’ve been working on this for a year, which works out at a very low productivity rate per word.
If this is a year’s work, this is a nonsense document filled with holes.
Frontier estimated the Coalition’s policy could reduce domestic gas prices by 7% and electricity bills by 3%. The report does not include the modelling that was used to reach these figures.
Bowen said modelling of the Coalition’s nuclear proposal released in December suggested a big fall in gas usage in the energy grid, but four months later it was saying “we need more gas”.
He said Coalition frontbenchers had made contradictory claims about the impact on prices today and had “a lot of clearing up to do”.
He said:
They’ve retrofitted this document, which was clearly prepared after the budget reply.
Bowen said he was looking forward to debating the shadow minister for climate change and energy minister, Ted O’Brien, tomorrow.
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Melting moments: PM attends opening of Sydney’s Hay St Market
The prime minister didn’t seem to consider it too early in the day for ice-cream before that press conference.
Here are some photos, taken by AAP of Anthony Albanese wandering about Sydney’s Hay St Market at its official opening this morning, where he later spoke to journalists.
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PM refuses to say he has spoken to Trump directly to lobby for tariff exemptions
At the same press conference, Anthony Albanese was unclear about whether he’d spoken to the US president, Donald Trump, directly to advocate for exemptions from his administration’s tariff regime. Albanese said:
What I have said very directly to President Trump [is] the United States has a trade surplus with Australia.
We have continued to make representations through the US administration. One of the ways you deal with diplomacy isn’t to do it with a loud hailer.
We had direct contact with the US administration and we’ll continue to do so. We’re in caretaker mode at the moment but we’ll continue to engage as we are through our officials.
[Treasurer] Jim Chalmers travelled directly to the US [and] met with the US treasury secretary.
But later, when asked if he had spoken to Trump himself, Albanese said:
We’ll continue to make representations to the US administration.
Albanese also sought to downplay the impact of the Trump administration’s tariffs would have on Australia, saying:
The sanctions or the tariffs that Donald Trump has put in represent an impact on the world, because the US is the world’s largest economy. But 80% of world trade does not involve the United States, there are enormous opportunities for Australia to take advantage of where we are in the world.
Building on the work that we’ve done, building up trade relationships [with] south-east Asia, building our relationship with India, continuing to build on our economic relationship with China.
Updated
Anthony Albanese says he learned about apparent super fund hack 'when it occurred'
Anthony Albanese says he was informed about an apparent attempted hack on the superannuation fund Cbus “when it occurred”.
The prime minister has been speaking to journalists at a press conference in Sydney with the NSW premier, Chris Minns, where he was asked when he learned about the incident. Albanese replied:
When it occurred, I was informed. No, I haven’t discussed it with Wayne Swan.
Swan, a former Labor treasurer, is the chair of Cbus, a construction industry fund.
Updated
Trump tariff fears wipe $50bn off ASX in opening minutes
The sharp price moves on the ASX equate to more than $50bn of value being wiped from the stock market in the opening minutes of trading.
Mining companies are some of the early casualties of the drop, with BHP shares down more than 4%. Resources companies – especially those dealing in or otherwise exposed to iron ore – are particularly sensitive to any slowdown in global economic growth.
Updated
Australian share market records steep drop in opening minutes of trade
Australian shares have fallen by a steep 2% in the opening minutes of trading this morning, erasing yesterday’s bounce as hopes deteriorate that the world’s two largest economies will strike a trade deal.
The sharp price moves come shortly before the US is scheduled to hit China with additional tariffs, due to come into effect just after 2pm (AEST).
Taking into account past announcements, Chinese goods entering the US will face a 104% tariff as part of Donald Trump’s new trade regime. Analysts at IG warned on Wednesday that the Australian economy would be hit by the trade barrier, saying:
If China does dig in, tariffs on its imports to the US will rise to a staggering 104%, a dire outcome for Australia’s trade-dependent economy and a potential catalyst for another round of broader risk aversion.
Australia’s benchmark share index fell to below 7,350 points in the opening minutes of trading today, taking it back to the level it closed at on Monday, which was the worst trading day in almost five years.
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Opposition finance spokesperson spruiks Coalition’s gas policy
The opposition’s finance spokesperson, Jane Hume, has also been talking up the Coalition’s gas policy this morning.
Speaking to Seven’s Sunrise earlier, Hume said the policy is about “keeping Aussie gas for Aussies”.
She said:
There are three ways that gas is used. It can be used in long-term contracts, it can be used for domestic supply, and it can also be traded on the spot market, using those volatile prices.
That’s where this east coast gas reserve will come from, bringing more gas into the system, it will unlock supply and bring prices down over time.
We estimate that it’s going to create around a 23% drop in wholesale gas prices that will feed through to industrial it was, to retail gas, and also to electricity prices.
What we want to see is more supply into the system, unlocking more supply, bringing prices down by putting pressure on prices down by putting pressure on prices.
Under the proposal, east coast gas producers would be forced to provide 50 to 100 additional petajoules to Australia’s east coast market – known as a gas reservation – in an attempt to bring down the average price from $14 a gigajoule to $10 a gigajoule by the end of the year.
Most of the gas produced on the east coast is exported overseas, with enough given to supply gas-fired power generation and industry, commercial and residential users in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria.
You can read more about it here:
Peter Dutton says his father is doing well after suffering heart attack
The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, has said his father is doing well after suffering a heart attack right before last night’s televised leaders’ debate.
Speaking on Sydney’s Nova radio earlier this morning, Dutton said he considered pulling out of his first formal debate against Anthony Albanese, which went ahead at a Sky News event in western Sydney.
Asked this morning on Nova’s Fitzy, Wippa & Kate Ritchie show how his father was doing, Dutton said:
He’s good. I spoke to him this morning. He’s 80 this year.
He’s a great man. He’s stoic and he’s a tough old bugger. So he’ll be fine.
Dutton continued:
Look, I thought: ‘Do I pull out of the debate? Do I?’
But … my sisters were up there with him and giving me regular reports, which was good, but yeah, he’s a great man, and I love him very much.
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Health minister grilled on Labor’s $1bn mental health package
The health minister, Mark Butler, says Labor will not technically be building new mental health centres under its $1bn mental health promise.
Yesterday, Labor pledged $500m for 20 youth specialist care centres, as well as $225m for 31 new and upgraded Medicare mental health centres and $200m for expanding or starting 58 Headspace centres. Speaking to 4BC Radio earlier, Butler said the services will be new but the buildings themselves will not.
He said:
We’re not building them. This is to fund the operations of these centres. Generally, they will rent existing premises.
They won’t be brand-new buildings. What we will do, say, in a particular area of say, north Brisbane or regional Queensland – we say we want to establish - let’s use the word establish other than build.
They are new in the sense the service doesn’t exist, and a mental health organisation will then bid to to receive the funding that we’ve made available in yesterday’s announcement.
Butler said the policy also includes rebranding the existing 61 Head to Health centres that the former Coalition government set up by changing them to Medicare mental health centres.
He said:
Head to Health – no one knew what it was, okay?
We did research. We basically, looked at how the existing services, which had started under the former government, were performing.
Updated
ASX to plunge as tariff tensions rise
In more tariff-related news: Australian shares are poised to fall sharply today as Donald Trump presses ahead with plans to hit China with huge retaliatory tariffs.
Futures prices are pointing towards a steep 2% loss when the S&P/ASX 200 opens later this morning, erasing yesterday’s rebound. The anticipated price move would push the benchmark back under 7,350 points, the level it closed at on Monday after the market suffered its worst trading day in five years.
Trump’s latest threat to raise his tariffs on China by an additional 50% if Beijing does not withdraw its own retaliatory tariffs is scheduled to come into effect today, just after 2pm (AEST).
This equates to a 104% tariff on goods the US imports from China, taking into account past tariff announcements.
Global markets have been recording huge swings in response to the US’ new trade regime. The US benchmark index, the S&P 500, fell 1.6% overnight, wiping out an earlier gain of 4.1%.
Over the past week, share markets have tended to rebound when there are signs the US will strike trade agreements with key economic partners and fall when trade relations deteriorate. There is growing concern that if the tariff regime is implemented without significant changes, a “full-blown trade war, imminent recession and a liquidity crunch last seen during the early pandemic” may ensue, according to IG analysts.
Updated
Trump trade official defends tariffs against Australia
Jamieson Greer, a United States trade representative, has defended the Trump administration’s decision to impose tariffs on Australian imports.
In a fiery exchange during a US senate finance committee hearing, Greer was questioned about Australia by Mark Warner, a Democratic senator from Virginia. Warner said the tariffs undermined the Aukus defence pact and the strong trading relationship between the two countries and did not make sense given the US had had a longrunning trade surplus with Australia.
He said “insulting the Australians undermines our national security and, frankly, makes us not a good partner going forward”.
But Greer hit back, saying the tariffs were about “running up the score” and that, despite the free trade agreement that exists between the two countries:
They ban our beef, they ban our pork. They’re getting ready to impose measures on our digital companies. It’s incredible.
He continued:
We have a global tariff on everywhere. We’re trying to address the $1.2tn debt that [Joe] Biden left us.
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Opposition’s energy spokesperson vague on when Australians will see power bill reductions under Coalition’s gas plan
The opposition energy spokesperson, Ted O’Brien, has not confirmed when Australian households would start seeing savings from the Coalition’s gas plan.
O’Brien has been interviewed on ABC Radio National Breakfast after the Coalition released modelling for its gas reservation policy, claiming that it would shave 7% off household gas bills and take down electricity bills by about 3%.
Modelling by Frontier Economics, released yesterday evening, estimated the changes would bring down new domestic gas supplies to $9 or $10 a gigajoule.
O’Brien said the plan would result in the wholesale price of gas coming down “very quickly” but there was “likely to be a lag” on when consumers saw a reduction on their power bills.
He was asked specifically when households would start feeling these reductions directly through their gas bills, or indirectly through their electricity bills. O’Brien said if a Coalition government were elected, it would immediately introduce legislation to implement the gas policy.
He said the savings should start coming through “within the 12 month period” but it “had to be subject to whatever contracts they are on”. He said:
We are certainly looking, by the end of this calendar year, that you would start seeing wholesale gas prices coming down.
That means that as that then filters through with contracts, then by the end of the first 12 month period, industry [and] households should be seeing the impact.
Updated
Jason Clare says Labor not willing to revisit changes to property tax concessions
Clare has also ruled out revisiting potential reductions on tax concessions for property investors.
The Greens leader, Adam Bandt, is set to revive the political fight over negative gearing and capital gains tax in a speech to the National Press Club later today, where he will announce the minor party will insist on changes to the tax breaks if there is a hung parliament. The progressive party had tried to force Labor to revisit the tax concessions during bitter negotiations on housing legislation before conceding Anthony Albanese wouldn’t touch them.
Asked on ABC RN if Labor would be willing to take a second look at the tax breaks, Clare said:
No. What we want to do is build more homes. We’ve seen Australia over the first three years of this government, build half a million homes.
We want to build another 1.2m homes over the next five years. But not just that - the Housing Australia Future Fund is about building affordable homes as well as social housing for people who really need it, in particular women fleeing domestic violence.
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Jason Clare defends Labor miss on power bill reduction
Clare has defended Labor’s failure to meet its 2022 election promise to lower power bills by $275 a year.
He told ABC RN:
Australians are smart. They know that Australia, like the world, has been hit by the biggest energy crisis since we were kids. You know, that’s just a fact, triggered by Vladimir Putin invading Ukraine, as well as other things.
Now, the thing is, what do you do when that happens? Well, we respond by providing financial help for people to lower their energy bills, those $300 payments last year, the 150 bucks this year.
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Jason Clare says Labor is well placed to handle market volatility caused by Trump tariffs
The education minister, Jason Clare, says the government has “got the settings right” to ride out problems on the share market.
Clare, who is acting as the federal Labor election spokesperson, has been speaking on ABC Radio National breakfast before the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, meets with the leaders of the nation’s financial regulators later today discuss the share market volatility caused by the Trump administration’s tariff regime.
You can read more about the markets here:
Clare didn’t answer directly when asked if the federal government had “any levers to pull at this stage”. Instead, he said:
This is about discussing the outlook, making sure that we’ve got everything that we need in place. We do have the settings right.
We’ve got inflation coming down. We’ve got wages going up. And this is a government that has created more jobs in our first term than any government in Australian history.
We’re making real progress, but there’s more work to do.
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New Liberal candidate for Whitlam defends 2019 claims about ‘Marxist ideologies’ in schools
The new Liberal candidate for Whitlam has defended claims he made in 2019 while he was a NSW MP that students were being “brainwashed” by Marxist and woke ideologies in schools
Nathaniel Smith, who replaced Benjamin Britton as the opposition’s frontrunner in the long-held Labor seat, said in a statement on Tuesday evening he advocated for “better education standards for our kids” and would fight to get the education system “back to basics”.
Smith was announced as the replacement candidate on the weekend after Guardian Australia revealed Britton has shared a string of controversial views on fringe podcasts last year.
These views included that women should be banned from frontline roles in the military and that the education system was “indoctrinating” young Australians about Marxist ideologies.
Smith, a former Wollondilly MP and member of the Liberal party’s religious conservative faction, said in his 2019 maiden speech in NSW parliament that “political correctness in this country has gone too far”. He said at the time:
I believe childhood is a period of innocence. I want to see schools teach core skills, not agendas. I want my children to learn about history, geography, mathematics, Western civilisation, science and the arts; not Safe Schools, gender fluidity and other forms of Marxist brainwashing.
In response to questions from Guardian Australia about whether he still held these views, Smith responded he advocated for “better education standards for our kids”. He said:
Australia’s school students are falling further behind their international peers, while the Labor government is encouraging activism rather than making common sense improvements to the school curriculum.
A Liberal government will help get our education system back to basics by focusing on explicit instruction and other evidence-based teaching methods which prioritise reading, writing, maths and science.
You can read more here:
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Greens say Trump tariff chaos should force another look at property tax concessions
Here’s some more detail on the Greens’ proposal:
The Greens tried to force Labor to revisit the tax concessions during bitter negotiations on housing legislation before conceding Anthony Albanese wouldn’t touch them.
Treasury officials did examine options last year to redesign the tax breaks before the government decided against resurrecting some version of the policies former Labor leader Bill Shorten took to the 2016 and 2019 elections.
Albanese and the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, have repeatedly ruled out changes in recent months, arguing that boosting supply – rather than winding back concessions for property investors – was the solution to the housing crisis.
Adam Bandt will put the issue back on the agenda today in a speech before the National Press Club, claiming the global stock market turmoil caused by Trump’s tariffs has made reform even more necessary and urgent. The Greens leader is expected to tellsay:
Renters and first home buyers may get smashed even further in the next few months as wealthy investors spooked by Trump leave stocks and shares and pile into property, pushing house prices into the stratosphere.
Investors with big money behind them could jump into the housing market because of these incentives and lower interest rates, while first homebuyers with their life savings would be priced out of the already overheated market.
Under the Greens’ proposal, negative gearing and the 50% capital gains discount would be grandfathered and restricted to one property to protect “mum and dad investors”.
Updated
Good morning
Hello. I’ll be with you on the blog this morning, where we will continue our coverage of the federal election campaign.
Adam Bandt is set to revive the political fight over negative gearing and capital gains tax as the Greens leader uses Donald Trump’s “global tariff mayhem” to mount a fresh case to wind back the concessions. Bandt will use a speech to the National Press Club to announce the minor party will insist on changes to the tax breaks in a hung parliament.
I’ll bring you more on this shortly.
Neither Anthony Albanese or Peter Dutton made a major misstep in the Sky News forum in western Sydney as the two leaders held their first debate last night. Albanese was voted the winner in a poll of 100 undecided voters; the PM won 44 votes, Dutton won 35 and 21 remained undecided.
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, and the opposition’s treasury spokesperson, Angus Taylor, will have their own televised debate tonight.
