Federal election live updates: Peter Dutton and Anthony Albanese campaign on day 15
Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has said she wants to “make Australia great again” - with Labor using the comment to attack the Dutton campaign.
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Labor has attacked the Coalition after Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price said she wanted to “make Australia great again”, declaring the “wheels were coming off” Peter Dutton’s campaign.
Joining Dutton and WA senator Michaelia Cash to address the Liberal Party faithful at Mount Pleasant Bowling Club, Senator Price seemingly invoked US President Donald Trump’s famous slogan.
“We have incredible candidates right around the country that I’m so proud to be able to stand beside and to ensure that we can make Australia great again, that we can bring Australia back to its former glory, that we can get Australia back on track,” she said.
The line - along with other parts of Senator Price’s brief address - drew cheers and applause, and her introduction received an extremely warm welcome from the crowd.
One supporter held up a copy of her 2025 book Matters of the Heart as she was speaking.
“I couldn’t be prouder to stand next to a man (Mr Dutton) that I know puts Australians first, puts our vulnerable community members first,” Senator Price said.
“He did it previously as a police officer. He’s done it before in his previous positions as home affairs minister and many other ministries that he’s been able to hold.
“He’s got a proven track record that he will make the hard decisions draw that line in the sand for the benefit, for the interest of Australians.”
However, when asked whether the ‘MAGA’ phrase was an ode to Mr Trump, Senator Price said: “If I said that, I didn’t even realise I said that, but no, I’m an Australian and I want to ensure that we get Australia back on track.”
Mr Dutton was also asked if he thought using language linked the Trump campaign would assist his election efforts.
However his answer did not reference the US President, and said he wanted to “deal with the reality” struggling households are currently facing.
“You’ve got families out there at the moment, and we’ve spoken to them here in WA who can’t afford to pay their power bill, who can’t afford to pay their insurance bill, who can’t afford to,” he said.
“I mean, they’re making decisions at the moment about whether they insure their house or not, right? So let’s just deal with the reality for people.”
‘You’re obsessed:’ Price unleashes on journos
Senator Price accused journalists of being “obsessed with Donald Trump, after she was questioned about her choice of words at a election event promising supporters a Coalition government would “make Australia great again”.
The prominent Country Liberal senator took centre stage at Peter Dutton’s press conference on Saturday, with the Opposition Leader promising to give her a cabinet position if the Coalition won government.
After initially telling Liberal party faithful a Coalition government would “make Australia great again,” appearing to borrow a key campaign slogan from Mr Trump, she denied any connection to the divisive president.
Following sustained questioning, she accused reporters travelling with Mr Dutton of being “obsessed”.
“So let’s be very, very clear, media, you’re all obsessed with Donald Trump. We’re not,” she said.
“We’re not obsessed with Donald Trump. We’re actually obsessed with ensuring that we can improve the circumstances for Australians we’re governing for.”
The clash came after Ms Price, who is the Coalition’s Indigenous affairs and government efficiency spokeswoman was asked if she would rename her portfolio of government efficiency to distance herself from Mr Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency.
She denied any connection with the US president.
“Just to clarify, it is not an ode to Donald Trump,” she said.
She also gave further insight into how her portfolio would function, stating the Coalition would not form a specific DOGE-esque department.
“We will be ensuring that we are putting funds where they are going to provide the best outcomes for all Australians,” she said.
“Looking at where the waste exists and working across all portfolios with my colleagues.”
‘Cut and paste’: Labor’s Trump, Dutton claim
“The only thing she didn’t have today was the hat”.
That’s how Labor campaign spokesperson Jason Clare described Senator Price’s apparent referenced to Donald Trump’s ‘MAGA’ slogan on Saturday.
“I think they said the quiet bit out loud,” Mr Clare said.
The Education Minister claimed the “wheels were coming off Mr Dutton’s campaign, and so is the mask”.
“It’s now pretty clear that Peter Dutton’s campaign to be Prime Minister is just a cut-and-paste from the United States,” he said.
“First, he cut and paste their policies. Now he’s cutting and pasting their slogans.
“With all of the chaos that’s happening overseas at the moment, I think most Australians are saying they don’t want this sort of stuff here, but it’s coming.
“This bloke is not a joke. He is a threat, and he’s making that very, very clear today.”
Anthony Albanese’s cabinet have regularly compared Mr Dutton to the US President during the campaign, including alleged plans to cut healthcare and his flip-flop pledge to cut the public service.
But the Prime Minister himself has mostly stayed quiet, instead leaving it to Australians to “draw their own conclusions”.
Asked why Mr Albanese wouldn’t make the same claims as his cabinet, Me Clare said “the PM can speak for himself”.
When asked about Labor’s own mirroring of US campaign slogans - such as those adopted by former president Barack Obama - Mr Clare said: “It’s a problem when it’s not just slogans, it’s policy.”
It comes after Mr Albanese received a raucous reception at a Labor barbecue in the affluent and multicultural Perth electorate of Tangney, following an 11-point swing again against the Liberals in 2022.
Hundreds gathered at Winthrop Park to welcome the Labor leader who, while turning sausages, quipped, “We’ve got cooks, but they’ve got cookers,” jokingly referring to the Opposition.
Mr Albanese was predictably decked out in Rabbitohs merchandise, though has confirmed he will not be attending Saturday night’s clash with the Cowboys and would instead be sending WA Premier Roger Cook.
‘Cookers’: Albo’s swipe at Coalition candidates
Mr Albanese has blasted the Opposition for putting forward “cooker” candidates and accused Mr Dutton of being “irresponsible” after his claim the future of AUKUS would be in doubt under a Labor government.
Mr Albanese was in Perth on Saturday – his 31st visit to Western Australia since taking office – to spruik investment in the city’s ferry system alongside Mr Cook, who secured a landslide victory for Labor at last month’s state election.
Asked about his confidence in the May 3 vote following WA Labor’s electoral success, Mr Albanese said of the Coalition’s candidates: “They have got a candidate for the Senate here who’s connected up with Illuminati nonsense. I mean, that is who they are running in seats.”
Mr Albanese went on to blast the “cookers” he claimed the Coalition was putting forward, including Leichhardt candidate Jeremy Neal, who has drawn controversy for resurfaced comments in which he blamed Donald Trump’s 2020 US election loss on feminists and called China “a grub of a country”.
Mr Neal has since apologised for the posts.
“Will the last moderate in the Liberal Party turn the lights off when they leave?” Mr Albanese quipped.
“They are becoming more extreme, less capable of putting forward a competent, orderly process and in uncertain times, which is what we live in, what my government offers is stability, is certainty.”
Mr Cook accused the state’s opposition of being a “bunch of people riddled with division, with factional divides”.
“They’re preselecting people with extreme views – with views that are, quite frankly, out of step with mainstream Western Australia and mainstream Australia,” he said.
“The sort of issues you see playing out in the federal election (are) the same issues we saw in the state election.”
Asked about AUKUS, Mr Albanese doubled down on criticism levelled at Mr Dutton in recent days after he claimed the future of the deal was under threat if Labor was re-elected.
“There have been a number of interesting things said by Mr Dutton over the past couple of weeks, but none more dangerous and none more irresponsible than linking tariffs with our defence policy,” he said.
“Then yesterday, calling into question at a time where the world is uncertain … when we need is certainty.
“What we need is bipartisanship on issues of defence policy, not this nonsense that he has tried to peddle there yesterday in saying that AUKUS will be under some cloud if my government is re-elected.”
“What (Mr Dutton) backs in is division and playing politics with everything, and I think that the comments he has made on defence show him to be irresponsible”.
Both Mr Albanese and Mr Dutton were in Perth on Friday, ahead of the second leaders’ debate in Sydney next week.
Mr Albanese described Western Australia as the “centre of the national economy” and to “represent the whole of Australia, that means back” the west.
“We want to partner with WA to deliver for the residents here in this growing, thriving state that is at the centre of our national economy, not just WA,” he said.
Mr Cook said his state was benefiting from its strong working relationship with the Albanese government.
“We hope to continue to build on that relationship as we diversify Western Australia’s economy and we continue to drive our made-in-WA plan,” he said.
Dutton hits eighth petrol station
In other news, Mr Dutton has made his eighth petrol station visit, picking up a pie, a sausage roll and two Coca-Cola soft drinks before he heads to Sydney for the official Liberal party campaign launch.
Mr Dutton met Liberal candidate for Swan Mic Fels and Liberal Senator Slade Brockman at the Night Owl Petrol station off the Great Eastern Highway in Perth’s east.
The station was in the electorate of Swan, which was flipped by Labor’s Zaneta Mascarenhas in 2022, and one of six seats lost by the Coalition.
Mr Dutton discussed the savings Australians could make on the average tank of fuel, estimated at about $14 under the policy, remarking the extra money would take financial pressure off households.
He also pontificated on the increased costs of cars under Labor’s vehicle emission scheme, remarking that Mr Fels’s Amarok Ute would be more expensive under the policy.
Mr Fels said it would be about $14,000 more expensive.
Mr Dutton shook hands with the petrol station manager and posed for photos. He declined to take a bite when he was showing the media pack his haul from his meal deals.
- with Rhiannon Down, pool
Dutton firms up support in Perth’s Tangney
Mr Dutton has made a second appearance in the Labor-held seat of Tangney for a campaign rally.
He’s set to address the Liberal Party faithful at Mount Pleasant Bowling Club alongside star frontbenchers WA senator Michaelia Cash and Senator Price.
No word yet on whether Mr Dutton will have a go on the bowling green.
Tangney is held by first-time Labor MP Sam Lim who turned the safe Liberal seat blue in 2022.
Mr Lim, a former dolphin trainer, holds the seat on a 2.4 per cent margin.
Both Senator Cash and Mr Dutton took aim at Mr Albanese, who is also campaigning in Perth, where Labor will officially launch its campaign on Sunday.
Mr Dutton was met with cheers and applause when he lashed Labor for having “hung our sheep farmers out to dry”.
“We’re going to stand with those communities, because we aren’t selling out,” he said.
In his call to arms, Mr Dutton also acknowledged the election result would “be tight”.
He said WA voters would be the ones to decide the election.
“I’ve said before to you that when we look here to the west on election night, that we’re going to be looking for you to bring the election home,” he said.
Dutton heckled from passing car on first street walk
Peter Dutton has been heckled by a young woman travelling in a moving car during his first street walk of the campaign.
Mr Dutton met Liberal candidate for the seat Curtin, Tom White, on a shopping strip in Cottesloe.
He greeted Mr White on Napoleon Street and they walked down to a cafe called Vans.
The street walk marks the most significant level of public exposure of the campaign this week, with Mr Dutton doing a street walk.
The Coalition hopes to win the well-heeled coastal electorate in Perth back from teal independent Kate Chaney.
Curtin is considered a blue ribbon seat and was once held by former foreign minister Julie Bishop. Ms Chaney defeated Celia Hammond in the 2022 election.
A woman wearing a Prada hat and walking a large dog stopped to greet Mr White and gave him a hug.
Another couple walking a large shaggy dog, stopped to chat with Mr White. The woman was holding a Balenciaga bag and the man a copy of The Australian.
Although residents seemed largely positive about Mr Dutton’s arrival, his heckler yelled out: “I hate you”.
At the time Mr Dutton and Mr White were sitting at an outdoor table of the coffee shop, where they looked over plans to redevelop the Cottesloe foreshore.
Local resident Tory, stopped with 18-month-old Poppy to stay hello, and question Mr Dutton on his policies for young people.
Mr Dutton told Tory about his housing policy as his main offering for young people.
Former Howard government minister and Notre Dame University chancellor Chris Ellison stopped to greet Mr Dutton and briefly joined them at the table.
– with Rhiannon Down, pool
Grim reality as election turns to chaos
Peter Dutton and Anthony Albanese face an uphill battle on Saturday as they race to get their campaigns back on message ahead of their official campaign launches this weekend.
The federal election campaign was thrown into disarray on Friday after bombshell news a 16-year-old boy had been charged over an alleged terror plot that reportedly targeted Mr Dutton.
Both the Opposition Leader and the Prime Minister were peppered with questions about The Australian’s report, forcing them to give up valuable time in front of the nation’s media to address the issue.
Mr Albanese added to the chaos by revealing he also was allegedly targeted in an offence he said remained before the courts, while Mr Dutton used the moment to show a more human side, telling reporters his first thoughts upon hearing the news were for the safety of his family.
The story highlighted a major issue facing this year’s federal election.
Just days before the election was called, Australian Federal Police commissioner Reece Kershaw revealed threats against Australian politicians and dignitaries had nearly doubled in the past two years.
Mr Kershaw said the threats and reports of harassment, nuisance and offensive communications had almost doubled from 555 in the 2021-22 financial year to 1009 in 2023-24.
As of February 28 this year, there had been 712 reports, with the number of threats this year expected to surpass last year’s figures.
Giving an update on investigations to a Senate Estimates committee on March 27, Mr Kershaw said six men had been charged across five separate incidents for allegedly threatening parliamentarians in the six weeks prior.
One man was also charged for allegedly threatening a political organisation, with the men aged between 29 to 64.
The chaos did not stop there, with Victorian Police tasked on Friday with removing hateful and homophobic banners placed in the electorate of gay Labor MP Julian Hill.
Officers were called to Hemmings Park bridge overpass, which runs over Princes Hwy, on Friday, before processing the scene and removing banners.
Police were then advised of further incidents where banners had been displayed in various locations, including in Casey and Cardinia local government areas.
One of the banners, which was hung in Mr Hill’s home electorate of Bruce, which he holds by a margin of only 5.3 per cent, said: “Julian Hill MP – more worried about his husband than his constituents.”
The banner, which contained a rainbow flag, did not appear to include an official campaign endorsement and was also attached to public property.
Another stated: “LGBTQ+ means more to Julian Hill than you the people.”
The banners were slammed as “disgraceful” by both major parties, and investigations by Victoria Police are continuing.
Albo goes west with ferry splash
Mr Albanese is leaving dry land behind again on Saturday for a ferry tour with Western Australia Premier Roger Cook, weeks after Labor secured a landslide victory in the state election.
Mr Cook was re-elected to the state’s top job earlier this year after Labor won 46 seats – well above the 30-seat threshold – compared to the Liberals’ seven and the Nationals’ six.
The trip is Mr Albanese’s 31st to WA since taking office and will include a ferry trip from the electorate of Swan – held by Labor’s Zaneta Mascarenhas – to the electorate of Perth, which is held by Labor’s Patrick Gorman.
Labor says it will spend $60m to expand Perth’s ferry network alongside the state government, and has accused Canberra-based Coalition governments of taking the mineral-rich west for granted.
A further $50m will go towards two new ferry terminals at Applecross and Matilda Bay, while $10m will be spent on planning for stage two of the ferry network expansion across Perth.
Mr Albanese will also meet with members of WA’s Labor caucus.
He and his partner Jodie Haydon joined Mr Cook and WA Deputy Premier Rita Saffioti on a ferry across the Swan River to highlight the Commonwealth’s promise of $60 million to build two more ferry stops and plan for a future expansion of the system.
They boarded at Mends Street Jetty on the regular 9.18am ferry service along with bemused families and commuters.
The WA government intends to build new ferries locally for the expanded system.
While chatting with Mr Cook on the ferry, Mr Albanese said, “NSW has the worst example of building things overseas,” and went on to discuss the purchase of ferries for Parramatta River that were too tall to fit under the bridges.
– with pool journalists
Surprise face joins election campaign
Australian boxing legend Danny Green has appeared on the election trail alongside Mr Dutton.
The pair met on Saturday morning in Perth, where the Opposition Leader pledged $1.5m to Green’s Stop the Coward Punch campaign and reduce rates of violence.
Green and Mr Dutton were also joined with Shadow Attorney-General Michaelia Cash, and Stop the Coward Punch chief executive Justin Manolikos.
“All too often we see the tragic consequences of cowardly and needless violence on our streets,” Mr Dutton said.
“Danny and his team are saving lives through this campaign, and I am proud to support the incredible work they are doing through this funding contribution.”
Senator Cash said since 2000 more than 170 Australians have lost their lives to unprovoked “coward punches,” with the attacks also devastating families.
“The Stop the Coward Punch campaign helps educate young people about positive behaviour and reduce unprovoked violence that often has tragic consequences.”
Dutton on ‘tough, stoic’ family after alleged terror plot
Mr Dutton says his wife and children make him “look like the pussycat”, following reports he was allegedly at the centre of a teenager’s terror plot.
Speaking on Weekend Today on Saturday morning, Mr Dutton said his family did not miss a beat and had never complained about the “protection bubble” they lived in.
“It is a different life, because every move that you make down to the shops and everything else is all choreographed,” he said.
“But I think in the end, you’ve got to take the assurance that the protection is provided and the professionals are providing it.”
Agreeing there were “tough, tough days” in his job as a public figure, Mr Dutton said none were as difficult as his career as a police officer.
“I’ve been to family homes where I’ve delivered death messages to mums, I’ve been to road accidents, interviewed and dealt with sexual offence matters and women who have been raped and the rest of it,” he said.
“And that’s, I suppose, what I mean (when) people say, ‘You’re too tough’ or ‘Smile more’ or whatever.
“I think you’re guided by and I think you’re influenced by those life events.”
‘Seen this movie before’: Dutton criticises Dickson reports
Mr Dutton also took aim at reports he could be losing voters in his own seat of Dickson in Brisbane’s north as he campaigns around the country.
He said he had “seen this movie before” in previous elections, pointing to political opponents and left-leaning political activist groups such as GetUp.
“I’ve held my seat. It’s a marginal seat, I’ve never taken it for granted, and I have worked hard in my seat from day one,” he said.
“So it’s just a marketing, you know, plot.
“And there are many Greens and others who are playing all sorts of games, but I am pretty confident the people at Dickson will see through all of that charade.”
More to come
Originally published as Federal election live updates: Peter Dutton and Anthony Albanese campaign on day 15
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