Election 2025: Albanese, Dutton head to head in final leaders’ debate
The winner of the final leaders’ debate has been revealed after 60 undecided voters weighed in from Seven’s ‘jury room’.
Federal Election
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Anthony Albanese has been declared the comprehensive winner of Sunday night’s election debate – at least according to Channel 7’s panel of voters, which it called the “jury”.
According to post-debate data compiled by Roy Morgan, 50 per cent of voters said Mr Albanese was the winner, compared to just 25 per cent for Peter Dutton. The remaining quarter remained undecided.
The panel’s results were also broken down issue-by-issue, delivering one particularly eye-popping number.
On the cost of living, 65 per cent of them went for Mr Albanese, a mere 16 per cent for Peter Dutton, and 19 per cent were undecided.
The room was more evenly split on the issue of housing, with 35 per cent going for Mr Albanese, 30 per cent for Mr Dutton and a whopping 35 per cent undecided.
The Prime Minister came out well ahead on the issue of tax, with 49 per cent of the voters favouring him and 21 per cent going for Peter Dutton.
But that was very nearly flipped completely on indigenous affairs, which showed 46 per cent support for Mr Dutton and 27 per cent for Mr Albanese.
A little bit of supporting evidence, there: Seven’s new “The Pulse” measurement, which is similar to the old “Worm”, spiked way into the positive when Mr Dutton was speaking about Welcome to Country ceremonies having gone too far.
Mr Dutton was also favoured on defence policy, albeit by a closer margin, with 43 per cent to Mr Albanese’s 37.
And on the so-called “hot takes” category, Mr Albanese earned 50 per cent, and Mr Dutton just 14. Though that one seems rather hard to define.
Easier to interpret is the aforementioned overall number, with the Prime Minister being declared the debate’s winner by a 2:1 margin.
Chalmers: Dutton is a volatile leader
Jim Chalmers said the debate proved that the election was a question between “stability and certainty” from Mr Albanese, and “risk” from Mr Dutton.
“Volatile times are the worst time for a volatile leader like Peter Dutton. Tonight, we saw Peter Dutton lose his cool,” he said.
“We saw him drop his bundle. We saw him with a number of unhinged rants which are unbecoming of the alternative prime minister of this country.”
The Treasurer was also asked to clarify Mr Albanese’s comments claiming Mr Trump does not have a phone.
He said the “key point” was that “Peter Dutton has been copying the politics and policies of the United States”.
“Now we heard that earlier today, when we when we heard earlier today when Peter Dutton made those comments about hate media,” said Mr Chalmers.
“He believes in the Americanisation of health and education in Australia. He copies his policies and his politics directly from the United States. We saw that with his comments on the media today.”
Paterson backs in Dutton, deflects nuclear question
Following the debate, the Coalition’s campaign spokesman James Paterson said it was “truly, utterly bizarre” that Mr Albanese attempted to suggest the US President “does not have a mobile phone”.
“I think that will be news to the President and his team, and a truly, utterly bizarre moment, and also the Prime Minister’s unwillingness to be clear about whether or not he still supports the Voice agenda,” he said.
“We know he signed up to the voice agenda in full.”
Senator Paterson was also grilled on why Mr Dutton evaded questions on whether he would visit on of the seven proposed nuclear sites.
Mr Albanese beat Mr Dutton to the punch on Wednesday, visiting the Collie Power Station in Western Australia.
While Senator Paterson wouldn’t give a definite answer, he said the election campaign extended beyond the official five-week lead up.
“Your time as opposition leader is more than just what you do in an election campaign, and Peter Dutton has visited as opposition leader,” he said.
“The truth is that wherever the sites are, all Australians will benefit from our energy plan.”
Senator Paterson also softened Mr Dutton’s earlier claims which lashed the ABC and The Guardian as “hate media,” stating the comments were “tongue in cheek”.
”I think you all know, as you’ve seen on this campaign trail, Peter engages very well and very respectfully with all media outlets who had great access to him on the campaign trail,” he said.
“Everybody gets questioned every day.”
Copacabana, Musk, and the price of eggs
As is customary with these debates, the leaders were subjected to a quick fire round, which largely includes word-association games.
The first image was of Mr Albanese’s $4.3m Copacabana house.
Mr Dutton said “retirement home,” while Mr Albanese said “marriage,” reminding audiences that the house was purchased with his fiancee Jodie Haydon.
The leaders were also asked if they knew the price of a dozen eggs.
Mr Dutton said “about $4.20, Mr Albanese said: “It’s $7 if you can find them because it’s hard to find them at the moment”.
The answer was $8.80 from Coles, and $8.50 from Woolworths.
Mr Albanese and Mr Dutton were also shown a photo of Elon Musk.
Mr Albanese said “Tesla,” and “a very rich man,” while Mr Dutton said “evil genius”.
This prompts questions on whether Mr Dutton had “distanced” himself from Mr Trump, a claim he denied.
“I have not sought to be anybody other than myself, and I believe very strongly, based on my experience working with John Howard closely, he has been my political mentor and I need to make sure we manage the economy as he did.”
As the quickfire section of the debate continued, Anthony Albanese was confronted with a clip of his old quote saying “my word is my bond”, regarding his promise not to change the Stage 3 tax cuts. He did, of course, end up breaking that pledge.
”Remember that? You broke your word,” Mark Riley put to him.
”I did, I changed my mind. Because I could not resile from the need to do something to help people because of cost of living pressures,” said Mr Albanese.
”So what I did is I fronted up, I went along to the National Press Club, and did not pretend we had not changed our position. And I went along and argued the case. And guess what? The Coalition voted for it.”
Peter Dutton got an equivalent question regarding his own flip-flop during the election campaign on forcing public servants to work from the office.
”I’ve apologised for the decision that we took in relation to working from home,” was his clip.
”How did you get that policy so wrong?” he was asked.
“We said in relation to public servants in Canberra that we wanted to go back to something like what it was before Covid, which was about 60 per cent of people at work, still flexibility for a lot of people, and I believe very strongly in flexibility in work arrangements,” Mr Dutton replied.
”We have, on a per capita basis, the highest number of public servants in the world, and the government has increased the number of public servants threefold.
”The point I was making is, if Australians are out there working their guts out at the moment, an extra job or a second job, they’re paying taxes, they expect their money to be spent efficiently. What the Prime Minister did, as he’s done with a number of other issues, is twisted and contorted it into something it wasn’t.”
Dutton says he’d be fine living near a nuclear reactor
Peter Dutton has said he would be fine with a nuclear power plant existing near his own home.
“Would you be happy to have a nuclear plant in your suburb?” asked Mark Riley.
“Yeah, I would Mark,” said the Opposition Leader.
“We have a safe technology.”
He pointed to other countries where nuclear power is in operation.
Mr Riley asked why, if the technology “is so good”, Mr Dutton has not visited any of his proposed nuclear plant sites during the election campaign.
He countered that he had visited one of the sites multiple times before the campaign started, during his tenure as leader.
After a back-and-forth on energy policy, involving a fair bit of cross-talk, Mr Dutton erupted at the Prime Minister.
“You will wreck the economy!” he said.
“And you are doing it now. And that is why families are suffering, and why 30,000 small businesses have closed under your watch.”
Mr Albanese protested that there are more total small businesses now than when he assumed office.
PM not sure Trump ‘has’ a mobile phone
Both leaders were reluctant to say anything critical about US President Donald Trump, large though he looms over global politics at the moment.
“The relationship that I have had with the President is to have discussions, and he has stuck to the agreements we made,” said Anthony Albanese.
“We can trust whoever is in the Oval Office, and we respect the views of the American people,” said Peter Dutton.
There was a somewhat strange moment when moderator Mark Riley alluded to Mr Albanese’s efforts – mostly fruitless – to get Mr Trump on the phone.
“Do you ever text him?” asked Mr Riley.
“I’m not sure he has a mobile phone. Or Joe Biden. It is not the way it works, with any global leader,” Mr Albanese replied.
“That is the way it works with you. You text people,” Mr Riley pointed out.
“We do, but – global leaders, you set up, there are people taking notes from either side. It is not something that is a casual relationship,” said Mr Albanese.
”We are not good enough to have Trump’s phone number, or he doesn’t have one?” the moderator pressed again.
Mr Albanese essentially repeated his previous answer.
Albo’s NRL diplomacy backfires
The leaders are also asked which “which country poses the biggest threat to Australia’s security”.
Mr Dutton answered with China.
”If you were to believe the intelligence that I received as defence minister … the biggest concern from our intelligence agencies and our defence agency is in relation to the Communist Party of China, and they’re worried about the conflict in our region,” he said.
“They’re worried about what that would do to impact on our trade, what it would do for our own security settings, and what we would need to do to respond to say, a cyber attack on our country.”
Mr Albanese’s answer was a bit more complicated. He wouldn’t explicitly state whether China was the biggest threat to Australia, however agreed it was trying to increase its influence.
He agreed that China was seeking to “increase its influence in the region” but said the relationship was “complex” as the superpower was also a “major trading partner”.
“So what we have to do is to invest in our capability. That’s what we’ve done. $57 billion in defence assets increased, but as well, invest in our relationships,” he said.
There’s a comical moment when Mr Albanese says that the $600m deal to bring PNG into the NRL was the “best example of soft diplomacy”.
Riley says: “I don’t think China plays rugby league … they play ping pong”.
Leaders spar in Welcome to Country debate
Peter Dutton and Anthony Albanese have clashed on Welcome to Country ceremonies as they face off for the final debate before Australians cast their votes on May 3.
Seven’s political editor Mark Riley, moderating the debate, peppered the leaders with questions about hecklers who interrupted a Melbourne Anzac Day Dawn Service during the Welcome to Country on Friday – something both leaders have condemned.
Riley asked Mr Dutton whether he will “acknowledge the traditional owners at your official events”.
Mr Dutton said there’s a sense in the community that they’re “overdone” which “cheapens the significance of what it was meant to do”.
”It divides the country,” he said.
Mr Albanese is asked to comment on Mr Dutton’s claims.
He says that he believes the ceremonies are a “matter of respect,” and adds it’s up to the hosts of the event whether they want the ceremony.
“It’s up to them, and people will have different views, and people are entitled to their views, but we have a great privilege, from my perspective, of sharing this continent with the oldest continuous culture on earth,” he said.
“Then I welcome international visitors to Parliament House, you know what they want to see? That culture.”
Mr Dutton then goes in on the attack and asks: “Do you think it’s overdone?”
Continuing, he attacks Mr Albanese for the Voice referendum.
“I think the nation was aghast when the Prime Minister spent four, $50m and sought to divide us over the voice debate on heritage and on cultural grounds,” he said.
PM grilled on abandonment of the Voice
Anthony Albanese was grilled about his decision to abandon the Voice following the failure of his term’s referendum.
“The Voice, you told us, was important for Australia. It was important for who we are, for our standing in the world. It was a polite request from Indigenous people and you dropped it cold afterwards. Why?” Mark Riley asked.
“Because I respect the outcome. We live in a democracy,” Mr Albanese said.
“Do you still believe in it?” asked Mr Riley.
“It is gone,” said the Prime Minister.
“What is your personal view? Sorry-” Mr Riley pressed.
“We need to find different paths to affect reconciliation,” said Mr Albanese.
Mr Dutton eventually interjected, saying “can we get a straight answer”?
Both candidates agreed that the date of Australia Day should not be changed.
‘You should be ashamed’: Dutton blows up
In a fiery moment, Peter Dutton accused the Prime Minister of lying after a claim, which Anthony Albanese has made throughout the campaign, that the Coalition would scrap the government’s Same Job, Same Pay laws.
That is something Mr Dutton ruled out a couple of weeks ago.
“That is just – I mean, that is not true,” Mr Dutton said.
“Honestly. This whole campaign, it’s hard to believe anything you say.
“We have a plan before the Australian people, which I believe provides solutions to your problems, the creation of which you should be ashamed of, frankly.”
“You should be ashamed and you’re a liar,” Mr Riley put to the PM, paraphrasing.
“Well, Peter can attack me,” said Mr Albanese.
“I’ll tell you what I won’t let him do: attack the wages of working people.”
He went on to argue Australians “deserve better than the pretence that everything was hunky dory” under the previous, Coalition government.
“You can’t stand here telling people they’re much better off after three years,” Mr Dutton shot back at him.
“If you had a good story to tell, Prime Minister, you wouldn’t be running a scare campaign. You’d be talking about your so-called achievements.”
Is Mr Dutton crazy to repeal Labor’s tax cuts?
There’s a pointed moment when Riley zeroes in on the Coalition government vowing to repeal Labor’s 2026-27 and 2027-28 tax cuts.
“You’re going to this election … promising the people you will repeal a tax cut. I don’t know of any leader who’s ever done that. Is that crazy brave or just crazy?” Riley asks.
Mr Dutton stands by his decision.
“What we’ve said is that you can have the Labor option, which is 70 cents a day in 15 months time, as you point out. Or you could have a 25 cent a litre cut to fuel excise now,” said Mr Dutton, adding that the cut would equal to about $1500 a year.
He also spruiks the Coalition’s one-off tax cut of $1200, which will apply once people fuel their tax return after July 1, 2026.
“We’re reducing that overall tax burden on the family, but we’re providing that as an interim solution until we can fix up Labor’s mess,” he said.
Mr Albanese is also grilled over Labor’s two-year tax cuts, which Riley points out equals to $5-a-week in the first year, and $10-a-week in the second.
Mr Albanese defends it as “a top up” of the revised stage three tax cuts which came in last year.
“We had the guts to make a tough decision, but it was done for the right reasons,” he said.
“I went along to the National Press Club and said that what we are going to do is to change our policy, because we understood that people were doing it tough.”
PM insists negative gearing is ‘off the table’
Mr Riley asked the Prime Minister whether changes to negative gearing were definitely “off the table”.
”Yes, it’s off the table. We were elected in 2022. The Coalition ran this campaign then. We haven’t done it,” Mr Albanese said.
”The key is supply, and that measure will not boost supply. So that is what we have been concentrating on.”
Asked if he believed the PM’s words, Mr Dutton replied: “No, I don’t.”
”The Prime Minister said before the last election that there would be no changes to superannuation, and the Prime Minister has introduced a tax which taxes an unrealised capital gain. To put that into basic terms, if you’ve got shares, and the shares go up in value or if you’ve got a house, and the house goes up in value, this government is going to tax you on that gain before you actually sell the shares or the house,” he said.
Leader quizzed on migration
The next topic is migration.
Mr Dutton is asked whether Australia needs more skilled migrants – which is part of the cohort the Coalition will cut in order to reduce permanent migration by 25 per cent.
Mr Dutton says that while Australia is a “beneficiary of a great migration program, but it needs to be done in a balanced and measured way”.
Mr Dutton says increased migration is a key reason why the standard of living had decreased and why young Australians had been locked out of the housing market.
“For many families, otherwise, parents and grandparents, they’re staying in the workforce for longer because they’re either having to help their kids with a deposit or to make the repayments,” he said.
“That’s the crisis the Prime Minister’s created, and that’s why we have to cut migration, to focus on the skilled migration, yes, but to make sure that Australians can get into housing.”
Mr Albanese is also asked to answer. He says a Labor government will lower migration while building housing – attacking the Coalition for not adequately investing in housing.
“The former government didn’t even have a Housing Minister for half the time they were in office and invested a total of $5bn we’ve got a $43bn homes for Australia plan,” he said.
‘Not an issue for you’: Leaders chided on housing
Moving on to housing, Mr Riley had a little dig at both potential prime ministers.
“Mr Albanese, you recently bought a $4.3 million beachside house. Mr Dutton, we know you’ve had $30 million in properties throughout your life. We can all agree housing is not an issue for you,” he pointed out.
Mr Dutton responded by saying housing, for many Australians and young Australians in particular, had become “a nightmare”.
“Rents have gone up by almost 20 per cent, and this Prime Minister has brought in a million people over the course of the last two years through the migration program,” he said.
“When you bring a million people in, they want a house for their kids and their family. Fair enough. But what we’ve seen is Australians being displaced from home ownership.”
Mr Albanese insisted the housing market had not become a problem “in the last couple of years”.
“We’ve had a decade or even more of neglect. And the question isn’t, ‘Do you identify a problem?’ It’s, ‘Can you work towards a solution?’ That is what my government’s done.”
Both leaders spoke about their now very familiar housing policies from the campaign.
‘Band-Aid on a bullet wound’
Moderator Mark Riley has spent several minutes addressing the cost of living.
“Australian families, we know, are doing it tough. They’re under the pump. Our viewers constantly tells us that they’re getting smashed at the supermarkets every week. What will you do, from Sunday, to make their lives easier?”
Anthony Albanese answered first.
“We completely understand how tough it is for people out there. That’s why we have already acted on cost of living, but we know there’s more to do,” he said.
“That is why we’ll deliver an increased tax cut – not just one, but two tax cuts in the next term. That’s why we’ll continue to support real wage growth.
“We’ve also got plans for cheaper medicines. Energy bill relief. Cheaper childcare.
“We will continue to address those cost of living measures while getting inflation down. Inflation had a six in front of it when we got elected. It’s now at 2.4 per cent.”
Peter Dutton retorted that he wanted to provide “immediate relief to Australian families” through a cut in the fuel excise by 25 cents a litre.
“Secondly, $1200 back by way of a tax rebate. That will help people deal with Labor’s cost of living crisis. But the Prime Minister promises a bandaid on a bullet wound.”
Dutton’s fuel excise cut a ‘taxpayer funded shopper docket’
Riley also questions whether Mr Dutton’s 25c cut to the fuel excise is essentially a “taxpayer funded shopper docket”.
He talks around the questions, and attacks Labor on their broken election promise to bring down electricity prices by $275.
His key message is that the “Coalition always manages money and the economy more efficiently than Labor.”
Eventually he’s guided back to petrol, and says the fuel excise cut is “immediate support”.
“That 25 cent a litre cut in petrol that can be provided to help people with the bills that they’re facing now,” he said.
What are the major parties doing for supermarkets?
The cost-of-living theme continues, and the leaders are asked what they are doing to help lower groceries.
Mr Albanese says Labor has mandated a Code of Conduct which can hit supermarkets with multimillion-dollar penalties and will stop price gouging.
“The former government just had a voluntary code that was abused. People know that when they go to the supermarket and they see the price of a good reduced or put up by $1 and then reduced by 50 cents, and they pretend that that’s a price cut,” he said.
He also lashed the Coalition for “temporary” policies, like its one-year fuel excise and one-off tax cut.
“They disappear in a year’s time. The difference between that and what we’re putting forward is that ours are permanent, permanent tax cuts,” he said.
‘In tears’: Huge claim as election looms
Opposition leader Peter Dutton has opened the final leaders’ debate, revealing he had spoken to Australians “literally in tears” about the cost of living crisis.
In his opening statement, Mr Dutton said he was confident Australia’s would “vote for change” next Saturday.
”This election is all about who can best manage the economy. If we can manage the economy well, we can bring inflation down, we can help Australians with the cost of living crisis,” Mr Dutton said.
”As we’ve moved around the country, we have spoken to families literally in tears. They cannot afford to put food on the table. They have stopped the registration renewal on their car or their house. These have been a tough three years under this Prime Minister’s watch.
”We need to make sure our country can be kept safe, and we need strong leadership in a very uncertain world to make sure that we can keep our country safe.
”I believe very strongly that at this election, Australians will vote for change.”
Mr Albanese, in his own opening statement, echoed Labor’s two-year tax cuts tax cuts, expanded 5 per cent housing deposit scheme, and a 20 per cent cut to HECS debt, and takes an early shot at the Coalition’s chopping and changing of policies.
“During this campaign, we have put forward clear, decisive policies the opposition have chopped and changed. Australians deserve certainty,” he said.
“What we will deliver is just that. We will trust in our people. We will value our Australian values, and we’ll build Australia’s future.”
Albo, Dutton face off in final leaders’ debate
Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton will face off in their final crucial leaders’ debate on Sunday night, as the election campaign enters its final week.
The Prime Minister and Opposition Leader earlier on Sunday both held support rallies, with the finish line for the May 3 election in sight.
They will front up for the final of four debates – the Final Showdown – at 8pm on the Seven Network.
Sunrise host Nat Barr will host the debate, to be moderated by 7NEWS political editor Mark Riley in Sydney.
Mr Albanese was judged the winner of the first two debates – the Sky News/Daily Telegraph People’s Forum in western Sydney officially, while commentators said the Prime Minister also took the second debate hosted by the ABC.
Mr Dutton, however, was given the honours by a nose in the third debate on the Nine Network last week.
Sunday night’s debate is the last opportunity for voters to see the leaders go head to head with their vision for Australia with just six days to go.
Opinion polls have Labor on a narrow track to win a second term, but Mr Dutton has said he can still will win Saturday’s election.
Nearly 2.4 million Australians have already cast their votes in just four days of early polling with another five to go.
How Sunday’s final leaders’ debate will work
Sunday’s debate will run for one hour, with rounds of questioning divided into sections.
Both Mr Albanese and Mr Dutton will be given one uninterrupted minute for opening and closing pitches, with a 30-second countdown clock to appear on screen to keep them accountable for the time.
Each leader will face six key questions, with one minute each to answer.
This will be followed by a rapid fire block of questioning, where both leaders will be instructed to respond with yes, no or a short answer.
Mr Albanese and Mr Dutton will then be given four minutes to ask each other questions, moderated by Political Editor Mark Riley, before delivering their closing pitches.
A group of 60 undecided voters watching along from a ‘jury room’ in the 7 studios will then decide a winner.
More to come
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Originally published as Election 2025: Albanese, Dutton head to head in final leaders’ debate
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