Federal Election 2025: Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton campaign on day 11
As the Prime Minister prepares for his first election debate, Treasurer Jim Chalmers held crisis talks with bank bosses over Trump’s tariffs.
Federal Election
Don't miss out on the headlines from Federal Election. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has met with bank bosses and the CEO of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) on Tuesday night, as the industry grapples with the destructive fallout of US President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
About $112 billion was wiped off the ASX on Monday. Less than half of that was regained during trading on Wednesday and experts suggested the recovery would be short lived.
Mr Chalmers put campaigning on hold on Tuesday, instead meeting with the heads of ANZ, CBA, NAB and Westpac, as well as Reserve Bank governor Michele Bullock, ASFA CEO Mary Delahunty and Super Members Council of Australia CEO Misha Schubert.
On Wednesday, he will convene a meeting of the Council of Financial Regulators to discuss the global and domestic economic outlook in the context of the current global economic volatility.
The Treasurer will also meet separately with Future Fund Chair Greg Combet, ASX Chair David Clarke and ASX CEO Helen Lofthouse.
On Thursday he is expected to meet with the major employers comprising the Board of the Business Council of Australia.
Mr Chalmers said he was “working closely with the regulators and financial institutions to ensure that everything possible is being done to safeguard Australians from this global volatility”.
“These escalating trade tensions are casting a dark shadow over the global economy but Australia’s robust economy and budget puts us in good stead.
“We are not uniquely impacted by these tariffs, but we are uniquely placed and we are well prepared as well.
He said Australia was in good shape to weather the looming storm, and took aim at Opposition Leader Peter Dutton for his suggestion that “under Labor” the nation was headed for a recession.
“With his reckless comments on a recession, Peter Dutton has proven again today why he is the biggest risk to Australia’s economy,” Mr Chalmers said.
“While we’re working through the implications of this global uncertainty responsibly and methodically, Peter Dutton is ramping up talk of a recession in a desperate attempt to deflect from his failure to come up with costed and coherent policies in his flailing campaign.”
Brutal dig at Albo as debate looms
Peter Dutton has delivered a brutal jab at the Prime Minister hours before the pair are set to face off in the first leader’s debate.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has leaned on former Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews for advice and practice ahead of Tuesday night’s debate, a move that drew the ire of Mr Dutton.
Speaking from the campaign trail, he called on Mr Andrews, whose strict response to the Covid pandemic left him a controversial figure in Victoria, to come out of the shadows and campaign beside Mr Albanese.
“I hope that Daniel Andrews is out publicly with the Prime Minister, if it’s good enough for him to tell the Prime Minister how he should run the debate and how he should run the economy and how good he did in Victoria,” the Liberal leader said.
“I’d like to see Daniel Andrews out with the Prime Minister every day that we’re now in the election, and if there’s a spare seat there as well, why not Jacinta Allan? Because if you want a snapshot of what economic management looks like under Labor, go no further than looking at what’s happening in Victoria.”
Mr Albanese previously confirmed he had leaned on Mr Andrews in an interview with 3AW in February - noting the pair “hadn’t done that much... we’re not in election mode yet”.
“We engage... Daniel Andrews is a friend of mine and he’s been a friend for a long period of time,” he told 3AW Drive.
“We shared a flat for a little while in Canberra when he was a staffer.”
But when asked by Sky News on Tuesday, he dodged the question.
“I look forward to discussing not just with Peter Dutton, but as well to the people who come along to ask questions,” he said.
‘Under Labor it is’: Dutton flags recession
Peter Dutton says Australia is headed for recession under the Albanese government, as he stepped up his attack on the economic management of Labor.
“The government hasn’t prepared our economy,” the Opposition Leader said at a press conference on Tuesday, alongside shadow treasurer Angus Taylor for the first time in the campaign.
“Labor has made decisions in subsequent budgets now which make it harder for the economy to function with international head winds.”
As the global economy reacts to the tariffs regime announced by US President Donald Trump, Mr Dutton was asked whether Australia was heading into a recess.
He replied: “Under Labor it is.”
“Australians do know the Coalition is a better economic manager than the Labor Party and we’ll demonstrate that after the election but this is a big decision for Australians,” Mr Dutton said.
“We need to make sure we don’t have a Green-Labor government in Canberra because it would be a disaster for families and for the economy more broadly.”
Earlier on Tuesday, the Prime Minister said Australia was well-placed to handle the economic headwinds from a trade war.
When asked if he could rule out a recession, he instead cited his government’s economic success.
“We have, as a government, continued to see the economy grow, we’ve continued to see now, over the last five quarters, wages grow,” the Prime Minister said.
He said his government had also overseen another round of tax cuts in the budget, the slowing of inflation and jobs growth.
“That hard work that we have done, if we had not have done that, we wouldn’t have been as prepared for what is happening in the global economy.”
Dutton doubles down on nuclear
Peter Dutton was also asked whether the Coalition would backflip on its nuclear promise to introduce seven reactors into the energy grid by 2050, with the first to come online by 2035-37.
The question come as nuclear has been largely absent from the election campaign to date.
Previously he conceded he would not visit all of the proposed nuclear sites on the campaign trail due to timing concerns, however he has yet to show face in any of the seven communities that will be affected by the policy.
As a point of comparison the Dutton camp has made five petrol pit stops in five days – an indication of which policies the Opposition is choosing to profile before Australians head to the polls of May 3.
However nuclear was still firmly on the Coalition’s policy agenda, unlike the work from home policy that he dumped on Monday.
“Well, we’re certainly not,” Mr Dutton said, when asked if he was going backflip on his nuclear policy.
He then launched into a lengthy answer attacking Labor for not keeping its 2022 promise to reduce electricity bills by $275, spoke about his 25 cents a litre cut to the fuel excise, which will bring down, lashed Labor’s 2027-29 tax cuts, which will only deliver “70 cents a day”.
Moving onto energy he said he was “very proud of the energy policy that we’ve got,” which also included boosting domestic gas production – and while the policy will bring down energy bills, Mr Dutton has yet to reveal the dollar figure despite near daily question.
Nuclear, which he termed “the best technology in the world” would also reduce electricity costs and be 44 per cent cheaper than Labor’s renewable energy policy – a statement the government rejects.
“China is building 29 nuclear power stations as we speak. The United States has a bipartisan position in relation to technology, and we will bring it into our country, because we’ll have reliable power,” he said.
“We will have cheaper power, not the three times power price that we’re paying at the moment.
“I think Australians who know what we achieved with AUKUS, which underpin our national security for next century, know that with our energy policy, we will underpin energy security for our country for next century as well.”
Albo confronted by screaming heckler
Another protester has gatecrashed a campaign event with the Prime Minister.
Anthony Albanese was nearing the end of a press conference at a Headspace mental health clinic in inner-western Sydney, when a young woman started yelling before security intervened.
“Your are condemning young people like me to a lifetime of climate disaster,” the climate change protester from Rising Tide, Alexa Stuart, 21, yelled.
“Of course we have poor mental health issues. Where are you listening to young people?
“When will your government stop approving new coal-fired gas projects?”
Mr Albanese tried to ignore the protester, saying publicity only encourages them.
It’s the second time climate change protesters have heckled the PM. Two others breached security at Maitland Hospital in the NSW Hunter Valley last week.
Mr Albanese was also heckled by a online influencer while campaigning on day one at a Medicare centre.
Peter Dutton was abused twice by Rising Tide protesters on the first day of campaigning in Brisbane.
One protester confronted the Opposition Leader at the XXXX brewery, while a second one showed up at yum cha meal with the Chinese community in Sunnybank.
Just ‘walking past’: How Rising Tide crashed Albo
Rising Tide protester Alexa Stuart managed to barge into the room where Anthony Albanese was holding a press conference despite the presence of security, shouting “you are condemning young people like me to a lifetime of climate disasters”.
Ms Stuart would not say how she found the press conference, a number of which by both Labor and the Liberals have been crashed by Rising Tide.
But when asked how she entered the venue said “I was just walking past”.
“I think it’s hypocritical that our government on one hand claims to care about young people, to care about mental health, and yet on the other like clearly do not, because they are continuing the climate crisis and make it a lot worse for young people like me.”
Ms Stuart said research showed “young people today are struggling more than ever with anxieties about the future, and one of the key reasons for that is that the climate crisis we know is going to cause more severe and more frequent climate disasters that are going to have major impacts on young people like me and all over the country.
She also criticised Peter Dutton over his plans for nuclear power, which she said “does not stack up economically or environmentally”.
Albo’s emotional message on mental health
Anthony Albanese has delivered an emotional and personal message on mental health, as Labor pledged $1bn for new and upgraded Medicare Mental Health Clinics and Headspace, specifically targeted at young Australians.
In a press conference marred by questions of economic management and a screaming Rising Tide protester, when asked about his discussions about mental health with his own son, Mr Albanese spoke about the plight of a friend’s niece decades earlier.
He said the young woman ended up in the Royal Prince Alfred hospital with an eating disorder.
“I was still pretty young at the time,” Mr Albanese said.
“I hadn’t seen anything like that. She almost died.
“She is now well and has children of her own, but that was really confronting what occurred.
“Part of what today is about … is about helping people’s mental health (and) making sure that if people need a helping hand, that they put their hand up.
“That is so important.”
Mr Albanese also recalled talking to the mother of Charlotte, a young woman whose mother he said believed her death was due in part to social media.
The PM said Charlotte’s story was one of the things that led to the government taking action on social media.
“It is quite clear that young men and women have issues that we need to talk about more. When I was my son’s age, you got to say that no one talked about these issues,” he said.
Albo mum on recession fear
Anthony Albanese has refused to rule out the possibility of a recession amid the volatile fallout from US President Donald Trump’s tariffs war.
When asked if he could rule out a recession, he instead cited his government’s economic success.
“We have, as a government, continued to see the economy grow, we’ve continued to see now, over the last five quarters, wages grow,” the Prime Minister said.
He said his government had also overseen another round of tax cuts in the budget, the slowing of inflation and jobs growth.
“That hard work that we have done, if we had not have done that, we wouldn’t have been as prepared for what is happening in the global economy,” he told the press conference before it was crashed by the protester.
“We’ll continued to engage, but I’ll tell you what it’s not the time to do – it’s not the time for cuts to pay for a $600bn nuclear plan.”
When asked again if Australia was prepared for a recession, he said it was.
Earlier, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton argued that only the Coalition can steer the economy through the issues facing the world now.
Dutton hits (yet another) petrol station
It’s a bit less dramatic on the Coalition camp but Peter Dutton has arrived at yet another petrol station – the fifth servo stop since Friday.
The entrance was a little more subdued than Monday’s where he pulled up in a fuel tanker, with the Opposition Leader entering the Hoxton Park BP in a truck driven by Werriwa candidate Sam Kayal.
It’s Mr Dutton’s second visit to the seat, which is held by Labor’s Anne Stanley on 5.3 per cent.
During the short visit, Mr Dutton took selfies with excited voters eager to meet the Liberal Leader, while spruiking the Coalition’s 25c cut to fuel prices.
Dutton pivots to economy after WFH backflip
Peter Dutton is trying to brush off his bad day on the campaign trail on Monday by refocusing the campaign on the economy, as the Trump tariffs war smashes global share markets.
The Opposition Leader, who was forced to dump his work from home policy after a backlash from women voters, on Tuesday attacked Labor’s economic credentials as the world economic outlook faced turmoil.
“We’ve had seven consecutive quarters in this country of negative household growth,” Mr Dutton said on Tuesday.
“So, households have gone backwards. That hasn’t been the case in other parts of the world, including in comparable economies.
“I just don’t think Australians can afford three more years of a bad Labor government, and particularly if it’s a Labor-Greens government.
“That will see inflation come back into the system, which will force interest rates higher again.
“And that’s why interest rates will always be lower under a Coalition government.”
Mr Dutton also compared Australia’s economic performance with the G7 alliance of major industrialised economies, of which Australia is not a member.
“We have the highest core inflation rate of any of the G7 nations,” Mr Dutton said on ABC Tuesday morning. Australia is not in the G7.
The G7 is an informal group of the world’s leading industrialised nations; Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the US.
“So, interest rates have gone higher faster here than in other areas of the world,” the Opposition Leader said.
Interest rates in every G7 nation except Japan topped out higher than Australia in the past couple of years.
Meanwhile, Finance Minister Katy Gallagher defended the Albanese government’s economic record.
“We’ve been seeing a lot of uncertainty and volatility in the markets, particularly in the sharemarkets,” she told ABC Radio National.
“This is obviously a response to what’s been happening with the tariff decisions coming out of the US and the flow on from that, but I would say, I think we are in a very good position here in Australia.
“We’ve done a lot of work over the last three years to make sure that we’re in a pretty good place, strengthening our economy, getting inflation down, helping with the cost of living and repairing the budget.”
Albo, Dutton to face off in first debate
Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton are set to duke it out in the first leaders election debate in the battleground area of Western Sydney.
Both camps landed in the city ahead of the Sky News/Daily Telegraph People’s Forum to start at 7.30pm on Tuesday.
The debate will be held in Western Sydney, and will feature questions from 100 undecided voters who will determine the winner of the clash.
This comes after the Opposition Leader on Monday was forced to overturn the Coalition’s demand to force public servants back to the office and water down its policy to axe 41,000 government workers, with the Prime Minister capitalising on the blunder.
Both leaders will also be forced confront the continued fallout of Donald Trump’s tariff war after $110bn was wiped off the ASX on Monday.
As a response, shadow treasurer Angus Taylor has requested daily briefings from Treasury, arguing the party that wins the election should be immediately prepared to respond to the fractured global economy.
The latest Newspoll also shows Labor increasing its lead over the Coalition, inching ahead 52 to 48 on a two-party preferred basis.
The Coalition is now at its lowest level since June 2024, with Australians set to go to the polls on May 3.
Labor’s plan for mental health ‘missing middle’
The Prime Minister is back in Sydney’s inner west on Tuesday morning to spruik Labor’s $1bn pledge for mental health, after days dominated by Peter Dutton’s surprise about-face on work-from-home and public service cuts.
Anthony Albanese announced on Monday night a re-elected Labor government would splash on dozens of new and upgraded Headspace and Medicare Mental Health Care facilities across the country, as well as training for mental health specialists.
The investment would be particularly focused on the youth “missing middle” – young people with personality disorders, eating disorders, or early psychosis who require specialist ongoing care, but who often end up in the hospital system instead.
Mr Albanese visited a Headspace facility at Ashfield – which borders the electorates of Grayndler and Reid – with Reid MP Sally Sitou, along with Health Minister Mark Butler and Assistant Health and Suicide Prevention Minister Emma McBride.
The Headspace facility is a free and confidential service where young people aged 12 to 25 and their families can access support for their mental health, with Mr Albanese expected to meet clinicians and 2010 Australian of the Year Professor Patrick McGorry.
Labor’s plan for mental health received wide support on Monday.
It includes 31 new and upgraded Medicare Mental Health Centres, 58 new, upgraded or expanded headspace services, 20 Youth Specialist Care Centres for young people with complex needs, and more than 1200 training places for mental health.
It comes as Mr Albanese pitches this election as make or break for Medicare.
‘Playing catch-up’
Peter Dutton says Labor is “playing catch-up” to the Coalition on mental health after Anthony Albanese announced his $1bn policy for mental health care facilities.
“We have promised to restore from 10 to 20 the number of sessions that young people, particularly with complex presentations, can receive,” Mr Dutton told ABC TV on Tuesday morning.
“And Labor cut that from 20 to 10 services.
“We announced another $400m for the expansion of Headspace and mental health services otherwise. Labor, in some ways, is playing catch-up here.”
More to come
‘You just made those numbers up’: Unexpected turn in TV clash
Jim Chalmers and Angus Taylor clashed on issues affecting Aussie voters, but it was only a minute into the Sky News Treasurers’ Debate when it took a highly unexpected turn.
Greens candidate blocked from forum as debate heats up over antisemitism
Protesters have worn anti-Greens merchandise to a Jewish Community Candidate’s Forum in inner Melbourne as Labor MP Josh Burns faced off with Liberal candidate Benson Saulo.