Federal election 2025 live updates: Albanese, Dutton campaign on day 21
Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton have taken a break from full-on election campaigning on Good Friday, while Adam Bandt has different plans.
It was a quiet Good Friday for the Prime Minister, a slightly busier one for the Opposition Leader, but the Greens leader is gearing up for a dance party.
Both Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton suspended full on campaigning for the May 3 election in respect of the solemnity of Good Friday and the importance of the Easter long weekend to Australians.
Mr Dutton attended the Good Friday service at St Charbel’s Maronite Catholic monastery and a Sikh sport carnival western Sydney, while Mr Albanese met voters during a casual campaign outing at a dog park in Lane Cove West on Sydney’s Lower North Shore.
Adam Bandt, meanwhile, was getting ready to DJ at a dance party in Melbourne just after midnight.
Toto steals Albo’s show on campaign walk
Anthony Albanese was joined by his fiancee Jodie Haydon, their dog Toto, Labor Bennelong MP Jerome Laxale, his partner Jo Taranto and their jack russell terrier, Toby.
Mr Laxale joked they had told Toby to be “on his best behaviour for the important meeting”.
Mr Laxale is hoping to retain the ultra-marginal seat of Bennelong for Labor on May 3.
He won the seat at the 2022 election from the Coalition by just 1600 votes following a 9.2 per cent swing against the Liberal Party.
But there has been a significant redistribution since, making it notionally very marginal Liberal.
Mr Albanese and Mr Laxale met a few families out and about on the sunny public holiday on Sydney’s leafy Lower North Shore.
Queried by one mum with her two boys, Mr Albanese predicted his NRL team the South Sydney Rabbitohs would come out ahead in their Good Friday matchup with the Bulldogs.
“Souths are going to win – the Easter bunnies,” he quipped.
The Prime Minister told another family out walking their dogs Bella and Buddy he was having a “quieter time” over the Easter long weekend ahead of the final two weeks before the election.
Liberal candidate Scott Yung has been campaigning hard, and received the publicly endorsement of former prime minister John Howard who held Bennelong.
There have been reports Mr Yung may have breached NSW Electoral Commission guidelines for not disclosing free campaign advertising dating back to his tilt for the state seat of Kogarah in 2019.
The Liberal Party was also forced to defend Mr Yung’s decision to hand out Easter eggs at Lane Cove Public School, which resulted in complaints from parents.
DJ Bandt set to get behind decks … again
Greens leader Adam Bandt will get behind the DJ decks for the second time in about a month, with a performance at iconic Melbourne club Revs from midnight.
Mr Bandt made his debut with a sold out set at Fitzroy’s The Night Cat on March 16 in an event hosted by influencer Abbie Chatfield.
Ahead of the event, the Greens leader told NewsWire DJing was a “stress relief”.
“I’ve played at some friend’s parties before but this will be my public debut,” he said.
“I’m sure there’ll be train wrecks but expect a bit of fun along the way.”
Mr Bandt will get behind the decks at the Prahan venue at 12am – just after the end of Good Friday – for what he says is a celebration of the club becoming part of his Melbourne electorate.
Melbourne is considered a safe Greens seat, having been held by the party since 2010.
In September 2024, the Australian Electoral Commission unveiled the new boundaries of several metropolitan Melbourne electorates as the seat of Higgins was abolished.
Earlier this week, the Greens came under fire for planning a rave fundraiser on Anzac Day for Western Australian candidates.
The dance party was slated to be held on April 25 at a West Perth tattoo parlour and licensed venue to raise fund for the Greens candidate in the seat of Perth, Sophie Greer.
The event page and an Instagram post about the fundraiser were pulled hours after the hard left minor party faced backlash following an article in The West Australian on the scheduled party.
The Greens later backflipped and rescheduled the event for another day.
Albo calls for Aussies to ‘get behind’ Good Friday Appeal
The Albanese government has contributed $2m to kick off the Good Friday Appeal in Victoria.
Now in its 94th year, the annual fundraising event supports The Royal Children’s Hospital.
Since 1931, more than $468m has been raised to support patients and their families, with a record $23.3m raised last year.
On Friday, the Prime Minister said he was pleased his government had given $2m to the worthy cause each year over his term in office.
“Many Australian families owe so much to the dedicated staff at The Royal Children’s Hospital,” Anthony Albanese said.
“I’d like to thank all of the volunteers and encourage all Australians to get behind this year’s appeal.”
According to the Good Friday Appeal, donations are used to support groundbreaking research, purchasing state-of-the-art equipment, patient care and fostering staff excellence.
Second stop for Dutton: Sikh Games
Peter Dutton is attending the Australian Sikh Games on Friday afternoon.
The games are being held at Bass Hill in Sydney’s west, in the safe Labor seat of Watson, held by senior cabinet minister Tony Burke.
It was a cultural and colourful greeting for the Opposition Leader at the Sikh Games, with Mr Dutton addressing the crowd at a musical chairs event.
Mr Dutton made some brief remarks after walking around the grounds, asking all Australians to be safe on the roads and in waterways this Easter break.
Three people have already drowned in a horror start to the Easter weekend.
“It’s a really dangerous period on the roads. It’s a dangerous period at the beach and at inland waterways as well,” he said.
“So please take extra care, particularly with kids and elderly Australians. And it’s great to be here and to see so much participation.”
It was a mostly positive reception for Mr Dutton, with a couple comments come from younger members of the Sikh community.
“No votes for Peter,” one young man yelled.
ScoMo joins Dutton at Good Friday service
Former prime minister Scott Morrison has joined Opposition Leader Peter Dutton at the Good Friday service at St Charbel’s Monastery.
The service is one of the biggest Good Friday events every year and is expected to be attended by around 20,000 worshippers.
It’s the same service Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and former PM Scott Morrison attended during the 2022 election campaign.
Mr Morrison and his wife Jenny were also at the service on Friday, sitting beside Mr Dutton and his wife Kirilly.
However, Mr Albanese has opted out this year, instead spending the morning in the key seat of Bennelong with dog Toto.
St Charbel’s is in the seat of Watson – a very safe Labor seat held by senior cabinet minister Tony Burke with a 15.2 per cent margin.
Mr Burke has also attended the Good Friday service.
After the service, Mr Dutton mingled with the congregation.
ScoMo emotional moment at Good Friday service
Former prime minister Scott Morrison has an emotional reunion with Danny Abdallah, who also attended the Maronite Catholic Good Friday service at St Charbel’s Monastery.
Mr Morrison and his wife became close to the Abdallah family, after they lost three of their six children to a drunk and drugged driver while he was prime minister.
Antony, Angelina and Sienna Abdallah were walking with their cousins to the shops in their home suburb of Oatlands on February 1, 2020 when they were hit by a car.
The three siblings died at the scene, along with their cousin Veronique Sakr.
Mr Morrison said he and Jenny bonded with the Abdallahs over their shared faith in light of the tragedy and praised their decision to “forgive” driver Samuel Davidson.
“I’ll never forget that day, it was the same day our dear friends Danny and Leila Abdallah and Bridget Sakr lost their kids in that terrible crash over at Oatlands,” Mr Morrison told Sky News in 2023.
“They had every right to be vindictive and they had every right to lash out and they chose a different path and I know why they did because we share that faith.”
Dutton’s electorate office vandalised
Peter Dutton’s electorate office in Brisbane’s north has been vandalised again.
Black spray-paint graffiti was discovered on the building in Arana Hills on Friday morning.
The paint was used to write “maggot” and “scum” across office windows.
Mr Dutton’s office has been vandalised twice in the past.
Labor under pressure over power rebate
Labor is under pressure to explain what it will do when its $150 energy rebates end in December, with a new report showing power bills will go up by 15 per cent once the subsidy ends.
Labor election spokesman Jason Clare had no clear answer when asked on Seven Sunrise on Friday if the government would extend the subsidy.
The Albanese government has been under pressure during the election campaign over its failure to reduce electricity prices by the $275 it promised in 2022.
It has already provided $300 subsidies to all households for their power bills, before extending that $150 subsidy till the end of the year.
“Well it’s something that we’d look at the end of the year. But we’ll always take responsible action to help Aussies out,” Mr Clare told host Nat Barr.
When pushed further, he said while the “rebates are important”, it’s not the only action the Albanese government is taking to address the cost of living.
“It’s not just in that area, it’s with the tax cuts that we’re rolling out as well, as well as the instant tax deduction worth $1000 that we announced on the weekend,” Mr Clare said.
“So, in a whole bunch of different ways, it’s important to help Australians with the cost of living.”
Deputy Liberal Leader Sussan Ley was also noncommittal on extending the rebates, saying the Coalition’s gas reservation policy would bring down the price of energy, while also fuel excise cut.
“If Australians vote for us, they will get an immediate 25 cents a litre cut to their fuel tax bill. They’ll have an up to $1200 tax offset return to them. That’s for 10 million Australians,” she said.
“And our short to medium plan on power, Aussie gas for Aussie households, will see retail gas and electricity prices come down by 7 and 3 per cent, respectively.”
She also said “longer term our nuclear, gas and renewables policy, expertly modelled, will see a 44 per cent reduction”.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton is yet to go into details on the costings of the Coalition’s nuclear power plant plan during the campaign, which he claims will reduce power prices by 44 per cent.
Fed-up renter camps outside Albo’s home
A fed-up dad has moved to send a message to the Prime Minister on Australia’s housing crisis, setting up a tent and a large sign outside his $4.3m home in Copacabana.
Morgan Cox, a father-of-three who revealed his heartbreaking story on ABC’s Q&A in March, set up the large tent in front of the home Mr Albanese bought with fiancee Jodie Haydon on NSW’s Central Coast, with a sign placed in front.
The sign read: “Everyone deserves a home Albo!”
On Thursday morning, Mr Cox said in a post to X he would be “outside Albo’s $4.6m mansion on behalf of 3.5m Australians in poverty or facing homelessness”.
“All we want is to be heard,” he wrote.
“Everyone deserves a home Albo!”
However, by 10pm on Thursday evening, Mr Cox said the sign had been removed.
“Did Albo have a word to the cops? Sign is gone,” he wrote.
Despite the sign being removed, he said he would not move his tent.
“Is ‘everyone deserves a home’ offensive to you Albo?” he wrote online.
“Tent remains. So, so will I.”
It is understood Mr Albanese and Ms Haydon do not currently live in the home, and instead rent it out, with real estate data suggesting it was listed for $1500 a week.
Speaking to the panel on Q&A last month, the Sydney father explained he had been forced out of his home due to rising rent costs, despite working two jobs.
“I recently got a rent increase notice for an additional $180 a week, which works out to be about $10,000 a year,” he said.
“I tried to find a cheaper place and there just aren’t any. What little is available, there’s dozens of people lined up.
“I’m already working two jobs. One more rent increase and my family, my one-year-old baby, we’re facing homelessness and we’ve got nowhere to go. My family has already been forced out of Sydney for the same reason.”
He put part of the blame on the increase in immigration, calling for a temporary pause on welcoming new residents into the country until the housing crisis has been sorted.
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