Federal election 2025: Albanese, Dutton on day 32 of May 3 election campaign
Anthony Albanese has been heckled by a candidate for Labor defector Fatima Payman’s party as he made lightning visits to early polling booths in key Sydney seats.
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A pro-Palestinian supporter has yelled at Anthony Albanese as the Prime Minister visited an early polling booth in a key southwestern Sydney seat.
During the short visit to the seat of marginal seat of Banks, held by the Coalition’s foreign affairs spokesman David Coleman, passer-bys yelled out: “Free Palestine” as the Prime Minister mingled with the crowd.
There was also a tense moment when senate candidate for Fatima Payman’s party Emanie Darwich hurled a lengthy rant at Mr Albanese while he was greeting supporters and voters.
“What do you have to say to Palestinians?” she screamed.
“What do you have to say to working Australians? I work three jobs and I can’t take a photo with the big man? My taxpayer dollars fund your position.”
It wasn’t all bad press though, at another point another passer by yelled out: “Albo, you sick c**t.”
Both Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton are targeting key marginal seats in NSW on Monday.
The Prime Minister started the day on The Central Coast, in the bellwether seat of Robertson which the Liberals are hoping to win back, before moving to Bennelong in Sydney.
Labor’s Jerome Laxale wrested the seat from the Liberals following the retirement of John Alexander in 2022.
But the margins have become tighter since the redistribution last year.
Mr Albanese will visit a pre-polling booth in the suburb of Eastwood in Sydney’s north west.
The snap five-minute event saw Mr Albanese traverse a long line of Liberal volunteers supporting candidate Scott Yung.
Chaos ensued with volunteers dressed in red flocking to take photos with the leader, while blue-shirted Liberals attempted to get their signs into the photo op.
In an unfortunate turn of events, the also started pelting down with rain during the brief visit.
Naturally, things subsided as soon as both Prime Minister and frenzied media pack were returned to their vehicles.
Mr Albanese then headed to Sydney’s southwest, with the Prime Minister making a bold pop in to the electorate of Banks held by the Coalition’s foreign affairs spokesman David Coleman.
The senior Liberal MP holds the seat on a 2.6 per cent margin and will be contested by Labor’s Zhi Soon.
The Opposition Leader is in Paterson – also in the NSW Hunter Valley – to tour a food distribution business.
It’s another marginal seat in the region the Liberals believe is vulnerable.
Paterson is held by Labor’s Meryl Swanson of 2.6 per cent, with Laurence Antcliff contesting for the Liberal Party.
Mr Dutton’s day got off to a rocky start when the bus carrying the media pack covering his campaign become stuck on a median strip in the middle of the Sydney CBD for more than half an hour.
Albo makes rare street walk in key seat
For one of the few times in four weeks of the election campaign, the Prime Minister has mixed with the voting public in a street walk.
Leaders on both sides of politics have avoided the street walk – once a staple of Australian election campaigning – mainly because of security concerns early.
But Anthony Albanese made the effort on Monday, accompanying Labor candidate to meet locals in Cabramatta Plaza in the must win seat of Fowler in western Sydney.
The traditionally very safe Labor seat was won by independent Dai Le in 2022, after Labor parachuted in Senator Kristina Keneally in favour of local Tu Le.
Tu Le is now trying to win back the seat against the popular community candidate.
Mr Albanese’s arrival in the electorate coincides with controversy around Liberal candidate Vivek Singha who has been forced to apologise over 2023 social media posts which featured derogatory language against Indigenous Australians.
It was a selfie-palooza on the iconic Cabramatta plaza, with both Mr Albanese and Ms Le snapping photos with punters.
A pair of boys aged 12 and 13 asked what the commotion is about before a journalist tells them it’s Prime Minister Albo.
They look a bit confused and responded: “Ronaldo?”, referring to football legend Cristiano Ronaldo.
At one point, Mr Albanese was past Pho’ 54, a popular Vietnamese eatery and goes: “I’d love to stop for some food but...”
Welcome to Country not for Anzac Day: Dutton
Peter Dutton says he doesn’t believe Welcome to Country should be performed at Anzac Day services, but says it is a matter for organisers.
The issue blew up last week when a neo-Nazi allegedly booed as Bunurong elder Uncle Mark Brown as he made the welcome at the Anzac Day Dawn Service at Melbourne’s Shrine of Remembrance.
Labor campaign spokesman Jason Clare earlier on Monday said he hoped Welcome to Country ceremonies would not become a “political football” playing into the hands of neo-Nazis.
“Remember where all of this began on Friday, it spawned out of the actions of Neo-Nazis interrupting an Anzac Day Dawn Service,” Mr Clare told the ABC.
“I don’t think any of us want to find ourselves on the same side of this argument as Neo-Nazis.”
Mr Dutton, who has previously said the welcome to country was “overdone” but should be respected, was grilled during a campaign stop press conference on Monday.
“You have said that it is overused and should happen at very significant events. Would you consider Anzac Day Dawn Service events significant enough?” a reporter asked.
“No,” said Mr Dutton.
“It is ultimately for the organisers of the events, and they can make the decision based on what their membership and their board wants to do. But that is a decision for them, and I respect that.
“But listening to a lot of veterans in the space, Anzac Day is about our veterans, about 103,000 Australians who have died in the service of our country.
“I think if you are listening to their sentiment, and we are respectful of that sentiment on Anzac Day, I think the majority view would be that they don’t want it on that day.”
Mr Dutton was several questions on the topic, including whether airline Qantas should read out an Acknowledgement of Country when they land at their destination.
“I think that is over the top. I have been very clear about that,” Mr Dutton said.
“Do you think they should stop doing it?” he was asked.
“I think it should be reserved for significant events of our country,” Mr Dutton said.
“The biggest effort should be about how we stop that crime that we saw taking place in Darwin, how do we stop those communities from being less safe, how can we invest in those communities? That is the practical solution I want to provide.
“The Prime Minister tied himself in knots last night in relation to this issue.”
Election cash splash threatens Australia’s AAA credit rating
Australia’s long held AAA credit rating is at risk as both the major parties splash the cash ahead of the May 3 election.
S&P Global says Australia’s budget is already stretched on slower global growth, with a big spending election only adding to a larger budget deficit and higher national debt.
S&P analyst Anthony Walker said both parties have announced competing tax policies, which run the risk of eroding Australia’s revenue growth.
“How the elected government funds its campaign pledges and rising spending will be crucial for maintaining the [AAA] rating,” Mr Walker said.
Mr Walker warned these policies could put pressure on Australia’s budget.
“These commitments, however, will need to be funded at a time when the government is grappling with rising international trade tensions, economic uncertainty, and fast-growing structural spending in areas such as the National Disability Insurance Scheme, defence, health, aged care, and interest on government debt,” Mr Walker said.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers will release the Albanese government’s election policy costings on Tuesday afternoon, while shadow treasurer Angus Taylor follow suit with the coalition’s numbers later in the week.
Australia has held its ‘AAA’ credit rating since February 17, 2003 when it was bumped up from AA+
Currently just 11 sovereign countries have a AAA rating out of the 139 S&P Global rates.
Mr Walker said it is expected Australia’s back-to-back surpluses will come to an end and the budget will slip back into deficit in fiscal year 2025.
“At the same time, lax fiscal discipline at the state level has seen big-spending state governments remain in large deficits,” he said.
“This could drive the general government fiscal deficit wider to 2-2.5 per cent of GDP, a level rarely seen since the immediate aftermath of the global financial crisis (outside of pandemic-affected years).”
“If major election commitments aren’t funded via additional revenues or savings, the deficit could widen further.”
Dutton pressured over controversial candidate
Peter Dutton has been pushed a couple of times about the Liberal Party’s candidate in Fowler, a seat in Western Sydney, for posting derogatory remarks on social media.
That candidate, Vivek Singha, has apologised and shut down his Twitter account after the ABC reported he had repeatedly made offensive comments about Indigenous Australians.
“He made insensitive and offensive remarks about Tanya Plibersek’s family, also,” the first questioner on that matter pointed out to Mr Dutton.
“Is this the standard you will accept for Liberal candidates running in this election, and indeed if elected, for your government? And do you not have a better candidate?”
Mr Dutton responded by quickly noting that Mr Singha had apologised, before pivoting to an attack on other parties for some of their more outlandish candidates and views.
“A couple of points. He has apologised for the comments, and so he should have. They were inappropriate and shouldn’t have been made,” the Liberal leader conceded.
“I won’t take a lecture from the Prime Minister, who has a relationship with the Greens, is accepting preferences from the Greens in his own seat. This is an anti-Semitic, Jew-hating party.
“They have been involved in all sorts of horrible doxxing and comments online that are repugnant, but not repudiated by the Prime Minister.
“The Prime Minister has a candidate in Dickson, one in Flynn and elsewhere where they have conducted themselves appallingly. I am not going to take a lecture from the Prime Minister.”
“This is your candidate. Is that the standard you accept?” the journalist pressed.
“One each,” Mr Dutton said.
The issue came up again later, though.
“Regarding your candidate for Fowler. You played a game of whataboutism earlier when asked about it. Isn’t it true that if a Labor candidate had made these derogatory remarks about Indigenous Australians, you would be calling for that candidate to stand down or be disendorsed?” a reporter asked.
“I answered that question earlier,” Mr Dutton claimed.
“No you didn’t,” the reporter protested, before another interjected.
“Mr Dutton, aren’t you being tricky with the truth not to answer today? You’ve had a go at Anthony Albanese for not being transparent, for lying. Aren’t you being tricky with your own truth at the moment? Why won’t you answer that question?” the other journalist asked.
“No. I have answered these questions before. The red herrings and all the rest of the distractions that people want to throw out there, they aren’t dealing with the reality of the week.
“This week is about cost of living, about what will decide the election. And what will decide the election is whether or not Australians will decide they can afford three more years of Labor, and I don’t think they will.”
‘Delulu’ Dutton has ‘no solutions’, Albo
Anthony Albanese says Peter Dutton has been exposed for having “no solutions” and “doesn’t know the price of Australian values”, as the election campaign enters the final five days.
Both the Prime Minister and Opposition Leader failed to correctly answer how much a dozen eggs costs when asked on the Seven Network’s Final Showdown debate.
Mr Albanese’s response of $7 was closer to the $8-plus price charged in supermarkets, than Mr Dutton’s $4.20.
Speaking about Mr Dutton’s mistake, the Prime Minister said “those sort of things can happen … that’s the truth so I’m not going to … add an explanation”.
However, when asked what Mr Dutton’s flop says about his opponent, Mr Albanese was blunter.
“I think, importantly, he doesn’t know the price of Australian values right across the board,” Mr Albanese said.
He also accused the Coalition of being “delulu with no solulu”, a phrase he used in parliament after being dared by podcasters, Lucy Jackson and Nikki Westcott.
“The thing about eggs that I know, because I hear it, is that people are struggling to find eggs on the supermarket shelf, and we know that inflation is a real issue, the cost of living,” he said.
“The difference in this election is that Peter Dutton has spent three years identifying problems and saying somehow that the government is responsible as if global inflation has not occurred, as if we haven’t had the biggest energy crisis since the 1970s.
“But the truth is that this election campaign has exposed that he has no solutions. You know, dare I say he’s delulu with no solution, and that has come through during this campaign.”
Question that brought Dutton undone
Peter Dutton left the audience of the final leaders’ debate gobsmacked when he could not answer how much a dozen eggs cost.
The question during the final election leaders’ debate on Sunday night might not have been about policy, but it was the question that went to the heart of the cost-of-living crisis faced by struggling families.
During a quickfire round on the Seven Network’s Final Showdown, both Anthony Albanese and Mr Dutton were asked about the cost of a dozen eggs.
The Opposition Leader left audience members stunned by his answer of “about $4.20,” with some audibly laughing at his guess.
“It was shocking to see how somebody can be so out of touch with a carton of a dozen eggs,” one of the members of Seven’s “jury” said.
“Everybody pretty much burst into laughter when he said that. It was surprising.”
The Prime Minister’s answer was closer to the mark, with moderator Mark Riley declaring a dozen eggs would set a shopper back $8.80 from Coles and $8.50 from Woolworths.
“It’s $7 if you can find them because it’s hard to find them at the moment,” he said.
Mr Dutton’s slip was reflected in the result of the Final Showdown, with 50 per cent of the 60 undecided voters giving the debate win to Mr Albanese.
Only 25 per cent of the audience of undecided voters, selected by Roy Morgan and tasked with choosing the winner, chose Mr Dutton as the winner, while the remaining 25 per cent were still undecided.
The audience split on the question on the cost-of-living was more striking, with 65 per cent siding with Mr Albanese, and just 16 per cent siding with Mr Dutton, while 19 per cent remained undecided.
According to figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the price of eggs increased by 11.9 per cent between February 2024 and 2025. This was due to the 2024 bird flu outbreak in Victoria which forced Australia chicken flock to be culled by 10 per cent.
The Coalition’s campaign spokesman James Paterson defended the response, and said it was an “objective fact” that “cost of living has gone backwards on Labor’s watch”.
“I want to be respectful of the audience views and their opinions,” he told Seven following the debate.
“Grocery prices up 30 per cent, electricity prices up 32 per cent, gas prices up 30 per cent.
“We have had the worst fall in living standards in Australian history and the worst in the developed world in the last couple of years.”
Mr Dutton was later pushed on the egg question during a press conference on the NSW Central Coast.
“The point that most families have made to us is the cost of everything has gone up. The cost of everything has gone up in the household budget,” Mr Dutton replied.
“I was talking to people in Far North Queensland this morning. Their insurance bill has doubled.
“We are talking about it going up by 35 per cent – their lived experience is that it is doubling.
“It is not just food, and it is not just electricity, it is insurance. It is the cost of everything under this government that continues to rise.”
Asked why Mr Dutton appeared to be unable to get that message “across to people,” Senator Paterson said he believed Australians were aware that “this Prime Minister has failed”.
“I think Australians know when they go to the supermarket checkout and it’s worse than was just the week before, every week it gets worse,” he said.
“There is no reason to expect a second term Albanese government would be better than a first term Albanese government in reducing the cost-of-living.”
Dutton’s egg blunder ‘can be forgiven’: Hume
The Coalition’s finance spokeswoman says Peter Dutton “can be forgiven” for getting the price of a dozen eggs wrong during the fourth and final leaders’ debate.
Going into damage control on Monday, Jane Hume said her boss had not “made pancakes at home” for some time.
“I think that Peter can be forgiven for not knowing the price of a dozen eggs,” she told Sky News.
“It’s been a fair while since he’s probably made pancakes at home. He’s been very busy on the road, travelling right around Australia, talking to ordinary Australians about what’s important to them, and they are telling him that the cost of living has been their number one issue.”
Asked if she knew what the cost of eggs were, Senator Hume said: “I’m afraid … I absolutely do.”
“After the rally yesterday, I went to my mother’s house and cooked bacon and eggs and sausages and baked beans for my kids and for my mother, as I do most Sundays,” she said.
“And unfortunately, the dozen eggs that I bought on the way home were nearly $10, but they were free range, so I think I got stung.”
PM hits crucial election bellwether
Anthony Albanese has become the first leader to visit the NSW Central Coast seat of Robertson – a key election bellwether seat which will be closely watched by election analysts.
The term refers to swinging electorates which predict the outcome of the election. In 2022, it was won by Labor’s Gordon Reid, who prised it from longtime Liberal MP Lucy Wicks.
The Prime Minister visited community housing provider Pacific Link Housing to announce the Coast Women’s and Children’s Trauma Recovery Centre in East Gosford, a new $20m initiative to help victims of domestic and sexual violence.
Mr Albanese was joined by Health Minister Mark Butler, Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth, Senator Deb O’Neill and finance Jodie Haydon.
Dutton siding with ‘Neo-Nazis’ on Welcome to Country: minister
Peter Dutton has found himself siding with “Neo-Nazis” on Welcome to Country ceremonies, according to a senior minister.
During the final leaders debate on Sunday, the Opposition Leader said the ceremonies were “overdone”, but called them a “respectful thing to do” in certain formal circumstances, such as opening parliament.
Labor campaign spokesman Jason Clare on Monday said he hoped Welcome to Country ceremonies would not become a “political football”.
“This is about a bit of respect and organisations and individuals make their own choices about whether they organise welcomes to country,” Mr Clare told the ABC.
“Remember where all of this began on Friday, it spawned out of the actions of Neo-Nazis interrupting an Anzac Day Dawn Service.
“I don’t think any of us want to find ourselves on the same side of this argument as Neo-Nazis.”
Mr Dutton has long-held that ceremonies were losing their value, but largely left the matter to opposition Indigenous affairs spokeswoman Jacinta Nampijinpa Price.
Coalition attack dog Barnaby Joyce earlier backed Mr Dutton in a testy morning show appearance with Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek.
“I certainly don’t want to be welcomed back to my own hometown. I think veterans have a genuine concern, if they’ve signed on the dotted line to sign for this nation, they don’t believe they need to be welcomed to it,” he said.
“They’ve absolutely proven their loyalty to this nation. I think there’s time and place for everything, but we’ve got to be a lot more discerning about how we do this.”
Ms Plibersek took a different view, saying it was no “skin off anyone’s nose to show respect”.
“But as someone who attends a lot of events, I really like learning about the history and culture of the area that I’m visiting,” she said.
Grim news for Dutton in latest Newspoll
More than half of all voters believe Peter Dutton and the Coalition are not ready to govern the nation, according to the latest Newspoll.
The poll, published by The Australian six days before the May 3 election, revealed 62 per cent of the 1254 voters surveyed between April 21 and 24 did not believe Mr Dutton and his team had what it takes to assume power.
This marks a seven point increase from polling done in February this year.
The feeling was strongest among women, with 66 per cent holding little or no confidence in the Coalition, compared to 58 per cent of men.
Things were not much better for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Labor, with only 39 per cent of voters believing the party should be re-elected for a second term.
Both leaders will be stepping up the pace on Monday, with just five days of campaigning left before Saturday’s election.
Early polling will also resume on Monday, with 2.4 million Australians having already cast their votes in the four days of pre-polling so far.
Labor defiant on Greens question
Health Minister Mark Butler has maintained Labor “will not do a deal” with the Greens if it fails to secure enough seats to govern a majority.
There are five days to go before Australians cast their ballots in the federal election.
While polls show Labor’s fortunes have changed for the better in the past five weeks of intense campaigning, a hung parliament is still possible.
Mr Butler said on Monday the party remained “focused on majority government”.
“We think majority government is what Australia needs right now in a globally very volatile, uncertain time,” he told Nine’s Today.
“Australia needs stability. We need certainty and continuity. And that’s what a Labor government will give them.”
In a jab to the opposition, Mr Butler said Labor was “not a party of coalition unlike the Liberal Party”.
“Whatever the result, whether it’s … a majority or slightly short of a majority, if we are commissioned to form government, we will put Labor’s platform to the parliament and we’ll put it without any deals,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Greens have been preparing a list of demands to put to Anthony Albanese should he need to strike a deal.
They include blocking new coal and gas projects, expanding Medicare to cover dental health, reforming negative gearing and capital gains tax, ending logging in native forests, and introducing free universal early childhood education.
Liberal candidate forced to apologise
The Liberal candidate in Fowler, a key seat in Western Sydney, has apologised and shut down his Twitter account after it emerged that he’d published derogatory posts about Indigenous Australians.
Vivek Singha’s account abruptly became inactive on Sunday afternoon after the ABC contacted the Liberals for comment.
“I apologise for the social media posts, I should not have expressed myself in that way and I sincerely regret doing so,” the candidate said in a statement to the national broadcaster.
The posts in question came during 2023, before the unsuccessful referendum on creating a Voice to parliament.
Mr Singh was not expected to win Fowler, where the independent incumbent Dai Le is mainly facing competition from Labor’s Tu Le.
Liberal Leader Peter Dutton was later asked about his candidate’s actions at a press conference in the seat of Paterson.
“He has apologised for the comments and so he should have,” Mr Dutton said.
“They were inappropriate and shouldn’t have been made. He has apologised for them.”
Mr Dutton said he “won’t take a lecture from the Prime Minister who has a relationship with the Greens.”
“He is preferencing a Green number 2. This is an anti-Semitic Jew-hating party,” Mr Dutton said.
More to come
Originally published as Federal election 2025: Albanese, Dutton on day 32 of May 3 election campaign
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