Federal election 2025 live updates: Anthony Albanese forced to address Chinese spy ship
Anthony Albanese has been forced to address a potential Chinese spy ship off Australia, as he tried to spruik Labor’s health care plans during the election campaign.
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The Prime Minister has been sidetracked from his election campaign message to address a potential Chinese spy ship circumventing Australia, saying he “would prefer it wasn’t there”.
Anthony Albanese says Defence is monitoring the Chinese research ship, the Tan Suo Yi Hao.
“I would prefer that it wasn’t there,” Anthony Albanese told reporters in Perth on day three of the election campaign.
“But we live in circumstances where – just as Australia has vessels in the South China Sea and vessels in the Taiwan Strait and a range of areas – this vessel is there.
“What our task is to do is to make sure that we represent Australia’s national interests. We do that each and every day.
“I have every confidence in our Defence Force and our security agencies to do just that.”
Sky News has reported the ship is tracking a route that tracks closely with our deep sea submarine cable.
But it is understood to be outside Australia’s Exclusive Economic Zone and off the southern coast, heading west. It is expected to arrive in China on April 30.
It is known to conduct legitimate scientific research – in fact it just finished a joint exploration exercise with New Zealand – but also collects intelligence.
And instead of heading straight back to China after its mission in New Zealand, it’s heading around the Australian coast, Sky News reported.
The ship can drop mini-submersibles capable of reaching depths of 10,000 metres, meaning it could potentially interfere with undersea cables.
Mr Albanese said “this isn’t the first time that a similar vessel has been around the Australian coast”.
“It occurred in 2020, for example, just to give one example. Australia, as you would expect, is monitoring this.”
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said it was being watched.
“We know exactly where it is, we know the direction it is heading, and the speed it’s moving in that direction,” he said.
In February, three Chinese warships conducted live-fire exercises in the Tasman Sea while circumventing Australia.
The People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLA-N) frigates and replenishment vessel.
Mr Albanese was slammed for his handling of the issue, after it was revealed a Virgin pilot saw the Chinese ships about 30 minutes after PLA-N started the live firing and alerted Airservices Australia, which then told the Australian Defence Force.
‘It’s no’: Albo’s bungles answer on Greens deal
Anthony Albanese has messed up his words while trying to pledge he wouldn’t make a deal to govern in a coalition with the Greens.
A good half hour into a media conference on the campaign trail in Perth, the Prime Minister was asked whether Labor would preference the Greens second at the election.
“That’s a matter for the organisational wing (of the Labor Party),” Mr Albanese replied.
Then he went on to make a different, related point, regarding what Labor will do if it’s reduced to a minority in the parliament.
“But I make this point again, because there was some reporting of something, in spite of the 385 times that I’ve said we will not govern in coalition with anyone, including the Greens,” Mr Albanese said.
“I rule out, I rule out – just to be really clear again, if you ask me, ‘Do you rule out governing in coalition with the Greens?’ The answer to that is no. No. It’s no.”
He then went on to say “I don’t negotiate with the Greens”, apparently oblivious to his gaffe.
“My campaign team in Grayndler is about campaigning against the Greens, and I’m very confident that we’ll be successful, given that the Greens were rejected last time they ran in my part of the world,” he continued.
“The Inner West saw a Labor majority. An absolute majority, on the Inner West Council.
“If the Inner West of Sydney can deliver a majority for the Labor Party to govern the Inner West Council, I’m pretty confident that I can deliver a majority of Labor members in the House of Representatives to govern the nation.”
Albo warning on Coalition energy funding
Mr Albanese managed to link his announcement of the day – funding for a hospital upgrade – to that entirely different issue.
He characterised Peter Dutton’s Coalition as one “that will cut Medicare as sure as night follows day, because they’ve got to find $600m for their nuclear fantasy, including a nuclear power plant down there in Collie”.
“He hasn’t actually bothered to visit that site up close,” Mr Albanese said.
“If he did, he would see what is the real future of energy in Western Australia, which is renewables backed by gas, backed by firming capacity, including batteries that are being built there on site to connect up with the transmission lines that are currently used by the coal-fired power plant, which we could close this decade.”
Energy policy popped up again a few minutes later, as a journalist asked Mr Albanese about Woodside’s North West Shelf gas project.
“Do you believe that the North West Shelf gas project should be extended, and will approvals to that project be further delayed by Labor’s plans?” the reporter asked.
“No, they won’t be delayed by that. They’ll be considered in accordance with the law,” said Mr Albanese.
“But I make this point, for people who haven’t followed perhaps the details of the way that the law works in (Mr Dutton) declaring, and pre-empting an announcement and a decision on the North West Shelf.”
The context here is that Mr Dutton has promised to fast-track the project by approving it within 30 days of taking office, should he win the election.
“There is no conceivable reason as to why approval can’t be given,” Mr Dutton said at one of his press conferences.
The fear, here is that by declaring a decision on the matter before taking power Mr Dutton was risking legal action that would actually slow down the project.
“What he is doing is ensuring that it gets delayed,” said Mr Albanese.
“The former government did the same thing with Pep 11, the exploration licences off the coast of NSW.
“By pre-empting it, it meant that it got delayed and took a long period of time. Eventually, (Labor) minister (Ed) Husic was given responsibility for it, in accordance with the law, and that issue is now settled.
“If you go out there and you pre-empt the law, which says that consideration must be given objectively by the minister, then you by definition put yourself in a position of legal challenge.
“What would happen would be, there would be a legal challenge. Frankly, you could get any lawyer at random, pick them out, and they could win that case, because it is shut, a shut case. It is not sensible to do so, for an alternative prime minister.
“There are so many ways in which the alternative government of this country shows that it is not ready to form government. What this shows is they need more time.”
Dutton fobs off key question for third day
Peter Dutton has dodged saying exactly how much power bills will be reduced under his gas policy for the third day running.
The Opposition Leader faces mounting pressure to reveal the modelling which he says has been produced by Frontier Economics, the same firm that costed the highly-disputed nuclear figures.
While he avoided the question, he claimed electricity prices would be higher under Labor.
“We will have, in terms of our offering at the next election to the Australian people, a definite plan about how we can reduce prices,” he said.
“Not just keep downward pressure, but I want to reduce power prices.”
Mr Dutton was also peppered with questions on the Coalition’s nuclear policy during a campaign stop in NSW Hunter Valley region, where his government would build one of its seven nuclear reactor plants.
He said the Coalition’s energy policy – including nuclear and gas – was better than that being offered by Labor’s renewable plan.
“Labor’s plan is $263bn more expensive than our plan. That is why our plan is 44 per cent cheaper and what gives this away is that Labor has never disputed those figures,” Mr Dutton told reporters at Cougar Manufacturing plant in Tomago in the seat of Paterson.
“So Labor has never punched a hole in any of the assumptions in the Frontier (costings) report. They have never suggested the 44 per cent figure is wrong.”
He said prices would be “cheaper under us”.
“Labor’s offering is uncertainty, blackouts, brownouts and much higher electricity and gas prices, and that is not something we are going tolerate,” Mr Dutton said.
The Coalition says its new policy – announced by Mr Dutton in last Thursday’s budget reply – would force gas giants to keep about 20 per cent of supplies onshore for domestic use, to increase supply and bring down energy prices.
Earlier, Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie said the Liberal Party had “been a bit short on detail when it comes to releasing their policy” to establish an East Coast gas reserve.
“We want to do what Western Australia is doing and make a 15 per cent gas reserve from a policy that has certainly worked,” Senator Lambie told Today.
“There’s nothing stopping … both those major parties from giving us a gas reserve policy. And quite frankly, I’m happy to take (a) 25 per cent (cut to wholesale gas prices).”
Nuclear Coke can claim walked back
Mr Dutton was also pressed over the amount of nuclear waste his reactors would produce and whether it would be more than “one Coke can”.
He’s previously said a 450-megawatt reactor would just produce a soft drink sized can of waste, something that’s been rebuked by energy experts.
However on Monday, he said the “quantum” of waste would be dependent on the size of the reactor and made no mention of his Coke can reference.
“In relation to the waste, I mean, if you look at the small modular reactors or bigger reactors ... there are options to dispose safely from Lucas Heights,” he said.
He said the Albanese government commitment under the AUKUS deal to “that our country could safely dispose of the waste”.
“So there are options for our country.”
However, he was unable to detail the size of the planned reactor for the Hunter area, which will be located on the retiring Liddell coal generator.
Dutton pushes back against Muslim criticism
A Coalition government is not expected to review the exisiting anti-Semitism envoy despite casting doubt on the future of the Islamophobia counterpart.
Mr Dutton said he was “happy to continue” the role if it positively impacted the community, but added he would have to take “advice” on the matter.
Both positions were established in response to a spike in both antisemitic and Islamophobic incidents following the 2023 war in Gaza.
Mr Dutton earlier said he has “never discriminated against any religion,” and declined to apologise for his previous comments claiming Lebanese Muslims were over-represented in people charged with terrorist offences.
His comments made in parliament in 2016 also said the decision of former Liberal prime minister Malcolm Fraser to resettle Lebanese refugees was a mistake.
Asked if he would apologise for his historical comments on Wednesday, Mr Dutton twice avoided directly answering.
“The point that I was making yesterday, the point that I’ve made consistently through my career, is that people should be able to live in our country, in our society, particularly in the 21st century, peaceful and with freedom,” he said.
“I’ve never discriminated against any religion at all and if somebody’s committing an act of violence that is religiously based, I’m dead against that.”
The comments come after Mr Dutton committed $25,000 of funding which would install CCTV cameras at Al Madinah Mosque in south west Sydney. However shortly after his visit, mosque leaders said the media opportunity was not “an endorsement” of his leadership.
A statement issued by mosque leaders also called for a public apology over 2016 comments criticising Lebanese Muslims.
Day three of campaigning underway
Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton return to the campaign trail on Monday, with the Prime Minister already making a $200m announcement while the Opposition Leader has made a surprise disclosure.
Three new polls released on Monday show that the contest is still tight, with Labor just in front.
The Newspoll conducted for The Australian shows Labor leading the Coalition 51-49 per cent on a two-party-preferred basis at the start of the campaign, a two-point gain for the Albanese government in the past three weeks.
Coalition campaign spokesman James Paterson said the polls showed what was already know, that the election would be close.
“It shows that the Coalition are underdogs. We have a big task ahead of us because no first-term government has been removed from office in 100 years,” he told ABC News Breakfast.
“And it shows that Australian people have a significant choice to make over the next five weeks.
“Can they afford another three years under a re-elected Anthony Albanese Labor government, or do they want to get our country back on track by electing a strong Prime Minister in Peter Dutton and the Coalition.”
Mr Albanese is starting day in Perth, which was where he secured his win in 2022, where he will announce $200m to redevelop the St John of God Midland Public hospital alongside WA Premier Roger Cook in the electorate of Hasluck, one of the seats Labor picked up.
Jetting out of Sydney, the Dutton camp has landed in Newcastle, in NSW’s Hunter region.
The Coalition is targeting two marginal Labor seats in the region: Hunter and Paterson.
Hunter is held by Olympian Dan Repacholi on a 4 per cent margin, while Meryl Swanson has held Paterson since 2016.
The Opposition Leader is meeting with workers at Cougar mining equipment in Tomago, a suburb in the electorate of Paterson. He is due to tour the factory before doing a press conference.
‘Doesn’t understand law’: PM’s warning on Dutton
Anthony Albanese has accused Peter Dutton of not “understanding the law” with his pledge to fast-track the North West Shelf gas project, pre-empting a decision under the Environmental Protection Biodiversity Act.
A decision has been pushed out for a further two months to May 31, according to a notice dated March 24 that was posted by the environment department.
Mr Dutton has promised a final decision on the extension would be made within 30 days should the Coalition win the May 3 election.
“We’re having a proper process, which is there,” Mr Albanese told ABC radio in Perth.
“It’s rather extraordinary that Peter Dutton doesn’t seem to understand what his responsibility is and the law.
“I know that the world has just gone through the biggest energy crisis since the 1970s, now that left Australia overexposed, thanks to a decade of LNP chaos and failure.”
Dutton to ditch The Lodge
Meanwhile Mr Dutton, who lives in Brisbane’s north, has revealed he won’t be basing himself at the Lodge in Canberra if he wins the May 3 election.
Mr Dutton told Kyle and Jackie O would use the prime ministerial residence in Sydney, Kirribilli House, as his main residence.
“We would live in Kirribilli, you know we love Sydney and love the harbour, it’s a great city,” he said.
“When you’ve got a choice between Kirribilli and living in Canberra and the Lodge, I think you’d take Sydney any day over Canberra.”
In an interview with KIIS 1065, Mr Dutton revealed he would follow in the footsteps of former PMs Scott Morrison and John Howard and choose the harbourside views.
Mr Albanese has chose the Lodge as his primary residence, where he proposed to his fiancee Jodie Haydon on Valentine’s day last year.
Lambie wants more detail on gas
Tasmanian Senator Jacqui Lambie has backed the Coalition’s call to make more gas available domestically to bring down energy prices.
But she said the Liberal Party had “been a bit short on detail when it comes to releasing their policy” to establish an East Coast gas reserve.
“We want to do what Western Australia is doing and make a 15 per cent gas reserve from a policy that has certainly worked,” Senator Lambie told Today.
“There’s nothing stopping … both those major parties from giving us a gas reserve policy. And quite frankly, I’m happy to take (a) 25 per cent (cut to wholesale gas prices).”
The Coalition says its new policy – announced by Mr Dutton in last Thursday’s budget reply – would force gas giants to keep about 20 per cent of supplies onshore for domestic use, to increase supply and bring down energy prices.
The coalition’s campaign spokesman James Paterson, appearing on ABC’s Radio National Breakfast, wouldn’t be drawn on when the modelling would be released or how much it would reduce power bills by.
Asked to clarify how much gas producers would need to supply the domestic market, he said the policy would “decouple the domestic gas price from the international prices, and it will drive those domestic prices down”.
Senator Paterson also said energy companies – who have criticised the Coalition policy –would be fined if they failed to comply “if that’s necessary”.
Meanwhile, Finance Minister Katy Gallagher has defended the Albanese government on energy prices, after promising at the 2022 election campaign that prices would reduce by $275.
“Our policy was before a years-long land war in the Ukraine … I don’t think anyone in the 2022 election would have said there would be a three-year land war in Europe,” she told ABC radio.
“What we have done since coming to government … is to deal with those pressures but to also set Australia up with the energy system that we need for the future.”
That has included giving all households and small businesses rebates of $75 a quarter, that has been extended till the end of the year.
Deputy PM defends supermarket gouging policy
Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said the supermarket gouging policy announced by Mr Albanese on Sunday would “make a difference for people when they go to the supermarket”.
“Other countries around the world have legislation in place which prohibits price gouging and make sure that in those circumstances where you’ve got essential services and where there are companies that are in a powerful market position, that that is not impacted on those consumers,” Mr Marles told the Today show.
“This is a really important law reform for our country, and it’s a step that we are very keen to take.”
Key question next PM must answer
Cost of living is shaping up to be the major debate ahead of the 2025 federal election, with both major parties grilled on their plans to bring down bills.
As leaders and their lackeys fronted media on Sunday, a key question emerged, with nobody brave enough to answer:
“How will it help me?”
The Prime Minister was asked six times in a row during an appearance on Insiders if he could commit to power bill relief beyond the end of the year, when a $150 extension to the current rebate was set to expire.
He did not answer.
On Sky News Agenda, Coalition energy spokesman Ted O’Brien was asked if Peter Dutton’s national gas plan would make any difference to household bills.
He also declined to answer.
Mr Albanese obfuscated, declaring his government had “consciously” provided three lots of energy relief, through coal and gas price caps, rebates for concession card holders and rebates for all Australian households.
“I’m asking, I think a lot of households want to know what will happen to their power bill and what happens at the end this year,” host David Speers said in one of his six attempts to have the Prime Minister answer the question.
“The government hasn’t produced any sort of nod or indication of what will happen with energy prices if you are returned?”
“What we are providing is $150 relief extending that relief going forward to the end of the year,” Mr Albanese replied.
Mr Dutton has spent the past two days deflecting questions about exact price reductions.
“You’ll see some more analysis come out over the next couple of days, which will provide some percentage figures and some detail about what we expect the impact will be, and others will comment on that as well,” he said.
Mr O’Brien faced a similar grilling on Sky News Agenda when trying to spruik the national gas plan, which is tipped to bring down wholesale prices from $14 a gigajoule to $10.
“What does that mean for the punter, for the small business for the householder?” host Andrew Clennell asked.
“So when it comes to that modelling that’ll be released, but it’s clear that it is far cheaper than what Labor has planned, and it is good news to the punter,” Mr O’Brien responded, before he was cut off by Mr Clennell.
“Why can’t you just tell me how much? Why are we waiting for the release of some modelling?” he hit back.
“If you make a promise like that, shouldn’t you say your bills are going down 10 per cent, 30 per cent roughly 5 per cent? Can’t you just say that?”
Mr O’Brien said the situation was similar when the Coalition’s nuclear plan was announced, but said people continued to ask more questions after one was answered.
‘Number one complaint’ from voters
The election watchdog has warned voters against filing third-party postal votes sent through political parties over privacy concerns.
While completely legal, the Australian Electoral Committee also said issues sometimes occurred with ballot papers reaching the body on time.
Commissioner Jeff Pope said that while the AEC operates under the Privacy Act, political parties don’t have to.
Postal voting should also only be used when a voter isn’t able to visit able to cast their vote at a booth either during pre-polling or on election day.
“Concerns about party postal vote applications through unsolicited outreach is the number one complaint we hear from voters at almost every federal election,” he said.
“The AEC has shared these concerns with parliamentary committees in the past and will continue to do so in the future.”
Voters can register for a postal vote on the AEC’s website.
Originally published as Federal election 2025 live updates: Anthony Albanese forced to address Chinese spy ship
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