As it happened: PM calls election for May 3 and Dutton comes out swinging

Thanks for reading our rolling federal election blog. This is where we’ll end today’s coverage.

To conclude, here’s a look back at the day’s major stories:

• Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has called the election for May 3 after a dawn visit to Governor-General Sam Mostyn to launch the formal campaign.

• The Labor leader then returned to Parliament House to make his opening pitch, promising to build a better future for Australians while playing up the risk of cuts and uncertainty under a Coalition government.

• Opposition Leader Peter Dutton responded with a speech in which he warned the election was a “sliding doors moment” because the country needed a change in direction and leadership.

• Both Albanese and Dutton are now in Brisbane, which is one of 12 seats we’re keeping a close eye on ahead of the election.

• Greens leader Adam Bandt declared a “minority government is coming” as he launched the minor party’s campaign at a press conference this morning.

Our live coverage will resume before 9am tomorrow.

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Well, an election date has finally been called and day one of the five-week campaign was all about the opening pitches to the nation.

Anthony Albanese painted it as a choice between Labor’s optimism and the Coalition’s pessimism.

Peter Dutton delivered his speech from Brisbane, out of the Canberra bubble, and centred his message on the government’s failure to address a cost-of-living crisis.

So who did it better?

Use the player below to listen to senior columnist Jacqueline Maley, national affairs editor James Massola and federal political reporter Natassia Chrysanthos delve into day one in this masthead’s election podcast, Inside Politics.

Kylea Tink, the outgoing independent MP for North Sydney, believes fellow teal MP Monique Ryan has been the victim of “dirty tactics” as she runs for re-election in the former Liberal heartland seat of Kooyong.

On Monday, Ryan and her husband, Peter Jordan, apologised after he was filmed removing a sign backing Liberal candidate Amelia Hamer in Melbourne’s inner east amid a heated tit-for-tat signage war in the battleground seat.

Independent MP Kylea Tink delivers her valedictory speech.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“Pete knows in that moment it was not the right decision,” Tink said on the ABC’s Afternoon Briefing on Friday afternoon.

She continued:

I think his reasoning for doing it was absolutely admirable. In his head, it was a sign on a piece of public land where it should not have been. But the filming of it, and then the politicisation of that filming, I think says everything about what is the dirty tactics in politics.

I think what is hard for people like myself and Monique is we have consistently run on an idea that politics can be done differently. We don’t need to stoop to those levels. It can be something people are drawn into because they sincerely care about public service. We want to have our lives, turn up, do the public service ... and then we get back on with the rest of our lives.

But at the end of the day we are still human. Monique is copping an absolute caning in her seat. There are a lot of very dirty tactics being executed. Understandably, her husband is protective of her – as is everybody who loves us. Because at the end of the day we are largely ordinary people who found ourselves in pretty extraordinary circumstances, and that goes for our families as well.

Former Indigenous Australians minister Linda Burney says Labor deserves to win the next election.

Speaking on the ABC’s Afternoon Briefing just before 5pm (AEDT), Burney said it would be a hard election for everybody.

Then Indigenous Australians minister Linda Burney in February 2024.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

But she thought Labor ought to win because: “I see in Anthony Albanese a person [who] leads for everyone. And I see in Peter Dutton someone [who] is incredibly divisive.”

Burney, who is retiring after leading the Albanese government’s failed Voice to parliament referendum push, said: “It was Peter Dutton who not only walked away from that, but also walked away from a decade of bipartisanship on Indigenous affairs. And that I find unforgivable.”

Greens leader Adam Bandt says his party would push for negative gearing changes if the election forced one of the major parties to negotiate with him to form a minority government.

Speaking on Melbourne radio station 3AW earlier this afternoon, Bandt signalled that the Greens would have more announcements on housing policy in the weeks ahead.

Greens leader Adam Bandt during a press conference at Parliament House on Thursday.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“We’ll have more to say about our approach on housing during the course of the campaign,” he said.

“[Changing negative gearing] is going to be one of the things that we want to put on the table because we really need action. One thing that we have already put forward is to cap how much rents are able to go up by.

“We also want to see the government build homes through a public property developer that people can afford to buy and rent, and we’ll have more to say about it during the course of the campaign.”

Bandt said the Greens were targeting the seats of Wills and Macnamara in Melbourne.

The press pack travelling with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has just landed in Brisbane.

The group of about 30 reporters and camera people jetted out from Canberra in an RAAF Lockheed C-130 Hercules hours after Albanese announced the May 3 polling date.

Albanese isn’t expected to hold any more media events on Friday, meaning travelling journalists, including me, might have a quiet afternoon ahead of a frenetic five-week campaign.

On Saturday, Albanese will hit the hustings in Brisbane where Labor is eyeing two inner-city Greens seats, Brisbane and Griffith, and trying to make inroads in a few marginal Liberal electorates.

The state is usually a key battleground, but fewer seats than usual are up for grabs here because the Coalition is at a high watermark in Peter Dutton’s home state after a strong 2022 election.

As is standard in election campaigns, the leader’s itinerary is tightly held, so it’s unclear how the prime minister will spend the rest of his weekend.

One event that is known is his Sunday morning appearance with ABC presenter David Speers on Insiders.

From the Voice to parliament referendum to the political moves of Lidia Thorpe and Fatima Payman, here’s a look back at the main Australian political stories since the last federal election in 2022.

Australians will head to the polls on May 3. Before then, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Coalition Leader Peter Dutton will crisscross the country spruiking their plans for the future.

The cost of living will be the defining issue of this year’s federal election campaign.

From health to housing, energy to education, much of what the leaders talk about will come back to a promise to help household budgets.

Turbulent global affairs have also put a spotlight on foreign policy, while debate over nuclear energy will keep climate change in the conversation.

Read more here about the key policy issues that will dominate the campaign, and where Labor and the Coalition stand on them.

Employment Minister Murray Watt has claimed the Coalition will cut health services to pay for its nuclear power plan.

Speaking on Sky News, the Queensland senator said Peter Dutton’s pledge to protect Medicare was “completely insincere” and pointed to the opposition leader’s promise to cut 40,000 public service jobs as evidence.

Workplace Relations Minister Murray Watt.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“So those massive cuts will have an impact on people. But he needs even more in order to pay for those nuclear reactors, and that’s why Medicare is on the chopping block, especially when you consider Peter Dutton’s record,” Watt said.

He also said Dutton’s nuclear plan “barely got a mention” in the opposition leader’s budget reply speech last night. “He knows that it is radioactive in the community,” Watt said.

The Coalition has accused Labor of leading a scare campaign about Medicare, and has matched the government’s $8.5 billion bulk-billing pledge as it tries to fend off a so-called Mediscare.

Andrew Probyn, the national affairs editor for Nine News, thought Anthony Albanese was confident and clear when he announced the election today, as you would expect for a big occasion that the prime minister could prepare for.

Watch Probyn’s analysis of this morning’s events below: