As it happened: RBA holds interest rates at 4.1 per cent; Dutton pledges $2.2b Suburban Rail Loop funding cut

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:

• Peter Dutton today unveiled his plan to pull $2.2 billion from Melbourne’s Suburban Rail Loop and reinvest it in airport rail as he held three events across Victoria’s capital.
• The PM started the day in Adelaide with a $150 million pledge for the Flinders Medical Centre before flying to Victoria and visiting the seats of Corangamite and Lalor.
• The Reserve Bank held interest rates steady at 4.1 per cent amid uncertainty around US President Donald Trump’s tariff agenda to be revealed early Thursday (AEDT).
• In NSW, a teal candidate on Sydney’s north shore has apologised for making a sexual joke to a 19-year-old female hairdresser, which she has admitted was a poor attempt at humour.
• In Victoria, Premier Jacinta Allan hit back at the federal Coalition’s pledge to pull funding from the redevelopment of Sunshine train station, saying it would make airport rail redundant.
• In Queensland, Jim Chalmers ramped up Labor’s attacks on Dutton, accusing him of “taking his cues and policies straight from the US” and Donald Trump.
• In Western Australia, Greens leader Adam Bandt campaigned in Perth today.

Our live coverage will resume before 7am tomorrow.

Thanks for your company. Have a good night.

Liberal MP Keith Wolahan, who is fighting to hold his marginal seat of Menzies in Melbourne’s east, suggested Peter Dutton used “loaded language” when he implied some children were being indoctrinated in schools.

Victorian Liberal MP Keith Wolahan.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

As mentioned earlier in this blog, the opposition leader last night said on Sky News that the Coalition would consider restricting funding to state schools if they believed students were being taught a curriculum that stemmed from activist teachers and academics.

In a press conference today, Dutton said some academics and teachers were part of protests that were being “translated into the classroom”.

“That’s not something I support. I support young Australians being able to think freely, being able to assess what is before them and not being told and indoctrinated with something that is the agenda of others,” he said.

Appearing on the ABC’s Afternoon Briefing today, Wolahan was asked if kids were being indoctrinated in school, like Dutton suggested, to which he responded:

It’s loaded language. But what we want is to keep politics outside of the classroom, whatever side of politics that is. We want kids to be taught the basics, and they are not.

We are in a competitive world so we want to lift those standards, and if a teacher or a staff member is bringing radical politics into the classroom ... bring it in in a subtle way where you can engage in ideas.

But if you are telling your students there is only one particular view or only one is acceptable, that’s not fair on the students and it’s not fair on the parents paying taxes for that to be put into schools.

Anthony Albanese just made a quick trip to an urgent care clinic in the western Melbourne seat of Lalor, marking the prime minister’s third event today in a seat that Labor already holds as the party looks to consolidate its majority.

At the state level, Labor almost lost the heartland seat of Werribee at a byelection earlier this year, and the Coalition is hopeful of making gains in Victoria at the upcoming federal election due to the low popularity of the Allan government in recent polls.

The PM meets a future voter.Credit: Jason Edwards/News Wire

Albanese greeted patients at Werribee Medicare Urgent Care clinic this afternoon as he campaigns relentlessly on healthcare.

Outside the clinic, the prime minister met a pensioner named Ron, who wore a T-shirt that said, “this is what perfection looks like”. He then tried to show Albanese his sports car.

‘This is what perfection looks like’: The prime minister meets the locals in Melbourne.Credit: Jason Edwards / News Wire

“Do you want a ride in it? I’ll drive you round the block,” Ron said.

Albanese reportedly replied: “I wish I could, but my team might object.”

The opposition leader scrambled across Victoria’s capital today and held three events in non-Coalition seats.

Here are some photos from his travels:

Peter Dutton is thanked for pledging $3 million to a charity for bone marrow failure research.Credit: James Brickwood

The opposition leader held a community forum on crime in Berwick this afternoon with Liberal MP Jason Wood (centre-right) and Liberal candidate for Bruce Zahid Safi (centre-left).Credit: James Brickwood

Dutton meets locals in Melbourne’s south-east.Credit: James Brickwood

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and Senator Bridget McKenzie at Marnong Estate winery in the Melbourne seat of Calwell, where they vowed to withdraw federal funding from the Suburban Rail Loop.Credit: James Brickwood

St Kilda great Nick Riewoldt would be the beneficiary of a Coalition victory at the upcoming election after Peter Dutton pledged $3 million for the former footballer’s charity in Melbourne today.

The opposition leader was at the headquarters of Maddie Riewoldt’s Vision (MRV) this afternoon to unveil his commitment, which would fund research into bone marrow failure syndromes and expand support to those diagnosed with them.

Peter Dutton with Maddie’s brother Nick Riewoldt and mother Fiona Riewoldt.Credit: James Brickwood

Maddie Riewoldt lost her life to a bone marrow failure syndrome in 2015, leading her brother Nick to start a charity, which has raised money at several AFL matches over the years.

In a press release, Riewoldt is quoted as saying: “We are incredibly grateful to the Coalition for making a funding commitment of $3 million over three years to ensure that no family faces a bone marrow failure syndrome diagnosis alone, and that we can continue to fund vital research in search of better treatments and a cure.”

Politicians are using pledges of all sizes to try and sway voters as the election approaches.

Earlier this afternoon, Libby Coker, Labor MP for Corangamite, and Anthony Albanese announced $5.45m for the Drysdale Football Netball Club to a round of cheers.

Anthony Albanese, Penny Wong and local Labor MP Libby Coker with the Drysdale Hawks.Credit: NCA/Jason Edwards

Standing on the netball court, surrounded by children in the team’s brown and yellow uniforms, the politicians said the money would be used to upgrade the courts so they are compliant for finals matches. Two new clubrooms, new spectator seating and lighting would be funded too, they added.

Albanese said he was a “bit jelly” [jealous] of how beautiful the area was.

“The Commonwealth government are pitching in to support you just as you have supported your community. Communities like this need facilities like this to bring a sense of pride,” he said.

He said his government was committed to getting young people off their devices and onto netball, footy and tennis courts to engage with each other. “Nothing beats that like team sports. It teaches you to win, to lose, it teaches you resilience, social skills as well,” he said.

Peter Dutton’s edict to force all federal public servants back into the office if elected has ruffled more than a few feathers, particularly after he said he’d live in Sydney’s Kirribilli House instead of Canberra.

But how many people would Dutton’s back-to-office policy really affect?

Watch the video below for a breakdown – while we take a walk through the opposition leader’s workplace.

Nationals MP Michael McCormack has condemned a shop window display in his electorate depicting him as a Nazi.

The banner in Wagga Wagga shows a photoshopped image of McCormack, Peter Dutton, Clive Palmer and Gina Rinehart dressed in Nazi uniforms.

In a post on LinkedIn, McCormack said it had been reported to police.

“This is beyond disgraceful,” said McCormack. “The Nazis were pure evil. To be depicted as one of them is as insulting as it is vile.”

A spokesperson for NSW Police said the display was reported to officers on Monday.

“A 69-year-old man at the business was spoken to by police, however, after seeking legal advice it was determined that the posters did not breach laws banning Nazi symbols,” they said.

Coalition defence spokesman Andrew Hastie has weighed in the prime minister’s confusion yesterday about which department was monitoring a Chinese research vessel off Australia’s south coast.

Albanese said the Australian Defence Force was on watch, but as it wasn’t a war ship, it was actually Australian Border Force keeping a close eye on the good ship Tan Suo Yi Hao.

“The prime minister’s deputy, Richard Marles, had to step out this morning to clean up the prime minister’s mess,” Hastie said today.

What really riled Hastie was Marles’ passing remark that people should “take a deep breath”.

In response, Hastie asked: “Have Labor already forgotten about the flotilla of Chinese warships that circumnavigated Australia and disrupted commercial flight paths with live-firing exercises – something they had to be alerted to by a Virgin Airlines pilot?”

Meanwhile in Canberra, Malcolm Turnbull poked fun at Donald Trump over his sharp remarks on social media recently, slipping into an impersonation of the United States president when he criticised Turnbull’s knowledge of China.

The quips came at the end of an address to the National Press Club earlier today where Turnbull said Australian leaders had to do more to stand up to Trump – and even borrow from his “transactional” approach to politics.

Trump let fly at Turnbull a few weeks ago after the former prime minister said that the shift in American policy would encourage countries to seek warmer ties with China. Watching the TV interview live, Trump said on Truth Social last month that Turnbull was a “weak and ineffective” leader.

Today, Turnbull said Australian leaders had to stop “tiptoeing around” Trump and his agenda when it was strongly against Australia’s national interest. In particular, he said:

I’m not saying I’m an admirer of Trump, by any means, but this is one of the reasons people voted for him – because they felt that he was on their side. That’s the challenge for our leaders, and they’ve got to be able to stand up, and if that means you get a brickbat or a Truth Social post, saying you’re weak and ineffectual and you don’t know anything about China…

At this point, Turnbull’s inflection sounded just like Trump, stirring memories of his impersonation of the president at a black-tie ball in Canberra in 2017.

Then he summed up with his key message about not being worried about being attacked by Trump: “If you’re spooked by that, you shouldn’t be in the job.”