Federal election 2025 as it happened: Libs dump candidate over sexist comments; Dutton spruiks foreign student cuts; PM campaigns on $4000 home battery subsidy

Thanks for reading our rolling coverage of today’s election campaign. Here’s what you need to know this afternoon:

• Dutton unveiled the Coalition’s plan to cut foreign student numbers by 80,000 chiefly by targeting the big Group of Eight universities. He said offering 30,000 fewer places to foreign students would “get young Australians into houses”.
• In Brisbane, Albanese spruiked Labor’s pledge to knock 30 per cent off the purchase and installation cost of a household battery – or $4000 in total – in an appeal of suburban voters.
• Albanese held a campaign rally in Brisbane as Labor seeks to claw back three seats Labor and the Liberals lost to the Greens in 2022. The PM got a hero’s welcome at the event in Griffith, held by the Greens’ Max Chandler-Mather.
• The PM chided Dutton for “starting his campaign measuring up the curtains at Kirribilli House before scoffing that Dutton was “some Queenslander”.
• The most visually arresting moment, that had the crowd cheering, was when the PM held out his Medicare card, saying: “We honour the promise of this piece of green and gold.”
• Dutton spent the morning in Donnybrook in outer Melbourne, in the marginal Labor-held seat of McEwen, for the second time in five days. He continued his campaign in the marginal seat of Lyons in Tasmania, where about 100 people attended the Liberals’ campaign launch in that state.
• In Tasmania, where he pledged funding for a local racetrack, Dutton shared a scary memory of when he got his dad a Porsche racing experience and he watched the car do 360s. “I did have this passing thought that … I’d sort of killed my dad on Father’s Day,” the opposition leader said.
• The Liberal Party disendorsed Benjamin Britton as the candidate for the NSW seat of Whitlam after he made comments in a podcast before preselection that women soldiers shouldn’t be in combat.

That’s where we’ll end today’s live updates. Join us early tomorrow as we bring you all the action from the second week of the election campaign.

Liberal candidate for Whitlam Benjamin Britton has been disendorsed after expressing views that are inconsistent with the party’s position.

In a series of podcast interviews before his December preselection, Britton claimed the Australian Defence Force needed “to remove females from combat corps” to fix the military.

Britton also blamed “diversity and equity quotes, Marxist ideology and woke ideologies” for weakening Australia’s defence.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton with the former Liberal candidate for Whitlam Benjamin Britton in January.Credit: Facebook

In a statement, the Liberal administrative committee of the NSW division said it would now endorse Nathaniel Smith for the seat of Whitlam.

“This follows a decision to disendorse Benjamin Britton over views expressed which were not previously disclosed and are inconsistent with the party’s position,” a spokesperson said.

“Nathaniel is raising his two daughters with his wife Christine in the Southern Highlands. He is the chief executive of the Master Plumbers Association of NSW, providing a strong voice for the plumbing industry, and working to deliver a better deal for small and family businesses.

“Starting his career as an apprentice plumber, going on to run his own plumbing business, before taking up tertiary studies in communications and joining a communication consultancy. In 2019 he was elected as the Member for Wollondilly, serving until 2023.

“Nathaniel has been a passionate advocate for small businesses and investment in trades and training.

“As part of Peter Dutton’s Liberal team, Nathaniel will help deliver the Liberal plan to strengthen our economy and reduce inflation.”

From battlers to basket weavers, Australian politics has produced a rich vocabulary to describe different voter groups. Some are simple tags, like protest voter or disenchanted voter. Others draw on gender, social class, occupation, cultural traits and even location.

When Australians cast their ballots on May 3, attention will finally switch from campaigning politicians to the nation’s diverse array of electors.

Read more here about some key types of voters likely to turn up at polling booths and feature in the post-election analysis.

There are many voter types.Credit: Matt Davidson

We’ve developed an interactive tool to help you find all the information about your electorate. Type the name of your electorate in the interactive below to discover the candidates, voting history and more.

Here is a quick primer for voters as Australians head to the polls on May 3.

Australian politics is changing dramatically. Voters are increasingly rejecting the Labor/Coalition duopoly by opting to vote for independents and minor parties.

That makes the outcome harder to predict and increases the likelihood of a hung parliament, a rarity in our nation’s history.

To help understand the numbers game that will decide the election, let’s walk through the pathways to the three possible outcomes: an outright Coalition majority, an outright Labor majority and a minority government.

Read the full visual story here.

Three ways to federal election victory 2025.Credit: Nathanael Scott

With the election campaign in full swing, we asked 12 undecided voters in NSW, Victoria, WA and Queensland what they thought the big issues were and what would clinch their vote.

The voters were recruited through Resolve Strategic, which conducts regular RPM polling for this masthead.

They were screened to ensure they lived in the seats that could help decide the 2025 election outcome, were not fully committed in their vote choice, and did not work in an occupation that would give them special insight into the election.

We asked them questions about their top priorities for politicians, their views on the major parties and their leaders, what they made of minor parties and independents and how they felt about Australia’s outlook.

Watch the video below to see what they said.

Read more here.

In Tasmania, Dutton has said the Coalition would deliver Australian drivers 25 cents a litre off petrol every time they filled up their tank. Our cameras followed him as he visited a petrol station with Liberal candidate for Lyons Susie Bower.

Dutton fills up a car with petrol at the Ampol Carrick petrol station in Tasmania as Lyons candidate Susie Bower looks on.Credit: Newswire/Pool

Dutton pats a dog.Credit: Newswire/Pool

Dutton waves as he leaves the petrol station with candidate Susie Bower.Credit: Newswire/Pool

Cost-of-living relief will be on many voters’ minds as Victorians in the mortgage belt suburbs and beyond go to the polls this federal election.

Labor and the Coalition face challenges in key seats, while recent byelections and the redrawing of electoral boundaries have tightened the margins in some electorates. Liberals are also keen to oust teals in former blue-ribbon seats.

Here’s a guide to Victoria’s battleground seats, the main candidates and campaign issues.

Read the full story here.

These candidates are fighting it out in Victoria’s key seats.Credit: Marija Ercegovac, Nathan Perri

Reporter on the Albanese trail Mike Foley gives an analysis of the prime minister’s campaign rally in the Brisbane seat of Griffith.

Watch below: