Federal election 2025 as it happened: PM ‘confident’ as election day nears; Dutton vows to get tough on youth crime in the NT

Thanks for following our coverage of today’s election campaign. Here’s a quick recap of what happened today:

• Labor promised to invest $25 million towards 600 community language schools across Australia.
• Dutton visited the Far North Queensland seat of Leichhardt, where he defended Coalition candidate Jeremy Neal’s social media record, saying he would not “take lectures” from Albanese. Neal had tweeted controversial views about China, COVID-19 restrictions and “feminists” who he claimed had led to Donald Trump’s election loss in 2020.
• The opposition leader deflected questions about mining magnate Gina Rinehart’s call for defence spending to be boosted to 5 per cent of GDP.
• Albanese rejected Dutton’s accusation of prioritising affluent voters over suburban battlers.
• In Melbourne, the prime minister again ruled out changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax.
• He refused to confirm reports on a Russian request to base military aircraft in eastern Indonesia, saying Russia was simply “talking itself up”.
• Albanese said the tweeting of fake images of Dutton in Nazi uniform in 2017 by Labor’s Dickson candidate Ali France was “clearly inappropriate”, but compared it to a 2013 tabloid image of him depicted as a Nazi Hogan’s Heroes character.
• Visiting supporters in Launceston, Tasmania, the prime minister said he was “so confident” ahead of the election.
• Rounding off the day in Darwin, Dutton vowed to get tough on youth crime in the NT while campaigning with Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, who didn’t speak to the media after stealing the show with her “make Australia great again” comment two weeks ago.
• The Greens pledged to lower the retirement age from 67 to 65 and raise the age pension above the poverty line.
• With just a week until polling day, more than half of Australians can’t name a policy from either major party they believe will improve their lives, new polling showed.

That’s it for today, thanks for reading. We’ll be back early tomorrow morning with more live coverage of the election campaign.

More than 10 per cent of Australian voters have already cast their ballots at early pre-polling stations across Australia. Our photographer Max Mason-Hubers took these pictures today of early voters in Sydney’s Fairfield.

Voters wait to cast their ballots.Credit: Max Mason-Hubers

Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen, the incumbent MP for McMahon, hands out how-to-vote cards.Credit: Max Mason-Hubers

Liberal candidate Carmen Lazar meets voters in Fairfield, where she used to be a Labor councillor and volunteer for Bowen’s campaigns.Credit: Max Mason-Hubers

The busy early voting queue.Credit: Max Mason-Hubers

Dutton and Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price are campaigning in Darwin with NT Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro and Liberal candidate for Solomon Lisa Bayliss. Here are some pictures.

Dutton is campaigning at Karama Shopping Plaza in Darwin, where he held a roundtable on youth violence and vowed to get tough on youth crime.Credit: James Brickwood

Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price joined Dutton in Darwin, but did not speak to the media.Credit: James Brickwood

Dutton claimed Albanese had ignored the crime issue in the NT as he listened to locals talk about finding meat cleavers left on the streets and having their cars stolen.Credit: James Brickwood

Speaking of youth crime, Dutton said “what we’ve seen in the NT for a long time is just wrong”.Credit: James Brickwood

Dutton has promised to work with the Country Liberal Party Northern Territory government to get on top of youth crime in the Top End.

Dutton held a roundtable with Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro, Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, Liberal candidate for Solomon Lisa Bayliss, and about 20 locals in a small room in the Karama Shopping Plaza.

Dutton claimed Albanese had ignored the crime issue in the NT as he listened to locals talk about finding meat cleavers left on the streets and having their cars stolen.

From left Senator Jacinta Nampijimpa Price, the opposition leader and Libeeral candidate for Solomon Lisa Bayliss.Credit: James Brickwood

He invoked his time as a police officer as he pledged to focus on community safety if elected on May 3.

“It instils in you, I think forever, a real sense of what’s right and wrong, and what we’ve seen in the NT for a long time is just wrong,” Dutton said.

“You need financial support and moral support to get on top of bail laws ... and to provide a secure environment for people to lead their lives. The current government is too focused on what’s happening in the inner cities of Sydney and Melbourne with the Greens.”

Finocchiaro said her eight-month government had started to put downward pressure on crime rates. “We need a federal government that understands the root causes of crime,” she said.

Price did not speak to the media. She stole the show at her last campaign appearance alongside Dutton in Perth two weeks ago, when she said she wanted “to make Australia great again”.

If you’re wondering how many times Albanese and Dutton have bobbed up in your electorate – or swung by at all – this election, check out our interactive map.

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been tracking their movements as they’ve jetted across the country in a bid to shore up support, announce policies and meet voters.

Looking at the places Albanese and Dutton have frequented most can tell us which areas are shaping up to be the biggest battlegrounds this election.

Opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson says the prime minister should commit to increasing defence spending, adding voters cannot trust Labor to deliver it.

In a report published today, Albanese told The Australian he was open to increasing defence spending if re-elected, but did not put a number on it.

Senator James Paterson.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“It’s not even worth the paper it was printed on,” Paterson told Sky News earlier today.

“The prime minister has the opportunity to commit more to defence spending in the budget every year, and in every budget the Labor Party has held since the last election, he’s failed to do so. He needs to put his money where his mouth is and actually promise real increases to defence spending, to match the strategic environment we find ourselves in.”

The Coalition has promised to increase defence spending to 2.5 per cent of the Australian economy within five years and 3 per cent of GDP within a decade.

Bookmakers and punters believe Albanese is on his way to a second term as prime minister with Labor given a better than a four-in-five chance of victory even as Dutton says he can form a majority Coalition government.

Peter Dutton and Anthony Albanese on the campaign trail today.Credit: James Brickwood, Alex Ellinghausen

A breakdown of odds offered by betting agencies and prediction markets suggest Albanese will not only become the first Labor prime minister to win back-to-back elections since Bob Hawke, but that he could do it without a net loss of seats from his 2022 victory.

Of the nation’s 150 electorates, Labor is now favourite in 77, which is the same number as Albanese’s side won at the 2022 poll.

Read more here.

Dutton and the media contingent following him have landed in Darwin after visiting Cairns earlier today.

This morning, Dutton appeared on Nine’s Today show before campaigning with the Coalition’s Leichhardt candidate Jeremy Neal.

We’re following the prime minister as he campaigns in Launceston, Tasmania, where he’s cooked sausages for Labor supporters.

The prime minister says he’s feeling confident ahead of the May 3 election.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Albanese is campaigning in the marginal seat of Bass, to support Labor candidate Jess Teesdale.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

The PM’s fiancee Jodie Haydon stands back as some feathered visitors make their way through Punchbowl Reserve.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

The PM delivered a rousing speech to Labor supporters.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor says Labor has broken “every promise” it made on tax before the last election, warning the prime minister cannot be trusted.

In a press release today, Taylor listed various promises he said Labor had broken, adding Albanese’s promised income tax cuts were a “con job”.

“Commitments in today’s Financial Review from the prime minister that he won’t increase taxes on super, negative gearing, or the family home should be reported to Scamwatch,” he said.

Angus Taylor on the campaign trail with the opposition leader.Credit: James Brickwood

“Labor and Anthony Albanese promised on more than 100 occasions they would not change the stage 3 tax cuts – they did. [They] promised there would be no changes to super – they are taxing it. Labor and Anthony Albanese promised no changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax – the treasurer is modelling them.”

Earlier today, Albanese said he would continue to give the same answer on changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax, saying they were not on the table. “If you ask me tomorrow, we’ll get the same answer,” he said.