Election 2025: Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton battle for ascendancy over Donald Trump on tariffs

Peter Dutton pledged to ‘stand up against bullies’ when questioned by voters on how he would deal with Donald Trump, as Anthony Albanese tried to paint the Liberals’ nuclear power plan as an excuse to secretly cut education and health.

Anthony Albanese, left, and Peter Dutton shake hands before Tuesday night’s people’s forum in western Sydney. Picture: Jason Edwards / NewsWire

You can now listen to The Australian's articles. Give us your feedback.

You can now listen to The Australian's articles.

Peter Dutton has pledged to “stand up against bullies” when questioned by voters on how he would deal with Donald Trump and opened the door to extend his fuel excise cut, as Anthony Albanese tried to paint the Liberals’ nuclear power plan as an excuse to secretly cut education and health.

In the first leaders’ debate of the May 3 election campaign, the ­Opposition Leader ramped up ­attacks on the Prime Minister’s management of the cost-of-living crisis and directly challenged Mr Albanese for overseeing the “highest-spending government since (Gough) Whitlam”, a claim rejected by the Labor leader.

After a rocky start to his bid to oust a first-term Labor government, the Opposition Leader appeared to steady his campaign with a more confident performance while Mr Albanese said voters should not trust the Coalition.

Mr Dutton took part in the debate despite his father suffering a heart attack and going to hospital just hours before the event started.

The 100 undecided voters at the Sky News/Daily Telegraph people’s forum gave Mr Albanese a slight edge with 44 saying the Labor leader won the debate, 35 gave the victory to Mr Dutton and 21 left the debate still unsure.

Mr Dutton attempted to use Mr Albanese’s election slogan that people under his government would only need their Medicare card to access healthcare, when he turned to an audience member and asked if she needed both a Medicare card and a credit card when visiting the GP.

Mr Dutton said for the first time he would consider extending his fuel excise cut in the next 12 months, while Mr Albanese ­rejected the cut as “out of the Scott Morrison playbook.”

“If we needed to extend it, then we could do that,” Mr Dutton said. “But I would just say that if you bake it in, and you put it as a continuing cost, that continues to compound … So, we just have to get the balance right.”

The ­Opposition Leader ramped up ­attacks on the Prime Minister’s management of cost of living and directly challenged Mr Albanese for ­overseeing the “highest-spending government since (Gough) Whitlam”, a claim rejected by the Labor leader.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese debates Liberal opposition leader Peter Dutton at the Sky News / Daily Telegraph Peoples Forum. Picture: Jason Edwards / NewsWire

Asked by Mr Albanese what he would cut to fund a nuclear plan “that will cost $600bn to provide 4 per cent of power sometime in the 2040s”, Mr Dutton hit back at his opponent over his broken promise to reduce power bills by $275 from 2025.

Amid stock market crashes and fears over global trade wars and ­a recession, Mr Albanese said Mr Trump’s tariffs were an “act of economic self-harm”.

“It’s expected to dampen global economic growth, so it does ­present a challenge, but last Thursday, we were prepared,” Mr Albanese said. “Australia got the best deal of any country on the planet, 10 per cent (tariffs) … no one got a better deal than us, in part because of the representations that we’ve made.”

Mr Dutton, who attacked Mr Albanese over Labor’s “big ­Australia” policy that has seen more than one million people come into the country in two years, said he had the experience to negotiate with the White House and cited how the Coalition previously landed tariff exemptions from Mr Trump.

“One of the great things about living in the greatest country in the world is that whatever is thrown at us, the prime minister of the day should have the ability and the strength of character to be able to stand up against bullies, against those that would seek to do us harm, to keep our country safe and to make sure that we can make the right economic decisions for our country as well,” Mr Dutton said. “And that’s exactly what I would seek to do as prime minister.”

The first of an expected three leaders’ debates during the campaign was hosted at Wenty Leagues Club in the western Sydney suburb of Wentworthville in the marginal seat of Parramatta, held by ­Labor’s Andrew Charlton on a margin of 3.7 per cent.

Asked whether he was demonising migrants with his policies, Mr Dutton said: “I think we are a greater country because of our migrant story, and I think we should celebrate it more as a country, people who came here with nothing, people who have worked hard. But we have to have a well-managed program.

“And when you bring in a million people over the course of two years, that is going to have an impact on health services, on infrastructure, on education, right across the economy. If the government’s going to bring in a population bigger than Adelaide over a five-year period, and take money out of infrastructure at the same time, it’s going to have an impact.”

Protesters at the debate in Wentworthville. Picture Thomas Lisson / NewsWire

Asked about land ownership and the impact of foreigners in the property market, Mr Dutton said that while Australia wanted open markets and to engage with the world, he would limit international buyers. Mr Albanese claimed that Labor already had “the same policy in place”.

As Labor runs a scare campaign targeting Mr Dutton’s record as health minister, Mr Albanese flashed his Medicare card and said Labor’s $8bn funding package would allow more people to see the doctor for free.

“We want those bulk billing rates to go up to 90 per cent on top of that, we have Medicare and ­urgent care clinics,” Mr Albanese said.

“(At a Medicare urgent care clinic) you just need your Medicare card, not your credit card, because Labor created Medicare will strengthen Medicare and will make sure of that in the future.”

Mr Dutton, who asked the questioner if she used both her credit card and Medicare card when she saw a doctor, said “I’ve heard the Prime Minister run this stuff before with the Medicare card … it’s not true … bulk-billing rates have reduced under this government and that’s the reality … it’s there in black and white”.

Mr Albanese said he would not revisit the Indigenous voice after his failed referendum and would not do deals with the Greens.

Under internal pressure to lift the Coalition after falling behind in the polls, Mr Dutton dumped his work-from-home policy on Sunday amid concerns Labor’s framing of him as Trump-lite was hurting him. Asked why he dumped his work-from-home crackdown, Mr Dutton said: “The Prime Minister wanted people to believe that it was applying across the economy, and it was going to affect every workplace, which was never the policy at all. Our argument in relation to Canberra was that we wanted to make sure … that taxpayers who are working hard providing their taxes to the commonwealth government, that that money is being spent in the most efficient way.”

Mr Albanese snapped back that “Peter hasn’t been able to stand up for his own policy, so I don’t know how he can stand up for Australia”.

Responding to a question about public school funding, Mr Dutton said there were no differences between the parties on education funding of public and private schools. “I think it is important that parents are able to have that choice, so that we can fund the infrastructure, and that we can support teacher development and make sure that we’ve got an education system which is fit for purpose,” he said.

Mr Dutton accused Mr Albanese of running an “education scare campaign” after the Labor leader attacked the Coalition for “ripping” funding from public schools and cutting the health budget in two Abbott government-era budgets.