Election 2025: Anthony Albanese ensures Peter Dutton’s Dickson an election campaign hot zone

Peter Dutton’s seat of Dickson has been one of Anthony Albanese’s top targets during the 2025 election campaign.

Anthony Albanese stops into Peter Dutton’s electorate of Dickson on the final full day of campaigning with Labor candidate Ali France and volunteers at her office in Strathpine. Picture: Tara Croser

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When Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton settle down to watch the vote counts roll in on Saturday night, Dickson and Tangney will be front of mind.

The Opposition Leader’s own northern Brisbane seat and Labor-held Tangney in Perth’s south have had more visits from the two major party leaders combined than any of the other 148 seats across the country – and both featured on their final-day itineraries.

Mr Albanese bookended his campaign with visits to Mr Dutton’s marginal seat of Dickson on the first and last full days, as Labor tries to repeat its individual triumph of defeating losing prime minister John Howard in Bennelong in 2007 by knocking out the Liberal leader of 2025.

Mr Dutton, meanwhile, made his fourth visit to the must-win seat of Tangney on his final day of campaigning, as he tries to win back some of the seats that turned to Labor at the 2022 election.

Peter Dutton at the Adelaide Produce Markets with Ralph Ceravolo. Picture: Adam Head / NewsWire

While Mr Dutton began his day at the Adelaide Produce Markets before crossing the Nullarbor for the fourth time in five weeks to finish his campaign in Western Australia, almost 2000km away Mr Albanese made a symbolic visit to the electorate office of Labor’s Dickson candidate for a quick pep talk with Ali France and ALP volunteers.

With Mr Dutton having stopped in Dickson four times himself, that is six visits by both leaders during the campaign.

The Opposition Leader holds Dickson on a margin of 1.7 per cent and will face Ms France for a third consecutive election.

Ms France picked up a swing of 2.9 per cent after preferences in the 2022 anti-Morrison swing against the Liberal Party, more than halving Mr Dutton’s margin.

Ms France at her office in Strathpine on Friday. Picture: Tara Croser

Another Labor seat in Perth – Swan, like Tangney an ALP gain in 2022 – and the ultra-marginal rural Tasmanian Labor seat of Lyons were the next most frequented destinations with five visits, three from Mr Dutton and two from Mr Albanese in each.

Both leaders spent large amounts of the final full day of campaigning in the air.

Mr Albanese made the 2½-hour flight from Brisbane to Tasmania before jumping back to Victoria and Mr Dutton the 3½-hour trip from Adelaide to Perth, with the overlapping journeys leading to an unusual hiatus on a day that is traditionally a frenzy of activity.

Mr Dutton’s decision to make a fourth trip to WA – which delivered massive swings to Labor and four seats that lifted the ALP to a majority in 2022 – highlights the importance the Coalition has placed on making inroads in the West.

Mr Dutton tries his hand at a winch at an off-road equipment store in Myaree in the target seat of Tangney on Friday. Picture: Adam Head / NewsWire

Mr Dutton on Friday made his third visit to the outer-­suburban Perth seat of Pearce – another electorate lost to Labor three years ago – and his second to the teal-held seat of Curtin, which is also high on the Liberal Party’s target list.

Mr Albanese closed out his campaign on an attack footing, with visits to nine electorates held by the Liberals, Greens or independents in the final week, including three on Friday, after spending the first four weeks focused on defending Labor-held seats.

After visits to Liberal-held Longman and Dickson on Friday morning, Mr Albanese flew to Tasmania for the fourth time in five weeks, making a second stop in Braddon with Labor candidate Anne Urquhart, who is trying to jump from the Senate to the House of Representatives and win the seat from the Liberals.

Mr Albanese in Devonport with Braddon candidate Anne Urquhart, right, on Friday. Picture: Jason Edwards / NewsWire

Three of Tasmania’s five seats – Liberal-held Bass on a margin of 1.4 per cent and Braddon (8 per cent) in the north, and ALP-held Lyons (0.9 per cent) – will be crucial to the outcome of the election.

Bass and Braddon have been the most volatile seats in the country over the past 30 years, alternating between Labor and Liberal more often than re-electing an existing member.

Liberal Bridget Archer is trying to become the first Bass MP to win three consecutive terms since 1993, while Gavin Pearce is trying to achieve the same feat in Braddon for the first time since 1996.

Both parties are eyeing off Lyons, where Labor is seeking to have former state leader Rebecca White replace retiring MP Brian Mitchell.

The only Labor marginal seat that did not feature on the itinerary of either leader during the campaign was the large Northern Territory seat of Lingiari (1.7 per cent), while on the Coalition side, Casey on Melbourne’s eastern fringe (1.4 per cent), Cowper on the NSW north coast (2.4 per cent), Bradfield in Sydney’s north (2.5 per cent) and Banks in Sydney’s south (2.6 per cent) did not log a visit.