Australian election 2025: Albanese, Dutton on day 31 of May 3 election campaign
A former Prime Minister has laid into Anthony Albanese, declaring the people living in electorate ‘deserve better’ and that the PM is ‘out of his depth’.
Federal Election
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Peter Dutton was joined by former prime minister John Howard for an address to Liberal Party supporters in the NSW seat of Mackellar, on Sydney’s Northern Beaches.
It is currently held by Teal MP Sophie Scamps, who unseated Liberal Jason Falinski with a 5 per cent margin in 2022.
The local Liberal candidate for 2025 is Army veteran James Brown, whose resume also includes his efforts to establish Invictus Australia, which helps veterans, and his work as CEO of the Space Industry Association of Australia.
Deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley got the crowd warmed up, promising the goal in this campaign was to “take back the Northern Beaches”.
She was followed by Mr Howard, who opened by stressing that Mr Brown’s life had been “all about service”.
“He is the quintessential decent Australian bloke,” Mr Howard said.
But the former prime minister also offered a more stinging critique of his current successor than any other speaker at the event.
“We currently have a Prime Minister who is out of his depth. Whenever I see him on the TV I think of how they used to teach me to swim,” he said.
”When I was at Canterbury Boys’ High School, on Wednesday afternoons, we used to go to the pool, and I really struggled, and I was well and truly out of my depth.
“I jousted with a few Labor leaders over my time. Bob Hawke was, in my view, a good Labor – I underline the adjective, Labor – prime minister. I disagreed with him a lot. But I never thought he was out of his depth. I always felt that in the end he sort of, worked it all out.
“I don’t want my country governed for another three years by someone who is out of his depth. Someone who doesn’t understand the significance of defence policy and national security.”
He also sledged the Albanese government’s economic record.
“I don’t think productivity and Anthony Albanese are close friends,” Mr Howard joked, to warm laughter from the room.
“I know his electorate very well, I grew up not very far from there. They’re wonderful people, they deserve better. But if ever there were a man who’s out of his depth, it’s Anthony Albanese.”
After his own acknowledgment of Mr Brown’s service, Mr Dutton launched into a version of his stump speech largely focused on the cost of housing.
“We’ve met young people here in McKellar, across the country, who have lost the dream of home ownership. I find it one of the most confronting debates in the current contest,” he said.
“We’ve got a Prime Minister who’s prepared to stand up and tell young Australians that it’s OK to bring in a million people over the course of two years, a population boom that was never spoken about before the last election, but which has created the housing crisis.
“And of course, all of those million people want houses for their children, for their grandchildren. But we’ve displaced young Australians, who now can’t afford rent, because rents have gone up by almost 20 per cent. Young Australians can’t get a deposit together, and they’ve given up on the home ownership dream, Labor’s got a solution for them that is to rent for life. But that is not the liberal aspiration that we have for young Australians.”
The lines about housing got big cheers from the room, which was largely filled by Liberal supporters from older generations.
Right towards the end of his speech, Mr Dutton did a callback to Mr Howard’s earlier jab at the PM.
“I’ve watched John Howard, and I’ve served under three other prime ministers as well. I’ve watched three prime ministers on the other side,” he said.
“I’ve never seen a prime minister with less honesty and integrity in what he’s saying to the Australian public than Anthony Albanese.
“I’m not going to lie my way to the lodge. I’m going to act with honour, with decency and with integrity.”
‘I was wise’: Dutton addresses his Anzac Day boos
Another, lighter moment worth mentioning from Peter Dutton’s speech to Liberal supporters in the Teal-held seat Mackellar: he addressed the boos he copped at a Townsville RSL on Anzac Day after declining to do a shoey.
”I presume today, unlike when I was at the RSL the other day, that I won’t be asked to do a shoey,” Mr Dutton quipped to what was, indeed, a slightly tamer crowd.
”Did you see this on TV? To do a shoey. Which is, of course, to drink from your boot. Which I resisted, and I think I was wise to do so.
”And I got a boo, because I wasn’t prepared to do it. I just think it wouldn’t have played out so well around the rest of the country. And I may well have been in hospital now as a result of having done that, and I wanted to stay well all the way up to the campaign.”
Mr Dutton did alleviate his reputation with the RSL crowd by playing two-up and serving patrons beers from behind the bar.
‘Darker, meaner, nastier’: Albo’s grim warning
Anthony Albanese has claimed Australia would be a “darker, meaner, nastier” place under a Coalition government at the final Labor Party rally of the election campaign.
Speaking to hundreds of party faithful at the event at Parramatta in Western Sydney, The Prime Minister said Peter Dutton’s leadership would be a continuation of the Morrison and Abbott terms.
“In coming days, Australians have a real choice between seizing the opportunities before us or letting the world over take us, between reaching for Australia’s extraordinary potential or
cutting into it,” Mr Albanese said.
“A choice between building Australia’s future or a darker, meaner, nastier reboot of the past.”
The lines, which wrapped up his 27-minute speech, echoed words spoken by those who took the stage in the lead-up to Mr Albanese’s address, attacking the Opposition Leader and his party for being negative.
“On the third of May, Australians could choose to build a better future – a future where no one is held back and no one is left behind, a future that we keep building together,” he said.
Mr Albanese was also sure to recap Labor’s key policies throughout his speech.
These ranged from the government’s pay increase for early childcare workers and educators to its scheme to allow first homebuyers to enter the market with a 5 per cent deposit and its right to disconnect and ‘same job, same pay’ laws.
Mr Albanese said Labor was the “party of education” and “party of aspiration”, reiterating his promise that should Labor be re-elected, the government would pass laws to cut student debts by 20 per cent.
“This reform is all about intergenerational fairness, and will save three million Australians an average of $5500 each,” he said.
‘Fight of our lives’ as Dutton concedes ‘mistake’
Peter Dutton has admitted his party is “in the fight of our lives” in the next week of campaigning – the final before voters go to the polls on May 3.
“We are in the fight of our lives over the course of the next six days,” the Opposition Leader said at the Liberal Party rally at Melton in Melbourne’s outer suburbs.
“I have no doubt in my mind that we can win this election.
“Forget about what (you’re) being told by the ABC and The Guardian, (and) the other hate media. Forget about that.
“Listen to what you’re hearing on the doors. Listen to what people are saying on group polling. Know in your hearts that we are a better future for our country.
“Know that we stand up for the values that are important more than ever for families and for small businesses.
“If we stay true to our values, if we have the strength of leadership, if we have the ability to be truthful with the Australian public, to stand up and to fight for what we believe in – to deliver our vision to make Australians better off without petrol cap, with our $1200 back to make sure that they can buy a home – that is so important to us.
“Once we convey that message by election night, 6pm we will have won this election.”
Mr Dutton had said earlier on Sunday that not calling out “Labor’s lies on bulk-billing” had been a key “mistake” with less than a week to go before the nation votes.
He was set to enter the final week of the election campaign hampered by crumbling poll numbers, which he put down to a “Mediscare campaign”.
“Bulk-billing is actually down by 11 per cent,” Mr Dutton told Seven’s Sunrise.
“Australians are paying more to see a doctor. In fact, many Australians now, we know, are putting off seeing a doctor under the Albanese government because they can’t afford the out-of-pocket expense.
“So the Prime Minister’s whole Medicare scam scare campaign is a lie.”
Bulk-billing rates started to plunge in the final years of the former Coalition government after hitting a record 89 per cent in 2020, according to official data.
It took a steep tumble after that, dropping to 77 per cent in 2023, before slightly bouncing back to 78 per cent as of October last year.
The Albanese government has already pumped billions into bulk-billing incentives – a move that appears to have arrested the plunging rates but not managed to bring them back up to 2022 numbers, or indeed the 2020 high.
With data showing Australians aged 16-64 have been somewhat left behind despite the improvement, both campaigns have pledged historic funding to further expand bulk-billed appointments.
Both Labor and the Coalition have promised billions of dollars in healthcare funding as part of their campaigns.
PM given hero’s welcome by party faithful
Mr Albanese’s highly-anticipated arrival on stage was met with applause and screaming woos from the crowd.
The marginal seat of Parramatta is held by Andrew Charlton on a 3.7 per cent margin and is a key seat being targeted by the Coalition. Mr Dutton has visited to support candidate Katie Mullens several times throughout the election.
Mr Albanese notably did not arrive to a song, instead opting for stock music – a decision that’s also been taken by Mr Dutton.
He said the Coalition was “always wanting to block, never wanting to build”, and took aim at a key opposition attack line, which claimed that people don’t value things they don’t have to pay for.
The original comment was made about fee-free TAFE, which the Coalition has rallied against.
“As a matter of Liberal Party principle, they said the quiet bit out loud, that people don’t value something if it’s free – unless people have to pay for it, they don’t value it,” Mr Albanese said.
“Well, I can tell the Liberal Party this – and I can tell them this for free – people value Medicare,” he continued, with the audience breaking into cheers.
“People value public education, that people value public housing.”
Albo pulls out Medicare card
For those taking note, it took about 22 minutes for Mr Albanese to pull out his Medicare card mid-speech.
The green and gold card has become a fixture on the campaign trail, with many of Labor’s policies promising to increase bulk-billing rates, capping PBS-listed prescriptions to $25, and Sunday’s announcement to create an after-hours advice hotline that will offer free after-hours and weekend GP telehealth appointments.
The policy also allows Labor to claim a re-elected Coalition government would cut Medicare funding, a campaign line that has cut through to voters.
Aptly named 1800-MEDICARE, Mr Albanese said the service would bring “new security and peace of mind to people all over Australia”.
“This is at the heart of Labor’s great mission, and it’s what sets Australia apart from so many other countries,” he said.
“American-style healthcare is decided by what treatment you can afford, in Australia under Labor, it’s about the care that you need.
“That is the meaning of Medicare. That is the promise of Medicare. We built it, we believe in it, we’ll protect it, and we’ll strengthen it.”
‘I won’t lie’: Dutton’s gibe at rally
Peter Dutton has accused Anthony Albanese of having “sought to deceive” Australians and scare them.
Welcomed by more than 100 supporters at the Melton Entertainment Park on Sunday, Mr Dutton accused the Prime Minister of hiding information about the Voice referendum and a fall at a campaign rally early on the 2025 election trail.
“Now I’m up on stage here, I’ll give you this commitment – if I fall off the stage, I won’t lie,” Mr Dutton said.
“I think truth is a good starting point. If you want to be the prime minister of this country, you can’t look Australians in the eye and just lie to them bare-face. That is exactly what has happened over the course of this campaign.
“The Prime Minister has sought to deceive Australians, to scare them, and to misrepresent the last three years of Australia’s lives.”
Mr Dutton told Victorians a future Labor government would be “worse than the Allan government” and said the state has been damaged by Labor Premier Jacinta Allan, and reiterated claims Mr Albanese would be beholden to the Greens as a minority partner.
The rally comes as Mr Dutton prepares to hit 28 seats in the final days of the election campaign.
Melton is located in the electorate of Hawke which is currently held by Labor’s Sam Rae. Mr Rae holds the seat with a relatively safe 7 per cent margin.
A small gaggle of supporters were positioned outside the entrance to the park on Sunday, some carrying signs stating: “Toot to give Albo the boot”.
Supporters inside the event wore shirts for a range of Liberal candidates across the country.
Charlton’s brutal dig to Coalition campaign
Parramatta MP Andrew Charlton took a savage dig at the Coalition campaign and its running campaign bus misadventures during his time on the microphone at the Labor rally.
Mr Charlton also noted that while the Coalition had set up their campaign headquarters in Parramatta, he said Mr Dutton wanted to “take us back,” riffing on the opposition’s campaign slogan of getting Australia “back on track”.
“Peter Dutton wants to take us back – back to culture wars, back to division, back to cuts, the Liberal Party is always looking in the rear view mirror,” he said.
“Maybe that’s why their campaign trucks keep crashing into things.”
The burn was met with laughter from the roomful of 300-plus party faithful.
Mr Charlton’s reference was in reference to the first day of pre-polling, where a campaign truck emblazoned with the Liberal’s Greenway candidate Rattan Virk crashed into a Quakers Hill polling booth, resulting in the closure of the centre.
Labor’s former Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney gave the Acknowledgement of Country, and was welcomed to the stage to rapturous applause.
Ms Burney spoke about the colonial roots of Parramatta, paying tribute to Indigenous resistance fighter Pemulway who fought for the “preservation of Indigenous sovereignty, culture and ways of life”.
She also acknowledged the Indigenous communities “scarred with trauma,” like the state-controlled Parramatta Girls School where many Indigenous girls were subjected to abuse between 1887 to 1974.
However her final message was hopeful.
“Past mistakes must never be repeated but the acknowledgement of country is not only about pain, it is also about remembering triumph and survival and culture,” she said.
Minns hits out over Coalition division
Also taking the stage at the Labor rally was NSW Premier Chris Minns, who targeted the “endless political partisanship” he claimed was stoked by the Coalition.
“Anthony has, through his time as the prime minister of this country, worked to pull the nation together – to recognise that as Australians, we’ve got a lot more in common than difference, that our democracy is important,” Mr Minns said.
“That political difference should be respected, that those differences should not split, friendships, workplaces, football clubs or families.
“A nation pays a huge price for endless political partisanship, and right now we need country over party.”
Mr Minns also described Mr Albanese as “resilient” and someone who had not “palmed off the tough questions”.
“He’s accepted responsibility and guided both the party and the country through some of the toughest economic times we have had in decades,” he said.
“I’ll take resilience over blustering any day of the week.”
‘Worst ever’: Dutton’s brutal swipe at Allan
Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan and her Labor government were also in Peter Dutton’s sights at Sunday morning’s rally.
The Opposition Leader said it would take a long time for the opposition to “undo the damage” he claimed the Albanese and Allan governments had done to “the great people of Victoria”.
“Are there any supporters here (of) Jacinta Allan? No? I can tell you, as I’ve moved across Victoria over the course of this campaign, the harm that’s been done to this great state has been quite remarkable,” he said.
In addition to housing and cost of living, Mr Dutton leant on safety concerns of Victorians, saying the Coalition’s $750m crime prevention package would help bring an end to the state’s tobacco wars and gangs.
“Not only are we worse off economically after three years, but we’re also less safe as a country,” he said.
Mr Dutton also told supporters Labor had “brought in people from a war zone without proper security checks”.
Dutton defiant, but is it too late?
And, here it is: the final stretch.
Peter Dutton’s blitzkrieg of 28 seats in seven days is now set to get under way after the final Liberal Party rally.
Mr said he could not win the next election without “the support of almost one-in-three Australians” who were so far undecided.
“They’re obviously disenchanted with this government, and they can look through the lies that Anthony Albanese has told over the course of the last three years,” he said.
“They can see in us a party which has thought hard and long about our policies, our vision for this country, our short term interim measures.”
Mr Dutton also leant heavily on family in his address, with a video message from them – and former prime minister John Howard – played at the start of the event.
“All of us in our great party understand the value of family,” Mr Dutton said.
“It breaks my heart to know that 30,000 small businesses, behind each one of them a family, has lost their home, lost their life savings, lost their dream.
“Family is a foundation stone for (the Liberal Party) … we have always had that at the heart of our belief structure, and it’s been informative in the way in which we’ve constructed our policies.
“But for me, family has been the most important thing in my life.”
Mr Dutton said he had been “uphill and down dale” in the past decades with wife Kirilly, and praised his children.
“I have amazing children. You’ve seen Harry, who pointed out to me that he was described as Brad Pitt and I’m Mr. Potato Head.
“Bec and Tom have been out with me on the campaign trail as well.
“But ultimately, what motivates us, what drives us, is to make for a better life for our own families, for every family, for our neighbours.”
Renters could save $173k under Labor
The average Aussie renter would be able to save an average of $173,168 through Labor’s extended 5 per cent deposit scheme for first home buyers, new modelling has revealed.
Using figures from CoreLogic and PropTrack, a renter using the Home Guarantee scheme to purchase a $820,00 home (the national average) would be able to cut down the time it takes to save for a deposit from 4.2 years to 1.4 years.
This would save a buyer $140,431 in rent, in additional to the $32,737 buyers would save by avoiding lender’s mortgage insurance.
Together the savings total to $173,168.
For a Sydney buyer purchasing a $1,191,000 home, they will be able to reduce the time it takes to save for a deposit from 6.5 years to 1.6 years, saving $195,956 in rent.
Total savings including the LMI concession ($52,294) equals to $248,250.
While the Home Guarantee scheme was initiated by the Coalition in 2020, a re-elected Labor government will remove the income and a placement caps.
Treasury estimates 75 per cent of first home buyers will access the program, which allows a first homebuyer to avoid lender’s mortgage insurance and purchase a home with just a 5 per cent deposit, with the government guaranteeing 15 per cent of the home’s value.
Property price limits will depend on state, and extend up to $1.5m for homes in Sydney and regional capital centres in NSW.
Housing Minister Clare O’Neil said the Home Guarantee Scheme gives renters a “decent chance of home ownership” so they can start “paying off their own mortgage rather than someone else’s”.
“Peter Dutton has deliberately chosen housing policies that will cause prices to skyrocket – and will only work for those who already have significant savings and high incomes,” she said.
“Leaving ordinary young people to pick up the bill – and keep paying rent forever.
“We think the next generation should be able to get a home of their own – like their parents did.”
Leaders start frantic final week of campaign
Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton will leave nothing to chance in their bid to win Saturday’s federal election, with an intense final week of campaigning expected.
The Prime Minister and the Opposition Leader are expected to hit as many key electorates as possible in the final seven days of the five-week campaign.
Opinion polls are pointing to Mr Albanese winning a second term, but Mr Dutton is not giving up on his bid to win the election from a first-term government.
The Coalition needs to gain 21 seats to secure a majority in the 150-seat parliament, and Mr Dutton intends to fight “for every vote in every corner of the country”.
“I think there is a big difference in the mood out there and what silent Australians are thinking as they vote right now and every day until next Saturday,” he said on Saturday.
“I think there is a lot up for grabs, and I think there are a lot of seats still to be decided over the course of the next week.”
The Coalition leader will travel across Australia from Sunday to Saturday, hitting 28 key seats – mostly held by Labor – in each state and the Northern Territory.
Mr Albanese is not resting on his laurels, with the memory of Bill Shorten’s shock loss to Scott Morrison in 2019 still sharp in his mind.
“I say to Australians on May 3, make sure you know where the destination is, because it is destination chaos and destination shambles and destination cuts from Peter Dutton if he’s successful next Saturday,” he said.
“This campaign has exposed the Coalition has not been ready for government.”
Both leaders are expected to hold party rallies on Sunday, before lining up for the fourth and final leaders’ debate.
The Seven Network will host the ‘Final Showdown’ at 8pm, the last chance all Australians will get to see the leaders go head to head to make their cases for election.
Mr Albanese will be in Sydney on Sunday for a rally in the city’s west.
Mr Dutton will similarly hold a supporters’ rally in the key battlefield of Melbourne, which could decide the outcome on Saturday.
Public service ‘appropriate size’: Gallagher
A re-elected Albanese government will not cut taxpayer-funded jobs to find savings, Finance Minister Katy Gallagher says, calling the public service an “appropriate size”.
With the country staring down $179bn in deficits in the next five years, government spending has been a key arrow in the Coalition’s election campaign quiver.
It has accused Labor of ballooning the public service by adding some 41,000 jobs – jobs that the Albanese government has maintained are essential.
Ahead of updated campaign costings due out next week, Senator Gallagher on Sunday said there was room for more efficiencies but that the public service was “the appropriate size now we’ve built it up”.
“There will be movement across agencies, but really, the savings across the public service really can happen in a number of ways,” she told Sky News.
“They don’t have to be sacking, or shouldn’t be sacking, 41,000 public servants in Canberra, if you believe the Coalition one day, or across the country, if you believe on another.”
Peter Dutton has watered down his initial plan to sack tens of thousands of public servants amid warnings it was not possible and significant public backlash.
The Opposition Leader first softened the pledge by exempting frontline and national security staff.
Earlier this week, he took a further step back by saying the cuts would be Canberra-based roles.
But only one-in-three public service jobs are based in the capital, and critics have said he could not find enough non-frontline or national security jobs to scrap.
Senator Gallagher also said the enormous expansion of the public service over the past three years came partly from shifting away from contractors.
“We converted about 12,000 of those from labour hire,” she said.
“So they were already working in the public service, they just weren’t working as public servants, and they cost a lot more because you’re paying essentially a labour hire company for that labour.”
She said the “rest has been going into frontline service delivery agencies”.
“So Veterans Affairs was a basket case when we came to government,” Senator Gallagher said.
“Home Affairs, again a basket case when we came to government. Department of Agriculture was going broke when we came to government.
“Services Australia wasn’t able to deliver the work that they need to do.
“The NDIA wasn’t able to meet people who use that scheme properly and Defence, in submarines, creating the submarine agency.
“These are all areas where we’ve either grown in our responsibility or we want to give a better service to people.”
Millions of Aussies cast their votes early
Early polling has already started, with at least 2.1 million of the 16 million people enrolled to vote having cast their ballots.
Former prime minister John Howard was on the job on Saturday, helping the Liberal candidate for the Teal-held seat of Wentworth Ro Knox.
The first votes were cast on Tuesday, following the Easter Monday long weekend, before being suspended on Anzac Day.
The polls were open again on Saturday, but will be closed on Sunday. The early voting places will be open from Monday till Friday this week.
Originally published as Australian election 2025: Albanese, Dutton on day 31 of May 3 election campaign
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