Federal election live updates: Peter Dutton and Anthony Albanese campaign on day 18
Nationals leader David Littleproud has been called out over a comment he made about a female MP while campaigning in her marginal seat.
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Housing Minister Clare O’Neil has slammed Nationals leader David Littleproud over “deeply offensive comments”, after he compared a female Labor MP to a “chihuahua”.
Mr Littleproud has drawn controversy after telling the media on Monday that the Labor MP for Bendigo Lisa Chesters has “about as much pull as a chihuahua”.
“I mean literally, what has she got for the people of Bendigo?” he said.
Ms Chesters described the statement as disrespectful and showed the Coalition was playing “nasty, dirty politics” to win Bendigo, where the Nats are trying to win the central Victorian seat.
“The fact that we are in an environment where a leading male politician in our country thinks that it’s appropriate to compare a female MP to a dog, I just think that tells us everything about where the Liberals and the Nationals are trapped.
“The fact that we are in an environment where a leading male politician in our country thinks that it’s appropriate to compare a female MP to a dog, I just think that tells us everything about where the Liberals and the Nationals are trapped.
“This is a person vying to be Deputy Prime Minister of our nation and he speaks about a female member of parliament as though she is a dog.”
Ms O’Neil called on Mr Littleproud to apologise for his comments.
She described Ms Chester as a “Labor powerhouse”.
“You will not find a stronger, more fierce advocate and defender of her local community than Lisa Chesters. She is an unbelievable person and a fantastic MP,” she said.
‘Not wanted’: Albo slams Putin’s shock move
Anthony Albanese says Russia is not welcome in the region, after reports emerged Vladimir Putin wants to base aircraft at a military airport in the Indonesian province of Papua.
The US military website Janes has reported that Moscow has lodged an official request with Indonesia to base “long range” aircraft at the Manuhua Air Force Base.
The Prime Minister was asked about the report during a campaign stop in Melbourne to spruik housing policy on Tuesday afternoon.
“We are ascertaining having a look at those reports,” the Prime Minister said.
“As the Foreign Minister and Defence Minister have said, we have a good relationship with our friends in Indonesia and we’re seeking further clarification.”
Asked repeatedly about what Australia knew and from whom about the reports, Mr Albanese repeated his response “we are seeking clarification”, before calling out President Putin.
“We are seeking further information,” a terse Mr Albanese said.
“We obviously do not want to see Russian influence in our region.
“Our position is we stand with Ukraine. We regard Vladimir Putin as an authoritarian leader who has broken international law, who’s attacking the sovereignty of the nation of Ukraine.”
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton called the move by Russia “very, very troubling”, describing Mr Putin as a “murderous dictator”.
“This would be a catastrophic failure of diplomatic relations if Penny Wong and Anthony Albanese didn’t have forewarning about this before with made public,” Mr Dutton said.
“I think they need to explain to the Australian people what has gone wrong here.”
Mr Dutton said Mr Putin’s potential presence in Indonesia would be “deeply destabilising”.
“My message to President Putin is that he’s not welcome in our neighbourhood,” Mr Dutton said.
Earlier, Defence Minister Richard Marles said Australia had “engaged” on the issue with Indonesia at a “high level”.
“We have a very close relationship with Indonesia, we have a growing defence relationship with Indonesia” he said.
“We have already been engaged with Indonesia on this request … I’d note that Indonesia has not responded yet.”
It’s a new international issue for the election campaign, where US President Donald Trump’s tariffs regime and the influence of China have previously distracted the leaders from sticking to the core issues of the May 3 campaign.
Contempt’: Anger at Greens Anzac Day rave
Peter Dutton has slammed the Greens for planning a dance party fundraiser to be held on Anzac Day as “completely inappropriate”.
The WA Greens announced on their social media last week plans to host the party fundraiser, which would run for more than five hours at an inner-city tattoo parlour-bar in Perth.
The Greens have since rescheduled the event after the backlash,
“It is completely inappropriate and reflects the values of the Greens are,” the Opposition Leader told reporters in Melbourne.
“To every young Australian who is proud of their grandfather who fought in the war, proud of a cousin who is serving in the Australian Defence Force now, understand the Greens have complete contempt for our defence force personnel.
Mr Dutton said the Greens – who are positioning themselves as possible kingmakers if the May 3 election ends in a hung parliament – wanted to cut funding for defence.
“The Greens, of course, would be the partners in government with Anthony Albanese and Mr Albanese should condemn these actions,” Mr Dutton said.
The Prime Minister while not directly condemning the Greens event, said Anzac Day should not be “business as usual”.
He said Anzac Day was a “day of respect for the men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice”, and those who continue to wear uniform.
“It’s not a day for normal business as usual,” Mr Albanese said.
The Prime Minister said he would be attending the national service at the National War Memorial in Canberra on Anzac Day, which comes at the end of the second last week of the campaign.
“I know that Australians, in their millions, will pause on that day to say those three sacred words: lest we forget,” Mr Albanese said.
Six musicians and DJs were expected to attend the event, as well as the party’s candidate for Perth, Sophie Greer, and West Australian Senator Jordan Steele-John.
“The federal election is right around the corner,” the party said on Instagram.
“Join us for a night when the dancefloor becomes the platform for radical change”.
Shortly after 10.30am, the link to purchase tickets for the website no longer appeared to be operating.
Albo has eyes on third term as PM
Anthony Albanese has flagged running for a third term as Prime Minister, confirming he has no plans to quit midterm if he wins the May 3 federal election.
“I’m not getting ahead of myself – I’m in a ballot on the third of May and I’m determined to win,” he told The Nightly.
“And I will serve out a full term. I’m determined to do that because I think there has been too much chopping and changing.”
He said he planned to fight a third election campaign in 2028, when he will be 65 years old, if he wins next month.
“If I’m successful on the third of May, then yeah,” he said.
Sunrise’s Nat Barr on Tuesday asked Mr Albanese if he was “measuring up the curtains”, something he accused Peter Dutton of doing when the Opposition Leader said he would live at Kirribilli House if he won the election.
“Certainly not. We’ve got a big mountain to climb,” Mr Albanese said.
“I simply have confirmed that I intend to serve a full term if I have the great honour of being re-elected.
“But the last time a Prime Minister was re-elected having served a full term was way back in 2004. So, that puts in context how tough it is.”
Mr Albanese dodged a question from the travelling media while campaigning in Tasmania that his commitment to serve a full second term would cause “impatience” with ambitious caucus members.
“I’m not looking over my back. I’m looking forward,” he said.
“We have an incredibly united caucus and that is one of the reasons why we’ve been able to focus on the needs of the Australian people.”
Mr Albanese also confirmed a reshuffle of the front bench would happen if Labor wins a second term.
But he said key ministers – Defence Minister Richard Marles, Treasurer Jim Chalmers, Foreign Minister Penny Wong, Finance Minister Katy Gallagher and Trade Minister Don Farrell – would remain in place.
He would not say if Tanya Plibersek – with whom he reportedly has a tense relationship – would remain as Environment Minister.
“She’ll be treated exactly as everyone else. But Tanya Plibersek will play an important role in my government,” Mr Albanese said.
“She’ll be a senior cabinet minister, as she’s continued to be.”
The Prime Minister has started the day in Tasmania, while Opposition Leader Peter Dutton is in Melbourne – a key target for the Coalition to pick up vulnerable Labor seats in the mortgage belt.
Star Wars, Vegemite, and Kerry Packer
Anthony Albanese has kicked off the second day of week three of his re-election campaign with a scattershot press conference, canvasing everything from Star Wars to Kerry Packer.
The Prime Minister drew on his passion for the acclaimed sci-fi series when asked about his post-election plans, saying: “I don’t know what I’ll be doing on May 4.
“I have a bit of a tradition of watching a Star Wars movie on May the Fourth, because I quite appreciate the sense of history there,” Mr Albanese said.
“I’m an old Star Wars guy to get that out of the way, the first three movies are the best.
“That’s all I know about the evening of May 4.”
Mr Albanese earlier recalled his own car accident, a health incident with his mother, and the late billionaire Kerry Packer when spruiking Labor’s investment in Medicare.
Then there was a Toronto cafe’s Vegemite ban.
Mr Albanese is on familiar ground on Tuesday at a Medicare Urgent Care Clinic in the outer suburbs of Hobart as Labor sets its sights on the marginal electorate of Lyons.
The Prime Minister is seeking to hold on to the seat after current Labor MP Brian Mitchell stood aside for former state Labor leader Rebecca White, who lost three state elections in a row.
Finance Minister Katy Gallagher, who joined the Prime Minister in Tasmania on Monday, will be back at his side as Labor seeks to also make gains in Bass and Braddon.
In Bass, Labor are fielding Jess Teesdale, a Launceston-born schoolteacher, while in Braddon, the party is fronting Anne Urquhart.
Labor has delivered five Medicare Urgent Care Clinics to the state, including in Hobart and Launceston, and have pledged to deliver another three.
‘Underdog’: Dutton acknowledges poll battle
Peter Dutton has labelled himself an “underdog” but believes he still has a shot at winning the election after less than favourable polls were released on Sunday night.
The latest Newspoll for The Australian revealed the Coalition’s primary vote support had fallen yet another point to 35 per cent – meaning the party’s favourability is now lower than before they lost the 2022 election.
Speaking about his favourability at a press conference on Monday morning, Mr Dutton said he was still in the race.
“It’s hard to win after one term,” he said.
“This has been the worst government since 1931. I don’t think Australians can afford three more years of this bad government.”
Dutton speaks to motorist about NDIS at bowser
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has made his 10th – yes 10th – petrol station stop of his campaign on Tuesday afternoon in Melbourne’s west, where he spoke to a motorist at the bowser about his personal issues with the NDIS.
Mr Dutton helped fill up the truck of candidate for Gorton John Fletcher at BP Rockbank Outbound Truckstop, where he spoke to a father who was filling up the family car on the other side of the bowser.
The electorate of Gorton has been held by former cabinet minister Brendan O’Connor, who is retiring at the election, with margin of 14.2 per cent.
Melton south resident Andrew Faulkner expressed his disappointment with the NDIS to Mr Dutton in regards to his stepdaughter’s health.
Mr Faulkner told the opposition leader his stepdaughter’s plan often changes with no warning, with Mr Dutton telling him he will chase up the issue.
The father said he was “really surprised” to see Mr Dutton in his area.
“That was helpful,” Mr Faulkner said about his chat to Mr Dutton.
“And we he probably will get my vote.”
Liberals back in key target Melbourne seats
Peter Dutton is in the seat of Hawke on Tuesday morning, campaigning out again with his son Harry in the booming housing suburb of Maddingley – about 60km northwest of Melbourne.
It’s the second time Mr Dutton has been to Hawke this election campaign.
The large electorate – which takes in Sunbury, Melton and Bacchus Marsh – was created ahead of the 2022 election and is quickly becoming one of the fastest-growing areas in the nation.
Labor MP Sam Rae won the seat in 2022 with a 7.6 per cent margin, however, the Liberals feel they are a chance with taking it, targeting voters in the area who feel “undervalued” by the current government.
Mr Dutton was again accompanied by his 20-year-old son Harry, a member of the key demographic the Opposition is targeting with its housing policy.
Mr Dutton finally said he would help his three young adult children enter the housing market, but reiterated his policy was aimed at opening the way for those who couldn’t rely on the bank of mum and dad.
“I think our household’s no different to many households where we want our kids to work hard, to save, and we’ll help them with a deposit at some stage,” Mr Dutton said from a housing estate in Melbourne.
“The Prime Minister and I might be able to help our kids, but it’s not about us.
“It’s about how we can help millions of Australians across generations realise the dream of home ownership like we did, like our parents and grandparents did, it’s a different proposition today for young Australians.”
Housing dominates days of campaigning
What’s the difference between the housing policies of Labor and the Liberals?
Anthony Albanese says it’s supply. Peter Dutton says it’s his five-year mortgage tax deduction.
In either case, first homebuyers have emerged as an integral voting bloc for Labor and the Liberals as campaigning for the May 3 federal election nears the halfway mark.
Both major parties used their official campaign launches on Sunday – the Prime Minister in Perth, the Opposition Leader in Sydney – to spruik their plans to get young people into homes.
Housing remained a focus as the respective leaders boarded planes to their next destination on Monday, with Mr Albanese travelling to a housing development in Adelaide.
It was there, next to South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas – whose state housing model Mr Albanese is seeking to replicate – that the Labor leader said supply was the “critical difference”.
“What we are doing is also addressing supply … If you increase supply, you assist everyone because you have an impact on affordability,” Mr Albanese said in the Adelaide suburbs.
He denied allegations there was a “bipartisan agreement” to see housing prices increase, but would not say whether he wanted them to go down when asked.
Labor has pledged another $10bn to boost housing supply – 100,000 of which will be just for first homebuyers – while making five per cent deposits available to all first-time purchasers.
It joins a raft of measures the federal government hopes will speed up housing supply to reach the ambitious target of 1.2 million new homes over five years from July 1, 2024.
Mr Dutton, meanwhile, was in the seat of Ryan in Brisbane’s outer north on Monday, where he was joined by son Harry on a construction site, where the younger Dutton spoke about his struggle to afford a deposit for a home.
Asked whether he would act as the “bank of mum and dad” for the young tradie, the Opposition Leader was noncommittal, dodging questions under repeated questioning from the media.
“I don’t want to be accepting a situation where only mums and dads who can afford to keep their kids going have the capacity to buy homes,” he said.
“It’s just not acceptable.
“They’re putting off their retirement so that they can stay working for longer to try and get a bit of money to help their kids with a deposit or maybe the monthly repayments.
“Now, that’s what Mr Albanese has created, a huge mess.”
The Coalition announced on Sunday that if elected, they would allow first-time buyers of newly built homes to be able to deduct interest payments on up to $650,000 of their mortgage from their income taxes.
The policy would mean a family on average incomes would be around $11,000 a year better off – or $55,000 over five years.
‘Poor handsome Harry’: Dutton silent on key question
Peter Dutton bringing his son onto the campaign trail continues to leave the Opposition Leader facing questions he does not want to answer.
Mr Dutton was accompanied by his son Harry on a Brisbane building site on Monday, where the apprentice carpenter said he and his sister Bec were having a hard time saving for a house deposit.
On Monday, Mr Dutton failed to answer when asked, four times, whether he was going to gift his children money for their own house deposits. The question still lingered on Tuesday.
“So you won’t give Harry, poor handsome Harry, some cash for his first house. You’re tight with your son, but not with the country,” Today host Karl Stefanovic said.
“I have, like every other family, conversations with our kids over a long period of time. They’ve got a good work ethic. They’re all working hard. They’re saving toward their deposit,” Mr Dutton said.
“And in families where you can provide some support, well, you’ll have that conversation with your own kids, but it’s not about our family. It’s about every other family.
“And I’ve said I’m not going to accept the situation where only families with a bank of mum and dad, only those kids can afford to buy a house.
“I want to make sure that the dream of home ownership is there for every young Australian who’s working hard and saving.
“I just think we’re underestimating how much the young people have really lost the dream of home ownership.
“And we’re going to restore it.”
‘A success’: Albo sticks to guns on housing
Anthony Albanese is adamant the design of Labor’s housing policies will not drive up house prices, despite the economic consensus.
“It won’t Bridget, because what we’re doing is dealing with supply as well as demand,” the Prime Minister told ABC’s Bridget Brennan on Tuesday morning.
“Our plan will ensure that more homes are built. And what we’ve seen under my government is 28,000 of those social houses through the Housing Australia Future Fund, are either under construction or under planning.
“What we’ve seen now is housing approvals up. They were going down when we were elected.”
At the official campaign launch events over the weekend, Labor and the Coalition unveiled their major housing policies. Labor is committing $10bn to build 100,000 new houses exclusively for first homebuyers. But Labor has promised to expand the scheme where you can get a mortgage with a 5 per cent deposit. Economists say the latter will push up house prices as people can borrow more money.
Mr Albanese argues people will not have to wait to save the traditional 20 per cent house deposit, and the banks will still assess what amount people can actually borrow and pay off.
“ … which just enables them, instead of paying off someone else’s mortgage, they’re paying off their own. And we know that this has been a success. That’s why we expanded the program.
“And by stopping the competition between a first homebuyer and an investor, what that will do is ensure that housing is more affordable for those young Australians who want to get into homeownership,” he said.
“The difference between our government and the Coalition is that we support increased supply of housing.
“The former government didn’t even bother to have a housing minister half the time they were in office. They didn’t support investment in public housing. They still don’t.”
‘Obscene’: Green slams parties on housing
A Greens senator has taken aim at the two major parties, claiming they are to blame for the current housing crisis.
Senator Nick McKim said both parties’ election pledges would make the problem worse by increasing demand and putting upward pressure on house prices.
“They’ve abjectly failed to build enough public and affordable housing in this country. And they are in lock-step on $196bn over the next decade, going into the pockets of property speculators,” he said.
“Which means when renters and first homebuyers show up at an auction, they are bidding against people with this massive taxpayer-funded advantage.”
“It’s obscene and it’s a massive problem, and it needs to be fixed. And the Greens will fix it.
The Tasmanian senator’s seat is up for re-election this year.
Mr McKim says the Greens will push for a $500bn lift in the corporate tax take should they hold sway in the new parliament.
“There’s $500bn sitting on the table. If people like Angus (Taylor) and Jim Chalmers, the Labor treasurer would actually be prepared to stand up to the big corporations; one-in-three of whom in this country are paying no tax whatsoever. Make them pay their fair share of tax.”
‘Worse than a dumpster fire, it’s a house fire’
Labor and Coalition housing policies driving up prices will be a “dagger in the heart of the dreams of millions of renters trying to buy a home”, the Greens housing spokesman says.
Max Chandler-Mather disparaged the policies of the major parties on Tuesday morning.
“We’ve seen basically every major economist point out that they’ll drive home ownership further out of reach for the vast majority of renters and first-home buyers because it’s going to turbocharge house prices,” he told the ABC.
“Even worse than a dumpster fire, it’s a house fire, and it’s burning the dreams of a lot
of renters and first-home buyers.
“Economists this morning said that both policies will drive up house prices this year alone,” he said.
Should the Greens hold the balance of power, they would push for reform.
“Every dollar of house price increase is another dagger in the heart of the dreams of millions of renters trying to buy a home,” Mr Chandler-Mather said.
“And what we hope is that we can get into minority parliament, keep (Peter) Dutton out, and push Labor to finally consider changes to negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount.
“Because every year, the federal government gives billions of dollars in tax handouts to property investors that are turbocharging house prices and denying millions of renters and first-home buyers the chance to buy a home.”
Economists missing key point, Coalition says
Economists criticising the Coalition’s housing policies are not putting enough weight on the proposed number of new builds, the deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley says.
“We’ll add to housing supply. Honestly, state governments have let us down with planning bottlenecks and all of the bureaucracy around delivering new housing on the ground,” Ms Ley told ABC TV on Tuesday.
“We’ve stepped up with a policy that, according to the (Housing Industry Association), will deliver 30,000 new homes a year.”
A $5bn investment in water, stormwater, access roads and sewage was also key to Coalition’s plan, Ms Ley said.
She also said younger voters were enthused at Peter Dutton’s housing plans.
“When I talk to young people, I see their faces light up when they realise that this is a
party – Peter Dutton has said he wants to be a prime minister for home ownership. And they see that we care about them getting those steps on the ladder of real home ownership.”
Originally published as Federal election live updates: Peter Dutton and Anthony Albanese campaign on day 18
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