Federal election 2025 live: Julian Assange endorses Anthony Albanese

The notoriously private WikiLeaks founder has delivered his verdict on who should be Australia's next Prime Minister. Follow our live updates.

Welcome to our live coverage of the federal election campaign.

Julian Assange has endorsed Anthony Albanese for a second term as Prime Minister.

The notoriously private WikiLeaks founder, who returned to Australia last June after more than five years in a London prison, said the government under Mr Albanese “has proven itself unusually capable of rescuing Australians caught up in sensitive political situations”.

“Does this mean Albo will put Australian interests first and skilfully navigate tensions between the US, EU, and China? I can’t say for sure,” Mr Assange told Nine Newspapers in a statement.

“But I do know this: He can. Albo did right by me, and he is worlds apart from (Scott) Morrison. You don’t need to be a bully to have a backbone.”

Mr Dutton has promised “big surprises” on election night as Liberal strategists insist they can snatch up to ten seats from Labor and push the Prime Minister into minority government.

Despite the polls predicting he can’t win a majority, Mr Dutton is telling Australians today that the published polls are wrong and he’s still in the hunt.

“And I think there’ll be some big surprises on election night, because people have had enough,” Mr Dutton told Sky News.

Read on for more updates

Originally published as Federal election 2025 live: Julian Assange endorses Anthony Albanese