Federal election 2025 as it happened: Albanese vows to invest in future; Dutton pledges to cut inflation, interest rates

Thanks for following live developments on the final day of campaigning before polls open at 8am on Saturday.

The leaders have delivered their final pitches to voters as those Australians who haven’t cast their ballots at pre-polls prepare to vote.

Here’s a wrap of what happened today:

• The PM started the day in Queensland before heading to Tasmania early this afternoon to spruik the campaign of Anne Urquhart, a Labor senator running for the safe Liberal seat of Braddon.
• On his final campaign stop in Melbourne’s Carrum Downs, the PM was heckled by a protester, who screamed profanities and spoke against his mental health policies, as Albanese was led away from a pre-poll booth.
• Dutton flew from Adelaide to Perth, where he held a press conference in the marginal electorate of Tangney and attacked Albanese for price rises over the past three years.
• WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange broke his silence to endorse a second term for Albanese and praised the PM’s efforts to secure his release from prison. The PM wouldn’t be drawn on Assange’s endorsement but said his government had restored relationships with international partners left in a mess by the Coalition.
• The PM firmly said he wouldn’t legislate the Voice after Dutton’s repeated claims Albanese had a secret plan to do so if he won the election.
• This evening, the leaders delivered their final 60-second TV pitches to voters. Albanese slammed the opposition’s cuts and taxes and said Labor had invested, and would continue to invest in cost-of-living relief today while “continuing to invest in our tomorrow”. Dutton said this election was a “sliding doors moment” and pledged lower inflation and interest rates.
• Adam Bandt voted early in Melbourne today. The Greens leader pledged to “push Labor to act” and said his party was aiming to pick up five new seats.

Thanks for staying with us. Good night.

The PM and Dutton also made their final pitches on Seven News tonight. Here’s what they had to say.

Here’s what the opposition leader said.

When asked if he was worried about losing his marginal Queensland seat of Dickson, Dutton did not mention the Labor candidate trying to unseat him and instead focused his attacks on an independent challenger.

Betting markets suggest Labor’s Ali France is a better chance at unseating Dutton than independent candidate Ellie Smith. Last election, France whittled down Dutton’s margin to 1.7 per cent.

But asked on Perth radio station 6PR moments ago if he “had one eye” on Labor trying to unseat him in Queensland, Dutton spent little time talking about the threat that France posed.

“That’s continued on for a long period of time,” Dutton replied.

“I’ve got a teal candidate who’s actually a Green, but I think people are smart enough to see through that. And we’ve got a lot of money being spent. It’s come out of Sydney.

“And the Greens in Sydney are obviously funding Kate Chaney’s campaign here as well. And we just need to stare that down.”

Betting markets still favour Dutton to retain his seat.

The prime minister and opposition leader have given their final, 60-second pitches to Nine’s political editor Charles Croucher.

On Nine News, Albanese slammed the opposition’s cuts and taxes and said Labor had invested, and would continue to invest in cost-of-living relief today while “continuing to invest in our tomorrow”.

See more in the video below.

Dutton said this election was a “sliding doors moment for our country” and the Coalition was a better economic manager than Labor. He said that under the Coalition, prices and interest rates would be lower.

“Australians just can’t afford three more years of the Labor government,” he said.

Watch his full statement below.

The opposition leader has phoned in to Perth radio station 6PR in one of his last direct pitches to West Australian voters before tomorrow’s election.

Peter Dutton said a Coalition government would be best placed to support the state’s mining and farming interests.

Peter Dutton today with the Liberal candidate for Pearce Jan Norberger and Liberal senator Linda Reynolds.Credit: James Brickwood

“We can bring interest rates down, and we can make decisions to support WA: faster decisions to approve mines, making sure that we support our sheep industry and agriculture across WA,” Dutton said.

“A Greens-Labor Government, with Tanya Plibersek, is just not going to approve the projects that need to be approved so that we can keep WA pumping.”

A heckler yelled at the prime minister as he campaigned in Carrum Downs. See the pictures below.

Labor and Liberal volunteers were at an early polling both in Carrum Downs when Albanese arrived.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

A protester swore at the PM and slammed his mental health policies.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

The protester was held back as the PM passed.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

The PM and fiancee Jodie Haydon leave the early polling booth, followed by major parties’ volunteers.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Kangaroo Valley is a picture postcard piece of NSW. Surrounded by forests and waterfalls, it attracts visitors with its collection of antique dealers and cafes from nearby Sydney most weekends.

But the 600 or so voters of Kangaroo Valley will be pivotal in the battle for the ultra-marginal seat of Gilmore where sitting member, Labor’s Fiona Phillips, is trying to fend off the Liberal Party’s Andrew Constance.

What sets apart Kangaroo Valley residents is that, unlike much of Gilmore, which stretches along the NSW South Coast, support for Phillips has grown sharply over the past two elections.

Phillips won Gilmore by just 373 votes last election, with that support in Kangaroo Valley proving critical.

The community is an example of suburb or small population in many of the nation’s 150 electorates that could dictate Saturday’s poll.

Read more about all the others here.

Far-right agitators have turned up at pre-poll voting centre in Melbourne, setting up loudspeakers directly across the road from the polling station.

Outside a booth in Brighton this evening, the men displayed a sign that said National Workers Alliance and played loud music before speaking out against Liberal candidate Tim Wilson and incumbent teal MP Zoe Daniel, who they said had failed to debate them.

Matt Trihey of the National Workers Alliance at a pre-polling booth in Brighton on Friday.Credit: Cara Waters

Police officers were seen speaking to the men, who packed up after about an hour.

One of the men was Matt Trihey, who gatecrashed a Kooyong candidates forum earlier in the campaign and began yelling about immigration.

Trihey and his self-described “nationalist” group, the National Workers Alliance, often hosts events frequented by neo-Nazis, though Trihey has previously denied being a neo-Nazi himself.

Read more here.

As mentioned earlier in this blog, a woman heckled the PM as he arrived at a polling booth in Melbourne this evening.

Watch the moment below:

Our reporter Mike Foley is following Peter Dutton around Western Australia today as the Coalition makes a final push for votes.

Watch his analysis of the Liberal leader’s change in rhetoric below.