Category Archives: Australian election 2025

Palau president backs Australia’s bid to host Cop31 climate summit after Dutton labels it ‘madness’

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Surangel Whipps Jr says he would be ‘deeply disappointed’ if attempt were abandoned under Coalition

The president of Palau has delivered a pointed barb at Peter Dutton while strongly backing an Australian bid to host a UN climate conference on behalf of the Pacific, arguing that it would boost regional solidarity and he would be “deeply disappointed” if the attempt was abandoned under the Coalition.

Speaking at a renewable energy conference in Sydney on Wednesday, Surangel Whipps Jr described seeing two-thirds of an island in his archipelago country disappear under water in his lifetime. “For those of us in the Pacific who have lived through storm surges, rising ocean levels and increasingly high tides, the phrase ‘water lapping at our door’ is not a metaphor or a punchline. It’s our fear and reality,” he said.

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Coalition releases long-awaited modelling showing energy plan could drive down household gas bills by 7%

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Peter Dutton says policy would be ‘gamechanger’ despite experts questioning whether it would work

The Coalition’s plan to create a domestic gas reservation for the east coast would drive down household gas bills by 7% and industrial gas bills by 15%, newly-released estimates.

The opposition’s long-awaited modelling by Frontier Economics, released on Tuesday evening, estimated the changes would bring down new domestic gas supplies to $9 or $10 a gigajoule, and came after experts shed doubt on whether the policy could drive down prices through a government market intervention.

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Albanese accuses Coalition of ‘gaslighting’ public over energy as Dutton touts economic credentials in first leaders’ debate

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Prime minister asks ‘how can you believe what they’ll do after the election’ as opposition leader accuses Labor of having the wrong priorities

Anthony Albanese has accused Peter Dutton of “gaslighting” Australians on key Liberal policies in a spirited first leaders’ debate of the election campaign which focused heavily on energy, health and tax policies.

Neither man made a major misstep in the Sky News forum on Tuesday evening in western Sydney, where Albanese was voted the winner in a poll of 100 undecided voters. Albanese won 44 votes, Dutton won 35 and 21 remained undecided.

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Could the Coalition’s spectacular backdown be the circuit breaker that Peter Dutton needs?

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Junking a signature policy to focus on his pet areas could help get his rocky campaign back on track

As mid-election mea culpas go, it was a big one.

After campaigning for months on a crackdown on those “entitled” Canberra public servants, those fat-cat bureaucrats supposedly taking hard-working Aussies for a ride with their generous work-from-home conditions, Peter Dutton’s latest policy backdown has seen the Coalition spectacularly concede defeat on plans to “bring our public servants back to work” and apologise for raising it.

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Dutton playing ‘Donald Trump anti-migration card’ in plan to slash international students, higher education peak body says

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The Coalition would retain Labor’s cap on the private sector but cut an extra 30,000 places at universities

The Coalition has been accused of using the “Donald Trump anti-migration card” with its election policy to slash international students, as the university sector warns it favours the private vocational education and training (VET) sector.

On Sunday, Peter Dutton announced he would reduce the number of international students to 240,000 a year, a reduction of “over 80,000 in annual new overseas student commencements compared with 2023 levels”, he said.

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‘We’ve made a mistake’: Peter Dutton backs down on work from home policy

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The Coalition has also walked away from plans to sack 41,000 public service employees, raising questions about how it will pay for major election policies

The Coalition spectacularly reversed its policy to restrict work from home arrangements and sack 41,000 government employees, walking away from plans to make major changes to the public service.

The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, has admitted he “made a mistake” and “got it wrong” with the unpopular plan, backing down on the signature policy and raising questions about how the Coalition will pay for major election promises it said it would fund with savings from cutting the public service.

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Port of Darwin operator says Albanese and Dutton are treating it like ‘a political football’ in election

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Labor and Coalition would both end Chinese company Landbridge’s long-term lease of strategically important asset

The Chinese company that controls the Port of Darwin has accused Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton of treating it like “a political football” in the middle of a federal election campaign.

Federal Labor and the Coalition have both announced that if elected on 3 May they would end Landbridge’s long-term lease of the Port of Darwin, arguing it is strategically important and should be controlled by an Australian entity.

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Cameraman injured after football kick; PM visits flood-hit Queensland – as it happened

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Poll points to risks in key seats for Labor

We’ve made it to a week into the election campaign. So who’s winning?

At the end of week one, it was clear that Albanese won more days than Dutton and therefore won the week. But there are still four more to go, and anything can happen in an election.

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Is Anthony Albanese worried Jacinta Allan’s poor standing will hurt his election chances in Victoria?

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The PM has so far avoided the Victorian premier on his campaign trail. It has some state Labor MPs worrying she could be made a scapegoat

During the 2022 election campaign, Anthony Albanese waited until the 30th day to hold a press conference with the then Victorian premier, fearing Daniel Andrews’ association with Covid lockdowns.

When the two finally appeared together, Andrews didn’t hold back. He launched into an impassioned tirade against Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg, revisiting the fraught themes of the pandemic, while Albanese stood beside him, visibly uneasy. After that, Andrews largely stayed off the campaign trail.

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Albanese declares Chinese-controlled Port of Darwin should ‘be in Australian hands’

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PM says two options on table: for an Australian-owned company to take control, or for port to return to being a government asset

The Labor government is on the hunt for a buyer for the port of Darwin despite the Chinese-owned company who holds the lease insisting it is not for sale.

Anthony Albanese revealed the plan after calling in to local Darwin radio on Friday afternoon in a deliberate attempt to get ahead of a similar announcement the Coalition made on Saturday.

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‘Proud to’: Liberal MP spruiks tougher gambling proposal, but says Coalition plans good ‘first step’

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Exclusive: Keith Wolahan launched ads supporting stronger stance two days after federal election called, but also says Coalition policy important ‘first step’

A Liberal moderate who was part of a bipartisan parliamentary committee that urged the federal government to adopt a total ban on gambling advertising has paid for campaign material, stating he was “proud to” do so, inadvertently highlighting different policy positions within the Coalition.

The Coalition has resisted calls from advocates to take a policy to the election that would ban gambling advertising outright, instead pledging to ban “gambling ads one hour before, during and one hour after live sports broadcasts”.

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Guardian Essential poll: Albanese’s approval rating takes a hit but Labor inches ahead of Coalition

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Voters scored both PM and Peter Dutton poorly on key leadership questions including trust, competence and being out of touch

Labor has ticked ahead of the Coalition on a two-party-plus basis in the first Guardian Essential poll of the election period, as Anthony Albanese turns the blowtorch on Peter Dutton in the opening days of the campaign.

Essential’s “2PP+” measure, which allows voters to remain undecided, put Labor ahead 48% to 47%, with 5% undecided. The survey of 1,100 people was of a piece with recent major polls from Newspoll, Resolve and YouGov, which showed small movements toward Labor in recent weeks.

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Peter Dutton’s plan to move to Sydney instead of Canberra if elected ‘arrogant’, Labor says

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Opposition leader confirms he would move into Kirribilli House if elected PM – a statement Anthony Albanese says shows ‘a fair bit of hubris’

Labor frontbencher Katy Gallagher has accused Peter Dutton of “arrogantly measuring the curtains at Kirribilli House” and disrespecting the national capital.

Peter Dutton has confirmed he and his family would move into Sydney’s Kirribilli House – a harbourside mansion overlooking the Opera House – rather than the Lodge in Canberra if elected on 3 May.

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Dutton flip-flops on proposals for three separate referendums if Coalition wins election

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Opposition leader floats – then walks back – polls on Indigenous recognition, four-year parliamentary terms and stripping citizenship of dual nationals

Peter Dutton has floated – then quickly walked back – proposals for three separate referendums if he wins office, shutting down ideas he had raised to change the constitution for Indigenous recognition, four-year parliamentary terms and stripping citizenship of dual nationals.

The opposition leader had told The Australian newspaper in an interview published on Saturday that he was open to referendums on the three issues if there could be bipartisanship found with the Labor party. “I hope at some stage there will be common ground,” Dutton told the newspaper.

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Bowen says Dutton ‘making it up as he goes’ on gas plan as experts question lack of detail

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Opposition leader promises to release secret modelling within days as former ACCC chair urges Coalition to explain how they would lower prices

Energy minister Chris Bowen claims Peter Dutton is “making it up as he goes” with his gas plan, as experts question how a Coalition government would force gas producers to sell to Australians at cheaper prices.

In his first public comments on Dutton’s plan to bring more gas into Australia’s energy market, Bowen claimed the Coalition was simply dusting off a plan created under the former Morrison government.

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Labor promises price gouging crack down on supermarkets

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Anthony Albanese says his government, if re-elected, will establish taskforce to investigate ‘excessive’ pricing regimes, and it will be enforced by ACCC

Anthony Albanese has promised that a re-elected Labor government will outlaw price gouging by supermarkets, marking the first big policy announcement of the campaign.

The prime minister on Sunday will announce Labor will act on recommendations made by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to improve transparency about supermarket prices, promotions and loyalty programs.

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MP Andrew Gee praises himself as ‘the good guy’ in Facebook fail

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Independent MP for Calare caught doing an ‘Angus Taylor’ by replying to a Facebook post from his own account

Andrew Gee, an independent MP for Calare in NSW, has been caught doing an “Angus Taylor” by replying to a Facebook post from his own account.

Gee posted a statement on Facebook on Friday accusing the Nationals of engaging in “dirty tactics” on day one of the election, claiming they had called an elderly constituent and spread “blatant lies about who I was going to preference in this election”.

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Protesters turn up at Dutton’s events despite secret travel plans – as it happened

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We are currently waiting on the PM, who is due to hold a press conference in … Dickson, which of course is Peter Dutton’s electorate.

Dutton claims comparisons to Trump show PM doesn’t have a plan

If the PM has that attack, know that they don’t have a plan.

If the PM had done a better job over the past three years, if the country was better off, the economy was better off, the PM will be telling a different story.

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Federal election ‘will be won or lost in the suburbs’, Chalmers says

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Treasurer is scathing of Coalition’s pledge to repeal Labor’s tax cuts but admits he is ‘very concerned’ about global trade war

The federal election will be a battle of the suburbs, the treasurer says, declaring Labor’s budget and economic plan is focused squarely on the outer suburban areas which may decide the next prime minister.

In an interview with Guardian Australia’s Full Story podcast, Jim Chalmers also dismissed Peter Dutton’s budget reply centrepiece, a temporary fuel excise cut, as providing “no ongoing help with the cost of living”.

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Coalition may rethink rules that push car markers to create cheaper EVs and hybrids for Australians

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Opposition says Labor’s national vehicle emission standard is ‘poorly designed’, despite data showing uptick in green vehicle sales

Australia’s love-hate relationship with fuel-guzzling utes and SUVs is now a looming election issue, after the Coalition indicated it may rethink Labor’s vehicle emission standard.

On Tuesday the shadow transport minister, Bridget McKenzie, called Labor’s vehicle emission standard “poorly designed” and said the Coalition will have “more to say” about it when the opposition releases its own transport policy before the election.

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