Australia election 2025 live: Chalmers takes aim at ‘savage cuts and bigger deficits’ revealed in Coalition policy costings​on May 1, 2025 at 6:24 am

WA premier dubs Albanese, “pretty much a local”, with the PM having visited the state 33 times over the last three years.

Roger Cook, who had a resounding victory in the state election back in March, is spruiking the schools agreement made between the commonwealth and state, and makes a rallying cry for Albanese.

The PM opens up to questions, the first one goes to Katina Curtis on truth in politicsal advertising. She says in an election that has been characterised by “mistruths and accusations of lying” should Labor have another crack?

Albanese says:

We tried to do a range of legislation which we didn’t have support for from the Coalition.

The laws are ones that the independents and crossbench have been pushing for.

PM takes dig at Dutton over backflip on school curriculum changes

Albanese is focused on education, and uses the opportunity to take a dig at the opposition leader over his stance on changing the school curriculum.

The Coalition has said it wants to change the curriculum, and Dutton has said students are being “indoctrinated” in schools.

During his presser earlier today, Dutton said he’d work with parents on the curriculum, but when pushed further by Josh Butler, he admitted, “We don’t have any proposals.”

Albanese says:

We are seeing another backflip from Peter Dutton over school curriculum. I made this point. The current school curriculum was put in place by the former government, not us. But they looked for culture wars in every corner that they can find one. Every dark corner is where they are looking and having said they would rail against the curriculum, that it wasn’t appropriate, now they are saying they won’t touch the curriculum. It’s not clear.

PM campaigns with Sam Lim in Perth

The prime minister is standing up in Perth alongside Labor MP Sam Lim, who you may remember is a dolphin trainer. He’s looking upbeat.

We are now 48 hours away from polling day. And it’s a clear choice and the selection between Labor, supporting and building Australia’s future, investing in our people, investing in our infrastructure, investing in our future or a Coalition of cuts and chaos, that’s what is at stake between now and Saturday.

Here’s our look at the seat of Tangney:

Price says only a Coalition government will deliver cost-of-living relief.

I’m over having a prime minister who has deceived the Australian people over and over and over again, who has run a deceitful scare campaign against Peter Dutton because Peter Dutton poses a threat because he is a safe pair of hands along with David Littleproud to … ensure that we can get out of this cost-of-living crisis and take care of our national security as well.

And that is what this is all about, it’s a very – crucial decision that we all have to make as Australians, come this Saturday to ensure that we can get Australia back on track.

Coalition flags internet and telco upgrades in regions

Nationals leader David Littleproud is appearing in Alice Springs alongside Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price. They are both wearing big hats.

Littleproud is flagging internet infrastructure upgrades and telecommunications improvements to the regions, including a universal service obligation to ensure minimum standards in remote areas.

He says the government has “not held the telcos to account” and Australia needs to capitalise on new technology, pointing to developments from Elon Musk.

AEC urges campaigners to behave respectfully on election day

The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) has urged campaigners to behave respectfully to each other on election day at a time of “heightened passion”, adding it has “close relationships” with local police forces.

Electoral commissioner Jeff Pope said with around 12 million Australians still to vote on Saturday, the campaign had been tainted by reports of aggression and intimidation near pre-poll venues.

Australian federal elections are rightly a time of heightened passion but they’re also famous and admired right across Australia and internationally for respectful behaviour and a festival-type environment.

The AEC is not a police force and does not have jurisdiction to undertake conflict resolution or get in the middle of a dispute outside our polling places. However, we do have close relationships with local police forces around the country who are closely monitoring activities.

Pope said in some instances the AEC had written to candidates and branches of registered political parties to “alert them to the reports being received” and “remind everyone of the right for voters to have a comfortable voting experience”.

The Barries’ final observations before the election

As Australians prepare to vote, and pick up their democracy sausages, on Saturday, Barrie Cassidy and Tony Barry offer some final observations from the 2025 election campaign, marked by Trump, global upheaval and a cost-of-living crisis.

You can hear more of their thoughts on the strategies behind the campaigns in Back to Back Barries, a Guardian Australia podcast. There will be two episodes this week, running on Friday ahead of hitting the polls and again on Sunday when we (hopefully) have a victor.

The Australian electoral commission says as of this morning, with two days until polling day, 4,843,706 Australians have gone to the ballot box. That’s an increase of 800,000 pre-poll votes from yesterday.

The AEC says that the total number of voters that put in early ballots in 2022 was 5,633,857.

Grocery sales lift at Woolworths as hot cross bun sales spike

Woolworths has recorded a rise in the value of grocery sales, partially attributed to the popularity of its Minecraft collectibles programs, lifting overall food sales by 3.6% to $13.1bn over three months.

The Woolworths chief executive, Amanda Bardwell, said today shoppers had been attracted to promotional items given they “continue to be really challenged by cost-of-living” pressures.

While pricing practices at Australia’s major supermarket chains were heavily scrutinised leading up to the election campaign, other areas of concern, such as housing costs, have attracted more attention leading up to polling day.

Slowing inflation and a rate cut has eased pressure on some households, and there are signs consumers are willing to splurge on some nonessential items.

Bardwell said the supermarket had sold about 70m hot cross buns this year, up almost 20% from last year, with some of the newer, indulgent flavours proving popular among shoppers.

But the company’s quarterly result, for the 13-week period to 6 April, was soured by continued weakness in its Big W business, which is headed for a $70m half-year loss after the retailer was forced to cut prices for its spring/summer clothing range, while recording subdued early demand for its autumn/winter stock. Bardwell said:

We’ve announced today that we have made an adjustment to the profit outlook for [Big W], and that is disappointing news for our investors and shareholders, but of course, for our team as well.

The Woolworths-owned discount department chain has struggled to compete with rival Kmart in recent years.

What the polls predict

Labor’s estimated primary vote has jumped again, according to the latest from Guardian Australia’s poll tracker. Labor’s current primary is just on 30% in our latest average, continuing an upward trend over the past several weeks. If borne out in the results on Saturday, it represents a two-point drop from the last election.

The estimated primary vote for the Coalition is 33%, dipping slightly from when we ran the model earlier in the week. This would also be a two-point drop from the last election. But there is still uncertainty in the polls, as you can see in the graphic below.

The primary share for others and independents has jumped. The average for these groups had fallen slightly last week, after the final list of candidates was published and several pollsters stopped using a “generic ballot” in their surveys. The primary vote for One Nation has also been increasing in some recent polls.

Our current estimate is that Labor leads the Coalition 51.5-48.5 on a two-party-preferred basis. The two-party-preferred vote share has been trending towards a repeat of the last election.

Political scientists have struggled to model how a possible increased vote share for independents and minor parties would translate into actual seats. But the results of a YouGov MRP model released today suggest that Labor may increase their seat total.

You can find more granular breakdowns of the polling on our tracking page.

Albanese is asked if he’s got a “hype song” for election day.

He nominates “Sounds of Then (This is Australia)“ by pop rock band GANGgajang.

It’s a great uplifting song, I just hope it’s uplifting on Saturday

If you’re not familiar with the tune, have a listen.

Albanese has phoned in for a quick interview with Hamish McDonald on ABC radio Sydney.

He’s asked about the latest YouGov poll, which showed Labor would win 84 seats – a clear majority – if an election was held today.

I have no expectations. After 2019 (election loss), where people got a shock on the night, it’s really important to not get ahead of ourselves on the basis of polling that just essentially answer what people think at a particular point in time.

We’re working really hard. No prime minister has been re-elected since 2004 when John Howard got re-elected.

I know we’ve got a mountain to climb.

Trump campaign chief claims he visited Australia to advise Liberals at start of election campaign

One of the architects of Donald Trump’s 2024 victory claims he made an unpublicised visit to Australia to advise the Liberal party about “structural issues” related to Peter Dutton ahead of the federal election.

With just two full days of campaigning left, Guardian Australia has reported this morning that the veteran Republican strategist Chris LaCivita told undercover reporters posing as prospective clients for political consulting work he was working as a private consultant on the visit to Australia, not in an official capacity or as an adviser to the US president.

Footage of the undercover conversations was published on Thursday by the Europe-based organisations Correctiv and the Centre for Climate Reporting.

‘‘I was in Australia two weeks ago helping the Liberal party there, on some of their structural issues that they were having with Peter Dutton,” LaCivita said on 16 April in the first of two calls. Australia’s election campaign began on 28 March.

In a statement, LaCivita told Guardian Australia: “I did not and do not work for the Liberal Party of Australia. I provide consulting to a wide variety of business interests – some in Australia some in the US etc in terms of a political party – I have not.

Also, I have never met Mr Dutton, but I hope to when he is elected prime minister.

A Coalition campaign spokesman said:

Mr LaCivita is not advising, has never advised, and is not involved in any way with the Coalition campaign. Mr Dutton has not met with him.

You can read the story here:

Peter Dutton walked back the Coalition’s previous pledge to change the national school curriculum.

During his press conference earlier, our reporter Josh Butler asked Dutton what the Coalition wanted to change, after previously claiming students were being “indoctrinated” in schools.

Dutton said he’d “work with parents to reflect what they want to see”, but when pushed by Butler to say what changes are on the table, Dutton responded:

We don’t have any proposals.

The last school curriculum was put in place during the Morrison government.

‘I’m not sure the Joe Exotic issue is within my remit,’ says Albanese

You might have seen the very out of the blue endorsement for Anthony Albanese by the star of Netflix series, Tiger King’s, Joe Exotic.

At the National Press Club yesterday, Albanese was asked for his initial reaction to the endorsement, from a man who is currently in a US jail.

He had a chuckle, saying it was good to have “some levity” in the campaign but that he wasn’t aware of the endorsement.

Well the plot has thickened since, with Exotic stating on social media that he wanted Albanese to “call President Trump” to secure his release. He wrote:

I made a public offer to work for their zoo for free for six months or any other wildlife conservation if he [Albanese] would call President Trump and ask for me to be released based on the American governments witnesses have admitted to perjury. Will make the same offer to President Trump or the President of Mexico.

Albanese was asked about the update on Triple M Perth:

Maybe he heard about what we were able to do with Julian Assange, who’s now, you know, enjoying life with his family …

It must be said, I’m not sure that the Joe Exotic issue is within my remit.

Leading Indigenous organisation calls for focus on eliminating Indigenous disadvantage

As the election campaign descends into a culture war, a leading Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health research body has called on the next government to focus on eliminating Indigenous disadvantage.

The Lowitja Institute said the election provided an opportunity for the incoming government to reaffirm its commitment to the National Agreement on Closing the Gap. Only four of the 19 targets are on track, while some – including suicide and incarceration rates – are going backwards.

The organisation’s chief executive, Paul Stewart, said long-term funding for Aboriginal community-controlled organisations was key to meeting the targets by 2030.

We know that research led by us and for us leads to effective outcomes.

Lack of consistency and a business-as-usual approach from government and agencies in supporting Aboriginal-led solutions is slowing progress towards closing the gap.