Australian election 2025 live updates: Dutton tells supporters not to listen to ABC, Guardian and ‘other hate media’; Albanese talks up telehealth plan​on April 27, 2025 at 2:32 am

Nationals Senator Bridget McKenzie reaction to a direct question about the Coalition’s plan to lower emissions has been seized on by Climate change and energy minister Chris Bowen.

Bowen has posed a clip of McKenzie laughing in response to the question to social media with a one word comment: “unbelievable”.

Peter Dutton’s team has looted economic policies used to fight past wars – and it’s not working in 2025

As the economy turns, the Coalition finds itself out of step with the electorate.

Committed to a strategy of reminding Australians about the past three miserable years, Peter Dutton has overlearned the lessons of 2024, when voters angry at the soaring cost of living toppled a swathe of governments.

If Anthony Albanese was unlucky to inherit the most inflationary economy in a generation, the tide has turned at the right moment as he battles for a second term.

The surest marker of this sea change was the Reserve Bank of Australia’s interest rate cut on 18 February – the first in more than four years and confirmation that the battle to contain inflation was largely won.

The mortgage relief may have been minor but the change in psychology has been profound.

It’s a major reason why the killer question, “Are you better off now than three years ago?” has lost some of its potency in 2025.

For more on this, read the full analysis here:

McKenzie cites UNSW report about availability of water for nuclear power plants

Going back to Bridget McKenzie’s interview on ABC Insiders this morning, the Nationals senator was asked by ABC Insiders host David Speers about whether there would be enough water for the Loy Yang power plant in Gippsland.

McKenzie cited a University of New South Wales report that examined the availability of water for use in nuclear power generation.

Well, David, University of NSW has done a study into this. It says our water capacity is not a constraint in developing a nuclear industry here in Australia. They are the experts.

McKenzie appeared to refer to the headline of an ABC news report on the study that read: “Enough water for nuclear reactors in NSW but scientists worry about wildlife.”

The text of the story makes clear the study was looking explicitly at sites proposed for New South Wales at Liddell in the Hunter Valley and Mount Piper near Lithgow.

PM says Australians can choose between ‘building’ a future or a ‘nasty’ reboot of the past

Albanese closes out the speech by clearly spelling how he sees the choice at voting day.

In the coming days Australians have a real choice, a choice between seizing the opportunities before us all letting the world overtake us. Between reaching for Australia’s extraordinary potential or cutting into it.

A choice between building Australia’s future or a darker, meaner, nasty reboot of the past. A choice between going forward or getting dragged backwards, a choice between backing Australians or stacking Australians.

‘Never forget robodebt’ and aged care royal commission, Albanese tells supporters

The prime minister has also raised the spectre of robodebt, the aged care royal commission and the treatment of veterans by the previous government.

Never forget robodebt; never forget their neglect of older Australians in care; never forget how they left our military veterans out in the cold. Now their sales pitch to Australia is, literally, let’s go back.

As an aside, it is notable that welfare issues have been almost entirely absent from the campaign, with the government in particular not addressing problems.

Earlier in March, officials from the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations told a Senate estimates hearing that it “cannot” have confidence that the system of mutual obligations has been operating lawfully and the federal ombudsman launched an investigation into the compliance framework.

For more on that story, read the full report from Guardian Australia’s Cait Kelly:

Albanese: Dutton doesn’t want to talk about his ‘risky and expensive’ nuclear policy

Anthony Albanese is now laying into the opposition leader over his nuclear and defence policies.

Look past all the flip-flopping, all the reversals, all the contradictions and you see a very clear pattern: a risky and expensive nuclear policy that he doesn’t want to talk about and he certainly doesn’t want to visit any of the sites. A defence policy that is little more than a media release and handouts that disappear after just 12 months.

These are policies with huge price tags but the last thing Peter Dutton ever wanted to talk about is where he’s going to get the money from. You won’t be surprised that I don’t share his reluctance. He’s going to get it by ripping into health, education and childcare.

Albanese offers an attack line: “He cuts, you pay.”

Albanese brandishes Labor’s Medicare, PBS legacy

And we have the latest instance of the PM holding up a Medicare card.

Delivering a fairer Australia through the National Disability Insurance Scheme and delivering for the health of Australians through two other powerful Labor legacies – Medicare, which didn’t give us just a better health system or import someone else’s, it did something more than that. It invented a truly Australian health system. The fact that this card here is green and gold is no accident. We take pride in it as Australians.

… We also take pride in that other great Labor reform which, like Medicare, was resisted by the Coalition – the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.

The PM has been using Medicare to pitch his government as a builder, and drawing on the legacy of Labor.

So far Albanese has touched on the Homes for Australia plan – reminding party members the Coalition did not have a housing minister during its decade in power – as well as its proposals for more childcare centres, free TAFE and a plan to cut student debt by a fifth.

The PM is now talking about this morning’s proposal for a free telehealth service.

PM: ‘Labor is the party of higher wages’

The PM has spruiked Labor’s record over the past three years, claiming “Labor is the party of higher wages, and people keep more of what they earn because Labor is the party of lower taxes”.

It’s a comment that shows how under Albanese’s leadership, the party has attempted to position itself by triangulating between Labor’s traditional pitch and staking claim to the Coalition’s branding of low taxes and fiscal responsibility.

I met a miner from the Hunter, a woman during this campaign. [She has] $34,000 extra in her pockets as a direct result of what we have done. That is the difference that a Labor government makes.

Anthony Albanese is speaking at a Labor rally in western Sydney where he is striking a different chord to the opposition leader.

The prime minister has opened his speech with an appeal to the home crowd, tracing Australian values of “hard work, talent, kindness and aspiration” as exemplified by Parramatta’s history from the arrival of the first lleet and key to the prosperity of Australia today:

Look around. Parramatta tells that story. People studying hard, starting businesses, creating jobs, giving back to their community.

From those whose ancestors have known and cared for this land for 65,000 years, since before people from the first fleet established farms along the Parramatta River, to everyone who has chosen Australia as their home and enriched our society with their deep love of our country.

The privilege of serving in government carries a profound responsibility, to measure up to the ambition, optimism and energy of our extraordinary nation.

To reward hard work, to nourish aspiration, to help people under pressure, with meaningful and lasting action on the cost of living. And to build for the future. To open the doors of opportunity for the next generation and then widen them.

This is the duty that we work to uphold every single day. To prove worthy of the Australian people.

Aboriginal elder issues statement after Melbourne Storm cancels Welcome To Country

The Djirri Djirri dance group and Wurundjeri elder Aunty Joy Murphy Wandin have released a statement following the decision by Melbourne Storm’s board to axe a planned Welcome to Country ahead of its Anzac Day match.

Murphy Wandin was told by the club on Friday afternoon that a planned address ahead of the Storm’s match at AAMI stadium would be called off because the board was concerned about a repeat of an incident where neo-Nazis booed a Welcome to Country at the ANZAC Dawn Service.

Her father served during World War I and she had planned to wear his medals at the ceremony to honour his memory on Anzac day.

They came back after that discussion and apologised, but after reconsidering we all came to the decision to boycott. We strongly regard this as being totally tokenistic and goes completely against their journey of reconciliation and we feel very disrespected. We stand with and follow the directions of our staunch Elders.

What we do isn’t a performance, it’s cultural ceremony and protocol. we strongly feel this action taken by Melbourne Storm was unnecessary and has caused us hurt and disbelief in what we thought was a good relationship.

We wanted to be commemorating today with pride, but instead it was pain.

Murphy Joy’s father was Sapper James Henry Wandin 1st Division Signal Company Australian Imperial Forces 1917-1919.

For more on this story, read the Guardian’s reporting here:

Just to circle back to Bridget McKenzie’s interview on ABC Insiders this morning. When she was asked directly by host David Speers whether the Coalition had any policies to reduce the emissions responsible for global heating, McKenzie appeared to laugh before moving on to talk about the Coalition’s nuclear proposal.

This appears to be the first time a Coalition MP has been asked this question directly during the campaign.

For more on the Coalition’s total refusal to address climate change and emissions reduction directly, you can read previous reporting by Guardian Australia’s Adam Morton and Graham Readfern:

Why Australia’s most prominent climate change deniers have stopped talking about the climate

The only regular meeting of Australia’s Saltbush Club takes place most Thursday evenings at a golf club in Five Dock, in Sydney’s inner west. The group’s founding members – a collection of the country’s most prominent and avid global heating deniers – include Gina Rinehart, the former Queensland premier Campbell Newman, former Business Council of Australia head Hugh Morgan, and Coalition MP Colin Boyce.

At Five Dock, the crowd is mostly old and mostly white. They sometimes host contrarian speakers. But about six years ago, this gathering of climate sceptics decided to stop talking publicly about the climate.

“We resolved to temporarily pivot from the climate debate and launch the Energy Realists of Australia to talk to people about matters that really concern them, like the price and security of power, instead of science,” said Rafe Champion, another Saltbush founder and a stalwart of the Five Dock meetup.

The idea, Champion wrote on his blog last month, was to target people using “evidence that they can understand, unlike the finer points of climate science”.

As Australia heads towards a federal election, the results of that pivot have been writ large in the campaign. Both major parties notionally support the net zero emissions target. But the coal and climate wars have been replaced in some places by vehement anti-renewables campaigns.

For more on this story, read the full report by Guardian Australia’s Ben Smee and Graham Readfern:

Dutton moves to close out his speech, telling his supporters not to listen to “what you have been told by the ABC, in the Guardian and the other hate media”.

Forget about that. Listen to what you hear on the doors. Listen to what people say on the pre-polling. Know in your hearts that we are a better future for our country. Know we stand up for the values that are important more than ever for families and small businesses. If we stay true to our values and have a strength of leadership, if we have the ability to be truthful with the Australian public, to stand up and to fight for what we believe in, to deliver our vision, to make Australians better off with our petrol cut, with our $1,200 back, to make sure they can buy a home, that is so important to us.

Dutton then predicts that the Coalition will be able to claim victory by 6pm on election night.

There are millions of forgotten Australians, people who are living here, in outer metropolitan areas, people who live in regional towns, they are just starting to stir and they understand their vote will count more than ever this election.

Dutton pledges to ‘bring in more tradies’ through skilled migration program

Dutton says restoring the dream of home ownership would be the “absolute priority” of a future Coalition government say they will do this by “bringing in more tradies” through the skilled migration program and get trainees and apprentices into the construction sector to “get homes built more quickly and at a more affordable price”.

As he reaches his crescendo, Dutton again returns to a promise to save motorists 25 cents a litre by slashing fuel excise.

Our short term interim measures, measures to provide support through the 25 cents per litre cut petrol and diesel, for the benefit of every Australian, to hear 25 cents per litre of every time you fill up your tank if you vote for your Coalition, the Liberal and National candidate at the next election. $1200 back. That is short-term support, and straight away we get down to business.