Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton are into the second week of their campaigns. Follow our rolling coverage here.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton are into the second week of their campaigns. Follow our rolling coverage here.
We are following Albanese and Dutton on the campaign trail. Earlier today, they were in Brisbane and Donnybrook, on Melbourne’s outskirts, respectively. Treasurer Jim Chalmers joined the PM in Queensland. Here’s a pictorial look at their movements.
Finishing his speech, Albanese said his party didn’t “beg and borrow” from other ideologies, but built its own.
In a subtle dig against Dutton’s policies that Labor is saying are similar to Trump’s, Albanese said Labor stood up for Australian values.
“We don’t beg and borrow … ideologies from anywhere else in the world. We build on our values, fairness and opportunity for all,” he said.
Albanese added Labor would never copy America on healthcare, education and social policies.
“The future that we want is not an American-style wages system or American levels of student debt and never, ever American healthcare … in this time of uncertainty, we should not try to be more like someone else or somewhere else. We only need to trust in what makes us Australian, a place in the world, our values, our people,” he said.
“These are uncertain times, but I am absolutely certain of this. This is not a time of cutting and wrecking, of thinking small, punching down, aiming low, or looking back. This is a time for building, building the stronger Medicare that Australians deserve.”
Albanese has formally announced Labor’s battery policy, earning him cheers from the crowd of supporters.
Home owners will be offered 30 per cent off home electric batteries under a Labor scheme to give thousands of dollars in taxpayer subsidies to any household that wants the power-bill reducing devices, regardless of their wealth.
“Today, I announced that Labor will make batteries 30 per cent cheaper for Australian homes, small businesses and community facilities,” Albanese said.
“Our plan for cheaper home batteries will start on the 1st of July this year. It … makes the choice crystal clear, wait until sometime in the 2040s for expensive nuclear energy under the Liberal Party, or save money this year and every year afterwards with solar power under Labor.
Albanese says the reason Dutton wants to sack more than 40,000 people is because he needs funding for his nuclear policy.
“The thing that really gets them excited is sacking over 40,000 people,” Albanese said.
“Not even a month ago I saw first-hand working out of the van and Hervey Bay, to deliver disaster recovery payments to locals, people from the new National Emergency Management Agency who played such a vital role in preparing Queensland communities last month, and right now helping out the flood-affected communities in western Queensland that I visited yesterday.
“These Liberal cuts would mean the return of robo-debt … the Liberals’ cuts will drag Australia back to the days of tens of thousands of veterans waiting in vain for compensation and support … Wearing our uniform. Serving our nation. Ignored for so long that some passed away. Before their claims were even considered.
“This time around, the Liberals want to cut deeper. Much deeper. Because this time they need to find $600 billion to pay for the nuclear reactors.”
Albanese has gone on the attack of Dutton, saying the opposition leader’s focus was about living in Sydney after his earlier comments that he would live in Kirribilli House over The Lodge in Canberra.
“My opponent started his campaign measuring up the curtains at Kirribilli House,” Albanese said, before scoffing that Dutton was “some Queenslander”.
“While telling everyone else they cannot work from home. He is dreaming about Sydney Harbour, we are upgrading the Bruce Highway.”
The crowd cheered for Albanese while calling out “shame” to Dutton’s actions.
“He … denigrates people working from home, we are building more homes. That is the choice. There is Labor, strengthening your Medicare and building Australia’s future, or Peter Dutton who wants to cut everything except for your income taxes.”
Albanese has stood to a hero’s welcome at the rally in Brisbane, beginning his speech by saying Labor will cut taxes again and again.
Spending a few moments waving to cheering supporters, Albanese thanked everyone for a “warm Queensland welcome”.
“Tax cuts for all 14 million taxpayers, not just some. That is how we have spent our first 10 days of this campaign,” Albanese said.
“Building on the strong foundations we have laid over the last three years. Focusing on the policies that will make people better off over the next three years. And while we have been running on our positive plan, the LNP have been running for cover.”
Chalmers has attacked Dutton for creating “one DOGEy disaster after another” in reference to Trump and Elon Musk’s public servant cuts as part of the US Department of Government Efficiency.
“[Dutton’s] response to American tariffs on every country is higher taxes for every Australian taxpayer, meeting economic madness with economic madness, taking his cues straight from the United States with one DOGEy disaster after another,” Chalmers said.
The treasurer said there was “whispering” in the Liberal Party about Dutton’s election performance.
“I think they’ve got a point. In the first 10 days of this campaign, he’s promised to increase taxes for every Australian taxpayer. He’s talked about abolishing the Department of Education. He’s flown to a winery to promise cuts to public transport,” Chalmers said.
“He’s announced and then cancelled two referendums in two different interviews. He’s put forward a gas plan with no numbers that he can’t explain to distract from a nuclear plan with one big number that he can’t mention.
“He’s claimed he’s the only person in the world who could have held back the tariffs. And when he was asked about all of this, he said, ‘you haven’t seen anything yet’.”
Treasurer Jim Chalmers is speaking from the Brisbane rally, declaring his home state is crucial for the election.
“There is no more important [electorate] than Griffith,” he said to cheers.
“I know that we are Queenslanders because we are robust and resilient, we are practical and pragmatic.”
Chalmers continued his speech by promoting Labor’s economic policies but acknowledged the world was taking a turn for the worst.
“The global outlook is so uncertain, dark clouds gather in the global economy, just as the sun has broken through here at home, our economy is turning the corner when the world is taking a turn for the worse,” he said.
“So there could not be a more dangerous time to double back and retrace our steps to risk it all with the lower wages, the higher taxes and the secret cuts pitched up by our opponents.”
Brisbane’s Labor members have poured into the Greens-held electorate of Griffith today, where the prime minister will deliver his first major speech of the campaign to a rally at the Queensland State Library, known as The Edge.
The party is hoping that is exactly what this move gives it as it campaigns to win back the seat from Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather.
The 200-strong crowd will hear Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Albanese speak, as the party launches its discount scheme for home batteries, a policy lobbed directly at the upwardly mobile voters and environmentally conscious voters in inner-city seats.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is speaking at a rally in Brisbane.
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