Follow live as we bring you all the news from the election campaign.
Follow live as we bring you all the news from the election campaign.
When Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton were asked about the price of eggs in yesterday evening’s final leaders’ debate, one politician’s response was far more incorrect than the others.
Albanese’s answer of $7 – “if you can find them” – isn’t too far off the mark at all, but Dutton’s answer of $4.20 is fanciful.
Australians paid about 12 per cent more for eggs in February than they did the same time last year, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics data.
The last time egg prices were around $4.20 was between 2018 and 2019, more than five years ago.
Depending on where you live and the quality of eggs you’re buying, egg prices can vary significantly.
Australia’s current egg shortage can be attributed to avian influenza, or bird flu, which has resulted in the death of more than 1.8 million egg-laying hens.
Woolworths and Coles, which account for nearly 70 per cent of national supermarket retail sales and where most Australians are likely to buy their eggs, sell a dozen extra-large cage-free eggs for $5.90, which is among some of the lowest prices this masthead could find.
Aldi’s website indicates it’s selling a dozen extra-large cage eggs for $5.49 and free-range eggs for $6.19. If you’re shopping at Woolworths, a dozen home-brand extra-large free-range eggs will cost $6.60, while 12 jumbo cage-free eggs from Pace Farm will set you back $8.80.
Over at Coles, a dozen free-range eggs from Sunny Queen Farms cost $8.50, while the same number of “big brekkie browns” eggs from the same farm costs $10.20.
Those more inclined to organic produce will find a carton of 10 Pirovic free-range jumbo eggs from Harris Farm Markets for $12.99.
The same number of organic jumbo eggs from Pirovic costs $16.49.
Multiple industry figures that this masthead spoke to pointed to restrictions imposed by the ACCC in discussing egg prices. The ACCC has been contacted for comment.
Good afternoon, I’m Nicole Precel, I’ll be taking you through the news as it happens for the rest of the day. Here’s what we’ve seen so far:
One of the world’s biggest credit rating agencies has put the major parties on notice that Australia could lose its triple A rating if their election promises result in larger structural budget deficits.
Coalition Leader Peter Dutton and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese began today’s campaign on the NSW Central Coast.
Dutton’s bus got stuck on Sydney’s Pitt Street this morning, a push from the media pack, as well as a few sheets of fibreboard, a hydraulic pump and a rescue crew got the bus moving again.
The Labor Party maintained a lead over the Coalition in the most recent Newspoll commissioned by News Corp’s The Australian.
Dutton described Welcome to Country ceremonies as divisive before events like football games, but respectful at official events such as the annual opening of parliament during Channel Seven’s leaders debate on Sunday night. During the debate, both Dutton and Albanese confirmed their trust in the White House.
Peter Dutton is very clear – Welcome to Country ceremonies are being overdone.
His decisive pronouncement on the divisive issue comes at the start of the final week of campaigning and is a marked change in direction from his previous wanderings.
Dutton’s position has meandered on a host of issues during this campaign, including work-from-home policies, cutting the migration intake and the tax treatment of electric vehicle purchases.
But not today.
As we posted about earlier, Dutton said that Welcome to Country ceremonies – performed by an Indigenous elder on their ancestral lands – should be “reserved for significant events of our country”.
He said this does not extend to Anzac Day.
Dutton’s opposition to Welcome to Country is a hardening of his comment last week, after several people booed the ceremonies at Anzac Day dawn services, when he said that are “an important part of official ceremonies and [they] should be respected”.
He then went further, arguing that Qantas’ familiar acknowledgement of country on flights was overdone.
Gone was Dutton’s dancing around issues, so too his unpolished press conferences where journalists found opportunities to pepper him on his open-ended answers.
It’s the Coalition leader’s last lap before polling day, and he is waiting for nobody.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has had a colourful visit to a polling booth in the southern Sydney seat of Banks, held by the Liberals.
There was representation from across the political spectrum as volunteers handed out flyers to punters arriving to cast early votes — there was an on-the-ground presence from the Liberals, Labor, Greens, Muslim Votes Matter, independents, Fatima Payman’s Australia’s Voice party and the Libertarians.
Unsurprisingly, then, the reception that Albanese received was mixed.
He was loudly heckled by Payman’s NSW Senate candidate, Emanie Darwiche, who cried: “Anthony Albanese, you are committing genocide”.
Another man in a van driving past yelled out: “You’re the reason we’re broke, bro”.
The third heckler was in higher spirits. “Hey Albo,” they shouted from their car window, before using an expletive to give the prime minister a very Australian compliment.
Coalition spokeswoman for Indigenous Australians, Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has backed Dutton’s call on Welcome to Country being overdone.
Speaking on Sky News, Price said they should be reserved for special occasions such as when parliament resumes.
“My position has always been that we have absolutely overdone Welcome to Country and acknowledgement of country, especially when they become politicised sort of statements that are divisive, as opposed to you know, feeling like it is a welcome,” she said.
“I absolutely agree with Peter Dutton that it’s overdone.”
Peter Dutton is the first leader to be asked about a warning today from global ratings agency S&P Global that the nation could lose its AAA credit rating if neither of the major parties offset their election promises by controlling spending.
And the answer is … a little off-piste.
He declares that the point of the S&P report is that “Labor is reckless with taxpayers’ money”, even though it is a warning to both major parties about their promises and use of off-budget items.
Dutton then swings to his attack on the state of the budget, where he credits the Morrison government with surpluses and deficits.
“The only reason Labor was able to achieve surpluses in their first two years and deficits for every year thereafter is because of what they were bequeathed from the Liberal Party when we were in government,” he said.
The Coalition is promising a better budget bottom line than the government. Dutton said voters can expect to see his costings, which have to include expensive commitments including a $6 billion plan to cut fuel excise for a year and a $10 billion one-off tax offset to millions of workers, in “due course”.
Peter Dutton has said that Welcome to Country ceremonies should be “reserved for significant events of our country”, but that they were not appropriate for Anzac Day services, citing conversations he had with veterans following the booing of two services over the long weekend.
“It is ultimately for the organisers of the events, and they can make the decision based on their membership and what their board wants,” Dutton said, “but listening to a lot of veterans in the space, Anzac Day is about our veterans … I think the majority view would be that they don’t want it on that day.”
Dutton did say that Welcome to Country was appropriate at the start of parliament, but that Qantas reading out Welcome to Country when a plane lands was overdone.
“I think that is over the top, I have been very clear about that,” Dutton said.
Peter Dutton has not backed a call from Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie on Sunday that there would be no cuts to working holidaymaker visas.
Asked if he will reduce working holidaymaker visas, the opposition leader would not answer the question.
“We have been clear in relation to migration. We have had a population boom under the prime minister and that is why young Australians are locked out of the housing market,” he said.
“We are going to reduce permanent migration by 25 per cent. We are going to reduce the figure by 100,000.”
Dutton has described the Greens as an “antisemitic, Jew-hating party” as he avoids a question on his candidate for Fowler.
Liberal candidate Vivek Singha apologised for the social media posts, first reported by ABC, after posts from 2023 reveal him describing Indigenous Australians as “lazybags” and attacking Plibersek when it was revealed her daughter had been in an abusive relationship.
Dutton said it was important that Singha apologised before launching into an attack against Albanese and the Greens.
“[Singha’s comments] were inappropriate and shouldn’t have been made. He has apologised for them. I won’t take a lecture from the prime minister who has a relationship with the Greens,” he said.
“[Albanese] is preferencing a Green No.2. This is an antisemitic, Jew-hating party.”
Dutton has dodged a question on whether his guess last night that eggs cost $4 is a bad look.
During the debate, both leaders were asked the average cost for 12 eggs. Dutton answered $4 and Albanese $7. The current cost is about $8.
Speaking from Salamander Bay in NSW, Dutton did not answer a question whether this created a bad look.
“The point that most families have made to us, is the cost of everything has gone up,” he said.
“The cost of everything has gone up in the household budget.”