PM takes aim at Max Chandler-Mather while campaigning in Brisbane – as it happened​on April 29, 2025 at 7:55 am

We’re going to leave it here for the day – thanks for following along. In case you missed it, here’s what happened today:

• Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has labelled Peter Dutton’s comments about country acknowledgments “pure culture-war stuff” that “turns a lot of people off”, saying that organisations should be left to decide whether they want their events to start with ceremonies of welcome.

• The opposition still has not released its costings, despite being four days out until election day. Asked about it on the campaign trail, Peter Dutton says the costings will be provided “in due course”, adding the costings would “demonstrate that the bottom line will always be better under a Liberal government”.

• The fight over the Brisbane seat of Griffith, which is held by the Greens’ housing spokesperson, Max Chandler-Mather, heated up today. Anthony Albanese, visiting the seat, took aim at the Greens MP, saying he had “personally held up” investments in housing. The Greens leader Adam Bandt hit back, saying Chandler-Mather had “done more than anyone in parliament for renters and first-time buyers”.

• Former Liberal minister Ken Wyatt said politicising welcomes to country “just adds to the division”, saying that he was “disappointed” with anybody who did not take the time to understand the importance of being welcomed into someone’s home country or region.

• Peter Dutton doubled down on his criticisms of the journalists covering his election campaign, calling the media “activists” and “so biased”, in an interview with Sky News last night. The comments came after Dutton referred to the ABC and Guardian Australia as “hate media” a few days ago, comments his Liberal colleagues tried to walk back, suggesting they had been made “tongue in cheek”.

Be sure to join us again tomorrow as we enter the final countdown to election day.

Welcome to country ceremonies were not mentioned by the Coalition, Labor or the Greens in their engagement with the RSL on matters identified as being top priorities to veterans.

The RSL wrote to all three parties earlier this month seeking information about how they would address “five priority” issues affecting the wellbeing of veterans in Australia.

The questions included:

• What are your top priorities when it comes to implementing the recommendations of the royal commission?

• How will your party ensure veterans and their families receive the advocacy support they require?

• How do you and your party plan to eliminate barriers to essential healthcare for veterans and their families?

• Can you commit to adequate funding and resources for DVA to ensure there isn’t a recurrence of the claims backlog?

• In these turbulent times, how will your party ensure we are prepared to meet current and future national security challenges?

The RSL did not include any reference to welcome to or acknowledgment of country, nor did the official responses of all three major parties. The responses are now available on the RSL website.

Greens claim that Labor have not reduced reliance on external consultants, as claimed

The Greens have cited research from the parliamentary library to allege the Albanese government has not reduced its reliance on external consultants as claimed, calling on it to set targets for the phased reduction of their use.

Research by the parliamentary library, provided to the Greens and seen by Guardian Australia, states the value of contracts with the so-called big four consultancy firms (KPMG, EY, Deloitte, PwC) fell from $275m in 2021-22 to $121m in 2023-24. This reflected the government’s unease with the big four firms post a scandal involving PwC Australia.

But the same research states the overall spend on consultancy contracts fell from $683m in 2021-22 to $634m in 2023-24 – a drop of just $49m.

Greens senator Barbara Pocock said most of the $5.3bn saved by the government during its first term was not from consultants, but instead from external labour hire contracts.

In the wake of the PwC scandal, Labor has convinced everyone that their crackdown on contracts with the big four consulting firms has led to reduced spending on consultants, but it hasn’t.

During their first year in office consulting contracts were cut by almost $100m but in 2023-24 Labor’s total spend on consultants rose to just over $643m, roughly $40m less than the Morrison government spent in 2021-22.

I made some very clear recommendations following the two parliamentary inquiries into the Government’s use of consultants, advocating targets for a phased reduction in spending on consultants across all departments and agencies. Why won’t Labor commit to the Greens policy of reducing spending on external consultants by 15% each year over five years?

Greens leader hits back at Albanese over ‘policy of unlimited rent rises’

The Greens leader, Adam Bandt, has hit back at Anthony Albanese over comments about the Greens’ housing spokesperson, Max Chandler-Mather.

The prime minister was in the Brisbane seat of Griffith today, which Labor is hoping to take from Chandler-Mather, who has been outspoken about renters’ rights throughout the last term of parliament.

During an event today, Albanese called out Chandler-Mather, saying:

We know that the local MP here has held up, personally held up – as the Greens party housing spokesperson – held up investments like this, has held up investments in the Housing Australia Future Fund, held up the Help to Buy scheme which is … about equity in home ownership, held up the build-to-rent scheme.

Speaking to the ABC this afternoon, the Greens leader said it was “pretty brave” of the prime minister to go to Brisbane “to spruik Labor’s policy of unlimited rent rises and $180bn in handouts to other property investors and sending already unaffordable house prices soaring.”

As to Max – Max Chandler-Mather is the member for renters and first-time buyers, he has done more than anyone in parliament for renters and first-time buyers including through the negotiations of the prime minister was referring to, securing an extra $3bn for public and community housing.

Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has labelled Peter Dutton’s comments about country acknowledgments “pure culture-war stuff” that “turns a lot of people off”, saying that organisations should be left to decide whether they want their events to start with ceremonies of welcome.

“[It’s] a division,” Turnbull told ABC News. “This is Peter Dutton going to things that aggravate his base, that play well on Sky News and 2GB and the rightwing media system which he has drawn a lot of his inspiration and ideas and unfortunately for him, they played poorly, I would say, in the general electorate.”

Turnbull said that his position on welcome to country and acknowledgments of country was that “it’s a matter for every organisation. If this RSL wants to do it, fine, if they don’t want to do it, fine, it’s not compulsory.”

What the government should be doing is saying, they should decide whether they want to have welcome to country, an acknowledgment of country, [at the] opening of parliament … but on other occasions, leave it to people and organisations to make up their own mind.

This is just – look, this will work for him in some areas but it is just pure culture-war stuff and I think it turns a lot of people off. I think it’s a mistake to go down that route.

Former department secretary raises concerns over Labor’s plan to cut consultants and labour hire

A former deputy secretary of the finance department, Stephen Bartos, has raised concerns about government services being affected if a re-elected Albanese government slashes its use of external labour and consultants without rebuilding the capacity of the public service.

Labor plans to save $6.4bn over four years by restricting the government’s use of consultants, labour hire, contractors and non-staff expenses such as travel, hospitality and property purchases. This is in addition to the $5.3bn it has saved since the 2022 through similar measures.

The finance minister, Katy Gallagher, insists this can be done without sacrificing services offered to Australians. But Bartos, now a professor at the University of Canberra, says the government will need to spend money to ensure that is the case:

Some of the least necessary consulting contracts have been targeted already. They’ve also been investing in rebuilding the capability of the public service. It’s very hard to cut out consultants without ruining services until you have rebuilt capability. To the extent that they are confident they have recreated some internal capability, it is actually easier to make the savings.

If you get rid of consultants and there is nobody else to do the work, you’ve got a problem. Conceivably, they can find public servants to do that work, in which case, the savings are less than quoted because you have to hire and pay those public servants.

Bartos said it was difficult to analyse the savings measure as very little detail had been provided by the government, days before an election:

This is the difficulty in seeing a costing that is just a set of numbers, rather than a detailed explanation of what the assumptions are and what the mechanism to implement this is.

Former Indigenous affairs minister and former state director of the New South Wales Liberal party, Philip Ruddock, says it is appropriate to hold an acknowledgment of the country at local council meetings.

In recent days, Peter Dutton has criticised the acknowledgments as “overused” and said they were not necessary at many events, including the Anzac Day dawn service and on commercial flights. He said welcome to country ceremonies were appropriate at the opening of a new parliament, after an election.

When Ruddock was the mayor of Sydney’s Hornsby shire, he signed off on an acknowledgment that noted the Darug and Guringai peoples are the traditional owners of the Hornsby land. The statement, read at council meetings and included in corporate documents, said: “We acknowledge and uphold their intrinsic connection and continuing relationship to country.”

In 2021, Ruddock said the acknowledgment was “another step in a direction council has been moving to for a long time, to ensure that members of the First Nations are properly included within our community and are an active part of our broader society”.

Ruddock told Guardian Australia he still believed that was appropriate:

We had an acknowledgment at council meetings and I believe they were appropriate. We didn’t have them at every event, we still worked on the basis that we would do it where we thought it was appropriate.

Thank you all for joining me on the blog today, I’ll leave you now with the wonderful Kate Lyons to take you through the afternoon.

Have a great arvo (go pat a dog!) and I’ll catch you here bright and early tomorrow morning.

Albanese hits the streets in Brisbane’s south

Anthony Albanese is out on the street again this afternoon, braving the public in the electorate of Moreton.

Moreton is a safe Labor seat, held at the last election with a 9.1% margin, by retiring MP Graham Perrett.

Dogs seem to be a running theme on the Albanese campaign trail today.

Interactive map: which electorates will see the tightest races?

With just a few days left of the campaign, there are a few key seats that will make or break the election for the major parties.

You can see those that will come down to the wire, and those that are the safest here.

It’s a fun map to explore (trust me!)

Did Dutton get the inflation rate wrong?

Near the beginning of Dutton’s presser earlier, he was asked what the current inflation rate is.

He said, “2.7% is the answer to your question.”

The headline inflation rate for February, which is the latest figure we have, was 2.4%. So was he wrong?

Dutton’s 2.7% could have been referring to the annual trimmed mean inflation, which excludes the annual fall in electricity, and other pricing volatility.

Greens senator calls Dutton’s welcome to country comments ‘shameful’, ‘nasty politics’

Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young says Peter Dutton’s “doubling down” against welcome to country ceremonies are “shameful”.

She told ABC Adelaide radio she’s concerned the heckling during a ceremony at a dawn service on Anzac day has been “given licence” by some in politics looking to “divide”.

I think that the disruption at the dawn service on Anzac Day was an absolute disgrace from those neo-Nazis. I think, unfortunately that type of disruption has been given licence by some in politics who have sought to divide rather than look at what brings us together.

Welcome to country ceremonies are such a simple but important way of acknowledging our past, who we are as a country … It is nasty politics and it is Trump politics and it has no place in Australia.

Going back to Peter Dutton’s press conference – that was one of the shortest media appearances he’s given on the campaign, barely getting beyond 15 minutes (including the opening preamble from himself and the local Liberal candidate) and only taking a small number of questions.

He appeared strongly on the defensive today, and wouldn’t repeat criticisms he’s made in recent days about the media, particularly the travelling pack of journalists following his campaign, who he last night called “so biased” and “activists” on Sky News.

Dutton has recently been giving all, or nearly all, journalists a question each day at his press conferences, most recently going around in a circle so everyone gets a turn (and to avoid journos shouting over each other). But today he took only a handful of questions, skipping over a number of journalists, in a way he normally doesn’t.

He said at several points that he was on a tight schedule – “we’re going to do one each today because we’re up against the clock,” he claimed early on.

But after skipping a few journalists, Dutton was asked why he wasn’t giving everyone a shot at questioning him today.

“Why have we been skipped over?” one journalist asked.

“Well, we’re going to go this way,” he replied.

Dutton was asked about his Sky comments in the last question he took before cutting the press conference short.

He didn’t directly answer, saying he believed voters were not focused on the “feelings” of any of the press pack. When pressed on whether it was just a convenient excuse to blame the media, and if he thought anyone in the press conference was biased, Dutton wrapped the press conference and walked off after about a dozen questions.

Albanese comments on Canadian election, thanks Mark Carney ‘for defending Vegemite’

Anthony Albanese has commented on the election results coming out of Canada, which show Liberal leader Mark Carney on track to defeat the Pierre Poilievre-led Conservatives.

Well it looks very positive for him. I’ve had a couple of really warm conversations with him. I thank him for defending Vegemite – [that was] a really practical outcome of the friendship that we have between Australia and Canada. We have a close relationship, we are very similar countries, both part of the Commonwealth, we share a lot in common.

Albanese is asked if it’s a positive for the western alliance that Canada’s incumbent government retained power.

Mark Carney has shown in the short time that he’s been prime minister that he’s determined represent the national interest of Canada.

Asked about Carney’s tough approach to dealing with US president Donald Trump, the prime minister said:

Mark Carney has stood up for national interests, just as I stand up for Australia’s interest.

Coalition would commit $113.6m to Moss Vale bypas: Dutton

A Liberal government would commit $113.6m to a Moss Vale bypass, Peter Dutton has announced.

The northern bypass commitment, confirmed by Dutton at a press conference in the southern highlands town on Tuesday, would reduce traffic and improve safety for drivers and pedestrians, the Liberal leader said.

Dutton’s announcement said the road would be delivered in partnership with the NSW state government, and that his federal commitment would contribute most of the necessary funds for the 3.4km bypass.

The Coalition is seeking to take Whitlam, a longtime Labor stronghold, at this weekend’s election. Liberal candidate Nathaniel Smith is looking to capitalise on the retirement of veteran Labor member Stephen Jones. Dutton said:

For too long, this region has been taken for granted by Labor. The local community has been crying out for the Moss Vale northern bypass and unlike the Albanese Labor government, the Coalition has listened.

Smith said the road would make the southern highlands “a more enjoyable place to live, work and visit”.

Reducing traffic along Argyle Street has been a longstanding concern for our community, particularly with the recent surge in residential development.

Dutton ignores questions on his labelling of ABC, Guardian as ‘hate media’

The press conference ends somewhat abruptly, after a final question from ABC reporter Pablo Viñales on Dutton’s comments calling the ABC and Guardian “hate media”, and labelling some journalists “activists”.

Dutton says:

I think what Australians are concentrating on only days out from the election is not the feelings of, you know, with respect, anyone but …

He’s interrupted, with a journalist saying that he’s the one that’s taken issue.

Dutton ignores them, and goes to his campaign spiel, touting his cost-of-living policies and the local candidate standing with him.

Journalists try to interrupt, saying, “Isn’t blaming the media just a convenient excuse at this point of the campaign?”

Again he doesn’t answer and ends saying he wants to “keep our country safe”.

The press conference went not much over 15 minutes.

Mark Carney set to win Canadian election

Across the other side of the world, it’s looking like the progressive Liberal party in Canada, with leader Mark Carney, will win the Canadian election.

We all know that Donald Trump has been a prominent feature of the Australian election campaign, and even more so in Canada.

Dutton, when asked about the impact Trump has had on that election, repeats a previous line that the Australian election is “between Anthony Albanese and myself”.

He won’t say whether there’s been an impact on Canada’s Conservative party, and says “I haven’t seen the results yet… we’ll wait and see the results”.

Dutton rules out nuclear site in his Dickson electorate

Dutton says there’s not going to be a nuclear site in his electorate, after treasurer Jim Chalmers claimed twice that the Coalition would build a plant in Dutton’s seat of Dickson.

Dutton was asked recently whether he’d feel comfortable living near a nuclear power plant, to which he replied yes. Then Chalmers twice told reporters that the comment meant the Coalition would build a plant in his seat. On Monday, Chalmers said:

To all of those people in that wonderful part of south-east Queensland, in the electorate of Dickson, you all need to know that your local member wants to build a nuclear reactor in your suburbs.

Today, Dutton accused Labor of “playing games”:

Those seven sites were identified around the country. There’s not one in my electorate. So the prime minister can play all sorts of games.

He was also asked about the anti-nuclear protesters earlier today, when he was pledging funding for a local football club. He blames the teals and the Greens for pulling “stunts”.

In relation to the kids who I think were disappointed to have their event disrupted, it would have been nice to spend more time with them but there were Greens and teal supporters dressed up and it was a stunt …

It made no difference to me in terms of protest activity, but it disrupted an event where we wanted to talk about helping kids play junior rugby.

Josh Butler had the full story here.

It feels like rapid-fire today, Dutton’s giving shorter answers, and skipping through reporters trying to ask follow-up questions.

He’s asked about how he’ll pay for all of his promises (a reminder, the Coalition hasn’t yet released its costings). The AFR’s Michael Read says Dutton’s mentioned that the tax offset and petrol excise will cost $16bn, and he’s looked at reversing Labor’s tax cuts to pay for defence spending – so how will it all be paid for?

Dutton says the costings will be provided “in due course” (there are only four days left until election day).

We’ve provided some of the costings and we’ll provide those costings in due course in relation to our policies but they’ll demonstrate that the bottom line will always be better under a Liberal government. We’ll always manage the economy more effectively.

Asked later in the presser whether it’ll be hard to claw back the $100bn in Labor spending that the Coalition has opposed, Dutton says he’s gone through all the numbers with the Parliamentary budget office.

We’ve made commitments in relation to many programs and they’ve been properly funded. We’ve gone through all of the numbers with the PBO in relation to a number of policies and we’ll release that detail.