Election 2025 live: PM says defence monitoring new Chinese vessel off coast; Dutton backtracks on ‘Coke can’ nuclear waste claim

One of the key concerns in areas like the Hunter, a mining area, is what workers and those living in the area will do if the jobs dry up as the coal fired power plants shut down.

The Coalition has promised to build nuclear power stations on seven sites with ageing coal fired power plans (including one in the Hunter), but the timeline shows those plants are well over a decade away.

Dutton is asked what answers he has for the area – which a journalist says is facing 12,000 job losses. Dutton shifts the blame back onto Labor.

The answer they are getting from the government is that green hydrogen will be the base load power, and when people talk about the timelines of nuclear, have a look at the prospect and the commerciality of green hydrogen. It’s just a joke. People are pulling money out of that…

So we have a much more positive plans are not just the Hunter region but for Australia.

Asked by exactly how much electricity and gas prices will drop under the Coalition’s plan, Dutton won’t say.

He says there will be more detail, but shapes up the choice between the two parties.

We will have in terms of our offering at the election to the Australian people a definite plan about how we can reduce prices. Not just keep downward pressure but I want to reduce power prices, want to reduce power prices because that is how we’re going to bring a grocery down.

He’s getting hounded by questions from journalists at the presser on exactly how much energy prices won’t come down.

You can see the Coalition is reluctant to come up with an exact figure (having spent so much time attacking Labor for their broken promise to bring down prices by $275).

The Government is choking supply so they are stopping gas coming to the system which is what will force up prices and we say to the companies, that there is a requirement to put that back into the system through the mechanism we put in place.

Peter Dutton is standing up in Newcastle this morning, in the NSW Hunter region.

He’s starting out on energy prices (a key election showdown between Labor and the Coalition) and the cost of living, and claims the Coalition’s gas plan will bring prices down.

The prime minister has walked away today from his commitment to the $275 reduction …

They [Labor] have driven up the price of everything, groceries are up by 30% and one of the ways we believe we can help families is by cutting the price of fuel by 25 cents a litre. That will help families immediately and we will do that immediately after the election. If Anthony Albanese and the Greens are elected after the election, you will get a 70c-a-day tax cut in 15 months’ time.

The Bob Brown Foundation has launched a court challenge to controversial new legislation to protect the Tasmanian salmon farming industry.

It said it had made an application in the federal court to argue that a bill that passed parliament last week should not apply to a government reconsideration whether a 2012 expansion of fish farming in Macquarie Harbour, on the state’s west coast, was properly approved.

The amendment to national nature laws – the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act – passed with Labor and Coalition support. It was specifically designed to end the reconsideration, which has been ongoing for 16 months.

Bob Brown Foundation campaigner Alistair Allan said the organisation had asked the court to rule that the environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, must still make a decision on the legality of the original approval of the salmon farming expansion.

He said under the new law a reconsideration could be stopped if a development had been ongoing or recurring for at least five years. The Bob Brown Foundation will argue that salmon farming in the harbour has changed significantly over the past five years.

Allan said “our campaign to save the ancient and unique Maugean Skate is far from over”.

Feminist activist Merle Thornton to be given Brisbane statue

Another quick digression from the campaign trail:

Pioneering feminist activist Merle Thornton will be commemorated by a statue in Queensland.

The LNP announced the move this morning, which was originally promised under former Labor premier Steven Miles.

The statue will be built near the Regatta Hotel, in Brisbane’s Toowong. Thornton and Rosalie Bogner chained themselves to its bar in 1965 to protest a legal ban on serving women in pubs in Queensland.

The protest is regarded as one of the first second-wave feminist actions in Australia and came before the formation of any organised feminist group. The law was repealed five years later.

Minister for women, Fiona Simpson, said the project is in an early planning stage.

Thornton was later involved in the successful campaign to remove the marriage bar from the commonwealth public service.

Albanese spruiks ‘fantastic’ investment in Perth hospital

Anthony Albanese is in Perth to announce hospital funding, an early stop in his campaign.

As Dan Jervis-Bardy brought you a little earlier, the funding today is a joint $355m upgrade for St John of God Midland public hospital in Perth’s east, which federal Labor would contribute $200m towards.

The hospital sits in the key seat of Hasluck, which Labor won from the Coalition in 2022.

The PM is spruiking the funding on ABC Perth:

We’re investing to deliver more hospital beds, more operating theatres, more ICU, more neonatal care and a new emergency department. So this is a fantastic announcement. It comes on top of boosting WA public hospitals funding to more than $3.6bn in the coming year, which is about cutting waiting lists and reducing time in ED and dealing with these issues.

Peter Dutton’s campaign has arrived in the Labor seat of Paterson, in NSW’s Hunter region. We’re at a mining business, where Dutton will do a factory tour and a press conference shortly.

Appearing with him are the Liberal candidates for Paterson and the nearby seat of Shortland, as well as senator Maria Kovacic.

There’s been a lot of hi-vis already on Dutton’s campaign trail and today is no different.

Qantas announces board shake-up

Qantas has announced advertising veteran Todd Sampson will retire as a director from the airline’s board, and will leave the organisation on 31 July this year.

Dion Weisler has been appointed as an independent non-executive director with immediate effect, which Qantas says is in line with its commitment to renew the board.

In a statement, the Qantas chair, John Mullen, said Sampson’s “guidance and insights have been deeply appreciated” during one of the “most challenging” periods in airline history.

On behalf of the board, I’d like to express our gratitude to Todd for his contributions over the past ten years.

With a significantly refreshed board and executive team in place, Qantas is in a strong position to deliver for its customers, people and shareholders, and regain its place as one of Australia’s most trusted brands.

Moving away from the election coverage for a moment:

The Queensland state government is set to introduce legislation into parliament this week in order to sentence more children as adults in the court system.

The government’s first round of “adult crime, adult time” legislation became law last year. It included 13 offences including murder, unlawful use of a motor vehicle and break and entry and applies to children as young as 10.

The premier, David Crisafulli, announced on Sunday that more offences would be added to the list, including rape, attempted murder, aggravated attempted robbery, torture and arson.

This is the next stage, but it won’t be the last stage, we won’t rest until we arrest the youth crime crisis.

Children as young as 10 face a potential life sentence for attempted murder, rape and arson, or 14 years for torture or aggravated attempted robbery.

The first round of legislation came under criticism by experts, legal groups, human rights advocates and the United Nations.

The new legislation was recommended by a five-person panel appointed by the LNP. The Labor opposition called on the government to publish the group’s advice.

AEC warns against unsolicited postal vote applications over data privacy concerns

The Australian electoral commission (AEC) is this morning warning voters against using unsolicited postal vote application forms.

The AEC says political parties and candidates reportedly use the application forms – which can be sent via SMS, email or post – can collect data about voters before being forwarded to the commission.

There’s specific eligibility criteria for putting in a postal vote, which you can read on the AEC’s website here.

The AEC commissioner, Jeff Pope, says the number-one complaint they receive at almost every federal elections are concerns about unsolicited postal vote applications from political parties.

The AEC does not distribute unsolicited postal vote applications. If you receive an application form for a postal vote in the mail, or via SMS, it hasn’t come from the AEC.

People should always carefully consider what they’re doing with their personal information. The AEC takes privacy seriously and operates under the Privacy Act. Political parties don’t have to.

The AEC says it gave the same warning to voters during the 2022 election.

Lambie calls for east coast gas reserve

Jacqui Lambie (and her independent Senate colleague David Pocock) have been calling for a gas reserve policy on the east coast.

She told Sky News:

This could happen tomorrow, we could put in a 15% gas reserve policy, we’ve already seen it go off in WA, it’s doing extremely well there. There’s no reason why we can’t run that across the country, full stop.

If you want to see the gas companies jump up and down you can go 20 or 25% but let’s not go into an argument with them coming up to the election.

But Pocock has explicitly said that reserve shouldn’t also come with an increase in gas plants – as the Coalition has been planning.

Last week he told the ABC Australia didn’t have a gas supply shortage – “we have a gas export problem”.

Lambie says small business tax rate should be lowered to 15%

The peak body for small business, the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia (Cosboa) is launching a campaign blitz to pressure Labor and the Coalition to do more for the sector.

The body is calling for the company tax rate to be lowered from 25% to 20%.

Independent senator Jacqui Lambie told Sky News a little earlier that small business is “on its knees” and the tax rate should be lowered even further.

I’d be going further – Cosboa is being nice and they’re being kind – I’d go 15%. Also, it is about time David Pocock and I were promised to make sure we have a definition of business, outside of that, from 15 [staff] to 25. Small business is on its knees …

This is not looking good.

Small business support was a key political issue in parliament last week, when both major parties accused the other of stalling progress on the instant asset write-off.

Labor said the Coalition had left legislation hostage in the Senate to legislate a write-off of $20,000 for this financial year, while the Coalition said Labor needed to also legislate to continue the write off for the next financial year.

Meanwhile, the Coalition are trying to snag a few crucial seats from Labor in the Hunter region of NSW.

Peter Dutton is there this morning, as Josh Butler brought you earlier.

So what are the main issues there? Ben Doherty spoke to a small business owner on how he’s feeling about the election.

There’ll be plenty of seats that come down to the wire at this election, and WA is no different.

The west is essential for Labor if they want to stay ahead of the Coalition.

But what are some of the biggest issues on the ground, and what are the issues that could ultimately decide the election?

Narelle Towie has given us a picture of what life is like for a Perth tradie and how he sees the two political parties:

Peter Dutton was on Kiis FM a little earlier this morning, where he told Kyle and Jackie O he’d stay in Sydney over the Lodge in Canberra (where Anthony Albanese currently resides).

We would live in Kirribilli. We love Sydney, we love the harbour, it’s a great city, and so yes. You’ve got the choice between Kirribilli or living in Canberra. I think I’ll take Sydney any day over living in Canberra.

A bit of trivia for you:

Scott Morrison and John Howard both lived in Kirribilli House, and then stayed at the Lodge when in Canberra.

Tony Abbott also lived in Kirribilli House, as the Lodge was being renovated, while Malcolm Turnbull lived in his Point Piper home until the renovations were finished, and he moved into the Lodge in 2016.

Kevin Rudd (who also hails from Queensland) lived in the Lodge, as did Julia Gillard – but she only moved in after she won the 2010 election.

Asked again about whether or not the Coalition would hold any referendums if in government, Paterson reiterated to RN Breakfast there are “no plans”… except they’re still considering one to give politicians the power to cancel the citizenship of criminal dual citizens.

We have no plans to hold any referendums if we win the next election. The only referendum that we would contemplate as a last resort is if legislative change to allow us to cancel citizenship of people who commit very serious crimes is not successful, then we will keep that on the table as a last resort.

So no plans, except there is a plan for one of the three that Peter Dutton mentioned on Sunday (and you can recap those three here).

We’ll keep following this issue.

Who can bring down energy prices more?

Liberal campaign spokesperson James Paterson is now joining RN Breakfast, remaining coy on when the price modelling for the Coalition’s gas plan will be released, and by how much it will reduce energy bills.

Famously, Labor promised dozens of times during the last election campaign that household bills would drop $275 under Labor (and if you don’t remember them saying it, you’ll remember the dozens more times the Coalition has reminded them of that promise).

Paterson says, “we’re not making this specific promise like the prime minister did before the last election … when Anthony Albanese abandons the Reputex modelling that he used to promise 97 times that he would reduce power bills by $275”.

Exactly how will the mechanism work? What are the actual numbers?

The way the east coast gas market works is about 2000 petajoules are produced in Australia on the east coast each year. Of that only less than 500 is consumed domestically, and about 1,500 is exported internationally.

Now from that 1,500, which is exported internationally, we are saying [we] will require between 50 and 100 of those petajoules to be diverted into the domestic market.

Gallagher says taskforce would determine what constitutes price-gouging

Over to Labor’s campaign spokesperson (and finance minister) Katy Gallagher, who’s on RN Breakfast, talking about the plan to stop supermarket price gouging.

How will it work? Gallagher says it’ll be up to a taskforce to determine:

We’re going to have a taskforce that will look at this. This is with Treasury, ACCC and other experts, to really look at how you would define if a price is excessive. There’s different definitions overseas …

Look, there are examples that people would see where they think, wow, those prices have really gone up much more than the market conditions would expect. And we saw that in Covid when people were trying to buy rapid antigen tests, for example. So we have seen examples of it, and this will allow us to get ahead of that.

But what about the fact that the ACCC didn’t find evidence of price gouging in its report to the government?

Gallagher says there were examples of prices escalating, and that the supermarket sector is “highly concentrated” and their market share is increasing.