‘We do not want Russian influence’ in region: Albanese
Pressed further on the government’s position on the issue, Albanese says:
We are seeking further information, we obviously do not want to see Russian influence in our region, very clearly.
We have a position, which is we stand with Ukraine, we regard Vladimir Putin as an authoritarian leader who has broken international law, that is attacking the sovereignty of the nation of Ukraine.
He ends the press conference there.
Key events
Will the Coalition cut fee-free Tafe?
Peter Dutton was also asked whether he would cut fee-free Tafe, if elected. He said the party has said it is “not supportive of the government’s policy in relation to Tafe.”
This comes as a video emerged of Liberal frontbencher Sarah Henderson saying the policy just “isn’t working.”
The free Tafe policy – I am sorry, it’s just not working. I am trying to be polite. But the free Tafe policy has cost this country $1.5bn.
Speaking on the program just now, Dutton said:
We want to put $12,000 as a wage subsidy into particularly the construction sector, to try and get those young tradies skilled up as quickly as possible. The completion rates in Tafe are at 13%, which is, you know, not a good spend of taxpayers’ money. And I want to make sure we have the best system possible so we’ve got trainees coming through, and apprentices coming through. We want to lift that number up to 400,000.
What does Peter Dutton say to people who says he’s just like Donald Trump?
Dutton responded that this was a “campaigning slogan from a desperate government who wants to talk about anything but what they have done over the last three years”.
He instead pointed to John Howard as his political influence, and said:
If you have a look at my track record over the last 20 years, the biggest influence of my political life has been John Howard. He ran a stable government, cleaned up a Labor mess, implemented the gun law reforms. I want to keep our country safe, make sure the economy is well managed. That’s my political influence.
Dutton asked about Coalition’s spend on nuclear vs housing supply
Moving to housing, Peter Dutton was asked how the Coalition can be prepared to spend billions of dollars on building nuclear power stations, but not actual houses for young people?
Dutton responded that he wants “the lights to stay on in their house”. On supply concerns, he took aim at Labor’s housing policy and said:
I think the private market has demonstrated they’re much more efficient at building homes. That’s why we’ve got Metricon and Simmons homes and AVJennings – it’s not the Albanese government home building company. It doesn’t work.
Dutton suggests Indonesia knew about Aukus deal before Australian public
Host Patricia Karvelas asked why Indonesia should be giving Australia a heads up, and what their responsibility is to Australia as a sovereign nation? Peter Dutton replied:
Well, there would be engagement if that was the case, if it was being considered … I think the prime minister and the foreign minister, if they’re being honest, would say this came as a surprise to them, which by their own standard, would be a catastrophic failure.
So, did Australia give Indonesia a heads-up it was entering the Aukus agreement with the US and UK? Dutton suggested a conversation did occur:
I met with [president] Prabowo as the defence minister, when I was defence minister. We spoke to our counterparts in relation to the Aukus deal before arrangements were made. There were details we were able to provide, some we weren’t.
So Indonesia knew about Aukus before the Australian public? Dutton said a conversation occurred, “which I’m not going into”.
Patricia Karvelas asked whether it was a bit extreme for Dutton to use the word “catastrophic” to describe this situation. He defended the characterisation, pointing to previous comments made by Penny Wong about the Coalition and saying “she’s either prepared to live by her own standard or be accused of hypocrisy”.
Asked if Australia’s spy agencies had failed, Dutton said he hadn’t received a briefing from any agencies yet but had requested one.
Dutton says it is ‘catastrophic error’ if Australia didn’t know about Russian request to Indonesia
The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, is speaking with the ABC’s Afternoon Briefing about reports Russia is seeking to base military aircraft in Indonesia’s remote Papua region.
Dutton said it would be a “catastrophic error in the government’s systems” if “Dfat, under Penny Wong, didn’t know anything about” the request.
Obviously the government was very critical of the former government in relation to engagements in south-east Asia. So, by the government’s own test, by the government’s own standard, if the government knew nothing about this, then I would be very surprised, and I presume the prime minister will answer those questions.
Asked what he is actually criticising, given the government has already said it is seeking clarification, Dutton argued that if there was a “functioning relationship with Indonesia [there would have been] contact at a departmental or ministerial level”.
I think by her own standards Penny Wong has failed here. Of course we don’t want Russian planes or other military assets in our region …
TLDR: Labor and Liberal’s duelling housing policies, and a diss track
The two major parties have officially launched their campaigns, with a big focus on addressing Australia’s housing crisis.
Guardian Australia’s Krishani Dhanji walks you through the competing policies as well as other campaign moments of note in today’s TLDR: Election 2025.
Greens seek information about candidate’s potential dual citizenship
Henry Belot
The Greens are seeking additional information to ensure its candidate in the Tasmanian seat of Franklin, Owen Fitzgerald, is not a New Zealand citizen by descent and therefore unable to sit in federal parliament.
Fitzgerald’s grandparents and father were born in Hamilton, New Zealand. According to disclosure forms, his grandparents are NZ citizens while his father is a dual Australian and NZ citizen. All three acquired NZ citizenship by birth.
Section 7 of the New Zealand Citizenship Act 1977 states:
Every person born outside New Zealand on or after 1 January 1978 is a New Zealand citizen by descent if, at the time of the person’s birth his or her mother or father was a New Zealand citizen.
In 2017, the high court ruled former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce was ineligible to sit in federal parliament due to his father being born in New Zealand.
New Zealand’s prime minister at the time, Bill English, confirmed that “unwittingly or not”, Joyce was a citizen due to his father being born there.
Fitzgerald’s disclosure form states he is not a citizen of any country other than Australia. But the form does not include any proof that he renounced his right to New Zealand citizenship or its automatic transfer to him.
While Fitzgerald’s disclosure form does contain confirmation he renounced British citizenship status, given his mother was born in the UK, there is no such document related to New Zealand.
The Greens have been contacted for comment.
Greens senator criticises lack of focus on family and domestic violence in major parties’ campaigns
Greens senator Larissa Waters says it is “outrageous” that neither major party has highlighted family, domestic or sexual violence during the federal election campaign.
In a post to X, she argued it had been “crickets on women’s safety, bar the Greens pledge”.
We heard big talk from [Anthony] Albanese who declared violence against women a national crisis less than a year ago, and [Peter] Dutton around the same time who called for a royal commission.
Prior to the campaign we saw Labor give piecemeal announcements and their budget flopped on FDSV without new significant funding or announcements. Meanwhile, the Liberal’s idea of supporting women was walking back their own attack on flexible work arrangements.
How dare they abandon women like this? If we made the 1 in 3 big corporations that pay no tax contribute their fair share we could fully fund frontline services and prevention efforts.
Calls for Australia to increase humanitarian aid to Sudan
Plan International says that Australia “can and must do more” to provide humanitarian assistance to Sudan, as the country’s civil war enters its third year.
Sudan is suffering from the largest humanitarian crisis globally and its civilians are continuing to pay the price for inaction by the international community, NGOs and the UN have said.
After a meeting of donor countries took place in Paris yesterday, in which Australia did not increase its support, Plan International Australia’s CEO, Susanne Legena, said:
Australia has so far committed $50m in humanitarian assistance to Sudan and neighbouring countries since the outbreak of the conflict in April 2023. These contributions are welcome but, given the scale and severity of this crisis, we can and must do more.
This is an opportunity for Australia to act on our values and utilise the country’s humanitarian assistance capacity to make a further commitment.
Amad Mohammed from the Sudanese Australian Advocacy Network shared similar concerns, saying:
The Sudanese-Australian community watches on with anguish as their homeland is torn apart. We urgently call on the international community to act decisively to end this war and prevent further loss. We also call on the Australian government to expand its humanitarian assistance and support those affected by this crisis, both in Sudan and among displaced Sudanese seeking refuge and safety.
Advocacy group urges Coalition to rethink opposition to fee-free Tafe
Early learning advocacy group The Parenthood is calling on the Coalition to rethink its opposition to fee-free Tafe. This comes as a video emerged of Liberal frontbencher Sarah Henderson saying the policy just “isn’t working.”
The free Tafe policy – I am sorry, it’s just not working. I am trying to be polite. But the free Tafe policy has cost this country $1.5bn.
The Parenthood’s campaign director, Maddy Butler, said that ending fee-free Tafe would make it harder to address the early educator skills shortage and jeopardise access to care for families:
Since the start of fee-free Tafe, 40,000 aspiring early childhood educators have enrolled – that’s enough to educate and care for around 400,000 children. Significant progress is being made, but we still need more early childhood educators to meet the demand for childcare across the country, particularly in regional Australia, where it’s difficult to recruit and retain staff.
Butler said that ending fee-free Tafe would “exacerbate Australia’s childcare deserts” – that is, areas where three or more children compete for a childcare place.
We cannot achieve a universally accessible high-quality early education and care system in Australia without early childhood educators. We urge the Coalition to retract this risky plan.
PM voices concern after report Russia requested access to Indonesia air force base
Here’s our full story on reports that Russia is seeking to base military aircraft in Indonesia’s remote Papua region, on Australia’s northern doorstep.
As we reported earlier, Anthony Albanese said that “we obviously do not want to see Russian influence in our region, very clearly”.
Kate Lamb has all the details below:
Emily Wind
Good afternoon everyone! I’ll be with you on the blog for the next few hours.
Krishani Dhanji
Thank you all for joining me today on the blog.
I’ll leave you with the wonderful Emily Wind who will take you through the rest of the afternoon, and I’ll see you bright and early tomorrow morning!
Albanese deflects question over whether he would help his son buy a home
The PM batted off questions during his press conference earlier about whether he would help his son, Nathan, get into the property market.
You’ll most likely have followed the minor saga from the Dutton campaign trail that has become “will he or won’t he help his son Harry buy a home”, after Harry said he couldn’t see himself getting into property any time soon, despite “saving like mad”.
Dutton clarified today that he would chip in to help Harry put a deposit together “at some stage”.
Albanese wouldn’t bite at all when reporters put the same question to him a short time ago:
Families don’t have a place in these issues. I don’t comment about other people’s families and I don’t go into my own personal details.
Josh Butler
Latest poll numbers give Albanese the chance to do some sandbagging
Albanese’s campaign looks to have wrapped for the day, after finishing up a visit to a social housing project in Cooper, in Melbourne’s north.
Both Albanese’s seat visits today, earlier in Lyons (Tasmania) and now in Melbourne, were in Labor-held seats. The Greens are mounting a strong challenge in Cooper, and the current member for Lyons, Brian Mitchell, is retiring.
The Guardian Essential poll today puts Labor at an election-winning 53-47 lead; similar numbers to Nine’s Resolve poll today.
It means Albanese can afford to do a bit of sandbagging of seats. Dutton started the campaign well behind on the parliamentary scoreboard, and seems to be falling further behind on the polls, so he needs to make some serious moves – and quick.
Whereas Albanese has the luxury of leading from the front.
The PM, though, is now in the territory of needing to not appear to be simply coasting or cruising, or to be taking his foot off the pedal. Hubris with half a campaign still left is not the ticket.
Putin ‘not welcome in our neighbourhood’, Dutton says
Peter Dutton is asked what his message to Vladimir Putin is:
My message to president Putin that he’s not welcome in our neighbourhood.
We don’t share any values with President Putin, and we do not want a presence, a military presence, from Russia in our region, which would be destabilising for south-east Asia.
Dutton says Australia has an “excellent relationship” with Indonesia, and he’s met with the president, Prabowo Subianto, when he was Indonesia’s defence minister, and as president-elect.
Dutton adds: “Prabowo is a good friend of Australia. He’s got many good friends here in the Australian defence force.”
Dutton: ‘catastrophic failure’ if Wong and Albanese didn’t know about reports of Russia’s request
Peter Dutton is standing up at the same time, and is also responding to reports of a request by Russia to base several long-range aircraft in Indonesia.
Dutton says Albanese and Penny Wong should have been warned about the request before it was made public.
This would be a catastrophic failure of diplomatic relations if Penny Wong and Anthony Albanese didn’t have forewarning about this before it was made public. This is a very, very troubling development.
The prime minister and the foreign affairs minister should have the depth of relationship with Indonesia to have had forewarning of this.
The opposition leader says he wants to see what efforts the government has taken in response, and attacks Labor for pulling funding out of defence. That claim has been disputed by Labor who say they are increasing funding by $50bn over the next decade.
Dutton says he’s sought a briefing from the government.
‘We do not want Russian influence’ in region: Albanese
Pressed further on the government’s position on the issue, Albanese says:
We are seeking further information, we obviously do not want to see Russian influence in our region, very clearly.
We have a position, which is we stand with Ukraine, we regard Vladimir Putin as an authoritarian leader who has broken international law, that is attacking the sovereignty of the nation of Ukraine.
He ends the press conference there.
Albanese says government seeking ‘proper clarification’ on Russia’s reported Indonesia request
To questions, the first is to the PM on reports of Russia’s military request to Indonesia. Albanese says the government is “seeking further information” from Indonesia.
We are ascertaining, having a look at those reports, as the foreign minister and defence minister have said. We have a good relationship with our friends in Indonesia, and we’re seeking further clarification.
He’s asked a few times for more information on what the government knows, but he only replies: “I’ve answered the question. I can’t answer it any different way.”
But probed again, he says the government will respond in “an appropriate way”.
What we’re seeking is proper clarification. That’s the way you deal with international relations, making sure that you’re not flying from the hip. What we didn’t do when the United States made its decision on tariffs was question our defence relationship with the United States … We’ll respond in an appropriate way.
