Australian 2025 election: Albanese, Dutton campaign on day 26 of May 3 election

Anthony Albanese has declared he doesn’t know the name of the Greens candidate contesting his seat of Grayndler, when asked about why he had directed voters to put her second on their ballot paper.

The Greens candidate for the inner western Sydney seat, Hannah Thomas, has posted controversial statements about Israel, including calls for Australia to sanction the Jewish state.

“Why is the Australian determined to give the Greens such profile,” he said.

“It’s rather strange, I’ve got to say. I wouldn’t have been able to tell you if you’d have asked me who the candidate was.

“Last time ran in this seat, I won on primaries. I went on primaries. That’s why the system works. I got more than 50 per cent of the vote.

“I look forward to people voting number one for me and then filling in all the numbers, just as they do, to make sure it’s a formal vote.

“And I don’t intend to promote the name or the candidate of the Greens Party candidate, and I’m surprised that the Australian had determined to promote them.”

Albanese demands reveal spending cuts

Anthony Albanese has challenged Peter Dutton to reveal where he will make spending cuts to pay for his election announcements.

After the two leaders faced off in their third debate of the election campaign, the Prime Minister seized on the Opposition Leader’s remarks about cuts to government services.

“So if I can just last night, Peter Dutton confirmed that there are secret cuts,” Mr Albanese said.

“He had an opportunity to say where those cuts will come. Will they come to health? Will they come to education, housing?

“We know that the housing Australia Future Fund will be abolished.

“We know that they will make cuts across the board, because they not only have to call waste the expenditure, such as the increase in people’s wages, in the increase in pensions.

“They’re going to abolish the housing Australia Future Fund. They’re going to get rid of support for manufacturing through the National Reconstruction Fund.

“They’re going to get rid of the activity test, which will hurt disadvantaged women, in particular with children.

“Peter Dutton needs to come clean about where the cuts will be. He has a $600bn nuclear energy plan. He needs to tell Australians, before the election, not afterwards, where the cuts will be made.

“Otherwise, all of his promises that he is making, all of which, of course, disappear in a short period of time.

“Those short term hits that will disappear.

“We know he will increase income taxes because he has said that that will cover $17bn, but he needs to find further information, further details about where the cuts will be.”

$21bn question on Dutton’s defence promise

Anthony Albanese has attacked Peter Dutton’s plan to increase Defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP, calling on the Opposition Leader to explain where he will find the $21bn.

“We’re now just 11 days from polling day on May 3, the Australian people deserve better,” Mr Albanese said.

“We handed down a budget in March, and then we had the pre election fiscal outlook.

“We have outlined the costs of all of our policies, Peter (Dutton) needs to come up and explain to Australians how he pays for his nuclear plant.

“We know that he won’t go anywhere near any of the sites for a nuclear reactor. It’s radioactive for him going near them, he just won’t go anywhere near them.

“Well, he does need to explain this, because the Australian people deserve the information before they cast their vote.

“Half a million Australians have already done so. I expect another half a million will today.”

Women in military could sidetrack Dutton announcement

Peter Dutton will be in Perth on Wednesday, where he will be alongside his defence spokesman Andrew Hastie for only the second time this campaign.

They will announce a dramatic increase Australia’s spending on defence by $21bn over the next five years, having accused Labor of leaving the nation “less safe and less secure”.

The Coalition will commit to raising defence spending as a share of GDP to 2.5 per cent over five years and to three per cent “within a decade”, if elected on May 3.

But the $21bn announcement, which has already been rubbished by the Prime Minister and Defence Minister, could be overshadowed by the question of women in combat.

Mr Hastie, a former SAS officer, has previously said his personal view was “the DNA of a close combat unit is best-preserved if it is exclusively male.”

The Liberal Party dumped candidate Benjamin Britton after it emerged he had said there was a “need to remove females from combat corps” in order to “fix” the military, which he defended as being similar to Mr Hastie’s position.

On Wednesday, Mr Hastie said the Coalition’s position was that combat roles should be “open to men and women”.

But he also told ABC Radio National Breakfast the Coalition would insist on “one standard” for combat roles.

“The Coalition will insist on one standard for all, which is, which is fair and equitable,” Mr Hastie said.

“We’ve got to have high standards because in combat there’s no second place.

“You either win or you lose, and we need to win in every situation going forward, and that’s why we’ll have high standards.”

Albo shares ‘easiest decision’ of campaign

Mr Albanese also announced a funding pledge of $4.5m to two local community programs during a brief visit to his inner-Sydney electorate of Grayndler.

This included $2.43m to boost the transitional accommodation services offered by the St Vincent de Paul Society to women fleeing domestic and family violence, plus $2.07m for the Leichhardt Women’s Community Health Centre to redesign and upgrade the facility and create more counselling rooms.

Mr Albanese said his mum had visited the local healthcare clinic when he was younger, and said the funding commitment was “the easiest decision I’ll make as prime minister”.

“Often, she needed support, and feeling the comfort of coming to a women’s health centre run by women for women with no judgment, made an enormous difference to her,” he said.

The centre was “one of the earliest examples in Australia of feminism in action, set up by women for women to help women”, the prime minister said.

He was greeted by women’s health centre manager Dr Ses Salmond and St Vincent de Paul homelessness and housing manager Suzy Pace, where he viewed plans for the redevelopment of the centre.

He was told the centre has sometimes had to send counsellors home because they don’t have enough space for them.

‘Is the PM a liar?’: Leaders’ debate fight continues

Two senior politicians have been asked to weigh in on whether Anthony Albanese is a liar, following a fiery debate between the Prime Minister and Peter Dutton on Wednesday night.

Liberal Senator Jane Hume and Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles were asked by Today show host Karl Stefanovic whether they agreed with the Opposition Leader’s claims that the Prime Minister “couldn’t lie straight in bed”.

“The Prime Minister has quite clearly set up a series of mistruths about things like Medicare, about energy, about women,” Ms Hume said.

“I think the ‘Mediscare’ campaign is an enormous lie. There is no doubt about that. That’s a government that is clutching at straws because it’s run out of ideas.”

Later in the morning, Mr Marles said that he thinks that the slight was “rich coming from Peter Dutton”.

“In Anthony Albanese and our Prime Minister, you’ve got somebody who is very calm and considered in the way in which he went about the debate and, frankly, the way in which he’s going about governing the country,” he said.

“When you looked at Peter, he looked increasingly aggro and increasingly desperate, and that’s what was on display.”

The discourse surrounding Mr Albanese’s honesty was prompted after Nine’s political editor Charles Croucher asked both leaders what they thought was the biggest lie told so far in this election during Wednesday night’s debate.

Gloves off as leaders return to campaign

Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton return to full campaigning for the May 3 election, after pausing on Tuesday morning to mark the death of Pope Francis.

The truce ended when the Prime Minister and Opposition Leader fulfilled their commitment for the third of four leaders’ debates on Tuesday night, in an often heated clash that got personal.

The Great Debate hosted by the Nine Network was given to Mr Dutton, with the three-member panel agreeing he “just beat out” Mr Albanese.

Both major parties will also unveil significant policy announcements on Wednesday.

Mr Dutton will spruik the Coalition’s highly-anticipated defence pledge, which will boost spending as a share of GDP to 2.5 per cent the next five years and reach 3 per cent within the next decade.

This means Australia will reach the 3 per cent target set by senior Trump defence aide Elbridge Colby.

Under Labor, spending will hit 2.4 per cent by 2027-28.

Mr Albanese will also promote Labor’s latest pledge to inject $78m to fast-track the qualifications of 6000 experienced tradies, in an effort to boost the construction workforce and help Australia build homes faster.

Albo’s vow to fast track tradies onto sites

Wednesday’s main play for Labor will be its new program to get qualified tradies building homes.

The $78m funding commitment will create a new Advanced Entry Trades Training program, set to help experienced but unqualified tradies receive their certification.

Modelled off NSW’s Trade Pathways for Experienced Workers program, it allows tradies to have their existing skills accessed, with applicants able to receive additional and free training through TAFE or a registered training organisation.

Under the state-based program, an average applicant is able to receive their qualification in seven months, instead of several years.

Occupations able to access the program will be assessed depending on the labour market needs of each state and territory.

The announcement will help bolster the workforce needed for Australia to reach its House Accord goal of completing 1.2 million homes by June 2029, plus Labor’s election commitment of building 100,000 homes that can only be purchased by first-home buyers.

Skills and Training Minister Andrew Giles said the program will help get “experienced” workers into the housing and construction sector at no additional cost to the worker.

“Apprenticeship pathways are a key contributor to the workforce – but for adult workers, particularly those supporting a family, the thought of ‘restarting’ their career with an apprenticeship is a barrier to getting qualified in their trade,” he said.

“We are making it easier for workers with existing knowledge and skills to get the recognition and qualifications they deserve.”

With Rhiannon Down, Andrew Brown/ Pool

More to come