Australian news and politics recap: Dutton calls for respect for welcome to country after Anzac Day protests

One question that has dogged Anthony Albanese throughout the campaign is about Labor’s plans for negative gearing and capital gains tax breaks.

The party under Bill Shorten took plans to scrap the property investor tax breaks to two elections, and the Greens have taken up the fight over recent years.

Mr Albanese says today that he’s always given the same answer: no plans to touch the, under his leadership.

“The proof’s in the pudding and the proof is we haven’t made any changes,” he said.

“I think that the key when it comes to housing policy, is supply. Supply, more supply and even more supply.”

He told the AFR in an interview published today that negative gearing was off limits for reasons including that it wouldn’t help boost housing supply.

“The Labor Party can’t send a message that is anti-aspiration. We have to be pro-aspiration,” he said.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is now speaking at a Chinese language school in the seat of Chisholm in Melbourne.

He’s announcing Labor will spend $25 million to support 600 community language schools that are helping more than 90,000 students learn 84 languages.

The PM says learning languages is not just about the children attending the schools – he points to the flow-on benefits to the wider community, particularly older generations.

“A lot of communities will lose their second languages when they get older, so their children and grandchildren learning those languages as well enables them to be treated with dignity and respect (as they age),” he said.

“The children and grandchildren of our migrants make an enormous difference for the lives of their parents and grandparents – and indeed great grandparents, in some cases – as they age, and that can enable them to age in place as well.”

Liberal National Party of Queensland candidate Jeremy Neal has also taken questions on his previous views about Donald Trump and whether he still holds them.

He says the 10 per cent tariffs slapped on Australia “have really left a sour taste in my mouth” and he wants to see what can be done to support local industry in far north Queensland, particularly beef and aluminium.

“Those views are (from) a very long time ago, and they were deleted a very long time ago,” he says of his past comments.

Peter Dutton has agreed with the proposition that this election will finally see some of the working-class seats in the outer suburbs of cities flip from Labor to Liberal.

“I think the election’s going to be decided this week,” he said.

“I think there’s a lot of anger in the suburbs… a lot of families who just can’t put food on the table. At the moment, food banks we’ve been to, people are lining up. They’ve got full-time jobs and they’re going there asking for food packages.

“That’s the reality of life for many Australians under Anthony Albanese.”

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has been asked about comments from his candidate for Leichhardt, Jeremy Neal, previously strongly backing Donald Trump and saying that “feminists” cost the US President the 2020 election.

He also called China “a grub of a country”.

The Opposition Leader points to seven-year-old Twitter reposts by the Labor candidate running against him in Dickson that depicted him in nazi uniform.

He says he’s “hardly going to take a lecture from the Prime Minister” on these topics.

He refuses to answer a follow-up question about whether Mr Neal’s enthusiastic support for Donald Trump is a problem.

Peter Dutton is speaking in Cairns, on his first visit to the marginal seat of Leichhardt which Labor thinks it can win off the Liberals.

He’s talking about a suite of local announcements including more medical training places and the expansion of a local headspace.

“As we know, something like one in three Australians … are undecided or soft voters at the moment,” he says.

“That is a historically high number in federal elections, and it shows that people are weighing up their options.”

School students from diverse backgrounds could receive more support to learn or maintain the language of their ancestors as the prime minister vies for votes in multicultural communities.

With a week until polling day, Anthony Albanese has promised to spend $25 million on 600 community schools if Labor is re-elected at the May 3 poll.

These institutions help more than 90,000 students learn 84 languages and, in a diverse country where half of Australians were born overseas or have at least one parent who was, Mr Albanese says keeping community language schools open will help bolster social inclusion.

“We live in the greatest country in the world and that is due to the people and their cultures from all nations on earth who call Australia home,” he said.

“Our diversity is our nation’s strength.”

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Peter Dutton is in danger of becoming the first opposition leader to lose his seat in a federal election, with polling showing a drop in his primary vote in his seat of Dickson.

Mr Dutton is ahead 55-45 over Labor’s Ali France on a two party-preferred basis, but his primary vote has fallen from 42.1 per cent to 40.3 per cent, latest YouGov polling provided to AAP shows.

The Liberal leader has held the marginal electorate in Brisbane’s north since 2001, but has come close to losing his grip on multiple occasions, including surviving by just 217 votes in 2007.

His margin was cut to 1.7 per cent at the last election in 2022.

On the figures, if minor party and independent voters preference him at a lower rate than the national average, he could be in trouble, said YouGov director of public data Paul Smith.

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