Australian news and politics recap: Anthony Albanese flails on bills and Peter Dutton fails to land knockout

Mr Dutton is asked whether President Prabowo ever said Indonesia had been approached by Russia, as the Opposition Leader said on Tuesday.

He said he was making a reference to “a credible military website, that talked about Prabowo government sources”.

On Tuesday afternoon, the Opposition Leader said explictly on ABC News it had been “publicly announced by the President of Indonesia”.

Mr Dutton says it’s a “matter of fact” Indonesia has enhanced its relationship with Russia in recent times.

He says Foreign Minister Penny Wong is “out of her depth”, and it’s damning that the Government is only finding out about significant matters of foreign policy - not just the Indonesia issue, but also on tariffs - from the media.

“This is a government out of its dept in relation to international relations and in the defence space as well,” he said.

Moving to questions, no surprise that the first one is about the comments he made yesterday regarding reports Russia had approached Indonesia to station military aircraft less than 1500km north of Australia.

Asked if he was “wildly irresponsible”, as PM Albanese had suggested, Mr Dutton said “no”.

But he says there are still outstanding questions.

“The prospect of having Russia with a greater presence in our region is very real, and there are a lot of questions the Government still has to answer,” he said.

“We have asked for a briefing in relation to the matter, that has not been forthcoming yet. We’ll get that today.

“Indonesia is an incredible important friend and neighbour, btu there are many questions that need to be answered.”

The Opposition Leader is up speaking in Melbourne, where he’s still spruiking the housing policy he unveiled on the weekend.

Peter Dutton says the Coalition wants to “restore the dream of homeownership”, and can do so by increasing supply, allowing young Australians to access their super, banning foreigners for two years from purchasing properties, and the new tax deductability policy.

The Prime Minister said two homes that would suit a single parent family replacing a single dwelling - was a sign of the government doing construction with an eye to the local community.

“You’re also getting a mix,” he said.

“You’re not getting concentrations of disadvantage, you’re getting a mix of public and private, different people which makes such an enormous difference in terms of social cohesion.”

Albo was also impressed by the apparent TAFE level skills of the workers.

Paul Williams, national safety manager for building company Simonds gave some safety instructions on site.

The PM has arrived at a construction site in Forrest Hill in the electorate of Deakin in Melbourne’s southeast.

The seat is held by shadow housing minister Michael Sukkar on a nano-margin of 0.02 per cent.

There are two two-bedroom homes being built on this site, funded by the Government’s Social Housing Accelerator.

In a pre-visit safety briefing, the site manager cautioned that “a construction site is a hostile environment”.

Mr Dutton also helped pack “buddy bags” to support kids fleeing difficult situations like family violence.

The bags include basics like socks and underwear, story books, stationary and toys.

The buddy bags are currently funded by donations.

“It’s amazing stuff you do,” Mr Dutton said as he packed a buddy bag with toiletries, pyjamas, a teddy bear and other goodies.

“Very cute, you do amazing work.”

Ms McIntosh said she felt emotional packing the bags thinking about the difficult circumstances the children using them would be in.

“Sometimes they have garbage bags full of clothes,” coordinator Leanne Donnelly said.

“We want those children to think they are being thought of.”

Peter Dutton is in the Victorian electorate of Macnamara to commit $6m to the Alannah and Madeline Foundation to improve online safety for kids.

Mr Dutton visited the Melbourne head quarters on Wednesday where he met with staff.

He was joined by his Western Sydney spokeswoman Melissa McIntosh and her daughter.

Staff told Mr Dutton the not-for-profit sector was struggling with burnout among workers.

“That kind of burn out…is a real worry,” Sarah Davies, chief executive of the Alannah and Madeline Foundation said.

“It feels really hard…there is no easy fix.”

She also raised the issue of tech companies failing to protect children online.

“Tech companies need to take responsibility,” she said.

The group then met with representatives of Dolly’s Dream — a sister organisation that promotes more action on preventing bullying.

The PM was confronted by a couple of people in the lobby of his hotel last night, and is asked whether those kinds of interactions make him “rethink the exposure” he has to the public.

He won’t broadcast publicly whtether there’s any intelligence about how people are finding him and Mr Dutton, but that he has “faith in the AFP”.

The PM says he’s still trying to itneract witht he public as much as he can, pointing to the drop in he and Dr Chalmers made to a gym on the first day of the campaign.

He also points to some walks he had around Adelaide and Perth.

“I go into uncontrolled environments. You’ve seen it happen time and time again,” he said, before saying he’s looking forward to the controlled environment that is tonight’s debate.

Mr Albanese is asked whether he has any assurances from Jakarta that there won’t be any further hosting or rotations of Russian forces, or if he is seeking such clarity.

The PM says he deals with “diplomacy, not through media conferences”.

Mr Albanese and Mr Dutton will face off in the second leader’s debate of the campaign tonight, this time hosted by the ABC.

Asked if he felt confident going into it, given he won the first debate last week, Mr Albanese says “you have to take any campaign day by day”.

“I don’t think the outcome of the last debate affects tonight’s debate at all,” he said.

He says tonight’s debate will be very different, because last week was the people’s choice.