Australian news and politics live: Albanese Government claims election spending will be covered by Budget

A man has interrupted a cafe catch up Peter Dutton held with a group of local mums in the NSW seat of Shortland on Monday to offer him words of encouragement ahead of the Federal Election.

“Good luck. It’ll be closer than people think,” Markspoint man Graeme West told the Opposition Leader.

“People say you have a woman problem but it doesn’t seem like it, you’ve got so many around you.”

Mr Dutton responded “thanks, mate” and gave him a thumbs up.

The Liberal leader had been speaking with the local women at Papatya Cafe in Markspoint about their cost-of-living challenges as they juggled work and family life.

Outside, Mr West said he had been driving home when he saw several cameramen at the cafe and decided to “see what all the commotion was about”.

“I was coming back from doing some shopping. I thought I’d have a sticky beak,” he said.

“I said that because I think it’ll be a lot closer than it normally is up here, you know.

“In the paper a few weeks ago it was a $1.95 for Liberal and $1.85 for Labor. “It’s now $5-odd for the Libs and $1.60 for Labor.

“I just can’t believe it’s changed that much.

He added that he didn’t think Mr Dutton would have a “women-problem like (Scott) Morrison” noting the “gaggle” of mums the leader had around him in the cafe.

Mr West said he has already voted at prepoll for the Liberal party.

“I’ve voted for the Liberals. I’m sort of centre right,” he said.

He slammed Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for living in a “bubble” and said he liked Mr Dutton had a career in policing before politics.

Mr West said he isn’t currently and hasn’t formerly been a member of a political party.

Peter Dutton has posed for photos with a baby and met with a group of mums the Labor-held NSW seat of Shortland.

Caitlyn Rintoul reports the Opposition leader was joined by his wife Kirilly, Shortland Liberal candidate Emma King and her seven-month-old Gabriel at Papatya Cafe in the waterside suburb of Markspoint.

The Liberal leader ordered a tea and chatted with the women about issues facing them as they juggle work and family life.

Among the women he spoke with was mother-of-three and nurse Leonie Hall. She told Mr Dutton about the challenges of juggling shift work and the pressure on health care in the region.

She said GPs in the area have closed their books and it’s hard for families to find bulk-billing doctors.

When Mr Dutton met with solicitor and mother-of-two Jade Doyle he asked: “Two children you said? And is that it?”

His question prompted a laugh around the table.

“That’s it,” Ms Doyle said.

Ms Doyle told Mr Dutton her father had worked as a police officer in sex crime and the Liberal leader spoke about how it was tough but rewarding work.

Ms Doyle said her two brothers were also in the force and it was “pretty cool” to have a former cop vying to be PM.

Mr Dutton also meet with cafe owners Ashley and Sebiha Patfield and their eight-year-old daughter Isabelle.

Ms Patfield said the first-time business owners spoke about the increasing cost pressures facing them.

Mr Chalmers has addressed concern this morning from an S & P report over the election spending splurge and the potential risk to Australia’s AAA rating.

“If the ratings agencies are worried about spending and if they’re worried about off budget funds we have demonstrated we have found the room for our election commitments.

“The budget is stronger at the end of the campaign than it was at the beginning.

“Peter Dutton is a big red flashing light when it comes to household budgets, when it comes to the national budget and the national economy in uncertain times.”

He said the Govenment took the concerns of the ratings agency seriously.

“We are managing the Budget responsibly. I say to that particular agency, indeed all of the ratings agencies, that in our time in office, we have engineered the biggest positive turnaround in a budget of any parliamentary term ever - $207 billion improvement in the Budget.

“We have found $100 billion in savings, we have banked the upward vision to revenue. We have delivered two surplusses for the first time in almost two decades, we have got the deficit down.

“If you look at the monthly financial statements for the year we are in, we are making better progress this year than we anticipated in the Budget.”

Labor says it will save $6.4 billion by further reducing spending on consultants, contractors and labour hire, and non-wage expenses like travel, hospitality and property, continuing similar measures committed in previous budgets.

It’s also planning for a $760 million saving from increasing the visa application charge for primary student visas applicants to $2,000 from 1 July 2025.

Mr Chalmers says Peter Dutton’s Coalition poses an unacceptable risk to household and national budgets and to Australia’s AAA credit rating.

“In uncertain times, in volatile times, we don’t need a volatile leader like Peter Dutton, who lashes out when he’s under pressure. We need to see the stability, the responsibility, that only Anthony Albanese can provide - which I think is highlighted by the costings that we release today.”

Mr Chalmers aid the Coalition had made errors in its figures whcih needed to be corrected.

“They need to fix up the mistakes that they’ve made with their costings - whether it’s the long-lunches policy and the blow-out there, whether it’s the mistakes they made with mortgage deductibility or the changes they’re proposaling to petrol excise.

“They have very substantial holes in their costings, and in their budget as a consequence. When they release their costings, they need re-release their cuts.

“They need to include the nuclear and they need to fix the mistakes they’ve made in at least three areas where the costs are substantially higher than what they have claimed.”

Jim Chalmers says it’s time the Coalition releases its costings, including the impost of its nuclear reactor plan.

“If you think about the roughly $10 billion of commitments that (Labor has) made in this election campaign, $4 billion of that was already provided for and provisioned for either in the budget or the Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Outlook,” Mr Chalmers said.

“And the other $6 billion has been more than offset by the two budget improvements that Katy has identified.

He called on the Coalition to “come clean” on its planned cuts.

“They need to come clean on what their secret cuts for nuclear reactors means for Medicare, for pensions, and payments, for skills and housing, and other essential investments in the budget.

“We have put our costings out on the Monday of the final week of the election campaign. We call on the Coalition to release their costs and their cuts immediately.

“By our count, they have committed more than $60 billion in this election campaign and in their policy commitments, and that’s before we get to their $600 billion of nuclear reactors.

“So the test for the Coalition - who should release their costings and their cuts immediately - is whether or not the costings that they release includes all of those tens of billions of dollars of commitments they’ve made.

“Don’t forget that David Littleproud said - and I’m quoting - “We’ll startbuilding the first nuclear powerplant the very first day after a Coalition government’s elected.

”That means that any costings released by the Coalition which don’t have their hundreds of billions of dollars for nuclear reactors will not be worth the paper that they’re written on.”

Finance Minister Katy Gallagher says the Albanese government has brought savings and reprioritisations to over $100 billion since it was elected in 2022, and will find more savings if re-elected.

“So, the costings today: we will find a whole-of-government save in the order of $6.4 billion.

“This will be focused on non-wage expenses - so, not on people or on programs, but on all of the other expenses and resourcing that whole of government has.

“We’ve managed in the first term to find about $5.3 billion in savings in those areas.

“So this is really a continuation of that effort.

“And we have no doubt that we will be able to deliver those savings without impacting, importantly, on the services and the programs that the APS provide.

“The costings that we release today show that we will more than offset our election campaign commitments in every year of the forward estimates.

“We will finish this election campaign with the budget in a stronger position than at the start of the election campaign.

“We have improved the budget position by more than $1 billion comparing the pre-election outlook to the costings that we release today.”

Treasurer Jim Chalmers says Labor is releasing it’s election costings earlier than usual.

“We are making very clear the cost of Labor’s policies and how we will pay for them much earlier than usual, at the start of the final week of the election campaign.

“Responsible economic management has been a defining feature of this Albanese Labor government.

“Responsible economic managers throughout our first term and responsible economic managers if weget a second term as well.”

Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Finance Minister Katy Gallagher are in Brisbane today and are about to hold a press conference to discuss costings.

We’ll bring it to you as it happens.