Australian news and politics recap: Anthony Albanese forced to defend spending, foreign diplomacy

Peter Dutton will host a campaign rally in the Labor-held marginal NSW seat of Bennelong this evening.

The Opposition Leader is expected to address party faithful at the Gladesville Sporties club alongside Bennelong candidate Scott Ying and Senate candidate Jessica Collins.

It comes after campaigning in the electorates of Shortland and Robertson north of Sydney earlier today on his quest to blitz 28 seats in the last week of the campaign.

Energy has emerged as a major ppint of difference between Labor and the Coalition at this election.

The Coalition says nuclear is the only way Australia can reach its net zero targets, power the country’s energy demands, and deliver cheaper energy bills.

While says it will continue to pursue renewable energy through solar and wind farms.

Read exactly what each major party is offering.

Opposition treasury spokesman Angus Taylor has fired back at Treasurer Jim Chalmers, claiming it is Labor, not the Coalition, that is the bigggest risk to the nation’s economy.

It comes amid a warning from ratings agency S&P that “off budget” election pledges are putting at risk Australia’s AAA credit rating and Labor releasing the costing for its election pledges.

Mr Taylor said the economy would be stronger under a Coalition government and they would release a financial statment later this year if elected.

He did not release the election costings but said when they did it would include “lower taxes for small businesses, you’ll see that in our costings, the instant asset write off the entrepreneurship accelerator, getting young Australians into businesses, giving tax cuts for Australians who buy their first home.

“I mean, we know how important buying the first home is. It’s the Australian dream, you’ll see that in our costings.”

Mr Taylor said the Coalition plan to build seven nuclear reactors would cost $120b to build. That’s far less than what Labor claims at $600b.

“It’s 44 per cent lower than Labor’s, $268 billion less than Labor’s plan through to 2050.

“That’s not just, let’s be clear, that is not just nuclear generators. That includes absolutely everything in the energy system.”

Peter Dutton has matched Labor’s earlier promise and committed $20 million for a Domestic Violence Recovery Centre on NSW’s Central Coast.

This is on top of $90m already promised by the Coalition for its DV plan to implement early intervention and crisis response measures that include a DV perpetrator register, tougher monitoring measures, funding programs which help people flee abuse, and establishing a Royal Commission on sexual abuse in Indigenous communities.

Today’s $20 million announcement was about “helping women, about having children removed from a violent circumstance and being put into an environment where services can be provided in a holistic way to address the individual needs of that family unit,” Mr Dutton said.

“And it’s a worthy investment. It’s a necessary investment, and I’m really pleased.”

Anthony Albanese made a similar announcement hours earlier during a tour of crisis housing in Gosford, in the bellwether Labor-held seat of Robertson.

The centre will provide one and two-bedroom accommodation to support women and children and be developed by Pacific Link Housing, in partnership with the Central Coast Women’s Health Centre.

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 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.”