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

Opposition leader Peter Dutton has appeared in a good mood while doing the breakfast radio rounds this morning after last night’s leaders debate.

While Mr Dutton was awarded a win on some topics, an audience of 60 undecided voters at 7NEWS’ Sydney studios crowned Prime Minister Anthony Albanese the overall winner.

Speaking to Gold FM, the Liberal leader said while there are some responses he would have changed, he was feeling “pretty good” and had received great feedback.

“I’ve had good feedback from the debate,” he said.

“There’s things that you would go back and want to change and in any speech or debate, but I guess the main points I made was in relation to our policy, around the 25-cent litre cut for fuel and $1,200 tax rebate, I think, provides support to those families.

“You always question the… composition of the audience, where people have come from, and what their views were.”

After more than half an hour (and several sheets of plywood), the bus carrying media following Peter Dutton’s campaign is back on the road.

​

​

​​

​​

A bus which was supposed to be taking media shadowing Opposition Peter Dutton’s campaign to his campaign trail engagements on Monday has broken down in central Sydney.

Several cameramen from across media outlets have tried to help push the bus off a median stripe on Pitt Street at about 7.30am on Monday.

It comes as the Liberal leader had planned to travel to 28 keys seats in the final five days of the election campaign.

Mr Dutton was not on the bus and was travelling separately.

Australia knew of a Russian bid to use Indonesian military bases for long-range aircraft before the issue was thrown into focus during the election campaign, The Australian has reported.

The broadsheet reported on Monday that the Albanese Government became aware of the Russian request after a meeting in February this year between Russia’s Security Council chief Sergei Shoigu and ­Indonesia’s Defence Minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin.

The request emerged during the election campaign on April 14 that Russia wanted to use an Indonesian base only 1300km from Darwin to house Russian long-range bombers.

Senior Labor figures have responded to the reports by refusing to confirm or deny the request had been made, and only that Indonesian officials had ruled it out.

The reports of a permanent base for potentially long-range Russian military aircraft went further than the earlier advice Australia had, driving calls for more information from the Government

Defence Minister Richard Marles contacted Mr Sjamsoeddin as the reports went further than what the Government had understood.

The Indonesian Defence Minister said on Wednesday the nation would “not allow foreign military bases on our soil.”

Read the full story.

Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce said he agreed with Ms Plibersek over the “scumbag” label for protester who interrupted the Anzac Day Dawn services.

“I was at a ceremony in the ACT, at the Australian War Memorial, and someone screamed out ‘Free Palestine’ in the middle of the silence,” he told Sunrise.

“You haven’t got a right to scream out anything for any political reason during Anzac Day.

“You just shut up and respect the day. There’s other days for the political debate.

Although Mr Joyce agreed with Ms Plibersek over disrespect during Anzac Day events, he does not share feelings regarding the performance of Welcome to Country.

“They’re overdone. I think people are starting to feel awkward at them and awkward goes to anger at times. That is something we don’t want.

“We don’t want to go to an event where there’s people sewing disrespect or start voicing their disrespect.

“I certainly don’t want to be welcomed back to my own hometown.

“I think there’s time and place for everything, but we’ve got to be a lot more discerning about how we do this, cause there is an aggravation that’s building up in the community, and the best thing to do to avoid that is to be a lot more discerning about when you do Welcome to Countries.”

Debate has continued over the performance of Welcome to Country ceremonies after an Anzac Day Dawn Service was disrupted on Friday, with new polls showing Australians believe its inclusion is “overdone”.

Anybody who boos anyone on Anzac Day, as that guy in Melbourne (did), is just a scumbag,” Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek told Sunrise.

“What the Prime Minister said is right. It’s up to individual organisations. But as someone who attends a lot of events, I really like learning about the history and culture of the area that I’m visiting.

So I’d say I enjoy it and I really don’t see it’s any skin off anybody’s nose to show that respect.”