Australian news and politics recap: Jim Chalmers and Angus Taylor face off in tetchy treasurers’ debate

The Federal Treasurer has a minute to share his pitch.

“These are uncertain times in the world, but Australia is well placed and well prepared because of our economic plan, but also because of the progress that we have made together as Australians,” he says.

“When this government came to office, inflation was much higher and rising. Real wages and living standards were falling sharply, and we were already on track for more than a trillion dollars of debt, and since then, inflation has come down considerably. Our real wages and incomes and living standards are starting to grow again. Unemployment is low. We’ve created a million jobs. Interest rates have started to come down. We’ve got the debt down, and growth is rebounding solidly in our economy as well. So all of this puts us in good stead in uncertain times.

“Our economic plan is about helping with the cost of living, cutting taxes and making the Australian economy more resilient in uncertain times.”

Did you catch that? Uncertain times. We’ve heard that a lot this campaign already.

Labor is betting on the Australian people not wanting to change government during “uncertain times”.

MC Ross Greenwood is running through the rules of the debate.

We’ll hear from both Dr Chalmers and Mr Taylor for a short address before we get into it.

We’re a little over five minutes away from Jim Chalmers and Angus Taylor squaring off in the treasurers’ debate.

It’ll be broadcast on Sky News but you can follow along live here.

Will it be better than last night’s leaders’ debate?

We’ll know very soon.

From reporter Oliver Lane on the ground in WA:

Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott has insisted his presence in Western Australia will not hurt the party’s chances at winning back key seats lost in 2022 while campaigning in the electorate of Pearce.

Mr Abbott joined Liberal Pearce candidate Jan Norberger for a walk through of a Wanneroo shopping centre, speaking to a number of shoppers and shop owners.

The stop was one of many on Mr Dutton’s two-day trip to the west coast where he is touring a number of seats the Liberals have set their sights on.

When asked if his visit to the State could hurt the party’s chances at winning back seats, Mr Abbott disagreed.

“A lot of people remember the Abbott government with the great fondness,” he said.

“We were a government that got things done, we said we’d stop the boats, we did. We said we’d repeal taxes, we did. We said we would build infrastructure, we did. We said we’d get the budget under control, eventually, we did.

“My government was a government that performed, and the trouble is the Albanese Government has just let people down big time.”

Pearce is currently held by Labor on a margin of 8.8 per cent after Tracey Roberts won the seat for her party for the first time since its creation in 1990.

When asked if he had any advice for Jim Chalmers ahead of the Treasures’ debate tonight, Mr Albanese hit out at the shadow treasurer.

“Jim Chalmers doesn’t need advice to debate Angus Taylor, with respect,” he told reporters at a press conference in Leichhardt.

“Angus Taylor, I’m surprised he’s making another appearance during the election campaign. One of the differences between the teams here - and I’m captain of our team - is I am proud that I don’t have to play every position.”

Mr Albanese then went on to give kudos to his Labor ministers for how good they were, calling Mark Butler a “fantastic health minister” and singling out Nita Green on her work with the Great Barrier Reef.

He then spoke about the embarrassment for the Liberals from Mr Taylor’s interview with Billi Fitzsimons.

“I saw the interview that Angus Taylor had with Billi Fitzsimons,” Mr Albanese said. “I did see that online during a flight. And, my goodness, Billi FitzSimons really towelled him up, towelled up the facts that he got wrong.

“He said about inflation that it was rising, and it’s falling to 2.4%. He was wrong about wages. He was wrong about the surplus and the deficit, just as Peter Dutton was wrong last night when he purported to say that Budget was in balance at the time that the Government changed.

“Let me remind everyone, that under my government, in the last three years, people have been going through cost-of-living pressures, like the rest of the world, with global inflation, but inflation had a 6 in front of it and it’s down to 2.4%.”

He continued to go on about what Labor had done, mentioning employment growing with more than a million jobs and unemployment now being 4.1%.

“Real wages have increased the last five quarters in a row,” Mr Albanese spruiked. “They went backwards five quarters in a row when they were in office. Interest rates have started to come down. They started to rise before the last election.

“And we turned a $78 billion deficit into a $22 billion surplus, followed that up with a $15 billion surplus and then this year have halved the anticipated deficit that was projected.

“That’s my Government’s record and I’m sure that Jim Chalmers will not only talk about that tonight, Jim Chalmers will also speak about our vision for future economic growth, for how we continue to take pressure off people through measures such as tax cuts.”

Matt Smith, the Labor candidate for Leichhardt has literally left the PM in his shade.

This picture, by AAP, shows the significant size disparity between Mr Smith and Anthony Albanese.

We’ll let you make up your own captions in the comments section below.

As the reporter went to ask another question starting with, “the Greens”, Mr Albanese abruptly cut him off saying: “You’re a bit obsessed with the Greens, I’m the Labor leader by the way”.

The journalist went on to ask Mr Albanese: “(The Greens) They’ve been described by members of your Cabinet as crazy, having thrown their lot in with thuggery and can you rule out a preference deal with the Greens?”

“I’m asked about it every day,” Mr Albanese replied. “Very clearly. Those things are a matter for the organisational wing. What I’m responsible for is what the parliamentary party does.

“What we do is is we will seek to be a majority government. We won’t negotiate with the Greens before, during, after the election, about those matters.

“I’ve been very clear about that. I’ve been clear about that for a decade and I refer you to my previous 324 answers. Thanks very much.”

Albanese got fired up when questioned at the Leichhardt press conference about the Greens and negative gearing.

As a reporter asked: “Can you rule out any changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax?

“Yes! How hard is it? For the 50th time,” Mr Albanese snapped back.

As the reporter went on saying, “in horsetrading for votes and other..” Mr Albanese cut him off and barked, “What are you talking about?”

The reporter pressed again: “If the Greens come to you and you need their vote to pass legislation, will you rule out changing negative gearing settings and capital gains tax?”

Albanese replied, “Yes. And you might have noticed - you’re a state correspondent but let me explain - there are 25 votes we have in the Senate. In order to get legislation through, we’re in that situation of being in that situation for this entire term.

“We have stuck to our position and let me explain the difference of what tax policy is in this country.

“Labor, Matt Smith, if you vote for him and he’s part of a government, then we will give income tax cuts to you and to all 14 million Australians.

“If Peter Dutton wins, he will introduce legislation to increase the income tax of all Australians, all 14 million of them.”

The Prime Minister travelled to the Federal seat of Leichhardt today for a “very exciting announcement”.

Joined by the Labor candidate for Leichardt Matt Smith and Mark Butler, minister for health and aged care, Anthony Albanese announced the rebuild of the Barron River Bridge, a project important to the community of Cairns and the Tablelands.

The announcement is on top of the already regular $7.2 million investment into the Bruce Highway, Queensland’s main artery and the $93.7m investment into the Kennedy development road.

“Today is a really important announcement,” Anthony Albanese said.

“You only have to look at this bridge to see that it needs repair, and that is what we will do. We will provide $245 million for a new barren River Bridge on the Kennedy Highway.

“This is good for locals, it’s good for business, it’s good for Road Safety, and it’s good for tourists.

“It will be good for jobs, when jobs are created through this major construction project here.

“This is a beautiful part of Australia, but we need to make sure that for local residents, roads are safe, they’re upgraded, but we also need to make sure that the experience of tourists is the best it can possibly be.”

Mr Butler was in Leichhardt for the announcement of a second urgent care clinic for the northern suburbs of Cairns.

Greens leader Adam Bandt has made his election pitch to reform negative gearing and end capital gains tax discounts on investment properties if he holds the balance of power in a minority government after the May 3 Federal poll.

Mr Bandt began a speech to the National Press Club by slamming the “battle of the bandaids” from the two major parties over the “human right” of decent housing.

“This election, the Greens are the party of renters and first home buyers,” he said, spruiking the minority party’s other key pledges to add dental treatment to Medicare, end native forest logging and provide free, universal, high quality childcare.

Mr Bandt argued that former Prime Minister John Howard’s changes to tax breaks for property investors were a “time bomb” that needed to be defused.

Parliamentary Library data pulled together for the Greens suggests dumping the two tax breaks would lead to 850,000 more Australians living in their own home.

The party also argues that negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount cost the country more than $10b a year, compared to more than the $8.4b state and territory governments spent on public and community housing in 2022-23 combined.

Read more​ here​.