Federal Election 2025: Anthony Albanese tipped to call election Friday after Coalition budget reply

The Prime Minister is expected to call the Federal election on Friday as Labor and the Coalition clash over tax cuts and fuel subsidies in a last-ditch attempt to woo voters with cost-of-living relief.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton is under pressure this evening to deliver a crucial Budget reply speech that could make or break the launch of his election campaign and redefine his party’s appeal to voters.

He is likely to promise to lower power bills, unlock gas supplies and slash migration to free up homes, on top of an already announced sweetener to halve fuel excise for a year.

The Coalition is also slated to reveal plans for a significant increase in defence spending amid rising geopolitical instability.

But widespread expectations that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese would kickstart his bid for a second term on Friday threatened to steal Mr Dutton’s thunder, overshadowing the Opposition leader’s pledges to voters.

In a blitz of radio interviews on Thursday, Mr Albanese told Triple M the date — tipped to be May 3 — would be announced “imminently”, with Labor sources predicting a visit to the Governor-General on Friday.

Rumours were fuelled further by a rogue, quickly deleted, social media post from the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet which said that Australia was now in caretaker mode, even as Senators continued to grill public servants during estimates hearings.

The nation’s leaders spent the last day of Parliament in a political brawl over who was offering voters the best value for money between Labor’s surprise $5-a-week tax cut from 2026 or the Coalition’s pitch to immediately offer motorists a saving of about $14 a tank in fuel excise.

The Government was quick to rule out matching the Coalition’s fuel excise pledge, arguing that their “modest but meaningful” tax cut “top-up” — combined with all the other cost-of-living measures already announced — offered more much more substantial assistance.

“We have found a much more effective way to help Australians,” Treasurer Jim Chalmers said.

Political analysts say a raft of Labor measures to ease pressure on household budgets through energy bill rebates, cheaper healthcare and housing assistance is breaking through with the public and the onus is now on Mr Dutton to produce a meaty economic offer to voters.

“Now the onus is on the opposition to demonstrate what it will do and how it will do it differently, to make people more comfortable and confident that they have that better plan in terms of cost of living,” Dr Zareh Ghazarian from Monash University said.

After introducing surprise tax cuts on Tuesday, Labor now believes it has seized the moment by trapping the Coalition, traditionally known as the party of low taxation, into blocking the move.

Dr Chalmers was in fighting mode on Thursday morning, laying into the Opposition for a “stunning admission” that will “haunt them” after his opposite number Angus Taylor confirmed plans to repeal the tax cuts if elected.

“This is a proper brain explosion from the Coalition,” the Treasurer said.

“This is a proper brain snap. It beggars belief that when Australians are under cost-of-living pressure, their main policy is to increase income taxes on every Australian taxpayer.”

The Coalition’s pledge to roll back Labor’s $17.1 billion tax cut will mean that “under Peter Dutton, Australians will earn less and keep less of what they earn”, the Government says.

The Treasurer argued that anything Mr Dutton said in tonight’s speech would be undermined by “the fact that his main commitment in the election is that if he wins the election Australian workers will pay higher taxes”.

However, the Coalition believes it has a vote winner with a fuel subsidy that kicks in immediately - not in 15 months’ time like Labor’s tax cut package.

The mood in the opposition had lifted from a “glum” start to the week over the loss in momentum for Mr Dutton since an potential April poll was knocked off course by Cyclone Alfred, one Coalition source said.

One Labor source, speaking after a raucous Question Time, said if the Coalition failed to take a tax package of their own to the election while also pledging to repeal the now-legislated cuts, it would be “political suicide”.

That belief was on full display in the chamber, where ministers rolled out zingers as they framed their opponents as advocates for higher taxes and clearly drew the election battlelines.

Labor described the fuel excise policy as “Morrison leftovers” — a reference to the former PM’s tinkering in 2022.

Mr Albanese also quoted past comments from opposition members - including Mr Dutton and Mr Taylor who had criticised such temporary subsidies — and reminded the Opposition leader that his party had introduced the excise to begin with in 2014.

Labor also capitalised on their opponents’ opposition to the tax cuts and began rolling out phrases set to feature heavily in the campaign.

Mr Albanese said Labor was now the party of lower taxes, a swipe at the Liberal Party’s history of claiming the title.

“The Shadow treasurer, when asked would he take back the tax cuts and would he legislate to actually jack up taxes for every Australian taxpayer… He said, ‘we absolutely would’. Absolutely,” Mr Albanese quipped.

“That says it all about the stark contrast between the two sides… We absolutely want people to earn more and we absolutely want people to keep more of what they earn.

“The Opposition absolutely want people to earn less and they absolutely want them to be taxed more. That is the decision hat the Australian people will have to determine.”

Dr Chalmers, still riding his post-Budget high, said Mr Taylor’s admission the Coalition would wind back tax cuts was “stunningly stupid” and unprecedented.

“This will haunt them for every single day of this election campaign, because this renders anything else the Leader of the Opposition says tonight absolutely meaningless,” he said.