Australian election 2025: Albanese, Dutton blitz final day of campaigning before Saturday’s election
Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton are leaving nothing to chance as they fight for votes on the final day of campaigning ahead of Saturday’s election.
More than five million Australians have already voted, with early polling booths closing at 6pm on Friday.
On Saturday, thousands of polling booths will open at 8pm till 6pm local time before counting starts at 6pm.
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Mr Albanese is aiming to become the first prime minister since John Howard to win back-to-back elections, while Mr Dutton wants to make history of his own by defeating a first-term government.
Going into Saturday’s election, Labor holds a notional 78 seats in Australia’s 150-seat Parliament and the Coalition a notional 57 seats.
Neither leader is giving up, with both mounting a hectic cross-country blitz of key marginal seats.
The Opposition Leader is starting the day in Adelaide, where he held an upbeat supporters rally with the Liberal candidates for the key seats of Sturt and Boothby overnight.
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister – who was also in Adelaide on Thursday – is in Brisbane again, where Labor is desperate to improve on the five of the 30 Queensland sets it currently holds.
Polls point to Labor win of some sort
The polls are pointing to Anthony Albanese and Labor emerging the winner from the bruising 35-day election campaign.
Three polls released on Thursday have Labor winning – but the results differ wildly.
The final AFR/Freshwater Strategy poll, released on Thursday night, shows Labor ahead of the Coalition 51.5 per cent to 48.5 per cent on a two-party preferred basis.
Labor’s primary vote sits at 33 per cent, while the Coalition’s is at 37 per cent.
Independents were on track to secure 18 per cent of the vote, while the Greens look set to nab 12 per cent.
The poll shows a 0.6 per cent swing towards Labor from the 2022 election, and if that swing holds across all electorates, the firm estimates Labor could jag a slim majority of 76 seats in the 150 seat parliament.
YouGov’s modelling released earlier on Thursday points to Mr Albanese winning a solid majority, with 84 seats with the Coalition set to lose a net total of 11 seats to end up with just 47.
The latest Redbridge-Accent poll shows the Albanese government has a 53 to 47 per cent two-party-preferred lead over the Coalition, putting Labor in prime position to retain government.
Meanwhile, news.com.au reported bombshell ALP polling has outlined Mr Albanese’s path to victory on 72-78 seats in the 150-seat parliament.
‘Break either way’: Marles
Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles told the Today show on Friday there were still “a large number” of voters who were still undecided.
“In fact, in every election when you see the stats of the number of people who actually make up their mind in the ballot box itself, really means that, yes, the polls are saying one thing, but it’s not determinative,” Mr Marles said.
“I mean, there’s enough undecided voters out there that this thing can break either way.”
Mr Marles also alluded to the 2019 election when the polls had predicted a strong win for Bill Shorten and Labor, but Scott Morrison ended up leading the Coalition to a “miracle” win.
“We feel happy with the campaign that we’ve run, but we’re very mindful that this is a matter for the Australian people,” Mr Marles said.
“We’ve gone into elections before where you think you’re going to get one result and you get a different one. So I’m not really going to venture a prediction about Saturday night.”
More to come
