Australian politics and news recap April 12: Anthony Albanese calls Jacinta Price’s Trump comment ‘strange’

Mr Albanese has attacked the public service plans from the Coalition and told voters to prepare for the old ‘pork-barrellijg’ if the Liberals are returned to office.

‘We’ve restored proper funding for Australia’s public service across the board,” Mr Albanese said.

“We stand for giving respect to public servants but they’ve announced that any bonuses from revenue will not go into pay down debt but will go into creating funds.

“That will, of course, create more debt. I mean, it’s an extraordinary thing. And then they’ve said that the grants that are created in these funds won’t be competitive grants.

“They’ll be handed out. It’ll be back to the old ‘pork-barrelling’, back to the old colour coded spreadsheets and back to the old handing out for their mates.

“That is what they’ve announced. We respect the public service and we’re funding them properly,”

The Prime Minister has gone on the front foot and attacked Liberal conadidates around the nation during his press conference in Perth.

“If we look at the seats that we are hoping to be successful in, they include Matt Smith and you compare it with the other mob, I mean they’ve got candidates, they’ve got a candidate for the Senate here who’s connected up with Illuminati rubbish,” Mr A;banese said.

“I mean, that is who they are running in seats. They’ve got a bloke in Queensland, in Leichhardt in a held LNP seat who who blames feminists for US election results.

“What is he saying? Women shouldn’t vote. I mean, these people have selected shockers.

“They had to get rid of their candidate in Whitlam because he came out with all sorts of theories about women, not running, not being allowed to be in combat forces.

“But they’ve got a fellow in Canning who’s their shadow Defence Minister who has said the same thing. Where is he? Where is the member for Canning during this campaign?”

The Prime Minister has promised a boost in Medicare facilities for WA and a continuation of the free TAFE system in WA.

“WA was taken for granted by Canberra Liberal governments and our pledge to WA that we’re committing to today will deliver 14 Medicare urgent care clinics for WA, ensure record federal funding for hospitals over $3.6 billion a year,” Mr Albanese said.

“Investing in Medicare and investing in cheaper medicines, protecting WA’s share of the GST that we’ve enshrined whilst making sure as well that no state is worse off backing mining and resources.

“I was in Karratha yet again yesterday backing the resources sector, making free TAFE permanent.

“I’ve been to, I think four TAFE’s here in WA and we want public TAFE. We put it back at the centre of the Vocational Education and training system and it’s making such an enormous difference here in WA.

“Importantly as well, everyone we met on the ferry, everyone we met here at Elizabeth Quay, walking across the bridge is getting a tax cut under my government. All 14 million of them.”

Anthony Albanese has taken a swipe at the former NSW Liberal governemt and their attemps to build ferries for Sydney Harbour.

“The ferry that we’ve just been on was made in WA, part of this government’s commitment, unlike some of the other ferries that were made overseas,” Mr Albanese said.

“State and territory Liberal governments have offshored manufacturing again and again and again in my home city of Sydney they brought in ferries along the Parramatta River that were designed for people to be able to stand on the top of them.

“Unfortunately they’ll be decapitated if they stand on the top as they go under the bridges on the Parramatta River.

“We need to make things here and here inWA. They’re making rail, rail

carriages, they’re making ferries, they’re making things here in WA and that’s why when you look at the agenda that Roger took to the election, it’s in sync with our agenda.”

Anthony Albanese is speaking in Perth about a raft of promises he is making for Western Australia and also ripped into Peter Dutton straight off the mark.

“Where you go around Perth at the moment, chances are you’ll be in a Labor held electorate and that’s because we understand that Australia isn’t just Kirribilli House, it isn’t just the East Coast, isn’t just engaging in Canberra, Mr Albanese said.

“There are some public servants here in WA who will lose their jobs if Peter Dutton is elected. We need to represent the whole of Australia and that means making sure that we back WA.

“And that’s what my government will continue to do.”

Anthony Albanese, his partner Jodie Haydon, Roger Cook and Rita Saffioti are catching a ferry across the Swan River to highlight the Commonwealth’s promise of $60 million to build two more ferry stops and plan for a future expansion of the system.

They boarded at Mends Street Jetty on the regular 9.18 ferry service along with bemused families and commuters.

As the PM headed down the jetty wearing a blazer, polo shirt and Rabbitohs hat, a man at the cafe on the wharf called out, “Alboooo! Chicken nuggey!” [NUGGEY]

“Go the Bunnies!” Mr Albanese replied.

The WA government intends to build new ferries locally for the expanded system.

While chatting with Mr Cook on the ferry, Mr Albanese said, “NSW has the worst example of building things overseas,” and went on to discuss the purchase of ferries for Parramatta River that were too tall to fit under the bridges.

Peter Dutton has sat down for a cup of tea with boxer Danny Green in Perth this morning.

On his first campaign stop of the morning, the Opposition Leader met with Green and opposition legal affairs spokeswoman Michaelia Cash at the Westin hotel.

Mr Dutton has promised $1.5m to a program led by Green to reduce violence among young men.

Mr Dutton had a cup of tea, Senator Cash a cappuccino and Green a long black.

Rural voters are wavering in their support for the Coalition and are turning to local independents for support.

This dream life for Lesley and Brian Smith was in tatters after they had in mind when they moved to Eugowra in central west NSW.

But after their buttercup yellow worker’s cottage was gutted by a ferocious flash flood they spent the best part of two years living in a temporary pod house, as the shell of their home slumped in the yard behind them.

The couple say they wouldn’t have recovered if it wasn’t for federal MP Andrew Gee, who publicised their struggle and pushed for a national inquiry into the insurance industry.

“He was an absolute godsend when the flood came through,” says Mrs Smith, who will appear in a campaign advertisement for Mr Gee.

Electoral support for Mr Gee in the small flood-affected villages across the seat of Calare is widespread, with corflutes covering front lawns, windows and small businesses.

A perceived lacklustre political response to the flood prompted him to quit the National Party in December 2022, citing his desire to deal with the disaster free of party constraints.

Read the full story here.

Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek has announced a pledge to fund the creation of a free public pool right in the middle of Sydney Harbour if Labor win the Federal election.

The Albanese government will deliver a free public pool in the Sydney Harbour, if re-elected next month and will invest $10.2 million to deliver the facility at the harbour’s world Heritage-listed Cockatoo Island.

“It has got this amazing convict built sandstone slipway which was the largest in Australia at the time, largest in the southern hemisphere, one of the largest in the world at the time,” Ms Plibersek said.

“We are going to make it into a hybrid pool.

“It will be Sydney’s newest free family attraction and you will be able to hop on a ferry from Parramatta or Sydney Olympic Park or Circular Quay and take the whole family there for just the cost of public transport.”

Voters in Peter Dutton’s federal electorate of Dickson appear just as divided as the latest poll results, with some praising the Opposition Leader’s local contributions while others slamming him as out of touch, self-interested or incompetent.

Labor has edged ahead 52.5 to 47.5 per cent in the latest YouGov poll – its strongest position in 18 months, but the election is still a competitive contest.

With just weeks until voters hit the polls, there’s a sharp divide in a seat Mr Dutton held by just 3363 votes in 2022.

Independent polling and election analyst Kevin Bonham said the seat of Dickson had consistently leaned slightly towards the Coalition.

“It becomes most marginal when the Coalition does badly in an election, but when they do well, they tend to hold it comfortably,” Dr Bonham said.

“It’s been that way for decades.”