Australian politics and news recap: Richard Marles hoses down Russian base rumours, saying it’s ‘not true’

The Prime Minister says “people will make their own conclusion” when asked whether he thinks a Peter Dutton led Government would operate like the Trump Administration.

It’s pointed out to Mr Albanese he keeps making the “Australia v America reference”.

He says people will see that Mr Dutton chose to appoint Senator Nampijinpa Price as the “shadow minister for DOGE just a few days after Elon Musk was appointed”.

“The Coalition do have to make substantial cuts in order to pay for their $600bn nuclear plan,” he said.

Finance Minister Katy Gallagher is with the PM in Tasmania today, where she’s also warning the Coalition will cut Medicare to fund their policies, like nuclear.

She said comments from Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price - who said she wanted to “make Australia great again” at the weekend - confirmed “DOGE-style cuts” would come if the Coalition won the election.

“(Peter Dutton) has actually confirmed these cuts are coming, he’s just not going to tell you where they’re going to happen til after the election,” she said.

It’s been a few days since the PM launched a fresh Medi-scare salvo, but he has returned to one of Labor’s favourite lines of attack in Tasmania on Tuesday morning.

Both he and Labor candidate Rebecca White have taken a stab at the Liberals’ candidate after an apparent slip up last week, where when asked whether urgent care clinics would continue to bulk bill she said “that’s something that we will need to be working out”.

Despite shadow health minister Anne Ruston correcting the record to say they would be bulk billed, the PM jumped on this.

“Now, to be fair to the Liberal candidate for Lyons, she probably heard Sussan Ley stand up in the parliament and say that if something is free, then people don’t value it, that’s the Liberal Party philosophy. Well, Medicare is free, that’s the whole idea,” he said.

Mr Albanese says one of the “big contrasts at this election campaign” is on healthcare is between Labor trying to strenghten Medicare and the “Americanisation of our healthcare system”.

Whether you’re the late billionare Kerry Packer, or Mr Albanese’s invalid pensioner mother, “you get the health care you need, because that’s Australian values”.

The cuts have to come from somewhere, and when Peter Dutton cuts, you will pay, consumers will pay. That is one of the big divides, and the choice that’s before Australians at this election.

“The cuts have to come from somewhere, and when Peter Dutton cuts, you will pay, consumers will pay. That is one of the big divides, and the choice that’s before Australians at this election,” the PM said.

Anthony Albanese is speaking now, having toured another urgent care clinic, this time in Bridgewater in the marginal Tasmanian seat of Lyons.

Labor has already built five urgent care clinics in Tasmania and has promised another three.

Lyons is currently Labor’s only seat out of the three fickle seats in northern Tassie.

Sitting member Brian Mitchell is retiring and the party hopes former state leader Rebecca White can hold onto it.

Liberal candidate for Curtin, Tom White has pinned himself as “the underdog” against incumbent Teal Kate Chaney who he says has “good intentions” but “lacks delivery”.

Speaking on breakfast TV, Mr White acknowledged the fight ahead of him to take back the previous blue ribbon seat for the Liberal party.

“I do consider myself the underdog,” he told the ABC on Tuesday.

“There’s no doubt that the Liberal party has had some work to do in this part of the world.

“When I stood in front of our preselectors over a year ago I said to them ‘if we’re going to rebuild our reputation this seat, it’s got to start at the grassroots’ and that’s what we’ve done.

“We’ve knocked on tens of thousands of doors.”

He said Curtin had historically been a seat with a lot of influence but had “fallen off the map” under an independent.

“We’ve had people who are aspiring leaders of the party representing this electorate but unfortunately, we’ve fallen off the map and it no longer enjoys the influence that it once did,” he said.

“I think the Teals have good intentions, but unfortunately, it’s not matched by delivery.”

Mr White said he was buoyed by “a lot of enthusiasm in the electorate” for his campaign.

Also asked if Trump themes in the Coalition’s campaign, like Jacinta Nampijinpa Price’s vow to “make Australia great again” had hurt his campaign in Curtin, Mr White labelled it trivial.

“I think it’s trivial to be honest. I think it’s a bit of... trivia, it’s a bit of colour, and speculation but I don’t think it’s important,” he said.

It’s been billed as an opportunity to save people from the time-consuming task of rummaging through receipts at tax time, but not everyone is happy.

At Labor’s official campaign launch, Anthony Albanese promised almost six million workers an instant $1000 tax deduction.

The prime minister said the change, originally put forward in a tax reform paper more than a decade ago, would benefit mainly low and middle-income earners who could claim the write-off without receipts or records.

CPA Australia, the nation’s leading accounting body, said the instant deduction could save workers time, but might mean they miss out on the full refund they are entitled to.

“Taxpayers should be encouraged to take greater responsibility for their finances and tax obligations,” tax lead Jenny Wong said.

“Clicking a few buttons to get a basic deduction may be easy, but it is unlikely to be in the best interests of taxpayers or the economy.”

Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand is urging taxpayers to hold onto their receipts.

Latika M Bourke says Anthony Albanese has snookered his own team by making public his ambitions to seek a third term as Prime Minister while simultaneously flagging a Cabinet reshuffle after any election win.

The Prime Minister said that a reordering of his frontline ranks was necessary because of the need for political regeneration.

But when it came to his own position as leader of the Labor party, a position he has held for six years, he said it was stability (as opposed to rejuvenation) that was crucial.

“I’m not getting ahead of myself — I’m in a ballot on the third of May, and I’m determined to win,” he told the Latika Takes podcast on The Nightly between campaign visits in northern Australia.

“And I will serve out a full term — I’m determined to do that. Because I think there has been too much chopping and changing.”

On Sunrise this morning, host Natalie Barr played audio from Albanese’s appearance on The Nightly’s podcast, during which he said voters could expect to see him back on the campaign trail in 2028.

​Read the story and listen to Latika’s podcast here.​

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has said tradies would be top of the migration list to help fix the housing crisis and build more homes.

Construction bodies have repeatedly called for the immigration system to provide for fast-track visas for skilled labour from overseas, pointing to similar systems in Canada, the UK and New Zealand, where housing is in also in short supply.

Speaking on ABC Breakfast, Mr Dutton blamed union pressure for the removal of tradies from the skills list over the past three years.

“We’ve already announced that we will make sure that at the top of that list goes those tradies and their skills,” Mr Dutton said.

“We want those people to come here in the migration program, because we want to increase the number of people who are involved in construction,” he said.

Mr Dutton said the Coalition’s new housing policy would help young homeowners at a time when prices were “astronomically high.”

But he said it was important for home values to grow sustainably.

“If you’re buying a house today, if you can find one, and if you can afford one under this government, you don’t want to wake up in two years’ time and find that the value of that house has gone down,” he said.

“We want a home to be an asset, where you can raise a family, where you can use it as security to the bank if you want to start a small business in a back bedroom or the garage.

“We want it to be an asset that increases in value as you get toward retirement, and that ultimately, one day, you can leave to your children as an asset that will help them in their lives.”

Nat Barr has quizzed the PM about housing targets on Sunrise this morning.

“Your current plan is to build 1.2 million (dwellings) by 2029. Have you ever met that target, that monthly target of 20,000 homes?”, Barr said.

“What we are doing of course as it builds up, there was delay in our legislation, but for example, our housing Australia fund has 28,000 homes that are either under construction or in planning,” Mr Albanese said.

“We have had more than 400,000 dwellings completed since we came to office and building approvals were 26 per cent up in the latest monthly figures in February this year compared with February last year.

“Housing construction costs are up 1.6 per cent compared with the 17 per cent that it was when we came of the office.”

Anthony Albanese is appearing on Sunrise with Natalaie Barr and has reaffirmed his determination to serve the full term if he Labor win the 2025 election.

“We have got a big mountain to climb,” Mr Albanese said.

“I intend to serve a full term if I have the great honour of being elected. The last time a Prime Minister was elected having served a full term was way back if 2004.

“So that puts in context how tough it is. I know it is difficult but we are working each and every day in protecting free TAFE, strengthening Medicare and making sure that people have a home to live in and the coalition continuing to run a have negative campaign.”