Australian politics and news RECAP: PM and Peter Dutton trade penalty rates blows at Sydney Royal Easter Show

Hot on the heels of a visit from Oppositon Leader Peter Dutton, the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is heading to the Sydney Royal Easter Show.

Albo is on the way to catch all fun of the fair and will no doubt have something to say about the Coalition’s attack on Labor’s penalty rates announcement earlier today.

The PM might even grab a showbag or two.

Political tragics with eyes on independents at the federal election are waiting to see whether 2022 set a high watermark, or the tide on major parties is still turning.

A record number of independents three years ago swept previously safe Liberal seats, after a strong push for more climate action and integrity in politics.

They were helped by an unpopular prime minister in Scott Morrison, Liberal infighting over committing to a net-zero emissions target and the pandemic revealing social inequalities that pushed people away from “politics as usual”.

Former Wallabies captain turned independent senator David Pocock made history by breaking the major parties’ dichotomous hold on ACT senate seats, with Labor and the Liberals traditionally split one apiece.

He has since used his time in the upper house, where the government doesn’t have a majority, to negotiate 221 amendments to legislation.

He’s also seen boosts to his campaign when the major parties align to ram through contentious laws.

“Australians are starting to realise you can have a representative that’s accountable to you, that makes decisions, weighs them up and decides what does the community actually want?”

Read the full story here.

Labor has this morning announced it would legislate to protect penalty rates included in awards.

Retailers are currently running a case at the Fair Work Commission seeking to amend the award so that supervisors, including those at the big supermarkets, could voluntarily agree to swap penalty rates for a higher salary.

Peter Dutton calls the policy today “yet another stunt from the Labor Party”.

He says awards and things like penalty rates are set by the independent commission and he has no plans to change that.

“There’s no change to any of the industrial relations arrangements,” he says.

He’s previously promised to revert the definition of a casual worker to what it was before Labor’s new industrial relations laws, and to wind back some of the Government’s other changes.

However, he said the other week in WA that would not include repealing the “same job, same pay” changes to labour hire arrangements, which resources companies have wanted could devastate the sector.

The Nightly’s Katina Curtis reports that Peter Dutton floated a desire to shift to indexing income tax brackets in a newspaper interview just before the Easter long weekend, but subsequently told reporters it was an ambition rather than a policy.

Today he’s asked why he floated such an idea so late in the campaign, he insists it’s all part of his policy development process.

“We’ve had the process of going through and looking at different policies and options. We’ve put forward the policies which we think are going to be in the best interests of Australians,” he says.

“And as we’ve gone forward, we’ve looked at what we could afford to announce.”

That policy development process has come under fire from some of Mr Dutton’s backbench colleagues over the past couple of months, concerned that it is too siloed or that work hasn’t been done sufficiently over the past two years.

A string of published polls this week has shown Labor pulling ahead of the Coalition, with the primary votes of each party pretty much back to where they were in to 2022 election.

But Peter Dutton says he still believes he can pull off a win.

“I think there’s a big disparity (in what) you’re seeing in some of the published polls to what we’re seeing,” he says.

“And I think most people are more interested, frankly, in what is going to happen in their lives if Anthony Albanese is re-elected.”

Peter Dutton is speaking at the Sydney Royal Easter Show and has announced the Coalition would give $20 million in grants to help refurbish regional shows.

This is another revival of a Morrison-era policy, with the previous Coalition government offering grants to local show societies after many of them had to cancel events and nearly went under during the pandemic.

The Liberal leader took a question on why he’s headed to the event before members of the public are there.

He said it “becomes too hectic with the cattle and inside pavilion” with a big crowd of media and members of the public.

Security around both Mr Dutton and Anthony Albanese has been particularly tight during this election campaign after a string of gatecrashers at press conferences and hotels.

Peter Dutton has made his way to the Sydney Royal Easter Show at Homebush.

Mr Dutton is moving around the agricultural halls talking to people amid one of Sydney’s biggest events.

Record crowds have been flocking to the Easter Show with the 2025 state goverment economic benefit tipped to break through the $600m mark.

The Coalition leader is taking ‘selfies’ with some of the crowd assembled and is set to speak to the travelling media.

Labor is positioning itself as the protector of penalty rates for those working during the Easter holiday period.

The government is expected to spend Saturday pushing the line that it will enshrine penalty rates in law if re-elected.

That would prevent business groups, such as the Australian Retailers Association, from applying to the Fair Work Commission to cut the provisions from award agreements.

Industrial relations issues have worked in Labor’s favour during the campaign, with polling showing Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s short-lived pledge to force public servants back into the office fared poorly with voters.

With cost-of-living concerns at the forefront of the campaign, more polling has shown how parties treat penalty rates could be a factor in how people vote.

Read the full story here.

The Government has refused to brief the Coalition over Russia’s alleged bid to operate warplanes out of an Air Force base just 1,300km from Darwin, despite appeals for clarity about a major issue of national security.

The Coalition is expected to keep up pressure this holiday weekend for more information on what the Government knew and when about Russia’s intentions, but Labor is reportedly citing caretaker conventions in an election period to avoid doing so.

The issue flared up on Tuesday after reports emerged in respected defence journal Janes of Russia’s approach to Jakarta to station “long range” military aircraft at the Manuhua Air Force Base in the province of Papua, about 1,400 km north of Darwin.

While Jakarta has assured Canberra it will not happen, neither the Australian Government nor Indonesia have categorically ruled out the request was made.

Read Nicola Smith’s full story here.

Peter Dutton will look to create 350,000 new small businesses over the next four years if he wins the election, unveiling fresh tax offsets and deductions to incentivise entrepreneurial Australians.

The Nightly’s Ellen Ransley is reporting that the Opposition Leader will today release the Coalition’s small business strategy and announce its “entrepreneurship accelerator” and “tech booster” incentives.

Under the first, newly incorporated businesses would get tapered tax offsets in their first three years of operation.

In the first year, new businesses will only pay tax on $25,000 of the first $100,000 it makes, and then on $50,000 of the second $100,000. Anything they make above $200,000 of taxable income is taxed normally.

The offset rates in the second year would be 60 per cent of the first $100,000 and 40 per cent of the second, and in the third year 50 per cent and 30 per cent respectively.

Read the full story here.