Australian politics and news recap April 11: Albanese labels WA’s resources sector as ‘wealth creator’

Thanks for following along our live updates from today’s federal election coverage as we wrap up our blog.

Stay up to date with the latest news from Australia and around the world on The Nightly, we’ll be back tomorrow morning from 7am with the latest election events.

For a comprehensive look at today’s proceedings, read The Nightly’s latest edition here.

Opposition leader Peter Dutton has called for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to publicly pledge not to preference the Greens while visiting WA.

His call came after Labor MP for the Melbourne seat of Macnamara Josh Burns declared he would run on an open ticket, choosing not to preference the Greens over the party’s stance on Israel.

“Josh Burns knows how bad the Greens are and he’s got now an open ticket,” he said.

“If it’s good enough for Josh burns to call him (Greens leader Adam Bandt) out, then where is the Prime Minister in relation to doing deals with the Greens?

“They want to abolish negative gearing. They’re an anti-semitic party. They want to defund the Australian Defense Force.”

Mr Dutton had returned in front of media to deliver the unprompted blasting, after he had previously concluded a press conference about Coalition’s plan to axe Labor’s fuel tax.

It comes as Mr Albanese is expected to launch his campaign in WA on Sunday.

“This will be a test for the Prime Minister. It will be a test of the strength of his leadership,” he said.

“Why can’t the Prime Minister call out the Greens? Why can’t the Prime Minister do what Josh Burns has done?

“That’s a question for the Prime Minister. And frankly, I think Australians, West Australians, should hear from the Prime Minister.”

It will mean his how-to-vote cards will not encourage supporters to preference Greens over any other party.

Mr Burns’ move departs from any state and national preferencing deals.

Mr Dutton made the remarks during his first visit of the campaign to the new Federal seat of Bullwinkel on Friday.

Earlier in the day he visited Swan for a keynote address at The West Australian’s Leadership Matters conference and Hasluck to attend a conveyer belt warehouse.

He also visited a Canning Vale fuel station in the seat of Tangney which Liberals are desperately trying to win back after it was lost to Labor’s Sam Lim at the 2022 election.

The Nightly political reporter Ellen Ransley believes that Anthony Albanese is growing more and more confident by the day, but as polling day nears, the challenge for him is to heed the warning of the old proverb: “pride comes before the fall”.

She writes that on current trajectory it’s hard to see how Peter Dutton could win the election — although that could still change before May 3.

But mathematically, the Prime Minister will need to leave nothing on the table if he wants to prevent Labor falling into minority government.

Read the full story here.

A Coalition press conference in the seat of Bullwinkel took an unexpected turn when a member of the public interrupted to ask his own question, leading to Nationals Senator Bridget McKenzie to say speed limits don’t stop accidents.

The member of the public, Colin Hughes, said he was a community member and asked why the Coalition were pledging money on infrastructure instead of helping to lower the speed limit on Great Eastern Highway.

After a lengthy back and forth, where Mr Hughes became more annoyed when a staffer tried to usher him away, Ms McKenzie eventually made the gaffe.

“I’m very happy to have a talk off camera but at the end of the day speed limits don’t ... stop accidents,” she said.

“And what we want to do is make sure that there’s a flow of traffic through this incredibly busy section of Perth and the hills which is struggling with increased people coming here to live.

“The traffic burden is getting bigger and lowering the speed limit won’t actually assist the freight to get to port to get into Perth.

“We actually need to make sure these infrastructure projects are built to ensure the flow of traffic is safe and efficient.”

The opposition leader visited a Canningvale Vibe fuel station in the seat of Tangney, joined by local candidate Howard Ong and Senator Matt O’Sullivan, following his visit to a car dealership in the federal seat of Bullwinkel.

Peter Dutton grabbed a peppermint ice cream as he spruiked his fuel excise policy... perhaps not the go-to flavour for most drivers hot under the collar.

Peter Dutton has visited the new federal seat of Bullwinkel for the first time during the campaign.

Joined by Liberal candidate Matt Moran, Nationals candidate Mia Davies and Senator Bridget McKenzie, Mr Dutton has visited a Kalamunda car dealership to spruik his plan to scrap Labor’s “unfair” tax on family cars and utes.

Mr Dutton jumped in a Hilux ute, spoke to staff at the dealership, and apprentices in the workshop.

The Liberal leader said Australian’s budgets were under the pump and his fuel excise policy and axing of the car tax were cost of living busting measures.

“Families are already under the pump and I want to make sure that we can be a government which helps not hurts families,” he said, accusing Labor of making it hard for Australian families to get by here the passed three years.

“If we’re cutting the price of petrol by 25 cents a litre and cutting the price of diesel by 25 cents a litre that is going to make a big difference,” he said.

“We’re going to take some of that cost pressure out of the economy. That’s the difference at the next election.”

Senator McKenzie said Labor’s car tax “has made absolutely no sense”.

“This is not about climate action, it is all about Labor’s car tax,” she said.

“It’s just adding to the cost of every Australian that’s going to be wanting to purchase a new vehicle.

“We think Australians should be having access to the latest technology available globally, that our cars should be more efficient to fuel up, that should have lower emissions but you shouldn’t be taxing Australians for that privilege.

“And you shouldn’t be expecting great companies - like Toyota, Ford and others - to be effectively subsidising Chinese EV manufacturers and Elon Musk.

“Because that’s actually what labor’s policy does.”

There’s a tight three-way contest in Bullwinkel, with Ms Davis, Mr Moran and Labor’s Trish Cook battling for WA’s newest Federal electorate.

The PM said Peter Dutton’s new policy announcement about funding for Geoscience Australia was made by the Labor Government at the last election and nothing new.

“We’re going to map the whole of Australia, both land and sea, over a period of time, the PM said.

“I’m the first Prime Minister to visit Geoscience Australia, made up of public servants in Canberra, public servants whose jobs are under threat.”

He reminded journos that Peter Dutton planned to “get rid of the National Reconstruction Fund.”

“One of the things that the National Reconstruction Fund is about is manufacturing, including getting our resources and how value is added.

“We’ve made a number of announcements through the NRF, and Peter Dutton has said that he’ll just get rid of that fund.”

And that’s a wrap from the PM’s presser in Karratha.

Anthony Albanese has appeared in high vis from the northern WA town of Karratha backed by Madeleine King.

He labelled the region a “wealth creator” for the Australian economy as he stood in front of a shiploader destined for China.

“Rio Tinto, its operations here, throughout the Pilbara and the Kimberley, mean that about a million tons a day go out of these four ports that operate in this region… This region is a wealth creator for our country, and the resources sector plays such an important role,” he said.

Madeleine King spruiked criticial minerals and lamented Peter Dutton’s approach.

“They are an integral part of what the world needs to reach net zero, but also defence materials. And what we see is Peter Dutton ripping $17b out of the critical minerals industry by promising to repeal the production tax credits that the Albanese Labor government has introduced,” she said.

“Moreover, they are going to destroy the critical minerals fund by making that accessible to gas.”

King added, “Australians deserve better than Peter Dutton who is going to destroy a critical minerals industry before it’s even got off the ground.”

“Peter Dutton does not take the critical mineral resources industry seriously.”

The Prime Minister is set to hold a press conference from a shiploader putting iron ore onto the Mount Ossa, a ship destined for China.

Albanese is accompanied by Resources Minister Madeleine King, Labor’s candidate for Durack Karen Wheatland and the Rio Tinto’s Iron Ore chief executive officer Simon Trott.

The Coalition has revealed for the first time that it will seek voluntary redundancies as part of its strategy to trim the public service to make Budget savings.

“We will cap the size of the Australian public service and reduce the numbers back to the levels they were three years ago through natural attrition and voluntary redundancies,” Coalition Senator James Paterson told ABC on Friday morning.

Mr Paterson’s statement was the first time the Coalition has publicly mentioned the prospect of voluntary redundancies in its pledge to reduce the number of civil servants by 41,000.

Red the full story here.