Federal election 2025 debate recap: Albanese, Dutton's strongest and weakest moment in battle for votes

Dutton slams Labor’s battery rebate, saying it will allow higher income households to buy batteries at a cost of their lower income neighbours.

“A lot of people have had to put solar on their roofs because they just can’t cope with the power bills that they’ve got,” he said.

“The Prime Minister’s policy in relation to batteries is that he’s asking you to provide a subsidy, or to support a subsidy for people on higher incomes, like me, to buy a battery at a subsidised price, and I don’t believe that’s fair.

“I don’t think that your next door neighbour who is earning less than you or is struggling to pay the bills at the moment should be paying extra taxes to fund a battery for you on a higher income or in a better position.”

The PM is up next on foreign ownership. He starts by thanking Janine for helping to build the country “because of your hard-work, including raising children”.

“So look, we have the same policy is already in place. Effectively, we have put in place a two year ban on foreign ownership of homes. We think that’s appropriate at the moment in order to ensure that homes are available for Australians,” he says.

Another voter, 74-year-old Janine, says she is deeply concerned about the future of her children and grandchildren. She notes there are many foreign-owned properties in Sydney currently sitting empty.

“People want to invest into our country. We have limits in relation to purchases being made,” Dutton says.

“Your point is that they could be made tougher, and that’s a fair point to make.

“I don’t want foreign buyers competing against young Australians at auctions or at the sale of the house that they’re buying.”

The Opposition Leader is asked again about the Liberal ppolicy to cut migration rates, and its impact on health care and construction.

He repeats an earlier line that he thinks Australia is stronger because of its migrant history, but says the country needs a “well managed program”

“When you bring in a million people over the course of two years that is going to have an impact on health services, on infrastructure, on education, right across the economy.

“If we’ve had a 65 per cent increase, and if the government’s going to bring in a population bigger than Adelaide over a five year period and take money out of infrastructure at the same time, it’s going to have an impact.”

Dutton asks the original questioner whether she is able to go to the doctor with just her Medicare card, like the PM has said, when he whips his own card out at press conferences.

She says she often have to pay a gap fee.

“Yours is the story of literally millions of Australians as well,” he says.

“Bulk billing rates have reduced under this government. And that’s the reality. It’s there in black and white.

“Not only that, the out of pocket expenses have increased as well, which is exactly your experience.”

The PM accuses Dutton of trying to abolish bulk billing as Health Minister by having a fee for when people visited the doctor or emergency departments.

“That’s what you did as health minister, and when you couldn’t get that through, you froze the Medicare rebate, which stayed frozen for six years,” Albanese says.

“That’s why we’re having to deal with this.”

“We are repariing what we inherited which was bulk-billing in freefall.”

Albanese is on the offensive over nuclear energy. He starts his attack on Peter Dutton with a zinger, saying: “The only gas policy the Coalition have is the gaslighting of the Austrlaian public.”

The PM says Dutton disagrees with with all of the experts.

“If the nuclear plan stacked up the private sector would invest in it but everyone says it’s the most expensive form of energy,” he says.

The PM then returns to more familiar ground after a question on Medicare, even brandishing a card from his pocket on stage.

Albanese fires off his first direct question to Dutton about his nuclear energy plan.

“You have opposed every cost of living measure that we’ve put forward over the last three years in government, you now are going to an election with a nuclear plan that will build seven nuclear reactors that will cost $600 billion to provide 4 per cent of power sometime in the 2040s. What are you going to cut to pay for it?”

Dutton hits back: “That’s a very dishonest proposition you put.”

“The CSIRO report puts the capital cost of nuclear at about $120 billion”.

Albanese has had his first cheeky dig at Dutton’s backflip on letting public servants work from home half an hour into the debate.

“I was talking to a trucking friend of mine the other day, and one of the things that he pointed out about Mr Dutton’s plan to stop working from home was that if you put all those car on the one hand, they’re saying, yeah, we’ll give you some cheaper petrol,” he says.

“But on the other hand, they were saying that people would have to drive more.”

Dutton is pushed to ask the PM a question: “Are you the biggest spending government since Whitlam? So in 40 years there has not been a higher spending government than your government is that correct?”

Albanese says it isn’t correct.

“That’s not true, except for the one that you were a part of during COVID,” PM responds.