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

After the PM knocks back matching the Liberal fuel excise, Dutton says it would take pressure off the supply chain, but refuses to make the 25c cut permanent.

“Good governments respond to the circumstances in front of them.

“When we approached the COVID period, we looked at what economic things and decisions that we could make to make it easier for families and businesses to survive through that period.

“We didn’t bake them in permanently.

“If you bake it in and you put it as a continuing cost, that continues to compound, because every dollar that Anthony Albanese is spending at the moment is borrowed money.”

The PM is talking up the Government’s cost of living response after a question on Dutton’s plan to halve the fuel excise.

He says he’s concerned the fuel excise was just a temporary measure after it was introduced following the 2022 election.

“It then just disappeared after a period of time. And what Peter’s proposing is something that is temporary... because of the nature of it as well, kick in for a period of time, increase the deficit in the short term.

“What we have looked to do to target... cost of living measures that put downward pressure on inflation.”

Dutton backs in Middle East peace, but criticises the response in Australia to the war.

“I want to make sure that in our country, people can celebrate their heritage, can celebrate their connections to a country of origin or to a country which is important to them,” he said.

“But when you come to our country, it’s about celebrating being Australian, always respecting heritage and culture, but also abiding by our laws.

“What we’ve seen in our society over the course of the last couple of years with fire bombings, with attacks on individuals, it’s completely unAustralian, and it’s not something that I think any of us would accept.”

The next question is from a voter from Toongabbie in NSW, who says she has many loved ones affected by the Gaza conflict.

She says their taxes are going towards the funding of weaponry - a point the PM disputes.

Albanese acknowledges it has been a “traumatic period”.

“We want to see a ceasefire, we want to see hostages released. We want to see aid get through to Gaza,” he says.

“I must say though there is no austrlaian weaponry involved in what is going on in Gaza.

“Australia has taken a responsible position of continuing to call for ceasefire.”

The PM says he wants to see Israelis and Palestinians live in peace, “side by side”.

Host Kieran Gilbert asks Peter Dutton why he would not support Labor’s $5 tax cut as well as his halving of the fuel excise.

“Our argument is that we want to provide support immediately through the 25 cent a litre reduction, and that is part of the tax that people are paying in their household budgets,” he said.

But Dutton says the Coalition would be open to extending it beyond a 12 month run.

“We do it for 12 months, and then we reassess it after that,” he said.

“The Prime Minister is baking in about seven and a half billion dollars every year of recurrent expenditure, which is why Labor always builds up a structural spend in the budget, which ultimately contributes to their $1.2 trillion of debt.

Migration and international students are up next.

Albanese says migration was always going to lift post-COVID border restrictions.

“Truth is, the population today is lower than what was anticipated in 2019,” he says.

“Migration levels fell in the last year by 31 per cent in one level. We introduced legislation to put a cap on student numbers, the Coalition and Greens voted against it in the Senate so it couldn’t get through.

“We want a reasonable cap that protects the universities.”

The PM also trumpets the Goverment’s $33 billion homes for Australia plan, saying it has led to 400,000 homes under construction.

Jason, a father of a university student, asks Dutton if his son’s university fees will rise as a result of the Liberal plan to cut international students.

“No, because what we do as a government is we provide that funding to universities, and obviously there’s a HELP scheme where students are paying for part of their own education as well,” Dutton replies.

“What we’ve done, though, is that we’ve said under the Government’s program, they brought in about a million people over the last two years.

“Now that’s a higher number, in fact, by 70 per cent higher than any two year period in our country’s history.”

He is pushed further on whether educating overseas students gives us an edge for our multicultural society.

“We are not only the best country in the world, but I think we’ve been made better because of our migration story.

“We’re an incredibly lucky country for it, but the numbers of international students have increased by 65 per cent over the course of the last couple of years.

“Now that is a dramatic increase.

“I’m all in favor of a well-managed migration program, but I’m not in favour of what the Prime Minister has done by flooding the market.”

Dutton hits out at the Prime Minister’s “scare campaign” about cuts to education when he was in the last Coalition Government.

“The Prime Minister goes out with this Mediscare campaign, the education scare campaign. It is not a truthful statement.”

“Now, what the Prime Minister is saying is that the funding didn’t go up by as much as he would want each year, but there was no funding cut from hospitals or from education.”

Both leaders are asked about the difference between public and private school funding by an Education Department employee.

Dutton responds first saying all parents have the right to make a choice.

“It is important that parents are able to have that choice, and that we can fund the infrastructure, and that we can support teacher development and make sure that we’ve got an education system which is fit for purpose.

“We live in an incredibly competitive environment, and we need to make sure that the outcomes in our schools are meeting the standards and expectations of students and parents and teachers and educators more generally and that requires money, and requires commitment.”

Dutton says he sat around the Cabinet table when Australia was excluded from Donald Trump’s first term tariffs in 2018.

“I know we can deal with whatever comes our way.”

“One of the great things about living in the greatest country in the world is that whatever is thrown at us, the Prime Minister of the day should have the ability and the strength of character to be able to stand up against bullies, against those that would seem to do us harm to keep our country safe, and to make sure that we can make the right economic decisions for our country as well.”