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Benita Korobos
Victorian Prime Minister Jacinta Allan will hold a press conference this morning in Parliament after Peter Dutton’s announcement, cancelling funds for the suburban railway loop project and instead spending $1.5 billion on Melbourne’s airport railroad.
She says the announcement is similar to a cut. Alan says:
Well, today is April Fools’ Day, and Peter Dutton’s cut to Victoria is no joke. Peter Dutton today announced that he will cut funding for important projects Victorian patients want, Victorian projects and projects that support the work.
His cuts will cut tens of millions of jobs, but these job cuts mean reducing wage packets for those workers.
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We have brought you some great stories on earth. We have more from Adelaide this morning about how people feel in different parts of the country.
What are the key challenges facing people in Adelaide? How do they feel? Tory Shepherd went to find it for us.
Sharedan Jervis-Bardy
Day 5: Albanese visits Adelaide’s frontier seats and kicks off, Boothby
We are operating off the fifth day of the federal election campaign, with Anthony Albanese starting at Boothby’s seat in the southern suburbs of Adelaide.
The Prime Minister will visit the Flinders Hospital area this morning and commit $150 million to the new medical center.
Shadow Health Minister Anne Ruston promises this campaign this morning, matching his pledges and continuing the record of the Union for Labor and Dollars in medical expenses.
Albanese is about to punch bag Boothby along with Labour MP Louise Miller Frost, who is under threat from Nicole Flint, who wants to regain her old seat after leaving Congress in 2021.
Seats are at a 3.2% concept margin.
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Updated with 18.07 EDT
Julie Bishop: Elections could be hung in Congress
Julie Bishop has largely shunned the media pack since leaving Congress, and she appears to want to move away from political commentary.
Prime Minister Anu and former Foreign Minister Julie Bishop don’t want to say much about the election, but she thinks it might hang in Parliament. Photo: Mick Tsikas/AAP
News Breakfast host James Glenday gives her a Red Hot Crack and asks her if the Union has pulled back enough support from female voters.
Bishop says her focus was not on the election campaign.
If I believe in the polls, and now I’ve been out of politics, I can guarantee that politicians will follow the vote very carefully – it appears [to be] There were only a few in federal history, close contests, perhaps even suspended Congress. It might be interesting to watch.
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Updated with 18.03 EDT
Julie Bishop: Getting foreign aid from Myanmar may be difficult
Former Liberal Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, now the envoy for Myanmar’s special advisor, joined ABC News breakfast to explain the earthquake that hit Myanmar.
Bishop says she was in Bangkok at the time (1,000 km from Myanmar).
I was in a skyscraper and it was shaking and squealing, and I could hear cracks in the concrete. That was horrifying. I, along with thousands of others, evacuated all the buildings in Bangkok and gathered in the park until Andshock passed, allowing me to imagine the impact of Myanmar.
There are concerns about how foreign aid will be obtained in Myanmar after the earthquake. Photo: Xinhua/Rex/Shutterstock
According to the bishop, leading humanitarian aid to the country is truly challenging, and that has not been made easy by the Trump administration’s freeze on foreign aid before an earthquake occurs.
I was in Bangladesh when the USAID Freeze was announced about two weeks ago and its impact on Cox’s Bazar, a refugee camp with around 1 million Rohingya refugees.
So, I understand that the Trump administration is providing support for millions of people, but I don’t know how easy it will be for the administration to enter Myanmar.
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Updated with 17.49 EDT
Health promises roll in from Labor and Union
Talking Nova Adelaide, Anthony Albanese says that Labour’s announcement in Adelaide this morning was “crackers.”
What you can do is have 1,300 job preparation graduates each year. So, 490 nurses, 250 social workers, 100 paramedics, physio, over 50 midwives…
What we need is more medical professionals and more facilities to help people get that care. This facility can treat 100 patients in either [one] time.
At a news breakfast some time ago, Shadow Health Minister Anne Ruston promised that the coalition would coincide with a $150 million commitment from the federal government for its partners with Flinders University.
We were always ready to support it, so we absolutely promise to support $300 million, $150 million to build this healthy center. It’s a great project.
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Updated with 17.42 EDT
Jason Claire: Dutton’s nuclear program receives funding from critical infrastructure such as trains
A little early, Labor Education Minister Jason Claire was asked about the coalition’s plan to abolish federal funds for the Victoria suburban railway loop if it beats the government.
I think you’ll ask someone from within the country, should we invest more in critical infrastructure? And they will say yes. I think what this tells you is that Peter Dutton is already starting his cuts challenge to fund the $600 million needed to build the reactor. It’s not just a rail loop, it’s more than just a road.
However, host Sally Sarah pointed out that there is still uncertainty about how the entire project will be paid, and that Australia is not confident that they can provide the project.
Claire skirts the question and sticks to why the government should invest more in infrastructure and how the coalition is withdrawing money.
What we should do is invest in the critical infrastructure that Australians need to avoid cities… And if Peter Dutton becomes prime minister, whether it’s a road or a railroad, he gives you a bit of insight.
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Updated with 17.28 EDT
Dutton says mortgage protection buffers are too difficult
Peter Dutton has committed to staying in the home and changing the “mainability buffer” to make it easier for first home buyers to enter the housing market.
What is a maintainability buffer?
The buffer sits at 3% and if interest rates rise, the bank should consider whether potential mortgage holders can continue to pay off their mortgage.
The coalition says the system is “locked” by Australians from home ownership and instructs APRA to consider the impact these rules have, particularly on first home buyers.
Regulators should also adjust capital processing of mortgage insurance-backed loans by rewriting their statement of expectations.
Last November, a Senate Committee report recommended that APRA prepare lower buffer guidelines only for the first home buyers who can adjust based on the economic cycle. It stated:
Australia’s Prudential Regulatory Authorities prepare Prudential Guidelines for lower first homebuyer service buffers that can accommodate the economic cycle and support the setting of financial stability within APRA’s careful standards.
The report was chaired by liberal senator Andrew Bragg, but the government senator’s dissenting report said the recommendation to change the buffer was to “quest it more frequently to carry out an increased risk of financial instability.”
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Updated with 17.25 EDT
Homeowners hold their breath before today’s RBA cash rate decision
After interest rates were cut in February for the first time in nearly five years, mortgage holders may appear to be predicting April Fool’s Day for a second cut, AAP reports.
The Reserve Bank will hand over the latest decisions on today’s cash rates. This is the first time the board met since the February interest rate was reduced to 4.1%.
Economists have predicted that the central bank will reduce mortgage repayments several times in 2025, but the April meeting is unlikely to shift the dial.
The two-day meeting, which began Monday, marks the first interest rate decisions have been made by the Reserve Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee as part of reforms to the central bank.
Eleanor Creagh, a senior economist at real estate advertising firm Rea Group, has shown that future interest rate cuts are being cut to the cards, but said there will be no further cuts in April due to central banks being cautious.
Inflation has been eased, further easing both headlines and underlying measures, reflecting significant advances in bringing domestic inflation back under control.
The rebound in home prices was attributed to the RBA’s February interest rate cuts. Photo: Joel Carrett/Aapshare
Updated with 17.10 EDT
Butler: The coalition’s plan to increase psychologist sessions to increase grants will create a bottleneck
Despite the campaign focused on Labour’s health, mental health has so far received little attention in its budget and campaign trajectory.
Butler says that increasing the number of psychologist sessions assisted from 10 to 20 (as the coalition is promising) creates a bottleneck in the system.
The problem is that you cannot double the number of sessions without doubling the number of psychologists. It’s about creating a bottle neck, which means that many people go without warning. We have been busy training more psychologists.
There was always a cap in 10 sessions. Generally, the average is about 4-6 sessions people use. The previous government introduced a higher cap for a certain period of time. This is just because of the COVID lockdown period.
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Updated with 17.02 EDT
Mark Butler: Easy work to recruit doctors from overseas
Health Minister Mark Butler has been next to Albanese so far, with an emphasis on health and hospital funding.
He is using ABC News breakfast this morning to fund more hospitals in his hometown of Adelaide.
Earlier this year, the government announced a mass bill of $8.5 billion to raise fees to 90% by the end of the decade. But how can Australians see a doctor if they lack GPS?
We need more doctors. We’ve added 17,000 new doctors to our system over the past two years, but we need more. This year, we are training more young doctors in GPS than we’ve done in Australia before. But we need more.
It makes it easier to recruit physicians from jurisdictions where we are extremely confident in, especially in the UK, Ireland, and New Zealand.
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Updated with 16.53 EDT
Dutton is just thinking about “putting our positive plans on the table,” Bridget Mackenzie says.
This morning, there’s a response to Peter Dutton’s comments yesterday about living in Kiribili (i.e. I don’t want a Sydney home on the waterfront…sigh).
Marles repeats the “measure the curtains” line and says Sydney is good, but that’s not Geelong, that’s (where Marles lives)?
In other words, it’s no secret, he’s wandering around measuring the curtains. On a certain Sunday, you’ll see Peter sneaking up around the Minister’s wings and running away where he places the pot plants. And he’s been doing this for a while, and now he’s working out which house he lives in.
A little earlier on today’s show, Nationals Senator Bridget Mackenzie took a slightly different tack…
We focus every day on actually getting in front of Australians and putting positive plans on the table. That’s everything I think, it’s all about Angus.
We must reach the front of Australian people with a positive plan for their future, not where we live after the election.
(However, there were at least some ideas about where they would live after the election…)
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Updated with 16.48 EDT
