Dutton says he will only ‘stand behind one flag’
The opposition leader is now taking questions from reporters in Cairns, where he is campaigning.
Guardian Australia political reporter Sarah Basford Canales asks him whether he still pledges to not display the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags in official news conferences if he is elected, after hecklers interrupted the welcome to country at Anzac Day dawn services in Melbourne and Perth.
Dutton affirms his policy as prime minister would be “to stand behind one flag … because I want our country to be united under one flag”:
[Anzac Day] is not a place for political statements. It’s not a place for anything other than respect. And I think that’s very important to point out. And I just say to that near 100% of Australians who were at Anzac Day ceremonies yesterday conducted themselves in a way that we should all be very proud of, but we should condemn those bad actions.
In relation to a welcome to country, if an organiser of a particular event decides that there’s a welcome to country, then people can respect that decision.
In relation to the flag, the point I’ve made … as prime minister, my policy to stand behind one flag is because I want our country to be united under one flag, and I want our country to be as good as it can be, and we can’t be as good as we can be if we’re separating people into different groupings.
Every Australian, whether you came here as a migrant from Greece or from Asia or any part of the world in the 1800s or you came here in 2018 or if you can trace your family tree back 60,000 years. We are all equal Australians, and we can respect the Indigenous flag and the Torres Strait Island flag, but we unite under one flag, as every other … comparable country does, and that’s how we can help close the gap.
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Updated at 22.00 EDT
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Back to Back Barries: Could soft voters prove the polls wrong?
There’s only a week to go, and polls are showing that the gap between the two major parties is widening in favour of Anthony Albanese – but with such a high number of soft voters, can we count the Coalition out?
Barrie Cassidy and Tony Barry discuss the big issue of the last week.
Listen here:
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Woman dies after falling at Mapleton Falls national park
Queensland police will prepare a report for the coroner after a 36-year-old woman died after reportedly falling 80 metres at Mapleton Falls national park on the Sunshine Coast yesterday.
A Queensland police spokesperson said:
Emergency services were called to Mapleton Falls around 3.30pm following reports a woman had fallen.
She was located deceased around 4.30pm.
The spokesperson said the death was not being treated as suspicious.
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Updated at 22.13 EDT
Virginia Giuffre has died by suicide at farm in Western Australia, family says
Virginia Giuffre has died aged 41. Photograph: Crime+Investigation/PA
Virginia Giuffre, a survivor of the disgraced US financier Jeffrey Epstein, has died by suicide at her farm in Western Australia, a statement from her family, attorney Sigrid McCawley and PR Dini von Mueffling says.
The statement reads:
It is with utterly broken hearts that we announce that Virginia passed away last night at her farm in Western Australia. She lost her life to suicide, after being a lifelong victim of sexual abuse and sex trafficking.
Virginia was a fierce warrior in the fight against sexual abuse and sex trafficking. She was the light that lifted so many survivors. Despite all the adversity she faced in her life, she shone so bright. She will be missed beyond measure.
The light of her life were her children Christian, Noah, and Emily. It was when she held her newborn daughter in her arms that Virginia realized she had to fight back against those who had abused her and so many others.
There are no words that can express the grave loss we feel today with the passing of our sweet Virginia. She was heroic and will always be remembered for her incredible courage and loving spirit.
In the end, the toll of abuse is so heavy that it became unbearable for Virginia to handle its weight. We know that she is with the angels.
In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org
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Updated at 22.16 EDT
Sarah Basford Canales
At the press conference earlier with Peter Dutton, the LNP candidate in Leichhardt, Jeremy Neal, was asked whether he still supported Donald Trump after social media posts surfaced during the campaign.
Neal said “those views are [from] a very long time ago, and they were deleted a very long time ago”.
He added the US president’s decision to place tariffs on Australian exports had left a “sour taste” in his mouth.
Jeremy Neal (left) with Peter Dutton at an LNP supporters breakfast in Cairns. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAPShare
Updated at 21.52 EDT
Sarah Basford Canales
‘We can win this election,’ Dutton tells LNP supporters in Cairns
Earlier this morning, Peter Dutton stopped by the Barr Street Markets in Cairns for breakfast with his supporters in the seat of Leichhardt.
The opposition leader was joined by the LNP candidate, Jeremy Neal, as they worked their way through the early morning crowd of poll booth volunteers.
Dutton thanked supporters and joked the breakfast was put on to feed them up quickly and get them to pre-poll stations as quickly as possible.
He said:
We’ve got all seven days ahead of us, but there’s no doubt in my mind, we can win this election, and we must for our great country.
After his press conference, Dutton and the media pack following his campaign travelled to Mount Sheridan, south of Cairns, to visit a new housing estate.
There he announced $33.8m in funding for the estate as part of the Coalition’s broader $5bn package to build the required infrastructure for houses, such as connecting sewerage and water.
Dutton said many places around the country faced “growing pains” in regards to new housing and the funding “provides support to those blocks of land being developed more quickly and coming on to market more quickly”.
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Updated at 21.29 EDT
Albanese warns about rising threat of far right
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, says mainstream politics needs to speak out against a rise in far-right figures.
I condemned what happened yesterday with someone associated with neo-Nazis. I have had some of those figures confront me, as you may be aware, here in Melbourne.
I think it’s good that across the board, the political spectrum condemned what occurred yesterday. It was condemned by Mr Dutton as well. That’s a good thing.
Mainstream politics needs to speak out against far-right figures and the rise … We know from the Asio director general, Mr Burgess, he has publicly spoken about the threat … We know the consequences of this. We need to take this seriously. These threats. Because they are real.
The prime minister says it is “fantastic” that media organisations “have come together to speak out against hate”.
“I just think we as a society have got to come together.”
He also points to algorithms that encourage “people to go to more extreme views”.
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Updated at 21.02 EDT
Dutton avoids questions about Leichhardt candidate’s online history
Looking back to Peter Dutton’s press conference from the must-win seat of Leichhardt in Cairns earlier this morning, where the opposition leader vouched for his candidate Jeremy Neal.
Dutton said:
People know if they vote for Jeremy Neal, they’ll get more local doctors. They’re also going to get $6m more for local Headspace – and Headspace is something we’ve invested in for a long period of time … it provides that primary care response for young people presenting with mental health conditions, and it has made a big difference in the lives of hundreds of thousands of Australians.
On Wednesday, Neal’s online history, including controversial posts about China, Covid-19 restrictions and “feminists” who helped “kick out” Donald Trump in 2020, resurfaced.
Dutton avoided answering questions about Neal’s online history.
Neal is in a fight to retain the seat as Labor attempts to capitalise on the retirement of the veteran Liberal MP Warren Entsch.
Peter Dutton speaks at a new housing development in Cairns, in the seat of Leichhardt. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAPShare
Updated at 20.47 EDT
Albanese says climate change is an “economic issue, not just an environmental one”.
He is asked about the rising pressure of home insurance for families. The prime minister responds:
We’ll continue to do what we can there. One of the things that obviously is having an impact is the increased number of extreme weather events. That’s why climate change needs to be considered to be an economic issue, not just an environmental one. Because there are economic costs to it.
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Updated at 21.02 EDT
Albanese rejects Coalition idea to rescreen Gaza migrants
Anthony Albanese says the suggestion by the opposition that people who have fled to Australia from Gaza should be rescreened for security is “aimed at promoting division”.
The prime minister is asked whether there is “any merit” to the idea. His response:
Everyone who is here has been through screening … Let’s be clear about the suggestions that have been made on a range of occasions, aimed at promoting division in Australian society and in Australian debate. They’ve been made by the Coalition. They simply just don’t stack up.
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Updated at 21.03 EDT
Albanese reaffirms he has ruled out any changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax in the future.
The prime minister is asked: “You have spoken a lot about Labor needing to be the party of aspiration. I’m wondering if you would consider changes to housing tax breaks to be anti-aspiration and do you rule out changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax in the next three years?”
He responds:
I’ve been asked a lot about that and I gave the same answer in 2022 as I’ve said today … The proof is in the pudding. Proof is in what you do, not what you say you will do. The proof is we haven’t made any changes. I think that the key when it comes to housing policy is supply. Supply, more supply and even more supply. And that’s why we have a plan to do just that.
Asked again, “Do you rule out future changes, prime minister,” Albanese says:
I’ve done that multiple times. If you ask me tomorrow, we’ll get the same answer.
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Updated at 21.03 EDT
Albanese pledges $25m to help students learn a second language
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, is speaking from the seat of Chisholm, Victoria, about his $25m pledge to help Australian students learn a second language:
Overwhelmingly Australians live side by side with different backgrounds, different faiths, different origins, different cultures [which] enrich our entire nation. And lift us up. It also presents an enormous opportunity … People learning languages and having those skills enables that economic interaction as well. There’s a real tangible benefit for our jobs, as well as, of course, for our cultural enrichment.
Albanese says the pledge will help 90,000 students learn and maintain 84 languages, “with a special focus on our neighbours in Asia”.
Anthony Albanese visits the New Century Chinese language school at Wheelers Hill secondary college in Melbourne. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAPShare
Updated at 21.04 EDT
Dutton says he will only ‘stand behind one flag’
The opposition leader is now taking questions from reporters in Cairns, where he is campaigning.
Guardian Australia political reporter Sarah Basford Canales asks him whether he still pledges to not display the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags in official news conferences if he is elected, after hecklers interrupted the welcome to country at Anzac Day dawn services in Melbourne and Perth.
Dutton affirms his policy as prime minister would be “to stand behind one flag … because I want our country to be united under one flag”:
[Anzac Day] is not a place for political statements. It’s not a place for anything other than respect. And I think that’s very important to point out. And I just say to that near 100% of Australians who were at Anzac Day ceremonies yesterday conducted themselves in a way that we should all be very proud of, but we should condemn those bad actions.
In relation to a welcome to country, if an organiser of a particular event decides that there’s a welcome to country, then people can respect that decision.
In relation to the flag, the point I’ve made … as prime minister, my policy to stand behind one flag is because I want our country to be united under one flag, and I want our country to be as good as it can be, and we can’t be as good as we can be if we’re separating people into different groupings.
Every Australian, whether you came here as a migrant from Greece or from Asia or any part of the world in the 1800s or you came here in 2018 or if you can trace your family tree back 60,000 years. We are all equal Australians, and we can respect the Indigenous flag and the Torres Strait Island flag, but we unite under one flag, as every other … comparable country does, and that’s how we can help close the gap.
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Updated at 22.00 EDT
Dutton pledged an additional $21bn in defence spending this week. He says “it’s an uncertain world” when speaking about the promise on Weekend Today:
We’ve announced an increase of $21bn over the next five years, which will help acquire the capability and support our men and women in uniform … But if you’re concerned about what you’re seeing in the world at the moment in the Middle East, in Asia, if you look at what’s happening in Europe with Russia and Ukraine, you know it’s an uncertain world and now is not the time to have a prime minister who’s weak and out of his depth. We need to make sure that we keep our country safe.
When asked where that $21bn pledged in defence spending is coming from, he does not have an answer:
Well, it’s over the next five years. So in year five we achieved the 2.5%. We’re not going forward with some of Labor’s programs which lock in spending every year. And that allows us the ability to invest into defence.
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Updated at 21.05 EDT
Dutton maintains ‘race is on’ despite polling pointing to Labor victory
The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, is speaking on Weekend Today about his federal election campaign. Asked “have you run out of time to turn it around”, he says:
There are literally millions of Australians who are still undecided. And I think the next week will allow them to decide whether they want to continue with three more years under Labor.
Peter Dutton prepares for a live TV cross while campaigning in Cairns. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP
Dutton goes on to list his campaign promises – “a 25 cent a litre cut to fuel to help families. It’s $1,200 back of your own money that you’ve paid in taxes to help you get through Labor’s cost-of-living crisis … Making home ownership a reality again for young Australians, with our five-point plan for home ownership … Keeping our communities safe and keeping our country safe as well.”
He is pushed on by the host: “But if polls are to believed, none of that is sticking.”
Dutton responds that “the race is on”.
There are 30% of people who are undecided at the moment and the race is on as to whether people think our country can afford three more years of Anthony Albanese.
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Updated at 21.05 EDT
Greens want lower retirement age and boost to age pension
Josh Butler
The Greens want to lower the retirement age to 65, and boost the age pension to above the poverty line, in their latest policy announcement.
The party leader, Adam Bandt, will make the announcement in Richmond, the electorate around Byron Bay, today – one of the seats the Greens are whispering about potentially flipping on election night. They would seek to make the pension policy one of their priorities in the next term of parliament.
“By lowering the pension age from 67 to 65, recipients who benefit would on average receive $18,000 more a year. This includes those moving from JobSeeker to the age pension,” the Greens said in a statement.
There are currently 54,295 JobSeeker recipients who are aged over 65. Since 2017 the proportion of people older than 65 receiving JobSeeker, DSP or the carer payment has doubled.
Adam Bandt says more must be done about ‘a poverty crisis among older Australians’. Photograph: Jason O’Brien/AAP
The Greens say the change would largely benefit older women, who are more likely to face poverty in old age than men.
“In a wealthy country like ours, no one should retire into poverty … There is a poverty crisis among older Australians and it’s worse for older women, who are one of the fastest growing groups facing homelessness,” Bandt said.
The Greens candidate for Richmond, Mandy Nolan, said her local area had one of the highest housing and rent prices in Australia.
“Yet the pension has remained below the poverty line. In a wealthy country, housing stress and homelessness should not be an issue for our elders,” she said.
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Updated at 20.53 EDT
Rafqa Touma
Thank you to Martin Farrer for kicking off the blog this morning. I’ll be rolling your live news updates from here – let’s go.
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Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it’ll be Rafqa Touma to take you through the day.
The Greens are out of the blocks first today with another of their policy announcements, this time a policy that would lower the retirement age to 65, and boost the age pension to above the poverty line. Adam Bandt says Australia is a wealthy country and people should not suffer poverty in their old age. More coming up.
As thoughts turn to actually voting – and some have already done so – we have a guide to the minority parties on your ballot paper – the ones you might want to back and the ones you might not want to see in the Senate. More coming up.
In the week when the Coalition launched its policies to tackle domestic violence, our reporters have asked every police jurisdiction how it assesses risk in family violence offenders to get a better understanding of how the system should work. More coming up.
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