Australia election 2025 live: Albanese and Dutton lock in third debate six days before polling day; Liberals mimic Drake cover art in Leaving Labor diss track
Third leaders debate to take place 27 April on Channel 7
Amanda Meade
The Seven Network will host the third and final leaders debate, at 8pm on Sunday 27 April.
The moderator for the debate between prime minister Anthony Albanese and opposition leader Peter Dutton will be Seven’s political editor, Mark Riley.
Sunrise presenter Natalie Barr will host the hour-long event, which will be followed by a special edition of Spotlight hosted by Michael Usher. Riley said:
Seven’s The Final Showdown is a proven and successful format that encourages free, frank, face-to-face debate to help our viewers make informed decisions about their votes.
It will be the most important night of this campaign – the candidates’ last chance before polling day to convince voters why they should lead the country.
On Wednesday, the ABC will host the second leaders debate from its new Parramatta site – the first to be held in an ABC studio since 1993.
The ABC, which is hosting the first free-to-air debate, will choose the topics and questions, with the event moderated by the Insiders host, David Speers.
Last week Sky News Australia hosted the first debate but it was only available live to Sky News or Daily Telegraph subscribers.
Key events
Housing’s been the biggest story of the day, following the two leaders making major announcements during their campaign launches.
Despite some negative feedback from economists who warn the policies could drive up housing prices.
On social media, economist Chris Richardson didn’t hold back when he called the policies a “dumpster fire of dumb stuff”. Ouch.
Dan Jervis-Bardy spoke to a few of those experts, and you can see what they said, and what impacts they believe the policies will have, here:
Plibersek asked about awkward moment with Albanese: ‘I should have done the elbow bump’
Tanya Plibersek’s media team have had to reissue a transcript from her appearance on Sunrise this morning (where she was asked about that awkward moment with Albanese from the weekend).
They initially left out some of the back and forth between Plibersek, host Natalie Barr – who asked if they were still buddies and still getting along – and fellow panellist Barnaby Joyce.
Here’s the full exchange from this morning:
BARR: … Was that a bit awks? What happened there?
PLIBERSEK: Do you know what, I reckon we should still all be elbow bumping, because during an election campaign, the last thing you want is to catch a cold from someone. So that’s on me. I should have done the elbow bump, I reckon.
BARR: So you two still getting along, yep?
PLIBERSEK: Yeah, of course.
JOYCE: Oh yes, of course.
BARR: Friends, buddies? Just checking.
JOYCE: We’re buddies.
PLIBERSEK: Yep.
BARR: That’s a yes is it, Tanya?
JOYCE: That’s convincing.
BARR: Yep.
PLIBERSEK: Yeah. I said of course.
BARR: Why didn’t he want to hug you when you went in for the …?
JOYCE: I’m glad you’re not my barrister on that one.
BARR: OK, left me hanging, OK thank you, we’ll see you next week. Bye guys. Happy campaigning.
Third leaders debate to take place 27 April on Channel 7
Amanda Meade
The Seven Network will host the third and final leaders debate, at 8pm on Sunday 27 April.
The moderator for the debate between prime minister Anthony Albanese and opposition leader Peter Dutton will be Seven’s political editor, Mark Riley.
Sunrise presenter Natalie Barr will host the hour-long event, which will be followed by a special edition of Spotlight hosted by Michael Usher. Riley said:
Seven’s The Final Showdown is a proven and successful format that encourages free, frank, face-to-face debate to help our viewers make informed decisions about their votes.
It will be the most important night of this campaign – the candidates’ last chance before polling day to convince voters why they should lead the country.
On Wednesday, the ABC will host the second leaders debate from its new Parramatta site – the first to be held in an ABC studio since 1993.
The ABC, which is hosting the first free-to-air debate, will choose the topics and questions, with the event moderated by the Insiders host, David Speers.
Last week Sky News Australia hosted the first debate but it was only available live to Sky News or Daily Telegraph subscribers.
Josh Butler
Albanese arrives in Tasmania
Anthony Albanese’s campaign has touched down in Tasmania. We’ve landed in Hobart, after leaving Adelaide earlier, en route to a media appearance north of the city.
We’re expecting the PM to make a local announcement and maybe give a short press conference. We’ll bring you more in about half an hour.
Bandt derides major parties’ ‘battle of the Band-Aids’ on housing policy
Staying on the Greens for a moment, party leader Adam Bandt has weighed in on the housing policies announced over the weekend, accusing the major parties of engaging in a “battle of the Band-Aids”.
It’s a line he’s used before but adds the policies will ensure house prices keep rising.
The party has been calling for action on negative gearing and capital gains tax, which Bandt says need to be reformed to increase housing affordability.
Labor and the Liberals are becoming a battle of the Band-Aids that will see house prices continuing to soar out of reach of first home buyers because they won’t tackle the massive billions of dollars in handouts that are going to wealthy property investors with multiple properties.
The Greens have also been calling for rents to be capped – which the states and territories would have to administer – but several have already said they wouldn’t intervene in that way.
Greens support Adelaide bid to host Cop
The Greens have thrown their support behind Adelaide’s bid to host the Cop climate conference.
Albanese said this morning the South Australian city would host the event, if Australia’s bid was successful.
Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young (a South Australian) says Adelaide is the city of “clean, green power and climate action” but says the state and federal governments need to go further to prevent more investment in coal and gas.
Adelaide and Australia have the opportunity to lead on the next crucial steps of combating dangerous climate change, but we must stop making climate pollution worse.
We can’t put the fire out if we keep pouring fuel on it. Australia can lead the way on getting rid of fossil fuel subsidies and opening no new polluting mines.
Dutton announces $19.5m for Foodbank in Brisbane
Peter Dutton has briefly spoken in front of the cameras again, this time at a Foodbank service in Brisbane.
Dutton announced $19.5m for Foodbank in Brisbane to help them upgrade their facilities.
Our announcement today of $19.5 million to provide Foodbank with the new upgraded facility means that more homes, more mouths, can be reached. And it will provide security for many more families than what Foodbank is able to provide support to now.
The funding is welcomed by the Foodbank Brisbane site, who said it will help increase capacity, speaking after Dutton. They said: “It will double what we are able to provide. I welcome the acknowledgement of the food security crisis that we have here in this country”.
It’s in addition to $50m that Dutton announced for food charities including Foodbank, SecondBite and OzHarvest, to help them expand their services.
Dutton didn’t take any questions.
Liberals channel Drake
Bringing you some further details on this Liberal diss track, the cover of it – funnily enough – is eerily similar to Drake’s 2021 Certified Lover Boy album.
Drake, of course, was the loser of the diss track battle with Kendrick Lamar.
Lamar fans might also remember that Certified Lover Boy was referenced a few times in his diss tracks.
You can see Drake’s original cover here:
And the Liberal party’s cover here:
Despite the homage to Drake, the Liberal party describes the track as, “This is like Kendrick meeting Question Time — lyrical, direct, and as with all the best raps: political.”
Liberals release diss track: ‘Albo’s got to leave, Albo’s got to leave’
The Liberal party has released a new diss track on SoundCloud this morning, “Leaving Labor”, presumably trying to jump on to the diss track bandwagon that saw US rapper Kendrick Lamar win several Grammys with his rap Not Like Us.
Safe to say this one’s not going global, but when asked about it at this morning’s press conference, Peter Dutton admitted he hadn’t listened to it yet.
Harry [Dutton] might have though, he said:
I’m sure the gurus have put together a cracking ad. If it says something about Mr Albanese lying, it’s just a recording of fact.
Guardian Australia understands the party engaged a commercial artist to produce the song, whose lyrics go:
It ain’t the way that it’s supposed to be, the money we’re spending on groceries, I just want to buy some eggs and cheese, 100 bucks you kidding me …
Bring the prices down, this is what we need, cos Albo’s got to leave, Albo’s got to leave.
The last SoundCloud track released by the account was a “club remix” of the notorious There’s a Hole in Your Budget, Dear Labor. (It’s taken me years to get that song out of my head.)
Speaking of music, in a Liberal social media clip, Dutton was asked what music he’s listening to right now.
He said some “slow” Billy Joel, and some Luke Combs (most notably known for his cover of Tracy Chapman’s Fast Car). Make of that what you will.
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Dutton is asked if he’ll help his son buy a home
Natasha May
After his son Harry told reporters it’s “almost impossible” to get into the housing market, Dutton was asked near the end of the presser whether he’d help his own son out.
Dutton had said a little earlier: “I don’t want to be accepting a situation where only mums and dads who can afford [it] give their kids help.”
But when the question was put to him as to whether Harry might get a little assistance, Dutton completely avoided the question.
Reporter:
Mr Dutton, you’ve brought your son Harry out here, he talked about how hard it is to save for a deposit … Why won’t you support him a bit and give him a bit of help with buying a house?
Dutton:
I haven’t finished the excellent points I was making. The next point, as to why people should vote Liberal, is we can manage the economy well …
No more clarity there for Harry.
Dutton on teal threat in his marginal seat of Dickson
Peter Dutton’s seat of Dickson in Queensland sits on a pretty tight margin. It was a margin of just 1.7% at the last election in 2022, narrowly beating Labor’s candidate, Ali France.
France is running for a third time this election, and Dutton is also facing a major teal threat, with community independent Ellie Smith also running.
Dutton says he knows Dickson has always been a marginal seat.
Dickson has always been a marginal seat and I always worked hard and I never take it for granted.
The teal campaign in my seat who’s, just on the polling I have seen, just got double-digit primary vote is spending a lot of money, is funded by a billionaire out of Sydney, [she] is actually a Green trying to pretend to people that she’s not.
South-east Queensland is a really interesting area, with three seats that turned Green at the last election – two claimed from the Liberals and one from Labor.
Dutton says he believes the Liberal party can win back the two seats – Ryan and Brisbane – that were taken by the Greens.
Dutton says international students part of reason ‘Aussie kids are 20 deep in a queue to try and rent a unit’
On renters, and how they might be feeling abandoned by the government and opposition, Dutton says his policies on cutting migration and international students, plus cost of living relief, will make life easier for renters.
He says international students are part of the reason why “Aussie kids are 20 deep in a queue to try and rent a unit”.
But when challenged on the fact that research has found there’s no correlation between rising rents and international student numbers, Dutton says “of course they are”.
Of course they are. I mean, where are these people living? If people are coming here through the migration program, understandably they want a place to live, but I’m not going to see Australians displaced from housing. There’s only so much housing stock.
Dutton has been using this line that migrants and international students are fuelling the housing crisis for some time.
But the facts are a little different:
Dutton argues Coalition’s promised spending isn’t ‘recurrent’, like Labor’s
One of the biggest criticisms of the policy announcements yesterday – from both the Liberals and Labor – is just how much money they’re spending.
Dutton is asked whether his announcement undercuts his own criticism of Labor being a big spending government.
Dutton argues that the Coalition’s announcements aren’t “recurrent” spending.
We haven’t locked in a recurrent spend. So for, you know, the economists-minded people, we haven’t locked in recurrent spend like Labor has. They spent over $17 billion under their tax cut, which is 70 cents a day starting in 15 months’ time. Australians need help now, which is why we have done the 25 cents a litre tax cut on petrol. We don’t lock that in.
Is that petrol excise cut inflationary? Dutton says it’s not, and says that has “been pointed out before”.
Dutton says despite cutting migration, tradies will be “prioritised”
Will there be enough tradies to even build the homes that the Coalition is promising, when they’ve also committed to cut migration numbers?
Dutton says there will be more tradies under a Coalition government, and despite cutting migration, tradies will be “prioritised”.
But there’s a fair bit of back and forth between Dutton and reporters on this point, and he can’t say exactly how many more tradies there will be, and how many will come in from overseas.
Dutton says:
Depends how many applicants there are and depends what demand there is for the skills and the whole skills list …
Under Labor, they can’t come in because they’re not prioritised. Under us they come in.
Again he’s challenged on exactly how many tradies will be brought in, but he won’t say.
