Federal election 2025 LIVE updates: Dutton pledges $40b debt cut; Albanese campaigns in Perth

Peter Dutton has headed home to launch the Salvation Army’s Red Shield Appeal in his narrowly held seat of Dickson.

It’s an annual event that Dutton typically launches and his presence brings extra attention to the cause in the last days of campaigning before Saturday’s election.

This is seat 13 of Dutton’s 28-seat last week blitz.

Finance Minister Katy Gallagher has lashed out at the Coalition’s decision to release its costings just two days before the election.

The Coalition will today pledge to slash at least $10 billion from budget deficits over the next four years while bringing down government debt by $40 billion.

“I think this is a real costings con job from the opposition,” Gallagher said on Nine’s Today.

“I mean … 5 million people have voted and the costings still aren’t out. We don’t know what they’re going to cut. We don’t know how much nuclear is going to cost in terms of how much they’ve allocated in the budget.

“But we do know that student debt is going to rise. Housing is going to be cut and income taxes are going to go up.”

But shadow treasurer Angus Taylor said the Coalition was releasing its costings at the same time as Labor did when it was in opposition in 2022.

“We’re putting them out at exactly the same time as Katy and the Labor Party did at the last election,” said Taylor.

“More lies from Katy. And the important point here is this: by bringing down our debt and bringing down the deficits, we bring down interest rates, inflation. And we put the economy in our country in a position where it can grow. We can get investment, and we can get our standard of living back up.”

The Coalition will pledge to slash at least $10 billion out of budget deficits over the next four years while bringing down government debt by $40 billion amid suggestions the cost of its signature nuclear power policy will be far more expensive than it has promised.

Shadow treasurer Angus Taylor and finance spokeswoman Jane Hume will on Thursday reveal the Coalition’s full costings, which will confirm cuts to several high-profile Labor programs, including its pledge to wipe $16 billion in student debts.

But even with its promises, both the Coalition and government will go to voters on Saturday with the budget facing deficits over the rest of the decade and gross debt soaring through the $1 trillion mark.

This week, ratings agency S&P Global warned Australia’s AAA credit rating could be put at risk if either of the major parties’ election promises resulted in larger structural deficits and more debt than expected.

On Monday, Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Finance Minister Katy Gallagher released the government’s costings, which showed total budget deficits would be $1.1 billion lower than forecast in the March 25 budget.

Read the full story here.

The Plymouth Brethren Christian Church’s support for the Liberal Party has stepped up with the son of the church’s global leader campaigning at a Sydney voting booth on Wednesday.

His appearance came as the wife of the Liberal candidate for Gorton, in Melbourne, told Brethren volunteers that the campaign “would not be where we are today” without the support of “so many” of the church’s people.

This masthead revealed on Monday that the church, formerly known as the Exclusive Brethren, had sent hundreds of its members to pre-polling booths in marginal seats while instructing them to keep secret that they were members of the controversial religion.

Reports have emerged from across the country, mostly from marginal Labor or independent-held seats, of large groups of church members outnumbering volunteers from all other parties.

In Brethren theology, its leader Bruce Hales is regarded as “so close to the Lord Jesus that he can feel his heartbeat”.

Hales’ son, Gareth, a wealthy businessman whose company made hundreds of millions of dollars in one year from COVID contracts, paid a visit to a polling station in Eastwood in the seat of Bennelong, a three-minute drive from his Eastwood mega-mansion.

Read the full exclusive report here.

On Wednesday night, Dutton made a rare appearance in the seat of Kooyong, joining Liberal candidate Amelia Hamer at the Tower Hotel in Hawthorn East – a venue known for its vocal anti-Monique Ryan campaigning with an enormous anti-Monique Ryan sign mounted on the pub.

It marked the opposition leader’s second visit to the seat the Liberals are eager to win back.

Despite the significance of the visit, the man hoping to become prime minister did not take questions from the media.

This masthead was present when Dutton arrived at the venue, delayed by anti-nuclear protesters dressed in hazmat suits outside the pub.

I attempted to approach Dutton to ask several questions – most pressingly, for his response to reports of neo-Nazis impersonating Liberal campaigners in Kooyong, which dominated local headlines yesterday.

However, a media advisor from Dutton’s office informed me that questions would not be permitted, as the event was not a press conference.

It appears media attendees were invited solely for photos and vision, with no opportunity to engage the opposition leader directly.

The visit to Kooyong was part of a broader blitz across Melbourne’s marginal seats, with Dutton also stopping in Dunkley and Aston on Wednesday.

After one of the most dramatic days in Kooyong, the opposition leader came, smiled, and left – all without taking a single question.

Follow our Victorian hot seats blog here.

Anthony Albanese on Wednesday marked a small victory – surpassing Gough Whitlam’s time in office.

The prime minister said he was determined to become a leader with a long legacy.

“The problem [with Whitlam] was that, yes, he introduced Medibank, but he wasn’t there long enough and a lot of his reforms disappeared,” Albanese said, as he ducked and weaved volunteers around the local polling booth.

“A long-term Labor government, like [under] Bob Hawke, his reforms entrenched a lot of change.”

One woman lining up to vote told Albanese as she shook his hand that she “believed in his values”.

“It’s all about that, what you say, no one left behind and no one held back,” she said.

Albanese quipped that she had watched his National Press Club address earlier that day.

Jeers and adulation greeted the prime minister as he made a wicked blitz to the west on Wednesday evening.

Fresh off a speech in the nation’s capital, Albanese soared across the country to court voters at a pre-polling booth in the Perth suburb of Midland.

Shoulder-to-shoulder with two local candidates, the group visited a voting centre bordering the crucial seats of Hasluck and Bullwinkel.

Things got off to their usual start with the prime minister cooing at five-and-a-half-month-old Annabelle as mum Kyra lined up to cast her vote.

But the situation quickly devolved.

Liberal volunteers began yelling “keep the sheep” (referring to live sheep exports, a hot-button election issue in WA), kicking off a chain reaction of chants from party supporters. Labor’s army began repeating their party name, prompting one Greens supporter to yell “stop AUKUS”.

Though voters remained relatively unfazed.

“It’s an enormous privilege to meet you,” David Leith said as Albanese greeted queuing locals.

This was his 33rd trip to WA and, asked if he would continue to make 10 visits a year, the PM said, “you bet”.

Good morning and thank you for joining our live coverage of the election campaign.

There’s just two more sleeps until polling day! My name’s Angus Delaney and I’ll be helming the blog into the afternoon.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will campaign in Perth today and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton will begin the day in his home electorate of Dickson in Brisbane.