Albanese clashes with 2GB host on Russia and Indonesian reports
This is certainly a more combative interview than most this morning, with the two men continuing to wrangle on the issue of Russia and Indonesia.
Levy asks why Albanese hasn’t been “clear and honest” on whether Russia put in a request to base its military aircraft in Indonesia. Albanese scoffs and says:
We’ve been completely clear that the Indonesian government have said that this is not going to happen.
Levy accuses Albanese of saying “there’s nothing to see here” which Albanese retorts, saying “there is nothing to see here”.
Russia, of course, will engage in the sort of propaganda that you know tries to assert its influence. The truth is that Russia is struggling to beat the brave people of Ukraine under President [Volodymyr] Zelenskyy.
Key events
Albanese can afford to increase welfare payments but ‘prefers not to’, Antipoverty Centre says
The Antipoverty Centre says Anthony Albanese’s refusal to commit to increasing the jobseeker payment shows the government hasn’t “earned the respect of anyone who cares about people in poverty.”
Earlier during his presser, Dan Jervis-Bardy asked the PM if he would increase the payments.
Spokesperson for the Centre, Jay Coonan, said in a statement that the government can afford to lift all Centrelink payments now, but “it just prefers not to”.
A lot of poor people believed Labor when they said ‘no one left behind’, and that broken promise has caused a lot of pain.
Many of us are feeling worse off financially now than we did three years ago and the government has shown no signs that they care to address that …
The government can afford to lift all Centrelink payments to ensure no one is in poverty, it just prefers not to.
Dan Jervis-Bardy
Albanese visits Sydney marginal seat of Bennelong
The prime minister’s next stop is in the ultra-marginal seat of Bennelong in Sydney’s north-western suburbs.
The Labor MP Jerome Laxale holds the seat but will need a positive swing to retain it after a boundary redraw turned it notionally Liberal.
Albanese is joining Laxale at a busy pre-poll station in Eastwood, where volunteers are handing out how-to-vote cards to people casting an early vote.
The prime minister’s choice of electorates to start the campaign’s final week is an early sign Labor is on the defensive, focused on holding – rather than gaining – seats.
Voting 101: above or below the line?
With just a handful of days to go (five to be precise, but who’s counting) to vote, the all important question of whether to number above or below the line on the Senate ballot arises.
Why vote above or below? What difference does it actually make?
Matilda Boseley has the answers for you:
Henry Belot
Where will the Coalition’s 41,000 APS job cuts come from?
The Coalition has made it clear that its plans to slash the size of the federal public service by 41,000 positions by the end of the decade will only impact Canberra based roles.
According to government figures released at the end of 2024, there are 19 government agencies with 100% of staff based in Canberra. These include national cultural institutions, the emergency management agency and the war memorial.
Some of these agencies relate to national security and intelligence and will likely be excluded from any natural attrition or voluntary redundancy scheme under the Coalition. But this list gives a sense of the workforce in Canberra:
The office of the inspector general of intelligence and security (47 jobs)
The clean energy regulator (442 jobs)
The Australian Research Council (137 jobs)
Safe work Australia (110 jobs)
The independent parliamentary expenses authority (61 jobs)
Parliamentary workplace services (68 jobs)
The Australian centre for international agriculture research (52 jobs)
The national blood authority (95 jobs)
The national health funding body (35 jobs)
Professional services review (43 jobs)
The national emergency management agency (426 jobs)
The national capital authority (70 jobs)
The National Library of Australia (461 jobs)
The National Museum of Australia (295 jobs)
The National Portrait Gallery of Australia (65 jobs)
Old Parliament House (156 jobs)
The Australian audit office (475 jobs)
The Office of National Intelligence (425 jobs)
The Australian War Memorial (375 jobs)
Josh Butler
Dutton arrives to campaign in Paterson
Peter Dutton’s campaign has landed in Paterson, on the NSW Central Coast. He will tour a food distribution centre, and hold a press conference here in the next 30 to 45 minutes.
It’s Dutton’s third visit to Paterson this campaign, and his sixth in the last 18 months.
The Liberal campaign believes they have a strong shot of pinching the seat from Labor, who hold Paterson courtesy of Meryl Swanson.
Albanese clashes with 2GB host on Russia and Indonesian reports
This is certainly a more combative interview than most this morning, with the two men continuing to wrangle on the issue of Russia and Indonesia.
Levy asks why Albanese hasn’t been “clear and honest” on whether Russia put in a request to base its military aircraft in Indonesia. Albanese scoffs and says:
We’ve been completely clear that the Indonesian government have said that this is not going to happen.
Levy accuses Albanese of saying “there’s nothing to see here” which Albanese retorts, saying “there is nothing to see here”.
Russia, of course, will engage in the sort of propaganda that you know tries to assert its influence. The truth is that Russia is struggling to beat the brave people of Ukraine under President [Volodymyr] Zelenskyy.
Albanese avoids answering if his energy bills have risen
Albanese and Levy clash on energy bills as Albanese says he’s “privileged” to live in the lodge.
Levy asks Albanese whether his energy bills have risen over the last three years.
Albanese tries to skirt the question:
Levy: You don’t pay the cost of electricity at the lodge, but you do have a personal property in Sydney, is your electricity all gone up or down?
Albanese: Obviously, I am live a life of privilege serving in the Lodge property…
Levy: Prime Minister, has [it] gone up or down, your electricity bill?
Albanese: Well, I don’t have a private property. What I do is have …
Levy: So you don’t have residence anywhere?
Albanese: Yes, I do … I live a life of privilege …
Levy: Residences [electricity bill] gone up or down? It’s a very simple question.
Albanese: I live in the Lodge. That’s where I live.
Albanese reiterates that he won’t make deal with Greens in event of hung parliament
Following his presser, Albanese is now speaking to 2GB radio, again promising he won’t do any deals with the Greens in the event of a minority government.
Asked why – if he won’t do a deal with the Greens – he’s preferenced the minor party second in his own seat of Grayndler, Albanese says it won’t make a difference:
I win on primary [votes]. My preferences don’t go anywhere. The preferences only [count] if you run third in a seat. I got 54% last time. I don’t expect to go backwards this time.
So who would Albanese work with in the event of a hung parliament, asks host Mark Levy.
I’ll work with the parliament, work with myself … Now there’s 25 Labor senators out of 76, you know what? We’ve got[ten] stuff done, because that’s what I’ve been able to do …
I treat people with respect, but I won’t do deals.
Do you have election questions? Write in!
Krishani Dhanji
Do you have any burning questions about the election? Is there anything you’re curious to know before polling day?
I’ll be answering all of your questions on the Full Story podcast, alongside Economics editor Patrick Commins. Email your questions to:
australia.tellmemore@theguardian.com
… before 3pm AEST today.
We can’t wait to hear from you!
What do we know about the under-16s social media ban so far?
During that press conference, the PM said everyone should watch the Netflix drama Adolescence, and said the government social media ban would stop kids under 16 to being exposed to harmful and misogynistic content.
But crucially, the ban gives YouTube a carve-out. Albanese said that is to ensure that the ban doesn’t get in the way of kids getting access to educational content and assured us there will be a consultation process before the ban is put in place in December.
We still don’t know exactly how the ban will work, so here’s Guardian Australia’s Josh Taylor to take you through what we do and don’t know so far:
Dan Jervis-Bardy
A conga line of Liberal supporters stationed themselves outside the Gosford building where Albanese was making his first appearance of the day.
The Lucy Wicks supporters were holding signs promoting Liberal policies – including its promised 25 cent a litre cut to petrol prices.
Albanese declines to commit to restrict access to alcohol and gambling as part of domestic violence response
Back to the issue of domestic violence, Albanese is asked whether he follow recommendations from the government-commissioned rapid review to restrict access to alcohol and gambling.
Albanese won’t make a commitment to restrict either, and says the government is working through a “range of issues” with states and territories:
We’re working through a range of issues with state and territory governments as well. One of the issues, for example … a commitment that we made before the election was for 500 community service workers … we were unhappy with how slow that was to be implemented.
There’s not a single issue that you can say, if you do this, you will solve these problems in some cases.
Asked by another reporter why the government won’t ban YouTube in its social media ban for under 16s, Albanese says the government doesn’t want students to get “excluded” from educational content:
We have a 12-month consultation process. We do want to make sure as well that people don’t get excluded from access to things that they should have access to in terms of their education.
Albanese responds to reports Australian government knew Russia had requested access to Indonesian airbases
On reports from The Australian this morning that Labor knew of a request by Russia to base its military aircraft in Indonesia, Albanese gets on the defence and tries to turn the focus back on to Peter Dutton.
The Australian reports that Australia became aware of the Russian request after a meeting in February between Indonesia’s minister of defence, Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin, and Russia’s Secretary of the Security Council, Sergei Shoigu.
The government has avoided saying whether Russia ever made that request, consistently stating that the Indonesian government had reassured Australia that there would be no Russian military aircraft on Indonesian bases. Albanese says:
Look, I don’t go through again. I refer to my previous answer … Adults, when it comes to intelligence, act like adults. They don’t engage in seeing every international issue as a domestic political opportunity.
What we don’t do, the key issue here is that Peter Dutton verballed the Indonesian president, that’s the issue here.
‘I don’t have Donald Trump’s number’ says PM
Following his comments last night that he wasn’t sure Donald Trump has a mobile phone, Albanese is asked whether it’s a failure that he hasn’t been able to get Trump on the phone again, after he implemented a second round of tariffs.
Albanese says, “not at all”.
I don’t have Donald Trump’s number. I didn’t have Joe Biden’s number. It’s not the way it works between the Australian prime minister and the US president.
There are formal processes [that] take place. I’ve had two very warm conversations with President Trump.
Albanese says ‘one death from violence against women is one too many’ on death of Audrey Griffin
Albanese is asked about the murder of Audrey Griffin, a Central Coast woman who was found dead in March with her body partly submerged in Erina Creek near a highway after she disappeared on her way home from a night out with friends. Albanese says:
Well, this is a tragic and horrific death, and my heart goes out to the family and the friends and loved ones of Audrey Griffin. This announcement [of a trauma centre], of course, wouldn’t have impacted on that.
One death from violence against women is one too many, and this is just an enormous tragedy.
The CEO of Central Coast women’s health says:
It’s just devastating, and it’s actually really hard to find the words, because how is it that we’re still in a time where a young woman can’t walk home safely … This trauma recovery center is fantastic, but let’s stop the trauma in the first place.
