And that is it for the 47th parliament. What a ride. Mostly a disappointing one, to be honest.

We’ll know the election date very soon – it’s just hours away now – which means we will all have to prepare for a pretty nasty few weeks.

This campaign is going to get very dirty. It already is. But there are a lot of vulnerable people who are pretty worried about the future right now, so make sure you are looking out for them.

Stand up, speak up and seek truth.

We’ll be guiding you through the election campaign with analysis, fact checks (someone has to do them!) research and yes, some snark as we cover it day by day on the live blog.

We hope that you will join us. And mostly, that you will find some community and some answers as we try and wade through the muck.

So get some sleep, have some fun. Find some small joys and delight in the ordinary moments we take for granted. Election campaigns don’t last forever, but that doesn’t mean people don’t get wounded, feel isolated, or targeted by being used for political point scoring. Keep those minds, and hearts, open.

So we’ll see you Monday. Until then, do good – and take care of you. And those around you. Ax

As for the rest of it? That detail will have to wait until the election, or after it. Dutton won’t say how they will cut migration by 25%, how that will lead to more affordable housing for people, how he would unwind the green energy contracts in place, how that would keep Australia’s reputation as a good place to invest, how nuclear or work or essentially, anything else.

And that’s it. That’s the election pitch.

Q: Let me just ask you this, because it’s very important that any discussion about gas is anchored in facts and detail, because claims about what anyone is going to do in relation to gas just don’t – don’t tend to work out. In relation to those fields where you say that you are going to be able to ramp up gas so quickly to reduce the price of gas by the end of this calendar year, how are you going to do that in the southern states where you have Labor governments who are not in support of the policy that you just put forward?

Dutton:

But, Sarah, we have capacity in the market now. So outside of the foundation contracts, gas that is being soldinto the international market. So that’s the point I made tonight. So extra supply is incredibly important and you make a good point, for some it will take time to come on. I’m hoping that if there’s a change of government in Victoria, and there is a very different conversation with business and even within the Labor government within Victoria about bringing more gas on – Peter Malinauskas, the South Australian Premier is keen to develop more in the space, because he knows the South Australian economy is dependent upon it so I think it’s a different when you picture when you go across each of the states but I want to grow jobs and economic activity in our country and we will work with the different state premiers to achieve that outcome.

Still on the gas reservation policy:

Q: So in relation to the gas available for export obviously this is gas used by very important partners of Australia, including the Japanese and Koreans, have you already spoken to them about the fact that there’s going to be less gas available to We have and we’ve spoken to those key players within the industry as And how did they respond? (Did you know Japan is a gas exporter despite not having gas fields? That’s because it imports more gas than it needs and then on-sells what it doesn’t need.)

Dutton:

I well. mean, sorry, the Japanese and the Koreans, for example. I’m not going to go into those conversations.

Q: Were they angry?

Dutton:

No, we’ve had a longstanding relationship with the Japanese ambassador and his predecessors and obviously other key players as well. We’ve been able to speak with, and we’ll have more of those conversations. And I think they understand there is a need for us to provide support to Australians and Australian gas should be first and foremost for Australians and it’s an important export industry for us and we’re not going to disrupt those foundation projects. I think, importantly also, what they’re asking of us – what they’ve asked of the government that hasn’t been delivered yet is assurances about the out years and the extension of those contracts, and that’s the assurance that we can give with more supply in the system, and that gives them assurance within their domestic market as well.

Q: Does that mean if the supply doesn’t come on, that additional gas in the outer years is not secure for our foreign gas partners?

Dutton:

No, there’s plenty of in the system and plenty of gas that’s discoverable. It’s completely unacceptable that Victoria is going to spend $800 million on a gas terminal to import gas into Victoria in a country where we have an abundance of the natural resource.

Q: Let me ask you about that, you said you were going to build a pipeline – where from and where to?

Dutton:

We will work with the industry because there are capacity constraints at the moment, particularly heading north/south. There is an argument about coming out of Darwin or coming west to east and you have seen those proposals in recent weeks but we say we need more capacity in the system and we will commit $1 billion to it so it’s not just capacity in the pipeline but storage as well so we can get through peak periods, particularly in the southern markets through winter.

Q: So are you talking about a pipeline from the north of Australia to New South Wales?

Dutton:

We already have existing corridors and those parcels of land and those pipelines are already identified.

Q: Coming from where? Could you just specify?

Dutton:

Well, again, we’ll work with the industry to work that out because it depends on what gas we can bring online. Narrabri in New South Wales for example is, you know, I think a project that has been delayed for a long time and it will depend on where you can bring gas in from, from which part of the country. But predominantly you’re going to be coming from Queensland and I want to make sure that we can have a conversation with Victoria about discovering more gas there, because I think Victorians have had enough of their economy being destroyed by the Labor Party.

On gas:

Q: I want to go to one of the major announcements in your speech this evening, which is about gas. Obviously, a highly contested but very important area for the Australian economy. You’ve announced a national gas plan, introducing gas reservation for the east coast, as we just saw, 10-20% of east coast gas from new fields and a price. You’ve named that price. Whether will we see gas at $10 a gigajoule?

Dutton:

We think by the end of the year is about the timing.

Q: By the end of this year?

Dutton:

Correct, of this calendar year, and that’s something we’ve been working on with key figures in the gas industry, and we’ve been doing months literally of work in relation to how this will work because I think it’s transformative for the economy and, as we know, energy is the economy, and it allows us not just for consumers but for businesses, for manufacturers, for food manufacturers, for farmers, etc, to reap a benefit from lower input costs and it’s just about gas per se, of course, gas is such an integral part of electricity production and that is how we can help some of the price pressures in the economy.

Q: Let’s get a few things clear about this. Are we talking about a gas reservation policy that applies to existing gas projects or only new gas projects?

Dutton:

So probably the most succinct way to explain it is that we honour our foundation contracts so with our international partners and that’s important because it is a big export earner for us. But the gas that’s sold beyond that we want to divert between, you know, 50-100 petajoules back into the market and that will fluctuate depending on the domestic need at the time and it will increase supply. We don’t want to temper demand.

I mean the Labor Party is tempering demand by closing down businesses and manufacturers who are moved offshore.

Q: I want to be absolutely clear about that.

Dutton:

Sure, so it’s gas in the market now and our pledge is to bring more gas on more quickly and we’ve announced, obviously, in relation to the west coast, the market there, that we will extend the life of the important project there which the Labor Party is refusing to do.

Q: But no breaching of existing contracts in relation to our international. partners

Dutton:

No breaching of existing contracts.

The interview moves on to why the fuel excise isn’t a bribe, but the tax cuts are a bribe.

Q: Let me talk about the fuel excise because recently you described that particular excise in 2023 and the Prime Minister quoted this in parliament today, he said that you said it was costly and able to be gamed by the oil giants. So was it Labor’s surprise tax cut that changed your mind on this?

Dutton:

No, actually there was a great quote today around Jim Chalmers who said it’s fantastic for there to be relief at the bowser for families. They said that two years ago.

Q: What about you, though?

Dutton:

I guess I would just put that context that there are a range of views out there that wasn’t what the Treasurer was saying today, but what we’ve said is that we want to put in place the ACCC to monitor and to make sure that all of it is passed on. To be honest, the experience when you look back to the Howard years, for example, but since then as well, where there has been a cut in the excise, it has been passed through to the consumer, and I think Australians who are pulling up at the bowser tomorrow morning on their way to work or tomorrow afternoon on the way home and they’re filling up, they know that next time they do it, if there’s a Coalition government, it will be $14 or $15 cheaper than what they are used to paying.

Q: How is that not, to use your words, an election bribe in the same way that you’ve accused the government of bribing voters on their tax cuts?

Dutton:

Because our benefit is now, it’s not promised in 15 months’ time. (Isn’t that more of a bribe?)

I suspect if the Labor Party is re-elected, particularly given it can only be in a minority form with the Greens, that they end up walking away from some of these budget measures because they will have to redo their budget.

Q: But on your one, why don’t it add up to being a bribe?

Dutton:

Well, it provides support to people now who are really hurting (giant ute drivers who spent the better part of a house deposit on a giant gas guzzler by choice – many of whom also used the instant asset write off to purchase it in the first place] and I believe that waiting 15 months is more about a political stunt. So if you accept, as I think all Australians must, that this has been a bad government and families and businesses are under pressure,they need that support now and our argument is that this is the most efficient way to deliver that and I think it will make a difference for families and for small businesses as well.

Peter Dutton is in the ABC studios:

Q: Now, you have taken the highly unusual step for a Liberal leader of rejecting, rather than offering, tax cuts. Can you confirm that there will be nothing further offered on income tax cuts during the election campaign?

Dutton:

Well, Sarah, I would love to introduce tax reform and tax cuts, but the Labor Party has racked up what we now see in the Budget papers of about $1.2 trillion of debt. So we have to be realistic and understand the constraints that we have. Now, government put forward a plan which had relief for people who are really doing it hard now which starts in 15 months. It’s about 70 cents a day. Our plan is to reduce tax in another part of the family budget and that, of course, is in relation to the halving of the fuel excise which we think will be beneficial across the economy for pensioners and for uni students and for families running kids around and for small businesses. But we think there’s better economic bang for the buck. It’s also not baked in as a structural spend in the budget.

Q: To be clear, so that is an absolute no for the campaign?

Dutton: We have a great desire at some stage when we clean up Labor’s mess, but we won’t be able to provide tax cuts during this campaign and I think, frankly, the Labor Party’s low tax cuts are a cruel hoax on Australians.

This argument still makes no sense. We think the tax cuts are a ‘cruel hoax’ (which would suggest they are not real) so we are going to raise the tax rate again, but give you a one off fuel excise that won’t benefit everyone (biggest winners are those stupid giant utes). But also the tax cuts are real enough that they should be brought forward by Labor and also they are going to cause structural damage, but the fuel excise cut, which costs about the same (as a yearly cost) won’t. It’s bonkers, but the Coalition aren’t after sense here.

There is rousing applause from a lot of white middle aged and elderly men.

Peter Dutton will now head to the ABC studios where he will pretend he is answering questions.

Peter Dutton continues [with Amy Remeikis]

I”n my travels across the country, Australians tell me they’ve never been more worried about crime and division. [hold your nose, here’s the hate part of the speech]

It started with the Prime Minister’s Voice referendum which sought to divide our country by ancestry and race. [This is Dutton’s narrative and not at all true. The only one dividing was him]

He then left a vacuum of leadership following the crime wave in Alice Springs and the antisemitism on the steps of the Sydney Opera House. [This did not happen]

All too often, this Prime Minister is too weak, too late, and too equivocal.

This Government has released 300 hardcore criminals from immigration detention into the community – with more than a third having reoffended. [This was a decision from the high court – any government would have had to do it]

It’s granted tourist visas to 3,000 people from a terrorist-controlled war zone before conducting thorough security checks. [This is such complete bullshit. He is talking about Gaza, which major human rights groups, international law groups, experts and more consider to be undergoing a genocide, with Israel carrying out collective punishment against a civilian population. But it is also bullshit that security checks were not carried out. They were. This has been put on the record several times. Dutton is lying.]

It’s failed to deter people smugglers – with more than 500 people trying to reach Australia illegally by boat. [500 in three years! Our navy must have been besides themselves!]

It’s turned a blind eye when our military personnel have been endangered.

It didn’t stand up for our country when Chinese Communist Party warships entered our waters without notice.[Again, a lie]

And it relied on Virgin Australia pilots to alert us to the Chinese Navy’s live fire exercise off our coast.

Australia should not be a country where people live in fear or worry about the future.

The choice is clear at the next election.

Under Labor, you will get the same weakness of leadership that has compounded crime and emboldened antisemitism on our streets.

You will get a nation that is less safe and secure.

But under the Coalition, we will provide the moral and political leadership needed to restore law, order, and justice.

We will establish a dedicated antisemitism taskforce to turn the tide of this scourge of hatred. [Dutton’s definition of anti-Semitism is criticism against Israel. He has said nothing on Islamaphobia, other forms of hate, or the genocide being carried out against a civilian population]

We will work with states and territories to develop national uniform knife laws.

We will toughen bail laws to stop domestic violence offenders.<

We will again stop the boats – just as we did in 2013. [Australian politics is the same year repeated ad nauseum]

We will again deport non-citizen criminals – just as I did in cancelling 6,300 visas of murderers, sex offenders, and drug traffickers as Home Affairs Minister.

We will again invest in defence to play our part as a credible partner to deter aggression and maintain peace.

My intention is to energise our domestic defence industry.

And to re-tool the ADF with asymmetric capabilities to deter a larger adversary.

During the election campaign, we will announce our significant funding commitment to defence.

A commitment which – unlike Labor’s – will be commensurate with the challenges of our times.

We also will nurture pride and unity in our country – at a time when we need it most.

That starts by no longer failing young Australians.

A Dutton Coalition Government will restore a curriculum that teaches the core fundamentals in our classrooms. [This is just Temu Trump]

A curriculum that cultivates critical thinking, responsible citizenship, and common sense. [The Coalition tried this last time they were in office – Alan Tudge wanted to both sides colonisation, not question the Anzac myth and basically return to the white 1950s version of history, as well as stop children learning about themselves, safe and age appropriate sex practices and leave children outside the gender binary in unsafe environments]

The health policy is basically Labor’s health policy with a little extra:

And we will double subsidised mental health sessions from 10 to 20 and make this arrangement permanent.

Two-out-of-five young Australians require access to mental health care in any given year.

Tonight, I announce that a Dutton Coalition Government will invest an additional $400 million into youth mental health services.