Here is what Peter Dutton had to say there:

I do think fuel and the tax that’s applied to fuel is a huge impulse across the economy, which is why we’ve taken the decision. Because a cut in the fuel excise, the fuel tax, it means a 25 cent a liter reduction, not just for families and small businesses, but also for pensioners and other people across the economy. And as you rightly point out, it takes some pressure off the supply chain. So it means, you know, when you have a look at the fuel bill you’re paying, think about the tradie as well, who might have three or four youths running around and the cost each week being paid, or delivery truck drivers farmers on delivering produce to supermarkets, etc.

That’s where the real benefit is in the economy. I just make this point in terms of whether you make a decision about making it permanent good governments respond to the circumstances in front of them.

And as I pointed out before, when we approached the COVID period, we looked at what economic things and decisions that we could make to make it easier for families and businesses to survive through that period.

We didn’t bake them in permanently. We provided them on an ongoing basis.

We renewed them if we thought that the economy still required that and people still needed that support, which is exactly the approach that I want to take. So it costs $6 billion a year. It’s a lot of money. The Prime Minister’s tax cuts cost about $17.4 billion over four years, and then over seven and a half billion dollars a year ongoing. Now my argument is that there are many ways in which we can provide support, including tax cuts, and we would reassess where we are as an economy, as a people, as a nation, in 12 months time, and if we needed to extend it, then we could do that. But I would just say that if you bake it in and you put it as a continuing cost, that continues to compound, because every dollar that Anthony Albanese is spending at the moment is borrowed money, and that has to be paid for.

So we just have to get the balance right.

Peter Dutton saying that the Morrison govt left a budget in balance is just flat out wrong and the March 2022 budget shows that:

The debate moves on to Ian who is a truck driver who wants to know why Albanese won’t take up the fuel excise cut and why Dutton won’t take up the tax cuts and why is the fuel excise only for a year?

Greg Jericho:

Oh a question from an “undecided” truck driver wanting cheaper petrol

He makes the good point though to Dutton – if he is only going to have it in place for 12 months, that means in a year’s time he would be saying he is about to increase petrol prices. Will that happen? Doubt it.

Key thing is a cut to the petrol rebate is for a start not going to deliver benefits anywhere near like the LNP says it will for most, and it encourages more greenhouse gas use.

Albanese:

Thank you for what you do. As an owner, driver, truckies, do it really tough. It’s a tough job that you do to keep the country moving. And one of the things that happened during the COVID pandemic, of course, was that you did keep the country going along with our people in our hospitals and retail and in aged care. It was magnificent the way that Australians got through what was a very difficult period. Look, we have to make decisions, and we were concerned that just a temporary measure, just like it happened prior to the 2022 election.

It then just disappeared, something that is temporary, that will, of course, because of the nature of it as well, kick in for a period of time, increase the deficit in the short term. What we have looked to do to target cost of living measures as cost of living measures that put downward pressure on inflation, which is why we have been successful in getting inflation down to 2.4% there’s more work to do.

Peter Dutton looks like he wants to be anywhere else and of course – BUT HAMAS

I’m sure like every Australian, I want to see peace in the Middle East as well. But what we saw when Hamas took hostages and took people into the tunnel network, that was an action which, if it had happened to Australians, there would have been an expectation of our government to react, to send in the SAS to make sure that we recovered those people as quickly as possible.(Israel did not do this. And it has rejected deals to have the hostages returned. Multiple times)

And I want to make sure that in our country, people can celebrate their heritage, can celebrate their connections to a country of origin or to a country which is important to them. But when you come to our country, it’s about celebrating being Australian, always respecting heritage and culture, but also abiding by our laws. And I think what we’ve seen in our society over the course of the last couple of years with fire bombings, with attacks on individuals. It’s completely unAustralian, and it’s not something that I think any of us would accept.

Dutton does not mention there the attacks on people who have been anti-genocide, or are Muslim.

The host wants to move on and Dutton’s mouth doesn’t seem to have ever been drier.

The leaders are then asked about Gaza. And both look instantly uncomfortable.

I miss the young woman’s name because my cats decided to make it known they needed fourth dinner, but she asks:

I direct my question to both of you. I have many loved ones affected by the current genocide in Gaza. Israeli government. At the moment, our taxes are going towards the funding of weaponry aiding the onslaught and the innocent people of Gaza. What are you doing to stop this? Prime Minister and opposition leader, what will you do about this?

Albanese takes a breath and says:

I certainly understand that for many Australians, particularly those with families or relatives, either in Israel or in Gaza or indeed in Lebanon, this has been a very traumatic period. My government’s approach is every innocent life matters, and we want to see a cease fire. We want to see hostages released. We want to see aid get through to Gaza. I must say that there are no Australian weaponry involved in what is going on in Gaza. That is just not the case. We have made sure as well that Australia has taken, I think, a responsible position of continuing to call for not just the short term issues in terms of cease fire, aid to people in Gaza, the release of hostages, but also our principled stance of a two state solution. I want to see both Israelis and Palestinians live in peace and security, side by side.

Kieran Gilbert gave a small prompt about universities being soft power which neither picked up on. But as Emma Shortis says:

It’s a little disappointing that Dutton didn’t really respond to Gilbert’s prompt there around Australia’s university education system as a tool of “soft power”. As the Trump administration attacks universities at home and abroad – including by unilaterally cancelling long running, high impact programs like the Fulbright scholarships program, and even interfering in Australian research independence – there’s a real opportunity for Australia to step up and have a positive impact in the world by supporting higher education and the way it connects us to the rest of the world. 

Anthony Albanese:

Everyone here knows that after COVID finished, when the borders were up, when Australians, including Australians from the community around here in Wentworthville, couldn’t actually come home because So apart from that, you’re going to get an uplift. Truth is, the population today is lower than what was anticipated in 2019 it was going to be the migration levels fell in the last year by 31% in one level. We introduced legislation to put a cap on student numbers. The Coalition and the Greens voted against it in the Senate so it couldn’t get through. We want a reasonable cap that protects the universities because their funding levels is connected with this. That makes sure, though, that we get that balance right and on housing. We’ve got a $33 billion homes for Australia plan that has seen in part, we have 28,000 social housing units, either under construction or in planning. As we speak, right today, there’s been 400,000 homes built, homes or units built since we came to office. We’ve got a target of 1.2 billion million. We do need to do more to build housing, but that is what we are doing.

Greg Jericho:

When the PM talks up the govt’s housing plan and the Housing Australia Future Fund let’s just remember it is hardly going to set fire to supply

Or as Grogs says:

Yes Peter Dutton, international students have increased by over 65% over the past few years… because we stopped them during the pandemic!!!

Jason has another question:

Just in regards to part of Australia, our way of life is sharing our way of life with the rest of the world. So part of our humanity is doing good. And so us training other people from all around the world gives them an open opportunity to witness our Australianism and so by not allowing those students to come to Australia, it actually hurts our brand worldwide.

Good for you Jason.

Peter Dutton:

I think we are not only the best country in the world, but I think we’ve been made better because of our migration story. When you look at the migration story to our country, particularly since the Second World War, people have come out of war torn Europe. People have come out of Asia, all parts of the world. We’re an incredibly lucky country for it, but the numbers of international students have increased by 65% over the course of the last couple of years. Now that is a dramatic increase. So I’m all in favor of a well managed migration program, but I’m not in favor of what the Prime Minister has done by flooding the market. And a person is coming in every 44 seconds into our country, and we haven’t got the housing to accommodate that, we need to get the sequencing right, and it’s why we’re putting $5 billion into a program to create 500,000 new homes.

Next question is from Jason who has a child at university.

My concern is with the Liberal party’s position on immigration and students, students from overseas, how will those universities pick up the shortfall, and will my son’s uni fees increase?

The answer, from the university sector is – yes.

Peter Dutton:

The short answer is no, because what we do as a government is we provide that funding to universities.(Our model of funding universities has meant universities have come to rely on international students as cash cows) And obviously there’s a HELP scheme where students are paying for part of their own education as well. (Students have to pay this back)

What we’ve done, though, is that we’ve said, under the Government’s program, they’ve brought in about a million people over the last two years. Now that’s a higher number, in fact, by 70% higher than any two year period in our country’s history. The government will bring in other migration programs.

So this big Australia policy that Anthony never spoke anything about before the last election, that will be about 2 million people over five years, a population bigger than Adelaide. So if we ask why we’ve got a housing crisis and why it’s difficult, we can point to that because there’s massive demand for housing, and Australian kids are missing out, and rents are up by about 18% I want desperately to make sure that we get an opportunity for young people to believe in and achieve again, the dream of home ownership. (Cutting international students will not get more people into housing. Housing costs skyrocketed when the borders were shut and no one was coming in)

There are about 42 international students coming into our country for every one student accommodation unit that’s been approved, and that has had a big impact so it doesn’t impact on the cost of a domestic student going to university, but it will change the dynamic within many universities, because, for example, at the Sydney University, you’ve now got a much higher mix in terms of international students to domestic students, which changes the dynamic on campus. But I want to make sure that we can get Australian kids into housing as quickly as possible.

We can’t do that because obviously, if a million people come here over two years, they want a house for themselves and their family as well, and the government just hasn’t been building the housing. (The increase to international students was because of the backlog following the border closures)

Greg Jericho has the budget paper here:

“Dutton says there were no cuts to Health, Albanese says look at the 2014 Budget… and yep here it is”