Q: You’ve touted your party as plan to address domestic violence. I was wondering if you could explain to me how that plan squares with keeping a candidate who blame’s someone mother for their daughter experiencing domestic violence? I know you’re going to say the candidate apologised for those comments but doesn’t it demonstrate the strength of your commitment to the issue if an apology is enough for someone to sit in the party room?

Peter Dutton:

It shows, I think, our resolve and my lifetime resolve in terms of defeating the scourge of violence against women and children. That’s been the position I’ve taken and I’ve demonstrated that through words and action, from being a police officer through to this day, in terms of the money we’ve invested, the actions we’ve taken, the visas we’ve cancelled of offenders who have committed sexual offences against women. I’ve condemned the comments you referred to. They’ve been apologised for. I’m not going to take a lecture from the Labor Party.

Q: It’s not a lecture from the Labor Party. I’m asking the question.

Dutton:

I’m not going to take a lecture from the Labor Party in terms of candidate selection. They have people out there who are questionable to say the least. You have a question?

Q: You say you model your leadership on John Howard. John Howard made a concerted decision to preference One Nation last. Why are you preferencing One Nation second in the majority of electorates across the country?

Dutton:

We’ve taken the decision that we want to make sure that Australians can preference us first. That’s the most important way to be able to change this government and I want to hake sure that we can change the government to get our country back on track. That’s the reality and I want to make sure that we can support Australians with their cost-of-living crisis and you can do that by voting 1 for your Liberal and National Party candidate and that’s exactly what we’ll do.

Q: But why are you preferencing One Nation?

Dutton:

We have to keep moving on.

Q: But why are you preferencing One Nation?

Dutton:

I’ve answered that question. We’re really…

Q: You about why they should preference you first, but why One Nation second?

Dutton:

I’m happy to take one each or we’ll have to cut it short.

Q: Can I ask for reaction to vandalism of your office in your electorate this morning? You talk about getting inflation down. Do you know what the current inflation rate is?

Dutton:

Firstly in relation to the office, I want to make sure that we have disagreements and we can have disagreements. That’s fine. But we need to do it better than we have at the moment and to see Greens supporters and others out there shooting at booths, you know, we employ security guards now at booths because ETU workers and CFMEU workers intimidate older ladies. And you see the vandalism, that is outrageous.

So I just want to make sure… we want to support our democratic processes. But I don’t want to see a situation where we’ve got people who are being intimidated and 2.7% is the answer to your question. (It is actually 2.4%)

Q: There are warnings today against both major parties spending big and off Budget. Do you acknowledge that your election spend-a-thon would be part of the problem, potentially risking Australia’s credit rating if were to win power?

Dutton:

I think the contrast you’ve seen between the way in which Labor’s managed the Budget and the way we manage it is chalk and cheese*. A Liberal Coalition government will always manage the Budget more effectively. We’ve put in place supports which don’t have recurrent spend year after year, locking that spend in. We’re providing support here and now to provide immediate relief to Australians. That’s why the 25 cent a litre cut in fuel is important. It’s why the $1,200 tax rebate back to Australians – who are working harder than ever under this government to repay their bills – is important as well. We’ll always manage the economy more effectively and Labor will always spend more. When you do, that you drive up inflation which will drive up interest rates and interest rates will always be cheaper under a Coalition government.

This is a stupid debate, but Labor had two surpluses. The support the Coalition did want to lock in – stage three tax cuts – would have locked in massive tax cuts for the richest 10% of Australian earners.

Q: The Prime Minister often talks about how he’s been underestimated throughout his political career and even in this election campaign and I wanted to know do you think you have been underestimated by voters, by around you?

Dutton:

I think there are a long way to go and people are undecided. I want them to hear about our positive plan for our country, a 25 cent a litre cut in fuel tax, $1200 back to help but the immediate needs you’ve got and I want to restore the dream of home ownership and we can manage the economy well and keep us safe. That’s the vision that I have for our country, both in the short term and the longer term. I want to transform the energy system in our country so that we can bring prices down and I have a very strong belief we live in the best country in the world. We need strong leadership to see us through uncertainly times and that’s exactly what I offer the Australian people.

The hastily rearranged southern highlands press conference has been hastily rearranged and Dutton is in Moss Vale.

Now, he is going more and more to the right in his talking points – which maybe says more than we realise.

There is a lot of talk about the Coalition vote, particularly the Nationals vote, starting to tank in some seats (Cowper, Calare, Monash, Wannon, Hunter and Bendigo) but in some of those seats One Nation does ok. One Nation doesn’t do great nationally – but in the seats they do well in, they can make an impact and help major parties get across the line.

But their vote is often splintered. Hence the wooing from the Coalition. Dutton is doing Paul Murray for the second time this campaign – his first time round he spoke about the ‘woke’ education department, without actually being able to point to what he thought was ‘woke’ about the curriculum, so who know what is next.

I have asked our voting expert, Bill Browne to take a look at One Nation’s vote to give you some more information.

AAP has reported on the protest which upended Peter Dutton’s plans for a press conference:

A trio of unionists clad in hazmat suits and wielding mock Geiger counters have gatecrashed Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s press conference in a marginal seat.

Mr Dutton was at Sanctuary Point on the NSW South Coast to make a modest funding announcement for a local junior rugby league team when the pantomiming protesters, led by South Coast Labour Council secretary Arthur Rorris, walked onto the field and shouted mock warnings about radiation.

“Stay back everybody,” they warned, pretending to measure out a site for a nuclear power plant.

“We’re just checking for radiation.”

Mr Dutton was about to hold a press conference alongside the Liberal candidate for Gilmore, Andrew Constance, who is making his second attempt to win the electorate won by Labor’s Fiona Phillips with just 373 votes in 2022.

It is also the former Liberal NSW state minister’s fifth attempt to enter federal parliament, including two failed senate pushes and another for the lower house seat of Eden-Monaro.

A few more days of campaigning remain before the federal election on Saturday.

The chaos at Sanctuary Point intensified when a group of local kids showed up.

Shoalhaven councillor Selena Clancy encouraged the youngsters to shout over the nuclear farce.

“You’re scaring the children!” Cr Clancy yelled, while a club official called Mr Rorris an “absolute muppet”.

Mr Dutton had been chatting with locals when the disruption occurred.

One supportive attendee, Michael King, said Mr Constance had his vote while hinting at his disappointment with Labor’s climate policy.

“We cannot make any difference in our global environment, so why would you shoot yourself in the foot?*” he told reporters.

Climate change is a contentious issue in the electorate, with Climate 200-backed independent Kate Dezarnaulds taking aim at Mr Constance for a perceived retreat from his support for climate action following the 2019/20 bushfires.

But some elements of the electorate are vocally against Labor’s renewable energy push, specifically offshore wind farm developments off the picturesque coast. 

Liberal Party media advisers were unable to clear off the protesters, and the local police in attendance were powerless to move them on from a public space, so the press conference was cancelled and the media pack bundled back onto Mr Dutton’s campaign bus.

*This sort of defeatist attitude is infuriating.

Oliver says:

While voters may feel like our elections actually go on forever, at least we can be thankful our elections aren’t like those in the United States which truly do seem to be perpetual where candidates campaign from the day after the Presidential election to win the mid-terms, and then from the day after the mid-terms to win the Presidential election, rise and repeat ad nauseum.

Keep up the great work, Amy and team, your work on the blog, especially the calls for sanity in the face of this ‘debate’ around Anzac Day / Welcome to Country is one of the few things keeping me sane this election season.

Thanks Oliver

The press conference Peter Dutton abandoned due to nuke protests was in the seat of Gilmore, on the NSW south coast, narrowly held by Labor.

Our new report out today (!!) shows that just 28 journalists live in Gilmore, making home to less journos than 100 electorates out of 150.

It ranks alongside Flinders and Monash (both Vic) and just above Peter Dutton’s electorate of Dickson.

Our report shows that few journalists are based in regional and outer suburban areas, making it hard to cover an election that is supposedly fought in these electorates.

A new poll published on CNN shows the American public’s downbeat outlook on the economy and the impact of tariffs. When you dig into the data, it’s clear many Trump voters are feeling the consequences of Trump doing what he promised to do.

Surveyed in the past two weeks, around 1-in-5 or 1-in-4 of those who voted for Trump now believed that the president has worsened America’s economic conditions and increased cost of living, and expressed pessimism about the economy. And about 1-in-10 of them feel that increased tariffs, even those targeting China, were bad policy! Why would you vote for him in the first place then…

Overall, only about one-third of the public agree that tariffs against China were good, while half of the public believe it’s bad policy.

Nearly half of Trump voters seem resigned to the view that tariffs would cause short-term pain for the economy, though most of them still seemed to believe that they would bring long-term benefits. The rest of the country strongly disagree, of course.

These numbers will likely continue shifting against Trump, since only about 1-in-3 of his voters agree that the tariffs would help their personal finances or the industries they worked in, though even fewer thought the tariffs would directly harm them. However, if Trump continues down this path, the growing pain on ordinary Americas should bring more to the realisation that those ‘long-term benefits’ will never come.

What has forced Trump into a partial retreat was not the sentiments of working-class Americans, but the bond market, as the rising borrowing cost and depreciating US dollar signalled investors voting with their feet and leaving the US.

If Trump’s base starts to turn against the policy as well, then he’d probably have to go back to square one, but the MAGA movement itself was fuelled by dissatisfaction with that status quo in the first place!