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Wed 23 Apr

Australia Institute Live: Day 26 of the 2025 election campaign. As it happened.

Amy Remeikis – Chief Political Analyst

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Key posts

The Day's News

07.49 AEST

Jane Hume is up early this morning, talking about the Coalition’s new defence policy.

Now in the beginning of this answer, she uses the same method Labor uses when criticising the Coalition for cuts to health and education funding.

Peter Dutton had a bit of a moment about that last night, where he admitted that it was the funding growth that was cut in 2014.

It’s the same when it comes to defence. Labor says it has repurposed about $80bn in funding growth – so defence funding grew, but not by as much as the previous Coalition government had forecast it to grow.

Hume:

There’s no more important goal for a Government than to keep its citizens safe and yet this government has failed to do so. (How is Australia any less safe than it was under the Coaliiton?) They ripped $80 billion out of the defence budget.(This is in reference to projected funding growth) This is despite the fact that Anthony Albanese says we’ve never lived in more uncertain times since World War II. (The Albanese government signed AUKUS which is, according to the Coaliiton, supposed to save us all) The Coalition wants to fix that. (How is the Coalition making the world less uncertain?)

We want to make sure that our men and women in uniform have the capability they need to defend the country. That’s why we’re investing an additional $21 billion into our Defence Forces. (Which means not investing in other services)

That will take our defence spending up to 2.5% of GDP. At the moment, it’s just tipping around 2%. Labor won’t even meet its own target of 2.3%. Its wound that back.

Now, we think that is irresponsible in these uncertain times. This will make sure that those men and women of the Defence Force have the ability they need, the capability they need and the defence industry behind them to deliver what it is that Australians deserve, which is a well-defended nation.

Sigh.

07.38 AEST

Acting director of the Centre for Future Work, Fiona Macdonald, has written a piece for the Conversation about the Fair Work Commission review of five industries which are dominated by women workers, which was released last week.

When it comes to the response, Macdonald says:

The Labor government supported the Fair Work Commission’s gender undervaluation review when it was announced in 2024. At the time the government also made clear it was their view any large pay increases would need to be phased in.

The government did fully fund increases for aged care workers, which it said came to a total investment of A$17.7 billion.

The government has also funded a 15% pay increases for early childhood workers gained through a multi-enterprise agreement covering hundreds of centres. The first increase of 10% came into effect in December, with a further 5% increase due in December 2025.

Better pay in care and support occupations was identified by the Labor government as essential to the sustainability and growth of the care and support economy.

The Coalition has not made any commitments regarding funding for any pay increases awarded in the gender undervaluation proceedings. The Coalition spokeswoman on workplace relations, Michaelia Cash, said the Coalition would examine the decision and its implications.

The Coalition did not support the larger Same Job Same Pay legislation that included the gender equality changes.

07.34 AEST

Thanks, but no thanks. Why many Japanese people no longer want free gas from Australia.

The huge volume of free Australian gas given to Japan may be making gas companies rich, but not all Japanese are grateful for the gift.

Official Japanese government statistics reveal that Japan bought around 100 million tonnes of LNG in 2023, including 30 million from Australia, but on-sold 40 million – for profit – to neighbouring countries.

Japanese gas giant INPEX, which is 23% owned by the Japanese Government, ships 9 million tonnes of LNG out of Darwin each year. INPEX pays no gas royalties and, according to Australian Treasury data, neither INPEX nor any other gas exporter has ever paid Australia’s Petroleum Resource Rent Tax.

Japan is Asia’s gas powerhouse, dominating industries like gas shipbuilding and manufacturing components for gas-fired power stations.

Apart from being a terrible deal for Australia, our great gas giveaway is slowing Japan’s transition to renewable energy and the transition of those countries that buy our gas from Japan, like Thailand and Taiwan.

“Japan, like all countries, is being affected by climate change,” said Yuki Tanabe, Program Director at the Japan Center for a Sustainable Environment and Society.

“We have over 1,000 years of data on when cherry blossoms bloom, and they have never bloomed as early as they have in recent years. Some studies suggest that in much of Japan, cherry blossoms might not happen at all by the end of this century.

“Avoiding dangerous climate change means no new fossil fuel projects. No new gas projects should be developed in Australia, or anywhere else, no matter what Japanese gas company executives might say.

“It is pleasing that all sides of Australian politics now acknowledge some of the problems caused by your gas exports to us. The cherry blossoms will be over by 3 May when you eat your democracy sausages, but these issues will remain, and your next parliament has a real chance to address them.”

07.22 AEST

AAP has covered the coming defence announcement from the Coalition and some other bits and pieces of the campaign this morning:

Australia will sink billions of dollars more into defence under a future coalition government, as Peter Dutton looks to bolster the country’s armed forces.

Fresh off the third leaders’ debate, the opposition leader pledged to spend $21 billion over the next five years on defence, which would take its share of Australia’s gross domestic product to 2.5 per cent.

The level of defence spending as a percentage of Australia’s economy would then rise further to three per cent within the decade.

While the coalition said it would use the money to reinstate a fourth joint strike fighter squadron, it did not say where else the funding would go.

Mr Dutton said the extra spending on defence was needed in uncertain times globally.

“The prime minister and the deputy prime minister regularly tell Australians that we live in the most precarious period since the end of the Second World War. Yet, over the last three years, Labor has done nothing about it,” he said.

“The coalition will strengthen the Australian Defence Force and support our servicemen and women to keep us safe today and into generations ahead morale.”

The announcement comes after Mr Dutton and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese clashed at the third leaders’ debate in Sydney, with the opposition leader narrowly declared the winner.

As both leaders slung accusations of lying to each other during the hour-long debate, Mr Albanese emphasised a need for stability following uncertainty from US President Donald Trump.

“Peter puts forward this complete nonsense that the whole of the world, including every US ally, has not been able to get an exemption, but he’s going to be able to achieve it,” he said during the debate.

“Complacency and the uncertain world that we inherit … it’s the last time where you’d want to take a risk.”

Mr Dutton also warned of worsening economic conditions should Labor be re-elected, while also not committing to where spending cuts would be made.

“We will look at the budget, we’ll see where the government’s wasting money,” he said.

“(Interest rates are) not looking like they’re coming back any time soon unless they unless they throw us into a recession. So we will look at government expenditure”

It comes as Labor unveiled $78 million will be set aside to fast track training for 6000 tradies to build homes.

The funding will set up an advanced entry trades training program to help those training for work get qualifications they need faster.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the scheme would make sure more homes are built across the country.

“We are tackling the housing shortage from every responsible angle to build more homes, more quickly and in all parts of Australia,” Dr Chalmers said.

Mr Albanese will begin Wednesday campaigning in Sydney, while Mr Dutton will be in Perth.

07.08 AEST

Good morning

Congrats on getting through the third leaders’ debate. Last night’s panel gave it to Peter Dutton, but it was a solid performance from both, so both campaigns would be happy.

And Labor is pretty happy that Dutton gave its campaign more grist for the ‘he cuts, you pay’ advertising campaign, when he said that he wouldn’t know what he would do with the budget until he was in government.,

When John Howard came into power, there was $96 billion of debt from Labor at that point. John Howard didn’t outline the budget from opposition and it is not something you can do from opposition,”

Albanese jumped on that:

“There will be cuts afterwards – he’s just confirmed that – but they won’t tell you what they are.”

Labor is already planning more election ads that target the unknown Coalition cuts it says Dutton is planning, while the Coalition has told the AFR it will start its own election blitz in these final days of the campaign.

The AEC anticipates about half of the record number of Australians registered to vote at next week’s election will do so ahead of 3 May, with pre poll centres about to be swamped.

That doesn’t leave a lot of time for Dutton to find the momentum he says is coming. The Coalition is champing at the bit to release its defence policy, which will outspend Labor’s and offer more to the US through pillar two of Aukus. But with Newspoll showing that women and younger people are already turning away from the Coalition, defence spending is unlikely to win them back.

We’ll cover all the day’s events, with some fact checks and will answer more of your questions. Coffee number two is on and coffee number three will be right behind it.

Ready? Let’s get into it.

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