Federal election 2025: Price gouging, power bills and 'policy shopping' dominate day's campaigning — as it happened

It's time to wrap up our live blog for the day — thanks for joining us on this second full day of the 2025 campaign.

We'll be back early tomorrow morning to keep you across the day's events.

Of course, we've also got more stories in the pipeline going live tonight and tomorrow morning — but in the meantime, why not check out the rest of today's online coverage at our Australia Votes page?

There are 34 more days until election day. We'll see you tomorrow.

The opposition leader is continuing his tour of Western Sydney, arriving at the Al-Mariah Masjid mosque in Leppington, in the Labor-held seat of Macarthur.

He promises $25,000 to boost security at the mosque, in the form of a grant for CCTV cameras.

A West Australian teenager was earlier this month charged with making online threats against the Al-Bayt Al-Islami mosque in nearby Edmondson Park.

Australia's migration surge is receding faster than it grew, with the total number of temporary residents well on its way to pre-pandemic levels even as migration shapes as a prominent election issue.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has seized on the record levels of net migration over the last two years, accusing Labor of a "Big Australia policy" that has exacerbated the housing crisis.

"Labor's brought in a million people over two years through the migration program, which is a record for our country," Mr Dutton said on Friday.

"Now, all of those people need homes to live in, and that's why Australians have found it really hard to find a house, to either buy a house or rent a house, under Mr Albanese."

Economists including the Grattan Institute's Brendan Coates have supported the view that the increase in temporary migration added to existing pressure in the housing market, particularly the rental market.

But official figures show the numbers are now falling at a rate of 100,000 people per year since peaking at 536,000 in 2022-23. That rate is enough for a swift return to pre-pandemic levels.

You can read more via the link below.

The hits keep coming from ABC photographer Brendan Esposito at the Assyrian New Year Festival.

We've spoken a lot about price gouging in the blog today, but it's been tricky to nail down the details — mostly because the government's proposal doesn't contain too many of them.

Not content to let that stop him, political reporter Tom Crowley has taken a look at the broader issue of price gouging — what it is, what the current rules and regulations are, and what outlawing the practice might look like.

You can have a read of the piece below:

All roads to the Lodge run through Victoria.

The state, once dismissed as the Massachusetts of Australia due to its progressive proclivity, presents a path both Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton must tread very carefully.

Both sides know that Victoria is key. Pollsters agree.

So which seats are the ones to watch? You can learn more via the link below.

The PM's announcement of $2 million in aid for Myanmar after the earthquake comes after more than 70 Myanmarese diaspora groups in Australia last night signed an open letter calling on the government to play a leading role in providing support to the Myanmarese people.

The letter highlights that the epicentre of the earthquake was in a part of the country primarily under the control of anti-junta rebels, and that the Myanmar military has continued its operations — including air strikes — in affected areas even as the rescue effort continues.

"Over 3 million people in Myanmar are internally displaced, and half the population is living below the poverty line," the letter reads.

"This situation will be severely compounded by the earthquake.

"The international community has made efforts to provide aid to Myanmar since the coup, but these efforts have been insufficient to meet the scale of the crisis primarily because the military junta controls and obstructs the delivery of aid to areas where resistance groups are active; and international funding for Myanmar has been insufficient."

The federal government has released some more details on the $2 million in aid approved for Myanmar.

Australia will provide the funds through the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) for immediate relief following Friday's earthquake.

More than 1,644 people have been confirmed dead, according to state media.

At least 3,400 people have been injured and 139 are missing.

Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong  and Pacific Minister Pat Conroy said in a joint statement that Australia's support would assist the ICRC in carrying out immediate lifesaving support.

"Australia also welcomes the release of US$5 million from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to support urgent needs such as shelter, food and water. Australia is a longstanding donor to the CERF," the statement reads.

"The ongoing crisis in Myanmar is a major threat to stability in our region. Australia continues to provide support in response to the worsening humanitarian situation.

"Australia does not provide any direct funding to the military regime and takes proactive steps to ensure our assistance does not legitimise the military regime in Myanmar."

Peter Dutton danced his way into the Assyrian New Year's festival we mentioned earlier — and he was greeted by a troupe of traditional performers.

Something that made the colourful entrance appear even more unusual? The fact the opposition leader was doing it alongside Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen, shortly after campaigning in the Labor frontbencher's seat of McMahon.

The pair are both attending the festival as guests of honour, along with independent MP Dai Le, who holds the seat of Fowler where the festival is taking place.

It's no surprise the Liberal leader took his campaign to Sydney's west so quickly — the Coalition believes it has a path to victory through the outer suburban electorates of Sydney.

Never one to shy away from a good pun, Greens leader Adam Bandt has declared that Labor's "gone shopping in the policy supermarket" and taken home the Greens' plan to make price gouging illegal.

The government has vowed to outlaw the practice if it's returned to power on May 3, saying it would establish a taskforce to crack down on supermarkets doing the wrong thing.

The consumer watchdog recently found Coles and Woolworths were among the most profitable supermarket chains in the world, but was unable to conclusively say whether the companies were actively price gouging.

Late last year, the Greens sought to introduce a bill to parliament to outlaw excessive price hikes, and declared it would be a priority for the party in the next parliament.

Speaking from the Labor-held seat of Macnamara in Victoria — a seat the Greens are targeting — Adam Bandt attributed the government's announcement to his party's pressure and persistence.

"Labor has picked up the Greens' policy to make supermarket price gouging illegal, and that's great news for Australian shoppers," Bandt said.

"Labor copying the Greens homework — you love to see it! Greens pressure works.

"The prime minister has gone shopping in the policy supermarket and picked up the Greens' plan to make supermarket price gouging illegal.

"That's a great deal for Australian shoppers, and while he's there he could also put in the trolley the Greens' plan to get dental into Medicare and to cap rent increases as well."

Education Minister Jason Clare appeared on Sky News earlier today, telling political editor Andrew Clennell schools have a role to play in teaching boys how to behave appropriately towards women.

Clare said any father who read the story in this morning's Sunday Telegraph about misogynistic TikTok accounts being run by Sydney school students would be "disgusted".

"That's why we're rolling out $70 million in consent and respectful relationships education for boys when they're young," he said.

"But it's not just what happens at school. We've got roles as dads here to make sure that we raise our boys properly.

"When we hear our mates talk about women in the wrong way at the pub or in general conversation, we've got to call that out as well.

"If they're seeing the sort of crap that Andrew Tate and people like that talk about, then that sort of toxic cesspit can affect our kids."

Asked whether he had seen the Netflix series Adolescence, which focuses on the way young men can be radicalised by figures such as Tate, Clare said he was talking to his wife about it last night.

"It's terrifying. It's terrifying," he said.

 Peter Dutton and his press pack have now arrived at an Assyrian New Year's celebration in Fairfield, Sydney.

My colleague Fiona Willan says the opposition leader and his Western Sydney candidates have been greeted by traditional dancers.

"In a plot twist, they're walking alongside Energy Minister Chris Bowen," she tells us.

Independent MP for Fowler Dai Le is also at the event.

At times the press conference was drowned out by factory noise, but the message was clear — Peter Dutton was pitching his gas policy to voters in this region, where some are experiencing the highest rates of household financial stress in the country.

Dutton claims his policy will lower power bills, but has refused to say by how much.

The brickworks factory in Horsley Park where this press conference was being held also happened to be in Chris Bowen's electorate.

The energy minister's seat isn't considered to be in play, but a handful of other Labor-held seats in Western Sydney are.

Security was also much tighter today after protesters gatecrashed two of his events yesterday.

I arrived late and was asked to wait in the front lobby until my identity was verified (presumably because a number of Rising Tide protesters have been posing as journalists to infiltrate recent events).

Pressed once again to provide a dollar figure for how much the Coalition expects its gas plan to save households on power bills, Dutton says "you'll see some more analysis come out over the next couple of days" which will provide "some percentage figures".

That's a more specific commitment than we've heard previously, with the opposition leader preferring to reassure journalists that "others" will have plenty to say about the policy's effects.

Dutton closes out the press conference shortly afterwards.

The opposition leader's already called Anthony Albanese "weak" twice during this press conference, and now he's used the term to describe the PM's approach to outlawing price gouging.

Asked to respond to Albanese's definition of the practice as "when supermarkets are taking the piss", Dutton employs what can only be described as a pregnant pause.

"I would say that the prime minister is as weak as … water. I really would," he says.

It's worth recalling the opposition's preferred approach to tackling rising supermarket prices is enforced divestiture — a proposal the government took great relish in likening to something out of the Soviet Union.

Both of these leaders seem to enjoy flipping the script.

It's hard to keep up with the number of referendums raised in this Peter Dutton press conference.

On Indigenous constitutional recognition, Dutton says (paraphrasing): There's a case for it, but Labor doesn't want to so I doubt it will happen.

On four-year parliamentary terms, Dutton says: I'm open to it, but Labor doesn't want to so I doubt it will happen.

On cancelling the citizenships of dual citizens, he repeats: a Dutton government would try legislative options but consider a referendum as a last resort.

That's three referendums — none of them actually planned for the next term, but none of them ruled out, either.

It's probably not what he was hoping to talk about on his trip to a brickworks in Western Sydney, where the cost of doing business was his intended focus.

That's especially true given the amount of time he has spent accusing Anthony Albanese of being distracted from the cost of living by the Voice referendum of 2023.

But election campaigns with a travelling press pack can be like that, and when a politician doesn't squash an issue immediately, there's a good chance it will keep cropping up.

The opposition leader is asked about his previous support for a referendum on recognising Indigenous people in Australia's constitution — a position he first floated while justifying his opposition to the Voice to Parliament.

Dutton makes it clear he prefers to talk about "practical support" for Indigenous Australians, and pursuing constitutional recognition won't be a priority for the Coalition.

"There will be no referendum until there's a position of bipartisanship, and clearly there's no bipartisanship on this issue," he says.

"So there will be no referendum over the course of the next term of parliament, the prime minister's made that very clear."

Peter Dutton is tying in energy prices to a range of different policy areas now, talking about how they affect employment, construction costs, infrastructure and the everyday cost of living.

He also makes the point that the Coalition has moved forward with energy policy proposals both sides of politics have avoided for years.

"People have spoken for years and years about an east coast gas reservation — we've put the policy on the table," he says.

It's similar to the case he's previously made for his nuclear policy — short on modelling and derided by experts, but tapping into a populist vein in the electorate that favours bold action over tinkering around the edges while power prices rise.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton is finally up now, speaking to the media from an Austral brickworks in Western Sydney.

He begins with a familiar pitch on energy prices.

"The prime minister can't afford to keep giving out the $150 cheques, because people's power bills have been going up by $1,300," he says.

"This election is a test of who do you trust to manage the economy so that we can deal with cost-of-living pressures."

The Coalition has promised it will increase personal income taxes for all Australians if elected.

It's a move Treasurer Jim Chalmers says has "never happened before in our country".

"They will legislate to increase taxes at the same time that they won't come clean on their secret costs and their secret cuts," he says. 

"They will make Australians worse off as a consequence."

Chalmers accuses the Coalition of committing to higher taxes and other cost-cutting measures as a way to pay for its nuclear power plan.

"They need to find $600 billion from somewhere, and they can't find that $600 billion for nuclear reactors without coming after Medicare again, like they did last time."