Federal election 2025: Albanese rallies party faithful in Brisbane, Coalition details foreign student cuts — as it happened

We're going to finish up our federal campaign blog here.

We'll be back tomorrow morning with more live coverage of all the action.

In the meantime, you can read all our election stories at our at our Australia Votes page.

You can also try the ABC's Vote Compass tool to see how your views align with those of our largest political parties. 

Have a lovely evening.

Labor MP Ged Kearney announced earlier today that a re-elected Albanese government will deliver two new stoves for the Ibleo Social Club in Northcote, Melbourne.

The cost? $16,000.

Don't get me wrong, those sound like some big stoves — and rightly so, given the club of 250 members has an active social calendar aimed at celebrating Italian culture — but it might just be the smallest announcement in dollar terms I've seen get its own press release during a federal election.

Know of a smaller one? Let us know by leaving a comment.

Peter Dutton's campaigning today has given us an interesting view into the Liberal machine, as we move into the second week of the official election campaign.

Week two can be a little sleepier, with the Labor and Liberal camps settled into the rhythms of an election, the excitement of the first week passed, and many voters still largely unaware there's even a campaign going on.

That's not the energy Peter Dutton showed today.

We're due to have hit three states in a day by the end of this afternoon — that's lightning fast and it also means there's not much time for actual campaigning in the locations we're visiting.

Interactions with the public have been pretty limited (although Dutton did meet a cute dog).

That reduces opportunities for an embarrassing interaction but also means the campaign can begin to feel more like tourists on a group tour than a genuine ground campaign.

The pace speaks to potential Liberal thinking: with school holidays, Easter and Anzac Day all in between today and the May 3 vote, it is for practical purposes something less than a full five-week campaign.

Checking each of the states and territories off the list early also potentially frees up Dutton later to be more targeted in bringing attention to the seats he wants to win.

ICYMI, the federal government today promised to reduce the price of batteries for households, small businesses and community facilities by 30 per cent if re-elected.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese spoke about the announcement at his rally in Brisbane earlier.

After spending the day in warm and sunny Brisbane, it was a shock to land in cold and rainy Melbourne this afternoon.

This will be the second time the prime minister has campaigned in Melbourne this campaign, with the path to prime ministership leading through Victoria.

The ALP brand has suffered here at a state level, with the federal election presenting an opportunity for voters to vent their frustrations.

Federal Labor is concerned about that, and is trying to sandbag seats like Aston, Chisholm and McEwen. 

It's also facing threats from the Greens on its left to Macnamara and Wills.

Earlier today, Anthony Albanese held a rally with party faithful in Brisbane.

Here are some shots from the event, captured by our photographer, Adam Kennedy.

Adam Bandt moves on to international students and the housing crisis now, saying the major parties are in a "racist race to the bottom" attacking migrants for problems they didn't cause.

"Blaming migrants for the housing crisis is straight out of the Donald Trump playbook," he says.

"We expect it from Peter Dutton, but sadly now Anthony Albanese is trying to outbid [the Coalition] and say that migration numbers would be cut even more [under Labor].

"Well, the Greens won't be engaging in this race to the bottom at this election.

"What is pushing housing out of the reach of everyday people is not migrants or people coming here seeking a better life, it's the $176 billion in handouts that Labor and Liberal are giving to wealthy property investors … and it's the failure of Labor and Liberal to build public housing that people can actually afford."

There are no questions, and the press conference ends there.

Steph Hodgins-May says the current childcare subsidy system is broken, and isn't working for families, educators or the sector.

"We recognise the importance of children getting a really good start in life, and we recognise the importance of families and parents having a choice about whether they go back to work, whether they build a career, or simply have the ability to breathe easier," she says.

"This is crucial, because no child, regardless of their postcode or their parents' income, should have to make a choice about whether their child has that crucial early years' education."

The Greens' policy also includes a "childcare desert fund", as well as more support for First Nations community-controlled childcare centres.

It's been costed by the Parliamentary Budget Office at about $29 billion over the three-year forward estimates (about $8.7 billion over the next financial year, rising to about $12.3 billion a year by 2034-35).

Adam Bandt says free universal childcare is affordable in Australia if the government makes big business and billionaires pay their fair share of tax.

He also seems to be quite confident the Greens will hold the balance of power.

"In a wealthy country like ours, everyone should be able to afford good quality early learning, but too many families are struggling with the cost, and some can't even find a spot at all," he says.

"We can fund [free early childhood education] in this country by making big corporations and billionaires pay their fair share of tax, and we want to move to start treating early childhood education like we treat schools, where it should be free and good quality, guaranteed.

"… We've got a once-in-a-generation chance now, in a coming minority parliament, to make it happen."

A note on Macnamara — it's often described as a safe Labor seat (and understandably so, given it's been held by the ALP since 1906, if you include its predecessor Melbourne Ports).

It would be more accurate to call it a safe non-Liberal seat, however, given the strong vote the Greens have recorded in recent years — Labor's official two-party-preferred margin of 12.2 per cent over the Liberals turning into something more like 0.4 per cent over the Greens once you take likely preference flows into account.

The ABC's Antony Green goes into more depth here.

Let's go to Greens leader Adam Bandt now at a press conference he held a short while ago in Melbourne.

He's joined by Senator Steph Hodgins-May — the party's early childhood spokesperson — and Macnamara candidate Sonya Semmens, who's looking to wrest the inner-city seat off Labor's Josh Burns.

There's no giant toothbrush this time, but the trio have planted themselves in front of a playground as they officially announce the party's policy for free early childhood education.

Marking the third petrol station visit of the election campaign, Peter Dutton pulled into Ampol Carrick Roadhouse on Sunday.

Driving to the bowser himself, the Opposition arrived at the Carrick petrol station about 17 kilometres west of Launceston, alongside Bass MP Bridget Archer and Liberal candidate for Lyons Susie Bowers.

Prices at the bowser were 189.9 cents a litre for unleaded petrol  and 193.9 cents for diesel.

The total came to $80.95 for about 42 litres of unleaded petrol.

With the Coalition's 25-cent excise cut, it would have been $70.29, a discount of $10.66.

Dutton said he tried to get behind the wheel as much as he could.

"I enjoy driving. I try and get out of the AFP car as much as I can," he said.

"And if it's an option between my teenage son driving, or me, I'd rather be the one driving."

The visit was in the electorate of Lyons, which Labor's Brian Mitchell holds on a slim margin of 0.9 per cent.

However it was a border collie named Bear who stole the show at the quick visit, demanding lots of pats and belly rubs from Dutton.

His owner Georgia Whishaw, a junior agronomist backed the fuel cut.

"That would be very good," she said.

"I do a lot of work on the road, a lot of driving between Ross and Devenport."

University groups have responded to the Coalition's announcement today that it plans to cap international student numbers, with Group of Eight chief executive Vicki Thomson calling it "the wrong policy at the wrong time".

"In the current global environment, now is not the time to turn our backs on our regional partners and put at risk our $51 billion international education sector. The easy politics of scapegoating international students must come to an end," she said in a statement.

"Australia already has the highest student visa fees in the world. The Coalition's plan to hike it even further in this targeted way only reinforces the negative and damaging messages Australia has sent to the international education market in recent years."

Universities Australia CEO Luke Sheehy echoed Thomson's comments during an interview on the ABC, highlighting the revenue international students bring into the country.

"In the last 12 months, both sides of politics have been in a bidding war to ruin this sector, to take a sledgehammer to international education in this country, which has served Australia's interests unbelievably well for many decades," he said.

"It's driven our economic growth. We know that in 2023 alone we would have been in recession without it.

"Blaming international students for Australia's housing crisis is a furphy. We need construction of housing, not destruction of this wonderful sector."

You can watch his full appearance on ABC News below.

Katy Gallagher goes on the attack against Peter Dutton, calling out his attitude to Canberra in particular.

"I don't think we've ever seen a leader of the opposition who every single day singles out one city in Australia to punch down," she says.

"It is extraordinary that this man has so much disrespect for this city.

"In the last week, he's now saying 41,000 jobs will go, he'll abolish the education and health departments because he's not sure what they do — well, they run Medicare, and childcare, and skills and training, all of those services.

"[And] he only wants Canberra-based workers to return to the office, because he knows that his working-from-home policy has really gone down like a lead balloon across the country."

We've been hearing this claim from Labor ministers more and more over the past few days — that the Coalition plans to abolish the health and education departments.

Jim Chalmers even slipped it into his speech in Brisbane earlier today.

Whether you call it comic exaggeration, ideological ribbing or campaign rhetoric — it's just not true.

While Dutton has flagged potential staffing cuts to both departments, in terms of "back office" jobs he doesn't believe would affect frontline services — at one point wondering how more public servants in Canberra helps to reduce classroom sizes, or aids children with disabilities or learning difficulties — there's no suggestion this would amount to anything as drastic as a Trump-style move to abolish either department outright.

Nor does his suggestion that he could make school funding to state governments conditional on certain curriculum requirements — to avoid what the Coalition believes is "indoctrination" in the classroom — mean those funds would be stripped out of the budget entirely.

"The figures in the budget now for health and for education, they are the figures that we commit to," he told Sky News on Wednesday.

Peter Dutton is in Exton, in north Tasmania, hyping up the base at a state campaign launch.

But not everyone was pumped to get a visit from the boss.

This young boy was just waiting for it all to be over — or maybe inside a farm shed is just a good place for a lie down.

A quick throwback to the prime minister's rally in Brisbane — notably towards the end of his speech, Anthony Albanese sought to contrast both Australia's healthcare and education systems with those in the US, declaring in times of great uncertainty, "we should not try and be more like somewhere else."

Whether it be tariffs, security in Europe, or the war in the Middle East, US President Donald Trump is proving to be a global disruptor, confounding leaders around the world with his daily statements.

Albanese is arguing he is best-placed to navigate these Trumpian times, as his government tries to argue Opposition Leader Peter Dutton is taking moves straight out of Trump's playbook.

There's no suggestion Dutton will make major changes to Australia's healthcare system, but Albanese knows that just the mere mention of an American-style system — alongside the phrase "DOGE-y Dutton" — is a powerful tactic.

As Labor keeps reminding us, they oversaw the creation of Medicare.

And they are trying to argue the opposition poses added risk, pitching that voters stick with what they know at a time of global uncertainty.

Peter Dutton has used his state campaign launch speech to commit $80 million to a duplicate four-lane dual carriageway from Hadspen to Deloriane if elected.

"We will get that work under way very quickly because we can work closely with the great Tasmanian Government," the opposition leader says.

He says improving the state's road network is a priority.

Given he's speaking in Tasmania today, the state's salmon farming industry was bound to come up at some point in Peter Dutton's speech.

In March, the federal government moved to intervene in a legal battle over the industry's impact on an endangered ray to safeguard salmon farming's future in the state.

But the opposition leader says if re-elected, the federal government would seek to reverse its support and make it "near impossible for the salmon industry to conduct its business".

"In Tassie, we will lose the industry and there are no replacement industries, particularly in the north-west."

He adds that Labor also wants to "destroy" Tasmania's forestry industry.

"Tanya Plibersek ... would close it down overnight."

Peter Dutton is pointing to current global uncertainties as he appeals to retirees and those with investments to vote for the Coalition at the election.

"It is a fact that when we look at what is happening internationally at the moment, whether it's in Europe; whether it's in the Middle East; whether it's in the South China Sea; whether it's economically with tariffs and the impact that's having on every exporter, including here in Tasmania, or right across the country; this is a period of uncertainty. 

"When we see wild fluctuations in the share market, Australians who have worked hard all of their lives to put money into their superannuation funds, whether they're part-pensioners; whether they're people who are fully-self-funded retirees, or maybe somewhere in between; maybe it's a couple who worked really hard to build their own business or to put money aside to buy a rental property, to buy some shares and to provide for their retirement in a few years time; all of those people are watching at the moment with great anxiety.

"At this election, Australians have a choice to make. And as we've seen in the past, the choice needs to be based on what we know about the Labor Party."

He claims historically, the Coalition has had to clean-up "damage" done to the budget by Labor.

"When we win the next election, and I believe we can, I will make sure we have our team of Angus Taylor, who is, I think, doing a first-class job as shadow treasurer at the moment, Jane Hume as the finance minister, and our senior team, many of whom you see behind me today, we will be on task from day one."

In a berry farm shed in Exton, Tasmania, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has begun his state campaign launch speech.

"When you look at what has happened in Tasmania in recent history, there have always been difficulties to deal with: in the economy, across the environment, relationships with Canberra, et cetera, et cetera," he says. 

"As the premier pointed out before, the dark days of Tasmania have always been when the Greens and Labor have been in alliance."

He tells the audience a second Labor term would drive the cost of living higher, before moving to shout out some Liberal Party stalwarts present in the room.