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Key events
Albanese gives closing remarks
Anthony Albanese is now giving his closing remarks – calling out the Coalition’s stance on climate and women.
The PM says the election is a choice between “Labor’s plans to build Australia’s future and the Coalition’s plans for cuts when it comes to education”.
On climate change, we’ve heard tonight no acceptance of the science of climate change. We accept it and we’re acting on it with renewables backed by gas, batteries and making sure that we deliver on climate change and on renewable energy.
When it comes to gender issues, which we didn’t confront today, we had a women’s health program – the most significant we have had. We had paid parental leave. We have had a gender program that puts women at the centre of our economic and social agenda. And the Coalition have not done anything on any of those issues.
The PM continued, but had gone over time and David Speers interjected.
With that, the debate wraps up and the leaders shake hands.
Dutton gives closing remarks
Peter Dutton is now giving his closing remarks, saying that as 3 May approaches, voters should “reflect on what’s happened in our country, in your lives, over the course of the last three years.”
And as I said in my opening remarks, can you answer the question – are you better off today than you were three years ago? For the vast majority of Australians the answer is no …
If people vote for the Liberal and National Parties at the next election, we’ll successfully manage the economy to clean up Labor’s mess.
Dutton points to bringing interest rates down, housing, reducing the cost of petrol, the Coalition’s tax cut, and says:
I want to make sure we can invest into defence and make sure that we can take crime seriously and reduce the problem of crime as it exists in our communities, in our suburbs across the country. My vision for our country is to make us a safer, more prosperous nation.
‘Different visions and different pathways’
As questions begin wrapping up, David Speers asked each leader:
Would it really be a disaster for the country, or is it political hype, if the other guy won?
Anthony Albanese responded first, saying Peter Dutton had “taken his party to a more conservative bent that it has ever been”:
I think there are very different values that we have. I can have a private discussion with Peter and call him round to the office and he does so regularly. And my office is open to every member of parliament. But I don’t take this personally. I have a very different view of Australia and I think that Peter has taken his party to a more conservative bent that it has ever been. And I want very much to be able to continue the work that our government has been able to achieve.
Dutton responded, agreeing they each have “different visions and different pathways”:
The reason the prime minister is running a scare campaign at the moment [because’ he doesn’t want to talk about the reality of the last three years which has been a failure for our country … I have a vision where we can run our economy successfully so we can help people up and provide support to them and to keep our country safe.
PM says neither side of politics has done enough for Indigenous Australians
David Speers pointed out the fact that neither leader has visited an Indigenous community so far in this campaign.
Anthony Albanese said that “neither side of politics has done well enough for First Nations people.”
That’s just a fact, and that’s something that breaks my heart.
The PM said that after the referendum he went to Garma and committed to economic empowerment, pointing to a number of initiatives.
Has Labor now moved on from the voice, treaty and truth telling completely? Albanese responded:
We accept the decision that was made, David. We put forward a proposition that was asked for. We took up the gracious request of First Nations people, made at Uluru, in 2017.
Albanese says no need for Aukus contingency plans
Anthony Albanese said there was no need for contingency plans around Aukus, and that the deal is “in the interests of both Australia and the US, and the UK as well”.
What is extraordinary is a questioning of that [it] does nothing to advance Australia’s national interests. The important thing about international relations is that you shouldn’t try to score domestic political points through it.
Peter Dutton jumped in and accused Labor of “cannibalising” defence spending, but the PM rejected this:
It’s complete farce, nonsense. We have increased defence spending by $57bn. We had a defence strategic review … We’ve had serious discussions with the US, going back to the Biden administration, about critical minerals, the role it plays in industry, and we have engaged constructively.
And it doesn’t assist to try to score a political point on something that we backed when the Morrison government came up with this proposal.
Dutton says he could have achieved a different outcome on tariffs
Peter Dutton has previously said he could have got a deal with Donald Trump over tariffs. No other leader has managed this – how would he pull the deal off?
Dutton argued that the Coalition did this “in the 45th presidency when president Trump was first elected.”
We were able to negotiate as a government then an outcome where Australia was exempt … We were able to leverage relationships.
Does the Coalition have a stronger relationship with the administration than Labor? Dutton replied:
I think we have the ability, as we demonstrated before, to talk to the administration … We demonstrated it in the first presidency that we’re able to get an exemption when other countries weren’t …
We have people in Washington who have worked for Coalition governments, people who have worked for the Australian government. I think there is the ability to do a deal.
Leaders asked if they trust Xi Jinping
We’ve now moved on to another world leader – the Chinese president Xi Jinping.
Anthony Albanese gave the same response, saying: “I have no reason not to, either.”
In terms of the discussions we have had as one-on-one discussions have been important … It’s in Australia’s national interest to have a good economic relationship with China. We have different political systems.
Peter Dutton said he strongly believes in the relationship Australia has with Xi “for the reasons the prime minister outlined”. Does he trust him? Dutton responded:
Again, I spoke to him across the table. I haven’t done business with him and shaken hands and seen whether somebody has honoured that deal. I don’t have any reason to distrust.
Does Albanese trust Trump? ‘I have no reason not to’
Also asked if he trusts Trump, Anthony Albanese responded that “I have no reason not to.”
I’ve had a couple of discussions with him, and the last discussion we agreed on a series of words that he would give consideration. Great consideration was the words he used. And he did that [in relation to the tariffs].
Dutton says ‘I don’t know the president’ when asked if he trusts Trump
Peter Dutton has now been asked if he trusts Donald Trump. He responded:
We trust the US, and I don’t know the president. I’ve not met him. The prime minister obviously has been able to.
Pressed on the question, Dutton said his point is that he doesn’t know Trump, and that he does trust “the Australian people.”
My job is to stand up for our country’s interests, which is what I did when we negotiated the Aukus deal with president [Joe] Biden.
Anthony Albanese is doubling down, saying this is the second example of the “failures that we have seen of diplomacy and of mature responses to international issues just during this campaign” from Peter Dutton.
When president [Donald] Trump made the announcement that every single country in the world will be hit with tariffs, the alternative prime minister suggested that we should put defence and our defence relationship with the US on the bargaining table. And it took John Howard to intervene to point out how unwise that would be.
Dutton defends comments about Indonesia
We’re now moving to reports that Russia made a request to Indonesia to station aircraft in the country – something Indonesia assured Australia it wasn’t accepting.
David Speers asked Peter Dutton:
You said the Indonesian president had publicly announced this Russian request when he had not. Indonesia says there won’t be Russian planes based there. Do you admit you got that wrong?
The opposition leader defended his comments and said:
What we have seen the last 12 hours or so is the Russian envoy to Indonesia has confirmed that there have been discussions and obviously there is a concerning closeness in that relationship. And I think the main point here is that the prime minister knew nothing of it.
Anthony Albanese said this was an “extraordinary double down from the alternative prime minister of Australia who verballed the Indonesian president yesterday”.
The idea you throw out these comments is just extraordinary. And the fact that we just saw a double down on it as if there’s nothing to see here, just shows there’s no understanding of the need for diplomacy.