What we learned this Monday 28 April
We’ll be wrapping up the blog, here’s what happened today:
The final week of the campaign kicked off with a whirlwind day of travel for the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, who did a whistlestop tour of some of NSW’s most marginal seats – including Robertson in Gosford on the Central Coast, the ultra-marginal seat of Bennelong in Sydney’s north-west, then on to the seat of Fowler in western Sydney; ending the day in Brisbane, where Labor is hoping to pick up the Greens-held seats of Griffith and Brisbane.
Peter Dutton’s campaign took him to Paterson on the NSW Central Coast – his third visit to the seat during the campaign – then on to Robertson, also on the Central Coast.
Coalition frontbenchers have walked back Dutton’s comments from yesterday that the ABC and the Guardian are “hate media”, with Jane Hume telling ABC News Breakfast the opposition leader’s comment was made “tongue in cheek”. On RN Breakfast, the shadow energy minister, Ted O’Brien, was also asked about the comment and said it was made “in jest” and “he was being bit flippant”.
Dutton has said welcome to country ceremonies shouldn’t be held at Anzac dawn ceremonies. “Anzac Day is about our veterans … I think the majority view would be that they don’t want it on that day.”
Dutton called the Greens an “antisemitic, Jew-hating party” at a press conference this morning, in reference to Labor’s preferencing of the Greens across many electorates. Greens leader Adam Bandt responded, saying he would not “take lectures from someone who has made a career out of punching down”, adding the comments were “reprehensible, offensive and utterly untrue”.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers and finance minister Katy Gallagher released Labor’s election costings, saying that over the past three years Labor has saved and reprioritised $100bn. Gallagher said in the costings that Labor would save $6.4bn from “non-wage” expenses in another term of government.
Thanks for following along, we’ll be back tomorrow for more of the day’s news. Until then.
Updated
Coalition rejects Chalmers’ claim that Dutton plans to build nuclear plant in own electorate
The Coalition has rejected Jim Chalmers’ claim that Peter Dutton plans to build a nuclear power plant in his Queensland electorate of Dickson.
Chalmers made the unprompted claim during a press conference in Brisbane earlier today:
To all of those people in that wonderful part of south-east Queensland, in the electorate of Dickson, you all need to know that your local member wants to build a nuclear reactor in your suburbs.
[Labor candidate] Ali France is not going to build a nuclear reactor in your local community but Peter Dutton wants to. I would encourage you to think about that as you choose your local member.
A Coalition spokesperson said:
We have been emphatic that only the seven identified communities, each with a retiring or recently retired coal-fired power station, are being considered as possible locations for zero-emissions nuclear energy. No other locations will be considered.
Dickson is not among the seven sites identified by the Coalition.
Updated
