Australia election 2025 live updates: PM defines price gouging as ‘taking the piss’ as Dutton dismisses Labor’s ‘wet lettuce’ supermarket crackdown; poll boost for Labor
Albanese: ‘Price gouging is when supermarkets are taking the piss’
In response to another question, and following criticism from the Coalition this morning, Albanese offers a couple of definitions of price gouging, suggesting that Australia could follow the EU example that treats price gouging as “a price is unfair” when “it has no reasonable relation of economic value of the product supply”.
So there are examples there can use. And quite frankly, I got asked today by someone as well, how do you know what’s price gouging? Price gouging is when supermarkets are taking the piss of Australian consumers. That’s what price gouging is.
Key events
Dutton is asked about his support of a referendum for Indigenous constitutional recognition and to walk through the process of how that would work.
Dutton says he wants “practical support for Indigenous Australians” and links criminal activity in Alice Springs to the removal of the Cashless Debit Card without evidence.
It takes until his second point before there is an answer to the question: Dutton says there “will be no referendum until there is a position of bipartisanship”.
Clearly there is no bipartisanship on this issue and there will be no referendum over the course of the next term of parliament. The Prime Minister has made it very clear.
Keep in mind that throughout the referendum on the Indigenous Voice to Parliament, Dutton and the no campaign promised symbolic recognition of Indigenous Australians in the Constitution.
This all but ensures there will be nothing.
Labor policy will result in higher energy prices, Dutton says
Opposition leader Peter Dutton is on the attack in Chris Bowen’s seat in Western Sydney.
Speaking to reporters at a press conference, the opposition leader is accusing Labor of promising to raise prices and broken promises to reduce prices. It is the Coalition, he says, who has the real plan to address cost of living.
I think this prime minister is out of touch with how much pain Australians are feeling. Unless we manage the economy well, we’re not going to deal with these issues.
Dutton is also making a series of claims about the cost of production. At Austral Brickworks, where he is holding this press conference, the opposition leader says they are paying three times the cost of energy compared to their plants in the US.
Just think about that. Each month the gas bill here is in the millions of dollars. In the United States it is in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. And of course, that means that young Australians are paying much more to construct their home.
If we think about this a moment, there are key differences between the US and Australia, starting with the difference in minimum wage.
Back off anti-migrant rhetoric, race discrimination commissioner says
Australia’s race discrimination commissioner has warned politicians not to “exploit” racist rhetoric against migrants over the cost-of-living and housing crises, and said the country has seen the “bile of racism” spill out during heated political debates.
Giridharan Sivaraman said that no politician, regardless of their political stance, should pit communities against one other – against the backdrop of a budget and election campaign where the cost-of living crisis, conflict in the Middle East, and rising antisemitism and Islamophobia have become political battlegrounds.
Economic inequality shouldn’t be exploited by rhetoric that blames migration for what are usually far more complex and deeply trenched problems.
We need to be really careful in our debates that we don’t dehumanise migrants in making arguments about economic inequality.
The Coalition has drawn a direct line between migration and the housing crisis, and Labor has been accused of “scapegoating international students” – by independent senator David Pocock and Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi – on the same issue.
For more on this story read the full report by Guardian Australia’s Krishani Dhanji:
Dan Jervis-Bardy
PM’s mystery tour continues
The press pack trailing Anthony Albanese is about to depart Canberra, bound for … we don’t know!
The prime minister spent the morning in the nation’s capital – just about the safest Labor territory in the country – spruiking the government’s plan to outlaw supermarket price gouging.
I’ll keep you posted as soon as we touch down at our next destination.
Opposition leader Peter Dutton is expected to speak at a press conference held at a brick factory shortly.
We will bring you all the latest as it happens.
Residents of northern WA advised to remain cautious following cyclone
Stepping away from politics for a moment, communities in Western Australia are not out of the woods as ex-Tropical Cyclone Diane moves inland after crossing the coast on Saturday morning.
Diane has dumped 150mm of rain on the small Kimberley town of Derby and another 60mm has fallen over southern parts of the region.
Heavy rainfall is expected further inland on Sunday as the quick-moving weather system tracks toward the Northern Territory border.
The rain could push down as far south as Alice Springs and Uluru and is expected to completely clear out of WA by late Monday into Tuesday.
– AAP
Josh Butler
Dutton stops in Sydney seat of McMahon
Peter Dutton’s first Sydney stop of the campaign is in the unexpected seat of McMahon – held by energy minister Chris Bowen, in Sydney’s west.
It’s on a 10% margin, so the Liberals probably aren’t really confident of actually winning this. It’s a visit probably more akin to Anthony Albanese opening his campaign in Dutton’s seat of Dickson, closer to being a bit of a troll rather than a legitimate shot at winning (although Dutton’s margin is a lot slimmer).
We’re at a brick factory, for a press conference we imagine will be focused on Dutton’s gas plan. This morning on 2GB Dutton said lowering the price of gas would help lower the prices of other goods (giving bricks as a specific example) which use a lot of power to produce.
For your first fun fact of the day, this facility makes 334,000 bricks each day. We’ll expect a press conference around midday Sydney time.
Duttons says climate protesters had ‘fake IDS’, dismisses Labor’s ‘wet lettuce’ supermarket crackdown
Josh Butler
Peter Dutton claims climate protesters disrupting his campaign events “had fake IDs”, but that he has faith in the federal police to provide security on the campaign trail.
In a 2GB radio interview this morning, the opposition leader shrugged off yesterday’s protests at Brisbane events, from environmental group Rising Tide, against his gas and nuclear plans.
Asked about security arrangements, he said “the AFP take care of all of that, and they do a fantastic job.”
But I mean, some of these people had fake IDs, etc. So the message that they’ve got is all about climate extremism, and I think most Australians would see through it.
Dutton called Labor’s news this morning seeking to further crack down on supermarket price gouging as a “wet lettuce”, saying the government had already set up numerous committees and investigations, with little improvement to grocery prices.
He backed the Coalition’s plan to forcibly divest supermarkets if they engaged in bad behaviour.
Flood warnings remain for vast areas of Queensland and NSW
A series of flood warnings remain in place on Sunday for vast areas of Queensland and NSW after days of rain.
Parts of the Gold Coast, Hinterland, Brisbane, Capricornia and the Northern Tropical Coast received more than 50mm of rain on Saturday.
The Sunshine Coast copped double that in certain areas.
In NSW, the Illawarra Coast recorded isolated totals of more than 100mm and another 50mm-plus fell over the Northern Slopes and Mid-North Coast.
Sydney was spared the worst of the deluge, with 24-hour totals between 5mm to 15mm.
Senior meteorologist Jonathan How said the storm clouds have cleared in most of eastern Queensland and NSW, but flood and wind warnings wouldn’t be withdrawn for now.
That water will take quite some time to flow through so we are expecting those flood warnings to persist.
Several major NSW roads are still closed due to flooding, including parts of the Silver City Highway from Broken Hill to the Queensland border.
Dozens of outback Queenslanders were flown to safety on Saturday as floodwaters took over their towns and properties.
Central Queensland’s Stonehenge and Windorah have been hit hard after some areas recorded almost double their average yearly rainfall, triggering flooding not seen since 1974.
Personal hardship assistance has been activated, with concessional loans and freight subsidies to help primary producers in a string of western Queensland communities.
– AAP
Search for elderly man washed away in flood waters, as community faces six weeks of isolation
Platz says an elderly man has been washed away into flood waters after he drove a caravan into a flooded causeway, with a search currently underway.
She also said that 22 people are still surrounded by flood waters at a campground in a national park 100km from Taree, with a multi-agency effort underway to rescue them.
Platz warned about an second weather system incoming, saying that communities along the Paroo River and the Warrego River, particularly Willara Crossing, could face up to six weeks of isolation.
We need you to start preparing for that isolation. We as part of the SES have already prepositioned many assets ride around the state so that we are prepared to assist people, to rescue them, to prepare people and also to resupply people.
So we have prepositioned helicopter assets, we have prepositioned high clearance vehicles along with a number of resources of volunteers and also staff. But what we need community to do now is to absolutely be alert.
NSW residents should be ‘alert at all times’ after heavy rain, multiple rescues
NSW SES has carried out 19 flood rescues in the last 24 hours after heavy rain drenched Queensland and New South Wales overnight.
NSW SES deputy commissioner Deb Platz is giving an update, and says the state operation centre has taken over 1700 calls for help, with 586 jobs logged so far.
What we know is that this unpredictable system has already brought significant rainfall to some areas. While the rainfall may ease today, we’re going to have wind. That is going to whip up the surf, because coastal erosion, and of course, with the saturated land, it means that we will see trees coming down. In fact, most of the damage that we are seeing at the moment is from fallen trees on houses and vehicles stop so once again, we need people to be prepared.
Heavy rain has been recorded in the Hunter, Northern Tablelands, mid-north Coast and South Coast areas, with the highest rain in the South Coast at Currawong.
Platz says residents “right across New South Wales” should be “alert at all times”.
Dutton campaign bus in Sydney
Josh Butler
Good morning from the Dutton campaign bus, where we’ve just landed in Sydney, after a day in Brisbane yesterday.
Dutton is about to appear on 2GB radio for an interview.
No word on where we’re heading yet for today’s campaigning activities – and I’d imagine his team will be keeping schedules under even tighter wraps, after a few protesters yesterday – but there’s a number of seats in the harbour city that the Liberals have their eyes on.
One of these tightest races in the country, Bennelong, is here; other target seats include Reid, and a bit further out, Werriwa or Macquarie, and the teal seats of Wentworth and Mackellar. At the same time, the Liberals need to hold off challenges in the likes of Bradfield, under siege from a strong independent challenge.
Well let you know where we end up.
Gallagher: ‘The public service is at risk under Peter Dutton’
A question for Gallagher on growth in the public service. She says that it has taken “three years to basically undo the damage on the 10 years of Liberal attacks on the public service”.
We have invested where it is necessary. Those additional staff, the vast majority of them are in frontline service positions whether it be Services Australia, Veterans’ Affairs, the NDIA, they are defence and National Security agencies, that’s where the additional resourcing has gone. They are all at risk was the work we’ve done to rebuild and rebalance the public service is at risk under Peter Dutton.
Gallagher says a lack of investment in Veterans Affairs by the previous government was a scandal “on par with Robodebt”.
They can’t pretend they didn’t know about it.
Australia monitoring situation in Myanmar after quake
The PM is asked about a massive earthquake that struck Myanmar, saying that as a regional neighbour, Australia stands ready to help those affected.
My heart goes out to everyone directly affected this tragedy but also my heart goes out to the many Australians who will have relatives and friends who are impacted by this.
Albanese says the government has already authorised $2m in support for aid to those affect and is continuing to monitor the situation.
Australia always helps out. We are good neighbours in this region and we will always do what we can.
After a series of questions, Albanese is being asked why Australians might just be tuning out the major parties. The PM is attempting to characterise the choice at the upcoming federal election as one between Labor, that is “prepared to continue to provide cost-of-living relief while building on the foundations laid during this term” and the Coalition which is “for people to work longer for less, to take away the gains that have been made”.
No mention of the Greens, Independents, or minor parties waiting in the wings.
Albanese: ‘Price gouging is when supermarkets are taking the piss’
In response to another question, and following criticism from the Coalition this morning, Albanese offers a couple of definitions of price gouging, suggesting that Australia could follow the EU example that treats price gouging as “a price is unfair” when “it has no reasonable relation of economic value of the product supply”.
So there are examples there can use. And quite frankly, I got asked today by someone as well, how do you know what’s price gouging? Price gouging is when supermarkets are taking the piss of Australian consumers. That’s what price gouging is.
PM pressed on latest polling
The PM is asked “why his message isn’t cutting through” after YouGov polling this morning suggested Labor is one seat off forming majority government. This is after the poll showed a turnaround in Labor’s fortunes after a poor showing in previous weeks.
Albanese is also keen to make this point.
Maybe you saw different polling than from what I did this morning, but the YouGov polling showed that we were on 75 seats. The previous polling showed we were on … I am not sure what the number was, but it certainly wasn’t that.
On the price-gouging announcement, Albanese is asked why the government’s plan is “to come up with a plan to have a plan in six month’s time”. He says the government has already taken substantial action and that this will build on previous reforms.
The job of reform is never done.
