Australia election 2025 live: O’Neil says Coalition’s ‘weird cocktail’ of housing policies will raise prices; Sukkar highlights slow home build under Labor
Dutton on what the Coalition is offering women
The Coalition has said itself it has a problem with women, and SMH reporter Olivia Ireland asks Peter Dutton what exactly he’s doing for women.
She says Dutton has focused on mining, construction, agriculture and energy as the four pillars of the economy, and points out that in his campaign launch speech, he only mentioned women twice – in the context of how he had protected them from domestic violence and crime. Dutton starts:
I am offering the chance for them to get a home. Homeless women are at a record level under this government …
We have said in relation to accessing super, women who have had a messy relationship breakup, who haven’t had a home before or have no roof over the head with their kids, I want to provide that stability.
There’s a lot of back and forth over this answer. Ireland points out housing is an issue for everyone. She keeps pushing Dutton about what he’s actually doing for women working in sectors like education (which he’s consistently said is pushing a “woke” agenda) and health.
Dutton says his party would “invest more” money in those sectors. But Dutton keeps talking about women as either vulnerable (getting out of a “messy relationship”) or as mothers.
The 25 cent fuel excise reduction is targeted at women driving kids around or delivery truck drivers who are trying to make ends meet.
He comes back to housing, saying the Coalition’s housing plan will help a young family or “young professional woman who has given up on that [dream]”.
The whole answer doesn’t come off particularly well.
Key events
Sukkar says one reason for diminishing trust is because governments make commitments for things they will never be held accountable for
Back to those housing targets: Sukkar is asked why there’ll be no target under the Coalition when it can provide some accountability.
Well, call in the political spinners because Sukkar just gave us this very real statement:
We have to accept that one of the reasons that there is diminishing trust against politicians in this and something that I’m sure that Clare reflects on and I reflect on here, and no-one is perfect here.
But one of the reasons we’ve seen that happen is because we have so often, governments make commitments for things that they will never be held accountable for, ultimately.
Labor criticises Coalition’s super for housing policy as entrenching gender inequality and raising house prices
The next question goes to how much difference being able to access superannuation will make to getting together a deposit. Ellen Ransley says the average super balance for a 30 to 34 year old woman is $44,000, and 40% of that (the maximum that could be taken out under the policy) is $17,600. How will that help?
Sukkar argues it would take years to get that extra $17,600 in savings:
The ability to actually use a portion of your super to supplement the savings you can make, we think makes a huge difference.
O’Neil argues that will entrench gender inequality. She says women have less super than men already, and this policy will exacerbate that:
Not only will it jack up house prices instantly by giving millions of people the ability to ransack their retirement savings but it’s also going to significantly disadvantage women when they’re at an auction bidding against a man. And that can’t be a good thing for gender equality.
O’Neil is also asked what will happen if someone who purchases one of Labor’s 100,000 homes for first home buyers wants to sell. She says there aren’t any plans to “make restrictions on young people who purchase the property and resell them.”
Both parties back ‘sustainable growth’ in house prices to avoid a generation going into ‘negative equity’
The ABC’s Evelyn Manfield gets the next question, and asks O’Neil about her comments to Triple J last year. She said: “We’re not trying to bring down house prices. That may be the view of young people but not the view of our government.”
Peter Dutton and Michael Sukkar have both said in recent days that they also want to see “sustainable growth” in house prices.
O’Neil says for any young person who has taken on a large mortgage while interest rates have been low, they don’t want to go into negative equity. She says the answer is in building more homes.
We’ve also got a generation of pretty young people who have come into the market in the last ten years. Many of them have taken on incredibly large mortgages while interest rates were low. And we don’t want, nor is it good for the country, to see that generation go into negative equity. So we do need to have a balanced approach here.
Neither she nor Sukkar will put a number on what sustainable growth is.
Sukkar backs O’Neil’s point in, saying she’s received “unfair criticism”.
It would be quite devastating for a young first home-buyer who has owned a home for one or two or three years to suddenly go into negative equity, which is the consequence of what some of the suggestions have been.
Both parties vow to train local workforce to address construction labour shortage
The debate turns to the workforce and the shortage of tradies, which you can read more about here:
O’Neil says Labor’s main priority will “always” be to train Australians “first” for construction jobs, and says Labor’s free Tafe places have added around 40,000 construction professionals into the workforce.
Connell asks if Labor will make it easier to get construction workers in from overseas. She replies:
The challenge is not necessarily the ease of bringing construction workers in. We have a demand-driven migration system. About 10,000 construction workers came in through that system last year.
In response, Sukkar says he agrees on training a local workforce, and will put in place an apprentice wage subsidy, which he claims the construction union (the CFMEU) hasn’t allowed Labor to do. He also says the Coalition will make it easier for construction workers to come in from overseas (which they’ve said before):
[We will] drastically reduce migration, and reorient that smaller program into the sorts of trades we need.
Sukkar in housing: ‘What’s a target worth if you’re not going to get anywhere near it?’
Staying on that target: Connell asks Sukkar whether the Coalition would set their own target and will they keep in place the housing planning reform the states signed up to with the government?
Sukkar won’t set a target for the Coalition, and claims the current government is building 30,000 less homes right now than under the previous government. He also repeats the line that on the government’s trajectory, they’ll fall 400,000 homes short of target.
I’m saying we’ll get to as many as we possibly can, but I’m certain it will be higher than Labor … What’s a target worth if you’re not going to get anywhere near it?
He does appear to support the housing planning reforms signed on with the states, saying, “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with housing ministers at a federal level trying to encourage states to undertake planning and zoning reform.”
O’Neil responds to the criticisms, accusing Sukkar of an “unwillingness to take any responsibility”.
The claim that the Liberals are going to build more houses is ridiculous. They don’t have any policies that are seriously going to do that… This weird cocktail of things that the Liberals have dreamed up are going to lead to more expensive homes and fewer homes being built around the country.
O’Neil says Coalition’s answer to housing is the ‘lower the national ambition’
Sukkar, in his statement, pointed out that the government is not on track to be able to deliver 1.2m homes over five years, and could fall short by up to 400,000 homes – according to industry experts.
O’Neil hit back on that in her statement, saying:
Michael’s talked a little bit about our national housing target, suggesting that they’re too high. What he’s really saying here is that the answer to this problem is lower the national ambition – and low ambition is what got us here.
The first question goes to O’Neil on that point, and host Tom Connell asks if O’Neil is willing to say the government isn’t on track. She says the government needs to do more, but the work is being done, and the commonwealth is working with states and territories to do that.
We need a bold and ambitious target because boldness and ambition is exactly what is required here. Instead of washing our hands of the problem.
She highlights tradie shortages and planning reforms as a block and says they’re working on those.
Labor say blame for housing situation lies with former Liberal governments
Clare O’Neil now makes her opening statement, and calls the housing crisis the “biggest social and economic challenge facing our country right now”.
The Coalition has been piling blame on Labor for the state of housing across Australia, and blamed them for allowing more migrants into the country. But O’Neil says the issue has been “building now for 40 years”, and puts the blame back on to the Coalition for not having done enough for the nine years they were previously in government.
We came to office three years ago after a decade of abject neglect of housing … Many of you would remember that Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison actually deliberately made a decision to take the commonwealth out of the discussion. And that’s why, for most of the almost decade that the coalition were in power, there wasn’t even a commonwealth housing minister.
O’Neil then also moves to the “sell” portion of her speech, plugging Labor’s promise to build 1.2m homes, and their recent pledge to open up their 5% deposit scheme.
Housing debate begins at National Press Club
With housing now one of the biggest issues of the campaign, housing and shadow housing ministers Clare O’Neil and Michael Sukkar are going head to head on their respective policies in a debate at the national press club.
Sukkar starts with his opening address (after winning a coin toss). He says Australians have “witnessed one of the most catastrophic policy failures in a generation,” accusing Labour of building less and approving less homes.
He also accuses the government of running the “biggest migration program in a generation”.
There have been multiple fact checks on the impact that migration and international students have had on the housing crisis.
He then moves to sell his party’s policy:
Under the coalition, first-home buyers of new homes will be able to claim a tax deduction on mortgage interest for the first five years after purchasing their home. This is a monumental tilting of the scales in favour of first-home buyers.
Report casts doubt over if Labor can achieve housing goals
Patrick Commins
New figures suggest achieving the Albanese government’s target of 1.2m new well-located homes over five years to mid-2029 is looking less and less likely.
To reach that goal, we would need to complete 240,000 homes a year, or 120,000 every six months.
Instead, over the first six months of Labor’s Housing Accord target, the ABS report shows just over 90,000 homes were built – or roughly 30,000 fewer than needed.
The building pipeline is not promising, either. In the six months to December, we started building about 86,000 homes – again well short of where we need to be.
The ABS data comes as Labor and the Coalition clash over competing visions on how to address the issue of chronically unaffordable housing.
Cameron Kusher, an independent property expert, said: “Whilst I never believed the target was going to be achievable, we’ve started off very slowly and are well behind the target already.”
With interest rates falling in 2025 we should see construction lift, but it remains difficult to see how the Housing Accord target is going to be met.
Catie McLeod
Canadian food authority says Vegemite ‘not banned in Canada’ but formulation sold at Toronto cafe ‘did not comply’ with regulations
We’ve heard from the Canadian food regulators regarding their decision to order a cafe owner in Toronto to stop selling Vegemite.
As we brought you yesterday, Canada’s public broadcaster published a story – on Monday evening Australian time – saying the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) had told dual citizen Leighton Walters he would have to stop selling and serving the yeast spread because it did not meet local standards.
The CFIA had told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that the Vegemite that Walters sought to import was found to have added vitamins that were not permitted with Canadian health regulations.
Now, the CFIA has sent us a statement, which says:
We recognise Vegemite’s ties to Australian culture and the interest in having access to this product in Canada.
The CFIA is working with Health Canada on options and will maintain communications with the regulated party.
Vegemite is not banned in Canada. The Vegemite formulation that was sold at the café did not comply with Canada’s food and drug Regulations.
In comparison to a similar product, Marmite, the manufacturer of Marmite produces a version of their product that meets Canadian requirements.
This doesn’t clear up all of the confusion. While the CFIA has said Vegemite is not banned in Canada, we aren’t aware of any specifically formulated Vegemite products that don’t have B vitamins in them. You can read more here:
Dutton says he holds no security concerns over hecklers who approached PM yesterday
A final question to Dutton goes to that video we reported earlier, of Anthony Albanese being confronted by two hecklers in the lobby of his hotel in Melbourne yesterday evening.
The video was shared across social media app Telegram, showing two separate men intercepting the prime minister as he was walking through the hotel in Melbourne’s CBD, before being stopped by the PM’s staff.
The videos were attributed on Telegram to “Melbourne Freedom Rally”, a large right-wing group which led protests against Covid restrictions during the pandemic.
He’s asked whether he has any security concerns:
No, I don’t. The police do a fantastic job … as the prime minister pointed out it is not a locked down area, he is in a public space, and I think the police do a great job.
Dutton says PNG minister who says he wants Labor to win is a ‘colourful character’
A tad earlier in the press conference, Dutton was asked about Papua New Guinea’s foreign minister, Justin Tkatchenko, who told the ABC he wanted to see Labor win the election.
Dutton says Tkatchenko is a “colourful character” and a friend of Australia.
I know him and have for 20 years, he is doing a great job, is a colourful character and is a friend of our country… Justin is a good friend of our country and a Melburnian originally and doing a good job up there.
Tkatchenko told the ABC the relationship between PNG and Australia, “has never been stronger … and that is in all aspects – treasury, foreign affairs, defence, agriculture, fisheries.”
Dutton was asked separately whether the Coalition’s decisions, including to not want to cohost a COP climate conference, would lose the trust of Pacific nations and lead them to move towards China. Dutton says the Coalition was a “great partner” when in government.
I was part of the government who helped get vaccines to Pacific Island nations. They were unbelievably grateful for the support we provided …
When we were in government we were a great partner with many countries including some you have referred to.
Dutton on what the Coalition is offering women
The Coalition has said itself it has a problem with women, and SMH reporter Olivia Ireland asks Peter Dutton what exactly he’s doing for women.
She says Dutton has focused on mining, construction, agriculture and energy as the four pillars of the economy, and points out that in his campaign launch speech, he only mentioned women twice – in the context of how he had protected them from domestic violence and crime. Dutton starts:
I am offering the chance for them to get a home. Homeless women are at a record level under this government …
We have said in relation to accessing super, women who have had a messy relationship breakup, who haven’t had a home before or have no roof over the head with their kids, I want to provide that stability.
There’s a lot of back and forth over this answer. Ireland points out housing is an issue for everyone. She keeps pushing Dutton about what he’s actually doing for women working in sectors like education (which he’s consistently said is pushing a “woke” agenda) and health.
Dutton says his party would “invest more” money in those sectors. But Dutton keeps talking about women as either vulnerable (getting out of a “messy relationship”) or as mothers.
The 25 cent fuel excise reduction is targeted at women driving kids around or delivery truck drivers who are trying to make ends meet.
He comes back to housing, saying the Coalition’s housing plan will help a young family or “young professional woman who has given up on that [dream]”.
The whole answer doesn’t come off particularly well.
Dutton refuses to say his statements risk relationship with Indonesia
Dutton is drawn back to the issue, and is asked by Tom Crowley if he has “overreached” and risks insulting Indonesia – considering the precarious global environment.
Dutton goes straight to attacking Wong again, and won’t answer the question on whether his comments could affect the relationship with Indonesia.
The fact is when you have a foreign minister and a defence minister and a prime minister finding out about decisions from our friends and countries abroad … you know this government is not up to it.
The relationship between Indonesia and Russia is closer, we know that and we want to continue [our] relationship because we don’t want Russian assets in our region.
Another reporter tests Dutton on his previous answer that the statement he made yesterday, that he had seen commentary from the Indonesian administration, was a reference to “a credible media website”. Dutton says:
I made the point earlier in relation to the reference.
Pushed again, and asked for more clarity on whether it was a mistake to say the Indonesian president confirmed those reports, Dutton says:
I have provided that respond to that exact question.
Dutton denies comments on Russia and Indonesia were irresponsible: ‘A lot of questions the government still has to answer’
The first question, unsurprisingly, goes to Dutton’s comments on Russia and Indonesia, and the government’s claim that Dutton was “irresponsible” in those comments.
Dutton denies he was irresponsible, and says there are further questions for the government to answer.
The prospect of having Russia with the greatest presence in our region is very real and there are a lot of questions the government still has to answer. We have asked for a briefing in relation to the matter that has not been forthcoming yet.
Dutton says the relationship between Indonesia and Russia is “closer under this president”.
Dutton is asked about the reference yesterday to a statement he made from the Indonesian administration. He says:
The reference I made is to a credible military website and that talked about government sources and the Prabowo government sources …
Penny Wong talks a big game but I don’t think she is a foreign minister on top of her brief.
Opposition leader addresses media in seat of Aston
Peter Dutton is now standing up in the seat of Aston (which the Coalition is hoping to win back, after it lost the seat to Labor in a byelection).
Dutton is also talking about his housing policy:
We will increase supply and we will make sure as we said on the weekend and repeated this policy again, allow young Australians to access their super so that they can get the deposit together. We’ll stop foreigners from purchasing homes for a 2-year period
Both leaders have been in Melbourne this morning, before their debate on the ABC tonight.
So what have they been up to? Albanese has been at a housing estate while Peter Dutton visited the Alannah and Madeline Foundation.
Queensland MP urges colleagues to adopt ‘do-nothing strategy’ in regards to climate action
Energy is still a key issue in this election and Guardian Australia has uncovered a video of one Coalition MP telling a group of climate science deniers that blackouts are a “big opportunity”.
My colleague Ben Smee reports that, in a video posed on YouTube, Queensland MP Colin Boyce said he’d urged fellow MPs to adopt a “do-nothing strategy” which would build opposition to net zero policies.
You can read the full story right here:
Albanese says he doesn’t want to encourage Dutton ‘dialling everything up’
Sarah Basford Canales
Concluding that chat on ABC Melbourne this morning, Anthony Albanese is asked whether he’s been preparing some jabs or zingers to target Peter Dutton at tonight’s ABC leaders’ debate.
The prime minister questioned Dutton’s temperament:
No, no. I stick to the policy framework. I, look, Peter Dutton dials it up to 11. I don’t need to encourage that. That’s just who he is. He dials everything up. And that’s one of the problems, I think, is that you need the right temperament to be prime minister.
