More than 1.1m votes already cast in federal election
More than 1.1 million Australians have already voted in the federal election, according to the Australian Electoral Commission.
The AEC says it’s expecting about half of Australians to vote before 3 May.
According to the AEC’s latest data (which isn’t live), Carnes Hill in the seat of Werriwa, which is held by Labor, has the highest number of pre-poll votes so far, with 2,409.
That’s followed by Rosebud in the Liberal-held seat of Flinders, with 2,263, and Cleveland in the LNP-held seat of Bowman, also with 2,263 pre-poll votes.
It puts more pressure on the major parties to sell their messages and detail all their costings before the rest of the country votes.
Key events
Sarah Basford Canales
Gina Rinehart speaks at Anzac event
Peter Dutton is at an event at Sydney Opera House to honour Anzac soldiers ahead of tomorrow’s dawn services.
The opposition leader is sitting in the front row but he’s not alone here. The deputy prime minister, Richard Marles, is sitting across the aisle in the front row.
Former prime ministers John Howard, Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison are also here with a front seat view.
Mining magnate, Gina Rinehart, is also here and delivered a speech calling for Australia to lift its defence budget to 5% of GDP, and invest in “Israeli-style” drones, adding:
I have so much more to say on this, but at another time.
Josh Butler
Clive Palmer’s election texts are back. We’re getting reports from people across the country of new text messages from the mining magnate’s latest political venture, the Trumpet of Patriots, promising “cheaper land” and to “cut immigration by 80%”.
If you’ve been here before, you might remember Palmer and former running mate Craig Kelly sending out millions of unsolicited texts in previous elections with the United Australia Party.
It’s unclear where the party gets the contact list for the texts it has sent out. We’ve reached out to the Trumpet of Patriots, and Palmer’s spokesperson, for comment.
The texts are authorised by “H Fong Trumpet of Patriots” – the party’s QLD Senate candidate.
We’re reported previously that gaps in laws mean the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) and the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) have been unable to sanction such unsolicited texts because anti-spam laws don’t apply to political causes:
The ACMA said the Spam Act does not apply to messages that are not commercial in nature. Australia also has no truth in political advertising laws, meaning the regulators have no role in factchecking the ads.
Telstra already blocks millions of scam messages on its network, but a spokesperson told the Guardian in 2021 that the company did not have the authority to block messages of the kind the UAP was sending out. A spokesperson said at the time:
We don’t have the authority to block messages from political parties.
Public servants are uncertain about their employment but unable to publicly push back, senator David Pocock has said, in the wake of the Coalition targeting Canberra for its government job cuts.
The Canberra senator told ABC’s Afternoon Briefing government workers are concerned about “what this would actually mean for the country” and slammed Peter Dutton for targeting employees who are required to express no political opinions:
What a hero, to punch down on a group of people who are legally obliged to not say anything in public. They can’t say anything, they can’t push back. It is really disappointing politics, and I hope people see it for what it is. This is pure Canberra bashing. It is not based in anything that will actually make our country better.
Coalition’s ‘Doge-style’ public service cuts would ‘devastate’ ACT economy, Pocock warns
Canberra senator David Pocock has said Coalition cuts to the public service could “devastate the ACT economy”.
The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, earlier today suggested his mooted 41,000 public service job cuts could come exclusively from Canberra, which Pocock said would “plunge us into recession”:
[That] would knock 10% off our gross territory product. This is reckless policy from the opposition, and it’s reckless politics, trying to import this US Doge-style Donald Trump-Elon Musk politics, where we vilify the public service [and] our capital city to try to get votes elsewhere.
Pocock said it was appropriate to expect more from the public service but not to “slash” it, warning heavy Canberra cuts would leave “about 5,000 public servants trying to run the whole thing”, which he said would be “devastating” for government service delivery across Australia.
Muslim Votes Matter ‘putting very vocal parties and candidates who are anti-Palestine above me’, Aly says
Anne Aly has said members of her community were “disappointed” after advocacy group Muslim Votes Matter recommended voters preference the Liberal party above her in her Perth seat of Cowan.
Aly told the ABC’s Afternoon Briefing:
I’ve been approached by people in my community who have expressed their disappointment about that, because you have Muslim Votes Matter, which purports to be very strongly about Gaza and Palestine, putting very vocal parties and candidates who are anti-Palestine above me in my seat, and in other seats as well.
Aly, who is a Muslim woman, said she did not know why the advocacy group had made the call:
People are free to preference whoever they want. Right now I am focused on not just winning my own seat but ensuring we return an Albanese Labor government.
Coalition’s domestic violence measures ‘come a bit too late’, Aly says
Anne Aly has said Peter Dutton has “finally cottoned on to the MeToo movement” after the Coalition proposed a suite of measures to combat domestic abuse earlier today.
Aly claimed the policies had been put forward at “the 11th hour” and addressed issues the Labor government had already been progressing:
Using phone or a computer or device to harass or menace is already a criminal offence. We increased the criminal offence for sharing of explicit images without consent. There are things we have already done and we have already announced that we will do in the next term should we retain government. Peter Dutton has come a bit too late to the party.
Asked why it had taken so long for domestic violence to be mentioned in the campaign, Aly said the government had “taken domestic violence incredibly serious from day one”.
Minister denies PM’s ‘trip’ an election issue for Labor
The Labor minister Anne Aly has said “one person’s fall is another person’s trip” after the prime minister admitted then denied he had fallen off a stage at an election campaign event.
Aly was asked whether Anthony Albanese’s apparent fall had become an issue for Labor’s campaign while appearing on ABC’s Afternoon Briefing. She said:
I’ve not heard anyone raise that with me at all. It’s a little bit of silliness really. One person’s fall is another person’s trip … It just hasn’t factored …
If they had policies, and fully costed policies, and something substantial to offer to the Australian people, then they would not have to go to these kind of things.
Albanese earlier today said “falling off the stage” at a Newcastle event had been the worst moment of his campaign before telling reporters he had “stepped off the stage” or “stumbled” at a subsequent press conference.
Australia joins call for Israel to allow immediate aid access into Gaza
Australia’s foreign minister, Penny Wong, has joined counterparts in the UK, France and Germany in calling for Israel to allow immediate aid access into Gaza.
The countries issued a statement yesterday marking more than 50 days of Israel’s block on aid to Gaza, which they said was “intolerable”.
Wong wrote in a post on X this afternoon:
Australia joins the UK, France & Germany in calling on Israel to immediately allow rapid and unimpeded flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza. We urge all parties to return to a ceasefire. Civilians and humanitarians must be protected. Hamas must release all hostages and aid must flow.
Women’s Legal Services welcomes Coalition’s $90m package to combat DV
Women’s Legal Services Australia has welcomed the Coalition’s $90m package to combat domestic violence, with executive officer Lara Freidin saying women experiencing violence “need action from all sides of politics”.
We’re pleased to see a commitment to tackling technology-facilitated abuse as this is a rapidly growing form of violence and one that frontline services like Women’s Legal Services are seeing more and more of every day.
Freidin said the organisation had long called for a national register to allow police to share information about violent offenders, which the Coalition backed today:
We welcome renewed focus on this important reform, but what’s needed now is action to deliver it effectively with clear safeguards, input from experts and people with lived experience …
Announcements are one thing but what matters is whether there is real, long-term funding to deliver these promises. Women and children fleeing violence need to know there is help available when they need it.
You can read more about the Coalition’s proposal here:
Benita Kolovos
Jeff Kennett backs in Victorian premier over Balta comments
Jacinta Allan has found an unlikely ally in the former Victorian Liberal premier Jeff Kennett, who called in to 3AW radio today to support her against recent comments by the Gold Coast AFL coach, Damien Hardwick.
Hardwick accused the Victorian premier of “put[ting] her nose in somebody else’s business” after she criticised Richmond for allowing Noah Balta to play before he was sentenced over an assault she described as “sickening”.
His comments drew criticism from some AFL commentators, including the veteran journalist Caroline Wilson, who said “law and order was in the remit of every state premier”. When he was asked four days later if he stood by his comments, Hardwick said he did and urged Allan to do “less talking, less chest-beating, more getting to work”.
Kennett, however, said Allan was justified in speaking out. He told 3AW:
Damien came out and attacked her for expressing a view. What else was she going to do? Say no comment or it was a good look?
The AFL, coaches and players are not above good behaviour, and they’re not above the law. And as you know, I’m not in favour of much this government does, but I think it is totally unfair and incorrect that Damian Hardwick would use his profile to attack a premier for simply expressing the view that most of us would agree with.
He said the assault was “unacceptable and could have been a lot worse”.
Young Noah is the luckiest man alive that, in fact, a more serious injury or worse was not actually the outcome of that assault … I criticise the premier on just about everything she and the government does, but on this, I have been troubled because I don’t think there’s been any balance or any defence of her right to express a view about an issue that concerns us all.
Balta was sentenced at Albury local court on Tuesday after pleading guilty to repeatedly punching Thomas Washbrook, 27, outside the Mulwala Water Ski Club, in the NSW Riverina, on 30 December.
The 25-year-old was fined $3,000, given an 18-month community corrections order and assigned a curfew, restricting him to his home address between 10pm and 6am until July.
Luca Ittimani
Thanks Krishani! I’ll be with you on the blog for the next little while.
Krishani Dhanji
Thank you all for joining me on the blog today.
I’ll leave you with the lovely Luca Ittimani to take you through the rest of the afternoon, and I’ll catch you bright and early in the morning!
