Federal election 2025 LIVE updates: Leaders hit the campaign trail after PM announces May 3 election date
Deputy PM defends Labor’s popularity in Victoria
Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles has defended federal Labor’s popularity in Victoria, where the state’s Labor government is facing falling approval ratings.
In an interview with ABC’s 730 last night, Marles said Labor’s message and its record on dealing with cost of living challenge was resonating with Victorians. He said Victorians were not “fans of Peter Dutton”.
“When Victorians look at Peter Dutton, they look at a leader who has promised nothing other than cuts,” he said. “In the face of the challenges that people have had, a wholesale cut to frontline services such as Medicare is not going to win any support or approval in Victoria.”
Deputy Prime Minister Richard MarlesCredit: Alex Ellinghausen
The most recent Resolve Political Monitor found the primary vote for Victoria’s premier Jacinta Allan had dropped to 22 per cent, its lowest level since its polling in the state began in 2021.
Victoria’s state political editor Chip Le Grand has also examined whether Victoria’s Labor state government will affect the federal Labor vote this election, as well as some of the key issues in the state that may influence how Victorians vote in May’s federal election.
You never know who you’ll run into on a wet Saturday morning in Brisbane
You never know who you’ll run into on a wet Saturday morning in Brisbane.
As the press pack travelling with Anthony Albanese departed the Stamford Plaza early this morning, an ABC colleague and I noticed Peter Dutton was around the corner doing a breakfast TV interview.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton runs into reporters after a TV interview in Brisbane.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
The opposition leader was rushing off to another event, but stopped to take a few questions as both leaders spend their first day of the campaign in Queensland. Dutton backed his fuel excise cut and had a crack at the prime minister, as you’d expect.
Journalists covering Dutton are about to fly into Brisbane. The prime minister’s media contingent arrived earlier on Friday because a RAAF jet was made available more quickly for the prime minister, which has frustrated Dutton’s team.
The timing advantage meant Dutton’s first comments on the 2025 campaign trail were made not to my colleague covering the opposition leader, the irrepressible Matthew Knott, but to journalists covering the prime minister.
The media pack is off to its first destination
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s campaign is ramping into action today with several early morning television interviews.
The travelling media pack, including myself, is departing Canberra for our first destination. These locations are tightly held to avoid tipping off protesters and the opposing parties.
(It’s likely that Matthew is heading to Brisbane, since Opposition leader Peter Dutton is there at the moment, but because journalists on the campaign trail are not told where their flights are going it is never 100 per cent certain. )
Three ways to victory: The numbers game that will decide the election
An outright Labor majority, an outright Coalition majority or a hung parliament? These are the three possible outcomes of the May 3 federal election.
Foreign affairs and national security correspondent Matthew Knott has outlined what it would take for each of these scenarios to play out – all this before he left Canberra to follow Coalition leader Peter Dutton on the campaign trail from today.
Knott notes that politics is changing dramatically, which makes the outcome harder to predict and increases the likelihood of a hung parliament, with voters increasingly rejecting the Labor/Coalition duopoly and opting to vote for independents and minor parties.
Welcome
By Craig Butt
Good morning and welcome to today’s rolling federal election blog. With the federal election now locked in for May 3 (exactly five weeks from today) and the campaign getting underway in earnest, we’re going to be running liveblogs this weekend as well. I’m Craig Butt and I’ll be in the blogging chair today.
Here’s what you need to know this morning:
- Yesterday morning, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called the election for May 3 following a dawn visit to Governor-General Sam Mostyn. In his opening pitch for voters he promised a better future for Australians: “This election is a choice between Labor’s plan to keep building or Peter Dutton’s promise to cut,” he said.
- Opposition leader Peter Dutton launched his campaign in Brisbane, saying Australia was going backwards under Albanese: “There is a better way for our country and my team and I have a practical plan which will deliver cost of living relief and lower power prices into the future,” he said.
- As of last night, Albanese and Dutton were both in Brisbane, which is one of 12 seats we’re keeping a close eye, given that it is shaping up as a three-way contest.
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