Federal election 2025 LIVE updates: Dutton hints at ABC cuts, speaks on crime in Victoria as PM ignites wages fight; Trump tariffs set to begin

The prime minister is about to jet out of Victoria’s Avalon Airport for another state.

Peter Dutton has repeatedly said real wages – that is, wages adjusted for inflation – have gone backwards under Anthony Albanese.

This is technically correct, with real wages falling 1.1 per cent during Albanese’s term, according to the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics figures.

However, looking back at real wages under Scott Morrison’s Coalition government, it’s worth noting real wages fell even more as inflation surged following the pandemic. Under Morrison’s watch, real wages fell 2.9 per cent.

Victorian premier Jacinta Allan has ducked questions about why the prime minister is campaigning in the state without her by his side.

“I’m not here to talk about the prime minister’s forward schedule,” Allan said while announcing measures to make school uniforms cheaper. “Frankly, I am more focused, and I think Victorians would expect me to be much more focused, on the issues that are important to them.”

Asked whether her state government’s unpopularity was a “drag” on the federal government, Allan didn’t answer directly.

“Well, if you look at you look at my priorities, you look at the prime minister’s priorities, they are the same. They are investing in our hospital and our health system, not cutting it like the Liberal Party have done when [Opposition Leader] Peter Dutton was last health minister.”

Allan also took aim at Dutton for claiming the Suburban Rail Loop would not be built “in our lifetime”.

“I’d suggest that that’s further evidence that Peter Dutton from Queensland doesn’t spend a lot of time here in Melbourne and Victoria,” she said.

“He doesn’t understand Melbourne and Victoria. He’s already sent a clear message that he’s going to up stumps and move to Sydney, should he become prime minister.”

Latest polling conducted by Resolve Political Monitor for The Age shows primary support for state Labor was at 24 per cent in February and March, marginally above the 22 per cent nadir reached in the previous survey in December and January, but 12.6 points below its election-winning vote in November 2022.

Albanese is “a part-time prime minister when it comes to national security”, Dutton said this morning.

“This prime minister has no interest in national security. He says we live in the most precarious period since the Second World War, then takes $80 billion out of defence, and that is the problem the prime minister has got,” he said.

“It is of his own making and our country is less safe and secure now because we have a part-time prime minister when it comes to national security.”

As our political and international editor Peter Hartcher write, Dutton has promised to announce a more ambitious defence spending plan, something Labor is resisting resolutely.

Six in 10 Australians believe that the advent of Trump is bad for Australia, according to the Resolve Political Monitor commissioned by this masthead.

Asked to nominate the greatest threat to Australia, while China still is rated No.1 by 31 per cent of respondents, the US is named by 17 per cent. Russia runs a distant third at 4 per cent.

Following reporting from this masthead that the federal Department of Education only has about 1700 employees, Dutton dodged questions this morning on where he would cut public servants.

He has pledged to cut at least 40,000 public servants in Canberra, although the Coalition maintains this will not affect frontline workers.

“[Australians] want to make sure that every dollar … is spent wisely and our argument is growing the public service three times the rate the Rudd/Gillard government is not sustainable so we would look across government in Canberra.”

Asked multiple times when he would release details, Dutton did not answer.

“I have been consistent in what I have said in relation to this. I want to make sure that we can find the most efficient way of dealing with the problem that our country faces,” he said.

Young Australians should not be indoctrinated by teachers and lecturers, Dutton said this morning, as he doubled down on ending the “woke” agenda of education institutions.

“In relation to education funding and health funding, we are absolutely committed to health and education funding as the numbers appear in the budget papers,” he said.

“I want young Australians to get the best education they can in school. I do not want them indoctrinated to the views of a lecturer in university or in relation to a particular teacher. I want our kids to be taught community beliefs.”

Dutton has spoken more about the ABC today.

“I think the approach that we would take is to reward excellence, and to where we find waste, to cut that waste,” he said.

“And there are a lot of regional services for the ABC, which I think are underdone. We were out in western Queensland just yesterday looking at the devastation of the floods, and the ABC could be a much more integral part of that community, but just having it based in Sydney, or just being based in Melbourne is not helping people in outer metro areas or regional areas.”

The ABC’s employees are concentrated in Australian cities, and about half are in NSW. However, they are not only in Sydney and Melbourne.

According to the broadcaster’s latest annual report, there are about 4500 ABC workers in cities, and 600 in regional and rural areas.

About 2470 are in NSW, 980 in Victoria, 610 in Queensland, 330 in South Australia, 270 in Western Australia, 190 in the ACT, 150 in Tasmania and 120 in the Northern Territory.

Albanese has attacked Dutton for telling Sky News that President Donald Trump was walking all over the government.

“He says different things every day. The last time around he was praising President Trump rather than standing up for Australia, I stood up for Australia when they put on aluminium and steel tariffs,” Albanese said.

“Peter Dutton will always dial things up to 11. He thinks this is a contest of who can say the most aggro things. It’s not. It’s not the way that diplomacy works. It’s not the way that engagement in international relations works.

“This guy has no experience in international relations. I benefited when I came to the prime ministership in a long period of engaging particularly in the aviation and maritime, which are by definition international industries.”