Federal election 2025 LIVE updates: ASX plunges as Trump tariff backflip fallout continues; Dutton reportedly targeted in teenage boy’s terror plot

Peter Dutton has taken the stand to speak at an event in Perth hosted by The West Australian newspaper.

It’s his first public appearance of the day, and comes after reports this morning that he was targeted by a schoolboy’s terror plot.

Dutton begins with a joke about the newspaper’s editor before praising aspiration in Australia.

“We should spend more time in our country celebrating success in the business community, across the arts and our migrant story is an incredible success story,” he said.

“We should be talking more about in our country, people who have started with very little, people who have grown businesses have been successful, people who have sacrificed, work hard and give it back to their communities and to their country.”

Dutton then spruiked the talent in his frontbench, while taking a swipe at Treasurer Jim Chalmers following this week’s televised debate.

“You saw [shadow treasurer] Angus Taylor taking on Jim Chalmers and wipe the floor [with] a man who’s got a very significant glass jaw, our federal treasurer.”

The Australian sharemarket has slumped in early trade after Wall Street surrendered a chunk of its historic gains from the day before as President Donald Trump’s trade war continues to threaten the economy.

The ASX200 was 180.25 points, or 2.3 per cent, lower at 10.11am AEST after a negative lead from Wall Street overnight.

Overnight, the S&P 500 tumbled 3.5 per cent, slicing into Wednesday’s surge of 9.5 per cent following Trump’s decision to pause many of his tariffs worldwide. The Dow Jones dropped 1014 points, or 2.5 per cent, and the Nasdaq composite tumbled 4.3 per cent.

The losses for US stocks accelerated on Thursday after the White House clarified that the United States will tax Chinese imports at 145 per cent, not the 125 per cent rate that Trump had written about in his posting on Truth Social on Wednesday, once other previously announced tariffs were included. The drop for the S&P 500 exceeded 6 per cent at one point.

AP

The Australian Electoral Commission says enrolment has hit a record high ahead of the 2025 federal election, with 98.2 per cent of eligible Australians enrolled to vote.

The milestone means more than 18 million people will vote in the 2025 election, an increase of 870,000 people, or 5 per cent, since the 2022 federal election.

The federal electoral roll closed at 8pm on Monday this week, with the 11-day push to encourage eligible Australians to vote following the announcement of the election seeing 85,000 new voters join the roll.

More than 400,000 enrolled voters updated their details in the same period.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says he spoke to Opposition Leader Peter Dutton this morning after news broke that a Queensland schoolboy is facing court charged with planning a terrorist attack that targeted Dutton.

“Can I say that I’ve reached out to Peter Dutton this morning, and it is a fact that the number of threats that have been made to parliamentarians has increased in recent times, and that has been reported on by the appropriate authorities,” Albanese said.

“I myself have been the subject of a range of issues, at least one of which is before legal processes at the moment. There was a pretty serious incident.”

Albanese said he had confidence that the Australian Federal Police and the authorities would do what was necessary to keep politicians safe.

“That is one of the reasons why you’ve seen an increased number of security measures put in place, because we do live in times that unfortunately we’ve seen around the world as well, but here as well, these threats be made.”

He concluded that any member of parliament who has requested additional support or security has received it.

After Australia was warned that Donald Trump’s tariffs could push up the cost of submarines due to be acquired under the AUKUS defence pact, the prime minister says he is still confident about the defence pact.

Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and leader of the White House’s Department of Government Efficiency, has been ordered to review the vessel procurement process and deliver a proposal to Trump “to improve the efficiency and effectiveness” of the building of boats.

Asked if he was concerned by Musk’s involvement and if Australia could still trust the US on national security, Albanese said his confidence was based on “firsthand discussions with the president of the United States”.

“I’m also confident that people, when they make an assessment, know that this is in Australia’s national interest, but it’s also in the national interest of the United States,” he said.

Albanese said he supported the existing arrangements and refused to be drawn on whether he would consider a change to the current agreement.

Liberal home affairs spokesperson James Paterson has revealed further detail about how the Coalition plans to remove 41,000 workers from the Commonwealth public service, saying that voluntary redundancies would be part of the plan.

Speaking on ABC radio this morning, Paterson said redundancies had always been part of the plan as the opposition looks to cut back the federal workforce, which has expanded under the Albanese government.

“We will cap the size of the Australian public service and reduce the numbers back to the levels they were three years ago through natural attrition and voluntary redundancies,” Paterson said.

“Our policy was always based on natural attrition and voluntary redundancies. That’s what our costings are based on. That’s what we’ve sought advice from the PBO on, and that’s why I will achieve the savings once it’s mature, of $7 billion a year. What we very clearly said is that frontline service roles will be exempt as well as defense and national security.”

The opposition’s election promise has been controversial as it was initially tied to making Canberra public servants return to working from the office. The Coalition earlier this week abandoned that pledge.

Responding to Paterson at a Darwin press conference, Public Service Minister Katy Gallagher said the admission shows the “rubbish that the cuts would be found by attrition has been put to bed”.

“It is actually redundancies, which means sacking of public servants,” she said.

Gallagher attacked NT senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, who has been tasked with leading the opposition’s government efficiency efforts, accusing her of refusing to reveal where the cuts will come from.

“So that is what is at risk up here in the territory, jobs going, services going, and an opposition who’s refusing to say where those cuts will be made.”

Albanese is speaking from an urgent care clinic in Darwin as he announces $60 million in funding for the construction of a new residential care home.

He says it will deliver 120 new beds in a bid to address the “acute shortages here in the top end”.

The PM heaped praise on Aged Care Minister Anika Wells, saying he promoted her to cabinet because of the “amazing job” she had done in the portfolio, and that Labor had delivered the “largest reforms in aged care this century” to respond to the issues expressed in the royal commission.

“What the royal commission found was that unless we addressed those issues, we simply wouldn’t have a workforce, people who are leaving the workforce, who are dedicated professionals, dedicated to caring for older Australians, giving them the respect and dignity that they need in their later years, simply couldn’t afford to stay in those jobs,” Albanese said.

“What we have now is the leaving rates are dropping dramatically. We have people coming into the sector.”