Australia election 2025 live: Coalition promises to axe fines that enforce vehicle emission standards
Chalmers will be speaking today with his Korean counterpart, as the government branches out to talk to other allies and trade partners, also reeling from Trump’s tariffs.
But with the election looming, and the parliament now in caretaker mode, Chalmers says there are limits to the decisions that can be made or discussions had.
I spoke with my UK counterpart. I’m speaking with my current counterpart. This afternoon. I’ll be engaging with our posts in the region… we’re still conferring, we’re still comparing notes, we’re still coordinating our efforts.
The Australia EU trade deal has the capacity to advance our interests… but I think that’s a good example the progress that we might be able to make.
Asked whether shadow trade minister Kevin Hogan has been kept in the loop on those discussions, including the discussion between trade minister Don Farrell and his EU counterpart earlier this week, Chalmers says he’s not sure.
And what about China’s offer to “join hands” yesterday?
I think we’ve got our own way of engaging in the region, our own language to describe our efforts. And I think the Chinese export market for Australia is incredibly important… our interests are best served by more diverse, more reliable, more robust markets, and the big economies in our region have got a big role to play there.
Chalmers: It’s been a wild ride this week
Treasurer Jim Chalmers says there’s more volatility and unpredictability in the global economy, but believes Australia still stands in “quite good stead”.
Last night, Reserve Bank governor Michele Bullock gave a speech, and Chalmers tells RN Breakfast she made a point of talking about the “robustness” of Australia’s system, which will help weather any economic storm.
It’s been a wild ride this week on global share markets… I think the markets are now not just reacting to specific announcements out of Washington, DC or the retaliatory measures, but this real sense of volatility and unpredictability, which is not good for markets, but the good news for Australia, I think the [Reserve Bank] governor was making a point last night about the robustness of our systems.
Host Sally Sara says the last time he was on the show, Chalmers said the economy was keeping him up at night, this time he’s revealed he’s still not getting much sleep, and has been waking up in the middle of the night to read the Wall St Journal.
Labor ahead of the Coalition for the election thanks to Dutton’s WFH policy, polling shows
Voters continue to abandon Peter Dutton with the latest polling showing the Coalition has gone from being “in the box seat” to win the election to the prospect of losing seats on 3 May, AAP reports.
Latest YouGov polling, released to AAP, reveals Labor has gained ground to forge ahead 52.5% to 47.5% over the coalition in the two-party preferred vote.
The result is the best for Labor in months and slightly higher than its polling of 52.1% at the 2022 election.
The coalition’s primary vote is now down to 33.5% – lower than at the 2022 election.
Falling support for the opposition leader has been mirrored in other recent polling as Labor and Anthony Albanese continue to build momentum as the election draws near.
Dutton’s work-from-home policy had sparked the fall and taken his party from “being in the box seat to win the federal election in February to struggling to hold on to the seats they won in 2022,” YouGov director of public data Paul Smith said.
The Coalition’s support has fallen so far that they now risk losing seats.
Peter Dutton’s work-from-home blunder has taken him from a winning position to a losing one in a dramatic way we rarely see.
Record enrolment for the Australian election
The Australian electoral commission (AEC) says 98.2% of eligible Australians have enrolled to vote for the election.
Since 2022, the role has increased by 5%, or 870,000 people, with the youth enrolment rate now 92%.
The AEC says 30% of new enrolments are migrants, but most are young people who have turned 18 and can vote for the first time.
AEC commissioner Jeff Pope said:
This is the third election in a row at which we’ve set a record for Australia’s national enrolment rate.
Record enrolment like this doesn’t happen by accident. It represents a huge amount of work on the part of the AEC to engage with voters and reduce barriers for enrolment.
We’re particularly focused on Australia’s youth enrolment rates.
Under 35s now make up 25.9% of enrolments, while over 65s make up 24.9% of enrolments, according to the AEC.
Aged care minister Anika Wells announces $60m for new aged care beds, defends sector reform
Labor is this morning announcing $60m for up to 120 new aged care beds in the Northern Territory.
Aged care minister Anika Wells has told ABC News Breakfast the government has delivered the “biggest reforms” to the sector in 30 years.
Wells acknowledges stakeholders are “worried” about delivering the reforms, which is why the government has established a transition taskforce.
We had to cram five, 10 years’ worth of reform into two years because this has been left so long and time’s up. People are waiting for beds today. We have to build these new beds and we have to fix the system so we’re all acting urgently.
New line alert!
Wells is also asked about the Coalition’s decision to scrap penalties for carmakers under the vehicle efficiency standards. She says:
The Coalition have had more backflips than Simone Biles in the energy space. It’s hard to keep up, to be honest.
For anyone who doesn’t know, living legend Simone Biles is a US gymnast and you should immediately Google her!
Daisy Dumas
Pauline Hanson backs Peter Dutton, says he has the ‘qualifications’ to be PM
Pauline Hanson claims that her “common sense” policies have been picked up by both Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton – but that it is the leader of the opposition who’ll have her support come 3 May.
Appearing on the ABC’s 7:30, the One Nation senator said on Thursday evening that she thought Dutton had “the qualifications to actually become the prime minister of this country”.
I put my support behind him.
Speaking about the Coalition’s fuel excise cut, nuclear energy plans and refusal of Indigenous flags – as well as Labor’s clamp down on the foreign ownership of homes, she said:
I think it’s wonderful that they’re both picking up my policies, commonsense policies.
She said “change was needed”.
This Albanese government hasn’t tried to work with me. I don’t get meetings, I’m not aware of what legislation is coming up. I think they’re arrogant, I think they’re rude, incompetent and have not done the best thing.
Didn’t the prime minister say we’re going to be open and honest and consultative? They have been anything but. I think change is needed.
Sarah Basford Canales
Dutton says Coalition would repeal vehicle fuel efficiency standards
The Coalition has pledged to repeal Labor’s fuel efficiency standards aimed at curbing the sale of high-polluting cars.
In an announcement overnight, Peter Dutton said he would scrap the standards due to come into effect from July, describing them as “unfair penalties on carmakers and consumers”.
The fuel standard places a cap on the emissions from new cars to encourage carmakers to supply low- and zero-emissions vehicles as part of their fleet. The cap will be lowered over time.
Until it passed into law in May last year, Australia remained one of the few countries in the world, alongside Russia and Saudi Arabia, to not have a national fuel standard.
The opposition has long fought against the standard, claiming it would drive up the cost of utes – a popular choice for tradespeople.
Dutton said:
We want cleaner, cheaper cars on Australian roads as we head towards net zero by 2050, but forcing unfair penalties on carmakers and consumers is not the answer.
The Coalition’s opposition to the standard represents another promise to wind back laws aimed at reducing Australia’s emissions output. The Coalition has yet to announce an emission reduction policy.
Krishani Dhanji
Good morning,
Krishani Dhanji here with you, and thank God it’s Friday.
We’re now at the end of week two of the campaign, which means just three weeks to go, so hang in there!
Peter Dutton’s fuelling up with more petrol promises, this time confirming the Coalition would scrap penalties for high-polluting cars under the current vehicle efficiency standards introduced by the Albanese government.
We also have new research showing hundreds of jobs at an agency scrutinising mistreatment in the aged care sector could be lost under the Coalition’s plans to drastically reduce the public sector, according to the Community and Public Sector Union.
And as has been the flavour for the past week, there’s continuing fallout and reaction to Donald Trump’s tariffs, and we’ll bring you all of that as it comes.
