Welcome back to your daily election wrap. Political reporter Maani Truu will catch you up on news from the campaign trail.
This weekend was a tale of two rival campaign launches on opposite sides of the country and two housing pitches with the same target audience but very different details.
Launches are never really about the voters, or undecided ones anyway. They’re a pump-up session for devotees as election day inches ever closer, and as such, they’re usually something of a reunion.
Former PM Julia Gillard, with current PM Anthony Albanese, was guest of honour at Labor’s campaign launch in Perth. (ABC News: Adam Kennedy)
In this world, former prime ministers are as A-list as it gets. Over west, at Labor’s launch, Julia Gillard got the star treatment, with her contemporary Kevin Rudd probably too busy trying to anticipate Trump’s next tariff move for a flight home and Paul Keating a no-show.
Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull told ABC even if he was invited to the Liberal Party’s campaign launch, he would not have attended.
The Liberals had a longer list of past prime ministerial attendees: Scott Morrison, Tony Abbott and John Howard, whose name has been invoked on an almost daily a basis by Dutton, sat front row. Malcolm Turnbull, who served between Abbott and Morrison, was notably absent, perhaps owing to his character assessment of the current party leader as a “thug”.
But don’t feel too sorry for Turnbull. He told ABC Radio Sydney this morning that while he didn’t get an invite to this particular event, he wouldn’t have gone anyway.
The Liberal launch went first on Sunday and we learnt that Opposition Leader Peter Dutton is actually a big softy.
“I’ve got my father’s emotional gene, unfortunately,” he said in a slick pre-recorded video. “I think I’ve worked pretty hard over the years to hide it, it doesn’t really get rewarded in this business, so better off not to show the vulnerabilities.”
The production went on to show Dutton watching heartfelt video messages from his children, wife and Liberal legend Howard. The message: yes he’s a tough former cop, but he also loves his family and Howard.
Not to be upstaged, Labor’s launch, scheduled 1.5 hours after their opposition, also featured an audiovisual presentation: a moody recap of what Labor strategists think are the Albanese government’s greatest hits from the last three years.
Some other quick-fire contrasts between the two events: the Liberal launch was held in western Sydney (where the Coalition is hoping to win seats) and Labor’s in Perth (where Labor won seats last time). Dutton walked out with his wife and children to a royalty-free instrumental tune, Anthony Albanese entered with his fiance to GANGgajang’s Sounds of Then (This is Australia). Dutton’s speech ran for 53 minutes, Albanese’s for 41 minutes.
But the most meme-able moment of launch day was an awkward air-kiss-come-double-hand-hold (it defies the written language, see the video instead) between the prime minister and his environment minister Tanya Plibersek.
On Monday Plibersek defended her awkward manoeuvre as she thought the last thing you want to catch on the campaign trail is a cold but admitted she “should have done the elbow bump”.
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Do we have an actual contest of ideas on our hands?
Now to the policy meat. The big reveal in Dutton’s launch speech was his plan to allow first home buyers of newly built properties to claim the interest on their mortgage as a tax deduction.
Albanese’s new offering was a $1,000 instant tax deduction for work-related expenses, Labor having revealed their plan to allow all first home buyers to access 5 per cent deposits and a $10 billion pledge to help build homes earmarked exclusively for this cohort hours earlier.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton was joined by past prime ministers John Howard, Scott Morrison and Tony Abbott at the Liberals campaign launch on Sunday. (ABC News: Matt Roberts)
That same night, the Coalition had also dropped its own tax treat: a one-off $1,200 tax cut to middle-income earners in 2026.
The dual housing announcements, both focused on first-home buyers, raise the chances of a genuine policy debate over how Australia should be responding to the housing crisis.
Expect the topic to dominate the campaign this week. This morning Dutton was keen to spruik that his policy, while seemingly more focused on the demand side of things, would also lead to 30,000 new homes being built, citing modelling from the Housing Institute of Australia.
“It will do that in part because the demand will be there, unit blocks will become more viable to develop, and bringing those extra units, those extra homes online, is exactly what is required at the moment,” he told reporters at a building site for new homes on Brisbane’s outer fringes.
Dutton was joined by his son, Harry, an aspiring home owner, but the Coalition leader was coy on whether he would help give his son a financial leg-up. He did, however, say he wanted to see house prices “steadily increase”.
Earlier Anthony Albanese toured, surprise, surprise, a housing development in Adelaide. There he offered that even though his policies directly benefited first home buyers, second and third home buyers would also be better off.
“If you increase supply, you assist everyone because you have an impact on affordability,” he said.
MOGE goes MAGA
Who had a “Make Australia Great Again” reference on their campaign bingo card?
With Australia’s number one ally facing economic turmoil thanks to President Donald Trump’s tariff agenda, it’s assumed that any perceived similarities to the man in the White House won’t do our local leaders any favours when it gets to election day.
Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and her husband Colin Lillie wear Make America Great Again hats (Facebook )
And so it was curious on Saturday when the Coalition’s minister for government efficiency (yes, it does sound awfully similar to the Elon Musk-run Department of Government of Efficiency, or DOGE) declared that her party would “make Australia great again” as she introduced Dutton to supporters at a Perth bowling club.
The American version of the phrase is universally synonymous with Trump and his signature red cap bearing the slogan, so it naturally led to a flurry of questions about the unexpected MAGA moment when they fronted up for a media conference a short time later.
Price’s response was incredulous: not only did she not remember using those words, but it was the media who was actually Trump-obsessed while the Coalition was busy focusing on Australians doing it tough.
But the questions kept coming, Dutton kept deflecting back to issues at home, and Price let loose on all matter of efficiency plans.
While Price claimed she didn’t mean to evoke Trump’s rallying cry, we know she’s at least aware of it: the next day, a Christmas happy snap emerged, via Guardian Australia, of her wearing a white “Make America Great Again” cap next to her husband who donned a Santa hat with the same slogan.
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Kendrick v Drake: Auspol edition
Here’s a sentence I didn’t expect to write: The first diss track of the campaign has dropped on Soundcloud.
It’s a rap song titled Leaving Labor posted by the Australian Liberal Party. I’ll leave the rest to your imagination, but it appears to be an attempt to capitalise on the hype around the Kendrick Lamar and Drake beef.
Without embarrassing myself by getting into the weeds of that feud, I think it’s safe to say that Lamar is widely understood to have come out on top (see: Superbowl half-time performance and Grammy). And yet, the Libs track art seems to be referencing Drake’s Certified Lover Boy album. A choice.
We await with dread a Labor response.
Good day for…
First home buyers, who are being eagerly showered with promises by both major parties as the election hovers on the horizon.
Bad day for…
Independent MP Monique Ryan, whose answer to the question of whether influencer content has been paid for by politicians should be clearly marked as such gave the Albanese-Plibersek non-kiss a run for its money on awkwardness.
Watch the exchange on Insiders for yourself.
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What to watch out for
The treasurers will go head to head in a televised debate on ABC’s 7.30 program tonight.
Where pollies have been
Catch up on today’s stories
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