Coalition 'very serious' about cracking down on illicit tobacco trade — as it happened (2025)

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We will be back tomorrow bright and early.

In the meantime, you can check out the rest of today's online coverage at ourAustralia Votes page.

As voters get ready to cast pre-poll ballots on Tuesday, the image of Peter Dutton with a petrol hose in his hand will be at the top of their minds — but has he done enough to tell them who is he?

Politics Now podcast host Patricia Karvelas says he hasn’t.

“Peter Dutton's credentials on this or his image around this should be a no brainer. After this many years in the public sphere, it goes to, I think, some of the right-wing vote bleeding away from the coalition, to Peter Dutton still being in an introductory phase, even though we are now in what we've just started week four of the campaign. We think everyone's immersed in this really complex idea of who Peter Dutton is, but I just reckon people are still working it out”

Every vote counts and making an informed choice about what you want from the next federal election is important.

You can have your say on polling day but the ABC wants to ensure your concerns and questions are heard before May 3 by the people vying for your vote.

The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) is investigating what it says are illegal pamphlets distributed in an eastern Sydney seat.

The AEC says 47,000 unauthorised pamphlets have been sent out, in opposition to the Independent Member for Wentworth Allegra Spender.

A statement from the AEC says it's working on tracking down who has made them.

"TheAECtakes these matters very seriously and has worked quickly to identify and make contact the entity responsible for these pamphlets," the statement reads.

Spender has responded, addressing media in Sydney this afternoon. She also won't identify who has made the fliers, but says they allege she and her volunteers are antisemitic.

"This pamphlet spreads false, misleading and offensive claims about me," she said.

“These campaigns are clearly designed to ensure a win for the Liberal Party in Wentworth."

“I have faith that the AEC will get to the bottom of who is behind this document and hold them accountable."

Antisemitism has been a big election issue in Wentworth, because Australia's second biggest Jewish community lives within that seat. Some of the recent high profile antisemitic vandalism incidents have also happened in that electorate.

The Liberal candidate for the seat, Ro Knox, has campaigned hard on her party's commitment to addressing a rise in antisemitism.

Spender says tackling the issue is also her top priority.

Peter Dutton has made one last stop of the day to announce $300 million towards upgrading the Calder Freeway in Melbourne’s west.

He said it would be possible because (as previously announced) the Coalition will cancel more than $2 billion in federal funding for Victoria's Suburban Rail Loop (SRL) if it wins government.

Labor has recently announced the same funding for the Calder Freeway, meaning the upgrade is set to go ahead no matter who wins on 3 May.

That concludes Dutton’s fifth visit to Melbourne this campaign. This was a quick one. Seven hours, three stops.

The stops were in two “safe” Labor electorates: Dunkley and Gorton. But also in outer suburbs, which the Coalition is targeting.

When speaking today, Dutton was keen to talk about his promised fuel excise and anti-crime push ahead of early voting beginningtomorrow.

Peter Dutton was quoted in February of a sex offender register that, "We tried to push it when we were in government. The states largely weren't interested."

After today's announcement, Coleman was asked what's changed.

He says it's a disclosure scheme rather than a publically available register.

"It's about if a parent is concerned about perhaps someone who is involved with their kids in some way or in contact with their kids, they can go to the police and seek information about that person if that person does have any relevant convictions," he says.

"It's up to the police to determine whether or not that information should be provided."

Tim Costello, former CEO of World Vision and Baptist Minister has told Afternoon Briefing that churches have written to the Liberals and asked for no cuts to foreign aid.

Coleman is asked if that's something he can guarantee.

"We will have more to say about foreign aid in the days ahead," he says.

"It's a very important part of our foreign affairs policy.

"We spend about $5 billion a year on foreign aid. It's a substantial amount of expenditure.

"It's particularly crucial in our region, the Pacific, that's why we so significantly increased foreign aid to the Pacific so that by the time of our last budget prior to the 22 election, the funding of the Pacific was significantly more.

"The points of those church leaders are well made."

The government was unable to put up anyone to speak on the Afternoon Briefing panel today so it is just Shadow Foreign Minister David Coleman as the next guest.

He is asked why is there an obligation on the government to provide a briefing when Indonesia ruled out a Russian military presence.

"What Anthony Albanese is doing, that magician that says 'look over there, don't look at me'," he says.

"This is a really serious matter."

Patricia Karvelas asks: "If Indonesia rejected the plan, what are you going to achieve in the next two weeks? If you try to find out what may have happened in terms of deliberation which has been rejected what do you achieve?"

He deflects to Murray Watts' comments and says briefings were provided to the government back in the 2022 election campaign in relation to some foreign affairs issues.

Patricia Karvelas puts to him: "Even Malcolm Turnbull, he was the Prime Minister of your own side of politics, he says that if Indonesia ruled it out, having this played out publicly is not at all helpful."

"It's clearly incumbent upon the Government to provide a briefing on such a significant issue of national security," he says.

"If a Prime Minister will not answer a question for six days in a row, it's usually not a good sign."

He says he does not accept that it is not normal to provide a briefing during caretaker mode.

Finally, Turnbull is asked if he believes Dutton's case that his nuclear policy will be the best way to get to net zero.

"The nucelar proposition was always a bad policy idea," he replies.

"It takes far too long, costs far too much and it is continuous generation.

"Our big comparative advantage in Australia is solar and wind, but particularly solar. It's so cheap and getting cheaper.

"I think they thought it was smart politically.

"It has blown up in their face politically and that's partly because it was bad policy."

Patricia Karvelas asks: "You previously called Peter Dutton a thug. Do you stand by that?"

"I'm not going to repeat it but I expressed views about Peter as he has expressed about me," he says.

"I don't think either of us would qualify those at the minute. I'm not going to repeat them."

He is asked why he believes the Coalition is struggling if he believes the published opinion polls.

"I think, I mean, Dutton is an issue," he says.

"His personality, his perception of being close to Trump or Trump-like is clearly an issue.

" I was struck with how big a factor the nuclear policy of the Coalition has become. I saw one poll today that showed that was the largest turn-off of voters."

Turnbull is asked if he believes that Peter Dutton is right that a "Mediscare" campaign is being run again, much like during the 2016 election campaign.

"It I don't think it's as blatant as what happened in 2016," he says.

Turnbull says that Dutton has to "wear" his track record of being the Health Minister when Tony Abbott's government tried to introduce a co-payment to see a doctor.

"If I were him, I would have inoculated against that very comprehensively long before this campaign.

"This was inevitable, this was coming like Christmas.

"You should have anticipated it."

One of the major themes of the campaign trail emerges again when Turnbull is asked whether he thinks there's a reason to be concerned if briefing on Russia's relationship with Indonesia should be provided to the opposition.

"It's not normal to do briefings of this kind during caretaker," he says.

"We are less than two weeks out from polling day so no-one is going to be making any big changes so it's not normal to give a briefing so I can see why the opposition wants to talk the issue up politically but I'm not sure what the story is.

"The Indonesians have made it clear they are not going to provide a base to the Russians.

"That doesn't mean they won't provide them a base in the future."

He says he would be "astonished" if the Indonesians decided to base Russian aircraft at a military base.

In Queensland the Coalition has put One Nation second in 18 of the 30 seats.

Patricia Karvelas says it seems a huge departure from what has been a decades long steering away from putting One Nation higher.

But Malcolm Turnbull says he is not surprised by the shift on this.

"The LNP which is the combination of the Liberal and National parties in Queensland have always been very concerned about losing votes to their right," he says.

"To One Nation, to Bob Katter, to Parma. It's a signal really to, peace offering if you like to One Nation and hoping that One Nation will respond with referencing them number two also.

"It's just practical politics, politics is all about numbers and this is just pragmatism."

Turnbull is then asked about capital gains tax concessions.

"Well that would be... That's not just a third rail, it's a kryptonite third rail," he says.

"People say because the home, the homeowners residence is capital gains tax free, that encourages people to put more money, more capital into housing but nobody in their right political mind would ever make changes to that."

First Malcolm Turnbull is asked about Negative Gearing.

He is asked: "You've tweeted last week after the debate governments always model negative gearing - if you take the policy on its merits, do you believe it is something that would exert downward pressure on house prices?"

"Well it's always been modelled because it's a big tax concession," he says.

"So you've got to know how much it's costing you in revenue and so that's really the point I made."

"Most of the potential changes to the tax system are well understood and really it's important that governments keep an open mind but both sides have ruled out any changes to negative gearing as I understand it and so it is not going to be a matter of the next parliament."

He says when he was in government the conclusion was that: "While repealing negative gearing would certainly improve government revenue so the Treasury would be happy, we didn't believe it would have anything other than a very short-term effect of even then a negligible one on housing affordability."

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It was a very windy stop in St Kilda for the Prime Minister who announced $2.6m over four years for Street Side Medics, a free mobile GP service for people experiencing homelessness.

Albanese made the announcement and toured one of their buses in Josh Burn’s electorate of Macnamara.

Labor holds the seat with a 12.2% margin.

It may look comfortable on paper but it doesn’t tell the full story.

Last election the seat was a tight three-way contest.

The Greens' candidate this time is Sonya Semmens.

Benson Saulo is running for the Liberals.

The tightness of the contest means Macnamara will be determined by the order in which the three leading candidates finish.

The preference recommendation of who ever comes third will have a critical roll in decidingwhowins.

Federal Independent MP Andrew Wilkie spoke with News Breakfast this morning about reports he's had preliminary discussions with Labor about taking the Speaker's job.

Here's what he had to say:

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Greens SenatorSarah Hanson-Young, was in the seat of Sturt, South Australia.

Hanson-Young brought up how it was "disappointing" Labor wouldn't be doing more to stop gambling advertisements.

"The prime minister unfortunately intervened to stop changes to gambling laws, allowing gambling advertising to continue," Hanson-Young said.

"[It is ] hugely disappointing that the Labor Party does not have the guts to stand up to the gambling lobby and do what needs to be done .

"With the greens in the balance of power, we will force Labor to do what is needed.

"We know that it's time to end those insidious, dangerous gambling ads that are wrecking families and destroying people's lives, we need to stop them.

"The Greens have a plan to do that, banning gambling advertising across the board, just like we've banned tobacco advertising. It should be the same, but the Labor Party can't be trusted to do it on their own," Hanson-Young said.

To Port Sorell now where Federal Health Minister Mark Butler is spruiking more medicare urgent care clinics.

He has also anounced that re-elected Albanese Labor Government would deliver end-to-end medical training in Launceston at the University of Tasmania which means medical students can now complete their entire medical degree in Launceston.

Butler is asked about comments from a former head of the Australian Medical Association in Tasmania says that uregent care clinics don't reduce demand on emergency departments in hospitals. He is asked why he is investing in it.

"I've been talking to many of the 1.3 million patients who have gone through our urgent care clinics and the majority of them say if that clinic wasn't available to them or often their child, they would have gone to the hospital emergency department," he says.

He says in the areas that have urgent care clinics, there are hospitals reporting a reduction in category 4 and 5 presentations to their emergency departments.