Key events
Dutton claims Anthony Albanese is ‘anti-WA’
Dutton pivots from a question about some issues with preselected candidates into an attack on Albanese.
Dutton says Albanese won’t be photographed with the Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, (who Albanese did a media event with on Monday) but that, somewhat conversely, Western Australians should know that far more popular premiers Mark McGowan and current leader Roger Cook were not running in the federal election. He said:
Anthony Albanese won’t be photographed now with Jacinta Allen in Victoria. They used to be joined at the hip and behind the scenes they are joined at the hip.
The prime minister’s been a leader of the left of the Labor party for his entire adult life and so when people see … the real Anthony Albanese, which I think they’re starting to see, they see somebody who is anti-WA, they see somebody who is not lived up to the promises that he’s made.
Teals ‘a con job’: Dutton
Dutton says a vote for the teals is a vote for the Greens, which is a vote for Albanese. A bit hard to get your head around but there it is.
He was asked: “Allegra Spender [is] paying social media influencers to promote her cause. Has she crossed a line?”
He responds:
Look, I just think when it comes to the whole teal movement the whole thing is a con job.
And that’s why people are now seeing through the teals, they’re Greens in disguise. And if you vote for a teal, you’re voting for a Green, which means you’re voting for Anthony Albanese.
The teals will only support Anthony Albanese in government. That’s the reality. So a Labor-Greens-teal government is a disaster for WA. It’s a disaster for the economy. It’ll mean interest rates go back up. And I just don’t think Australians can afford that.
Price is asked why she said she wanted to Make Australia Great Again, and whether it was a nod to Trump. She says:
If I said that, I don’t even realise I said that, but no, I’m an Australian and I want to ensure that we get Australia back on track. Absolutely.
Dutton is asked about the quote, and whether he also wants to MAGA. He says he “wants to get rid of a bad government”.
Dutton denies Andrew Hastie being kept away from campaign
Dutton is being pressed on whether Andrew Hastie, the Liberal MP for Canning, one of the most marginal seats in WA, is being deliberately kept away from the campaign.
Reporters ask whether this is because it was revealed this week that Hastie previously said women should not serve in ADF combat roles.
Dutton denies this, saying he saw a TikTok of Hastie “just yesterday”.
Price also says she attended Hastie’s campaign launch yesterday.
Dutton is trying to link the voice to bad economic decisions. It is not immediately clear what the link is.
I think people are starting to see through the lies of the Labor campaign and realise that it started with the voice, and then it went to bad economic decisions, and that has really hurt many parts of our country.
Opposition leader says treasurer ‘doesn’t know whether there’s a recession coming or not’
Dutton also speaks about how the Morrison government supported WA during the pandemic, before saying:
This prime minister, I think, is out of his depth. And the treasurer too, doesn’t know how to respond to the world’s circumstances at the moment, doesn’t know whether there’s a recession coming or not. They chop and change their position. But what Australians know is that we stand up for what we believe in, that we will fight for what we believe in.
Peter Dutton says voters ‘have not forgotten’ Albanese’s role in voice referendum
He starts by criticising Albanese for not making the country better in the past three years.
Dutton then says Australians “have not forgotten” that Albanese tried to “divide the country” with the voice referendum.
I’ll get back to some of Albanese’s comments, but Peter Dutton is also speaking live from Perth now. He is joined by Michaelia Cash and Jacinta Nampijinpa Price.
Asked about his confidence that Labor will hold seats in Western Australia, Albanese says it’s because his candidates are “guns”.
He draws a contrast between Labor’s candidates and a series of people who have been preselected by Liberal, including one he labels “a cooker”.
Albanese is asked about “nature positive” environment laws, which have been unpopular in WA:
Nature positive laws didn’t have a majority support in the Senate.
They’re not on the table, they’re off the table.
Nothing newsy in that, I’ve said it completely.
It was a regular love-in in Perth.
Albanese shares that he has known Cook for more than 40 years, after having first met over beers at a conference in 1984. He said:
I reckon there would have been pretty good odds we would have been breath-tested if we said we’d be back here today as prime minister and premier.
Cook welcomes Albanese as “a WA local” saying “Albo gets WA”.
Albanese says Labor will ‘back WA’
Albanese was with the WA premier, Roger Cook, and Perth MP Patrick Gorman.
Albanese started his comments to the media by praising Cook’s efforts in the state election last month.
Labor won several WA seats in 2022 that were seen as key in it wresting control from the Morrison government.
Albanese is appealing to a particularly strong WA sentiment – the idea they’re forgotten by the rest of the country:
We understand Australia isn’t just Kirribilli House, isn’t just the east coast … we need to represent the whole of Australia.
We need to make sure we back WA.
