Australia news live: Peter Dutton claims Coalition has ‘acted like a government’ while in opposition at Melbourne rally

Dutton flagged an increase in military spending “at speed and scale” so Australia could “play our part as a credible partner in promoting peace through strength.”

And in the first days of a Coalition Government, I will call the Prime Minister of Israel to mend the relationship that Labor has trashed.

Dutton also appeared to suggest a crackdown against pro-Palestinian protesters, saying that where a person has engaged in inciting or committing violence, citizens will “face the full force of the law” and those in Australia on visas will be deported.

It was not clear what standard would be used to make that assessment.

A Dutton Coalition Government will develop national uniform knife laws, toughen bail laws, and introduce tougher penalties to prevent coercive control.

Most importantly, we will provide the moral and political leadership needed to restore law, order and justice.

And that’s about it.

Dutton blames Albanese for rise in antisemitism

Dutton spent considerable time discussing a series of crimes that he charges the Labor government has allowed to “surge”.

Specifically, Dutton sought to charge Anthony Albanese with overseeing a rise in antisemitism.

Every incident of antisemitism can be traced back to the prime minister’s dereliction of leadership in response to the sordid events on the steps of the Sydney Opera House.

Antisemitism should have been stopped there and then.

This government is so morally confused it treats our ally, Israel, like an adversary.

Moreover, its push for Palestinian statehood at this time would reward Hamas’s use of terrorism to achieve political ends.

Dutton was referring to an incident where it was alleged pro-Palestinian protesters shouted antisemitic slogans on the steps of the Opera House in the days after 7 October 2023. These allegations could not be verified by police, who ultimately found there was “no evidence” this occurred.

Touching once again on the subject of the failed voice to parliament referendum, Dutton said his government would “focus on practical action for Indigenous Australians”.

Unpacking this, he said it would begin with “a full audit into spending on Indigenous programs”.

Dutton also pledged to reintroduce the Cashless Debit Card for working-aged people in Indigenous communities “in consultation with communities”.

He also promised a law and order crackdown in “crime-heavy communities” and a royal commission into sexual abuse in Indigenous communities.

Separately, Dutton said AI and automation will become new areas of the economy.

On healthcare, Dutton accused Labor of restarting the “Mediscare” campaign.

He said the Coalition would aim to grow the GP workforce, providing more incentives for junior doctors to train in general practice and a review of the Medicare and the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme that he says will result in cheaper and new medicines for women.

Dutton also said the Coalition would increase the number of Medicare-subsidised psychological sessions from 10 to 20 “on a permanent basis”.

Dutton pledges immigration cuts and two-year ban on foreigners purchasing homes

On migration, Dutton accused Labor of having “opened the floodgates” and pledged that the Coalition will impose a two-year ban on foreign investors and temporary residents purchasing existing homes.

Dutton said a Coalition government would also reduce the permanent migration program by 25% for two years, from 185,000 to 140,000 places.

In years three and four, we will return to a sustainable 150,000 and 160,000 places.

He also said the Coalition would seek stronger caps on international students as part of a broader plan to “free up more than 100,000 homes over five years”.

This is part of a $5bn plan to build water, power, sewerage and access roads for 500,000 homes the Coalition wants built.

Another key Coalition proposal will be a plan to allow Australians to draw up to $50,000 of their super to buy their first home.

On nuclear power, Dutton repeated many of his previous lines on the subject, including:

Nuclear power allows us to maximise the highest yield of energy per square metre and minimise our environmental footprint.

The Coalition’s push to have Australia join the growing league of nuclear-powered nations is one of the most visionary policies put forward in our country’s history.

It’s time to dispense with short-termism and shore up our energy security for generations to come.

The decision to promote nuclear power and to hold the campaign rally in the Labor-held marginal seat of Chisholm is a feature of the Coalition’s efforts to forge a “blue-blue” political coalition between Australian conservatives and working-class voters.

Dutton pledges to repeal climate and industrial relations reforms

A re-elected Coalition government would “re-energise the economy” by “ripping up as much red and green tape as possible”, Peter Dutton told the Melbourne rally – words that echo US president-elect Donald Trump’s “drill, baby, drill” energy policy that is expected to abandon climate commitments and hand fossil fuel producers free rein.

Dutton emphasised the Coalition’s key policies in the area, including a promise to defund the environmental defenders’ office and a plan to “slash resource approval timeframes in half”.

When more excavators dig, when more trucks move, when more gas flows, there’s more tax revenues and royalties.

The opposition leader also promised to increase the instant asset write-off to $30,000 and make the arrangement ongoing.

On industrial relations, Dutton committed the Coalition to “revert to a simple definition of a casual worker” and to “curtail union militancy in workplaces” that would effectively wind back Labor’s industrial relation reforms.

Dutton also promised that the Coalition will “ramp up” domestic gas production as part of a broader push to pursue a nuclear power industry.

More immediately, we will ramp up domestic gas production to get power prices down and restore stability to our grid.

Over the longer term, we will place the latest zero-emission nuclear technologies on the sites of seven retiring coal-fired power plants.

We will have a balanced energy mix of renewables, gas, and ultimately nuclear to replace coal.

Taxpayer money ‘must be spent prudently’, Dutton says

Dutton says a future Coalition government will stop “wasteful spending” to spend this money on areas such as defence, health, the NDIS and aged care.

But taxpayer money must be spent prudently – especially in hard times.

He also pointed to the traditional Coalition focus of new infrastructure, resources and agriculture – and Aukus, which he said had the “potential to foster a new arm of our economy”. This appeared to be an oblique reference to nuclear power.

In another rerun of the Coalition classics, Dutton also promised “lower, simpler, fairer taxes” and to protect “Australians’ retirement savings from unfair new taxes” without specifying how or what those new taxes are.

On supermarket prices, Dutton said the Coalition would deter the big grocery chains from “undermining competition and ripping of customers and farmers”.

Dutton pledges to cut government spending, says rebates and subsidies simply ‘mask’ problems

Over the course of the speech, Dutton repeatedly said he was about to outline the Coalition’s election priorities, but spent more time attacking. Listeners were forced to wait until the bitter end for these details:

We will fight cost-of-living pressures.

We will build a stronger economy.

And we will cut government waste.

Let me by clear: government is living beyond its means. It’s spending what it can’t afford.

Dutton then suggested the Coalition would cut back on government spending – a familiar commitment to austerity economics that previous Coalition governments have endorsed in principle.

I know things like energy bill rebates and student debt subsidies help, but while providing temporary relief, such expenditure doesn’t address the underlying problems – it just masks them.

Dutton says ‘optimism has turned to pessimism’ under Albanese

Dutton said the Coalition’s time in opposition this last three years has given the Australian people a chance to get to know him – and his set of beliefs.

These include “[preserving] the innocence of childhood and nurture young minds in a responsible way”; “egalitarianism” that involves “judging people by the content of their character”, and in pushing back on identity politics; “individual freedom and the rule of law”; and that “the main sources of enterprise and wealth creation are businesses and industries – not governments”.

Australians are best served by smaller government which gets off their back, supports free enterprise, and rips up regulation.

Dutton went on to claim that “optimism has turned to pessimism” under the leadership of Anthony Albanese and warned against an outcome where “green teals or extreme Greens hold the balance of power” – foreshadowing the kind of rhetoric that Australians will witness during this campaign.

Dutton claims Coalition acting ‘like a government in opposition’ at Melbourne rally

Peter Dutton continued his speech by retelling his origin story, framing himself as the son of a working-class family, his mum a secretary and his dad a bricklayer, with five children. He says that he worked odd jobs, including a paper route and later at a butcher, that helped him buy his first house at 19.

He then recounted his time as a police officer in Queensland.

Dutton counted among his achievements his efforts that “removed all children from detention” as immigration minister, the resettlement of 4,000 Yazidis, and a “pivotal role in establishing Aukus”.

On the failed voice to parliament referendum, Dutton said the Coalition’s prosecution of the no case “helped defeat our nation’s most divisive referendum”.

With Labor acting like an opposition in government, we’ve acted like a government in opposition – especially in cleaning up their immigration shambles.

Dutton claims Liberals ‘back in town’ at Melbourne rally

Dutton speech expected to argue Australia ‘less safe’

As we wait for news out of the Liberal party’s Melbourne rally, the Nine papers appear to have been dropped an excerpt of Peter Dutton’s speech.

The Nine papers report that the speech, to be delivered in the Labor-held electorate of Chisholm in Victoria, will see Dutton pitch his party as the only solution to “reverse the decline” of Australia.

Dutton will outline the Coalition’s priorities of cost of living, migration reform, nuclear power and housing affordability and is expected to emphasise questions of safety.

He is expected to say:

Our country is less safe. Our society is less cohesive. For so many Australians, aspiration has been replaced by anxiety. Optimism has turned to pessimism. And national confidence changed to dispiritedness.

Without Scott Morrison to hate on, can teals deal a blow to the Coalition this election?

Intense anti-Scott Morrison sentiment and frustration with Coalition inaction on climate change, integrity and the treatment of women fuelled the teal wave that crashed through Liberal heartland at the 2022 federal election.

Now with Morrison gone, Labor in power and cost of living the most pressing issue in the electorate, the independents confront a very different political landscape.

Byron Fay, the executive director of the Climate 200 fundraising vehicle that backs the campaigns, acknowledges the “headwinds” facing independents in 2025.

But Fay insists there are “tailwinds”, too – a set of factors fuelling optimism that the movement might not only retain but expand its presence in Canberra.

The first, he says, is the track record of the incumbents: the performance of teals Zali Steggall, Allegra Spender, Zoe Daniel, Kylea Tink, Sophie Scamps, Kate Chaney, Monique Ryan and other crossbenchers like Andrew Wilkie, Rebekha Sharkie, Helen Haines and David Pocock.

The second is the ongoing erosion in the major party vote, a decades-long trend now approaching a tipping point that would redefine the political system in Australia.

People are not liking what they’re seeing from the duopoly and as a result the major party vote is in systemic decline.

For more on this story, read the full report by Guardian Australia’s Dan Jervis-Bardy:

Dutton to make first public appearance of the year at Melbourne campaign rally

Regulator finds ‘inadequate’ safety protocols at NSW aerial firefighting operator

Poor safety practices and an “organisational failure” have plagued the company that runs New South Wales’s firefighting fleet, according to a report from the aviation safety regulator obtained under freedom of information.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports the regulator has delivered a scathing assessment of Coulson Aviation after an investigation into the crash of a tanker aircraft during a firefighting campaign in Western Australia in 2023.

According to the report, obtained by the SMH under freedom of information, the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (Casa) said the company’s review of its own safety provides were “inadequate”, meaning potential hazards were overlooked and “contributing factors that could have led [to] a repeat incident or accident” were ignored.

Coulson Aviation said the company has addressed the issues raised by Casa.