Federal election 2025 live: Anthony Albanese to announce rebate to boost reef education and sustainable tourism

Jacinta Nampijinpa Price also joined ABC’s Radio National Breakfast this morning, where she was asked how the Coalition’s planned cuts to the public service would work.

The shadow minister for government efficiency emphasised an audit would take place, saying there were “obvious areas” she would like to cut in her portfolio.

More broadly, she could not say which departments could be in the Coalition’s target. But she did say the opposition was “not talking about cutting whole departments, at this stage”.

“It’s about working along with my colleagues in their portfolios to understand the lay of the land within their portfolios,” she says.

“We won’t know until we’re in government exactly what the lay of the land looks like.”

Jim Chalmers and Angus Taylor have clashed in an evenly matched TV debate over the budget, productivity, Donald Trump’s trade war and their personal weaknesses.

The treasurer accused the Coalition of plotting a budget “ambush” with a secret plan to slash spending on par with the notorious 2014 budget.

Taylor said Labor had left the country weaker after three years, and failed to rebuild the fiscal “buffers” ahead of another looming global downturn.

It was the first of three TV debates between two men regarded as potential leaders of their parties.

Read the full breakdown of the debate from Jacob Greber 👇.

It’s been a busy morning for Richard Marles, who has just joined ABC’s Radio National Breakfast, where he says the PM hasn’t put in a request to speak with Donald Trump  since the tariffs were announced because he’s focused on the election. 

“We continue to advocate to the US through our system and through our representatives,” he says.

“Right now, the prime minister, as he should be, is very focused on the federal election and the conversation that he’s having and that we’re all having with the Australian people.”

It comes as the White House says that more than 70 countries have expressed an interest in negotiating over tariffs. Trump, more bluntly, has said that countries are “lining up to kiss his ass”.

The Coalition will set up a $20 billion Regional Australia Future Fund to finance childcare centres, health facilities, roads and other infrastructure in the regions.

It will also set up a Future Generations Fund, which can be used to pay down debt and finance infrastructure.

Any time you see the word “fund” in federal politics, it’s a hint that the money is “off budget”: Money goes into the fund, it is invested, and the dividends can be used over time, but it doesn’t come out of the “budget bottom line” we usually talk about.

So you can spend money without affecting the budget deficit, something that has been attractive to both sides of politics.

Labor has its social housing fund, its “rewiring the nation” energy fund, and its green manufacturing fund. The Coalition wants to repeal them all and now says it would do this instead.

And it has promised that it will top up the fund with 80 per cent of any budget windfall coming from higher commodity prices.

Our national regional affairs reporter Lucy Barbour is on the campaign trail with the Nationals and filed this report:

Defence Minister Richard Marles says the Australia-US security relationship is a “different thing” while rejecting a suggestion Canberra should reconsider pursuing a stronger military alliance under the Trump administration.

“I met with my counterpart more than a month ago now in Washington, and
had a really positive conversation about how we can walk forward together with the United States in terms of pursuing the alliance,” he told ABC’s News Breakfast. 

“It is a profoundly important defence relationship which really has
transcended administrations in Washington and for that matter governments in Canberra, and we will continue to pursue that because it’s very much in Australia’s interest, our national interest, to work closely in a security sense with the United States.”

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China’s ambassador to Australia, Xiao Qian, has used an op-ed in the Nine Newspapers this morning to call for Canberra and Beijing to “join hands” to resist Donald Trump. 

“Under the circumstances, China stands ready to join hands with Australia and the international community to jointly respond to the changes of the world,” he said.

“In the meantime, China is also committed to working with Australia to implement the strategic consensus reached by the leaders of our two countries.”

Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles says while he doesn’t want a trade war between the US and China, Australia is not going to make a “common cause” with Beijing.

“I don’t think we’ll be holding China’s hand,” he told Nine.

“Our focus is on actually diversifying our trade. We’re doing a lot more in South East Asia with countries like Indonesia, which is a massive potential market on our doorstep. We’re about to sign a new trade agreement with India. We’ve done one with the UAE, which is the gateway to the Middle East.

“We’ve doubled our trade with the UK over the last three years, so we’re really focused on how we can diversify our trade around the world. I think that’s that’s not only the lesson of this moment, that’s been the lesson of the last 5 or 10 years.

“And sure, we stabilised our relationship with China and that’s important. But fundamentally we’re about building our trade around.”

Former Australian ambassador to the United States Arthur Sinodinos says he isn’t surprised the president Donald Trump has ordered a 90-day pause to his hefty tariffs.

“This provides a breathing space … Something had to be done, given the circumstances,” he told ABC’s News Breakfast. 

“The administration can’t afford too many deals because that would undermine the protective effect of what they’re seeking to do.”

Asked what Australia can do to secure an exemption, Sinodinos said our free trade agreement with the US meant we did not have much to offer.

“We don’t levy tariffs on 97 per cent of products between Australia and the US. We can talk about critical minerals and areas where maybe we can do more together,” he says.

The PM has already ruled a red line through changes  to Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and Australia’s biosecurity laws.

“It would be pretty big policy changes if they were put on the table and I don’t think the government or the opposition are minded to do that in this context,” Sinodinos says.

The dramatic turn in Donald Trump’s tariff plan is likely to feature heavily in the election campaign today, as both sides of politics argue they are best placed to deal with the global fallout of the US president’s moves.

Trump’s tariffs have loomed large over this election campaign and in the lead-up, with the prime minister continually pressed on what Australia has been doing to secure a carve out.

This pause is unlikely to impact Australian exporters subject to that baseline 10 per cent figure, but if a full-scale US-China trade war erupts, the impacts on the global economy would be monumental.

We can expect the prime minister to be questioned about this today as he has been throughout the campaign. He has largely stuck to the same line on this — that Australia will continue to negotiate with the United States, certainty is key at a time of global uncertainty, and that tariffs are a form of economic self-harm for the US.

Anthony Albanese will spend the morning in Far North Queensland, where Labor’s making a play for the seat of Leichhardt.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton will spend his morning in Melbourne — his third visit to the city since the beginning of the campaign.

Dutton revealed on ABC Radio yesterday evening he had stayed in Sydney even as his campaign group had moved on.

He will rejoin it today, with Victoria being a must-win state for the Coalition to have any chance of securing majority government.

The Coalition wants to break Labor’s “red wall” of states that encloses Melbourne — and since it holds less than a quarter of Victoria’s 39 seats on offer, there is plenty of opportunity for the party.

Dutton’s previous visits have taken him twice to McEwen — a semi-rural seat just north of the city and a growth area with a number of new housing developments popping up. He’s used his visits there to highlight his desire to “restore the dream of home ownership” for young Australians.

McEwen may be lucky to receive a third visit again today — but there are a number of seats the Coalition views as winnable around Melbourne that Dutton is yet to visit.

They include Aston in Melbourne’s east, which the party lost in a by-election but expects to reclaim, Dunkley on the Mornington Peninsula, the inner-city seats of Kooyong and Goldstein that fell to independents in 2022, and Calwell in the north neighbouring McEwen, where a long-serving Labor MP is retiring.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will spend the morning in Far North Queensland, where Labor’s making a play for a key seat.

Labor holds just five of 30 seats in Queensland, and sees little opportunity to gain many more.

But it has a few in its sights, and one of them is Leichhardt.

With the retirement of popular Liberal MP Warren Entsch, Labor sees this as their best chance to gain the seat.

Albanese will today announce a new $10 million fund aimed at protecting and promoting the Great Barrier Reef.

The money includes $6 million for a “Kids for the Reef” rebate program for subsidised school excursions, so kids can see the wonders of the reef firsthand and learn about its ecological importance.

It’s the prime minister’s third trip to Queensland so far this election campaign.

US President Donald Trump has announced a 90-day pause on “reciprocal” tariffs that had just been placed on imports from dozens of countries.

That means all countries, except China, will now be subject to the same “baseline” 10 per cent tariff rate, rather than the additional rates announced by the president at “Liberation Day” last week.

Australia was already subject to the 10 per cent baseline tariff and its position was not changed by Trump’s announcement.

If you’re interested in more, our friends at the business blog have all the market reaction for you.

Welcome to our coverage of day 13 of the federal election campaign.

Courtney Gould from the ABC’s Parliament House team here and ready to take you on the road. Our reporters on the campaign buses, Stephanie Dalzell and Jake Evans, will be dropping in shortly to give you an update on where our leaders are this morning.

But don’t be surprised if the shadow of Donald Trump once again looms large over the day, given he’s just announced he’ll temporarily lower tariffs for dozens of nations (more on that also shortly).

You can follow full coverage of the 2025 Australian federal election on ABC iView including full episodes of Insiders, Afternoon Briefing, Q+A and 7.30.

The sun is up and so are we, so let’s get blogging!

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