LIVE: Election campaign 2025 – Labor under fire for refusing to condemn candidate’s ‘inappropriate’ comment about the late Pope

Two senior Labor ministers have refused to criticise a candidate who accused the late Pope of giving ‘ongoing support for pedos’.

Helen Madell, the Labor candidate in the Queensland seat of Flynn, has deleted former tweets in which she responded to a post about Pope Francis’s visit to Iraq in March 2021.

‘Don’t know how he (Pope Francis) can promote common values. I hope no one else embraces the value of ongoing support of pedos,’ Ms Madell wrote.

In another tweet, the Labor hopeful claimed the Pope needed to ‘tidy his own backyard before parading peace’.

‘No peace for those poor victims of abuse at the hands of the “righteous”,’ she wrote.

‘But with open arms he greets pedo (Cardinal) Pell.’

This is despite Pope Francis previously acknowledging that too little too late had been done for the victims of paedophile priests.

‘The heart-wrenching pain of these victims, which cries out to heaven, was long ignored, kept quiet or silenced,’ the Pontiff said in a statement in 2018.

Ms Madell (pictured, below) has subsequently deleted the posts, claiming that she ‘perhaps didn’t choose my words perfectly’.

Defence Minister Richard Marles refused to condemn Ms Madell’s posts on Tuesday night, commenting instead that it was a ‘very difficult day’ for Catholics across the world.

On Sunrise, host Nat Barr asked Housing Minister Clare O’Neil twice whether she would condemn the comments and she refused.

‘This is a person who has counselled child sexual abuse victims,’ Ms O’Neil responded.

‘She’s seen firsthand some of the damage that’s been done to families and communities and she made some intemperate comments five years ago.

‘I think if we’re counting anyone who’s ever said anything intemperate, most people in Australia will never be able to sit for Parliament.’

Liberal Senator Jane Hume, who was also on the program, asked the Labor frontbencher if she would disavow the comments.

‘You wouldn’t even condemn the comments, though, Clare?’, Senator Hume asked.

‘They really are inappropriate, particularly at the time we’re going through right now, and they’re completely at odds with the views of the Prime Minister.’

But the Housing Minister refused to back down.

‘These are things that she wrote on Twitter five years ago. These are not things that she said yesterday, when the world’s in mourning for someone who’s been a very important leader for the Catholic Church,’ she said.

‘I know in politics, it’s common for big ruckuses to be started about these things. The honest situation is this is a person who wrote some things that she now regrets, five years ago on Twitter.’

Ms O’Neil suggested that Senator Hume would also have said things in the past that she now regrets.

But Senator Hume shot back: ‘I don’t accuse people of being paedophiles.’

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has admitted he doesn’t know the name of the Greens candidate who he is up against in his seat of Grayndler.

The Greens are fielding Hannah Thomas for the electorate in Sydney’s inner west, a former international student and lawyer who grew up in the area.

Ms Thomas has been vocal over her support for Palestine, and her comments calling for Mr Albanese’s government to sanction Israel over the war in Gaza were featured in The Australian.

‘Why is The Australian determined to give the Greens such profile?’ Mr Albanese said.

‘It’s rather strange, I’ve got to say. I wouldn’t have been able to tell you had of asked me who the candidate was.

‘Last time ran in this seat, I won on primaries. That’s why the system works. I got more than 50 per cent of the vote.

‘I look forward to people voting number one for me and then filling in all the numbers to make sure it’s a formal vote.

‘I don’t intend to promote the name of the candidate of the Greens Party and I’m surprised that the Australian is determined to promote them.’

This is despite the PM directing voters to put Ms Thomas second on the ballot paper.

Peter Dutton said he is standing by a plan to change the Australian citizenship test to include questions about anti-Semitism.

The Opposition Leader also told reporters he would re-vet the 2,000-odd immigrants who have come to Australia from Gaza.

‘We will take advice and conduct proper security checks,’ Mr Dutton told reporters on Wednesday.

He was also asked if he would recognise West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, as his former party leader Scott Morrison did in 2018.

Four years later, Labor reversed the decision – and Mr Dutton has signalled that he will change it back.

A spokesperson for Mr Dutton later clarified that his position was the same as that outlined by Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister David Coleman last month.

‘When Labor announced its shambolic decision in 2022, the Coalition expressed its strong opposition and affirmed that our position remained that West Jerusalem is the capital of Israel,’ Mr Coleman said.

‘This continues to be our position.’

Pauline Hanson’s One Nation and the Liberal National Coalition have reportedly decided to preference one another – ending a 30-year-old deadlock.

One Nation has rewritten its how to vote cards, urging the party’s supporters to mark the Coalition candidate as their second preference on May 3.

The Coalition has returned the favour, encouraging Aussies to back One Nation candidates as their second preference in many House of Representatives seats.

It means that in the 139 of the 147 seats where One Nation is running a candidate, the Coalition will recommend that its voters put One Nation second.

‘If it means saving Peter Dutton by shifting a “how to vote”, then we will do so,’ One Nation chief of staff James Ashby told The Daily Telegraph.

Senator Hanson founded One Nation after being disendorsed by the Liberal Party in 1996.

In 2001, John Howard said One Nation should be put ‘last’ in every seat.

Senator Hanson is not up for re-election next week but her colleague Malcolm Roberts is.

Peter Dutton has turned his attention to national security as the Coalition lags in polls.

The Opposition leader will announce an extra $12billion towards defence in the budget over the four-year forward estimates.

This will bring military spending to 2.4 per cent of the country’s GDP with another $9billion to be allocated by 2030.

Under Labor’s policies defence spending will reach 2.36 per cent of GDP by 2034.

The Coalition’s pledge includes $3billion to acquire another 28 F-35 joint strike fighter jets, which had been scrapped by Labor as part of a defence budget reshuffle.