Australia election 2025 live: PM says ‘we do not want Russian influence’ in region amid reports Moscow wants to base aircraft in Indonesia
‘We do not want Russian influence’ in region: Albanese
Pressed further on the government’s position on the issue, Albanese says:
We are seeking further information, we obviously do not want to see Russian influence in our region, very clearly.
We have a position, which is we stand with Ukraine, we regard Vladimir Putin as an authoritarian leader who has broken international law, that is attacking the sovereignty of the nation of Ukraine.
He ends the press conference there.
Key events
Josh Butler
Albanese’s campaign looks to have wrapped for the day, after finishing up a visit to a social housing project in Cooper, in Melbourne’s north.
Both Albanese’s seat visits today, earlier in Lyons (Tasmania) and now in Melbourne, were in Labor-held seats. The Greens are mounting a strong challenge in Cooper and Lyons has its current member Brian Mitchell retiring.
The Guardian Essential poll today put Labor at an election-winning 53-47 lead; similar numbers to Nine’s Resolve poll today.
It means Albanese can afford to do a bit of sandbagging of seats. Dutton started the campaign well behind on the parliamentary scoreboard, and seems to be falling further behind on the polls, so he needs to make some serious moves – and quick.
Whereas Albanese has the luxury of leading from the front.
The PM is, though, now in the territory of needing to appear like he’s not just coasting or cruising, or of not taking his foot off the pedal. Hubris with half a campaign still left is not the ticket.
Putin ‘not welcome in our neighbourhood’, Dutton says
Peter Dutton is asked what his message to Vladimir Putin is:
My message to president Putin that he’s not welcome in our neighbourhood.
We don’t share any values with President Putin, and we do not want a presence, a military presence, from Russia in our region, which would be destabilising for south-east Asia.
Dutton says Australia has an “excellent relationship” with Indonesia, and he’s met with the president, Prabowo Subianto, when he was Indonesia’s defence minister, and as president-elect.
Dutton adds: “Prabowo is a good friend of Australia. He’s got many good friends here in the Australian defence force.”
Dutton: ‘catastrophic failure’ if Wong and Albanese didn’t know about reports of Russia’s request
Peter Dutton is standing up at the same time, and is also responding to reports of a request by Russia to base several long-range aircraft in Indonesia.
Dutton says Albanese and Penny Wong should have been warned about the request before it was made public.
This would be a catastrophic failure of diplomatic relations if Penny Wong and Anthony Albanese didn’t have forewarning about this before it was made public. This is a very, very troubling development.
The prime minister and the foreign affairs minister should have the depth of relationship with Indonesia to have had forewarning of this.
The opposition leader says he wants to see what efforts the government has taken in response, and attacks Labor for pulling funding out of defence. That claim has been disputed by Labor who say they are increasing funding by $50bn over the next decade.
Dutton says he’s sought a briefing from the government.
‘We do not want Russian influence’ in region: Albanese
Pressed further on the government’s position on the issue, Albanese says:
We are seeking further information, we obviously do not want to see Russian influence in our region, very clearly.
We have a position, which is we stand with Ukraine, we regard Vladimir Putin as an authoritarian leader who has broken international law, that is attacking the sovereignty of the nation of Ukraine.
He ends the press conference there.
Albanese says government seeking ‘proper clarification’ on Russia’s reported Indonesia request
To questions, the first is to the PM on reports of Russia’s military request to Indonesia. Albanese says the government is “seeking further information” from Indonesia.
We are ascertaining, having a look at those reports, as the foreign minister and defence minister have said. We have a good relationship with our friends in Indonesia, and we’re seeking further clarification.
He’s asked a few times for more information on what the government knows, but he only replies: “I’ve answered the question. I can’t answer it any different way.”
But probed again, he says the government will respond in “an appropriate way”.
What we’re seeking is proper clarification. That’s the way you deal with international relations, making sure that you’re not flying from the hip. What we didn’t do when the United States made its decision on tariffs was question our defence relationship with the United States … We’ll respond in an appropriate way.
Clare O’Neil says Littleproud should apologise for ‘chihuahua’ comments about Labor MP
The housing minister, Clare O’Neil, has called on Nationals leader David Littleproud to apologise for his comments comparing Labor MP for Bendigo, Lisa Chesters, to a “chihuahua”.
Littleproud told reporters at a press conference Chesters had “as much pull as a chihuahua” in the Labor party.
O’Neil said the comment “tells us everything about the Liberals and the Nationals”.
The fact that we are in an environment where a leading male politician in our country thinks that it’s appropriate to compare a female MP to a dog, I just think that tells us everything about where the Liberals and the Nationals are trapped. I thought that we would move beyond this as a country. But this is a person vying to be deputy prime minister of our nation … They don’t respect women and they don’t preselect women.
Anthony Albanese speaking in Melbourne
In the spirit of keeping all political messages under the one roof for today (so to speak), Anthony Albanese is standing up again today at a housing estate.
He’s again backing in the government’s big-spending housing plan, promising 100,000 new homes for first home buyers, and allowing first home buyers to access the 5% deposit scheme.
He’s with the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, and housing minister, Clare O’Neil.
Albanese’s pitch is “under Labor there will be more homes and smaller deposits”, and is spruiking the development behind him.
This was one home. It’s been converted into three one-bedroom dwellings with energy efficiency that will be as cheap to run as is possible.
He says that includes running on renewable energy, and installing in proper insulation.
Marles and Wong respond to reports Russia wants to base military planes in Indonesia
The deputy prime minister, Richard Marles, and foreign minister, Penny Wong, have responded to reports that Russia has requested to base several long-range aircraft in Indonesia.
UK military website Janes reported that Moscow lodged an official request with Indonesia to base its aircraft at the Manuhua air force base.
Marles said in a presser a little earlier that Indonesia has “not responded” to the request, and Australia is engaging with Indonesia.
I’d note at this point, Indonesia has not responded to this request. We will keep engaging with Indonesia in a way which befits a very close friend and a very close friendship between our two countries. We have been very focused on developing our bilateral relationship with Indonesia, including our bilateral defence relationship with Indonesia.
Wong, at a separate press conference, said she was “aware of the reports”, and the government is in the process of finding out more information.
We, as a government, have reached out to confirm those reports and to understand whether or not those reports are accurate and what the status of those requests from Russia are.
Josh Butler
Anthony Albanese has touched down in Melbourne. The campaign is off to a housing estate north of the city, in the Labor-held electorate of Cooper.
There should be a few cabinet ministers here, for a tour and press conference. The group will visit several new homes built with funding from the government’s social housing accelerator. Albanese spruiked this policy in an earlier press conference in Hobart.
More soon.
Natasha May
Finally, the health minister, Ryan Park, said he and the treasurer have already briefed the Massa family, whose advocacy has sparked the government to investigate the hospital after their two-year-old son’s death.
Joe Massa suffered a cardiac arrest and died in September after waiting three hours in the emergency department operated by private hospital provider Healthscope in a public-private partnership.
Last month the government announced “Joe’s law” currently before parliament to ban future privatisation of public acute hospitals.
Park said:
We are attempting to right the wrong of privatisation in our public health system. We’re attempting to right a wrong of making sure that we’re putting profits before people’s care.
We are now in a situation where this team, high level, strategic team, will start that attempt to try and bring that hospital component back in to public hands.
… It won’t be done in any way, shape or form, to try and hand over millions of dollars in money to an organisation that really, to be blunt, and doesn’t need it and doesn’t deserve it.
Natasha May
Following from our last post…
Mookhey said there are two barriers in the process – the distressed financial position of Healthscope and any attempt by any of the private corporate players to see windfall gains out of the process.
It is no secret that Healthscope is in a distressed position, that Brookfield itself is trying to divest themselves of this company, and that there are a variety of banks and other interested parties that are participating in that process.
We note that this request that we received from the company last week coincides with the sale timetable, and what we are making very clear is we want to know who precisely will be in control of this hospital and this company when we are having to have complex conversations about reversing this privatisation disaster.
We are making it very clear that the pace around which these negotiations can take place will turn on the speed in which the corporate control of health scope is resolved.
The second barrier that we are anticipating is if there’s any attempt from Healthscope, Brookfield, or any other party to try to get the New South Wales Government to buy out the next 13 years of their operations at this hospital, that’s a no goer… any attempt to get the New South Wales taxpayers to hand over 13 years of fictional profits is a windfall gain, and that will not be acceptable to the New South Wales Government.
Natasha May
Taskforce to develop policy options for NSW government to buy back Northern Beaches hospital
Stepping off the election trail briefly …
Further to the earlier post about the announcement a NSW taskforce will begin the process of returning the Northern Beaches hospital back to public ownership, the NSW treasurer and health minister have now given a press conference with further details.
The treasurer, Daniel Mookhey, has outlined the work the taskforce will be doing, starting with interrogating Healthscope – and its private equity owner Brookfield’s – compliance with the contract the previous government signed back in 2014.
The taskforce will then provide advice “whether or not any actions undertaken by Brookfield through their ownership to divest itself of assets – either at the Northern Beaches hospital or in the wider health group – is contributing to the financial pressure that that company is currently facing,” Mookhey said.
The taskforce will then develop policy options for the government.
It has already sought to meet with Healthscope and its leadership next week, and made requests for financial information, which is within the government’s rights under the previous Liberal government’s contracts.
We are beginning the process of financial due diligence on the hospital itself, and we will use that information in combination with publicly known information to determine precisely how it is that we are dealing with a company in a precarious financial state.
Benita Kolovos
Victorian Liberals rebuff Labor’s call to reject federal party’s nuclear plans
Victoria’s opposition leader, Brad Battin, has rebuffed calls from the deputy premier, Ben Carroll, to “get a spine” on nuclear power.
Carroll had urged Battin – who this morning distanced himself from the federal Coalition’s plans for a nuclear reactor in the Latrobe Valley – to come out and reject the plan altogether.
But at a press conference at parliament this afternoon, Battin returned to the lines he had previously used on the topic (and had approved by Peter Dutton):
Whatever happens after the federal election, we want to have a responsible and adult conversation about what happens with nuclear moving forward, but our priority is gas. So if we want to talk about growing a spine, we’ll ensure that we’ll have gas exploration available as soon as possible, because that’s when we need it.
Victorians can’t afford to continue to wait for a state government to implement the policies that should be there right now. If Ben Carroll wants to fix it – he’s the deputy premier, come out and get the exploration licences going.
Dutton fuels up again
Peter Dutton is back at it again, with a visit to petrol station number ten on the campaign trail.
He’s staying in the outer suburbs of Melbourne, where the Liberals are hoping to secure some strong swings, and pick up a few seats.
Gorton was held by former cabinet minister Brendan O’Connor, who has now retired, but was won by Labor in 2022 with a 10% margin.
Looks like there were also some bonus dog pats at this petrol station visit.
WA Greens reschedule Anzac day ‘Greens Party Party’
Emily Wind
The Greens have rescheduled their Anzac day party which garnered criticism from both major party leaders today.
The “Greens Party Party” in WA was promoted to fundraise for candidates Sophie Greer, running for the seat of Perth, and Senator Jordon Steele-John.
Greens WA co-convenor Chilla Bulbeck has released a statement:
The event originally scheduled for 25 April has been rescheduled. Sophie Greer will attend an Anzac Day service on that day, and she was always intending to do.
Albanese said in his press conference this morning in response to questions on the party, that “Anzac Day is a day of respect”, while Dutton called the event “completely inappropriate”.
