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 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.