The debate revealed little of note on policy but Dutton opened the door to extending his promised fuel excise cuts in an opening leaders’ debate of the election focused heavily on cost of living.
At the end of the night, of the 100 voters at the Sky News/Daily Telegraph People’s Forum, 44 went for the prime minister, 35 for the opposition leader and 21 remained undecided.
Dutton and Albanese traded blows tonight on education, housing, health and migration, mostly viewed through the lens of how their policies would impact families’ bottom lines.
Questions returned several times to the major parties’ headline cost of living measures: Labor’s smaller but permanent tax cut and the Coalition’s larger but temporary cut to fuel excise.
A common theme from audience members was why neither party would commit to both tax cuts. Of course, neither man budged.
Albanese said his government didn’t want to just provide temporary relief while Dutton said he didn’t want to “bake in” long-term spending.
But truck driver Ian seemingly had more luck convincing Dutton to extend the one-year 25¢ fuel tax cut he’s promised if elected to three or more years.
“Now my argument is that there are many ways in which we can provide support, including tax cuts, and we would reassess where we are as an economy, as a people, as a nation, in 12 months’ time, and if we needed to extend it, then we could do that,” Dutton said.
While Labor and the Coalition have matched each other in many policy areas in the early stages of the election campaign, the leaders kicked off the debate with very different rhetoric.
Albanese encouraged viewers to “look forward and seize the opportunities and build Australia’s future” while Dutton said Australians had “gone backwards” during a “tough three years” under Labor.
Response to Trump’s tariffs
Even at a time of immense global uncertainty, international affairs were touched on only briefly in the form of Donald Trump’s tariffs and Israel’s war in Gaza.
Albanese pledged to keep negotiating with the US leader, insisting Australia was “prepared” for the tariffs and “no country is better positioned to take advantage of the trade opportunities”. Dutton plugged the Turnbull government’s success in gaining an exemption from steel and aluminum tariffs and said if he was prime minister he would have the strength to “stand up against bullies”.
Questioned on Australia’s response to the war in Gaza, Albanese repeated his government’s consistent lines about wanting a ceasefire, all hostages released and a two-state solution. Dutton condemned Hamas’ October 7 attack and pivoted quickly to condemning “unaustralian” fire bombings and attacks on individuals closer to home.
