2 weeks Ago By Michaela Whitbourn
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of day 21 of the federal election campaign. Last night marked the second leaders’ debate, aired on the ABC, and our experts called it in Prime Minister Anthony Albanese ’s favour. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese couldn’t say when power prices would become cheaper.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said it wasn’t for him to say if climate change was making weather events worse. Federal politics report Natassia Chrysanthos dissects what the leaders didn’t say here . Thousands of teenagers would have more options to learn trades such as construction, plumbing and engineering during their senior school years under a Coalition plan to build a national network of vocational colleges to rebalance the education system towards skills.
The Coalition’s $260 million election pledge to build 12 new technical colleges for students in years 10 to 12 – its first major education investment of the campaign – signals the opposition’s approach to education will emphasise vocational training rather than pushing students into university. Peter Dutton on the campaign trail on Wednesday. Credit: James Brickwood Opposition Leader Peter Dutton will unveil the policy today, linking it to other Coalition commitments on skills and housing, as he pitches a vision for keeping students in education while training them to meet the country’s future needs, particularly in construction.
Read more here . We’re tracking Albanese and Dutton’s movements throughout the campaign. Both leaders ended day 20 of the campaign in Melbourne’s suburbs.
Albanese finished yesterday at a construction site in Forest Hill, while Dutton toured housing development in Wantirna. Our correspondents and photographers on the campaign trail will be updating us on the leaders’ movements throughout the day. Treasurer Jim Chalmers was out of the blocks early last night and declared last night’s leaders’ debate on the ABC “another decisive win for the prime minister”.
There was no live audience to make a call. But Chalmers said that “there’s a long way to go in this campaign, and we take no outcome for granted”. Treasurer Jim Chalmers joined the PM on the campaign trail on Wednesday.
Credit: Alex Ellinghausen “What you saw tonight was a very clear contrast between a calm and considered prime minister and a risky and reckless opposition leader,” he said at a press conference on Wednesday night. The first debate of the campaign, aired on Sky, was held on April 8 at a people’s forum in western Sydney. The live audience cast 44 of 100 votes in Albanese’s favour, while Dutton won 35 and 21 people remained undecided.
Chalmers was pressed on a number of issues that emerged as pressure points for Albanese during the debate, including when power prices might drop. “What we’ve seen in the last year, according to the OECD, is the lowest energy inflation in the developed world, and that’s ..
. partly because of the $300 energy bill rebate that Peter Dutton didn’t support,” Chalmers said. “We’ve made it really clear that when it comes to getting energy bills down .
.. we’re providing energy bill rebates at the front end, and we’re introducing more cleaner and cheaper energy into the system.
The alternative is these nuclear reactors, which will cost more and take longer and push electricity prices up.” While some economists dispute this, the Reserve Bank said in February last year that increases in wholesale energy costs were “expected to be dampened” by the first energy price relief plan. Hello and welcome to our live coverage of day 21 of the federal election campaign.
Last night marked the second leaders’ debate, aired on the ABC, and our experts called it in Prime Minister Anthony Albanese ’s favour. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese couldn’t say when power prices would become cheaper. Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said it wasn’t for him to say if climate change was making weather events worse.
Federal politics report Natassia Chrysanthos dissects what the leaders didn’t say here ..
