2 weeks Ago By Dominique Tassell, Dominic Giannini and Poppy Johnston
Labor ‘s Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek has blamed an “awkward moment” with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at Sunday’s Labor election campaign launch on health concerns. As Albanese was leaving the launch, he passed by Plibersek and other politicians. He can be seen grabbing hands with other politicians before Plibersek holds out her arms and leans forward for a hug and kiss.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Plibersek’s awkward moment with the PM. Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today Rather than leaning in for the embrace, the PM clasped hands with Plibersek. Sunrise presenter Nat Barr asked Plibersek about the interaction on Monday morning, as Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce chuckled, clearly enjoying the awkwardness of the moment.
“It looks like you’re going in for the hug,” Barr said. “He’s kind of just grabbed your hands, done the awks thing where he’s done the double shake. Was that a bit awks? What happened there?” Plibersek acknowledged that going in for a hug was a faux pas.
“Do you know what? I reckon we should still all be elbow bumping because during an election campaign, the last thing you want is to catch a cold from someone. So that’s on me. I should have done the elbow bump, I reckon.
” There is no bad blood between the two Labor politicians, Plibersek maintained. Labor, Coalition announce housing policies at election campaign launch events At Labor’s launch, Albanese announced a $1000 instant tax write-off for work expenses, meaning people won’t need receipts for claims under that amount. He further pledged 100,000 homes will be built solely for first homebuyers and the expansion of a program that would let the buyer get a mortgage with only a five per cent deposit as the government goes guarantor.
Running through a laundry list of what his government had done since taking office three years ago, Albanese urged voters to trust a steady hand to weather economic headwinds. “That is why we seek a second term, not because we think the job is done but because we know there is still so much work to do,” he said. The prime minister used his speech to paint opposition leader Peter Dutton as Trump-lite, saying the coalition had borrowed the US president’s populist policies.
“Why on Earth would we try to mimic anywhere else?” he said. “Australia didn’t copy the idea of a decent minimum wage from anywhere else in the world, we created it here. We didn’t steal the idea of universal superannuation from somewhere else, we made it here.
” “That is the Australian way, that is the Labor way and that is the choice I’m asking the Australian people to make.” Dutton centred his pitch around restoring the Australian dream of home ownership as he branded the 2025 election “a sliding doors moment for our country”. “When Australians have heard me say that I want to be the prime minister for home ownership, for home affordability, for home accessibility, I mean it,” he said.
“Australians, let’s make sure that we can get this great country that we love back on track.” A first-home buyer with a taxable income of $120,000 and a $650,000 mortgage at 6.1 per cent interest would be about $12,000 better off a year, the coalition said.
Under its $10 billion tax plan, eligible taxpayers earning up to $144,000 a year would be in line for a rebate when they lodge their return for the upcoming financial year. Greens leader Adam Bandt said cracking down on investor tax handouts and capping rents were the real solutions to the nation’s housing affordability woes. “Labor tinkers while prices soar, the Liberals will send prices even higher,” he said.
The major parties decided to make things official earlier than usual in a bid to stay in public view ahead of a slew of public holidays for Easter and Anzac Day. The election will be held on May 3..
