Finally election 2025 is on. Australia is going to polls on Saturday, May 3. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visited Governor-General Sam Mostyn’s residence in Canberra early in the morning today. At approximately 8.00am, he called a press conference and addressed the nation to inform that the government was in caretaker mode.
Not entirely unexpected move, this early morning announcement will drown anything appealable to Australians in last night’s reply by the Opposition leader Peter Dutton.
Although a lot has already been out in the media of what Peter Dutton and his shadow team plan to help Australians with the cost of living in a generation crisis like slashing fuel excise for a year by half which is already winning votes across Australia, the opposition leader shed more light on policies on housing, gas supply and migration.
“My intention is to make Australia a mining, agricultural, construction and manufacturing powerhouse again,” Peter Dutton told Australians last night.
“The revenue generated from these revised sectors will create more money to build new infrastructure, to fund health and education and, importantly, equip our defence forces.”
Peter Dutton also announced the Coalition will cut the permanent migration program by 25 per cent if elected on 3 May.
Current level of 185,000 will be cut by an estimated 46,000 places.
“Labor is neither in control of migration, nor has it kept migration at sustainable levels,” Peter Dutton added.
He claimed the plan will free up housing and “restore the great Australian dream of home ownership”.
Prime Minister Albanese on the other hand, was on to his old tricks of ‘Mediscare’ and also choked up remembering his mum’s visit to public hospital.
With absolute deference to his mother, I wonder if h has played this ‘humble background cards’ too many times. Today, when people are struggling to make ends meet, to put food on the table, to pay for their children’s education, to pay their power bills which have not gone down by net $275 as promised, and him buying a clifftop mansion for $4.3 million, to comfortably pay installments of around $15,000 per month from his very generous retirement pension, it is bound to work against him.
Albo’s performance as PM – a cynic’s view
As far his time in office, his first few months were spent on political honeymoon, interspersed with some ‘quality time’ (and rightly so) with his new found partner Jodie Haydon. Then his attention turned to the Voice referendum,
Although it was sold as the big promise made before the 2022 election, although, it was only to be found in the fine print of the political literature. To his utmost misfortune, it turned out to be the biggest failure of his life as a politician, particularly they way he brought it on and then handled it.
After the result, he would have realized, running a referendum is a bit different from the alleged backroom deals with Brittany Higgins and her then boyfriend and now husband David Sharaz to bring Morrison government down.
That took care of a good two years in office for him.
Then it was the proposal on Valentines Day 2024. Remember the pic on X (formerly Twitter) with caption “She said yes”?
She said yes ❤️ pic.twitter.com/aU1Mk2WInH
— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) February 14, 2024
“We are thrilled and excited to share this news and look forward to spending the rest of our lives together. We are so lucky to have found each other,” the couple said in a joint statement at the time.
And now they were officially engaged, it was on to the mansion hunting for the new bride to be. We saw a number of weeks invested into the hunt. The PM finally settled for a clifftop mansion. It was a good two and half year ‘long contribution’ to make.
They are set to get married once the election is out of the way.
All this time, while he was working hard, first for the party (because Labor promised the Voice referendum and hid the details from Australians at the last election) and then a bit for himself, he did work for the nation in his spare time, hosting an ASEAN meet here and attending an odd G20 there.
Then, it seems, his minders somehow managed to remind him that soon it would be time for ‘landing’, hustings in the political speak or having to go to election 2025.
And here we are.
The Age reports that Albanese views his government in strong position in the polls.
“If we are on 50-50 at the start of the campaign, that’s potentially an election-winning [majority] for a government,” the source recalled Albanese saying.
Is that not potentially election winning position for the Opposition as well?
What is the basis of the PM’s premise to claim the numbers will move downward only for the Opposition? Some people love to live in a fool’s paradise. I hope the PM is not one of them.
What’s on offer
Labor’s deferred $5 a week tax cut from 2026 and onward, for everyone, including the filthy rich Australians, is less than by what the cost of a hair-cut has gone up. I wonder if Canberra completely oblivious to the hurt that is out there for basic necessities for lower- and middle-income Australians. If you want to be seen as doing something for the needy, why would you not make any such giveaways means tested, to be effective and targeted, is anybody’s guess. If this is a bribe for election 2025, it will not work.
Instead, the Coalition’s halving the fuel excise is definitely a much better relief. With two cars running, it will save approximately $1500 per year starting from 1 July. With cheaper fuel prices, the real test for Peter Dutton will be to put measures in place to deliver its flow-on effect on basic necessities like grocery prices.
I am sure, this is not enough for many Australians.
For me to make up my mind, I would like to see their policies on bulk-billing, energy prices, housing, education, housing and Immigration. I would also like to see the culling of the sickeningly fat bureaucracy with a commitment that those being made redundant, will not be employed back through private sector.
Stay tuned election 2025 results on May 3.