FINAL WEEK, FINAL DEBATE Welcome to the final week of the federal election campaign. Brace yourselves for a hectic few days of politicians crisscrossing the country selling their pitches while endlessly badmouthing their rivals and declaring they’re not being complacent/are still in this thing. It’s going to be exhausting, it’s going to be incredibly negative, it’s going to be fascinating, and it’s going to be unpredictable. Grab that coffee and let’s get going. Last night we got the final leaders debate between Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton. The panel of undecided voters on Channel 7 scored it as a victory for the prime minister (50%), with Dutton claiming 25% of the vote and the other 25% undecided (many of whom said they were looking to independent candidates). The ABC reckons the main takeaway moments of the debate were: both leaders saying they could trust US President Donald Trump to support Australia, with Albanese getting himself in a muddle when asked whether he has Trump’s number; Dutton declaring a lot of Australians thought Welcome to Country ceremonies were “overdone”; Albanese saying changes to negative gearing were “off the table” while both tried to sell their housing policies; Dutton calling Elon Musk an “evil genius” and then massively being off when asked about the price of eggs. Most places have led on Dutton’s comments about the Welcome to Country or the gaffe about eggs this morning. Guardian Australia highlights that, as well as saying the ceremonies were “overdone”, Dutton claimed they should be limited to major events such as the opening of Parliament. The report flags the leaders were asked about Welcome to Country ceremonies after “a small group of people — including known neo-Nazis — booed them during the Anzac Day dawn service on Friday” and says Dutton’s comments represent “stoking a culture war at the start of the final week of the election campaign”. Guardian Australia also flags the leaders spent last night criticising each other’s cost of living policies, with 65% of the 7News audience preferring Albanese’s position on the topic, compared to Dutton’s 16%. The Australian Financial Review asks in the opening line of its write-up: “Could Peter Dutton have undone his prospects in the fourth and final leaders debate over the price of a dozen eggs?” The paper says Dutton’s guess for the cost of a dozen eggs being about $4.20 “suggests it’s been a while since Dutton has done the shopping”. Albanese, by the way, said: “Seven dollars if you can find them, because it’s hard to find them at the moment.” The AFR states the answer is $8.80. One member of the audience said of Dutton’s guess: “It was really shocking to see how out of touch someone can be with a carton of eggs.” Phil Coorey writes that given the cost of living is such a dominant theme in the election, Albanese’s significant victory in that area on the night “was a bad outcome for Dutton”. He also says Labor will have been “buoyed Dutton came close to losing his composure on several occasions and feeding the focus groups’ perception he’s too aggro”. Treasurer Jim Chalmers made that exact claim on news.com.au, saying: “Volatile times are the worst time for a volatile leader like Peter Dutton. Tonight, we saw Peter Dutton lose his cool. We saw him drop his bundle. We saw him with a number of unhinged rants which are unbecoming of the alternative prime minister of this country.” Meanwhile, the Coalition’s campaign spokesperson James Paterson said it was “truly, utterly bizarre” that Albanese had attempted to suggest the US president “does not have a mobile phone”. And so, for the final time, who won the debate, you ask? Well: The three commentators in the Nine papers were split — one giving it to Albanese, one giving it to Dutton, and one saying it was a dead heat. The six commentators in The Australian scored it: three for Dutton, one a draw, and two not naming a winner, instead claiming “it was a completely pointless exercise. This debate was too little, too late and will make no difference”. The likes of SBS News and Guardian Australia just deferred to what the Channel 7 audience said (i.e. Albanese won). The Conversation says “Albanese would have gone home the happier of the two leaders. He won on the issues at the centre of the election”. The final debate came as we got yet more polling (as I mentioned last week, people are now at the stage of the campaign where they panic about polling either being wildly inaccurate or on the money, depending on what it is showing) from the final days of the campaign. The latest Newspoll shows no shift in the primary vote for either Labor or the Coalition over the past week, with The Australian declaring: “Almost half of all voters believe the Albanese government should be thrown out of office, but a greater number remain unconvinced that a Peter Dutton-led Coalition was ready to govern with the election still potentially poised to produce a hung parliament.” Over the weekend we also got new polling from the likes of Roy Morgan and YouGov. Summarising the results, The Conversation says the surveys showed: “Labor has taken a seven-point lead in a national YouGov poll and an 11-point lead in a Morgan poll. An exit poll of early voters is also encouraging for Labor.” The News Corp tabloids also released results of exit polls of pre-poll voters from Tuesday and Wednesday last week, which apparently showed “a 4.6% primary swing to Labor compared to the 2022 election”. DUTTON ATTACKS THE MEDIA The polling is being spun in endless ways as we enter the final stretch of the campaign. While it’s pretty universally accepted that Peter Dutton has not exactly had the best of election campaigns, the Coalition leader and his supporters reckon it’s all still to play for (as you’d expect them to say). The Nine papers report Dutton said over the weekend: “I think this election is going to be decided this week. I think [Albanese’s] taking it for granted. I think there is a lot of anger in the suburbs. I do believe that we can form a majority government” (Guardian Australia highlights he even put a time on it, saying the Coalition will be able to claim victory by 6pm on Saturday). He also decided to take a shot at the media, declaring: “Forget about what you have been told by the ABC, in The Guardian and the other hate media. Listen to what you hear [at] the doors, listen to what people say on the pre-polling, know in your hearts we are a better future for our country.” The Conversation highlights Dutton is planning to visit up to 28 seats this week, with the majority of them currently held by Labor. The site says Liberal sources reckon the blitz “underlines the election is winnable for the Coalition” (again, they would say that). Michelle Grattan points out though, that as each day of the week passes, “for an increasing number of voters in these and other seats the visits and messages will be irrelevant”. As of Saturday, 2.4 million people had already voted. With much being made of the Coalition’s planned ad blitz in the final days of the campaign, news.com.au reports the Liberal Party’s new advert features a paid actor, who once appeared in a Thor film, posing as a struggling nurse. The ABC is leading this morning on a Four Corners investigation which claims “Dutton failed to declare for two years his interest in a family trust that operated lucrative childcare businesses when he was a cabinet minister”. The AFR is leading on Albanese issuing a warning to undecided voters about the pitfalls of minority government in the face of Dutton and the Coalition’s attempts to turn around their fortunes. The prime minister said of the Gillard government: “Its capacity to sell its message was undermined, was made more difficult by the fact that it was a minority government, and so that made confidence in its decision-making more difficult.” Elsewhere in the campaign, the ABC reports the Liberal candidate for the Western Sydney seat of Fowler, Vivek Singha, has apologised for offensive social media posts. The broadcaster reports Singha “said he regretted multiple posts on social media, in which he used a derogatory term for Indigenous Australians and also took aim at federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek over a personal family matter”. Coalition Transport spokesperson Bridget McKenzie appeared on the ABC’s Insiders program yesterday and tried to clear up the confusion over the party’s position on EVs, Guardian Australia highlights. McKenzie said a Coalition government would find new ways to make drivers of electric vehicles pay to use Australian roads, but the details won’t be revealed until after the election, the site reports. Anthony Albanese popped up in The Australian over the weekend, with the paper saying the PM’s guiding mantra was to not repeat the mistakes of the Democrats and Joe Biden. “The alienation of the blue-collar working-class voter from the Democratic Party is something that is a warning for centre-left and social democratic parties,” Albanese said. He also claimed his government “is the most stable first-term government that there has been in at least 50 years … no scandals, no ministerial resignations. Order — we’ve done what we said we would do.” The paper is leading this morning on a report that claims the Albanese government was aware before the election campaign started that Russia had requested to use Indonesian airfields. Over the weekend, Labor promised $200 million to rebrand Healthdirect to 1800 MEDICARE and expand services to all states and territories, the ABC reports. Meanwhile, the Nine papers report the party is planning to target people under the age of 35 this week and highlight policies such as the pledge to slash student debts by 20%. We also got reaction to Dutton saying his 41,000 public sector job cuts would come from Canberra only, Labor accusing the Greens of misleading voters in the Queensland seat of Griffith by distributing (blue) flyers which describe Max Chandler-Mather as an “independent voice” and then Chandler-Mather dismissing the accusation as a sign of desperation, a whole load of ad spending, responses to an apparent unauthorised boat arrival on a northern Australian beach, the Coalition pledging to ditch a Howard-era skilled migration target, and a whole lot more. It’s going to be a long old week. ON A LIGHTER NOTE… Regular readers will remember I’ve flagged the adventures of Valerie the runaway dachshund a couple of times before. Well, Valerie’s epic tale has finally come to an end after she was found safe and well by wildlife rescuers at the end of last week. On Friday night, Kangala Wildlife Rescue wrote on Facebook it was “overjoyed to announce the successful rescue of Valerie, the miniature dachshund who went missing on Kangaroo Island 529 days ago”. The post added: “The search for Valerie involved over 1,000 volunteer hours and more than 5,000 km travelled by volunteers in their private vehicles, the deployment and monitoring of numerous cameras and traps and the use of various forms of technology to successfully secure Valerie while ensuring her physical and psychological welfare.” The ABC reports Valerie’s owner, Georgia Gardner, responded to the news by saying: “For anyone who’s ever lost a pet, your feelings are valid and never give up hope. Incredibly grateful for Kangala Wildlife Rescue, the Kangaroo Island community, our friends, family and everyone who has contributed their support to rescue Val. “We’ll see you soon Valerie.” ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL Sausage sizzles are a minefield for would-be prime ministerial candidates. Remember when Bill Shorten took a sideways bite out of his sausage in bread like an absolute psychopath? I think everyone knew at that point he’d never be PM. Luckily for him, Anthony Albanese appears to have avoided all the major pitfalls (placement of the sausage, onions above or below, type of sauce etc.) I am doing this interview as a competition with myself.Donald Trump The US president wrote a lengthy (when are they not?) Truth Social post about being interviewed by the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg. You’d imagine Signal chats might be discussed. CRIKEY RECAP READ ALL ABOUT IT At least 11 people killed after car plows into crowd at Vancouver Filipino festival (CNN) Mourning turns to anger in Iran after massive port explosion kills 40 (BBC) ‘Stop killing women’: Hundreds rally in protest after Audrey Griffin’s tragic death (The Sydney Morning Herald) Neo-Nazis quietly forming a political party to try to get around the law (The Age) Liberal candidate apologises for Anzac Day booklet that contained campaign message and linked to how-to-vote card (Guardian Australia) Albanese eyes history — unless Dutton pulls off a miracle (ABC) THE COMMENTARIAT Peter Dutton flicks switch to culture wars as cost of living proves tough egg to crack — Josh Butler (Guardian Australia): Peter Dutton has flicked the switch back to culture wars in the final week of the election campaign. He may be almost lucky that his claim that Indigenous welcome to country ceremonies are “overdone” will be the main headline on Monday morning, rather than the fact he couldn’t accurately name the price of a dozen eggs. Just hours after boasting of his plan to blitz teal seats in a last-ditch effort to scrape into government, the Liberal leader downplayed the need for the ceremonies, and repeated his political mentor John Howard’s take on the “black armband” view of history. How that will go over in the affluent, more socially progressive teal seats of Mackellar, Goldstein and Kooyong — let alone Bennelong or the other suburban seats he will land in this week — is yet to be seen. Labor and Coalition have shrunk before the Trumpian election challenge — The AFR View (AFR): Anthony Albanese appears close to flipping the script as he enters the final week of the election campaign. The conventional wisdom a month ago was that incumbency might prove a curse for the government after living standards went backwards due to high inflation on Labor’s watch over the past three years. Instead, Peter Dutton’s bid to render Albanese the first one-term prime minister since the Great Depression of the 1930s has been sideswiped by the global uncertainty unleashed by Donald Trump’s “America First” tariff policy and the Coalition’s lacklustre campaign. Labor’s disciplined campaign has portrayed the opposition leader’s supposed Trump-like character flaws as a risky proposition in unstable times. It has also weaponised social media to spread its latest post-truth “Mediscare” message. The Coalition’s inability to successfully deflect these negative attacks has exposed its lack of policy preparation and seeming assumption that dissatisfaction over cost of living issues would be enough to motivate voters to reject Labor.