Australia politics live: Albanese mimics Coalition line to declare Labor ‘the party of lower taxes’ during question time

Chalmers confirms Labor won’t match Coalition pledge to halve fuel excise

Treasurer Jim Chalmers earlier confirmed Labor wouldn’t be matching the Coalition’s pledge to halve the fuel excise.

Chalmers told Sky News the Coalition didn’t have a plan to lower the cost of living in an “enduring way”.

The Coalition doesn’t have any plans to help people with the cost of living in an enduring way and what it means is the economic policy that they will take to the election is higher taxes for every taxpayer, secret cuts to pay for nuclear reactors and no ongoing help with the cost of living.

Key events

The next question comes from shadow treasurer Angus Taylor, who also asks whether Labor will back the fuel excise cut.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers takes the question.

If the shadow treasurer cared about the cost of living, he wouldn’t be the first shadow treasurer in living memory to take to an election a policy to increase income taxes on every single Australian taxpayer.

Chalmers then goes into how petrol prices are now lower than they were at the last election, and attacks the Coalition for saying they would repeal the tax cut top ups that were just legislated late last night.

(Taylor said that in a couple of interviews this morning, that the policy would be repealed under a Liberal government.)

Party in the House

QT is certainly a lot more animated today.

Anthony Albanese looks like he’s having the time of his life saying “Labor is the party of lower taxes” during a dixer on what Labor is doing on the cost of living.

And the Coalition goes wild every time it’s said.

Anthony Albanese in question time today. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

Question time begins

Alright, QT has begun, and the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, is starting, asking the PM if he’ll commit to the Coalition’s fuel excise. Anthony Albanese says:

The leader of the opposition, I wonder if he gave that speech or that question when he was sitting in the Cabinet room when indexation of petrol was reintroduced in the 2014 budget?

That gets an absolute uproar from the Coalition benches, and prompts a point of order from the manager of opposition business, Michael Sukkar. The speaker, Milton Dick, tells everyone to take a deep breath (sage advise) and be relevant and the PM continues.

The Morrison leftovers have adopted the policy of the Morrison government … And the reason why [the fuel excise] is at the level it is today is because of the legislation that they brought in 2014. That is why.

Albanese brings up the tax cut top ups his government announced on Wednesday, and gives a shoutout to the tax-free lunches that the Coalition announced earlier this year.

Chalmers confirms Labor won’t match Coalition pledge to halve fuel excise

Treasurer Jim Chalmers earlier confirmed Labor wouldn’t be matching the Coalition’s pledge to halve the fuel excise.

Chalmers told Sky News the Coalition didn’t have a plan to lower the cost of living in an “enduring way”.

The Coalition doesn’t have any plans to help people with the cost of living in an enduring way and what it means is the economic policy that they will take to the election is higher taxes for every taxpayer, secret cuts to pay for nuclear reactors and no ongoing help with the cost of living.

Krishani Dhanji

Good afternoon.

We’re on the downhill slide to question time now, what will be (almost certainly) the last one for this parliamentary term.

Get excited!

Emily Wind

Many thanks for joining me on the blog today, I’ll hand over to Krishani Dhanji who will bring you all the latest from question time, Peter Dutton’s budget reply, and everything else happening in Canberra. Take care.

Local market slips as car tariffs fuel trade war fears

The Australian share market is on track to break a five-day winning streak, following US and European equities lower amid fresh jitters over White House trade policies.

AAP reports that the S&P/ASX200 had lost 40.1 points, or 0.5%, at lunchtime today, to 7958.9, while the broader All Ordinaries was down 47.5 points, or 0.6%, to 8177.6.

Building trade war tensions have already been dampening investor sentiment and the US president, Donald Trump, locking in a 25% tariff on imported (to the US) cars and light trucks from 2 April is set to deepen concerns.

In the domestic market, technology stocks were leading the march lower, down 1.9% at midday in line with losses across US heavyweights.

Six of the ASX200’s 11 sectors were down, with consumer discretionaries slipping 0.9% and financials sinking 0.8% after a better day of trade from the big banks.

Energy and mining sectors were bright spots, with BHP up 0.3% and Rio Tinto lifting a modest 0.1%. Fortescue had sunk 0.5%.

Discount store chain the The Reject Shop had more than doubled today as Canadian retail giant Dollarama moved to snap up the business for $259m.

Bandt says PM should not be inviting Trump to Australia

Yesterday, Anthony Albanese said he had extended an invitation to US president Donald Trump to visit Australia.

The PM told the ABC’s Afternoon Briefing he would also plan to visit the US if re-elected:

I have discussed with the president going to the US and I expect that certainly will be very early on in the term.

In a post to X this afternoon, the Greens leader Adam Bandt argued that the invitation should not have been extended:

The prime minister should not be inviting Trump to Australia. Trump is a danger to peace and a danger to democracy. He emboldens hate and hard-right ideology. We should be rethinking our relationship with Trump’s US, not sucking up to him.

Anthony Albanese and Adam Bandt in 2023. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Josh Taylor

NBN spent $5m in advertising at cricket, despite being wholesale provider with no direct consumers

The company responsible for the national broadband network, NBN, has spent $5m in advertising at the cricket, despite NBN itself being a wholesale provider with no direct consumers buying services from it.

The company revealed it spent $5m on a cricket partnership with Seven and Cricket Australia in response to an estimates question on notice from Greens senator Sarah Hanson Young.

The partnership includes access to Cricket Australia’s IP, including access to players, in-stadium signage and advertising on Channel 7.

Senators raised questions during Senate estimates hearings in February about the value of a wholesale company advertising to consumers, given that retail internet services providers on-sell NBN services to customers, rather than NBN itself.

NBN officials said it was the first campaign of its kind and argued it was more about raising awareness of the service amid upgrades being rolled out across the country.

NBN’s total advertising and media budget for 2024-2025 is $25.6m, with the majority of the expenditure going towards mailouts and other awareness campaigns informing customers if an upgrade or a service is available at their home.

Hanson-Young has buried dead fish from Senate stunt in her backyard

Sarah Hanson-Young, the Greens senator, has revealed the final resting place of the fish she used as part of her Senate stunt yesterday.

In case you missed it: the senator produced an apparently headless dead fish during question time after directing a question at Labor’s Jenny McAllister over legislation to protect the Tasmanian salmon industry.

Hanson Young said, “On the eve of an election, have you sold out your environmental credentials for a rotten, stinking extinction salmon?” before being asked to remove the fish from the chamber.