Australian news and politics live: Dutton says they will be ‘crime-crushers’ if Coalition win election

Healthcare has emerged as a key battleground in the federal election campaign, with both sides pledging record funding for Medicare.

The Albanese government has had to convince voters it can restore slumped bulk-billing rates, which has led to working Australians skipping GP appointments because of out-of-pocket costs.

Meanwhile, the opposition has had to convince voters it would not repeat the cost-cutting measures of previous Coalition governments that experts credit with causing the bulk-billing crisis.

When it comes to who is doing what to help Australians stay healthy, here is what both major parties are pledging.

​Read the full story ​

- via NCA

Peter Dutton has blamed the Greens and the Teals for a protest at a junior sporting club fcaility this morning.

“It made no difference to me in terms of protest activity, but it disrupted an event where we wanted to talk about helping kids play junior rugby,” Mr Dutton said.

“We wanted to talk about an upgrade in the change room facilities so young girls didn’t have to go into the canteen to get changed into their footy gear.

“And the teals and Greens always pull all sorts of stunts.”

Mr Dutton has been asked about stories circulating that the Liberal party has recruited members of a religious sect to work on polling stations.

“Exclusive Brethren have been flocking to seats volunteering in support of Liberal Party. How have the Liberal Party recruited members of a religious sect?”, one journalist asks.

“The Liberal Party has not recruited people from particular religions. We’re a volunteer-based organisation. People can volunteer and provide support to their local Liberal National Party candidate and I’d encourage them to do that,” Mr Dutton replied.

“The Prime Minister says he hates Tories and Tory supporters etc. That’s an issue for him. We’re not discriminating against anybody on the basis of their religion.

“We have people of I suspect every religion supporting us and I’ll make sure that we have the ability to get our message out, which we do through our volunteers, because there are many Australians in their millions who can’t afford three more years of this Labor government.”

Peter Dutton has been asked for a reaction to the vandalism of his office in the electorate of Dickson this morning and if he knows what the inflation rate is.

The answer was stern and to the point.

“I want to make sure that we have disagreements, and we can have disagreements, that’s fine,” Mr Dutton said.

“But we need to do it better than we have at the moment and to see Greens supporters and others out there shooting at booths, you know, we employ security guards now at booths because ETU workers and CFMEU workers intimidate older ladies.

“And you see the vandalism, that is outrageous.

“So I just want to make sure ... we want to support our democratic processes, but I don’t want to see a situation where we’ve got people who are being intimidated.

And to the inflation rate question.

“2.7 per cent is the answer to your question,” Mr Dutton added quickly.

“I think the contrast you’ve seen between the way in which Labor’s managed the Budget and the way we manage it is chalk and cheese,” Coalition leader Peter Dutton told the press conference in NSW.

“A Liberal Coalition government will always manage the budget more effectively. We’ve put in place supports which don’t have recurrent spend year after year, locking that spend in.

“We’ll always manage the economy more effectively and Labor will always spend more.

“When you do that you drive up inflation which will drive up interest rates and interest rates will always be cheaper under a Coalition government.”

Peter Dutton wants Australian’s to trust in him to ‘crush’ organise crime if he is elected as Prime Minister after May 3.

“We’re investing into our crime-crushing policy,” Mr Dutton said.

“The $750 million which will keep people safer in their communities by dealing with the gangs and with the organised motorcycle gangs, etc, who are peddling drugs to our kids.

“I want to make sure that we can get our country back on track and that’s exactly what we intend to do at the next election.”

Opposition leader Peter Dutton is in the southern highlands of NSW to spruik their fuel tax rebate policy and cost of living relief measures.

“It’s about helping families right now, immediately after the election with a 25 cents a litre cut in fuel, $1,200 back by way of tax rebate,” Mr Dutton told the gathered press.

“That’s tax you’ve paid, giving it back to you. We want to manage the economy to bring down the inflation rates and therefore bring down interest rates.

“I want to make sure that I’m the Prime Minister for housing and I’m absolutely passionate about making sure we can get young Australians into housing which is why we’re going to cut migration and why we’re going to stop foreign buyers from competing against young Australians.

“We’re also going to keep our country safe and our communities safe, safe from crime and safe from any strife in our region and that’s why we want to invest into defence.”

Australians are voicing their outrage as Clive Palmer’s Trumpet of Patriots candidates use an Australian Electoral Commission loophole to hammer voters with spam text messages trying to garner support ahead of Saturday’s Federal election.

Social media is awash with complaints about the influx of messages being sent to people’s phones, with questions being raised as to how the candidates are able to access potential voters’ personal information.

Trumpet of Patriots Senate candidate in Queensland, Harry Fong, has become the face of the social media rants after his campaign team managed to send multiple text messages to millions of Australians encouraging them to show their support ahead of the Federal election this weekend.

But according to the Australian Communications and Media Authority, sending political text messages during local, state and territory or federal election campaigns is exempt from most spam and telemarketing rules.

Read the full story here.

Monday saw the busiest day at early voting centres across the country, with 830,000 Australians casting their ballots.

The rush of voters after the long weekend brought the total across the first five days of voting to 3.23 million.

Add in the now 776,000 returned postal votes brings the total ballots returned to more than four million - or 22 per cent of all enrolled voters.

The Electoral Commission expects more than half of Australians to cast their vote before Saturday.

The Prime Minister stood face-to-face with Labor’s opposition at a pre-polling booth today handing out flyers and voting advice to punters in Queensland.

Anthony Albanese is in the sunshine state to ram home the Labor message leading into Saturday’s election and interacted with The Nightly’s Latika Bourke and People First Senator Ross Vasta.

When asked about having the PM handing out voting advice today, the current Member for Bonner said he had a good relationship with the PM.

Mr Albanese chimed in saying his presence was “nothing personal”, he just wants Labor candidate Kara Cook “to win”.