Australian news and politics recap April 6: Labor extends lead after bumpy week for Peter Dutton

This concludes our live politics and news coverage for the day.

Scroll back through for all the updates as Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton battle to win over voters on their election campaign trails.

Join us tomorrow for more live news action.

Enjoy your Sunday evening.

Anthony Albanese has extended his campaign lead over Peter Dutton after the Coalition dropped again with voters in the latest Newspoll.

Published in The Australian on Sunday, the polling had Labor steady on a primary vote of 33 per cent, while the Liberals lost a point to 36 per cent.

The Coalition’s primary vote has been slipping since last year, from a pre-campaign high point of 40 per cent in November.

The change saw the Government improve on two-party preferred status, leading the Opposition 52 per cent to 48 per cent.

The results, which follow the first week of the campaign, mirrors

But in a sign of the close contest, Mr Dutton narrowed the gap on Mr Albanese as preferred Prime Minister, falling to just eight points behind the Labor leader.

The Coalition have dumped their Whitlam candidate who said women should not serve in ADF combat roles.

Peter Dutton was forced to drop Ben Britton from the New South Wales seat after it was revealed he had made the controversial remarks on podcasts before his preselection.

“Basically, long story short, if we’re to fix our defence force, unfortunately, they’re going to need to remove females from combat corps,” Mr Britton said.

“Their hips are being destroyed because they can’t cope with the carrying of the heavy loads and the heavy impacts that’s required from doing combat-related jobs.

He also claimed woke ideologies were weakening Australia, excessive pornography use leads to “transgender desires” and that the education system has “brainwashed” young Australians with Marxist ideology.

The Liberals have acted swiftly to replace him with former NSW Liberal MP Nathaniel Smith.

He was only Premier of Tasmania for a short period, but Tony Rundle is being remembered as a ‘remarkable man’ who left behind a ‘positive legacy’ while leading the state through some of its ‘darkest days’.

Mr Rundle, who was premier of Tasmania between March 1996 to September 1998 and a long-serving Liberal Member for Braddon, between 1986 and 2002, has died aged 86.

In a heartfelt release, current Premier Jeremy Rockliff paid tribute to Mr Rundle as a mentor and a reformist who never shied away from the challenge of leadership.

“Tony was a leader of conviction who set a courageous agenda in difficult economic times,” the Premier said.

“Tony became premier at a time of change all around the world; he understood the extent of the changes and the need for Tasmania to change too.

“Tony was a strong advocate of the private sector but understood that the Government had an important part to play in preparing Tasmania for the 21st century.”

Read more here.

Labor is targeting Peter Dutton where it hurts: calling into question the Queenslander’s loyalty to his state of origin.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese held a campaign rally in Brisbane on Sunday, marked by a series of sledges from the Government’s Queensland contingent aimed at the Opposition Leader in his hometown.

Mr Dutton is the first Federal Liberal Party leader to come from the Sunshine State, although fellow Queenslander Arthur Fadden led Nationals-precursor the Country Party as prime minister and opposition leader.

He grew up in suburban Brisbane, worked as a Queensland police officer, and has held the outer-metro seat of Dickson since 2001.

Nevertheless, Treasurer Jim Chalmers — born and bred in Logan, which he now represents in Parliament — accused Mr Dutton of being from Queensland but not for Queensland.

“When the cyclone was bearing down and millions were in harm’s way, Anthony Albanese came to Queensland to help. Peter Dutton went to Sydney to help himself,” he said in a speech warming up the crowd for the PM’s address.

“What is wrong with these people. Scott Morrison fled to Hawaii, this guy fled to Sydney Harbour.

“While the PM was delivering disaster relief, the Opposition Leader was busy measuring the curtains at Kirribilli.

“The prime ministership is not an audition for The Apprentice.”

Read the full story here.

Time is running out for Aussies to get their election admin tasks sorted, or else cop a fine from the Australian Electoral Commission.

Anyone who has turned 18 recently, moved house, returned after a lengthy overseas sting or is for any other reason not enrolled to vote in the area where they live, has until 8pm local time on April 7 to update or register with the Australian Electoral Commission before the electoral roll closes.

Read more here.

Peter Dutton has marked his third petrol station visit of the election campaign while in Tasmania, to spruik his fuel excise policy.

As their key cost-of-living policy, Coalition have vowed to cut 25 cents a litre for the first year of an elected Dutton government.

Mr Dutton drove to a bowser at Ampol Carrick Roadhouse about 17km west of Launceston on Sunday, alongside Bass MP Bridget Archer and Liberal candidate for Lyons Susie Bowers.

Prices at the bowser were 189.9c a litre for unleaded petrol, 202.9c for Amplify 95 and 193.9c for diesel.

The total came to $80.95 for about 42L for unleaded petrol, with the Coalition’s 25c excise cut it would have been $70.29, a discount of $10.66.

Mr Dutton said he tried to get behind the wheel as much as he could.

“I enjoy driving. I try and get out of the AFP car as much as I can,” he said.

“And if it’s an option between my teenage son driving, or me, I’d rather be the one driving.”

The visit was in the electorate of Lyons, which Labor’s Brian Mitchell holds on a slim margin of 0.9 per cent.

However it was a border collie named Bear who stole the show at the quick visit, demanding lots of pats and belly rubs from Mr Dutton.

His owner Georgia Whishaw, a junior agronomist backed the fuel cut.

“That would be very good,” she said.

“I do a lot of work on the road, a lot of driving between Ross and Devenport.”

Spare a thought for the campaign staffers who are churning out transcripts of the thousands of words politicians utter in interviews, press conferences and speeches each day through the campaign.

There are tools to help them – also wildly popular with reporters – like AI transcription service Otter and the longstanding online TV captioning offering Tveeder.

But sometimes relying on these things can result in a not-so-accurate rendition.

Take Anika Wells on Sky News this morning.

Hopefully there weren’t any delicate viewers still tucking into their breakfast when the minister uttered this assessment of Peter Dutton’s “flip-flopping” on policy: “It’s not credible, and they see that because Queenslanders can smell bullshit a mile off.”

Mysteriously, by the time that was translated into an official transcript and emailed out, it had turned into: “It’s not credible, and they see that; Queenslanders can smell it a mile off.”

We checked the tape – that wasn’t Queenslanders were smelling.

The Prime Minister delivered one of his most effective lines in his speech on Sunday, tailoring Labor’s message of a clear choice between “growth and cuts” to Queenslanders by reflecting on former LNP premier Campbell Newman.

“It tells you everything that the policy our opponents brag about the most, the thing that really gets them excited is sacking over 40,000 people.

“What is it with the LNP?

“You’ve seen it before — Campbell Newman revisited is the sequel no-one asked for.”

Newman, who was elected premier in 2012, campaigned on a promise of not sacking any public servants, only to axe 14,000 once in power.

Pundits don’t believe Queensland will be make-or-break in what is set to be a close election, and only a handful of seats could change hands.

This trip to Brisbane may have been brief, but Albanese has made it clear it won’t be the last time Queenslanders see him before May 3.

Read the full analysis here.

Like the Prime Minister’s, this speech was also to a particularly friendly crowd.

It was relatively light on national news but Tasmanian voters would have liked hearing the Coalition’s infrastructure and forestry commitments.

Could Dutton have gone harder on Mediscare? Maybe.

The most interesting aspect of the speech was his use of the “uncertainty” theme.

Both Jim Chalmers and Anthony Albanese used it in their pitches to get voters to vote them back in.

Mr Dutton is using it in his speech to get voters to vote him back in.

He’s arguing that his experience in defence, home affairs and security means he should be sent in to carry the country in uncertain times.

Will voters buy it? We’ll find out in 27 days.