Australia election 2025 live: Palmer claims Trumpet of Patriots’ how-to-vote card ‘tampered with’; Victoria’s ankle bracelet trial for young offenders begins
Palmer claims Trumpet of Patriots’ how-to-vote card ‘tampered with’
Sarah Basford Canales
Clive Palmer’s Trumpet of Patriots party will investigate the alleged “tampering” of how-to-vote cards after claiming an unnamed party had “interfered” with the minor party’s seat preferences.
One of its Victorian candidates, Jason Smart, urged voters in Flinders to put him last on polling day after the party’s how-to-vote card placed left-leaning candidates above the Liberals.
On Tuesday, Palmer claimed the cards had been “tampered with” and would be reprinted to reflect the party’s position.
It has become apparent that a number of our how-to-vote cards have been interfered with.
This incident has not happened in isolation as we have been hacked and had our communications interfered with on previous occasions.
We will be conducting a full investigation into the matter.
Palmer did not say which how to vote cards had been “tampered” with.
Palmer, the party’s chairman, said the party would put Labor and Coalition incumbents last in all the seats they held, claiming the parties are identical “99% of the time”.
– with Dan Jervis-Bardy
Key events
Pollsters tell press club Greens and independents most popular among young voters
Over at the national press club today, pollsters have taken over the stage, talking about the generational shifts Australia is seeing, and how the parties are reacting.
Unsurprisingly, as we’ve been hearing more recently, the Greens are far more popular amongst Gen Z and millennials and the new emerging independents are fracturing votes that would normally go between the two major parties.
Redbridge pollster Kos Samaras said the major parties, and particularly the Coalition, are struggling to win back votes that they’ve lost.
Within Gen Z, our most recent analysis, where we’re just surveying Liberal versus Labor contests – the Greens primary is the highest at 33%. Higher than Labor, higher than the Liberal party.
Amongst the leaders themselves, Jessica Elgood, director at Ipsos Public Affairs, says neither is actually winning the election. She says the question is: “Who is losing it faster?”
When I look at this current federal election polling data, it tells us that Australians don’t view either of the candidates as great politicians by this definition. There’s no sense of a clear new narrative. And it doesn’t suggest that either of them are actually winning the election.
[The] question is who is losing it faster … from our data, we see that Peter Dutton’s approval rating sitting at 27. Clearly our relationship with politicians has changed over the decades, but it’s the lowest approval rating we have measured for an opposition leader this century.
How is the polling data looking for Anthony Albanese? Well, it’s not much better. At the end of his first term, only a third of the country think he’s on the right track.
Andrew Messenger
Katter MP says potential breach of alcohol ban an accident
A Katter MP who posted a photo of himself apparently drinking a banned alcoholic beverage on an island in North Queensland says he wasn’t aware it was prohibited.
The photo, posted on Nick Dametto’s official Facebook page on Good Friday, shows him holding a can of full-strength Great Northern beer on Curacao Island with other people.
The entire LGA is covered by an alcohol management plan banning drinks over 4% alcohol by volume. The Great Northern original lager is 4.2% strength.
“If any rules have been broken here, if any, it’s been done by pure mistake and an honest mistake,” he said.
Dametto said the island is unpopulated and virtually empty with no signs that warn of the ban. He wasn’t aware it was in the Palm Island local government area, he said.
If you’re on Orpheus Island, only a kilometer away from one of the outskirt islands of the Palm Island group, you’re allowed to have whatever you like. Travel 500 meters to a kilometer the other way, and you fall under these draconian regulations.
Alcohol management plans have been enforced in discrete Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities across Queensland since 2003. Currently they are in effect in 15 local government areas.
Dametto said it was “ridiculous” that the government still imposed what he said was a “discriminatory” ban on alcohol in Indigenous communities.
I think that all Australians should be treated the same. All adults should be treated the same, and you should have the right to make a decision whether or not you want to consume a certain type of alcohol or not.
Henry Belot
Coalition to relaunch regional fund Labor criticised as ‘giant rorted slush fund’
The Coalition will relaunch a regional grants program that provided Liberal-held seats with twice as many grants as Labor electorates, according to the national audit office.
The Building Better Regions fund was strongly criticised by Labor as an example of alleged pork-barrelling and was described by one MP as a “giant rorted slush fund”.
A 2022 review by the audit office found “funding decisions were not appropriately informed by departmental advice and the basis for the funding decisions has not been appropriately documented”.
In 2021, the former deputy prime minister, Barnaby Joyce, said “I don’t care” in response to Labor claiming $300m of regional grants under the scheme were examples of “pork-barrelling”.
In a statement, Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie made no reference to Labor’s criticism of the scheme, instead accusing the Albanese government of ignoring regional towns:
There is a clear need to bring back the [fund] after Labor axed more than $10bn worth of regional programs on coming to office.
Labor’s regional economic development programs have been beset by chronic delays, vague criteria, inconsistent assessment processes and poor communication with communities.
Applicants to Labor’s programs have had to wait more than 18 months from submitting applications in August 2023 to receiving contract agreements in January 2025, and the states have been imposed as ticket-clipping middle-men creaming funds off the program that were intended for the regions.
Adeshola Ore
Victorian ankle bracelet trial for young offenders begins
Moving off the campaign trail for a moment…
A trial to fit alleged youth offenders in Victoria with ankle brackets as part of their bail conditions has begun.
The state’s attorney-general, Sonya Kilkenny, this morning said the Victoria’s children’s court and supreme court will now have the power to impose electronic monitoring as part of bail conditions.
The state government last year announced the trial involving 50 young offenders aged between 14 to 18 who are accused of serious crimes. The devices will alert authorities if an alleged offender is outside their address after curfew or enters an exclusion zone.
The state government’s bail crackdown, revealed earlier this year, has faced backlash from legal, human rights and Indigenous advocates.
Christopher Knaus
Government urged to protect veterinarian whistleblowers after animal welfare revelations
The federal government has been urged to protect veterinarian whistleblowers who revealed shocking animal welfare breaches and oversight failures at Australia’s export abattoirs.
Guardian Australia revealed on Saturday that veterinarians working for the agriculture department have made a series of whistleblower disclosures about export abattoirs and the system of regulatory oversight, alleging welfare breaches were going unreported and understaffing was leaving facilities unmonitored.
The Human Rights Law Centre and Animals Australia have called on the government to ensure the whistleblowers do not suffer reprisals because of their disclosures.
Kieran Pender, the associate legal director of the Human Rights Law Centre’s whistleblower project, said the export abattoir revelations showed the importance of whistleblowers to “truth and transparency in Australia”. He said:
When wrongdoing occurs behind closed doors, whistleblowers provide essential accountability. Without whistleblowers exposing some of the most significant incidents of animal cruelty in the agriculture sector over the past few decades, considerable reforms and policy changes would not have been implemented.
Palmer claims Trumpet of Patriots’ how-to-vote card ‘tampered with’
Sarah Basford Canales
Clive Palmer’s Trumpet of Patriots party will investigate the alleged “tampering” of how-to-vote cards after claiming an unnamed party had “interfered” with the minor party’s seat preferences.
One of its Victorian candidates, Jason Smart, urged voters in Flinders to put him last on polling day after the party’s how-to-vote card placed left-leaning candidates above the Liberals.
On Tuesday, Palmer claimed the cards had been “tampered with” and would be reprinted to reflect the party’s position.
It has become apparent that a number of our how-to-vote cards have been interfered with.
This incident has not happened in isolation as we have been hacked and had our communications interfered with on previous occasions.
We will be conducting a full investigation into the matter.
Palmer did not say which how to vote cards had been “tampered” with.
Palmer, the party’s chairman, said the party would put Labor and Coalition incumbents last in all the seats they held, claiming the parties are identical “99% of the time”.
– with Dan Jervis-Bardy
Younger voters important demographic across western Sydney seats, analysis shows
Younger voters are expected to dominate in seats across greater western Sydney for the first time this federal election.
People aged 45 and under comprised more than 50% of voters across six seats in the region – including Chifley, Greenway, Hume, Lindsay, Macarthur and Werriwa – according to an analysis of the AEC’s voter roll data by the Western Sydney Leadership Dialogue.
Dialogue’s chief executive, Adam Leto, said both major parties needed to put forward policies that responded to the needs of younger voters – particularly on issues such as housing affordability and the high cost-of-living.
Many millennials are struggling to afford to buy a home, while at the same time finding it tough to pay rent – and they’re desperate for a solution.
The housing policies put forward by both parties recently were a step in the right direction, but I don’t know if it’s enough to convince young voters that our major political parties are fully invested in tackling inter-generational inequality.
Without serious action, the picture isn’t as pretty for younger generations.
Petra Stock
Hello, I’m Petra Stock, looking after the blog for a bit over lunchtime.
Nearly nine in ten Australians (89%) support truth in political advertising laws, according to new research by The Australia Institute.
Polling commissioned by the Institute showed strong support for laws to tackle false or misleading ads, including high levels of support across the political spectrum – with 93% support from Australians who voted Labor, Coalition voters (88%), Greens (87%), One Nation (92%) and Independent/Other voters (79%).
Laws that prevented false or misleading political advertising were already in place in South Australia (since 1985) and in the Australian Capital Territory (since 2020), but not at the federal level.
At the end of 2024, the Albanese government introduced legislation to Parliament to implement Truth in Political Advertising laws federally – but the legislation was not passed.
The institute’s director of democracy and accountability, Bill Browne, said although it was legal to lie in a political ad at the federal level, “it shouldn’t be”.
Political advertisements that are deceptive and misleading interfere with the public’s ability to make informed decisions. Without action, we risk election campaigns sliding into a free-fall of fake news.
Corporations are already prohibited from making misleading or deceptive claims – Australians should be able to expect the same or higher standard of honesty in politics as in trade and commerce.
Voters have ‘once-in-a-generation chance to take real action’ on housing this election, says Bandt
Adam Bandt is in the seat of Wills this morning, in inner Melbourne, an area the Greens have set their eyes on winning from Labor MP Peter Khalil.
Bandt addresses media, acknowledging the death of Pope Francis, and highlighting his advocacy for equality and climate action.
Pope Francis made some really significant contributions to the push for equality around the world, for peace in Palestine, and also for real action on climate …
A lot of people we know will be feeling the events of today, and we share our thoughts with them and pay tribute to the significant advances that the pope made.
Bandt then turns to more political issues, baking in his messaging to form a minority government with Labor.
The Greens have homed in on housing as one of the biggest issues in Wills, and Bandt says the minor party can push Labor to do more for housing.
Renters and first home buyers are in the box seat this election and have a once-in-a-generation chance to take real action on the housing and rental crisis.
Bennelong candidate likens Labor’s cheaper medicines policy to ‘reckless’ gambling
Henry Belot
The Liberal candidate for Bennelong, Scott Yung, has compared Labor’s cheaper medicines policy and 60-day dispensing changes to “reckless” gambling.
Since 1 September, doctors have been issuing eligible patients with a 60-day prescription for 184 common medicines to treat ongoing health conditions such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease and osteoporosis. It means patients can fill two scripts for the price of one, halving the cost of many common medicines to the consumer.
While answering a question on gambling harm at a candidates forum on Wednesday, Yung spoke about the social impacts of gambling. He told the audience about meeting a banker with two children who “lost everything to gambling”. Yung said “gambling was not good for society” before pivoting to make a broader point:
But speaking of gambling, gambling is a behaviour where people don’t think of the consequences. And what this government has done is gambled the taxpayers’ money of Australia.
Yung was briefly heckled by an audience member who accused him of not directly answering a question about whether he supported a bipartisan parliamentary inquiry’s call for gambling ads to be banned.
Later in the event, Yung then addressed a comment made by the Labor incumbent, Jerome Laxale, about the change to 60-day prescriptions.
We understand that the other side has a good heart, that they want to make medicines cheaper. But to recklessly, recklessly cut the profits of small business owners, the pharmacies working extremely hard, some of them have told me they’ve gone down to 30-40%. That gambling-like behaviour is simply not on.
ASX falls sharply after Wall Street sell-off
Jonathan Barrett
Australian shares opened sharply lower this morning, after Donald Trump’s repeated attacks on the Federal Reserve sapped investor confidence on Wall Street.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 fell 1% to trade below 7,750 points shortly after the stock exchange opened this morning, following the US market lower.
Overnight, the “sell America trade” gathered steam, with American stocks, bonds and the greenback all falling as traders fled the unpredictable US market.
The trend has sparked a rally in the Australian dollar, which is now above US64c. The local currency had threatened to crash through the US59c barrier earlier this month, before staging a rapid recovery against the greenback.
In recent days, Trump has amped up attacks against the Fed chair, Jerome Powell, as the president pushes for lower interest rates to offset the inflationary impacts of his new tariff regime.
The central bank is designed to set interest rates without interference from the White House.
There are growing concerns among investors that the US is entering a period of stagflation, marked by stagnant economic growth, rising unemployment and increasing inflation.
The early falls in the Australian market are more modest than the overnight 2.4% slide in the US benchmark S&P 500.
PM asked to reflect on how pope’s death will influence election campaign
Albanese takes a final question, and a reporter asks what impact the pope’s death will have on the rest of the day and the rest of the campaign.
Albanese says the public can separate the two events, and stresses the important of Australia’s secular democracy.
He adds Catholics will “take time to reflect” and leaves the press conference there.
Pope ‘had courage and he showed true leadership’, Albanese says
Albanese is visibly emotional again in addressing the press on Pope Francis’ legacy.
He’s asked about his own faith, and while Albanese says he tries “not talk about my faith in public”, he says:
I think what people do is they draw on who they are and certainly my Catholicism is just a part of me and one of the things about the holy father is that he, for so many Catholics, I think his humility, for the way that he embraced the poor, the way that he embraced the social justice message that I see as the message of Jesus Christ.
Albanese says he believes the pope “will be recorded in history as one of the most significant of all of the holy fathers”.
The change that he led was significant indeed and he, of course, advocated for reforms that weren’t universally supported as well. He had courage and he showed true leadership.
