Housing pledges, protests and power price silence: Inside Anthony Albanese’s third week of the election campaign

Just two weeks out from the federal election, Anthony Albanese’s confidence appears to have remained unshaken as he faced down threats that could have derailed his campaign. With the third week of the race ending early as Australians entered the Easter long weekend, the Prime Minister swapped the trail for a short stroll with his fiancee Jodie Haydon and cavoodle Toto. But while the walk could be viewed as a much-needed day off, the political undertones were striking – it was taking place in the former Liberal stronghold of Bennelong, once held by John Howard. And the latest Newspoll, published earlier this week, indicated 49 per cent of voters believe Mr Albanese would make a better prime minister compared to 38 per cent for Peter Dutton. Asked this week about his surge in the polls, the Prime Minister said he’d been “underestimated” going into the campaign. “But the truth is that it’s hard to win a second term and, you know, we’re trying to climb a mountain,” he said. “No prime minister has been re-elected since John Howard in 2004.” The campaign lull over the Easter break means both Mr Albanese and Mr Dutton have just days left to sell themselves to voters ahead of early voting opening on Tuesday. With almost half of the country’s 18 million enrolled voters expected to cast their ballots before polling day, if previous election trends continue, this week could be key to either leader’s success come May 3. That’s likely why both men ricocheted across the country this week, with Mr Albanese alone visiting seven battleground seats in three states. Three were marginal Labor seats, three were held by the Liberals with a slight lead and one was picked up by the Greens last election. Despite a few speed bumps in the form of a report Russia approached Indonesia and claims Labor has a “secret plan” to dump negative gearing, Mr Albanese projected confidence and seemed to enjoy himself. These are the key moments from his third week in the race for the Lodge, as the Labor leader pitched voters on housing, health, education and childcare. Both parties focus on their plan to fix the housing crisis The two parties’ housing plans dominated the political discussion this week after each leader kicked off their official campaigns on Sunday. With the housing crisis firming as a key issue this election, both the Prime Minister and Opposition Leader were keen to tout their policies as a fix to housing unaffordability. Anthony Albanese pledged $10bn to build 100,000 homes earmarked for first home buyers only and an expansion to a government guarantor scheme which would see buyers avoid lenders mortgage insurance with only a 5 per cent deposit needed. Spruiking his policy, Mr Albanese said 150,000 first home buyers had already benefited from the guarantor scheme already with just three people defaulting on their mortgage. The Coalition, on the other hand, vowed to allow Australians to dip into their super to buy a home and will make mortgage interest payments tax deductible for first home buyers of newly built homes. Peter Dutton said his plan would save the average household $12,000 a year in mortgage interest off their tax for the first five years. Albo fails to answer questions on when power prices would fall During the second leaders debate on Wednesday, Mr Albanese was asked four times by the ABC’s David Speers when power prices would fall. After promising bills would fall by $275 in 2025 before the last election, the Prime Minister was, perhaps unsurprisingly, unwilling to give a firm answer. “We can’t wait to the 2040s for a nuclear plant,” he said in a dig at the Coalition’s plan to build nuclear power stations. “We know renewables are the cheapest form of power.” The spectre of negative gearing changes returns After losing both the 2016 and 2019 elections, Labor dumped their policy to wind back negative gearing – but it never left the political discussion. The tax concession roared back into the spotlight during the Leaders debate as Peter Dutton accused Labor of having “secret plans” to abolish negative gearing. He argued the Prime Minister’s denials were lies, pointing to reports last year that the federal Treasury had investigated a potential overhaul. Mr Albanese repeatedly denied any plans to scrap negative gearing while Treasurer Jim Chalmers, the following day, said he had sought a view from Treasury. “It is normal practice to seek or receive advice on these issues from time to time. We didn’t commission modelling,” Mr Chalmers said. “The view from the Treasury is that a change to negative gearing wouldn’t get the sort of improvement that we desperately need to see in our economy when it comes to supply.” Dutton’s slip up seized on When news broke on Tuesday that a US military journal had reported Russia approached the Indonesian government over the use of a military base in Papua it dominated headlines. Peter Dutton quickly jumped on national TV to accuse Labor of a foreign policy failure. “Did the Prime Minister know about this before it was publicly announced by the President of Indonesia?’’ he queried. It later emerged the President had not confirmed the request, and that Indonesian authorities had told the Australian government they would not allow such a move. More than 24 hours later, Mr Dutton was forced to concede he’d made a mistake by attributing the report to Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto. The Opposition Leader’s admission was quickly seized on by Mr Albanese who accused him of being too aggressive and too reckless to be prime minister. “Yesterday you saw the contrast between a government that’s considered, that deals with our neighbours and deals internationally in a diplomatic way, that doesn’t leap to conclusions, that doesn’t get ahead of ourselves, that doesn’t dial it up to 11,” he said. PM shrugs off hotel confrontation In what has become a recurring occurrence of the campaign for both Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton, the Prime Minister was confronted in his Melbourne hotel. In a video that circulated on social media on Tuesday evening, two men approached Mr Albanese filming before they were moved on by the Prime Minister’s security detail. One man raised the housing crisis, questioning “when are you going to put Australians first?” A second man asks: “Albo, how do you feel about the rise in immigration, mate? Do you think it’s fair?” Mr Albanese shrugged the incident off when questioned on Wednesday, saying he had faith in the AFP to protect him and would continue to make public appearances. “Nothing stops me,” he said. “I think it’s really important and it’s something that I’ve done. I go into uncontrolled environments, you’ve seen it happen time and time again.” The Prime Minister is no stranger to protests this campaign, with a number of events being disrupted and a tent set up outside his Copacabana home to dray attention to the housing crisis.