Source : the age
Key posts
Melbourne’s tobacco wars are in the sights of the Coalition, Peter Dutton says, as he pledges to marshal more national resources to combat organised crime.
Violence in Melbourne as gangs fight for control of illegal cigarettes has become “a huge concern for our country,” Dutton said, and the Commonwealth should deal with it at the border.
Peter Dutton speaking in Frankston on his proposed crime crackdown alongside Liberal candidate Nathan Conroy (left) and Senator James Paterson (right).Credit: James Brickwood
“The taxpayer is missing out on revenue” as black market cigarettes flood the market, he said, “and smoking rates haven’t gone down”. Dutton added the Coalition had no plans to lower the current tax on smoking.
A new $355 million federal taskforce would tackle drug trafficking and organised crime, while more resources would go to Border Force to intercept drugs and icigarettes.
Less than two weeks before the election on May 3, the Coalition is looking to brand itself as tough on crime with the $750 million suite of measures.
Asked about the Coalition’s plan to address the crisis of family violence, Dutton said he would “have more to say” on that as a “stand alone” policy announcement.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has vowed to make law and order a priority of a Coalition government as he unveils a proposed $750 million crackdown on crime, dubbed “operation safer communities”.
Speaking from Frankston in Melbourne’s south-east, Dutton spoke of a recent spree of home burglaries affecting families and driving up the crime rate. “People feel unsafe,” he said, echoing comments earlier from Liberal candidate Nathan Conroy who said locals didn’t feel safe going to the shops.
Dutton pledged to boost support to police and community groups on the ground as part of a new national effort to co-ordinate crackdowns on organised crime and the border, particularly in light of Melbourne’s “tobacco wars” over control of black-market cigarettes.
Peter Dutton attended a roundtable with locals in Carrum Downs ahead of his press conference on Monday afternoon.Credit: James Brickwood
Asked if he had missed his calling as a police commissioner or a state premier given his focus on crimes which are state matters, Dutton said it was the job of a prime minister to keep Australians and their suburbs safe.
“The cars [in Melbourne] are being stolen to fuel outlaw motorcycle gangs selling drugs to our kids,” he said. “My job is to keep Australians safe.”
Another key plank of the plan is to trial a national sex offender register, which Dutton said was inspired by a British model where parents could raise suspicions about people who interact with their children.
Both leaders are in Melbourne at the moment. Anthony Albanese is attending a yum cha-style lunch with members of the Chinese-Australian community in Box Hill, in the city’s eastern suburbs. It sits in the marginal electorate of Menzies, held by Liberal MP Keith Wolahan.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Labor candidate for Menzies, Gabriel Ng, and Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong sit down for lunch in Melbourne.today.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
Albanese is dining alongside Foreign Minister Penny Wong, the Labor member for the neighbouring seat of Chisholm, Carina Garland. and Labor’s candidate for Menzies, Gabriel Ng.
Peter Dutton spoke to the media this afternoon, announcing a $750 million crime crackdown. Watch below:
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has taunted opposition defence spokesman Andrew Hastie about his absence from the Coalition’s election campaign, saying it is a sign of chaos inside the opposition.
Hastie is a telegenic former Special Forces troop commander who is seen by some within the Liberal Party as a potential future leader. Yet he has not appeared in the national media during the campaign, even as the Coalition seeks to probe the government over what it knew about a reported Russian request to base long-range aircraft in Indonesia.
Hastie has appeared once with Opposition Leader Peter Dutton during the campaign so far, when they travelled to the Northern Territory to announce the Coalition would end Chinese firm Landbridge’s long-term lease of the Port of Darwin.
Andrew Hastie standing behind Peter Dutton at a press conference in Darwin earlier in the campaign.Credit: James Brickwood
“There is chaos on their side. They have senior shadow ministers who haven’t been sighted,” Albanese said at a press conference in Batemans Bay this morning. “I don’t know where Andrew Hastie’s been. He’s the shadow defence minister.”
Hastie’s social media accounts show he has been focused on local issues such as hospital and transport funding in his Perth electorate of Canning, which he holds on a slender margin of just 1.2 per cent.
A YouGov poll published at the end of March showed Hastie ahead 52-48 against Labor in his seat, which he has held since 2015.
However, Hastie’s absence from the national campaign is set to end soon: the Coalition is expected to announce an increase in Defence spending this week before Anzac Day.
There’s just one day left before early voting opens, and the campaign is back in full swing after Easter Sunday. I’m Sherryn Groch and I’ll be helming our live election coverage for the rest of the day, taking over from Angus Dalton.
Here’s what we’ve covered so far today:
- Opposition Leader Peter Dutton is unveiling his $750 million crime-fighting package, including a national drugs taskforce and a sex offender register parents can access.
- Labor says Dutton promised a sex offender register in government but didn’t deliver and has defended its own record on crime.
- Prime Minister Anthony Albanese conceded there’s “more to do” on gambling advertisement reform, after this masthead reported he shelved a clampdown on gambling ads to avoid an election fight with media and sports bosses.
- On the South Coast of NSW, Albanese brought his Medicare card to spruik Labor’s pledge to open more urgent care clinics before heading to Melbourne for the afternoon.
- Meanwhile, the Dutton bus hit another petrol station this morning, also in Melbourne, to promote the Coalition’s proposed cut to the fuel excise.
- Labor is ahead in the polls but is warning against complacency with less than a fortnight to go before election day on May 3.
The opposition leader is due to speak to the media soon.
Anger over the cost of living is eroding support for Labor in Australia’s most marginal seats, highlighting the challenge for Anthony Albanese in gaining a convincing lead over the Coalition in the final two weeks of the campaign.
An exclusive survey for this masthead by research firm Resolve Strategic shows 47 per cent of voters name the cost of living as the biggest reason for hesitating in giving their vote to Labor, ahead of other factors such as managing the economy.
Results also reveal that 45 per cent name Peter Dutton and his personality as the top reason they would not cast a ballot for the Coalition.
The concern about Dutton has widened among voters since the Resolve Political Monitor asked the same question in February, when 35 per cent said his personality as leader was the main reason for hesitation.
A flood of fake social media profiles are inundating political discussion and reaching millions of Australians during the election campaign.
Almost one in five accounts analysed on X, formerly Twitter, discussing the election were fake and used AI-generated images and emotionally manipulative language, according to disinformation detection company Cyabra.
One account posted more than 500 times and reached about 726,000 users, with the scale and impact of disinformation campaigns underscoring the growing threat to electoral integrity, the company said.
An analysis found almost one in five X accounts posting about the election were fake.Credit: Bloomberg
The fake profiles on X attacked both major parties but with different strategies.
Fake profiles sought to portray Peter Dutton as out of touch or inept while branding the party as broadly incompetent and corrupt, “creating the illusion of widespread support for the current administration and reinforcing partisan sentiment”.
Other accounts coined hashtags including “Labor fail” and “Labor lies” and ridiculed the prime minister with nicknames like “Fweeby Albaneesy”, in reference to receiving free upgrades.
Bots even outperformed real users on several occasions, “allowing them to dominate the narrative”, the report found.
“The overwhelming presence and influence of these fake accounts point to a deliberate attempt to distort public opinion, drown out authentic voices, and manipulate the political conversation on social media.”
But it was hard to determine who was behind the bots and targeted misinformation campaigns, the company said.
AAP
After an early morning flight from Brisbane to Melbourne, the Dutton bus has reached its 12th petrol station in the marginal seat of Dunkley.
Dutton is expected to drive into the Duck Over petrol station in Carrum Downs – not too far from Frankston.
Dutton with Dunkley candidate Nathan Conroy and Liberal senator James Patterson.Credit: James Brickwood
Last year, Liberal candidate for Dunkley Nathan Conroy lost to Labor’s Jodie Belyea in a byelection after the death of well-liked Labor MP Peta Murphy in late 2023.
He will be hoping to win against Belyea this time around.
Dutton exited a Mazda with Conroy as he met Coalition home affairs spokesman James Paterson.
While Anthony Albanese campaigned this morning on NSW’s South Coast in the super-marginal seat of Gilmore – held by Labor by 0.2 per cent – Peter Dutton’s camp has landed in Melbourne.
We’ll bring you updates on the opposition leader’s movements and what more he says on the Coalition’s proposed $750 million funding splash on crime-fighting measures.
Use the interactive below to see where else the leaders have visited over the course of the campaign.
