Federal election 2025 LIVE updates: Half a million votes cast on first day of early voting; Trump tariff war to blow $13b hole in economy

As mentioned earlier, Chalmers and Taylor are also facing off in a debate and, unsurprisingly, it’s a fight over numbers.

The debate, hosted by the Business Council and the Council of Small Business Organisations of Australia, is being held before a large audience in Melbourne.

Taylor has kicked off the discussion, accusing the government of leaving the budget in the red with debt on its way to $1.2 trillion, the biggest fall in living standards on record and business investment at its lowest level since 1991.

“We can get our country back on track. We can get investment moving, we can get business moving,” he said.

Surprisingly, Chalmers has latched on to one of the Coalition’s common talking points, which is the number of business insolvencies since the government came to office.

“They point to 29,000 insolvencies this term, when 850,000 new businesses have been created in the same period. Insolvencies now are occurring at half the rate they were under John Howard,” he said.

He also argued that business investment was at its highest level in more than a decade.

While it started politely, it quickly moved into a bit of argy-bargy with the debate over the cost of Coalition promises. There are plenty of accusations of lying, from both men.

Taylor said Chalmers should be honest with the nation’s voters and accused people of “telling lies again”.

That prompted a bit of a zinger from the treasurer.

“The things that Angus didn’t say a moment ago is when he said that growth is the key, which is a slogan, not a policy – sort of like a year 9 economics assignment,” he said.

Responding to Ruston’s claims on Medicare, Butler said Dutton’s record as health minister was “truly abysmal”.

He reminded the National Press Club Audience about Dutton’s 2014 pre-budget speech in which he outlined he’d rip out “$50 billion from public hospitals, a tax on every visit to the GP for every man, woman, pensioner and child”.

“And when Labor blocked that vandalism in the Senate, Peter Dutton responded by freezing the Medicare rebates for six long years, ripping billions of dollars out of general practice.”

Butler said nine years of cuts and calculated neglect had precipitated the current crisis.

“A stronger Medicare sits at the heart of the Albanese government’s plan to build Australia’s future. That’s why Medicare has featured so heavily in Labor’s election campaign because, for Labor, Medicare is the beating heart of Australia’s enviable health system,” Butler said.

He affirmed Labor’s pledge to invest $8 billion to deliver bulk-billing support for the first time to every Australian.

“At the last election, we promised 50 Medicare urgent care clinics, and we’ve delivered 87,” he said.

Meanwhile, Health Minister Mark Butler and opposition health spokeswoman Anne Ruston are debating at the National Press Club in Canberra.

Ruston opened the debate by saying Australia’s health system had long been the envy of the world, as it was grounded in the belief of equal care for all.

“Australians, rightly, are proud of Medicare, which is why it has been so disappointing to see the prime minister, the leader of this country, behaving like a political vulture, preying on hard-working, elderly, sick and vulnerable Australians using this as a campaign to fuel his Mediscare campaign,” Ruston said.

“Prime minister, Medicare is not a plaything of yours. It belongs to the Australian people. And while the PM is out there waving his Medicare card around and trying to lie his way back to The Lodge, Australians are living with the reality that our health system is under real pressure at the moment. And Australians know because it’s never been harder or more expensive to see a doctor than it is right now in this country.”

Ruston said Labor had failed Australians on healthcare, weakening Medicare and leading to an 11 per cent drop in bulk-billing to 77 per cent.

“Across the country, Australians have seen 40 million fewer bulk-billed visits to their GP last year alone, and while bulk billing is dropping, out-of-pocket costs are skyrocketing.”

Ruston said the Coalition ruled out any cuts to Medicare.

“We will keep open all urgent care clinics. Under us, medicines will be cheaper. We rule out any costs to hospital funding and the Coalition will never move to a US-style health care system. These are just Labor lies.”

Treasurer Jim Chalmers and shadow treasurer Angus Taylor went head-to-head today in a televised economic debate from Melbourne.

Rewatch the debate below.

NSW Police have released images of a man they believe can assist them over an investigation into dozens of political posters plastered with offensive graffiti in Sydney’s inner west.

Between 1.30am and 2am on Tuesday, AEST, 27 posters, two buildings and a sign outside a hotel were vandalised with offensive symbols and words, police said.

The posters, belonging to candidates from several political parties, were displayed throughout Newtown, Enmore and Erskineville. Some of the posters have been forensically examined.

Police on Wednesday afternoon released images of a man they believe can assist with their investigation into the graffiti.

The man, seen near Erskineville Road, Erskineville, about 1.50am on Tuesday, is described as being of Caucasian appearance, aged in his mid-20s, of medium build, around180 centimetres tall, and having mid-length brown hair. He is wearing a black hoodie, black shorts and black thongs in the images.

Anyone with information about the graffiti, or CCTV or mobile phone footage related to the incident, is urged to contact Newtown police station or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

Police also urged any victims of a hate crime or witnesses to a hate crime to contact Crime Stoppers.

Peter Dutton is now at the Centenary Avenue Ramp in the Labor-held marginal seat of Tangney, in Perth’s south-east, announcing $112 million to widen a bridge that crosses over a river.

He’s flanked by Liberal candidate Howard Ong, whose brother is a minister in the Singaporean government.

Ong is taking on Labor’s Sam Lim, a former dolphin trainer elected in 2022. Federal Labor won four seats from the Liberal Party at that election off the back of WA Labor’s success borne out of pandemic management.

We’re on the campaign trail in Perth where the opposition leader and defence spokesman have been speaking about the Coalition’s defence policy. Here are some pictures.

Returning to Dutton’s Perth press conference for a moment.

Towards the end, the press pack asked how the Coalition would pay for billions of dollars in additional defence spending.

The major theme of Dutton’s answer was that an incoming Coalition government would “always be better” at economic management.

As for specifics, the opposition leader cited billions in savings from scrapping Labor’s proposed tax cuts.

“We will well and truly deal with the expenditure side of it,” Dutton said.

“We’ve been very clear about that.”

Earlier today, Dutton also pointed to savings from a reduction in the number of federal public servants.