Federal election 2025 LIVE updates: PM to spruik $204m around-the-clock Medicare hotline; Dutton’s better budget pledge to rely on cuts

The surge in early voting is showing no signs of easing up.

Figures from the Australian Electoral Commission show 2.4 million people had pre-polled as of Saturday evening. Another 500,000 people had returned a postal ballot.

Combined, that’s 2.9 million people – or more than 16 per cent – of total 18.1 million eligible voters who have already cast a ballot.

Of course, not all 18.1 million people will vote – the 2022 election had the lowest voter turnout (just under 90 per cent) since the introduction of compulsory voting after the 1922 election.

In the western Melbourne seat of Hawke, where Dutton held a rally this morning, more than 21 per cent of people have voted. In the razor-thin seat of Gilmore, held by Labor, more than a fifth of people have already had their say.

At Albanese’s rally site today in Parramatta, the pre-poll is a relatively modest 13 per cent.

While pre-poll voting has only been a major feature of elections since 2010, the biggest pre-poll days are traditionally the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday before election day.

Albanese has stepped up his warnings against a Coalition government as the federal election campaign enters its final week.

“Consider the record of our first three years – and contrast it with the damage of the Coalition decade. Never forget Robodebt. Never forget their neglect of older Australians in care. Never forget how they left our military veterans out in the cold. And now their sales pitch to Australia is: let’s go back,” he says.

“I want Australia to go forward. We are here to do so much more than just repair the damage of our predecessors. We won’t settle for the old status quo. Our nation has the momentum. What’s so important now is to keep building on it.”

Albanese frames the election as a choice: “A choice between building Australia’s future, or a darker, meaner, nastier reboot of the past. A choice between going forwards, or getting dragged backwards. A choice between backing Australians, or sacking Australians.”

Voters can expect to hear these more negative propositions played up in the next few days, as both leaders escalate their final pitch ahead of polling day.

The biggest cheers at this morning’s Labor rally in Parramatta have been for Medicare. Many in the 300-person crowd wave Labor-branded “Albo” placards during the leaders’ speeches. But just as many here today are waving green and gold posters that say “more bulk-billing”, complete with the Medicare logo. It is another indication of how strongly Labor is seeking to tie its brand to Medicare at this year’s election.

Albanese, once again, whips out his own Medicare card – a near-daily campaign stunt at this point. “The fact that this card is green and gold is no accident. We take pride in it as Australians, just as we take pride in that other great Labor reform, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme … A vote for Labor is a vote for Medicare,” Albanese says.

“Today, we add to the strengthening Medicare agenda. A re-elected Labor government will make free, urgent care available to all Australians, in every community, with the launch of 1800 MEDICARE. A 24/7 health advice line and after-hours GP telehealth service, backed by Medicare.

“You’ll be able to call any time to get expert health advice from a registered nurse. If it’s something that can’t wait for your regular GP, you’ll be connected to a free GP telehealth consultation. Life isn’t 9 to 5. With 1800 MEDICARE, neither is healthcare.”

The former Morrison government has earned a few mentions at this morning’s Labor rally.

After campaign spokesman Jason Clare told the crowd that electing Dutton would be voting in another term of Morrison-era government, Albanese also made a joke about the former PM while promoting Labor’s housing policy.

“We want to keep building the new housing our nation needs, with our Homes for Australia plan. Training more tradies. Delivering new incentives for construction apprenticeships. And driving the biggest home-building program in Australian history,” Albanese said.

“The last government didn’t even have a housing minister for most of their decade in office. Scott Morrison couldn’t even be bothered adding it to his secret CV.”

NSW Premier Chris Minns received loud applause as he warmed up the crowd to welcome Albanese at this morning’s Labor rally in Parramatta.

As he spruiked the federal government’s policies on health and education, Minns reserved his jabs for Coalition shadow treasurer Angus Taylor. Labor had been making a meal of the Coalition’s tax breaks for small business lunches – one of its first economic policies in this election – and Minns kept it going this morning.

“You might have heard of him [Taylor], you may not have … His big plan is to give a small business tax break on entertainment expenses in order to bring back the long Friday lunch, as if that’s the reform that hardworking small businesses across our country have been demanding,” Minns said.

“Now I used to think that the Coalition couldn’t organise a piss-up in a brewery, but friends, it seems I was absolutely wrong. It’s the only thing that they can organise.

“Of the bold reforming policies a self-respecting conservative shadow treasurer could do to boost jobs, economic growth, this is what he lands on. That and a series of half-thought-through but usually immediately abandoned media releases. Friends, what it’s not is a specific, detailed alternative plan for a national economy.”

Minns went on to promote Albanese as the best person to guide Australia through uncertain times.

Earlier during Dutton’s rally, he used a story of an elderly woman having a machete held to her throat as proof of increased crime.

The Coalition has argued throughout the campaign that it will be tougher on crime compared with the Albanese government, as Dutton said the community was less safe under Labor.

“We have spoken to elderly women, one in particular who waited [in an] IGA not too far from here … she had a machete held to her throat. She lives with the mental scarring of that today,” he said.

“It is a common story. Labor has made our community and country less safe.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is at a campaign rally in the western Sydney seat of Parramatta this morning. About 300 Labor supporters have come out in the rain to hear him speak ahead of the final week of the election campaign.

Former Indigenous affairs minister Linda Burney, who is resigning from politics, is giving the Welcome to Country.

Labor MP Andrew Charlton is seeking to hold this important Sydney seat. He holds it on a 3.7 per cent margin, but the Liberals are targeting it.

Labor’s campaign spokesman, Education Minister Jason Clare, is also here, as is NSW Premier Chris Minns. Both will address the rally.

Continuing on Dutton’s rally in Melbourne, he has told supporters to forget about outlets such as the ABC and The Guardian and other “hate media”.

As polls continue to show a decline in support for Dutton, the opposition leader declared he could win.

“We are in the fight … of our lives over the next six days. I have no doubt in my mind we can win this election,” he said.

“Forget about what you have been told by the ABC, in The Guardian and the other hate media. Listen to what you hear [at] the doors, listen to what people say on the pre-polling, know in your hearts we are a better future for our country.”