Protesters turn up at Dutton’s events despite secret travel plans – as it happened (2025)

We’re going to wrap up the blog for the first full day of the federal election campaign. These were the key events:

– The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and the opposition leader Peter Dutton began the day with campaign stops in Brisbane, with the PM spruiking Labor’s record on healthcare and delivery of urgent care clinics and Dutton reiterating his focus on the economy

– Climate activist group Rising Tide disrupted two campaign events held by Dutton, unfurling banners calling for no new gas or nuclear power plants

– The deputy prime minister, Richard Marles, announced $10m for a community hub in Darwin if Labor is reelected. At a second stop in Bundaberg, Albanese announced $20m to launch a “Buy Australia” campaign.

– The Greens also kicked off their campaign in Brisbane, with the party’s leader, Adam Bandt, saying Brisbane voters are “in the box seat”

– Flood warnings remained in place for large parts of Queensland where heavy rain continues. In Western Australia, tropical cyclone Dianne crossed the Kimberley coast early on Saturday before being downgraded to a tropical low.

Thanks for joining us, we’ll see you again tomorrow.

Albanese lands in Canberra after visiting Queensland and making brief stop in NSW on first day of campaign

The press pack following Anthony Albanese has landed in Canberra as the first full day of campaigning wraps up.

After starting the morning at a Medicare urgent care clinic in Peter Dutton’s electorate of Dickson, Albanese travelled north to Bundaberg in central Queensland to launch a new $20m Buy Australia campaign.

While the media contingent were travelling back to Canberra, the prime minister made a quick detour to Bega on the far south coast of NSW to commit $16m for a local pool.

Albanese is expected to remain in Canberra overnight before an appearance on ABC’s Insiders program.

Dutton finishes a busy day one on the campaign trail

Peter Dutton has ended day one of the election campaign in the Brisbane seat of Moreton. His campaign will stay in this city overnight – destination tomorrow unknown.

Dutton hit the seats of Brisbane (including campaigning with the Coalition candidate for nearby Ryan), his own electorate of Dickson, and now Moreton. Aside from a quick stop he made at a community morning tea in his home town – which his office said was a commitment made before the election campaign – he visited all winnable target seats for the Coalition – two held by the Greens, one by Labor.

The Coalition already holds most seats in Queensland, but wants to win more wherever they can.

Other key stats for the day include:

– three picture opportunities

– one press conference

– two morning TV interviews

– one beer poured

– one beer sipped

– two anti-nuclear protesters

– one succulent Chinese meal

– $225,000 pledged (for the Queensland Chinese museum)

We’ll see you in the morning.

Littleproud calls for large-scale federal support in wake of devastating Queensland floods

The leader of the Nationals, David Littleproud, is calling for a full national response to the devastating floods in western Queensland.

Littleproud said the response should match what was needed in the 2019 floods, after catastrophic flooding in Julia Creek and Winton saw the loss of up to half a million cattle:

Immediate, large-scale support is desperately needed for western Queensland.

This disaster requires a bipartisan approach, to ensure locals get the assistance they need. We back any measure in relation to providing support, including the request of the Australian Defence Force, if that is made by the Queensland government.

Good afternoon everyone, Lisa Cox here to take you through any developments on the campaign trail this afternoon.

And with that, I leave the blog with Lisa Cox. Thanks for reading.

Peter Dutton has again been targeted by protesters from climate action group Rising Tide, who managed to gatecrash an event at a Chinese restaurant in the electorate of Moreton.

Just hours after his very first campaign event of the election at the XXXX brewery was targeted by an anti-nuclear protester, Dutton again endured a shouted protest from Rising Tide.

A woman managed to get close to Dutton and unfurl a banner calling for no new gas or nuclear. There’s now been about half a dozen events - mostly hosted by the Coalition - “bird-dogged” by Rising Tide.

The campaign stops of each party leader are closely guarded secrets for security reasons – but also to avoid protests. It’s unclear how protesters are learning about Dutton’s movements.

At the restaurant in Labor-held Moreton, Dutton addressed a small group of supporters from the Chinese community. He announced $225,000 for the Queensland Chinese museum – currently a virtual resource – to improve its website and go toward building a physical museum.

“The Chinese museum of Queensland plays a vital role in preserving the stories of Queensland’s Chinese heritage, including the contributions of Chinese immigrants to Australia and cultural and religious traditions of Chinese Australian communities,” Dutton said in a statement.

Andrew Gee, an independent MP for Calare in NSW, has been caught doing an “Angus Taylor” by replying to a Facebook post from his own account.

Gee posted a statement on Facebook on Friday accusing the Nationals of engaging in “dirty tactics” on day one of the election, claiming they had called an elderly constituent and spread “blatant lies about who I was going to preference in this election”.

In a comment underneath the post, Gee appeared to reply to his own post, thanking himself for being the “good guy” compared to the Nationals and the “Teal mob”. The comment read:

“Thank you Andrew Gee MP I am new to the area and have received texts from the Nationals and seen nasty ads in the paper from the Teal mob, it has helped me see who is the good guy.

The reply was later deleted and comments on the post were restricted to Gee’s followers.

Guardian Australia has approached Gee for comment.

In a statement provided to the Daily Telegraph, a spokesperson for Gee said the post was made without his knowledge by a “new and inexperienced member of the campaign team” who had access to his social media account.

The staffer said they knew it was an “extremely disappointing and unacceptable thing to do”, the spokesperson said, adding that “Gee does not condone, approve of or support under any circumstances”.

Gee was elected in 2016 as a member of the National party before he resigned and turned independent in 2022 due to the party’s opposition to the voice to parliament referendum. He will recontest the seat against his former party.

Social media users drew parallels between the post one made in 2019 by the Liberal MP Angus Taylor who replied to his own Facebook post congratulating himself for announcing new car parks across his Hume electorate, writing: “Fantastic. Well done Angus. Great move”.

A spokesperson for Taylor later said the comment was a “simple mistake” that occurred when an admin of the Facebook page was switching between multiple accounts.

Marles announces $10m community hub in Darwin if Labor re-elected

The deputy prime minister, Richard Marles, is in Darwin today, where he has announced a $10m commitment to establish a community hub in Zuccoli if Labor is re-elected.

He was also asked there about the 99 year lease of Port Darwin granted to the Chinese-owned Landbridge Group in 2015:

The port should never have been leased in this way, and that’s been our position from the get-go.

He adds that how the lease is managed is up to the NT government, but “we keep engaging with the Northern Territory government on this issue”.

Wong targets Dutton’s foreign policy and energy credentials

Wong continued, taking a couple of shots at Dutton, focusing on his foreign policy and his gas plan:

Peter Dutton gave a so-called foreign policy speech last week – ... he didn’t mention Japan, Korea, China, India, Indonesia, he actually didn’t mention Asean at all, which is really quite... shows you what the map of the world according to Peter Dutton might look like.

On gas prices, she said Labor had secured “six times more gas supply for the domestic market” than Dutton’s gas reserves plan promises, and then added that Dutton “really wants you to believe he cares about domestic gas”:

Well, he voted against price caps, he voted against the code of conduct which has enabled more gas to be supplied to the Australian market.

This is Peter Dutton reheating a failed Scott Morrison announcement.