April 29, 2025 • 19 mins
The Australian federal election is heating up.
Anthony Albanese is facing the challenge of becoming the first PM to be re-elected since John Howard. He has been an MP since 1996, when he was the youngest Labor member of the house.
Meanwhile, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton brings with him a wealth of experience, having been elected to the house of representatives in 2001 aged 30.
Both have sat across the aisle from each other for years. And this Saturday, Australians will vote which will lead their country for the next three years.
Today on The Front Page, ABC News political reporter Claudia Long takes a break from following around the candidates and joins us from Melbourne to talk polls, policies – and what Kiwis in Aussie need to know.
Follow The Front Page on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
You can read more about this and other stories in the New Zealand Herald, online at nzherald.co.nz, or tune in to news bulletins across the NZME network.
Host: Chelsea Daniels
Sound Engineer: Richard Martin
Producer: Ethan Sills
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Gilda.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
I'm Chelsea Daniels and this is the Front Page, a
daily podcast presented by The New Zealand Herald. The Australian
federal election is heating up. Anthony Alberizi is facing the
challenge of becoming the first PM to be re elected
since John Howard. Alberizi has been an MP since nineteen
(00:29):
ninety six, when he was the youngest labor member of
the House.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
For myself, I will be satisfied if I can be
remembered as someone who will stand up for the interests
of my electorate, for working class people, for the labor movement,
and for our progressive advancement as a nation into the
next century.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Meanwhile, Opposition leader Peter Dutton brings with him a wealth
of experience, having been elected to the House of Representatives
in two thousand and one aged thirty.
Speaker 4 (00:55):
Mister Speaker of the Silent Majority, the forgotten people, or
the aspirational voter of our generations, some like to term
it fed up with bodies like the Civil Liberties Council
and the Refugee Action Collective, and certainly the dictatorship of
the trade union movement.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Both men have sat across the aisle from each other
for years, and this Saturday, Australians will vote which will lead.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Their country for the next three years. Today on the.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Front page, ABC News political reporter Claudia Long takes a
break from following around the candidates and joins us from
Melbourne to talk polls, policies and what Kiwi's and Aussie
need to know. First off, Claudia, how's the campaign been
thus far?
Speaker 5 (01:44):
Long? Well, it feels long, it's actually been relatively short,
so they've been five weeks. But it's been a bit
of a bumpy road, I think for a number of
the leaders, particularly for the Opposition leader Peter Glotvin, so
he's had a few stumbles over the last week. But
the Prime Minister is also, you know, had a not
quite perfect campaign either. I think it's not exactly what
either of them we're hoping for that we're getting to
(02:06):
crunch point now. A lot of people have already voted here.
Early voting is a big thing in Australia and only
getting bigger, and so these last few days, even though
lots of lots of people have already voted, I think
there's still at least half of the voting population who hasn't,
so there's still some time for leaders to make their pictures,
for local candidates to get out there and meet potential
(02:27):
constituents who were almost at the end, which is a
little bit of a relief.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
At the start of twenty twenty five, it looked like
the coalition was going to make Albernezia one term prime minister.
But in the last few weeks though, the polling is
flipped and now Labor and Elbow are ahead in most categories.
So what's gone on there?
Speaker 1 (02:46):
Do you think?
Speaker 5 (02:47):
Well, I think there's been some of those stumbles from
the opposition, whether that they had a policy around springing
all public servants back into the office, so getting rid
of working from home provisions if you're at the public service. Now,
that went down like a lead balloon basically, well beyond
public service as well, because there's a lot of folks
here who, you know, like having a flexibility to work
(03:07):
from home whether or not they're in the public service,
and I think a lot of people were really put
off by that policy. Now that's since been reversed, but
the damage was really a done there. I think the
federal government's also had a number of things their way
as well during the campaign that has sort of exacerbated
that problem for Peter Dutton, the coalition leader. So they've
had policy announcements that have been quite well received, particularly
(03:30):
around housing, but also around tax deductions as well, and
so I think that sort of all contributes to that
slide that you've seen for Peter Dutton in the polls. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
I read somewhere as well.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
I mean, the Trump effect really took Europe by a storm.
I know, a lot of far right parties in Europe
gained a lot from Trump's success. Has done kind of
gotten the tail end of it. So when he's talking
about immigration and things, I mean, and then we saw
the tariff wars that have erupted since Trump announced those
earlier this year. Has he just kind of got in
(04:02):
at the tail end of it.
Speaker 5 (04:03):
Yeah, I think you're exactly right, and I think in
this case it's actually a good Trump effect, but it's negative.
So he has been really trying to existence himself from
Donald Trump. This is after you know, earlier in his
time as opposition leader saying that he's a think out,
really kind of praising the United States president almost. I
think that also a lot of his campaign has been
(04:24):
likened to Trump. So for example, we've seen that the
opposition we're going to introduce a DOGE, you know, a
Department of Government deficiency. In fact, I'm pretty sure that's
still on their list of things that they want to do,
which was immediately likely to Trump. I mean, even the
name is the same as the American one, which has
obviously been associated with a lot of job losses, with
a lot of cuts in the United States, and of
course with Elon Musks, who I think it's fair to
(04:47):
say a lot of voters find quite off putting. And
that's what I say. The privateness has been perfect on
this either. You know, I've seen, particularly online in one
of the debates, the Prime Minister said Donald Trump hasn't
given him a reason not to trust him. Now, I've
seen a lot of women I'll negatively react to that,
particularly quoting for example, when he's bragged about sexually harassing
(05:07):
or groping live for instance. So I think you know
that the Trump factor is definitely a factor, but it's
been more of a problem for Peter Duncktt.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
This election is all about who can best manage the
Australian economy and if we can manage the economy well,
it means that we can bring inflation down. It means
that we can help families with the cost of living
crisis that this government's created. We live in the best
country in the world, but we do know that many
families are doing it tough.
Speaker 6 (05:36):
Australians have a real choice this Saturday to continue building
Australia's future or go back to the past. Labor has
a real plan for cost of living support today whilst
building with investment for tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
What are the key policies from each party?
Speaker 5 (05:56):
Most of it, really SAICH is around possibly the Labor
that's been around increasing Medicare bulk billing rebates. So the
way that menkey works in Australia is that a rebate
is set for doctors who bolt bill, which is see
the patients for free, so doctors will get more backed
for that. They've got a whole women's health package that's
particularly focused on contraception but also on menopause treatment, as
(06:18):
well as expanding their first home buyers home deposit scheme,
so that's when you can get a five percent house
rather than ten percent the mortgage and then the government
will guarantee your loon on the Polis side. They've also
got a lot around housing and cost of living, so
they have been arguing that our first home buyers should
be able to deduct their mortgage payments from their taxes.
(06:38):
That's been one of their key policies in selected and
they're also proposing a twenty five percent migration cut which
has been a highly controversial. It's been fascinating to see
the impact that that policy has on Saturday, particularly when
you know our economy but also our care sector in
particular here in Australia relies a lot on skilled migration
quite heavily. That would have a far reaching key packed
(07:00):
that policy. And who've been trying to get questions Actually
two Peter don't about whether or not care workers will
be exempt, and he won't answer when we've asked. So
I think that's that's a point of interest as well.
That the migration puts is definitely one of those big
policies which they link to housing too. They claim the
housing shortage is a bit exacerbated particularly by international students.
(07:22):
And then they also are pitching a national gas reservation
of policy, so they see gas as very much a
part of their plans to get to zero along with
building a number of nuclear power plants as well.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
So here in New Zealand, the big issues when it
comes to Australia is the five h one deportees coming
back here and on the pathways to citizenship for those
Kiwis who do live there. What have the major parties
said about the rights of New Zealanders in Australia.
Speaker 5 (07:51):
So the Coalition have actually adopted the policy that Labor
put in place in twenty twenty three, which is about
making getting citizenship here akili so you get it up
to four years. I believe it's a permanent resident in
Australia with very few exceptions. Now, when Labor introduced that,
the Coalition book highly critical again on this sort of
housing front related to migration. They said they were concerned
(08:13):
that increased migration of people from New Zealand to Australia
would exacerbate the housing shortage here. But they've changed their
gin on that at the election. They've now said that
they will not reverse what the Albanezy government did, So
that permanent residency to citizenship pathway for New Zealanders is
going to stay as it is now no matter which
party ends up.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
For me governments so the.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Pair faced off for the final time in a debate
before Australia heads to the polls. Of course, on Saturday,
I saw Dustin singled out China as the biggest threat
to Australia's national security and it's not the first time
is said that as well. National security featured heavily in
the debate. Hey, is this something that Australians are quite
worried about?
Speaker 5 (08:55):
I think it's definitely at the forefront of people's minds.
I mean not as much as possibly, to be honest,
that's the big, big, BIGI big thing here at the moment,
because I think when you can't afford to pay your rent,
or you can't afford to eat, or you're having to
take on extra shifts at work, like you haven't actually
really got time or the brain space to think about
a lot else when it comes to longer term and
(09:15):
more wide branching policies. But you're right, like it is
definitely on people's minds. I think it's an interesting choice
from Peter Dunnell to go there. And the reason that
I think it's an interesting choice is that the Liberals
are fighting really really hard to try and win a
seat called Ben Along which is on the North Shore
in Sydney. It's the seat that used to belong to
John Howard. It was a very long serving Prime Minister
(09:36):
in Australia in the late nineties and early two thousand
and It's got a really substantial Chinese population and in
that seat it used to be a safe Liberal seat.
At the last election, following the Morrison governments rhetoric on China,
there was a huge swing among Chinese Australian voters in
that seat against the Coalition. I'm surprised that they're going
back to this sort of rhetoric so close to the election,
(09:57):
particularly when that's a seat that has the margin between
the two candidates They're right, if eighty four votes, it
is tiny. It's also one that they really need to
win if they want to form government. So I'm surprised
to see him going back to that rhetoric because I
would imagine that would be quite off putting, I think
to a number of people in that community, if last
elections results are anything to go by. But we'll have
to see. I have to see on Saturday. I'm excited.
(10:19):
I can't wait to see all of the results.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
And I guess we can't mention the debate without mentioning
Dunn and saying the Indigenous welcome to country is overdone.
Speaker 4 (10:38):
For the start of every meeting at work or the
start of a football game. I think a lot of
Australians think it's overdone and it cheapens the significance of
what it was meant to do. It divides the country.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Why has this come about? And for those who don't know,
what is the welcome to country?
Speaker 5 (10:57):
So welcomes to country are when an indigenous traditional owner
of the country that you're on essentially does a welcome
and they sometimes will speak about the land that you're on.
They might tell you a bit about its history, about
their people and their relationship to that land. It happens
often like pretty official ceremonies, so for example, like it
(11:17):
happens at the opening of Parliament or major events, and
it's something that has to be done by somebody who
is indigenous, like so for example in Australia, either Aboriginal
or to Austraight islander from the land that they are
welcoming you to. It's different to an acknowledgment of countries.
So that like when someone like me who is an
indigenous for example, would say like, you know, I work
on Nunea Wall and Nambry.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Land in Camber.
Speaker 5 (11:37):
And I think that's the thing about this debate that
has sort of gotten loss, which is that there seems
to be a conflation of these two things, are welcome
to country and an acknowledgment of country, which are very different.
They're not the same, but they're being conflated at the moment.
And so we've then seen this sort of a vowle
all through the last debate into Peter Dunel saying that
(11:57):
these things are overdone. Now what he's seen to be
actually referring to his acknowledgments of country not welcomes to country,
but he's using the language of welcome to country. So
to be honest, it's actually not entirely clear to me
exactly what he's talking about, but he believes that it's
something that is overdone in his view, for example, at
(12:18):
sans Ac Day or on planes or at football matches.
But that hasn't been particularly well received by a big
portion of the community. But at the same time, you know,
on the debate night at Channel seven when there was
a flash bowl of a group of people who've been
watching the debate afterwards, people did seem to really respond
to what he was saying. They seem to view it positively.
(12:39):
They have this thing called the false which means that
viewers are basically logging in real time like how they
feel about what a candidate is saying. And there was
an uptick as he was talking about it in a
positive direction. So it did really resonate with some people
as well. But it's a complicated discussion, that's for sure.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Australia has a lot more more independence and minor parties
than New Zealand. I read that in twenty twenty two
there were twenty four seats where they beat both Labor
and the Coalition and cross benches one fifteen of those.
In the end, it was the highest number of independent
minor party MPs elected in the modern political era. Now,
(13:19):
why is there such a movement towards smaller parties or
one party MPs.
Speaker 5 (13:25):
Well, I think it's a reflective of a broader movement
around the world where we've seen people really moving away
from these major parties who were really stalwarts about political
system and towards people who might be in all firebrands,
you know, or perhaps very different sort of like to
position themselves as being outside of politics while simultaneously inside politics.
(13:46):
It's going to be very interesting to see if the
so called teal independents can maintain the momentum that they
had at the last election. There's a number of seats
where they're facing really fierce contests against growths, which it
looks like some of them may lose their seats, but
if they managed to hold on, that will be fascinating
because once you've had an independent who's been in normally
about two terms, so basically gets elected the first time
(14:08):
and then re elected from being an incumbent, they are
really hard to shift. And at least that's what history
has shown us is it's very difficult. Once they're in,
they're in. And what that means for the Liberal Party
and the coalition will broadly, but also the Parliament as
a whole, is that that could really change the face
of Australian politics for decades to come, not just the
next election, not just the next term, but for a
(14:29):
really long time. And so I think that's going to
be one of the key things to look for on
Saturday Night, is if they can keep those seats and
also grow their numbers, and.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
We've delved into Australia's appolling rate of femicide on this
podcast before.
Speaker 7 (14:44):
Yeah, there is a much more laser focus on the
issue at the moment, but we also know that within
a week or two this focus will die down and
we'll be back to the normal level of indifference from
many media outlets and all so many politicians.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
On Albanese's promise to end violence against women in a generation,
what was the public's reaction to.
Speaker 5 (15:09):
That, well, I think at the time there was a
lot of hope that that could happen. When the National
Plan was introduced, you know, there's bipartisanship, it's been a
long running thing.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
I think there's grown to be.
Speaker 5 (15:21):
Frustration, particularly in some sectors of the community around the
national Plan and whether it's working and what the actual
benchmarks are because within a generation is a fairly non
specific phrase. It's not very well defined necessarily. And we've
also seen here over the past few weeks while this
(15:41):
campaign has been going on, there have been a number
of women who've been killed and what it is to
be domestic violence incidents now we can't say that for
sure or for a lot of them, like just like
to add, there's a lot of questions that still need
to be answered. These things have to go through the courts.
That's not for us to say yet. But there has
been a lot of discussion and debate around jend Violenceustralia
and where the governments are doing enough.
Speaker 4 (16:02):
Now.
Speaker 5 (16:02):
Last year we saw a real uptic in community frustration
anger around this because there were again a number of
women who were killed, and there were a number of
women who were killed in a really horrible incident at
a shopping center here, and that really had sent shock
waves around the country. Since then, we've seen the government,
federal government but also the state government's come together and
(16:25):
put out these very you know, big packages around spending
and reform. But what we also saw was that following
the federal budget where that happened, a number of frontline
workers were furious and frustrated and they said that the
government actually wasn't following through on their rhetoric, that a
lot of the money that they said they allocated was
for things that were already being spent on. You know,
one person described it to us as trickery and deception.
(16:48):
I mean, I don't think there's any two ways around that.
That's pretty unambiguously clear how they felt about it. We've
seen some movement on the campaign around this, So we
saw Labor announce a package around gender violence again and
in this election a couple of weeks ago, which was
then matched and expanded by the Coalition, which is much
more about like tracking and things like that. So for example,
(17:08):
it has commitments around ankle bracelets and offenders or a
national domestic violence registry for example. And I think there's
a lot of experts who will have questions around how
this will work and what some of the unintentional flow
and effects as well might be. But also a lot
of this stuff has been welcomed as well, because I
think people are frustrated and angry and upset that this
(17:30):
is still happening and that it took so long, to
be perfectly frank, for our leaders to be asked about
it and for them to say anything about it. So
I think we shall definitely keep being an issue after
the election is done and we have in your government.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
So, Claudia, how likely is it that we will know
who the prime minister will be on the night or
could we have to wait for some coalition negotiations?
Speaker 5 (17:54):
So it looks like if the polls are anything to
go by, and you know, they don't tell the future, unfortunately,
make my job a lot easier. But it looks like
that we could expect a minority government or a hung parliament,
so that you're right, it will take time to negotiate
what that looks like. Now, last time this happened in
twenty ten, that took a few weeks, so it wasn't
just one had done an election night. It went for
(18:15):
quite a while and there was a lot of back
and forth. So typically the party that has the most
seats in its own rights those negotiations. But you know,
I mean that's not to say everyone's always going to
play by the rules all the time. You can expect
that if that does happen, there'd probably be a few
tear independents in the mix. But you've also got independence
like Ellen Haynes, who's a regional Victorian independent. You've got
(18:36):
Bob Catter as well, who's very, you know, incredibly different
to the Teals, and so there's a lot of different
interests that would be bubbling away there. It's a sort
of thing where you wish you could be a fly
on the wall to what's it all happened?
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Thanks for joining us, Claudia, thanks for having me. That's
it for this episode of the Front Page. You can
read more about today's stories and extensive news coverage at
enzidherld dot co dot nz. The Front Page is produced
by Ethan Sills and Richard Martin, who is also a
(19:09):
sound engineer.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
I'm Chelsea Daniels.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
Subscribe to the Front Page on iHeartRadio or wherever you
get your podcasts
Speaker 1 (19:17):
And tune in tomorrow for another look behind the headlines.
Gilda.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
I'm Chelsea Daniels and this is the Front Page, a
daily podcast presented by The New Zealand Herald. The Australian
federal election is heating up. Anthony Alberizi is facing the
challenge of becoming the first PM to be re elected
since John Howard. Alberizi has been an MP since nineteen
(00:29):
ninety six, when he was the youngest labor member of
the House.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
For myself, I will be satisfied if I can be
remembered as someone who will stand up for the interests
of my electorate, for working class people, for the labor movement,
and for our progressive advancement as a nation into the
next century.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Meanwhile, Opposition leader Peter Dutton brings with him a wealth
of experience, having been elected to the House of Representatives
in two thousand and one aged thirty.
Speaker 4 (00:55):
Mister Speaker of the Silent Majority, the forgotten people, or
the aspirational voter of our generations, some like to term
it fed up with bodies like the Civil Liberties Council
and the Refugee Action Collective, and certainly the dictatorship of
the trade union movement.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Both men have sat across the aisle from each other
for years, and this Saturday, Australians will vote which will lead.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Their country for the next three years. Today on the.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Front page, ABC News political reporter Claudia Long takes a
break from following around the candidates and joins us from
Melbourne to talk polls, policies and what Kiwi's and Aussie
need to know. First off, Claudia, how's the campaign been
thus far?
Speaker 5 (01:44):
Long? Well, it feels long, it's actually been relatively short,
so they've been five weeks. But it's been a bit
of a bumpy road, I think for a number of
the leaders, particularly for the Opposition leader Peter Glotvin, so
he's had a few stumbles over the last week. But
the Prime Minister is also, you know, had a not
quite perfect campaign either. I think it's not exactly what
either of them we're hoping for that we're getting to
(02:06):
crunch point now. A lot of people have already voted here.
Early voting is a big thing in Australia and only
getting bigger, and so these last few days, even though
lots of lots of people have already voted, I think
there's still at least half of the voting population who hasn't,
so there's still some time for leaders to make their pictures,
for local candidates to get out there and meet potential
(02:27):
constituents who were almost at the end, which is a
little bit of a relief.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
At the start of twenty twenty five, it looked like
the coalition was going to make Albernezia one term prime minister.
But in the last few weeks though, the polling is
flipped and now Labor and Elbow are ahead in most categories.
So what's gone on there?
Speaker 1 (02:46):
Do you think?
Speaker 5 (02:47):
Well, I think there's been some of those stumbles from
the opposition, whether that they had a policy around springing
all public servants back into the office, so getting rid
of working from home provisions if you're at the public service. Now,
that went down like a lead balloon basically, well beyond
public service as well, because there's a lot of folks
here who, you know, like having a flexibility to work
(03:07):
from home whether or not they're in the public service,
and I think a lot of people were really put
off by that policy. Now that's since been reversed, but
the damage was really a done there. I think the
federal government's also had a number of things their way
as well during the campaign that has sort of exacerbated
that problem for Peter Dutton, the coalition leader. So they've
had policy announcements that have been quite well received, particularly
(03:30):
around housing, but also around tax deductions as well, and
so I think that sort of all contributes to that
slide that you've seen for Peter Dutton in the polls. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
I read somewhere as well.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
I mean, the Trump effect really took Europe by a storm.
I know, a lot of far right parties in Europe
gained a lot from Trump's success. Has done kind of
gotten the tail end of it. So when he's talking
about immigration and things, I mean, and then we saw
the tariff wars that have erupted since Trump announced those
earlier this year. Has he just kind of got in
(04:02):
at the tail end of it.
Speaker 5 (04:03):
Yeah, I think you're exactly right, and I think in
this case it's actually a good Trump effect, but it's negative.
So he has been really trying to existence himself from
Donald Trump. This is after you know, earlier in his
time as opposition leader saying that he's a think out,
really kind of praising the United States president almost. I
think that also a lot of his campaign has been
(04:24):
likened to Trump. So for example, we've seen that the
opposition we're going to introduce a DOGE, you know, a
Department of Government deficiency. In fact, I'm pretty sure that's
still on their list of things that they want to do,
which was immediately likely to Trump. I mean, even the
name is the same as the American one, which has
obviously been associated with a lot of job losses, with
a lot of cuts in the United States, and of
course with Elon Musks, who I think it's fair to
(04:47):
say a lot of voters find quite off putting. And
that's what I say. The privateness has been perfect on
this either. You know, I've seen, particularly online in one
of the debates, the Prime Minister said Donald Trump hasn't
given him a reason not to trust him. Now, I've
seen a lot of women I'll negatively react to that,
particularly quoting for example, when he's bragged about sexually harassing
(05:07):
or groping live for instance. So I think you know
that the Trump factor is definitely a factor, but it's
been more of a problem for Peter Duncktt.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
This election is all about who can best manage the
Australian economy and if we can manage the economy well,
it means that we can bring inflation down. It means
that we can help families with the cost of living
crisis that this government's created. We live in the best
country in the world, but we do know that many
families are doing it tough.
Speaker 6 (05:36):
Australians have a real choice this Saturday to continue building
Australia's future or go back to the past. Labor has
a real plan for cost of living support today whilst
building with investment for tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
What are the key policies from each party?
Speaker 5 (05:56):
Most of it, really SAICH is around possibly the Labor
that's been around increasing Medicare bulk billing rebates. So the
way that menkey works in Australia is that a rebate
is set for doctors who bolt bill, which is see
the patients for free, so doctors will get more backed
for that. They've got a whole women's health package that's
particularly focused on contraception but also on menopause treatment, as
(06:18):
well as expanding their first home buyers home deposit scheme,
so that's when you can get a five percent house
rather than ten percent the mortgage and then the government
will guarantee your loon on the Polis side. They've also
got a lot around housing and cost of living, so
they have been arguing that our first home buyers should
be able to deduct their mortgage payments from their taxes.
(06:38):
That's been one of their key policies in selected and
they're also proposing a twenty five percent migration cut which
has been a highly controversial. It's been fascinating to see
the impact that that policy has on Saturday, particularly when
you know our economy but also our care sector in
particular here in Australia relies a lot on skilled migration
quite heavily. That would have a far reaching key packed
(07:00):
that policy. And who've been trying to get questions Actually
two Peter don't about whether or not care workers will
be exempt, and he won't answer when we've asked. So
I think that's that's a point of interest as well.
That the migration puts is definitely one of those big
policies which they link to housing too. They claim the
housing shortage is a bit exacerbated particularly by international students.
(07:22):
And then they also are pitching a national gas reservation
of policy, so they see gas as very much a
part of their plans to get to zero along with
building a number of nuclear power plants as well.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
So here in New Zealand, the big issues when it
comes to Australia is the five h one deportees coming
back here and on the pathways to citizenship for those
Kiwis who do live there. What have the major parties
said about the rights of New Zealanders in Australia.
Speaker 5 (07:51):
So the Coalition have actually adopted the policy that Labor
put in place in twenty twenty three, which is about
making getting citizenship here akili so you get it up
to four years. I believe it's a permanent resident in
Australia with very few exceptions. Now, when Labor introduced that,
the Coalition book highly critical again on this sort of
housing front related to migration. They said they were concerned
(08:13):
that increased migration of people from New Zealand to Australia
would exacerbate the housing shortage here. But they've changed their
gin on that at the election. They've now said that
they will not reverse what the Albanezy government did, So
that permanent residency to citizenship pathway for New Zealanders is
going to stay as it is now no matter which
party ends up.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
For me governments so the.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Pair faced off for the final time in a debate
before Australia heads to the polls. Of course, on Saturday,
I saw Dustin singled out China as the biggest threat
to Australia's national security and it's not the first time
is said that as well. National security featured heavily in
the debate. Hey, is this something that Australians are quite
worried about?
Speaker 5 (08:55):
I think it's definitely at the forefront of people's minds.
I mean not as much as possibly, to be honest,
that's the big, big, BIGI big thing here at the moment,
because I think when you can't afford to pay your rent,
or you can't afford to eat, or you're having to
take on extra shifts at work, like you haven't actually
really got time or the brain space to think about
a lot else when it comes to longer term and
(09:15):
more wide branching policies. But you're right, like it is
definitely on people's minds. I think it's an interesting choice
from Peter Dunnell to go there. And the reason that
I think it's an interesting choice is that the Liberals
are fighting really really hard to try and win a
seat called Ben Along which is on the North Shore
in Sydney. It's the seat that used to belong to
John Howard. It was a very long serving Prime Minister
(09:36):
in Australia in the late nineties and early two thousand
and It's got a really substantial Chinese population and in
that seat it used to be a safe Liberal seat.
At the last election, following the Morrison governments rhetoric on China,
there was a huge swing among Chinese Australian voters in
that seat against the Coalition. I'm surprised that they're going
back to this sort of rhetoric so close to the election,
(09:57):
particularly when that's a seat that has the margin between
the two candidates They're right, if eighty four votes, it
is tiny. It's also one that they really need to
win if they want to form government. So I'm surprised
to see him going back to that rhetoric because I
would imagine that would be quite off putting, I think
to a number of people in that community, if last
elections results are anything to go by. But we'll have
to see. I have to see on Saturday. I'm excited.
(10:19):
I can't wait to see all of the results.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
And I guess we can't mention the debate without mentioning
Dunn and saying the Indigenous welcome to country is overdone.
Speaker 4 (10:38):
For the start of every meeting at work or the
start of a football game. I think a lot of
Australians think it's overdone and it cheapens the significance of
what it was meant to do. It divides the country.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Why has this come about? And for those who don't know,
what is the welcome to country?
Speaker 5 (10:57):
So welcomes to country are when an indigenous traditional owner
of the country that you're on essentially does a welcome
and they sometimes will speak about the land that you're on.
They might tell you a bit about its history, about
their people and their relationship to that land. It happens
often like pretty official ceremonies, so for example, like it
(11:17):
happens at the opening of Parliament or major events, and
it's something that has to be done by somebody who
is indigenous, like so for example in Australia, either Aboriginal
or to Austraight islander from the land that they are
welcoming you to. It's different to an acknowledgment of countries.
So that like when someone like me who is an
indigenous for example, would say like, you know, I work
on Nunea Wall and Nambry.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Land in Camber.
Speaker 5 (11:37):
And I think that's the thing about this debate that
has sort of gotten loss, which is that there seems
to be a conflation of these two things, are welcome
to country and an acknowledgment of country, which are very different.
They're not the same, but they're being conflated at the moment.
And so we've then seen this sort of a vowle
all through the last debate into Peter Dunel saying that
(11:57):
these things are overdone. Now what he's seen to be
actually referring to his acknowledgments of country not welcomes to country,
but he's using the language of welcome to country. So
to be honest, it's actually not entirely clear to me
exactly what he's talking about, but he believes that it's
something that is overdone in his view, for example, at
(12:18):
sans Ac Day or on planes or at football matches.
But that hasn't been particularly well received by a big
portion of the community. But at the same time, you know,
on the debate night at Channel seven when there was
a flash bowl of a group of people who've been
watching the debate afterwards, people did seem to really respond
to what he was saying. They seem to view it positively.
(12:39):
They have this thing called the false which means that
viewers are basically logging in real time like how they
feel about what a candidate is saying. And there was
an uptick as he was talking about it in a
positive direction. So it did really resonate with some people
as well. But it's a complicated discussion, that's for sure.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Australia has a lot more more independence and minor parties
than New Zealand. I read that in twenty twenty two
there were twenty four seats where they beat both Labor
and the Coalition and cross benches one fifteen of those.
In the end, it was the highest number of independent
minor party MPs elected in the modern political era. Now,
(13:19):
why is there such a movement towards smaller parties or
one party MPs.
Speaker 5 (13:25):
Well, I think it's a reflective of a broader movement
around the world where we've seen people really moving away
from these major parties who were really stalwarts about political
system and towards people who might be in all firebrands,
you know, or perhaps very different sort of like to
position themselves as being outside of politics while simultaneously inside politics.
(13:46):
It's going to be very interesting to see if the
so called teal independents can maintain the momentum that they
had at the last election. There's a number of seats
where they're facing really fierce contests against growths, which it
looks like some of them may lose their seats, but
if they managed to hold on, that will be fascinating
because once you've had an independent who's been in normally
about two terms, so basically gets elected the first time
(14:08):
and then re elected from being an incumbent, they are
really hard to shift. And at least that's what history
has shown us is it's very difficult. Once they're in,
they're in. And what that means for the Liberal Party
and the coalition will broadly, but also the Parliament as
a whole, is that that could really change the face
of Australian politics for decades to come, not just the
next election, not just the next term, but for a
(14:29):
really long time. And so I think that's going to
be one of the key things to look for on
Saturday Night, is if they can keep those seats and
also grow their numbers, and.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
We've delved into Australia's appolling rate of femicide on this
podcast before.
Speaker 7 (14:44):
Yeah, there is a much more laser focus on the
issue at the moment, but we also know that within
a week or two this focus will die down and
we'll be back to the normal level of indifference from
many media outlets and all so many politicians.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
On Albanese's promise to end violence against women in a generation,
what was the public's reaction to.
Speaker 5 (15:09):
That, well, I think at the time there was a
lot of hope that that could happen. When the National
Plan was introduced, you know, there's bipartisanship, it's been a
long running thing.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
I think there's grown to be.
Speaker 5 (15:21):
Frustration, particularly in some sectors of the community around the
national Plan and whether it's working and what the actual
benchmarks are because within a generation is a fairly non
specific phrase. It's not very well defined necessarily. And we've
also seen here over the past few weeks while this
(15:41):
campaign has been going on, there have been a number
of women who've been killed and what it is to
be domestic violence incidents now we can't say that for
sure or for a lot of them, like just like
to add, there's a lot of questions that still need
to be answered. These things have to go through the courts.
That's not for us to say yet. But there has
been a lot of discussion and debate around jend Violenceustralia
and where the governments are doing enough.
Speaker 4 (16:02):
Now.
Speaker 5 (16:02):
Last year we saw a real uptic in community frustration
anger around this because there were again a number of
women who were killed, and there were a number of
women who were killed in a really horrible incident at
a shopping center here, and that really had sent shock
waves around the country. Since then, we've seen the government,
federal government but also the state government's come together and
(16:25):
put out these very you know, big packages around spending
and reform. But what we also saw was that following
the federal budget where that happened, a number of frontline
workers were furious and frustrated and they said that the
government actually wasn't following through on their rhetoric, that a
lot of the money that they said they allocated was
for things that were already being spent on. You know,
one person described it to us as trickery and deception.
(16:48):
I mean, I don't think there's any two ways around that.
That's pretty unambiguously clear how they felt about it. We've
seen some movement on the campaign around this, So we
saw Labor announce a package around gender violence again and
in this election a couple of weeks ago, which was
then matched and expanded by the Coalition, which is much
more about like tracking and things like that. So for example,
(17:08):
it has commitments around ankle bracelets and offenders or a
national domestic violence registry for example. And I think there's
a lot of experts who will have questions around how
this will work and what some of the unintentional flow
and effects as well might be. But also a lot
of this stuff has been welcomed as well, because I
think people are frustrated and angry and upset that this
(17:30):
is still happening and that it took so long, to
be perfectly frank, for our leaders to be asked about
it and for them to say anything about it. So
I think we shall definitely keep being an issue after
the election is done and we have in your government.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
So, Claudia, how likely is it that we will know
who the prime minister will be on the night or
could we have to wait for some coalition negotiations?
Speaker 5 (17:54):
So it looks like if the polls are anything to
go by, and you know, they don't tell the future, unfortunately,
make my job a lot easier. But it looks like
that we could expect a minority government or a hung parliament,
so that you're right, it will take time to negotiate
what that looks like. Now, last time this happened in
twenty ten, that took a few weeks, so it wasn't
just one had done an election night. It went for
(18:15):
quite a while and there was a lot of back
and forth. So typically the party that has the most
seats in its own rights those negotiations. But you know,
I mean that's not to say everyone's always going to
play by the rules all the time. You can expect
that if that does happen, there'd probably be a few
tear independents in the mix. But you've also got independence
like Ellen Haynes, who's a regional Victorian independent. You've got
(18:36):
Bob Catter as well, who's very, you know, incredibly different
to the Teals, and so there's a lot of different
interests that would be bubbling away there. It's a sort
of thing where you wish you could be a fly
on the wall to what's it all happened?
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Thanks for joining us, Claudia, thanks for having me. That's
it for this episode of the Front Page. You can
read more about today's stories and extensive news coverage at
enzidherld dot co dot nz. The Front Page is produced
by Ethan Sills and Richard Martin, who is also a
(19:09):
sound engineer.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
I'm Chelsea Daniels.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
Subscribe to the Front Page on iHeartRadio or wherever you
get your podcasts
Speaker 1 (19:17):
And tune in tomorrow for another look behind the headlines.
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