Federal election 2025: Peter Dutton polls dwindle as he instructs voters to ignore campaign
'This election really is a referendum, not about the election campaign, but about the last three years of government,' he told reporters at a morning press conference in his own seat of Dickson in outer Brisbane, before heading south to Tasmania for the afternoon.
Peter Dutton, pictured at Ag Fest in Tasmania on Thursday, wants to be seen as a builder rather than being judged on his campaign. Credit: James Brickwood
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, meanwhile, began his own six state, two-day blitz in Perth before heading to Adelaide and on to Brisbane where he will spend the day campaigning on Friday morning in seats Labor is trying to win from the Greens and Liberals.
Dutton's day did not begin well, with questions from the travelling media over his prospects of remaining leader if the Coalition does not form government at the May 3 election.
Dutton brushed off the question – he's learned not to accept the premise of questions he doesn't like – and instead spruiked his policies to cut petrol and power prices.
After a month of reversals, backdowns and contradictions captured live on camera every day while his poll numbers slid south, Dutton would quite like the voters to judge him on the actual referendum, the 2023 Voice to parliament, where he convincingly won the argument and defeated Albanese's cause.
Labor minister Anika Wells had said earlier on the ABC, in the careful language of a frontbencher, that 'the Voice in the form that we took to the referendum is gone' and the government respected the outcome but was 'always looking for a way to help First Nations people'.
That, Dutton said, was evidence that 'the Voice, in some form, presumably through legislation, is going to be a part of the Albanese government's next term in power, if they're successful on Saturday'.
'I'll just ask Australians to think about that for a second. You sent a very clear message to the prime minister that you said no to the Voice, and now the prime minister is saying back to you, 'well, we've got this secret plan, when we're in government, to reintroduce the Voice in the form of legislation'.'
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