Federal election 2025: Clive Palmer's party launch, Bob Katter takes aim at Coles and Woolies — as it happened

We will be ending our live coverage here.

Thank you for joining us and for those who celebrate, we hope you have a safe and happy Easter.

We will be back tomorrow to kick off the blog nice and early!

One last word on today's preference announcements — Clive Palmer's latest political venture, Trumpet of Patriots (currently being bombastically launched on the Sunshine Coast), has potentially dealt a blow to the Coalition by preferencing incumbent MPs last in the majority of seats (the same strategy Palmer's United Australia Party employed in 2022).

While Labor has more incumbents than the Coalition, the Coalition is losing primary votes to right-of-centre minor parties like Trumpet of Patriots, and those voters would be expected to favour the Coalition over Labor.

Palmer has also chosen to preference a number of teal independents who are in tight contests with the Coalition, including Caz Heise in Cowper and Nicolette Boele in Bradfield.

Remember, though, with all this talk of preferences today — any preference recommendations from parties or candidates are just that — recommendations. How you choose to fill out your ballot is entirely up to you.

With contributions from the ABC's Parliament House bureau.

In the NSW Central West seat of Calare, preference flows could play a big role in determining the winner of what's looking like a three-cornered contest between the Nationals and two independents.

The sitting member, independent MP Andrew Gee, was a member of the Nationals up until December 2022, when he resigned from the party over its opposition to the Indigenous Voice to Parliament.

He's running for re-election, but the Nationals' Sam Farraway, a former Perrottet government minister, is making a strong bid to bring the seat back into the Coalition fold.

Teal independent Kate Hook is also in the running, having garnered more than 20 per cent of the vote in 2022, when Gee was running as a Nationals MP.

Labor has allocated preferences to Gee and then Hook, before the Greens at four and Farraway at six.

The Nationals, on the other hand, are preferencing Hook over Gee.

With contributions from the ABC's Parliament House bureau.

At a glance, it looks like the Liberals are preferencing Australian Christians, One Nation or Family First second in the lower house, depending on the state.

Labor is mostly preferencing the Greens or Legalise Cannabis second, with a few notable exceptions.

Firstly, as expected, Labor isn't allocating preferences in Macnamara, where the Greens stand a chance of unseating Labor MP Josh Burns.

If Burns slips to third in the primary vote and more Labor voters choose the Liberals over the Greens with their second pick, it could see the inner-city Melbourne electorate fall into conservative hands for the first time since 1906.

Labor is also directing second preferences to sitting teal independent MP Kate Chaney, who's locked in a tight contest with the Liberals' Tom White in Curtin, as well as to teal candidate Caz Heise, who's having a second crack at unseating the Nationals' Pat Conaghan in Cowper.

(Alex Dyson, who's challenging Liberal frontbencher Dan Tehan in Wannon, is slipped in at number 4, after the Greens and Legalise Cannabis.)

With contributions from the ABC's Parliament House bureau.

I mentioned earlier that the Greens have announced they'll be preferencing Labor over the Coalition in every seat — not a huge surprise, given one of the slogans they've adopted this campaign is "Keep Dutton out".

We've also seen preference recommendations come through from several other parties today, including both major parties.

To view Labor's lower-house preferences, click here. You'll then have to click on the seat or candidate name, then on the red "How to vote for …" button at the top of the candidate's profile page (keeping in mind this takes you to an external site, with very little Labor branding).

To view the Liberal Party's lower-house preferences, click here. You can then click on the candidate name for the seat you're interested in, and the suggested preferences are listed on the candidate's profile page.

The atmosphere — and the crowd — at the official campaign launch for Clive Palmer's Trumpet of Patriots party has been steadily growing more jubilant throughout the afternoon.

 Palmer has officially launched the party's election campaign on Queensland's Sunshine Coast ahead of the May poll.

He spoke to the crowd of several hundred supporters at his golf resort, where he was greeted with cheers, applause, wolf whistles and a standing ovation.

Yesterday, Palmer announced the party would place incumbent Labor and Liberal members last in their seats in its how-to-vote cards.

"It's time for a new agenda for Canberra," he told the crowd today.

In his speech, he accused the major parties of Labor and the Coalition of being too similar, and of forming a "uniparty" which has created a "blueprint for disaster".

He also drew laughs from those gathered by describing Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton as "Dumb and Dumber" and "Tweedledum and Tweedledee".

Mr Palmer described the offerings from the major parties as having made this election "the most boring in history".

"Without the Trumpet of Patriots, this election would be a farce," he said.

"We'll be challenging Anthony Albanese … and Peter Dutton for a better country."

In his speech, he called for a ban on lock downs, an increase in Australian exports and cuts to migration.

The election date is fast-approaching and there are still many Australians voters who are undecided.

If you want to see how you align with the political parties vying for your vote you can use the ABC's Vote Compass tool.

United States political commentator Tucker Carlson delivered a 45 minute-long video address to those gathered, where he spoke on a variety of topics including Australia's energy and immigration policy.

 Carlson said Australia was accepting too many migrants and was at risk of being "taken over".

In his speech, he also railed against the practice of delivering an Acknowledgement or Welcome to Country, as well as what he described as the "trans agenda" and the "greens agenda".

Carlson drew some laughter from the crowd by repeatedly insulting Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

The crowd applauded when Carlson said the solution was to find leaders who would act in the best interest of, and on behalf of, the country. 

He said Donald Trump was an example of that.

Wearing yellow caps emblazoned with 'Make Australia Great', candidates and party members have gathered at the official launch of Clive Palmer's Trumpet of Patriots party at the billionaire's golf resort on Queensland's Sunshine Coast.

There was no denying where you were, with the walls and empty seats also plastered with bright yellow 'Vote 1: Trumpet of Patriots' signs, and the atmosphere was fairly jovial as the crowd heard first from US political commentator Tucker Carlson via a feed.

Carlson told the crowd he loved Australia for its "truly decent" people, who were sometimes "rough on the outside".

He said he also loved Australia's "egalitarian" spirit, which Carlson said was disappearing in the United States, and was also at risk in Australia.

A crowd of around 600 had been expected, although when the event began at 2pm, actual crowd numbers were much smaller — around 150 people.

Palmer will speak next before the party's federal leader Suellen Wrightson.

The video message played earlier to the crowd from Wrightson highlighted some of the party's key policies, including slashing migration, building high speed rail, capping interest rates at 3 per cent and allowing people to access their superannuation for a home deposit.

Victorian United Australia Party Senator Ralph Babet is MC'ing the event.

Long-serving Kennedy MP Bob Katter released this heartwarming Easter message on his Facebook page last night — and it's quite something.

I'd normally summarise this a bit, but it's hard to know where to begin. I'll just point out that Coles and Woolworths have been favourite targets of his for a while now.

You can watch it for yourself below.

The Albanese government has pledged $2 million to four surf life saving clubs in the marginal seat of Boothby if they are re-elected.

The Brighton, Seacliff, Somerton Park and Glenelg surf life saving clubs would receive $500,000 each to upgrade facilities.

Louise Miller-Frost won the seat with a 4.7 per cent swing to Labor.

It is the first time Boothby has been represented by a Labor MP since the end of World War II and is held by a 3.3 per cent margin.

The electorate in Adelaide's southern suburbs has affluent, largely Liberal voters along the coast and in the foothills, with a mortgage-belt strip of more Labor-inclined voters through the middle.

Miller-Frost called the funding pledge a "fantastic opportunity" to pour money into important, volunteer-run emergency services.

"We rely on them so much in order to be safe both as of locals, but also as tourists on the beaches," she said.

Federal Minister for Social Services, Amanda Rishworth, said the funds will ensure volunteer surf life savers are supported.

"We know this stretch of beach particularly from Glenelg to Seacliff is very well populated, many people come down to escape the heat and ensuring that these facilities are up to scratch are critically important," she said.

The Liberal campaign has landed in Peter Dutton's home city of Brisbane, after a colourful morning at the Easter show in Sydney.

While the sunshine state is largely Coalition country, Dutton only holds his electorate of Dickson by a thin 1.7 per cent margin — making it the most marginal seat in Queensland.

That's also despite him being the local MP for more than 20 years.

As well as having to defend his own seat, the LNP is hoping to claw back two city seats it lost to the Greens at the last federal poll.

Looking ahead to tomorrow, the campaigning is set to ease up, as the leaders mark Easter Sunday.

Another reporter asks for the prime minister's reaction to a highly disturbing incident in Bankstown, in which an eight-year-old boy was allegedly beaten with a baseball bat and the body of a woman believed to be his mother was later found in a burnt-out car nearby.

Albanese says the incident is "just horrific" and the children who witnessed it will need a lot of support.

"The matter is before the courts … so I'm not at liberty to speak further," he adds.

"But I think that Australians' hearts will go out to this family at this difficult time."

Albanese is asked whether he believes the Fair Work Commission acts in workers' best interests, given he's promising to legislate for it to be made illegal for it to reduce workers' penalty rates.

The PM says the commission will continue to do its job, even if changes are made to the act that alter its options or objectives — just as it did when the government changed the Workplace Relations Act to make gender pay equity an objective.

"It's quite extraordinary that it took the election of my government — you know, more than 120 years since Federation — to actually have that as one of the objectives of the act," he says.

"The Fair Work Commission will work these issues through. They always consult with both employees and employers."

We're well into that strange part of the campaign where confidence is inevitably painted as hubris, and underdog status is a highly sought-after prize.

Asked if he's feeling confident going into the final two weeks, Albanese says "not at all" — and brings up the bookies who paid out for Bill Shorten's team winning the election in 2019.

"That was pretty unwise," Albanese says.

"We're not getting ahead of ourselves. What we're doing is putting forward a careful, calibrated, considered approach to policy development right across the board."

Nevertheless, he takes the opportunity to stick the boot into the opposition a little bit more, labelling Peter Dutton's reluctance to attribute Queensland's severe flooding to climate change "flat-Earth stuff" and mocking the opposition's insistence it should receive a briefing on the unconfirmed reports about Russia seeking to base aircraft in Indonesia.

"And then they come out and say, well, we want further information about something that isn't happening," Albanese says.

"I mean, do they want a briefing on the fake moon landing?"

Anthony Albanese has been asked about his campaign chair Paul Erickson,  after his wife Dimiti gave birth to a baby girl recently.

"It's just wonderful news. Paul Erickson's a dear friend of mine and Dimity is someone who is just remarkable.

"People who know Dimiti's story. She's a breast cancer survivor who's an advocate. She's just a wonderful human being, and I have been able to send them very warm congratulations and I do so publicly today," he says.

Albanese has been asked about Labor advertisements after their ads told voters that the Coalition will cut existing urgent care clinics, despite the Coalition coming out and saying they will look at unopened ones.

He was asked if this was misleading and if the Labor Party's ads will be factual and not just used to scare voters.

"Here's a fact for you, Peter Dutton will cut and Australians will pay. Here's a fact. He's got a $600 billion nuclear energy plan.

"The last time the Liberal Party, came to office was 2013. And before then they said there'd be no cuts to health, no cuts to education.

"It is a fact that the budget papers show that the 2014 budget ripped $50 billion out of health and $30 billion out of schools funding," he says.

As he points to Jason Clare, he says: "This minister here had to repair the schools funding deal."

He says Dutton tried to get rid of bulk billing altogether by having a GP tax.

"When we announced and we listed the sites of urgent care clinics, he came out and he said, 'oh, well, there's a couple of them that we might keep'.

"And then his candidate in Lyons, where we were in Bridgewater just the other day, said, 'oh, I couldn't guarantee that all you'll need is your Medicare card.'"

"The deputy leader of the Liberal Party has said that the Liberal Party philosophy is they don't value things which are free, which is why they're opposing free TAFE, which is why they will come after Medicare," he says.

The PM is asked why Labor is only now announcing its intention to legislate against the reduction of penalty rates, given the application by retail groups has been before the Fair Work Commission for months now.

"Why only make this move now as a promise if you're re-elected, why not do so beforehand?" the reporter asks.

The PM doesn't answer the question directly, but points out that the government has made submissions against the penalty rate reduction to the Fair Work Commission, and has successfully pushed for three minimum wage rises over this parliamentary term.

As for Dutton's claim earlier today that the policy announcement was a "stunt", Albanese says that's simply proof the opposition leader "doesn't support penalty rates".

He brings up WorkChoices before handing over to Jason Clare, who launches into a defence of penalty rates in general.

"I worked at Sizzler Carindale for five years. Penalty rates helped to get me through uni," he says.

"You know, it paid for the public transport. It paid for the food. It paid for my life."

The prime minister has been asked about Australian prisoner of war, Oscar Jenkins, following reports out of Russia that he is now facing criminal charges for being a mercenary. He was asked if the government was aware of the charges and if he has abandoned Jenkins.

"We certainly have not. We'll continue to make representations to the reprehensible regime of Vladimir Putin on behalf of Mr Jenkins.

"We will stand up and use whatever avenues we have at our disposal to continue to make those representations.

"The Russian war against the people of Ukraine is a war against international law. It's against national sovereignty.

"The people of Ukraine are fighting for a democratic nation, for their own sovereignty, but they're also fighting for the international rule of law, which is why we do want to see peace, but we do want to see it on the terms that are acceptable to Ukraine," Albanese says

He says his government is prepared to be a part of the coalition of the willing peace keeping force.

A reporter tells the PM they've spoken to small business owners who say conditions have "never been tougher at the moment".

Given the Coalition's just announced more tax rebates for small businesses, and Labor is promising to prevent penalty rates from ever becoming lower, can he honestly say small businesses would be better off under Labor, the reporter asks.

"Yes, I certainly can because we have a plan for the economy. They have a plan for 24 hours then they flip," the PM says.

He then talks up his government's economic record.

"We've got inflation going down, wages going up, unemployment is still very low at just 4.1 per cent, and [we've got] tax cuts for every taxpayer, not just some," he says.