Australia election 2025 live: Liberals reveal posters saying ‘Monique, please DO NOT take this sign!’ after Ryan’s apology for husband’s actions
Liberals reveal posters saying ‘Monique, please DO NOT take this sign!’ after Ryan’s apology
Henry Belot
The Liberal campaign has wasted no time in capitalising on Monique Ryan’s apology after her husband was filmed removing a campaign sign for her Liberal challenger last month.
The incident prompted the Australian Electoral Commission to issue a warning to all political candidates about “the importance of civility while campaigning”.
Ryan’s husband, Peter Jordan, admitted he made a “mistake” in taking the sign for the Liberals’ Kooyong candidate, Amelia Hamer, from outside the home of a Coalition supporter.
The Liberal party has now printed official campaign posters saying, “Monique, please DO NOT take this sign!” to be installed alongside posters for Amelia Hamer.
Of course, Ryan did not remove the sign herself. It was her husband who did. But the sign demonstrates how some Liberal insiders believe the incident could be politically damaging to her brand. Ryan has campaigned on integrity issues.
In a media statement after the video was published by media organisations, Jordan said:
I unreservedly apologise for removing the sign. It was a mistake.
I believed the sign was illegally placed but I should have reported my concerns to council.
Key events
Josh Butler
Dutton pledges $6.2m for Melbourne Headspace facility
Peter Dutton’s campaign has arrived in Melton, in the Melbourne seat of Hawke. He visited a Headspace centre in a shopping centre of the suburb, pledging $6.2m to the facility.
Dutton was joined by mental health advocate Patrick McGorry at the announcement. In a statement he said the “announcement forms part of the Coalition’s commitment to invest an additional $400m to deliver a world-leading focus on youth mental health.”
The money for Melton would boost capacity at the centre, employ more staff, and bring down wait times for young people. Dutton said it would give 12,000 extra appointments at Headspace for 2500 more people.
Australia’s youth mental health crisis will be at risk of worsening under a re-elected Albanese Labor government.
Hawke is held by Labor first-term MP Sam Rae on a 7.6% margin.
Albanese campaign lands in Tasmania
Dan Jervis-Bardy
Anthony Albanese’s election campaign has arrived in Tasmania for the first time, landing in Burnie in the state’s north-west.
Burnie sits in the electorate of Braddon, which the Liberals hold on a notional margin of 8.03%.
But Labor believes the seat is winnable with Senator Anne Urquhart as its candidate, after passing laws to protect Tasmania’s salmon industry.
Taylor announces new investment body with three taskforces
Taylor says the Coalition’s economic plan has five goals:
We will make it our mission to, first, beat inflation sustainably. Second, repair our housing and energy markets, and revive growth through investment and backing small business, deliver targeted timely tax relief, and restore the budget to protect our nation.
How will they do that?
On inflation, Taylor points to spending cuts on programs the Coalition has already announced (like the rewiring the nation plan, and public service cuts). For housing, it includes changes to the serviceability buffer that was announced yesterday, allowing super to be used for home deposits and increasing housing supply.
Taylor also announces “Investment Australia” which he says will be a statutory body in the Treasury department. He says this will drive Australian jobs.
It’s about fast-tracking investment, not holding it back with bureaucracy. It will bring the major project facilitation agency into Treasury, consolidating the market and infrastructure functions of Treasury, and bringing elements of foreign investments screening and the takeovers panel under one function. It will boost our competitive[ness] and facilitate investment.
Taylor promises a chair for the body within 100 days and will establish three investment taskforces to “reduce regulatory costs”.
Angus Taylor says ‘election is about the economy’ in budget reply
Angus Taylor is at the National Press Club giving his budget reply (yes, the budget was just a week ago, and yes it feels like it’s been an age).
Despite the fact that Taylor didn’t expect to be necessarily giving his budget reply in the middle of an election campaign, the timing is somewhat apt, as the election will be fought hard on the cost of living and the economy.
That’s what Taylor starts with.
This election is about the economy. It’s about who Australians trust to restore their living standards. Their hope and their aspirations for the future, and the future of their families. We need strong economic management to restore Australia’s prosperity. Economic management that has been lacking from a distracted government.
The Coalition have long shaped the narrative that they are better economic managers, and polling has often reflected that (as NPC host Tom Connell brought up a poll showing voters thought the Coalition might have put forward a better budget than the Labor government).
Liberals reveal posters saying ‘Monique, please DO NOT take this sign!’ after Ryan’s apology
Henry Belot
The Liberal campaign has wasted no time in capitalising on Monique Ryan’s apology after her husband was filmed removing a campaign sign for her Liberal challenger last month.
The incident prompted the Australian Electoral Commission to issue a warning to all political candidates about “the importance of civility while campaigning”.
Ryan’s husband, Peter Jordan, admitted he made a “mistake” in taking the sign for the Liberals’ Kooyong candidate, Amelia Hamer, from outside the home of a Coalition supporter.
The Liberal party has now printed official campaign posters saying, “Monique, please DO NOT take this sign!” to be installed alongside posters for Amelia Hamer.
Of course, Ryan did not remove the sign herself. It was her husband who did. But the sign demonstrates how some Liberal insiders believe the incident could be politically damaging to her brand. Ryan has campaigned on integrity issues.
In a media statement after the video was published by media organisations, Jordan said:
I unreservedly apologise for removing the sign. It was a mistake.
I believed the sign was illegally placed but I should have reported my concerns to council.
Emily Wind
Dwelling approvals dip 0.3% after January rise
The number of dwelling approvals fell 0.3% in February, following a 6.9% increase in January, according to new data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
It said 16,606 dwellings were approved in February, slightly down from 16,650 in January.
Private sector dwellings excluding houses fell 1.5%, after reaching a two-year high in January. The ABS said in a statement:
Despite the drop, the series is 73.1% higher than February last year.
There were 313 new apartment approvals in New South Wales in February, in original terms. This comes after 2,694 were approved in January – the highest result since May 2023.
Meanwhile, total residential building value recorded an all-time high for the second consecutive month, rising 5% to $9.65bn.
The result was comprised of a 5.8% gain in the value of new residential building approved (to $8.4bn) and a 0.3% fall in the value of alterations and additions (to $1.16bn).
The value of approved non-residential buildings fell 16.5% to $4.69bn, after falling 21.6% in January.
A productivity commission report in February found the Australian housing construction sector was only building half as many homes relative to the number of hours worked compared with 30 years ago.
Open door on Sydney driverless train under investigation
Rafqa Touma
Moving away from politics for a moment: An investigation is under way after a door stayed open on a driverless metro train travelling between Chatswood and Crows Nest at peak hour this morning.
“A door fault” was identified on a train travelling between the two stations about 8.01am, Metro Trains Sydney CEO Daniel Williams said in a statement.
A customer journey coordinator and customer operations lead were onboard the service, he said. Attempts to remotely fix the issue were unsuccessful. The operational control centre then instructed the frontline staff to manually close the door.
Two staff members stood by the door until the train came to a stop at the next station, where it was able to be closed, Williams said.
The metro had been removed from service, and the incident was under investigation. Williams said:
We apologise to customers for the concern this caused.
Dan Jervis-Bardy
PM’s campaign leaves Melbourne
Anthony Albanese’s campaign is on the move again after just one event in Melbourne this morning – a stop at a childcare centre in Michael Sukkar’s eastern suburbs seat of Deakin.
The press plane trailing the prime minister is on the tarmac at Melbourne airport preparing to take off.
Destination unknown.
Day six of the campaign – in photos
Here are some images that have been filtering through from the sixth day of the election campaign, with Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton both in Melbourne.
NSW doctors to defy strike ban and go ahead with industrial action – union
Doctors fed up with alleged staffing shortages in hospitals, low pay and excessive workloads plan to take industrial action despite the threat of fines, AAP reports.
The Australian Salaried Medical Officers’ Federation said today it would continue three days of planned industrial action beginning next week, in the face of an industrial court’s orders to halt.
The rare walk-out is expected to impact hospital care across New South Wales, with doctors in major Sydney hospitals and regional areas including Tweed Heads and Wollongong voting to strike from next Tuesday.
In a post to social media, the union said the action was needed in response to unsatisfactory pay offers that don’t compete with other states.
Excessive workloads, staffing shortages and a lack of engagement in negotiations are also claimed.
It is likely that the union will face fines in relation to this order.
Your council has considered this possibility and is prepared to continue regardless.
It told doctors they will not be personally liable for penalties and directed them to press on in a bid to force further bargaining with the state government.
The union is expected to provide further details of its plans on Wednesday morning.
PM says school students should join in marking Anzac Day
Off the back of his press conference, Albanese is talking to 2GB radio, starting on his beloved NRL Rabbitohs team (I won’t delve in, I don’t know enough about footy).
More seriously, Albanese is asked about a story in the Daily Telegraph about a Sydney public school allowing students to opt out of an Anzac Day service.
The PM was asked the question during his press conference too and said he supported Anzac Day and he’d be at the War Memorial to mark the day.
He says the same on 2GB but after being pushed further he puts forward a position:
They should be participating, each and every Australian – it is a solemn day in our calendar. I’ll be there at the Australian War Memorial, and I’ll be so proud to be there as the Australian prime minister. And I said that Peter Dutton should be joining me at what is a national event.
Albanese adds that under the previous government, 42,000 veterans were waiting for support payments, and the current government has paid an additional $13bn to support those who have served in uniform.
Dutton gas plan has ‘reckless’ lack of detail, King says
Lisa Cox
The resources minister, Madeleine King, has told a gas industry conference in Sydney that opposition leader Peter Dutton’s gas plan “is not much of a plan” and contains a “reckless” lack of detail.
In a pre-recorded speech, King said:
There is a distinct lack of detail, and there is certainly nothing new in it, and nothing the government hasn’t already done.
All Peter Dutton’s gas reservation scheme has to offer is a slogan. [The] lack of detail in his plan is reckless…
King said that in the recent parliamentary term, the opposition had voted against government legislation, such as a temporary $12-a-gigajoule price cap designed to bring down domestic gas prices, only to announce its own plans last week for a gas reservation scheme for the east coast aimed at lowering prices.
So they voted against bringing prices down, security supply, applying penalties to exporters, and now they want to pursue – and each and every one of those policies, it is staggering and proves everything we all thought about the Coalition is right.
They just don’t do the work.
Benita Kolovos
Continuing from our last post…
The Victorian opposition’s spokesperson for police, David Southwick, has described acting police commissioner Rick Nugent’s decision to walk away from the job after just 41 days as “yet another sign of the chaos within Victoria police under the Allan Labor government”.
Southwick said Victorians had been “left in the dark” about Nugent’s decision and what led to it, and placed the blame on the premier, Jacinta Allan, and her police minister, Anthony Carbines.
But Allan told reporters on Wednesday that Carbines was made aware this week that Nugent was reconsidering applying for the role this week.
She said:
[Nugent] has been very upfront about his reasons for reconsidering and deciding not to apply for the role. And I think that demonstrates that behind every police uniform is a person and we should respect that.
Allan denied the police force was in “crisis”.
Victorian acting police chief says he won’t apply for permanent role
Benita Kolovos
Ducking off the election trail for a moment…
The Victoria police acting chief commissioner, Rick Nugent, says he will not apply to stay in the role permanently.
In a statement released this morning, Nugent said he made the difficult decision after realising he could not commit to the demanding 24/7 nature of the role for five years and that he wanted to pursue other opportunities. He said:
After almost four decades at Victoria police, plus 18 months as emergency management commissioner, I cannot say, hand on heart, that I have it in me to fulfil the duties of this office for the full five years. It is simple yet unavoidably true, life is short and there are other passions and opportunities that I wish to pursue.
Nugent denied reports in the Herald Sun on Wednesday that suggested he was quitting the position due to a conflict of interest related to his previous tenure as commissioner, which had been referred to Victoria’s anti-corruption watchdog.
He said:
I want to be completely clear about media reporting this morning about complaints that have been made to Ibac. These allegations are entirely wrong and I look forward to meeting with Ibac to resolve these issues as quickly as possible.
I will work with government as to how long I remain in the role of acting chief commissioner. As always, I remain in absolute gratitude for the incredible work of everyone at Victoria police in keeping our community safe.
Coalition would designate gas a critical mineral to boost industry funding – senator
Lisa Cox
Coalition senator Susan McDonald has told a gas industry conference in Sydney that a Coalition government would designate gas as a critical mineral to allow the industry to access a $4bn export finance fund that was set up to support the transition to net zero.
McDonald said:
I can announce today that to boost investment, a Coalition government will elevate gas to the same status as a critical mineral. This will ensure gas projects are able to apply for funding from the $4 billion critical minerals facility.
This will ensure gas projects so critical to our national and international security are able to access specialised teams within the Department of Resources to support their projects.
The facility is a fund managed by Export Finance Australia. It was established to support projects that are in line with the goals of the government’s critical minerals strategy, which aims to boost the critical minerals sector as energy systems transition to clean energy.
