LIVE: Election 2025: Awkward moment Peter Dutton kicks a footy into a cameraman’s head during key photo opportunity as Albo announces relief for flood-affected communities in Queensland

Thousands of public servants have been told their employment agreements will not change regardless of who wins the federal election.

The employment of 185,000 Australian Public Service workers – nearly half of them based in Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane rather than Canberra – has been in the spotlight since Opposition Leader Peter Dutton pledged to cut 41,000 jobs and push workers to return to the office full-time if elected.

Critics fear that ending working from home could negatively impact working mothers but Mr Dutton insisted there would be no change to Enterprise Bargaining Agreements (EBA) and extra resources would be pumped into frontline services.

Dutton said only Canberra-based public servants would be urged to return to the office.

‘You’ve got EBAs that are there that allow for work-from-home arrangements. We’re not proposing to change those,’ Mr Dutton told reporters in Darwin.

‘There is still flexibility in the workplace in Canberra in the public service – we’ve been clear about that – and I’m fully supportive of whatever arrangements people arrive at with their bosses.’

The Opposition leader has used a misplaced kick that sent a footy into a cameraman’s head as an opportunity to rinse Anthony Albanese.

Asked how he would make it up to the bloodied Channel 10 camerman, Peter Dutton made a sly reference to an awkward moment of the prime minister’s when he fell off a stage.

‘If the prime minister kicked it, he would have told you that it didn’t hit anyone, and you’re imagining something, that it just didn’t happen,’ Mr Dutton said.

Mr Albanese was filmed tumbling off a stage on Thursday, but insisted he hadn’t fallen.

Anthony Albanese has refused to match Peter Dutton’s commitment to reclaim the Port of Darwin within six months.

The Prime Minister also lashed out at the Opposition leader, suggesting he’s to blame for the port ending up in the hands of a Chinese firm in 2015.

‘When the port of Darwin was flogged off to a company with links to the Chinese government, we opposed that sale,’ Mr Albanese said.

‘We have a clear view, which is that it should be in Australian hands, and Peter Dutton was in the cabinet that sold it.’

In an announcement in Darwin on Saturday, Mr Dutton said he would take control of the port within six months of being elected.

He also claimed Mr Albanese had made an ‘incoherent’ call to ABC radio on Friday night in a bid to pre-empt his announcement.

Mr Albanese, speaking from flood-ravaged Queensland, made the same pledge but refused to give a timeline.

Mr Albanese said he was humbled by the strength of Mother Nature during a visit to flood-affected communities in Longreach, in central-west Queensland.

‘Australians are tough people and people here make such a contribution, not just to the local community of Longreach but to the entire national interest. And we have got their back,’ he told reporters.

The prime minister confirmed he will agree to Queensland’s state government’s request for an additional $7million in relief funding.

He announced both the state and federal government will pledge $105million for exclusion fencing to protect stock from wild pigs and dogs.

This is in addition to the Disaster Recovery Allowance for Queenslanders who cannot work or find work due to the flooding.

That package will provide up to 13 weeks of income support for eligible workers and sole traders who have suffered a loss as a result of the natural disaster.

Peter Dutton has left a camerman on the campaign trail with a bloody forehead after kicking a footy into his head.

Dutton had stopped to make a funding announcement at a Darwin footy club.

The Opposition leader was kicking a ball around with some kids when one of his kicks went astray.

Dutton was later seen checking on the bandaged Channel 10 cameraman and shaking his hand.

The scene was not unlike Scott Morrison’s turn on the soccer pitch during his failed 2022 election campaign, when he accidenally body-slammed a small child.

The prime minister is set to announce financial relief for Queenslanders unable to work due to unprecedented flooding.

Anthony Albanese will speak to media at a farm outside Longreach in the state’s central-west on Saturday.

His relief package will provide up to 13 weeks of income support for eligible workers and sole traders who have suffered a loss as a result of the natural disaster.

Almost double the yearly average rainfall has been dumped on parts of regional Queensland over the last two weeks.

Peter Dutton has insisted his push to get public servants back into the office wouldn’t touch the private sector.

The Opposition Leader was asked at a Darwin press conference if he stood by the policy, after a Redbridge poll revealed it was deeply unpopular with women.

Dutton said it would only apply to public servants working in Canberra.

‘I strongly support work from home. Our policy doesn’t have any impact in the private sector, doesn’t have any impact on the public sector outside of Canberra,’ he said.

‘What we’ve said is that we want to make sure where taxpayers are working hard for their money, that we have the most efficiency in the public service in Canberra.’

Peter Dutton has announced he would take back the Port of Darwin from a Chinese firm as a matter of ‘national security’ if elected.

Speaking to media in Darwin, Mr Dutton took a swipe at Anthony Albanese, who he said had made an ‘incoherent’ call to the ABC on Friday night to try and pre-empt his announcement.

‘I don’t know whether the Prime Minister made a call before he called ABC Radio, but we have thought through this process for a long period of time, and the Prime Minister jumping on the phone trying to get in on the announcement that we’ve made today I think shows that this Prime Minister, like the fireman who turns up to the fire when the fire has been extinguished.

‘He is too late to everything. We’ve made the announcement today because it is in our national interest.

‘Anthony should have been better prepared. He’s had three years in preparation to make that phone call, and it was a trainwreck interview.’

The Opposition leader said he had contacted the Chinese ambassador on Friday ‘out of respect’ before the announcement – something Mr Albanese’s government had not done.

Anthony Albanese has had a phone call with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer in the wake of Trump’s sweeping tariffs.

Mr Starmer spoke to Mr Albanese on Friday evening and the pair agreed an ‘all-out trade war (with the US) would be extremely damaging’, Downing Street said.

Mr Albanese’s office said they had agreed on the importance of ‘free and fair trade’.

Closer economic ties between Australia and the UK could prove helpful as the American tariffs disrupt global trade.

Peter Dutton is in the Northern Territory this morning, where he’s expected to announce that if elected he would take back control of the Port of Darwin.

The port was leased to Chinese company Landbridge in 2015, sparking national security fears.

Anthony Albanese, who is visiting flood zones in Queensland, has rushed to pre-empt Mr Dutton’s announcement, saying on Friday night that he, too, wants the port in Australian hands.

Mr Albanese said he was prepared to intervene directly in the lease agreement.

One of Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s key policies has driven women voters to Anthony Albanese, a new poll shows.

The latest Redbridge poll showed Labor in the lead with 52 per cent of the two-party preferred vote.

The poll also tested voters’ reactions to recently announced policies, with Labor’s $150 energy rebate in the lead at +65.

Next was Mr Dutton’s policy to cut permanent immigration by 25 per cent, which had a net favourability of +47.

Mr Dutton’s pledge to end public servants’ work-from-home arrangements was unpopular however, at -7.

While it had a favourability of +7 among men, it was deeply unpopular with women, with a rating of -19.

Labor’s primary vote has fallen in both NSW and Victoria in recent weeks, a new survey shows.

The vote fell to 27 per cent in Victoria and 30 per cent in NSW in the first three months of this year, according to the survey by the Sydney Morning Herald.

It comes after the Labor vote for each state at the last federal election was 33 per cent.

The lower primary vote could threaten marginal seats in NSW – such as Bennelong, Gilmore, Robertson and Paterson.

In Victoria, seats like Chisholm, Aston and McEwen in and around Melbourne could be at risk.