Australian election 2025: Campaigning for day 27 of May 3 election
Anthony Albanese looks on track to pick up key marginal seats and win a second term in the May 3 election, according to surprise results from exit polling in early voting.
An exclusive News Corp exit poll of nearly 4000 Australians who have voted since early polling started on Tuesday shows a 4.6 per cent primary swing to Labor compared to the 2022 election.
Across the 19 electorates in NSW, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory, the Coalition’s primary vote is at 38.5 per cent compared with Labor’s 37.2 per cent.
The Greens remain steady on 11.7 per cent, while One Nation was on 2.5 per cent and all others including Teals, independents and small fringe parties taking 10.2 per cent.
Some of the key marginal seats Labor looks set to retain include Bennelong in Sydney, Boothby in South Australia, and Lyons in Tasmania.
However, Solomon (NT), Gilmore and Paterson (NSW), and Corangamite (Vic) are in doubt, while Labor’s chances of winning back the Green-held seat of Griffith (Qld) also seem to be on shaky ground.
But it looks likely they will snatch Leichhardt (Qld) and Sturt (SA) from the Liberals.
The Coalition is in a fight to retain Bradfield against Teals candidate Nicole Boele in Sydney, but will hold off in the Gold Coast seat of McPherson.
The Greens look like holding all four of its seats – Melbourne and Brisbane, Ryan and Griffith in Queensland.
Teal Zoe Daniel is in a tight fight against former Liberal MP Tim Wilson in the Melbourne seat of Goldstein.
More than a million Australians have voted in two days, with just nine days to go until election day.
The Prime Minister is starting Thursday with a business breakfast in Perth, while Opposition Leader Peter Dutton is in Hobart.
EV tax break backflip could loom large
Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton are both expected to unveil major policy announcements on Thursday, but the Coalition walking back a $3bn tax break on electric vehicle purchases could raise further questions.
Despite earlier this week saying there were no plans to scrap the rebate, the Coalition campaign released a statement on Wednesday confirming they would end Labor’s tax break if elected.
“The Coalition will … unwind Labor’s taxpayer-funded and badly designed electric car subsidies, saving upwards of $3bn over the foward estimats and $23bn over the medium term,” the statement read.
The Opposition Leader has been under pressure to confirm how the Coalition will pay for a number of its policies, including a pleged $21bn increase in defence spending.
The Prime Minister is expected to announce on Thursday that a re-elected Labor government would invest $1.2bn in estsablishing a critical minerals strategic reserve, which would likely play a major role in negotiating a tariff carveout from the Trump administration.
Mr Albanese has said the reserve would give the government the power to purchase, own, and sell critical minerals found in Australia.
Mr Dutton is instead expected to focus on his party’s pledge of a national register allowing police to share information about convicted domestic abusers across state lines.
The register, which would also be accessible to relevant agencies, is part of a $90m pledge by the Coalition to be announced on Thursday aimed at tackling domestic violence.
Under the plan, the Coalition will seek to strengthen early intervention and prevention, including through legal reforms, new criminal offences, and a royal comission into sexual abuse in indigenous communites.
More to come