Albanese’s bold opening salvo sends message to Dutton: we’re coming for you
When the press pack trailing Anthony Albanese’s election campaign landed in Brisbane on Friday afternoon, traditional political logic suggested the next day would be spent in the inner-city.
The Greens-held seats of Griffith and Brisbane appear Labor’s best hopes of gaining ground in a state where it holds just five of 30 electorates.
But as Labor’s campaign bus motored farther north out of the Brisbane CBD on Saturday morning, it became clear Albanese’s target was not Adam Bandt and his band of upstart Greens MPs.
It was Peter Dutton.
Compared with the opening-day stumble of the 2022 election campaign, where he couldn’t name the cash rate or jobless figure, the Labor leader has started the 2025 race on the offensive, staging his first event in Dutton’s own electorate of Dickson in Brisbane’s northern suburbs.
“This is Queensland’s most marginal seat and a margin with a one in front of it. We intend to run a very serious campaign,” Albanese said, standing alongside Labor’s candidate in the seat, Ali France.
Dickson sits on a margin of 1.7%, which means it is eminently winnable, at least, on paper.
With Labor strategists expecting losses in Melbourne and New South Wales, the government needs to win in other states if Albanese wants to retain majority government.
But the choice of campaign location on Saturday was less about electoral arithmetic than about sending a message: Dutton, we’re coming for you.
Coalition weak spot
That Albanese chose a Medicare urgent care clinic was no coincidence.
Health is a perceived strength for Labor and a perceived weakness for the Liberal leader, who was once named Australia’s “worst health minister” by doctors after he attempted to introduce a $7 GP co-payment under then prime minister Tony Abbott.
Dutton has tried to neutralise those attacks, matching Labor’s $8.5bn boost to Medicare (and promising a further $500m for mental health) and its investment to slash the price of PBS-listed medicines.
But Labor still sees a vulnerability, one which Albanese, his health minister, Mark Butler, and the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, sought to ruthlessly expose on Saturday morning.
This was a political equivalent of a full-court press; a prime minster and two of his strongest performers hammering their opponent on his home turf.
“(In his budget reply speech) Peter Dutton tried a new version of the promise he made to Australians 10 years ago that there would be no cuts to health,” Butler said, claiming – without evidence – that Dutton would introduce an American-style health system.
“There might be some fancier words, but it’s just as hollow.”
Chalmers went personal, calling out Dutton’s decisions to dash to Sydney for a harbourside fundraiser while both of their Brisbane communities braced for Cyclone Alfred.
“When five million homes in south-east Queensland and northern NSW were at risk and were in harm’s way … this prime minister came to Queensland to see how he could help,” Chalmers said.
“Peter Dutton fled Queensland to see if he could raise money in a harbourside mansion in Sydney. Peter Dutton might be from here, but he is not as committed to the people and the local economies of Queensland as this prime minister.”
Chalmers, not surprisingly, omitted the fact that Albanese had attended a political fundraiser in Sydney himself earlier that day before flying to Queensland.
At one point, a far-right agitator interrupted Saturday’s press conference to heckle Albanese about housing and immigration.
The man was peddling an agenda but the disruption drew attention to a pair of politically sensitive issues for Labor.
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There was also scrutiny of energy prices, with Albanese sidestepping the question of whether power bills would fall after households were handed another $150 rebate.
Those questions will keep coming as the five-week campaign unfolds.
But on day one, when the eyes of the political world and voting public were on Albanese, there were no stumbles.
After leaving a rain-soaked Brisbane, Albanese ventured north to warmer climes.
Trump’s influence
But it wasn’t to Cairns and the Labor target seat of Leichhardt, but to Bundaberg and the electorate of Hinkler.
This is considered safe Nationals territory even after the departure of the Morrison-era resources minister Keith Pitt, making it curious destination for an opening-day campaign stop.
But Albanese wanted to send another message – this time to Australian industry.
Sampling a ginger beer at Bundaberg Brewed Drinks, the prime minister launched a $20m Buy Australia campaign to support local business.
Albanese didn’t mention Donald Trump as the campaign’s motivation. He didn’t need to, so clear and obvious is the spectre of Trump and his America-first agenda over the global and domestic economies and Australia’s federal election.
Australia and the rest of the world are bracing for “liberation Day” on 2 April, when Trump will unveil the targets for his retaliatory tariffs.
US drug companies are stalking Australia’s PBS-scheme. Albanese had a message for them, too.
“We’ve put a very clear message to anyone who’s listening, wherever they are in the world. Our PBS is not up for negotiation,” he said.
Labor won’t win Hinkler and – barring a major upset – it won’t win Dickson either.
It is in the box seat in Eden-Monaro in southern NSW where Albanese made a pit stop on Saturday afternoon to promise $16m for a local pool.
But Albanese’s opening day wasn’t about winning seats.
It was about sending messages.
