LIVE: Election 2025 – Barnaby Joyce causes Peter Dutton grief with candid admission about his wife – as Opposition Leader announces huge backflip on TWO of his key election policies

By MAX AITCHISON, POLITICAL REPORTER FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA

Published: 23:31 BST, 6 April 2025 | Updated: 00:29 BST, 7 April 2025

Peter Dutton has started the second week of the federal election campaign on the back foot.

The Opposition Leader has backflipped on his bid to force public servants back into the office five days a week after it bombed with women.

He was also forced to dump a candidate after he made allegedly sexist comments about female members of the Australian Defence Force. 

Labor will be seeking to capitalise on these missteps today. 

Follow Daily Mail Australia’s live campaign coverage. 

Barnaby Joyce admits wife was ‘pretty upset’ over WFH policy

Barnaby Joyce admitted that his wife Vikki Campion was ‘pretty upset’ by the Coalition’s now-dumped WFH policy for public servants.

‘Obviously there was people pretty upset. Vikki was pretty upset, because she works from home,’ Mr Joyce told Sunrise.

‘The sin would’ve been to stick with it and say “No, I’m too proud, I’m not gonna change”.

‘You want to have people who listen to what’s happening out there and go “OK, I get it”.’

Ms Campion met her husband (the pair are pictured below) when she was his communications advisor.

They wed in a country-style ceremony at the family estate in the NSW Northern Tablelands in late 2023.

Ms Campion works as a journalist so would not have been affected by the Coaliton’s former policy of ending WFH for public servants.

Dutton’s tense exchange on Today

The Opposition Leader has not had a good morning.

He was forced to defend the Coalition’s decision to dump their drive to push all public servants back into the office five days a week, while also amending heir policy to cut 41,000 bureaucrats.

‘Well Sarah, that was always the plan, and there would be natural attrition and a hiring freeze,’ Mr Dutton told the Today.

‘Hey Peter, I’m sorry,’ host Sarah Abo cut hin.

‘I’m struggling to keep up, you’re saying it was always the plan, but it wasn’t the plan. You wanted to cut back 41,000 jobs … how can they have both always been the plan? It doesn’t make sense.’

A visibly frustrated Mr Dutton insisted there was no change to the costing.

‘There’s no change to the costing at all because the original plan of the natural attrition and freezing was what we’d always had,’ he responded,

‘It’s the way in which Labor’s contorted that into something else.’

Mr Dutton accused the Prime Minister of whipping up a scare campaign over their WFH policy.

But he admitted the Coalition had ‘made a mistake’.

Watch the tense exchange below:

Murray, Watt was that?

Hard-charging Employment Minister Murray Watt is a fan of a colourful image.

He was the frontbencher sent out to hammer Peter Dutton over his decision to fly to Sydney to attend a fundraiser at the harbourside mansion of hospitality mogul Justin Hemmes as Cyclone Alfred barrelled towards the Queensland coast.

Mr Watt (pictured, below) accused the Opposition Leader of ‘filling Liberal Party money bags while his own community was filling sandbags’.

Of course, we later learned that the Prime Minister had attended a fundraiser of his own on the same day.

Now, Mr Watt has taken aim at Mr Dutton’s decision to dump his policy to force public servants back into the office full time with some curious mixed metaphors.

‘This just shows Peter Dutton is all over the shop,’ Mr Watt told ABC’s Radio National.

‘I mean, Peter Dutton is in the process of trying to give himself the worst face lift in Australian history.’

‘But the problem for him is that he can change what he says, but he can’t change who he is.’

Albo weighs in on dumped Liberal candidate

The Prime Minister took an opportunity to unload on some Liberal candidates on Monday morning.

He highlighted Benjamin Britton, the Liberal candidate for the NSW seat of Whitlam, who was dumped after claiming the Australian Defence Force need to remove women from frontline roles.

‘This is a part of a part of the takeover of the Liberal Party by the hard right,’ Mr Albanese told reproters in Melbourne.

‘When you look at Alex Antic being number one on the ticket.

He added: ‘(Dutton’s) got his shadow health minister at number two, a woman Anne Ruston … she’s been a senior minister in the government dumped for Alex Antic in South Australia.’

He further claimed that in the WA state election there were ‘all sorts of strange’ Liberal candidates ‘with some very far right views who had to get dumped’.

Mr Albanese may have been referring to James Hall, the former WA Liberal candidate for the seat of Mandurah, who quit after a string of anti-immigration Facebook posts emerged.

You can read more on the Benjamin Britton saga here:

Coalition’s huge call on WFH policy

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LIVE: Election 2025 – Barnaby Joyce causes Peter Dutton grief with candid admission about his wife – as Opposition Leader announces huge backflip on TWO of his key election policies

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