LIVE: Election 2025 – Why Peter Dutton believes the Coalition can still win the election despite grim poll results

By NICK WILSON FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA

Published: 00:18 BST, 3 May 2025 | Updated: 01:07 BST, 3 May 2025

After a whirlwind, 35 day federal election campaign Australians on Saturday will decide who will lead the nation for the next three years. 

If Anthony Albanese is victorious, he will be the first Prime Minister to be granted a second term since former Liberal leader John Howard in 2004. 

If Peter Dutton is handed the top job, it will mark the first time a first term government has been kicked out of office since 1931. 

A late-night Newspoll on Friday revealed Labor was on track to win, ahead of the Coalition 52.5 per cent to 47.5 per cent on a two-party preferred basis.

Both leaders are expected to be out campaigning on Saturday morning. 

Follow Daily Mail Australia’s live coverage of the final day of the Federal Election campaign as Aussies head to the polls to cast their vote. 

Albanese dodges question about Dutton, compliments his wife Kirily instead

Anthony Albanese said Peter Dutton was a ‘good family man’ when asked by Sunrise host Monique Wright to say ‘one good thing about your opponent’.

‘I get on very well with Kirilly. Kirilly has been by his side during the campaign as well. It’s tough on families… and Peter is clearly very close to his, and that’s a good thing,’ he told the breakfast program on Sarturday.

‘We don’t take this personally, but we have very different views about the country. We have different values and that comes out in an election campaign. But isn’t it good that in a democracy tonight, whoever wins, the person conceding will make a phone call and we’ll have a peaceful transition?

‘That doesn’t happen in every country.

‘That’s something that Australians should be really proud of.

‘We are a strong democracy.’

Peter Dutton and his wife Kirrily are pictured.

Anthony Albanese and his fiancée Jodie Haydon are pictured on Saturday.

Albo gets testy when grilled about the Voice

Anthony Albanese was quick to correct ABC News host Dan Bourchier during a discussion about the Uluru Statement from the Heart.

The host questioned the Prime Minister, who started his day at the MCG on Saturday, over Labor’s commitment to implementing the statement.

‘No, Dan, I will correct you there,’ Mr Albanese interrupted.

‘I will correct you there because you and I have discussed this issue many times. The idea that that came out on election night is, of course, absurd.

‘That is just spin from the other side.

‘I committed to that in the 2019 campaign.

‘The entire time I was Opposition Leader. Every time I gave an acknowledgement of country… we put that to the Australian people and that was a missed opportunity.’

Mr Albanese said his party had accepted the defeat of the Voice but was still committed to practical reconciliation.

‘I think it’s outrageous, frankly, that those opposite have tried to run a scare campaign on this during the election,’ he said.

‘It beggars belief, but then again, if you can walk out on an apology, as Peter Dutton did, then that says a lot about your character.’

Anthony Albanese is seen at the MCG on Saturday, election day morning

Final Newspoll results deal harsh blow to both Albo and Dutton

Peter Dutton has urged voters not to lose hope, claiming there are many ‘quiet Australian’s’ not reflected in last-minute Labor-positive polling.

The final Newspoll of the federal election campaign released on Friday night put Labor well ahead of the Coalition on a two-party-preferred basis at 52.5 and 47.5 per cent, respectively.

Mr Dutton told voters not to underestimate the share of ‘quiet’ voters holding out hope for the Coalition.

‘We’ve got a united team, and I think there are a lot of quiet Australians out there who may not be telling their neighbours how they’re voting, but I think they’re going to go into the polling booth and say, you know what, I’m not going to reward Anthony Albanese for the last three years,’ he told Nine’s Weekend Today this morning.

‘And I think the other mob can manage the economy more effectively, can keep us safe in a really uncertain time.

‘And can try to bring the crime rates down in our local suburbs as well. I think they’re all, you know, the thoughts that are going through people’s minds at the moment.’

While Labor was no doubt heartened to know it was well out ahead as the prime candidate to secure government, the polling gave it reason to fear it might not be doing so in majority.

The combined share of the primary vote held by both major parties has dropped to a record low as voters increasingly look towards minor parties and independents.

At the last federal election, battered by the so-called ‘teal wave’, the major parties secured a combined 68.3 per cent of the primary vote.

If the latest Newspoll prediction holds true, their share will have dropped to 67 per cent – with a three per cent gain in primary share vote for One Nation and two per cent for The Greens.

The two minor parties are on track to secure 13 per cent and eight per cent of the primary vote, respectively.

Clive Palmer’s Trumpet of Patriots and the teals are expected to account for a further 12 per cent combined.

Millions of Aussies head to polling booths to cast their vote

Voting is now underway in all but one state as Australians line up to make their pick for the next prime minister.

A record number of Australians had already cast their votes before polls opened at 8am across the country but the results won’t start showing until 6pm.

According to the Australian Electoral Commission, 6.7million Australians had cast their ballots at pre-polls before polling booths officially opened at 8am this morning.

Another 1.6million had already submitted a postal vote, bringing the share of early voters to about 40 per cent.

With all major opinion polls pointing to a Labor victory, the question most punters will be asking is whether Albanese has plead his case for a majority government.

Most recent polling suggests that, while Labor has managed to elbow its way to two-party-preferred dominance, its primary vote share has been diluted by independents.

Mr Dutton meanwhile has referred to the polling against him as overly-pessimistic, urging voters to remain open-minded.

Both leaders began their days in Melbourne – the city and its surrounds in which many punters expected the election to be decided.

Later in the day, Albanese will cast his vote in his home seat of Grayndler along with his fiance Jodie and dog, Toto.

The Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, meanwhile, began his day in the safe Labor seat of Macnamara in Melbourne’s south.

Despite a healthy 12.2 per cent margin, the Coalition is looking for an upset after Labor revealed it would preference the Liberal candidate ahead of the Greens in the seat.

Anthony AlbanesePeter Dutton

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LIVE: Election 2025 – Why Peter Dutton believes the Coalition can still win the election despite grim poll results

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