The campaign stop in the electorate Fowler is held by independent Dai Le, who won the former baked-on Labor seat against then-senator and former NSW premier, Kristina Keneally after she was parachuted into the seat for the 2022 election. Pretty much all political candidates get good receptions at primary schools and it was no different for Mr Albanese, who was swarmed by dozens of delighted noise. He spent a couple of minutes making his way through the crowd of children, handing out high fives and, in one instance, lifting one kid into the air above his head. The Prime Minister then had a very quick meeting, alongside Education Minister Jason Clare, with Cathy Fry, who was Mr Clare’s Year 1 teacher four decades ago, when he went to the school. Labor is hoping to win back the seat, with candidate Tu Le, also tagged along on the school visit. It was a better campaign stop for Mr Albanese who had a stumble from a platform on Thursday after giving a speech in Maitland. The PM stepped back into empty air behind him and took a tumble backwards. He was immediately helped back up, unscathed and laughing. “I stepped back onto a step, I didn’t fall off the stage,” Mr Albanese told ABC Newcastle a short time later. “Just one leg went down, and I was sweet.” Dutton finally hits a petrol station It’s taken nearly a week of campaigning, but Peter Dutton has finally visited a petrol station to promote the Coalition’s promise to halve the fuel excise for a year. The policy – which Mr Dutton announced in his budget reply last week – will take 25c off a litre of fuel, saving motorists about $750 a year per vehicle. The Opposition Leader fuelled up a Nissan Navara with about 40 of fuel to the cost of $68.79. With the excise reduction, the tank would have cost $58.79. Albo, Dutton headed for campaign collision The two men vying to be Australia’s next Prime Minister will be hoping to avoid an awkward run-in in the halls on Friday, as the pair are both set to speak at a conference in Sydney. Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton are scheduled to address The Daily Telegraph’s Future Western Sydney summit, with each to deliver a speech to the crowd. It is expected Mr Albanese will pledge to extend the instant asset write-off that allows small businesses and tradies to deduct $20,000 in essential purchases off tax for another year, as reported by The Daily Telegraph. Mr Dutton has already promised to make the write-off permanent and increase the limit to $30,000 if he is elected. It is anticipated he will on Friday announce a $231m funding package for the region’s new airport and roads, which combined with commitments announced prior to the election takes the Coalition’s pledged funding for Western Sydney infrastructure to more than $1.7bn, according to the Telegraph. The masthead reports Mr Dutton will tell the summit the total pledged investment would be a “game-changer” for the region. Western Sydney is home to about 10 per cent of Australia’s population, and is considered a key battleground area in the 2025 federal election. There are 14 electorates in the region, 10 of which are held by Labor. In a nod to the region’s importance, Mr Dutton visited three Western Sydney electorates in the first weekend of the official campaign: Labor-held seats McMahon and Macarthur, and Fowler held by independent Dai Le. The pair will return to Western Sydney on Tuesday April 8 for the first leader’s debate, the Sky News/ Daily Telegraph People’s Forum, and face off again on April 16 for a second debate in ABC’s Parramatta studios. Friday marks an opportunity for both campaigns to get back on track, after US President Donald Trump’s Liberation Day tariff announcement derailed things on Thursday. The topic dominated most of the day, with the travelling press pack peppering both leaders on their response and their opinion of their opponent’s response. Mr Albanese revealed a five-point plan to soften the blow to Australian industry, while Mr Dutton pushed for more direct action to create a carve out for the nation. Albo makes international headlines Anthony Albanese has popped up in the global media, with Time Magazine publishing an extensive piece on his effort to crack down on social media use among children. The story involves a great deal of background for Time’s American audience, but it also has new quotes from the Prime Minister defending the looming ban on people under 16 accessing the social media platforms. Writer Charlie Campbell notes that “for Albanese, an imperfect plan is better than no plan”. “We acknowledge that this won’t be absolute,” Mr Albanese told the magazine (the interview took place back in February). “But it does send a message about what society thinks, and will empower parents to have those conversations with their children.” There’s a little section in which Mr Albanese describes his childhood but ends with this upshot. “The capacity to communicate face-to-face is really important. They learn how to win, how to lose, how to engage,” Mr Albanese said. The idea being that children should spend more time together, preferably outside, than on their various tech devices. The age limit on users of platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat is supported by the Coalition, so is set to go into effect regardless of the election result. Professor Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist, told Time that Australia’s world first ban could take off big time. “If the age restriction goes well in Australia, then I think it will go global very quickly,” Prof Haidt said. US defends tariffs on Australia, UK Donald Trump’s Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has defended slapping 10 per cent tariffs on key allies Australia and the UK, despite both countries having a trade deficit with the US. Mr Trump’s argument is that having a trade deficit with another country is a sign the other country is screwing America over. And the tariffs are designed to address that. But he’s also punishing nations with which America has a trade surplus, such as Australia. CNBC host Ross Sorkin brought this up overnight during an interview with Mr Lutnick after the President announced the wide-ranging global tariffs, which has caused chaos on international share markets. “Being fair, what would you say to the United Kingdom, or what would you say to Australia, where we have a trade surplus? Where they could look at us and say, ‘We’re (the US) the winners of that competition.’ And yet we are going to tariff them?” Mr Sorkin asked. Mr Lutnick replied: “Well look, they each have the lowest rate available, right?” But he then went on to say that “if you really studied it, you’d see they have a goods deficit with us, right?”. “I mean the United Kingdom, part of their trade surplus is they have the London Metals Exchange and they count the importing of bullion. I mean come on,” Mr Lutnick replied. Greens go big on dental in Medicare – literally There was no missing Greens leader Adam Bandt’s key message during an appearance on ABC’s News Breakfast on Friday morning. Hanging onto a giant red novelty toothbrush as he spoke, Mr Bandt again stressed the minority party’s priority of bringing dental into Medicare. “When we had minority parliament last time, the Greens got dental into Medicare for children … now, we want to get it in for everyone,” he said. “Australians are already spending huge amounts of money going to the dentist – by bringing that into Medicare, it will deliver real savings. “How do we afford it? Well at the moment, one in three big corporations in this country pays no tax at all, and so we have released a costed plan to make these big corporations start paying their fair share of tax. “(That) more than covers the cost of getting dental into Medicare.” Claiming many experts were already tipping a minority government, Mr Bandt said the Greens planned to use the dental policy as a tool to negotiate. “I think there is a really strong desire to have more voices there in parliament, and we’re saying in that situation, we’re being really clear – we want to keep Peter Dutton … out and get Labor to act on issues like getting dental into Medicare.” More to come