Hello everyone, Ryan here with another news roundup. This week, more international news instead of local news has been making the headlines so I’ll keep you up to date on what’s been happening abroad, as well as here in Australia.
Death of Pope Francis hits the pause button on the campaign
Over the last week we’ve had the Easter Holiday weekend with people off for Good Friday and Easter Sunday and Monday. During this important holiday for Christians around the world, the head of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis died on Monday 21 April, he was 88 years old and had been head of the Catholic Church for 12 years.
Here in Australia, the federal election campaign has been briefly paused as the Prime Minister and the Opposition leader suspended campaigning to pay their respects to the late Pontiff. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese attended mass with mourners at a cathedral in Melbourne. “The Holy Father was one of the most consequential leaders of this century,” Albanese said. Opposition Leader, Peter Dutton was in Orange, NSW and paid his respects, saying, “Condolences go out to all Catholics and to the Christian community,” Dutton said. He later flew to a cathedral in Sydney for a luncheon.
The death of such an important and consequential world leader in the last weeks of the campaign means that this pause in campaign activities will, I think, not do much change to the campaign. This week in particularly, with Easter on Sunday and Anzac Day on Friday means people are most likely on vacation, not working, or still on holiday mode, using up vacation days. Most people are still checked out of the campaign right now and not paying attention. Any kind of strong campaigning the two leaders had planned on doing will not take place and the campaign is effectively paused until next week after all the holidays and the mourning period for Pope Francis are over.
Governor General Sam Mostyn will represent Australia at the funeral for Pope Francis on 26 April.
Expect to see major campaigning next week as the parties enter into the homestretch towards the election next Saturday.
Trump looming large over Australian and Canadian elections
In parallel with the election campaign here in Australia, Canada is also having their campaign, with their election due next week on 28 April. In both countries, an incumbent left-wing/ centre-left government is vying for re-election. What is so interesting about both of these campaigns is the large influence that US President Donald Trump has had in just a short amount of time.
In both countries, polling late last year and earlier in this year suggested that the right-wing/ centre-right parties in Canada and Australia (The Conservative Party of Canada and the Liberal National Coalition in Australia) would win government. However, since Trump’s inauguration, that polling lead has melted away.
In Canada, the Conservatives had a 20 point lead last year with Conservative Party Leader, Pierre Poilievre, ready to become the next Prime Minister. However, Trump came to power and began attacking Canada’s sovereignty, saying that the country would become the “51st state” and mocking then Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, calling him “Governor.” Then Trump slapped tariffs on Canada leaving many Canadians feeling betrayed and scared about the future of their country and their economy. This has turned off many people from Canada’s Conservative Party, who many people see as more aligned with Trump. Canada’s new left-wing Prime Minister, Mark Carney, has also come out hard against Trump’s threat to Canada, rallying Canadians. His Liberal Party (left-wing in Canadian politics) has seen a huge poll jump and they are expected to win next week’s election for a fourth term in Government, something that as unthinkable even just two months ago.
Here in Australia, a similar trend is occurring to the Coalition, with many people seeing Peter Dutton as somewhat aligned with Donald Trump. When Trump announced that he wanted to re-develop the Gaza Strip, Dutton called Trump a “shrewd, a big thinking, and a deal maker,” sparking backlash. Mr. Dutton then allied himself with NT Senator, Jacinta Price, whom he named as Shadow Minister for Government Efficiency, a move many people liken to Elon Musk and DOGE back in the US, which has cut thousands of public sector jobs. Dutton’s own policy of cutting government jobs, which he eventually walked back on, also alarmed people. It did not help that Dutton also appeared with Price when she said the phrase “together we can make Australia great again,” a clear reference to Donald Trump’s slogan, “Make American great again.”
As a result of this, The Coalition have seen their polling numbers drop with them leading Labor in the beginning of the year, to now trailing them as voters re-consider their choice in the face of Trump. The ABC wrote a good piece about this subject, interviewing Australians from across the country, many of whom are alarmed by Trump and his influence on right-wing politics across the globe. I highly encourage you to read it if you want to learn more.
Illegal pamphlets in Wentworth
Onto more local news, we turn to the Sydney Eastern Suburbs electorate of Wentworth where the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) has gotten involved regarding illegal pamphlets being circulated around the electorate.
Over the last week, some 40,000 pamphlets have gone around Wentworth attacking incumbent Independent MP, Allegra Spender. The pamphlets attack Spender, calling her weak on antisemitism, attacking her stance on immigration, and trying to tie her to the Labor Party. The problem with these pamphlets is down at the bottom of them is the authorization which reads “Produced by the people of Wentworth, for the people of Wentworth.” That kind of authorization is unlawful. Under Australian electoral law, campaign literature and ads must have an authorization on them which includes a name and address of a person so that people know from whom and where that campaign material is coming from. The AEC was called in to investigate. So far, the ABC, in their own investigation received a voicemail from a tipster about the company that printed these pamphlets. They were able to confirm that the voicemail came from an employee at IVE Group, a large marketing company with thousands of employees across Australia. The company also has links to the Liberal Party with past donations to the NSW Liberal Party and their former executive Chairman, a former NSW Liberal Party President. It should be noted this is just an investigation by the ABC. No formal accusations have been made. The AEC is talking with this company to try to learn more if they indeed did print the pamphlets with the investigation still ongoing. The Spender campaign has asked her opponents to denounce the pamphlets as well. You can read more about the investigation: here.
Well, that’s it for me for this week. The Final Tally live show did not take place on Tuesday morning because of the Easter Holiday. We will release this week’s episode as a podcast that you can listen to on our podcast page. Otherwise, we’ll see you all next week at our regular time to cover the last week of the election campaign. Have a great rest of the week!