Andrew Thorpe

2 months ago | abc.net.au | Caitlin Rawling |Andrew Thorpe

The PM takes a final question, this one about the impact of this morning's news on the election campaign going forward. While he's already announced a pause on campaign events this morning, he says he believes Australians will be able to "separate" politicians' campaigning from news about the pope's death as they look towards polling day on May 3. "I think it's very important that we have a secular democracy in Australia," he says.

2 months ago | abc.net.au | Andrew Thorpe

Skip to timelinePrime Minister Anthony Albanese is in Sydney while Opposition Leader Peter Dutton is in Brisbane for Easter Sunday campaigning. Both the PM and the opposition leader have issued Easter messages to the public. Follow today's developments on our live blog. Good morning to the politics tragics out there reading our federal election live blog on Easter Sunday morning. It's an absolute pleasure to have you here.

2 months ago | abc.net.au | Andrew Thorpe |Caitlin Rawling

Good morning from the Dutton campaign!We're starting off the day travelling through the streets of Sydney. Destination: unknown. The opposition leader this morning is offering tax incentives to help give new small businesses a boost. He's set a target, too — to have 350,000 new small businesses open in the first four years of a Dutton government. Under the proposed "entrepreneurship accelerator" scheme, businesses would only have to pay tax on a portion of their income.

2 months ago | abc.net.au | Andrew Thorpe

The opposition leader is asked about the recent cyber attack on a number of superanuation funds, which saw hackers use stolen passwords to access thousands of accounts to steal members' funds. The question is whether the government should impose tighter cuber security regulations on super funds. Dutton says he thinks the onus is already on the super funds to do the right things by their members.

2 months ago | abc.net.au | Georgie Hewson |Andrew Thorpe |Stephanie Chalmers |Clint Jasper

While Australia's imports from the United States are worth more than what we export to it, there are still many sectors that would feel the pain of tariffs. We export a lot of meat to the US, so the beef industry is on alert. Other industries that have the US as a key customer include gold, pearls and other precious stones, and optical and medical goods. Australia exported $US1.35 billion worth of pharmaceuticals to the US last year, mostly blood products and vaccines.