1. Housing help
The centrepiece announcement of Labor’s launch was $10bn to help build 100,000 new homes nationwide, reserved exclusively for first home buyers. Albanese also said a re-elected Labor government would open up to all first home buyers a program allowing people to secure a home with only a 5% deposit, with the government guaranteeing part of the deposit – helping buyers avoid pricey mortgage insurance.
“We want Australians to be able to afford a home where they want to live – close to their family, friends, work and community,” the prime minister said.
“No competition from property investors – just a fair crack for young Australians.”
The move was backed by the Property Council of Australia, which called the policy a “gamechanger”.
2. ‘Automatic’ tax deductions
In a surprise announcement: Labor said it would give all Australians an “instant” tax deduction on work expenses of $1,000, without receipts or paperwork. This would more than triple the existing deduction of $300.
Albanese said “millions of people” were missing out on higher deductions due to the complexity of the tax system, meaning people “pay more tax than they should”.
People with higher deductions could still claim, with receipts, in the normal way. Charitable donations and other deductions would be allowed on top of the $1,000.
3. Winning ways in WA
Labor’s successful 2022 campaign was also launched in Perth – that was not a random choice for Albanese, and nor was the decision to repeat it in 2025.
A swathe of WA seats falling to Labor late on election night propelled Albanese into the Lodge, and the ALP will be keen to hold them all – and potentially add to their tally in the west, with Labor figures feeling bullish about newly established seat Bullwinkel.
WA’s premier, Roger Cook, particularly praised “campaigners who have gone back-to-back in their second campaign” of 2025. WA had its state election in March and Labor sources said its hugely successful party machine had not stopped since.
The deputy PM, Richard Marles, hailed WA Labor for “how good you are at working and how good you are at winning”. Senior Labor sources in WA believe they have got a shot of keeping every seat they hold here, which would be a big blow to Dutton’s chances of taking government.
4. Parochial for Perth
With that in mind, Albanese and his team were lavish in praise for the mining state. The PM and his team pointed out it was his 31st visit to WA since taking office; Marles noted that Albanese had quickly returned to Perth once the campaign was called, while “Peter Dutton – well, he spent the first Monday somewhere else, talking about something else”.
Albanese talked up health spending in WA, and made reference to the black swans emblematic of the state. His Perth-based warm-up acts, Cook and the Labor minister Anne Aly, laid it on thick for their fellow West Australians.
WA loves people paying tribute to their contribution to the national economy and Labor was happy to oblige.
5. Dutton and Trump
It was a Labor launch but two men who weren’t in the building loomed large over a lot of what was said; the opposition leader and the US president.
Cook, lampooning the former Coalition government, claimed it had “lost friends faster than Elon Musk”; a gag at the expense of Trump’s close adviser. Albanese repeated a common line of his, a concern about the “Americanisation of our health system” – a clear reference to Dutton’s history as health minister.
“This is a great country – we don’t need to borrow our ideas – and we don’t need to borrow our slogans either,” the PM said. He didn’t labour the point but you could read that as a dig at Jacinta Nampijinpa Price’s “make Australia great again” line on Saturday and a number of Dutton’s policies which appear to echo Trump’s playbook.
6. A family affair
The 500-strong crowd was filled with ordinary supporters, Labor staff, politicians and a smattering of star power. Labor’s frontbench team was well represented, with Jim Chalmers, Penny Wong, Marles, Tony Burke, Katy Gallagher and others in the front rows.
So too were Albanese’s fiancee, Jodie Haydon, and his son, Nathan, who joined the PM on stage after his speech.
But the biggest applause came for the former PM Julia Gillard, who entered to a standing ovation.
7. Let him Cook
The WA premier did a passable job of warming the stage for Albanese, cracking a few jokes about politics.
One line that got a laugh from the press pack was when he said: “So much of federal politics takes place in the eastern states. It’s a bit like the NRL really” – a nod toward the long-running dramas surrounding the national rugby league setting up a franchise in Perth.
Bagging the former Coalition government, Cook said it “famously upset the French” – pausing for emphasis then adding “the French, of all people!”
8. Sounds of then
Albanese is well known for his love of music. Labor sources joked that the soundtrack playing in the background of the speeches, may as well have been the PM’s own Spotify playlist – Jimmy Barnes’ Working Class Man, some classic Powderfinger and the Ganggajang tune Sounds of Then, which was Albanese’s walk-on music as he entered the room.
9. Keep the sheep
Protesters backing the live sheep export industry, including a number of people in Liberal party shirts, picketed outside Albanese’s hotel in Perth before the launch. About two dozen people with placards reading “Keep the sheep” gathered on the footpath outside to protest against Labor’s decision to ban live sheep exports.
The group included a number of people in the blue campaign shirts of a local Liberal candidate, Mic Fels. A number of trucks and cars circled the block bearing similar placards; one person, with a loudspeaker attached to the car, broadcast sheep bleating noises through the streets.
We saw a few Labor ministers, on their way from the hotel to the campaign launch, being jeered by protesters as they emerged from the lobby to enter their waiting van.
10. Pause for applause
And if you were wondering what got the Labor faithful in the room excited? The biggest applause came when Albanese talked about free Tafe, the new policies outlined above, and his government’s decision to “stop treating equality for women as an afterthought or a curiosity and make it an economic and social priority”.
That particular line got a raucous reception that even Albanese didn’t seem to expect, having to pause before his next line.
As he entered the room, giving Cook a tight bro handshake, one man in the audience yelled, “Bloody legend.”
“Thanks to whoever yelled that,” Albanese said with a laugh, before launching into his speech.
