‘Next year’: Albo’s big election call

Anthony Albanese has thrown Labor’s first election pitch at a major campaign rally, confirming the next federal election will be in 2025.

Addressing supporters in Adelaide on Sunday, the Prime Minister said his government came to power with an array of “challenges”.

“We came to office knowing this is a time of serious and urgent challenges for global economic uncertainty,” Mr Albanese said.

“A worldwide surge in inflation and energy prices. And Australia’s relationships with our own region under strain.

“And at home, aged care was in crisis, Medicare under threat, bulk billing in free fall, real wages going backwards not by accident but as a deliberate design feature of the economic architecture.

“Our energy grid had been run down by years of ideology and neglect.

“And skills and manufacturing hollowed out to the point that in the midst of a global pandemic we nearly ran out of masks and could not make any more here.

“These are the challenges we have had to face. This is the mess we have worked to clean up.”

Mr Albanese said Australia had “faced a global storm and have navigated it in the Australian way, the Labor way, not by cutting services Australians count on, not by denying families the help they need in hard times, but by looking after people and look to the future.”

He said he was “determined to win the election next year” and that education was the core of his government’s vision for a second term.

‘Free’: Albo’s huge call on TAFE

Up to 100,000 Australians will get access to permanent free TAFE across the country if the Labor government is re-elected, Mr Albanese pledged.

He said the proposal would help more people get the skills they need for a modern Australian economy.

“More tradies to build our homes, more apprentices getting a start, more carers to look after our loved ones, whether they be young or old, more opportunities for Australians to train and retrain in a changing and dynamic economy,” Mr Albanese said.

“TAFE gives our country and our people all of this, and as long as there is a Labor government, free TAFE is here to stay.”

Under the plan, 100,000 fee-free TAFE places would be funded under legislation every year from 2027.

Major $16bn change to student loans

Mr Albanese also formally announced his government’s plans to wipe off 20 per cent from student debt and reform repayments.

About $16bn in student debt would be cut from all student loan accounts that exist as of June next year, meaning average HELP debts of $27,600 would be slashed by about $5,520 next year.

The proposal would apply to Vet Student Loans, Australian Apprenticeship Support Loans and other income-contingent student loans.

“It will be the first piece of legislation that we bring into the next parliament, the first thing we do in our second term, and it will take effect by the first of June next year,” Mr Albanese pledged.

“This measure alone means a typical university graduate will see their debt cut by five-and-a-half thousand dollars.”

Under the repayment reforms, the threshold would be raised $54,000 up to $67,000 and repayment rates lowered.

“Now this means that if you’re earning $70,000 you will save $1,300 a year in repayments,” he said.

“It helps everyone repaying a student debt right now, and it also delivers a better deal for every student in the years ahead.

“Permanent structural reform to boost take home pay for young Australians.

“This is about putting money back into your pocket and putting intergenerational equity back into the system.

“Good for the cost of living, good for this generation and for generations to come, good for building Australia’s future.”

‘Happy to hurt’: Brutal warning on Dutton

In his own address to the rally, Richard Marles issued a scathing take-down of Peter Dutton, warning the Opposition Leader was “happy to hurt people” to get ahead.

The Deputy Prime Minister told the Labor faithful that Mr Dutton was “never pursuing your priorities, only his.”

“That’s what he thinks leadership is about,” Mr Marles said.

“Cutting and slashing instead of protecting and investing, bullying and blocking instead of building, wrecking and whinging instead of working.

“Happy to hurt people, if he thinks it can help him and prepared to send the country backwards, if he thinks that would propel him forwards.

“That’s who we’re up against at the next election. That’s our contest, and it’s one we must win, because if Peter Dutton wins, the country loses.”