Hello readers, and welcome to today’s election edition of Afternoon Update. This is our last edition until Tuesday, after the Easter break.

The prime minister has been shooting pool with students and holding fairy figurines with small children in Brisbane, while the opposition leader has been inspecting a dog house at a trades college in the Hunter Valley.

It’s fair to say the leaders are also winding down into long-weekend mode. Ahead of the holiday, the Coalition has announced $260m for technical colleges. And the Labor camp has seized on Peter Dutton’s comments about global heating in last night’s leaders’ debate, which Anthony Albanese says left him “stunned”.

Today’s big stories

Cue a pun about Peter Dutton being in the doghouse. The opposition leader visited the Hunter Trade College in Maitland this morning, a region where the Coalition is hoping to wrangle the marginal seats of Paterson and Hunter off Labor. He used the visit to spruik a new education policy, which would establish 12 technical colleges for students from years 10 to 12, in partnership with the private sector.

The Australian Education Union slammed the policy, pointing to the Coalition voting against permanent fee-free Tafe places last year. Its federal president, Correna Haythorpe, said Australia already had a “world-class network of technical colleges – they’re called Tafes”.

Speaking to reporters, Dutton insisted he “believes in climate change” after eyebrow-raising comments in last night’s ABC debate about letting “scientists pass that judgment” on whether the impacts were worsening.

Elsewhere, NT senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price doubled down on her “make Australia great again” comment made over the weekend, writing an opinion in the Australian that the media had participated in a “pile-on” and “dumbing down” of the phrase by associating it with Donald Trump – even though she was photographed wearing a Maga hat.

Independent MP Zoe Daniel has said her campaign team had nothing to do with a phone survey the Coalition has criticised as “push polling”, a criticism rejected by the company responsible for launching it on behalf of Climate 200.

And questions have been raised over whether the female Liberal diaspora is in any better a place than in 2022, when the Coalition conceded it had a “women problem”.

What they said

“Well I personally believe in climate change.”

Speaking on the ABC after Peter Dutton declined to state whether the impacts of climate breakdown were getting worse during last night’s debate, Jane Hume said the opposition leader “listens to the scientists”, as did she – adding that was why the Coalition had a target and pathway to net zero by 2050.

Dutton later clarified his comments, telling reporters “I believe in climate change and that is a reality”.

How social media saw it

The former prime minister, Malcom Turnbull, has made a fresh pitch for his 720-page memoir on X, in a post revealing his Coalition government considered negative gearing reform.

Jim Chalmers was questioned today as to whether Labor asked Treasury for advice on negative gearing and capital gains tax or if it was unsolicited. The party’s policy to reform the practice was scrapped following Bill Shorten’s defeat in 2019. The treasurer said seeking a view was different to commissioning modelling, and ruled out changes to Labor’s housing policies.

Turnbull said negative gearing was examined “by every government”, with “many pages” in his memoir devoted to it.

The big picture

Easter poses a wonderful opportunity for politicians to show their sensitive side. The prime minister joined Labor candidate for Bonner, Kara Cook (pictured), to play with kids during a visit to Goodstart Early Learning in Brisbane’s southern suburbs on Thursday.

The seat is currently held by the LNP’s Ross Vasta on a margin of 3.4%.

Albanese clutched onto a figurine duck as his little new friend talked him through a toy rabbit. Happy Easter, everyone.

Watch

If you thought the world had moved on from debating whether climate change is real, think again! When asked during Wednesday night’s leadership debate whether he accepted we were already seeing the impacts of a changing climate, Peter Dutton said “there’s an impact” but the real question was what Australia could do about it.

Pressed further, Dutton said “I don’t know” and “I’m not a scientist” when asked if he was willing to say “this is climate change happening right now”.

Albanese said he was “stunned” by the comments, and that the “science is very clear”. Scientists at the Climate Council have said they are “ready and willing” to brief Dutton on the facts.

And in other news …

• Sydney hospital where two children died recently is at risk of failure, scathing report finds

• Scientists hail ‘strongest evidence’ so far for life beyond our solar system

• Australia to woo US’s ‘smartest minds’ disfranchised by Trump research cuts

• ‘Who is going to face Mr Trump’: Canada leaders’ debate dominated by US crisis

• Mary Fowler’s injury leaves Matildas facing up to Asian Cup without key weapon

• ‘Book brigade’: US town forms human chain to move 9,100 books one-by-one

Daily word game

Today’s starter word is: ELM . You have five goes to get the longest word including the starter word. Play Wordiply.

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