A key crossbencher has urged leaders to think before they speak after a series of diplomatic fumbles marred the election campaign.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton admitted during the Wednesday night leaders’ debate that he made a mistake when he earlier falsely attributed comments to the Indonesian president.

He wrongly said Prabowo Subianto had made a public statement about Russia wanting to station military planes at a base in Papua.

Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie also backtracked and apologised for comments claiming Russia and China wanted Labor to win the election.

She said the Russian defence minister and Chinese president “both have made very public comments that they do not want to see Peter Dutton as the prime minister” before acknowledging she couldn’t verify those claims.

Some 12 hours later, Senator McKenzie found herself in another tangle as she misattributed a quote from the Chinese premier to the president when defending the crux of her earlier statement.

“It’s pretty clear from President Xi’s public commentary that he finds Albo a very handsome boy, he’s been very complimentary about the prime minister,” she told Nine’s Today Show on Thursday.

It was Chinese Premier Li Qiang who commented “people were saying that we have a handsome boy coming from Australia” when Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visited Beijing.

Independent senator David Pocock said it was prudent for politicians to ensure they had their facts straight when talking about world leaders.

“We keep hearing that we’re in really tense and delicate times when it comes to geopolitics … so you would probably expect people to really think through what they’re saying,” he told AAP.

Labor campaign spokesman Jason Clare chastised Mr Dutton for his statements as coalition frontbenchers defended their leader’s about-face, saying Australians wanted a leader who would front up when they made a mistake. 

“The relationship between Australia and Indonesia is critical, if this is not a disqualifying moment, I don’t know what is,” Mr Clare told ABC radio.

Climate and energy policy tripped both leaders up in their debate, with Mr Albanese repeatedly refusing to say when power bills would come down and Mr Dutton side-stepping whether climate change impacted natural disasters.

“I’m not a scientist and I can’t tell you whether the temperature has risen in Thargomindah as a result of climate change,” Mr Dutton said. 

Coalition finance spokeswoman Jane Hume was forced to mop up after the comments on Thursday, saying Mr Dutton believed in climate change and listened to the scientists.

Senator Pocock said neither major party listened to scientists on climate change as “we would be doing a lot more if they were”.

“It’s pretty appalling to have someone who wants to be prime minister in 2025 in a country that stands to lose a lot from climate inaction, not being stronger on climate,” he said.

Mr Albanese takes a slight lead over the opposition into the second half of the campaign as Mr Dutton’s support drops, according to a Freshwater poll published in the Australian Financial Review.

Labor and the coalition are tied at 50-50 in the two-party preferred vote – a one per cent improvement for the government since the start of the campaign – while Mr Dutton dropped in support as preferred prime minister.

Further analysis from the pollsters indicated Labor could still finish short of a majority with 71 seats, compared to 66 seats for the coalition under the same modelling.

Other recent polls have put Labor well ahead on a two-party preferred basis, including a lead for the government of 54.5 to 45.5 per cent in a recent Roy Morgan survey.

Chinese e-marketplace Temu and fast-fashion retailer Shein will raise prices next week as US President Donald Trump’s tariffs and crackdown on low-value imports push up costs for the companies known for their budget offerings.

In nearly identical letters to customers this week, the two companies said they will be increasing prices starting April 25 and encouraged shoppers to purchase “now at today’s rates”.

Shein and Temu, sellers of everything from toys to smartphones, had grown rapidly in the US thanks in part to the “de minimis” exemption that allowed duty-free entry for merchandise priced below $US800 ($A1260), enabling the companies to keep prices low.

However, their business model has come under pressure from a recent executive order signed by Trump that closes the trade loophole and goes into effect on May 2.

“Due to recent changes in global trade rules and tariffs, our operating expenses have gone up. To keep offering the products you love without compromising on quality, we will be making price adjustments starting April 25, 2025,” the statements from both companies said.

Shein dresses are currently priced between $US6 and $US91 on its website while Temu sells them at anywhere between $US2.48 and $US210 online.

Buyers beware – it costs an average of $1 million to enter the housing market in most major cities as political leaders try to woo potential homeowners.

Adelaide has become the fifth capital city to break into the million-dollar club, with the median house price in South Australia’s capital now $1,000,202.

Domain’s March House Price Report, released on Thursday, revealed the city of churches has joined Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Canberra on the million-dollar list. 

The highest median house price in the country is an eye-watering $1.7 million in Sydney.

While house prices across the country continue to rise, the pace of growth has slowed to a third of what it was in 2024.

There were higher levels of housing supply in cities such as Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth but they were not enough to bring down record prices nationally, Domain’s chief of research Nicola Powell said.

“What we have seen over time is a widening gap between where home prices are and the capacity of buyers to pay for a home,” she told AAP.

“The element of urgency is starting to relax amongst buyers because they have more choice.

“It is a good thing supply is rising but that doesn’t mean we still don’t have a housing crisis.”

Dr Powell said it was an opportune time to buy, with both major parties putting forward policies to lure first homebuyers ahead of the May 3 election and expectations the Reserve Bank would cut interest rates.

Canberra is the best bet for those looking to rent, recording the lowest rent increase of all capitals in the first quarter of 2025.

It was a welcome reprieve for tenants after the city recorded the highest quarterly increase in rent of any capital in the December 2024 quarter.

The average price to rent nationwide is about $650 a week – five per cent higher than in 2024 and an extra $1560 a year for tenants to fork out.

“Sydney remains the most expensive city to rent in, with renters paying an additional $70 per week,” REA Group’s senior economist Anne Flaherty said.

“Compared with Melbourne, a renter in Sydney is typically paying $9100 more per year in rent.”

The spectre of Donald Trump still made an appearance but housing and cost of living issues returned to the fore in a cagey second leaders’ debate of the election campaign.

After the US president dominated the first debate between Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton, the opposition leader was keen to get back to his main attack line that Australians are doing it tougher now than before the last election.

But a slip up over a story about Russian warplanes exposed his weaknesses on the international front, which Mr Albanese was keen to capitalise on.

Mr Dutton was forced into an awkward admission of fault after previously refusing to back down on his erroneous claim that Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto publicly announced a request by Russia to host military aircraft on Indonesian territory.

“It was a mistake and I’m happy to admit that,” Mr Dutton conceded after being pressed by moderator David Speers.

Mr Albanese said it was “extraordinary” for the man vying to be prime minister to be throwing those comments around, showing his lack of understanding of diplomacy.

Mr Dutton also looked vulnerable when asked about his relationship with Mr Trump, distancing himself from the US president while still maintaining he would’ve had more success in asking for a tariff exemption than Mr Albanese. 

But the prime minister had some shaky moments too.

He was evasive when asked when Australians could expect to see energy bills come down and denied that the government had modelled the effects of removing negative gearing on house prices, despite reports that Treasury had produced modelling on the issue.

“The lie he told tonight about negative gearing is the most bald-faced lie he’s told in this campaign so far,” said Liberal campaign spokesman James Paterson.

Housing affordability has returned as a key issue in the campaign, with both parties aiming major policies at first homebuyers in recent days.

But Mr Albanese and Mr Dutton struggled to shake criticisms that their plans would cause house prices to rise.

Neither leader managed to score a knock-out blow on the other and both largely stayed on message.

Mr Dutton repeated his refrain asking Australians whether they were better off than three years ago and Mr Albanese exhorting Australians not to risk the coalition’s cuts.

No winner was declared, but the outcome will favour Mr Albanese.

Up in the polls with less than a week until early voting begins, the prime minister just needs to avoid any major slip ups to secure a second term.

Mr Dutton will on Thursday announce a plan to revive Howard-era technical colleges, which would provide vocational training to students in their final years of school.

The hope is that will encourage more young Australians to pick up a trade and help plug the skills shortage that the construction industry says is holding up its ability to provide new homes.

The coalition has promised to establish 12 technical colleges over its first term, at a cost of $260 million.

US President Donald Trump says he will personally attend a meeting of Japanese and US trade officials, a surprise move that underlines his eagerness to oversee negotiations triggered by his barrage of tariffs on global imports.

Japan sent its economic revitalisation minister Ryosei Akazawa to kick start the talks, expecting to face Trump’s Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in Washington DC and had hoped to limit the scope of discussions to trade and investment matters.

But Trump weighed in early on Wednesday, saying he would also be there to cover issues including the amount Japan pays towards the cost of hosting US troops in Japan, the biggest overseas deployment globally.

“Japan is coming in today to negotiate Tariffs, the cost of military support, and ‘TRADE FAIRNESS’,” he said in a post on Truth Social.

“I will attend the meeting, along with Treasury & Commerce Secretaries. Hopefully something can be worked out which is good (GREAT!) for Japan and the USA!”

Bessent also wants to discuss the thorny issue of exchange rates with Japan, one of the first countries to begin face-to-face negotiations since Trump announced sweeping duties on dozens of countries – both friend and foe – earlier this month.

Japan has been hit with 24 per cent levies on its exports to the United States although these rates have, like most of Trump’s tariffs, been paused for 90 days.

But a 10 per cent universal rate remains in place as does a 25 per cent duty for cars, a mainstay of Japan’s export-reliant economy.

Bessent has said there is a “first mover advantage” given the United States has said more than 75 countries have requested talks.

However, Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said on Monday that his country, a close US ally, won’t rush to reach a deal and does not plan to make big concessions.

Ishiba has, for now, ruled out countermeasures to the US tariffs.

“The difficulty for the Japanese team is that the United States has created a huge amount of leverage for itself, unilaterally,” said Kurt Tong, managing partner at The Asia Group, a US-based consultancy.

“The US is offering to not hit Japan with sticks, and Japan is stuck in a position of offering a whole lot of carrots. And from their perspective, it feels like economic coercion,” said Tong, a former US State Department official.

Trump has long complained about the US trade deficit with Japan and other countries, saying US businesses have been disadvantaged by trade practices and intentional efforts by other countries to maintain weak currencies.

Japan denies it manipulates its yen currency to gain advantage.

Bessent met Vietnam’s deputy prime minister last week to discuss trade and has invited South Korea’s finance minister for talks next week.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni will meet Trump at the White House on Thursday to discuss tariffs imposed on the European Union.

The full scope of Wednesday’s discussions was not yet clear.

Bessent has said he is hoping to strike deals that would cover tariffs, non-tariff barriers and exchange rates although Japan had lobbied to keep the latter separate.

Possible Japanese investment in a multi-billion dollar gas project in Alaska could also feature, Bessent has said.

Japan hopes that pledges to expand investment in the United States will help to convince the US that the two countries can achieve a “win-win” situation without tariffs, Akazawa said ahead of his departure.

The World Trade Organisation has sharply cut its forecast for global merchandise trade from solid growth to a decline, saying further US tariffs and spillover effects could lead to the heaviest slump since the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The WTO said it expected trade in goods to fall by 0.2 per cent this year, down from its expectation in October of 3.0 per cent expansion.

It said its new estimate was based on measures in place at the start of this week.

“I’m very concerned, the contraction in global merchandise trade growth is of big concern,” WTO director general Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala told reporters in Geneva.

US President Donald Trump imposed extra duties on steel and car imports as well as more sweeping global tariffs before unexpectedly pausing higher duties on a dozen economies.

His trade war with China has also intensified with tit-for-tat exchanges pushing levies on each other’s imports beyond 100 per cent.

The WTO said that if Trump reintroduced the full rates of his broader tariffs that would reduce goods trade growth by 0.6 percentage points, with another 0.8 point cut due to spillover effects beyond US-linked trade.

Taken together, this would lead to a 1.5 per cent decline – the steepest drop since 2020.

“If we have contraction in global merchandise the concern is spill over into broad GDP growth. We’ve seen that the trade concerns can have negative spill overs into financial markets, into other broader areas of the economy,” Okonjo-Iweala added.

She also raised alarm about the effect on developing countries.

The head of the WTO said her greatest fear was that the economies of China and the US were decoupling from one another.

The WTO estimates that merchandise trade between them will fall by 81 per cent – a drop that could have reached 91 per cent without recent exemptions for products such as smartphones.

“A decoupling could have far reaching consequences if it were to contribute to a broader fragmentation of the global economy along geopolitical lines to two isolated blocks,” Okonjo-Iweala said.

In this scenario, global GDP could shrink by 7.0 per cent in the long term, which the director general described as “significant and substantial”.

“The unprecedented nature of the recent trade policy shifts means that predictions should be interpreted with more caution than usual,” said the WTO, which is also forecasting a modest recovery of 2.5 per cent in 2026.

“Forecasting a credible baseline scenario has become virtually impossible,” Hector Torres, a former executive director of the International Monetary Fund, told Reuters.

“The remnants of a deteriorated ‘rules-based’ trading system are giving way to a capricious ‘deals-based’ disorder, where any projections hinge on government’s capacity to strike bilateral deals with the Trump administration,” Torres said.

Earlier on Wednesday, the United Nations Trade and Development agency said global economic growth could slow to 2.3 per cent as trade tensions and uncertainty drive a recessionary trend.

The Geneva-based WTO said disruption of US-China trade was expected to increase Chinese merchandise exports across all regions outside North America by between 4.0 per cent and 9.0 per cent.

Other countries would have opportunities to fill the gap in the United States in sectors such as textiles, clothing and electrical equipment.

Services trade, though not subject to tariffs, would also take a hit, the WTO said, by weakening demand related to goods trade such as transport and logistics.

Broader uncertainty could dampen spending on travel and investment-related services.

The WTO said it expected commercial services trade to grow by 4.0 per cent in 2025 and 4.1 per cent in 2026, well below baseline projections of 5.1 per cent and 4.8 per cent.

The expected downturn follows a strong 2024, when the volume of world merchandise trade grew by 2.9 per cent and commercial services trade expanded by 6.8 per cent.

Spotify has been hit by a service outage which has left thousands of users unable to stream music.

The audio streaming giant has confirmed it is aware of a problem with its services and said in a statement posted to social media that it was “checking them out”. 

Thousands of users have reported being unable to stream music via Spotify online, with audio already downloaded to a user’s library only being accessible. 

According to service monitoring site Downdetector, problems began at Spotify about 10pm AEST on Wednesday, with more than 20,000 reports of user issues with the service being logged since then. 

It said users were reporting problems with both the Spotify app and website. 

In February, the Sweden-based firm announced its user numbers had hit a record high of 675 million globally, a rise of 12 per cent over the last year.

This includes 263 million subscribers across more than 180 markets, it says.

Voters will have the final say on which leader prevailed after Peter Dutton and Anthony Albanese spanned well-trodden ground in a debate rematch.

The prime minister faced off against the coalition leader at the ABC’s western Sydney studios for the second out of four campaign trail clashes on Wednesday night.

Unlike the first debate, where an audience of undecided voters declared a winner, this contest – moderated by the ABC’s national lead David Speers – will only be decided when viewers go to the ballot box on May 3.

The leaders covered everything from housing to international relations, amid moments of humility and thinly veiled hostility.

Mr Dutton admitted he was wrong after claiming the Indonesian leader had announced Russia had asked to station aircraft in the country.

“It was a mistake,” he said.

The duo traded barbs throughout the match-up, with Mr Albanese alleging the opposition leader had “verballed” the Indonesian president, and Mr Dutton accusing the prime minister of “complete dishonesty” in his portrayal of the coalition’s nuclear policy.

US President Donald Trump was also a hot topic.

Mr Dutton threaded his usual needle by claiming he could seal a deal on a tariff exemption while also distancing himself from the Republican leader.

“We trust the United States and I don’t know the president,” he said.

The prime minister, on the other hand, said he had “no reason” not to trust Mr Trump but maintained the tariffs imposed by the US were an act of economic “self-harm”.

When the moderator attempted to create a moment of levity by asking whether it would truly be a disaster for Australia if each man’s opponent won, neither leader took the bait.

“I think that Peter has taken his party to a more conservative bent than it has ever been,” Mr Albanese said.

Mr Dutton said there were some shared bipartisan positions, but he noted they had different visions and pathways.

“The prime minister is running a scare campaign,” he said.

“He doesn’t want to talk about the reality of the last three years, which has been a failure for our country.”

Halfway through the campaign, Labor is in pole position to form government according to new polling conducted by Freshwater Strategy for the Australian Financial Review.

This survey has has favoured the coalition compared with other pollsters and the latest 50-50 two-party-preferred result – alongside other polling data – indicates a swing in Labor’s favour.

Outside the ABC studios, about 100 pro-Palestine protesters gathered to oppose the major parties’ responses to Israel’s violence in Gaza.

The first leaders’ debate, hosted by Sky News and the Daily Telegraph, ended in a narrow victory for Mr Albanese after 44 per cent of the undecided voters in attendance deemed the prime minister the winner.

But 21 per cent remained unsure, indicating there is still room for Mr Dutton to make a comeback.

Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton have kicked off their rematch with hope for the future and a look to the past.

The prime minister is facing off against the coalition leader at the ABC’s western Sydney studios for the second out of four clashes before the May 3 election.

In the showdown moderated by the ABC’s David Speers, Mr Dutton opened by urging voters to reflect on the past three years when they go to the ballot box in a few weeks.

“It’s obvious to me that people don’t feel better off,” he said on Wednesday night.

The prime minister quickly followed up with a message of hope.

“I’m really optimistic about Australia’s future if we seize the opportunities that are right in front of us,” Mr Albanese said.

Halfway through the campaign, Labor is in poll position to form government according to new polling conducted by Freshwater Strategy for the Australian Financial Review.

This survey has has favoured the coalition compared with other pollsters and the latest 50-50 two-party-preferred result – alongside other polling data – indicates a swing in Labor’s favour.

Outside the ABC studios, about 100 pro-Palestine protesters gathered to protest the major parties’ responses to Israel’s violence in Gaza.

The first leaders’ debate, hosted by Sky News and the Daily Telegraph, ended in a narrow victory for Mr Albanese after 44 per cent of the undecided voters in attendance deemed the prime minister the winner.

But 21 per cent remained unsure, indicating there is still room for Mr Dutton to make a come back.

China’s economy expanded at a 5.4 per cent annual pace in January-March, the government says, supported by strong exports before US President Donald Trump’s rapid increases in tariffs on Chinese products.

With the trade war clouding the outlook, analysts expect the world’s second-largest economy to slow significantly in coming months, however, as tariffs as high as 145 per cent on US imports from China take effect. 

Beijing has hit back at the US with 125 per cent tariffs on American exports, while also stressing its determination to keep its own markets open to trade and investment. 

Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s visits is visiting several other Asian countries this week as he makes a case for free trade, presenting China as a source of “stability and certainty” in uncertain times. 

Exports helped China’s economy expand at a five per cent annual rate in 2024 and 2025’s official target is about five per cent. 

In the near term, the tariffs would put pressure on China’s economy, but they would not derail long-run growth, National Bureau of Statistics spokesman Sheng Laiyun told reporters on Wednesday.

He noted China’s exports to the United States had fallen to less than 15 per cent of total exports from more than 19 per cent five years ago. 

“China’s economic foundation is stable, resilient and has great potential,” Sheng said, adding it had the confidence and ability to cope with external challenges and reach its development goals. 

The economy grew 1.2 per cent in January-March, slowing from 1.6 per cent in the last quarter of 2024. 

Chinese exports surged more than 12 per cent from a year earlier in March and nearly six per cent in US dollar terms in the first quarter, as companies rushed to beat Trump’s tariffs. 

Industrial production rose 6.5 per cent from a year earlier in the last quarter, led by a nearly 11 per cent increase in output of equipment manufacturing. 

The strongest growth was in advanced technologies, such as production of battery electric and hybrid vehicles, which jumped 45.4 per cent year-on-year. 

Despite relatively fast growth by global standards, the Chinese economy has struggled to regain momentum since the COVID-19 pandemic as a downturn in the property market pushed unemployment higher, leaving families wary about spending. 

Consumer prices fell 0.1 per cent in the first quarter, while investment in real estate also remained weak, falling nearly 10 per cent from a year earlier despite government efforts to spur more lending for housing purchases.