Opposition leader, Peter Dutton calls for a pause in “politicking” after the death of the Pope

The opposition leader Peter Dutton is in Sydney where he's attended a church service at St Mary's cathedral.

Transcript

00:00General Leader Peter Dutton has come here to St Mary's Cathedral in the heart of Sydney

00:06to pay his respects to the late Pope Francis.

00:09We of course saw Prime Minister Anthony Albanese do a similar thing

00:13and attend a church service this morning to equally pay his respects.

00:17Now, Mr Dutton today announced a pause in campaigning

00:21so there would be less of a focus on politicking, as he said,

00:25and more of a focus on paying respect and reflecting on the contributions of Pope Francis.

00:31I don't think it's a day for overt politicking at all.

00:34I think the day is best spent reflecting and obviously pre-polling etc. opens today

00:41and all of that will continue on but I don't think there's a place for the body blows of politics today.

00:50I think it's a very different day from that.

00:52Today, of course, was supposed to look very different

00:55even though the third leaders' debate in this election campaign is still going ahead tonight on Channel 9.

01:01It was supposed to look very different.

01:03Mr Dutton did begin the day in Orange, the regional New South Wales town

01:07that lies within the electorate of Calair.

01:10That is a particularly interesting electorate.

01:12He was supposed to be standing alongside his Nationals counterpart, David Littleproud.

01:16That seat is currently held by Independent Andrew Gee, a former Nationals MP who changed and sat on the crossbench partway through the term,

01:26well, early on in the term really, when the Nationals decided to oppose the Indigenous voice to Parliament.

01:32It's also a key electorate because it's one of the electorates where, under a coalition government,

01:36a nuclear power plant would be built.

01:39But as we've seen so many times during the campaign,

01:42it's these big international moments that change the course of the day,

01:46the course of questioning and really the campaigning.

01:50We are now heading towards the pointy end of this campaign,

01:53less than two weeks away and early voting, of course, starting today as well.

01:57So really being out and about and crisscrossing the country is particularly important for the leaders

02:03and the coalition, of course, being behind in the polls.

02:07Mr Dutton has said, though, that the polls aren't necessarily to be believed.

02:12He says the internal polling from the Liberal Party shows that they do have a stronger standing with the public.

02:19But nonetheless, to keep moving across the country is key for them over the next couple of weeks

02:24to keep selling their policies to the Australian people.