<div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>A spat has erupted as the Federal Election campaign enters its final week over controversial social media posts from both Coalition and Labor candidates.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Opposition Leader Peter Dutton was campaigning this morning in North Queensland with Leichhardt candidate Jeremy Neal.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>While slamming Labor on its cost-of-living record, Dutton was also pressed on some of Neal's since-deleted social media posts.</span></div></div><div><div id="adspot-mobile-medium"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/federal-election-2025-policy-promises-anthony-albanese-peter-dutton-housing-tax-energy-health-explained/69f5f5d2-2fff-4aa3-b10e-8ce7d707a50f" target="_blank"><strong><span>The major election promises Labor and the Coalition have made to try and win your vote</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Mr Dutton, your candidate has described China as a grub of a country, and said feminists were to blame for Trump's loss in 2020. What do you think of those comments?" a reporter asked.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Well, I think if you look at candidates we've got on offer at this selection in Cairns, here in Leichhardt, we've got a paramedic, he's served his country, his state, his local community here for 15 years as a paramedic," Dutton said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"In Dickson, you've got a candidate, the Prime Minister has endorsed, in terms of neo-Nazi pictures, and other vile posts that she's supported," Duston said, referring to Labor candidate Ali France's resurfaced Twitter posts from 2017 depicting Peter Dutton in Nazi uniform.</span></div></div><div><div class="OUTBRAIN" data-reactroot="" data-src="//www.9news.com.au/national/federal-election-2025-dutton-stands-by-candidate-over-controversial-tweets-pm-pledges-funding-for-second-languages/e6aa37e2-2059-4ff4-ad86-74cf7f00f0ba" data-widget-id="AR_5"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"I'm hardly going to take a lecture from the prime minister in relation to these matters," Dutton said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Neal distanced himself from Trump during the opposition leader's press conference and said the people of Cairns were more interested in the cost of living.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/federal-election-2025-how-does-postal-voting-work-and-to-apply-explainer/f4806a40-9f89-4ae4-8ea9-fae547228654" target="_blank"><strong><span>How to apply for a postal vote and submit your vote by mail in the 2025 federal election</span></strong></a><span></span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>In Victoria, the Prime Minister was campaigning this morning with Labor's MP for Chisholm Carina Garland. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The Prime Minister distanced himself from Ali France's social media posts.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"I said that was inappropriate. Quite clearly, it was inappropriate," he said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>In another case of social media skeletons in the closet, Labor candidate Helen Madell came under pressure this week for 2022 posts she made on X criticising Pope Francis.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Albanese also announced $25 million in new funding for community language schools, praising Australia's strengths as a multicultural nation.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Our multiculturalism is a strength of our national economy and of our society," he said.</span></div></div><div class="styles__Wrapper-sc-2o34ro-0 cmwkBV"><div class="styles__Column-sc-2o34ro-3 jJDKrX"><a href="/content/2025/04/01/11/52/federal-election-2025-campaign-in-pictures"><img alt="Day 28: April 24" sizes="(min-width: 1024px) 636px, (min-width: 768px) 396px, 100vw" src="https://imageresizer.static9.net.au/04BTyFide1lwVOfmTC36mxG1iRg=/0x217:5555x3341/396x223/https%3A%2F%2Fprod.static9.net.au%2Ffs%2Fda4ccfc5-b0ac-4fb0-8a18-64ef6d9796da" srcset="https://imageresizer.static9.net.au/04BTyFide1lwVOfmTC36mxG1iRg=/0x217:5555x3341/396x223/https%3A%2F%2Fprod.static9.net.au%2Ffs%2Fda4ccfc5-b0ac-4fb0-8a18-64ef6d9796da 396w, https://imageresizer.static9.net.au/hTpPdsP3T9aso7uQpcDz3ft4x50=/0x217:5555x3341/636x358/https%3A%2F%2Fprod.static9.net.au%2Ffs%2Fda4ccfc5-b0ac-4fb0-8a18-64ef6d9796da 636w"/></a></div><div class="styles__Column-sc-2o34ro-3 jJDKrX"><div class="styles__Headline-sc-2o34ro-4 hpbOlz">Opposition leader visits 14th servo of election campaign</div><div class="styles__Button-sc-2o34ro-1 eBjlmW"><a class="styles__ButtonLink-sc-2o34ro-2 hqpklJ" href="/content/2025/04/01/11/52/federal-election-2025-campaign-in-pictures">View Gallery</a></div></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Asked to respond to Peter Dutton's claims this morning that Albanese and Treasurer Jim Chalmers were planning to remove negative gearing, the prime minister denied them.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"In 2022, there was a campaign run suggesting we were gonna make changes," he said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"The proof is in the pudding, the proof is, we haven't made any changes."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Albanese ruled out removing the policy in the future.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/how-to-follow-9news-digital/29855bb1-ad3d-4c38-bc25-3cb52af1216f" target="_blank"><strong><em><span>DOWNLOAD THE 9NEWS APP</span></em></strong></a><strong><em><span>: Stay across all the latest in breaking news, sport, politics and the weather via our news app and get notifications sent straight to your smartphone. 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