Federal election 2025: Scare before PM’s TV appearance caps Easter campaign pause before pre-polling begins

The leaders may have declared an Easter truce, but there was still drama on the campaign trail on Sunday.

A man was arrested for acting erratically outside a Sydney TV studio moments before the Prime Minister was expected to arrive.

Anthony Albanese’s security detail helped detain the man in his 20s near Channel Nine’s North Sydney headquarters, where the PM made an appearance on the NRL Sunday Footy Show.

The man is alleged to have jumped on a car, acted aggressively and breached bail, but it’s understood he was not targeting Mr Albanese.

Beyond that Easter Sunday was marked by a relative calm, as the hard-core campaigning of the past few weeks took a backseat for both the Prime Minister and Peter Dutton.

Rugby league fanatic Mr Albanese put his passing game to the test on live television before going on the talk about his lifelong passion for the South Sydney Rabbitohs and his support for establishing an NRL team in Papua New Guinea.

Clutching a rabbit mascot that has been passed down through his family, he said: “(I) came out of the womb with a red and green eye.”

Mr Albanese has previously joked that his mother raised him “in three great faiths: the Catholic Church, the Australian Labor Party, and the South Sydney Rabbitohs”.

Earlier in the day, he had marked Easter Sunday with a return to familiar ground by attending morning mass at Sydney’s St Mary’s Cathedral, where he once served as an altar boy.

Mr Albanese then shared lunch with Archbishop Makarios at a Sydney Greek restaurant, as Greek Orthodox Easter and western Easter celebrations aligned on the same day for the first time in 25 years.

Mr Dutton also traded the confrontation of the campaign trail for a more relaxed approach, spending time in his home State of Queensland.

He appeared relaxed at Sutton Park in Ipswich — in the key electorate of Blair — about 40km west of Brisbane as he turned sausages at a barbecue.

Joined by wife Kirilly, their spoodle Ralph and LNP candidate Carl Mutzelburg, he met with party supporters and members of the community, helping cook up a spread of sausages, and bacon and egg rolls, and even donning an Akubra.

While manning the BBQ tongs, he turned down Easter eggs from Ipswich mayor Teresa Harding, joking, “I won’t have one before breakfast just in case mum is watching.” Although he did dole out some chocolate eggs to others.

Mr Dutton wrapped up his appearance with a brief Easter message, saying that Australians lived in the best country in the world.

“It’s on these public holidays that we come together and play a bit of sport or eat and drink together,” he said.

“Remember what is important in life, and what is important is family, our friends and our society, our community, and doing whatever we can to make sure that the future of this great country will always be exactly that.”