Federal election 2025: Albanese, Dutton pause campaigns but not the cameras on Good Friday

Good Friday is a time when election campaigns are paused – but Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton nonetheless managed to find a way to front the cameras.

Both leaders were in Sydney, although took markedly different approaches to the the religious holiday.

The Prime Minister took his nine-year-old cavoodle Toto for a walk through a Lane Cove park, which just happened to be in Labor’s most marginal seat of Bennelong (so marginal that it is in fact notianally Liberal after the redistribution) on Sydney’s north shore.

Local MP Jerome Laxale brought his Jack Russell Toby along for the fun, joined by his partner Jo Taranto and Mr Albanese’s fiancée Jodie Haydon.

Mr Albanese, dressed in his standard casual fare of polo shirt, Rabbitohs hat and custom sneakers in the Bunnies’ red and green, chatted football and podcasts with other dog walkers in the park.

Some 20km away, on the other side of the harbour, Mr Dutton and his wife Kirilly attended the Good Friday service at St Charbel’s in Punchbowl.

The service was held after a Stations of the Cross procession through the streets of the western Sydney suburb that was watched by thousands.

Former prime minister Scott Morrison, his wife Jenny, Liberal frontbencher David Coleman who holds the neighbouring seat of Banks, and Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke, the local MP, also attended.

It’s the second time Mr Dutton and his predecessor have appeared together during the election campaign; Mr Morrison also attended the Coalition’s national campaign launch last Sunday.

Bishop Antonie-Charbel Tarabay greeted Mr Dutton with a handshake and Mr Morrison with a kiss on each cheek.

Unlike during the 2022 campaign, when Mr Albanese and Mrs Morrison (on behalf of her husband, who was in a marginal seat in Melbourne at the time) gave readings at the St Charbel’s service, none of the politicians were invited to speak.

Greens leader Adam Bandt will DJ a midnight set tonight at a Melbourne nightclub that is newly in his electorate after the redistribution.