Anthony Albanese is testing new lines of attack as he hurtles through key battlegrounds ahead of an official election campaign.
The prime minister has embarked a whirlwind tour of Queensland, the Northern Territory and Western Australia just months before voters are expected to go to the polls.
A federal election must be held by late May and, while Mr Albanese is yet to pull the trigger, the trip might be seen as a soft campaign launch.
Home to a handful of knife’s-edge electorates, Queensland remains a crucial political asset and Labor is keenly watching the seat of Leichhardt in the state’s north, held by retiring Liberal National MP Warren Entsch on a 3.4 per cent margin.
As the prime minister visited Rockhampton, Cairns and Mount Isa, he did not pull his punches, lashing the opposition leader.
“If Peter Dutton ever gets his hands on the levers of the economy, (people) will be worse off,” he told reporters on Tuesday.
“Under Labor, we will continue to build Australia’s future. Under the coalition, we will go backwards … and things will cost more.”
Labor has renewed its offensive against the opposition’s $330 billion bid to set up seven nuclear reactors.
It initially aimed its criticism at safety and environment concerns, leaning on the nuclear fears of older generations.
But its latest attack highlights cost, viability and time, with a particular focus on economic consequences for the Sunshine State.
Fresh analysis released by Labor shows the coalition’s plan assumes it will cost Queensland more than $872 billion in lost output by 2050 and treasurer Jim Chalmers said Mr Dutton’s “economic madness” would leave Queensland households worse off.
“As a Queenslander, I won’t sit back and watch Peter Dutton push energy prices up and growth down right across the state,” he said.
“Peter Dutton is the biggest risk to household budgets and Australia’s economy because he wants to push up power prices, slow growth and come after wages and Medicare.”
Federal shadow treasurer Angus Taylor says the greatest hit to Queensland’s economy is a Labor government.
“The thing that’s made the economy smaller is Labor … not the lower cost of electricity, which is what our plan will deliver,” he told ABC radio.
“They can make up all the nonsense they like, they’re desperate.”
It is unclear if Australians are yet swayed by Labor’s criticisms but former Liberal minister Christopher Pyne notes the nuclear plan has already provided Mr Dutton with much-needed political wins.
“He has united the Liberal party room, navigated the debate about future energy policy away from coal and moved the coalition to acceptance of action on climate change,” he wrote in Nine papers.
“If nuclear power never happens, the coalition can hardly turn back the clock.
“This is a seismic shift that has been achieved with almost no animus.”
Polling by Roy Morgan shows an election held now would be won by the coalition with a two-party preferred vote of 53 per cent to Labor’s 47.
Primary coalition support has dropped slightly to 40.5 per cent while Labor’s primary vote increased to 31 per cent.
Cost of living will likely be atop Australians’ minds when they cast their votes.
While Australia is not immune to global factors influencing inflation, the prime minister said his government had avoided quarters of negative growth and created a million jobs.
“Things are heading in the right direction but we understand and are certainly not complacent,” Mr Albanese said.
