Peter Dutton launches official election pitch from Brisbane, vowing to get country ‘back on track’

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has launched his official election pitch, promising Australians a better future under a Coalition Government and vowing to be the “prime minister for home affordability”.

Speaking from Queensland LNP head office in Brisbane, Mr Dutton asked Australians to vote for change this May 3 to “build a better future for your children”.

“Right now, Australia is going backwards. The Prime Minister spent the first half of this term of Parliament obsessed with the Voice, and it meant he didn’t have a plan to deal with the scourge of inflation,” he said.

“Australians are doing it tough, and they need help. Worse still for many, they’re losing hope for their future.

“I don’t believe that we can simply afford to continue down the current path, and that means that we can’t afford three more years of Labor.”

During his press conference, he talked up his experience and promised to get Australia back on track by reining in “wasteful spending”, driving down energy prices, reducing migration, and making housing more affordable.

Having just delivered his Budget reply on Thursday, where he announced plans to implement an east coast gas reservation, Mr Dutton reiterated the Coalition’s plan to flood the market with more gas to drive down energy prices.

He also retreated back to his safe space: national security, telling voters a Coalition Government would boost military spending - although they are yet to announce a concrete figure - because “we live in a very uncertain time”.

“Our plan will deliver a stronger economy with low inflation and affordable homes in safer communities. A stronger, safer, better Australia. When it comes to the economy, inflation, energy, housing and security, Labor has simply failed to deliver,” he said.

He denied he was walking away from his nuclear power plan, given it was hardly mentioned in his Budget reply, saying the Coalition’s energy plan as a whole would be less expensive and more achievable.

He refuted suggestions the Coalition does not have a robust economic plan, saying “energy is the economy”.

“Everything that we see before us, the plastics, cars we drive in, the hospitals we rely on, the phones, the chargers, everything relies on energy in your system,” the Opposition Leader said.

“If energy is unaffordable and if it’s unreliable, then it’s a disaster for the economy.”

Mr Dutton slammed Labor for mismanaging migration, and reaffirmed the Coalition wanted to reduce permanent migration by 25 per cent to free up about 40,000 homes.

“When we are out there, whether it is here in Brisbane or Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, wherever it is, when you talk to young Australians, many of them have lost the dream of home ownership and that is because Mr Albanese has created this housing crisis where people can’t afford rents,” he said.

“I sincerely really want to do everything that I can if I’m given the great honour of being prime minister, to be the prime minister for the home affordability and accessibility.”