Peter Dutton acknowledges Labor’s scare campaign has boosted the government’s popularity – with 45 per cent of voters are wary of the Liberal Party because of his personality.
The Coalition was the opinion poll favourite in the early stages of the election campaign but that has now changed, with a Newspoll showing almost half of voters regarded the Opposition Leader as too polarising.
With Labor now leading in the polls, Mr Dutton accused the government of running an expensive advertising scare campaign that falsely claimed he would cut Medicare to fund his nuclear power plan.
‘If you throw mud in this game and you put $20million behind it, then it has an impact. In relation to the nuclear figure it’s a complete fabrication,’ he said.
Labor has suggested the Coalition’s plan to build seven nuclear reactors would cost $593billion – significantly more than the Opposition’s costing of $331billion.
Mr Dutton, a former Queensland police detective, said he would continue to focus on tackling crime.
‘I’m a truthful, honest person and I have said all along, during the course of this campaign and over the course of my career that I will stand up for what I believe in,’ he said.
‘Sometimes that means you can make some people unhappy, but I truly believe that crime and law-and-order is a very significant issue and I want to do more to keep our country and our community safe and help families who are really struggling at the moment.’
He pointed to Coalition plans to halve fuel excise to 25.4 cents a litre for a year, and deliver a $1,200 low and middle-income tax offset to ease cost-of-living pressures for those earning $48,000 to $104,000.
‘That’s what the election will be contested on, not the personalities and the mud being thrown by Labor,’ Mr Dutton said.
But Sunrise host Nat Barr asked if negative perceptions of his personality among voters would be more decisive than policies and costings.
‘It sounds like it will be contested on personality when you’ve got nearly half the electorate in these surveys saying it’s your personality. Does some of that hurt?’
Dutton remained defiant, pointing out that polling ahead of the 2019 election had predicted a Labor victory – only for then Liberal prime minister Scott Morrison to win by campaigning against the Opposition’s plan to scrap negative gearing for future purchases of existing homes.
Labor in 2025 has no plans to change negative gearing laws but services inflation is still an issue.
‘ns are hurting. That’s the reality. People really are going backwards and we’ve what a household recession for almost two years for families,’ Mr Dutton said.
‘The question is how can we help people and are people better off after three years of this government? I just don’t believe that they are.’
The latest Newspoll, published in The n, had Labor leading the Coalition 52 to 48 per cent after preferences, which could see the government returned with a slight majority like it had at the 2022 election.
Mr Dutton argued Labor was now pouring money into defending its own seats, even though Prime Minister Anthony Albanese campaigned in the Opposition Leader’s marginal northern Brisbane seat of Dickson.
‘You’ll will see where the government is spending money at the moment, they’re defending seats at the moment. They’re not on the offensive,’ he said.
Barr then highlighted the changing nature of the polling.
‘You were in front a couple of months ago and now you’ re behind. Are you saying that your private polling, your internal polling is saying something different, that you can win here?’
Dutton insisted he still had a chance.
‘No question about, that Nat. I suspect the internal polling in the Labor Party is doing the same,’ he said.
‘If you have a look in The n today where they’re spending money, they’re defending seats and that’s the reality. In Victoria, people have had enough of Labor both at a state and federal level.’
Mr Dutton was campaigning in Orange on Tuesday in the NSW central west electorate of Calare, where the Nationals are fighting to regain the seat from independent Andrew Gee, who quit the Nationals in 2022 over its opposition to the Voice referendum.
The Coalition is in danger of losing previously safe seats to Climate 200 ‘teal’ candidates, with Sportsbet odds indicating the Nationals would lose Cowper on the NSW mid-north coast as the Liberal Party battled to keep Bradfield on Sydney’s north shore.
Sportsbet has the Coalition gaining only a few seats from Labor, including the government’s most marginal seat of Gilmore on the NSW south coast and the outer Melbourne electorate of Aston which Labor won in a 2023 by-election.
It also has the Liberal Party regaining former treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s old Melbourne inner-east electorate of Kooyong from teal MP Monique Ryan, and Ryan in Brisbane’s inner west from the Greens.
The race is considered close in the outer northern Melbourne Labor electorate of McEwen.