Peter Dutton’s claims to be getting Australia “back on track” risk him getting seriously off track politically when he next visits Western Australia.

The state is an increasingly attractive target for Coalition hopes of regaining some of the seats they lost in the 2022 wipeout in the west. Despite the even worse electoral calamity of a state Liberal Party reduced to a ludicrous two seats at the last state election, many voters in a traditionally conservative stronghold have grown disenchanted with Labor.