Anthony Albanese has put federal Labor at odds with businesses trying to get workers back into the office with an impassioned defence of work from home aimed at opening a new election battlefront with Peter Dutton.

With Labor lagging in opinion polls ahead of an election campaign due to be called within the fortnight, the prime minister on Sunday framed work from home as a cost-of-living measure, saying it made an “enormous difference” to people’s household budgets and wellbeing.