Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has dismissed corporate Australia as being more in step with Labor and the Greens these days, as he said the way back to power for the Liberal Party rested with small and micro-business operators, the suburbs and the regions.

Mr Dutton also joined new Nationals’ leader David Littleproud – who defeated Barnaby Joyce in a party room ballot on Monday – in suggesting his party will play hardball on Labor’s climate change policy because it threatened to increase prices and disrupt the reliability of supply.