The battle for the Victorian seat of Dunkley at Saturday’s byelection descended into a war of competing statistics and spin, as Anthony Albanese prepared the Labor Party for a close result, including a possible loss.

In doing so, the prime minister told his caucus that despite Labor’s much-publicised revamp of the stage three tax cuts to steer the benefits towards “middle Australia” – which is the Dunkley demographic – “there’s still people out there who don’t know about the tax cuts”.