Peter Dutton explains how he can win the next election

Peter Dutton has declared he can win the next election as he prepares to unveil new details of his nuclear power plan.

Peter Dutton has declared he can win the next election if he claws back Teal seats from independents in inner-city electorates as he prepares to unveil new details of his nuclear power plan.

The Liberal leader has conceded that winning back the support of voters in previously blue-ribbon seats that abandoned the Coalition when Scott Morrison was leader is critical to his hopes of victory.

Broadly, the Teals include Independent candidates who ran on a strong climate platform in formerly safe Liberal Party seats including Zali Steggall who originally won her seat against former Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

In Sydney, the ranks of Teals include the electorates of North Sydney and Mackellar – won by the independents Kylea Tink and Sophie Scamps, a local GP and Wentworth, which covers Sydney’s eastern harbour suburbs and Bondi Beach, which was won by Allegra Spender, the daughter of the designer Carla Zampatti and John Spender, a former Liberal shadow minister in the 1980s.

In Melbourne, their ranks include Monique Ryan, who won the blue-ribbon seat of Kooyong from the former treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, who had hoped to lead the party and Zoe Daniels, a former journalist with the ABC, who won the bayside seat of Goldstein from the prominent backbencher Tim Wilson.

Peter Dutton has declared he can win the next election if he claws back Teal seats from independents in inner-city electorates as he prepares to unveil new details of his nuclear power plan. Picture: Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Dutton has declared that his party ‘can stop the Albanese government from destroying the livelihoods of many Australians.’ Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

In Western Australia, Kate Chaney, the niece of another former Liberal minister, Fred Chaney, claimed victory in the seat of Curtin.

But winning those seats back is a tough task given he needs to secure 20 plus seats to form government but he’s predicted that under any scenario that the Albanese Government is likely to go into minority government and need the support of independents.

“Every political commentator worth their salt at the moment is saying that the best scenario possible for the Albanese Government is that they can just creep across the line, but in a minority government after the next election,‘’ Mr Dutton said.

“Now, if that happens, it means that the green-teals and the Greens are in Coalition government, in a power sharing government as Adam Bandt describes it, with Mr Albanese.

“It would be a disaster for the economy. If you think power prices have gone up dramatically over the last two and a half years, if you think gas prices have gone up and the rest of the cost of living that you’re really suffering under at the moment, you haven’t seen anything yet because they will destroy the economy.

“I think it’s very important to point out that a vote for a teal candidate is a vote for Anthony Albanese because they will not support the Coalition in a minority government after the next election.”

The Liberal leader has conceded that winning back the support of voters in previously blue-ribbon seats that abandoned the Coalition when Scott Morrison was leader is critical to his hopes of victory. Picture: Picture: NewsWire / Gaye Gerard

Dutton is preparing to unveil new details of his nuclear power plan.

There are some independents who might support Mr Dutton. They include SA’s Rebekha Sharkie - who is not a Teal - Queensland’s Bob Katter and possibly Allegra Spender, who is classed as a Teal after she took Wentworth from the Liberal Party.

Under that scenario Mr Dutton would need less than 20 seats but would be forced to govern with the support of the crossbench.

Declaring “a vote for a teal candidate is a vote for Anthony Albanese”, Mr Dutton campaigned on Wednesday alongside the Liberal candidates for Mackellar, James Brown, a former RSL leader and soldier who is the ex-husband of Malcolm Turnbull’s daughter Daisy.

“If we win these seats back, we win government. We can stop the Albanese government from destroying the livelihoods of many Australians. We can get our country back on track,” Mr Dutton said.

“(The teals) are not interested in supporting the Liberal Party, they’re not disaffected Liberals, they are Greens and they’re Labor supporters and people should know that when you’re voting for a green-teal candidate, you’re actually voting for Anthony Albanese.”

Treasurer Jim Chalmers told reporters that the Labor Party was still determined to claim an outright victory.

“Well, we want to govern on our own, not with the Greens and we take no outcome of the election for granted,‘’ he said.

“We know we’ve got a lot of work to do and we know that campaigns are contested, as they should be, because the prize is to govern the best country on earth.

“And so, we take no outcome for granted. But all of our efforts, all of our thinking, all of our work is about returning a majority Labor government because the alternative, particularly when it comes to Peter Dutton and household budgets and the economy more broadly, is a very risky alternative.”

Nationals leader David Littleproud said the number of seats the Coalition needed to win was a tough proposition.

“We have to win 21 seats. That’s a big ask, but there is a pathway and our pathway is about making sure that there is a stable government for a Dutton-Littleproud government rather than a hybrid model of Greens, teals and ­Albanese,‘’ he said.