Anthony Albanese, Peter Dutton trade personal attacks as gloves come off

Anthony Albanese said Peter Dutton represented ‘a cold-hearted, mean-spirited, sometimes nasty response’ to governing, while the Opposition Leader called the Labor leader the ‘weakest prime minister since federation’.

Anthony Albanese will run a negative campaign against Peter Dutton’s personality ahead of and during the election campaign. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton have escalated personal attacks against each other, with the Prime Minister declaring the Opposition Leader “represents a cold-hearted, mean-spirited, sometimes just plain nasty response” to governing.

Mr Dutton hit back by saying Mr Albanese had been the “weakest prime minister since Federation”, as he dismissed the Labor leader’s negative campaign against his personality while conceding it would continue as the federal election gets closer.

Attempting to convince voters of the benefits of Labor’s first term in power, Mr Albanese said Australia needed “leadership with a heart”.

“Peter Dutton represents a cold-hearted, mean-spirited, sometimes just plain nasty response and that’s not going to help people. We’ve provided that immediate cost-of-living relief, plus setting Australia up by producing two budget surpluses, putting that downward pressure on inflation that is so important,” Mr Albanese told ABC radio.

“We want to make sure that we deal with those immediate pressures, but provide for building Australia’s future by doing things like strengthening Medicare, by doing things like making sure we take advantage of the opportunities which are there from the shift to net zero.”

Pressed on whether politics needed to be “that personal”, the Prime Minister responded: “Peter Dutton has built a career on dividing people. He’s built a career on targeting people, particularly people who are vulnerable.

“He’s never sought to bring people together, which is why his own party rejected him and elected Scott Morrison as leader, even though Scott Morrison had a very small base of support because they understood that he represented a shift to a hard right version of the Liberal Party.”

Mr Dutton said the last 2½ years had been “lost years” under Labor but acknowledged Australians would hear more personal attacks from Mr Albanese and Jim Chalmers in the days and weeks ahead.

“The Prime Minister is embarking on the personal attacks because he does not have a positive story to tell about himself. If he had a successful period as Prime Minister, if he had a period of achievement over the last two-and-a-half years, he wouldn’t need to continue to make up these lies and throw this mud,” the Liberal leader said.

“People want more from their Prime Minister and unfortunately, this Prime Minister, who’s the weakest that we’ve seen since federation, is leading in a way that makes Gough Whitlam look like a competent leader of our nation.

“If they had a two-and-a-half year period of achievement and of success for our country, they’d be talking about that. But of course they can’t. They’d be talking about what they have achieved this term before they start talking about what will happen next term.”

Mr Dutton said there was a “better way” under the Coalition, with no higher priority for Australians than cost-of-living.

Mr Albanese said reducing inflation to a number with a two in front of it, rather than a six when Labor was elected, helped Australians because it measured costs across the board and took pressure off families, though he understood people had been doing it tough.

The leaders have already launched their election slogans, with the Prime Minister opting for “building Australia’s future” and the Opposition Leader choosing “get Australia back on track”.