Final pitches: Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton share their visions for Australia

Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton explain to the Australian people why they deserve the chance to serve as prime minister for the next three years.

Both Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton share their final election pitch with the Australian people.

ALBANESE: KEEP BUILDING ON STRONG FOUNDATIONS

By Prime Minister Anthony Albanese

The choice at this election is clear: Labor’s plan to keep building Australia’s future or Peter Dutton’s promise to cut.

The world has thrown a lot at Australia these past three years: the worst global inflation in four decades, the biggest international energy crisis in half a century and trade tensions fuelling new global economic uncertainty.

Together, we faced these challenges guided by Australian values of fairness, aspiration and opportunity. And because of the hard work of the Australian people, we are turning the corner.

I’m asking you for the opportunity to keep building on the strong foundations we have laid.

Labor’s plan is about delivering cost of living relief today, while always building for tomorrow.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Picture: Jason Edwards / NewsWire

A re-elected Labor government will continue strengthening Medicare, with 50 more Medicare Urgent Care Clinics and 1800 MEDICARE, a 24/7 telehealth service that makes free care available to all Australians.

We’ll make a record investment in bulk billing so that by 2030, nine out of 10 visits to the GP will be free. And we’re reducing the cost of PBS medicines to just $25 – the lowest is has been since 2004 – and freezing it at just $7.70 for concession card holders until the end of the decade.

We will keep building every stage of education, from new child care centres to permanent Free TAFE to cutting student debt by 20 per cent.

We will train more tradies and drive the biggest home-building program in Australian history. And only Labor will make it possible to buy your first home with just a 5 per cent deposit.

We are cutting taxes next year and the year after for all 14 million Australian taxpayers, not just some.

We will ensure the fair go is always at the heart of our economy, whether it’s the flexibility to work from home, or the right to disconnect when you get home at the end of the day. Our plan builds an economy where we make more things here, and where equality for women is recognised as an essential driver of our national success

The past three years have been a time of global unpredictability. It was always going to take more than three years to clean up 10 years of Liberal mess.

When we came to government, inflation was over 6 per cent and rising. Today it’s 2.4 per cent. Real wages have grown the last five quarters in a row. More jobs have been created under our government than ever before.

The Prime Minister tours a housing construction site in Victoria. Picture: Mark Stewart / NewsWire

Now is the time to keep building, with a stable, reforming, majority Labor government.

In a time of global uncertainty, Australia cannot risk our future on Peter Dutton’s $600bn nuclear reactor scheme and the cuts to health and education that he will make to pay for it.

The Liberals are already promising to raise your income taxes, increase your student debt, abolish Free TAFE and sack 41,000 people who deliver the services Australians rely on. There is a lot more they still refuse to tell us. But there is one certainty with Peter Dutton: He cuts, you pay.

We offer a better choice. A truly Australian future in which no one is held back and no one is left behind. And you can choose it by voting Labor.

DUTTON: I WILL REVIVE NATIONAL CONFIDENCE

By Opposition Leader Peter Dutton

Are you, your family, and our country better off today than three years ago?

Consider what’s occurred on Labor watch:

Unrestrained government spending that’s fuelled inflation. Twelve interest rate rises. A cost-of-living crisis. The worst collapse in living standards in our country’s history – and in the developed world. An economy that will soon be burdened with $1 trillion of debt.

A renewables-only energy policy trainwreck. Power bills that haven’t gone down by $275 as promised, but risen by up to $1300. Some 30,000 small businesses gone bust.

In just two years, a record one million migrants brought in. A housing crisis as a result. An 11 per cent fall in bulk billing. GP shortages.

Surging youth crime and anti-Semitism. Some 300 hardcore criminals released from immigration detention, with one-third reoffending. Tourist visas granted to 3000 people from a terrorist-controlled war zone without thorough security checks. A blind eye turned to Chinese Communist Party military aggression and Russian provocation.

And the divisive Voice referendum.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton. Picture: Dan Peled / Getty Images

A Coalition government will get Australia back on track. Here’s what we will do:

Halve the fuel tax, saving you about $750 a year per vehicle. Give 85 per cent of taxpayers a rebate of up to $1200. Rein in wasteful government spending to get inflation and interest rates down.

Get more gas into the domestic system to bring down power bills and costs across the economy. Shore up our future energy security with nuclear power.

Re-energise our economy by defunding environmental activists, stopping mafia-like mobs in our building sector, giving tax breaks to small businesses, and green-lighting resource projects.

Revive the dream of home ownership by reducing migration, banning foreign investors and temporary residents from purchasing existing homes, getting projects off the ground with infrastructure investment, and allowing first home buyers to access their super for a deposit and deduct the interest they pay on their mortgage.

Commit more money to Medicare than Labor. Ensure classrooms are places of education – not indoctrination.

Crack down on crime. Deport non-citizen criminals – again. Stop the boats – again. And lift defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP to re-tool our defence force to deter a larger adversary.

If I’m given the great honour to lead our country, I will create certainty for our country amidst international uncertainty and revive our national confidence.

I will proudly stand in front of our one national flag to remind Australians of the things that unite us: our common citizenship, shared values, and love for our country.

The difference between a bleak future and a better future comes down to common sense. This Saturday, I have every confidence that the common sense of Australians will elect a Coalition government to get our country back on track.

Originally published as Final pitches: Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton share their visions for Australia