Albanese says voting for him would give you something that Dutton can’t

The government portrayed the new portfolio as a move to follow Trump in slashing public spending, but Dutton argued on Saturday that the savings would go toward spending on services.

“I want to make sure that we can reduce and cut inefficiencies and waste so that we can deliver more frontline services,” he said.

Asked if he would set up a department of government efficiency as in the US if he won power, he said “no”.

Dutton has repeatedly accused Albanese of breaking an election promise because household electricity prices have not fallen by $275 a year as forecast in Labor’s climate policy modelling three years ago. The prime minister refused to admit any broken promise and said energy costs had soared worldwide due to the war in Ukraine.

“It was a direct result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, [which] led to a spike in prices,” he said when asked four times about the $275 forecast.

Albanese has announced a $10,000 incentive payment for apprentices in residential construction, a policy Dutton said on Sunday he would support.

Dutton has announced plans for a tax deduction worth up to $20,000 a year for small businesses to spend on lunch for staff, an idea Albanese ridiculed on Sunday as “sloppy” policy.

Pressed on the timing of the election, Albanese would not commit to the government’s stated timetable for a federal budget on March 25 – a date that would push the election into May. Asked twice about this, he said the budget was “scheduled” for March 25.

In an explanation for one of his most contentious moves last year, Albanese said he had bought a house with his partner Jodie Haydon on the Central Coast of NSW – widely debated because of its ocean views – on personal and not political grounds.

“Not every decision that I make as a human being is through a focus group, is about politics,” he told Sky host Andrew Clennell.

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“Around about this time last year, on February 14, I proposed to Jodie. I’ve met someone I want to spend the rest of my life with, and what happens when people make that decision, if they’re in a position to, they go and get a mortgage together.”

Albanese said people would understand that he could not expect Haydon to share their later years in his old house, where he had lived with his first wife, Carmel Tebbutt.

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