Anthony Albanese blasts Peter Dutton as ‘cold-hearted and nasty’ as focus turns to power bill relief

Anthony Albanese has accused Peter Dutton of being “cold-hearted, mean spirited and just plain nasty“, as the political opponents dial up the rhetoric and draw cost-of-living relief swords ahead of a looming election campaign.

Mr Albanese accused the Opposition Leader of not having a plan for Australia after Mr Dutton pitched to Liberal Party faithful in Melbourne on Sunday the Coalition would get Australia “back on track”.

During his campaign-style rally, designed to build momentum before the election, which is due by May, Mr Dutton hit out at Labor’s energy bill subsidy as a “sugar hit” that had prolonged interest rate pain.

Mr Dutton, who voted against the $300 bill rebate which Labor could extend in the upcoming election campaign, when later pressed did not reveal what the Coalition could offer voters instead.

“We’ll do what we can afford,” he told ABC Radio on Monday.

“We’ll manage the economy effectively and we’ll make the decisions that will bring inflation down, interest rates down.”

Mr Dutton said the Coalition would seek to “get the balance right” to cut down on Government spending while also providing help for Australians who need it most.

But the PM said Australians wouldn’t be satisfied with that and instead needed “leadership with a heart”.

Peter Dutton represents a cold hearted, mean spirit(ed and) just plain nasty response, and that’s not going to help people,” he told ABC Radio.

“I don’t think that providing support for people is just a sugar hit. I think it is worthwhile … (Mr Dutton has) built a career on targeting people, particularly people who are vulnerable.”

Health Minister Mark Butler described Mr Dutton’s speech as “38 minutes of empty rhetoric” and said there was “not a single policy or promise that would help Australian households”.

“It’s one thing to oppose every single cost of living measure that we’ve tried to put in place … but it’s another thing in your signature campaign speech to offer not a single policy to help Australian households. It reflects this extraordinary arrogance that Peter Dutton thinks he can skate to victory at the upcoming election simply on rhetoric and sledging,” he told ABC Radio.

Senior Coalition member James Paterson said the alternative Government’s priority was on “taking the pressure off inflation so that rates can come down and things can become more affordable”.

“When the Federal Government is involved in reckless spending, that drives up inflation. The RBA has called this out in their public minutes – they say that public demand is driving up inflation, so we need to much more fiscal prudence to impact on the inflation to get rates down,” he told ABC News.

As for where the Coalition would make cuts, Senator Paterson said that announcement would come closer to the election but reiterated the bloated public service would be in the firing line.

“We need to find efficiencies,” he said.

Labor minister Amanda Rishworth said what the Coalition really meant was about “cutting things like the pension, cutting energy bill relief, cutting Medicare”.

“And it doesn’t matter how many weasel words he uses when he says that he disagrees with the government investing in Medicare, that’s what he will cut,” she said.

“So there was not much new from Peter Dutton, in fact, nothing new from Peter Dutton. Most of it was borrowed from others. So (it was) pretty uninspiring from my perspective.”

Medicare is set to be a major election battleground, with the Coalition capitalising on a new report out by health directory Cleanbill today that found the number of GPs offering bulk-billing services was rapidly declining.

While Labor slammed the report as inaccurate and misleading, Mr Albanese also backed in his Government’s history of improving bulk-billing rates.

“Nationally, 77 per cent of all GP visits were bulk billed in November. That was an increase from last year before our tripling of the bulk billing incentive came into effect, and that has turned around what was a long drop in bulk billing,” he said.