Peter Dutton unfazed as climate protestor crashes election campaign press conference

Peter Dutton has refused to put a dollar figure on how much his centrepiece gas policy will reduce power bills by, on a day dogged by protest interruptions.

The Opposition Leader stayed close to home on Saturday, hitting three seats in Brisbane where he was twice targeted by protesters from the climate group Rising Tide, who infiltrated his first event at the XXXX brewery and later at a lunch with the Chinese community.

The two women individually brandished signs saying “no new gas or nuclear” and both took aim at his claims the power sources would drive down bills by shouting “you’re lying”, before they were forcibly removed from the events.

Mr Dutton repeatedly dodged questions of detail when pressed at his morning press conference about his newly announced East Coast gas reservation strategy. Asked by several journalists how much of an impact the plan would have on bills, he said the Coalition had commissioned modelling but repeatedly declined to say what it showed.

He would not put a dollar figure on how much better off Australians would be under his policy, saying he did not want to be like Labor promising $275 at the last election. Instead, he said, the Coalition would deliver a “tangible outcome”.

Asked if by doing so he was going to voters and saying “just trust me” on prices, Mr Dutton said his plan was “based on economics”.

“We’ll let other economists talk about their modelling,” he said, but confirmed modelling by Frontier Economics — the same firm that did his nuclear work — would be released by May 3.

“Our plan is based on economics. If you bring more supply into the market, more gas into the market, you’ll bring the price down.

He said his gas policy could have extra supply online “by the end of the calendar year”.

“We don’t need to rely on new gas wells. There is gas there now. We will work with the companies,” he said.

Mr Dutton said that he would need to “speak to the Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet and of Finance and of Treasury” before he could provide more details.

“So that we can provide in an informed way and in a way that is achievable. There’s no sense doing, as the Labor Party says, and damaging the Australian economy, putting out numbers there that aren’t based in fact, just emotion, because they’re chasing inner-city votes from Green voters in Melbourne and Sydney,” he said.

He went on to sledge Mr Albanese for not releasing his 2035 emissions reduction target before the election. But when asked if he was doing the same thing in not releasing his own modelling, Mr Dutton rejected the suggestion.

“I’m going to leave it to other experts in the space to talk about their analysis of our plan. But there is work that’s been done by Frontier, and it does provide some indication now that that will be an issue for them in due course,” he said.

Some experts have expressed doubt about the feasibility of the plan, including Macquarie Bank which queried how it would reduce prices, while Mr Dutton referred numerous times to the backing of BlueScope, which told The Australian on Saturday the plan would drop prices.

Asked about the protesters and whether he was concerned about the impact protesters could have on the campaign, Mr Dutton said he believed the majority of Australians were prepared to have “mature conversations” about gas and nuclear.

“People who are extremists who want everything shut down tomorrow. That’s not where the vast majority of Australians are, and I just think there will be extremes in all of these debates,” he said.

After visiting the XXXX brewery, on the cusp of the Greens-held seats of Ryan and Brisbane, he spent an hour with Liberal Party faithful in his own seat of Dickson, rehashing his Budget reply speech and pitch to voters to a room filled with dozens of “I’m backing Peter” T-Shirts.

He told the crowd he was hoping to form a majority Coalition Government, but said if he fell short there were “some crossbenchers” he could negotiate with, but ruled out doing any deals with the teal independents.

He capped off the day on the offensive, heading south to Sunnybank to the Labor-held seat of Moreton where he announced a a $250,000 investment to the Chinese Museum of Queensland.