ELLEN RANSLEY: Peter Dutton finds his groove in unlikely place on campaign trail

After a slow start to the election campaign, Peter Dutton found his groove on Wednesday as he fired dual salvos at the Prime Minister.

The first was from comfortable territory. In his strongest language to date, the Opposition Leader declared that should he take the top job, he’s wiling to pick a fight with Donald Trump if need be.

The comments, on the eve of “Liberation Day”, help him muddy the waters of Labor’s attack line that Dutton is Trump-like — an argument that has potency with the voter base and was strengthened this week by his openness to slash the Education Department as part of a war on ‘woke agendas’.

The second came from what is traditionally more uncomfortable territory for Dutton, health. Specifically, mental health.

Labor’s argument that Dutton can’t be trusted with Medicare because of his track record as health minister resonates with some of the electorate.

But on mental health at least, Dutton has an edge.

In his Budget reply speech last week, Dutton promised a Coalition Government would spend an extra $400 million on youth mental health services. This is in addition to a pledge to return the number of subsidised psychology sessions from ten to 20, as it was in the pandemic.

Much criticism has been leveraged against Labor for not doing so, to which they have said there’s not enough psychologists in the field and it would risk wait lists blowing out even further. The Coalition says ‘hogwash’.

In Melbourne’s outer-suburbs on Wednesday where the cost of living is biting hard, Dutton pledged $6.2m of his $400m pool to upgrade the Melton headspace. He says this will ensure young people in the area “have affordable and accessible health services”.

“This shows that we take the issue seriously,” Dutton said, alongside shadow health minister Anne Ruston and former Australian of the Year Pat McGorry.

“And we want to work with the sector and with proven delivery models to make that big difference in a young person’s life.”

It’s the kind of local funding announcement that might just cut through in a seat like Hawke, where the margin of 7.6 per cent is, according to some polling, ripe for the Liberals’ taking.

Dutton kept the focus close to the home on Wednesday without a high vis vest in sight.

In his first real cost-of-living event of the campaign, homeowners in Donnybrook told Dutton about their struggle to keep on top of their bills over a mid-morning cup of tea and some sweets.

The couple were receptive to Dutton’s fuel excise policy, but told journalists they were “still making up (their) mind” about who to vote for.

These are the soft voters, focused primarily about their own hip pockets, who Dutton will need to appeal to across the country if he is to arrest the Coalition’s sliding momentum in the polls and succeed on May 3.