Households are still in the dark over how much less they will be paying for power under the opposition’s gas plan and leader Peter Dutton can expect to be pressed for more detail on day two of the campaign.
Both major parties were selling their cost-of-living blueprints to voters on Saturday, with the prime minister spruiking cheaper health care and the opposition leader focused on the energy price crunch.
Touring a brewery in Brisbane, Mr Dutton said high energy prices were putting businesses under serious financial strain and promoted his gas plan as the answer.
Under the plan unveiled in his budget reply speech on Thursday, Mr Dutton has promised to lower domestic gas prices by forcing exporters to divert uncontracted gas to local users.
Wholesale gas prices should be slashed from $14 per gigajoule to under $10 per gigajoule under the plan, he claims, yet he has refused to outline how much less the average household would pay.
He pointed to unreleased modelling indicating a downward trend that he promised to release before voters head to the polls.
Mr Dutton has also pledged to speed up development approvals for proposed gas projects in a move criticised by environmental groups and providing fuel for climate activism group Rising Tide’s repeat interruptions to day one campaign events.
Labor’s campaign was not spared disruption, with an anti-immigration figure heckling the prime minister at his first appearance at a medical centre in the marginal seat of Dickson, held by Mr Dutton.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese promoted his party’s promise to ensure nine out of 10 GP are visits bulk-billed and launched a stinging attack on the opposition’s commitment to Medicare.
That’s despite the Liberals attempting to neutralise the assault by matching the multibillion-dollar promise to expand bulk-billing and other big-ticket Labor health policies.
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