So how is sacking 41,000 people, sending them into unemployment, going to help Australia? Does Peter Dutton and the Coalition mean they want to help Australian families, just not if you work in the public service?

We’ll provide our budget reply on Thursday night, but we’ve been clear that there are real, really, three pillars.

So the mandate I seek at the next election is around making sure that we can provide support to families in a cost of living crisis that Labor has created (Labor didn’t create it) and that means fixing our energy system. (The Coalition’s plans for ‘fixing the energy system’ are a fantasy that includes opening more gas reserves that we don’t need, because we export 80% of our gas already and opening up more fields will just see more gas exported, making gas more expensive. And the Coalition already voted against gas reserves when it voted against the energy rebates. Nuclear is a complete and utter fantasy and is not happening.)

That means providing hope for young Australians in terms of home ownership. So that means cutting back on the massive, big Australia policy that has been implemented by stealth under the Albanese government. (Migration was forecast as being just as big, if not bigger under the Morrison government. But migration is not the reason people can’t afford houses. The average wage not being able to buy the average home any longer is the reason people can’t afford houses. Tax settings the major parties refuse to change, like negative gearing and capital gains, is the reason people can’t afford houses. Allowing a few people to cannibalise homes for investment is the reason people can’t afford houses. It’s not migration)

And it also means making sure that we can provide guarantees around health and education funding and essential services otherwise, and making sure that we can provide security, and we live in a very uncertain world. And I think Australians instinctually get that. They see it every night on their television screens, and people feel less safe at home, and our country is less less safe in this century, so we need to make sure that we protect our people in our country as well. (Dutton’s answer to this has largely been ‘I’ll be better friends with Trump’ which is not exactly standing up to Australia either – it’s kowtowing)