The Opposition Leader was asked about Mr Albanese's thinly-veiled criticism earlier in the day whereby he said 'we do not need to copy from any other nation to make Australia even better and stronger'.

The Prime Minister was referencing Peter Dutton's penchant for mirroring aspects of Trump's new administration with his policies.

But Mr Dutton was having none of it.

'What you will see from the Prime Minister is all of the negative stuff day after day,' he told reporters.

'The sledge-a-thon is on by the Prime Minister because he doesn't have a good story to tell about his three years in government.

'If the Prime Minister had done really good things for our country, if people were better today than they were three years ago he'd be talking about that plan, but of cours he's not.'

Peter Dutton has opened his election campaign with a blunt question: 'Is our country better off today than three years ago?'

'Generations of Australians have built their lives in our country on the belief that if you work hard you can get ahead and build a better future for your children,' Mr Dutton told reporters in Brisbane on Friday morning.

'However, right now, Australia is going backwards.

'The Prime Minister spent the first half of this term of Parliament obsessed with the Voice, and it didn't have a plan to deal with the scourge of inflation.'

Mr Dutton repeated his Budget reply commitment to cut fuel excise by 25 cents a litre for a year.

‘A government I lead will build a strong economy with low inflation and we will deliver this by reining in the wasteful spending that fuels inflation,’ he added.

‘We will reduce tax, red tape and we will take control again of building sites and take them away from the CFMEU and the organised crime groups.’

He said a ‘major difference’ between the two main parties was that the Coalition would ‘immediately’ deliver more gas to Australians.

‘It will lower energy costs and it will prepare us for the future, as we need cheaper energy, we need reliable energy and we need cleaner energy,’ he said.

‘We will make housing more affordable by reducing Labor's record migration intake by funding critical infrastructure, assisting first home buyers and restricting foreign investors.’

Former Prime Minister Scott Morrison has given his 'strong' backing to Opposition Leader Peter Dutton in a rare public intervention in Australian politics.

Australia's 30th Prime Minister broke his usual practice of not engaging in 'domestic politics on social media' to urge Aussies to back the Coalition in five weeks' time.

'I strongly support The Hon. Peter Dutton MP and his team and urge you to give him and the Liberal Party of Australia led Coalition your support on May 3,' Mr Morrison wrote on LinkedIn.

'Australians are worse off today than they were three years ago, especially small businesses.

'This is not what Labor promised at the last election. We need to get Australia back on track.'

Mr Morrison repeated Mr Dutton's assertion that over 29,000 businesses had closed down since Labor took office in 2022.

The video team in Labor HQ were hard at work this morning, cutting the Prime Minister's election campaign speech into a slick two-minute clip.

The ad, which was set to backing track of uplifting, ethereal music, featured Mr Albanese's speech interspersed with clips of him shaking hands with nurses, cradling babies and visiting work sites in high-vis vests and hard hats.

You can watch it here:

Peter Dutton’s granted his first official election campaign interview to 4BC radio in Brisbane.

Mr Dutton insisted that the Coalition would be better at managing the country’s finances.

‘We manage the economy more effectively so we can pay for those essential services,’ Mr Dutton told 4BC.

‘Labor has racked up an enormous amount of debt, in fact, debt under the Labor party, for the first time in our country’s history, will go to a trillion dollars next year and $1.2 trillion just after that.’

The Opposition Leader said that, if elected, the Coalition would lower inflation and overhaul the energy system.

'I think there are a lot better days ahead,' he added.

'If we can change government we can manage the economy well, we can lower inflation, help get Australians back into homes we can bring inflation down.'

Greens leader Adam Bandt has claimed a 'minority government is coming', just hours after Anthony Albanese fired the starting gun on the election campaign.

'The election is on. Minority government is coming,' Mr Bandt said on Friday morning.

In a reference to Greens' senator Sarah Hanson-Young's headline-grabbing stunt on Wednesday (pictured below), Mr Bandt said the election offerings from the major parties were 'about as attractive as a dead fish'.

'Labor wants to give you 73 cents a day in a year. The Liberals are offering about the same to some people but only for a year,' Mr Bandt added.

'The Greens want to save you thousands of dollars a year every year by getting dental into Medicare, making it free to see the GP, capping rent increases and wiping student debt.'

He also said his party was committed to taxing big corporations and would be running its 'biggest campaign ever'.

'We are in a very, very strong position, and people have an incredible opportunity of once in a generation chance, by voting Greens to keep Peter Dutton out and get Labor to act,' Mr Bandt added.

'It is crystal clear that Peter Dutton be very bad for this country, making the climate and the housing crisis worse. But it's also clear that Labor won't act unless they're pushed.'