Dutton in third debate gives Labor ammunition for its scare about cuts

In the leaders’ third head-to-head encounter, on Nine on Tuesday, Peter Dutton’s bluntness when pressed on cuts has given more ammunition to Labor’s scare campaign about what a Coalition government might do.

“When John Howard came into power, there was $96 billion of debt from Labor at that point. John Howard didn’t outline the budget from opposition and it is not something you can do from opposition,” Dutton said.

That allowed Anthony Albanese to, once again, rewind the tape to Tony Abbott’s 2014 budget, declaring it had “ripped money out of” education and hospitals. “There will be cuts afterwards – he’s just confirmed that – but they won’t tell you what they are.”

Dutton’s reference to the 1996 budget reinforced the point that he is keeping his options very open on cuts, which will need to go well beyond the squeeze on the public service to which the Coalition is committed. It’s becoming increasingly clear full details won’t be provided before May 3.

Despite best efforts to get them to answer questions as asked, both leaders again blatantly dodged when they could not, or chose not to, give a direct response.

Dutton was asked what he would say to voters who think he is Trump-lite. The opposition leader talked down the clock – about Howard being his inspiration, about mudslinging – but didn’t actually attempt to rebut the point.

Albanese predictably had much to say about Dutton’s nuclear policy. But when he was pressed on whether, if Labor lost, it should accept the people’s verdict and reconsider its position on the nuclear moratorium, the PM rambled about nuclear as a “friendless policy” rather than giving a straight reply.

The debate’s frisson came when the leaders were asked to nominate each other’s biggest lies. The toing and froing included disputation over whether those 2014 cuts were actually “cuts” or just smaller increases than earlier budgeted for. “Prime Minister, you couldn’t lie straight in bed”, Dutton lashed out, with Albanese retorting that his “personal abuse” was “a sign of desperation”.

Who won this encounter, once again differed in the eyes of various beholders.

On the day that pre-polling started, both leaders cut back on their campaigning, in the wake of the death of Pope Francis.

The pontiff’s passing has further curtailed this penultimate week of the campaign, a week already shortened at one end by Easter and at the other by Anzac Day.

The hiatus disadvantages the opposition, which has been losing support in the polls, and desperately needs as much opportunity as possible to sell its message.

It also shows the risk of leaving policy releases late. The Coalition would have hoped for some clear air for Wednesdays release of its defence policy, an area where it believes it has an advantage. But news from the Vatican will overshadow local stories for a couple of days or longer.

The pope’s death has drawn attention to something noted by the Catholic Weekly earlier this month, when it said this election “may be the first in Australian history in which both the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition identify as Catholics” – although, it pointed out, that didn’t extend to attending church regularly.

In Australia’s more sectarian days, Labor’s membership was heavily Catholic, with the Liberals the party of Protestants. That broke down over recent decades.

Anthony Albanese reflected on his Catholic roots at Easter and then when paying tribute to the Pope.

On Easter Sunday, when he attended mass at St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney, he spoke about his time at the school next door. “It’s an important part of my life. When in year six the Christian Brothers heard that I was going to have to leave the school because we weren’t able to afford school fees … in an act of generosity, [they] said ‘just pay what you can’.”

Albanese told The Australian’s Troy Bramston he regarded himself as “a flawed Catholic but it’s a part of my values,”

“I go to church occasionally just by myself. That sense of who I am, it is certainly how I was raised, and those values of kindness and compassion being something that is a strength.”

Peter Dutton’s story is more complicated. His father’s family was Catholic; his mother’s Protestant. Dutton told Bramston this gave rise to “tension”. He went to an Anglican school but identifies with the Catholic church. “He argues Christian teachings align with Liberal party values,” Bramston wrote.

In Melbourne on Tuesday, Albanese joined those attending an early morning mass at St Patrick’s Cathedral. In Sydney Dutton went to St Mary’s. Then they both shifted back into campaign mode, for Tuesday night’s debate.