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........

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