Six days out from the federal election, Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton are meeting in their fourth and final leaders debate.

Although Albanese is leading in the polls and is optimistic about establishing a majority Labor government, the debate gives Dutton an opportunity to gain some ground in the closing week.

The discussion, aired by Channel 7, quickly got personal as Dutton accused Albanese of being dishonest and insisted that he should feel “ashamed” for the issues that have emerged over the past three years.

Albanese responded by stating that while Dutton could criticize him, he would not allow Dutton to “attack the wages of working people” during a debate that has focused on issues such as cost of living, taxes, and housing.

Dutton went straight in on the economy in his opening statement.

“This election is all about who can best manage the Australian economy, and if we can manage the economy, well, it means that we can bring inflation down. It means that we can help families with the cost-of-living crisis that this government’s created,” he said.

“We live in the best country in the world, but we do know that many families are doing it tough, and as we’ve moved around the country, we’ve spoken to families literally in tears.”

Albanese also focussed on cost-of-living.

“Australians have a real choice this Saturday to continue building Australia’s future or go back to the past,” he said.

“We know that we live in very uncertain times, and that’s why we need certainty. And during this campaign, we have put forward clear, decisive policies – the opposition have chopped and changed. Australians deserve certainty. What we will deliver is just that we will trust in our people. We will value our Australian values, and we’ll build Australia’s future.”

On cost of living, Albanese plugged his party’s pledges to cut prices on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and childcare.

He argued inflation had dropped from 6 per cent to 2.4 per cent under his watch and interest rates, which were cut for the first time in years in March, had started to come down.

Dutton went straight to the Coalition’s promised cut to fuel excise, which Albanese criticised as a temporary measure.

Dutton draw an analogy to the temporary relief offered during the COVID-19 pandemic, claiming it would “give us time to clean up Labor’s mess”.

Both parties have introduced significant policies to address the housing crisis but economists have raised questions about their potential effectiveness.

Dutton sought to blame rising house prices squarely on migration, claiming Labor had mismanaged “every aspect of the migration program”.

“It looks like a nightmare,”Dutton said, when asked about the great Australian dream.

“And it’s a nightmare because rents have gone up by almost 20 per cent, and this Prime Minister has brought in a million people over the course of the last two years through the migration program.”

Albanese said his government was not just looking to identify the problem but working towards a solution.

“That’s why our measures, whether it be increased private rentals through our incentive for build-to-rent programs or first home buyers scheme or whether it be the increased support for social housing, we are concentrating on supply, not just demand, because we know that’s the key going forward,” he said.

Questions on tax revealed little new from either man but led to the most heated confrontation of the night.

The major parties have laid out a fairly clear choice for voters on tax between a $5 a week tax cut for the average earner next year, and another the year after, or a 25c/L cut to fuel excise now.

Both leaders doubled down tonight on the benefits of their own approach before things got heated when the answers strayed into other areas.

Dutton continued his established tactic of accusing Albanese of lying when the Prime Minister said the opposition would get rid of same-job, same-pay measures introduced by his government, something Dutton has denied this campaign.

“That is just not true, Prime Minister. Honestly, this whole campaign, it’s hard to believe anything you say,” he said, before claiming Albanese “should be ashamed” of the problems arising in his term in government.

Albanese responded by saying “Peter can attack me”.”I tell you what I won’t let him do. I won’t let him attack the wages of working people,” the PM said.

“I won’t let him attack the changes we’ve put in place for cheaper child care. I won’t let him abandon free TAFE so that people can get an opportunity in life.”I won’t let him get away with this nonsense about economic management. We inherited a deficit of $78 billion. We turned that into a $22 billion surplus.”

In the wake of the universally condemned booing that disrupted an Anzac Day ceremony in Melbourne, both leaders were asked a series of questions on the ceremony and Indigenous issues more broadly.

Dutton said the ceremony was “overdone” and should be performed for major occasions but scaled back in other moments.

“For the opening of parliament, fair enough, it’s respectful to do but for the start of every meeting at work or the start of a football game, I think a lot of Australians think it’s overdone and it cheapens the significance of what it was meant to do,” he said.

“I think a lot of Australians think it’s overdone and it cheapens the significance of what it was meant to do.”It divides the country”.

Albanese said it was a matter of respect for Indigenous people.

“It is up to them and people will have different views and people are entitled to their views, but we have a great privilege from my perspective, of sharing this continent with the oldest continuous culture on earth, and when I welcome international visitors to Parliament House, they want to see that culture,” he said.

Albanese said he accepted the outcome of the Voice referendum but stressed it was still important to find ways to consult with Indigenous people on issues affecting them.

Both leaders condemned the neo-Nazis who interrupted the Anzac Day ceremony and said they wouldn’t change the date of Australia Day.

As China and the US surged to the fore on foreign policy, there was an odd exchange in which Albanese claimed the US president might not have a phone.

“I’m not sure that he has a mobile phone, the US president, or Joe Biden,” Albanese said when asked whether he texted with Trump.

“That’s not the way it works … with any global leader.”

On the more substantive question of which country posed the “biggest threat” to Australia, Dutton was unequivocal in naming the Chinese Communist Party while Albanese sought to be more diplomatic.

Albanese limited himself to saying China was “seeking to increase its influence” in the region and that Australia’s relationship with Beijing was “complex”.

“I am the prime minister of a country and how you deal as prime minister is diplomatically and that is what we continue to do,” he said.

Energy policy provides one of the starkest differences between the major parties, with Labor pushing investment in renewable energy and the Coalition trying to sell a major pivot to nuclear. 

Tonight it also provided one of the most direct attacks from Dutton.

“You will wreck the economy and you are doing it now and that is why families are suffering and why 30,000 small businesses have closed under your watch,” he claimed.

Albanese said there’d never been more small businesses operating in Australia than there are today.

He argued the government’s plan for renewable energy backed by gas and batteries would provide the best solutions for Australians and criticised Dutton for not visiting the locations of his proposed power plants.

“Under the former government, 24 out of 28 coal-fired power stations announced their closure so we were way behind,” he said.

“Nothing was happening in terms of the investment that was needed. 

“Now with renewables, there’s been already enough projects approved to power 10 million homes.”

Dutton argued nuclear was a safe technology that was commonly used in most G20 countries.