With the federal election just 10 days away, Opposition leader Peter Dutton was declared the winner of the third leaders' debate by the Nine network's panel of journalists.
But his admission during Tuesday night's head-to-head that he can't lay out budget cuts while in Opposition will fuel Labor's attacks on his agenda.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese wants to paint Dutton as a leader who plans to make cuts in the federal budget but doesn't feel obligated to reveal them to voters ahead of the election.
Meanwhile, Dutton wants to brand Albanese as a liar.
Pushed to say how he would make savings to pay for his policies, Dutton said it wasn't possible to "outline the budget from Opposition".
"You work through with the central agencies, with Treasury and finance ... to identify where there are problems in the budget," Dutton said.
Albanese seized on this.
"What Peter wants the viewers at home to do is to vote for him," Albanese said.
"There will be cuts afterwards, he's just confirmed that, but they won't tell you what they are. Now, that's just not being fair dinkum."
Albanese used the debate to again claim the Coalition made $80 billion in cuts in 2014 after toppling the former Labor government.
"Fifty billion dollars in health and $30 billion in education … you ripped $80 billion out of those two items in 2014," he said.
"You couldn't lie straight in bed," was Dutton's retort.
Dutton maintains spending still increased, but its trajectory was curtailed.
"Your best description of him [Albanese] could be that he's loose with the truth and he says it with a straight face, which is the most remarkable thing," Dutton said.
After spending more than an hour poring over economics, character, foreign policy, and even a few things they admired about each other, both leaders performed well.
Dutton delivered his smoothest debate performance of the campaign and will back it up on Wednesday with a major spending announcement on defence, leaning into comfortable national security territory.
But the nation has already started voting, and expects every policy announcement to be met by the same question from Albanese: What will the Coalition cut to pay for it?
While this election campaign has featured many exaggerations and truth-stretching moments from both sides, Dutton's admission indicates voters won't know the full answer until after election day.
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