'A lot of anger': crime a focus for Dutton in key state

Heading to suburban Carrum Downs in Melbourne's southeast, Mr Dutton and local candidate Nathan Conroy held a roundtable on crime with community members in the marginal seat of Dunkley.

The seat is held by Labor MP Jodie Belyea.

The coalition has repeatedly slammed Labor as weak on national security and on Monday Mr Dutton said community safety would be an issue at the polls along with living costs.

Asked whether the issue of crime was the remit of the nation's leader, Mr Dutton said it was the job of the prime minister to keep the country safe.

"There's a lot of anger in the suburbs, and I think you're going to see that expressed, we are the underdog," he told reporters.

"We can well and truly win the election from here, there's no doubt in my mind about it, because Australians are angry about the fact that they have faced the biggest cost-of-living crisis in their lives."

The opposition leader served as a police officer for nine years before entering politics, working in drug and sex offenders squads.

Mr Dutton announced the coalition would trial a national sex offenders disclosure scheme, allowing parents to check on individuals who have unsupervised contact with their child.

"Australians underestimate how big an issue this is at this election, people do feel unsafe," he said.

The proposal is similar to a scheme operating in Western Australia in which people cannot disseminate or publish information received through the system.

Labor minister Murray Watt described the announcement as "a cynical move from Peter Dutton on the eve of an election".

"We'll always continue to work with the states and territories to do everything we can to keep people safe," he said.

If the coalition wins the May 3 election, it will spend more than $750 million to improve community safety by strengthening laws and allocating extra resources to policing and intelligence agencies.

Under Operation Safer Communities, $355 million in funding would go to a national drug enforcement and organised crime strike team to crack down on illegal drugs and tobacco.

Earlier on Monday, after landing in Melbourne Mr Dutton went straight to a bowser, marking his 12th visit to a petrol station during the election campaign.

Pulling up at the stop with Mr Conroy, the opposition leader filled up the car to spruik the coalition's election pledge to halve the fuel excise.

A motorist having just fuelled up his own vehicle told Mr Dutton the policy would help families doing it tough and "certainly go a long way".

The latest Newspoll, conducted for The Australian, shows Labor's primary vote rising to 34 per cent, the highest level of support since January 2024.

Labor's support is 1.4 per cent higher than it recorded at the last election in 2022.