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Both leaders have made the four-hour flight to Western Australia today, reflecting yet again the importance of this state in the election calculus.

At the beginning of this term it was assumed there would be a natural correction back to the Liberal Party after a huge anti-Morrison swing in 2022.

But Labor has been confident for months that it will keep all four seats it picked up last time, without which Anthony Albanese would not have won a majority of seats. It even has a faint chance of picking up the new seat of Bullwinkel.

The Coalition’s most important WA member, Andrew Hastie, has been in the news over his lack of involvement in Peter Dutton’s campaign.

The former soldier was with the opposition leader for a defence announcement in the seat of Swan today, but in Hastie’s own seat of Canning it is hard to find a Liberal logo as he runs a personally branded operation.

Albanese has visited the state dozens of times (and is very fond of saying so). On the other hand, Dutton is less well known in Perth than any other major city, according to Liberal Party research.

Dutton’s wife, Kirilly, spent a lot of time in WA growing up – a point Dutton played up last year to gain some traction.

Labor’s surprisingly persistent popularity here can be attributed to a few factors. A local campaign to oppose Labor’s decision to end the live sheep trade never generated the energy the Liberals would have desired.

WA Premier Roger Cook has exceeded expectations and proved to be a wily campaigner, as shown by his thumping election win in March.

And Albanese has been extremely cautious about doing anything to provoke the power players in WA, including big miners and Seven West Media owner Kerry Stokes.

Labor shelving its environmental protection laws in the face of a WA backlash was proof of Albanese’s willingness to upset his progressive constituency to keep West Australians on side.

The Coalition’s defence spokesman was on ABC TV’s Afternoon Briefing earlier.

Host Patricia Karvelas wanted to know why Hastie has stood by comments he made years ago that women shouldn’t serve in close combat roles?

“You could have said you got it wrong,” Karvelas said. “Why did you decide to stand by [those comments]?”

Here was Hastie’s response (edited for length and clarity):

Because people want honest answers and integrity and I don’t live for the applause of my enemies.

People want to twist these words and somehow suggest I am not for equality. I am for equality and I do value the women who serve in our uniform. I have two girls myself and I want them to be able to serve in the ADF if they so choose.

And so I stood by my comments because they were honest at the time and based on my experience. There is a bond that you have with some people in the ADF and service that is hard to explain. That does not mean the Coalition has a policy to rollback any of the changes made to personnel policy in the last 15 years.

Combat roles will remain open to all Australians.

Two days after Dutton said the Coalition would not scrap an increasingly expensive tax break for electric vehicles, he has now vowed to do so.

On Monday, the Liberal leader was asked point-blank if the Coalition would repeal the tax break available to someone who buys an EV worth less than $91,387 through a novated lease.

The policy, aimed at boosting the take-up rate of EVs, was budgeted to cost just $55 million a year in reduced fringe benefits tax.

But in March, The Australian Financial Review revealed it was costing about $560 million annually. Dutton, pressed on whether the Coalition would keep the tax break, was clear.

“No, we’ve said that what we’re opposed to is the government’s big tax on hybrids,” he said during a press conference in suburban Melbourne.

“I want people to have choice. If people want to buy an EV, that’s fantastic. If they want to buy a Ford Ranger or a Toyota Hilux or whatever it might be, that is a choice that they should have.”

But in a press release this evening issued by Dutton, shadow treasurer Angus Taylor and Liberal finance spokeswoman Jane Hume, the opposition leader said the EV tax break would end.

The three said the Coalition would: “Unwind Labor’s taxpayer-funded and badly designed electric car subsidies, saving upwards of $3 billion over the forward estimates and $23 billion over the medium term.”

Earlier today, Dutton came under heavy questioning about his planned $21 billion increase in Defence spending, and how the Coalition would afford the proposal.

He said it would be covered by repealing the government’s already legislated personal income tax cuts that do not fully start until 2027-28.

Earlier today, Energy Minister Chris Bowen attacked the Coalition’s nuclear plan, calling it the “Voldemort” of policies.

Watch the moment below.

During this afternoon’s press conference, Albanese was also asked about a Labor candidate in the Queensland seat of Flynn who, in a now-deleted tweet, reportedly wrote that the late Pope Francis had provided “ongoing support for paedos”.

Earlier today, Housing Minister Clare O’Neil said Helen Madell’s tweet was inappropriate, but suggested it had been spurred by the candidate’s work counselling victims of child sexual abuse.

The Coalition has called on Labor to disendorse Madell.

Here’s what the PM had to say about the controversy:

She made a mistake that shouldn’t have happened. People, if they go back through their history on social media, I’m sure there’s lots of people who have [said] things they regret. She regrets it.

Labor’s Don Farrell and the Coalition’s Michael McCormack will also represent Australia at the Pope’s funeral, alongside the governor-general.

Farrell is the special minister of state and also has responsibility for trade and tourism. McCormack, a former leader of the Nationals, is the Coalition’s spokesman for international development.

Dutton has made his 13th campaign visit to a petrol station, this time in Perth’s outer northern suburbs.

Dutton was driven into the fuel stop by Liberal candidate for Pearce, Jan Norberger.

A ute driver loudly revved his engine as Dutton and Norberger filled up at the bowser and chatted about the opposition’s pledge to temporarily halve the excise on fuel.

“If you go through a lot of petrol as some people do, you’ll get a special bonus,” Dutton said in reference to the attention-seeking motorist.

Norberger said cash-strapped voters in the suburb of Alkimos, about 40 minutes north of Perth’s CBD, had to drive long distances and would benefit from cheaper petrol.

“If you’re a pensioner here, you drive,” he said.

Dutton, who had his tie removed and had two buttons undone on his white business shirt, has been hitting up service stations across Australia since early in the campaign.

He was initially criticised for failing to hammer home the fuel policy announced days before the campaign.

Dutton paid $56.92 for the petrol, did not ask for a receipt, and told the service station worker that his business would receive a boost from the excise reduction.

The Coalition leader’s son Tom joined him for the event but was not involved in any way. Senator Linda Reynolds was also in attendance.