Peter Dutton was talking to just a few hundred thousand voters of an 18 million-strong national electorate when he officially launched his 2025 campaign. Most of his voters, it seems, are in western Sydney.
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The opposition leader chose the sprawling Liverpool Catholic Club in Prestons to make his pitch to lead Australia, just a stone's throw from the M7 motorway where about 200,000 vehicles drive around Australia's largest city every day.
Cheaper fuel is one of the Coalition's key election promises so far.
There were no references to US President Donald Trump, tariffs, MAGA, public service jobs, or the work from home arrangements that have helped define (and sometimes dog) his campaign thus far.
With about 250 loyal supporters watching on, including former prime ministers John Howard, Scott Morrison and Tony Abbott, Mr Dutton was keenly focused on suburban household bills.
Western Sydney was the "heartland" of the Liberal Party, the audience was told by Melissa McIntosh, the Coalition's inaugural spokesperson for the sprawling Sydney suburbs - and crucial marginal seats.
She called out Menzies' so-called "forgotten people", Howard's "battlers", "Tony's tradies", and Morrison's "quiet Australians", a reference to the core group of working voters in swing seats the Coalition needed to win government in the past.
Mr Dutton's half-hour pitch was all about household budgets and the cost of living crisis - cutting fuel tax, cutting grocery bills, cutting energy bills, gas (to cut energy bills), nuclear power (to cut energy bills), and housing affordability.
Dutton's dreamers
"I will be a prime minister who restores the dream of home ownership," he said, announcing a plan to allow first-home buyers to claim a tax deduction on mortgage interest payments for newly built houses.
The Coalition's policy to cut migration was also linked to housing supply and affordability.
Short shrift was given to national identity and nation-building, except to lambast Labor for its failed Voice to Parliament referendum and to restore a school curriculum focused on "education not indoctrination".
Mr Dutton, a former police officer from Queensland, promised to "stop the boats", a key premise of previous recent Liberal governments' public personas, and said an announcement on defence spending could be expected.
He also pledged to be tough on organised crime.
Regional Australia pretty in pictures
While regional Australian farms, beaches, rivers and tourist hotspots featured heavily in a pre-speech video played to the audience, voters outside the cities barely rated a mention in Mr Dutton's speech.
A brief reference was made to the impact of large-scale renewable energy and transmission lines on agriculture in the context of the case for nuclear power.
And the Coalition's promised $20 billion regional future fund for roads, health, childcare, tourism and telecommunications was spruiked (briefly) again.
The Nationals leader, David Littleproud, helped introduce Mr Dutton with a guarantee the Coalition partners "have never been closer".
"I trust Peter Dutton with every fibre of my being," Mr Littleproud said.
"I insult Peter Dutton if I asked to put in writing our agreements," he said, suggesting the traditional written undertaking between the Liberal and National parties would not be needed if the Coalition wins government.
"Because Peter and I look each other in the eye, we shake each other's hand, and we know that I can trust him and that we're going to deliver."
While Prime Minister Anthony Albanese launched the Labor campaign on the other side of Australia in Perth, the Liberal Party chose Prestons in south-western Sydney in the federal seat of Werriwa, held by Labor's Anne Stanley on a margin of just 5.3 per cent.
The Coalition needs 19 seats to form a majority government and Labor holds 10 of western Sydney's 14.
Werriwa, Parramatta and Reid could all potentially swing to the Liberal Party if Mr Dutton's message cuts through.
The latest YouGov polling has Labor ahead at 52.5 per cent compared to the Coalition's 47.5 on the two-party preferred vote.
In the 30 days to April 6 the Liberal Party had spent $387,000 on ads to sway voters on Meta's social media platforms Facebook and Instagram - vastly outspending any other political group and even the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC).
