Peter Dutton has defended himself against claims he is a “lightweight version of Donald Trump”, while Anthony Albanese has faced questions about whether Australians are really better off after Labor’s first term. In the third leaders’ debate between the coalition leader and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese ahead of the May 3 election, this time staged by Channel Nine, Dutton dismissed talk he was a copy of the US President by pointing to his more than two decades in parliament. “I’ve been in parliament since 2001, I’ve served under four prime ministers and I’ve watched seven prime ministers in total,” he said. Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today “I believe that I’ve got the experience to bring to this job. My biggest influence in my political life was John Howard and Peter Costello. “I worked as assistant treasurer and I have taken inspiration from them, both in terms of how to keep our economy strong and how to keep our country safe.” Dutton’s comments come a week after Coalition frontbencher Jacinta Nampijinpa Price vowed to “make Australia great again”, echoing Donald Trump’s famous “Make America great again” rally cry. With less than two weeks until voters make their final decision on May 3, and many having already cast their ballots at early-voting centres, Tuesday’s debate is one of the last opportunities for the leaders to win over undecided Australians. The tide has already turned in Labor’s favour as it has increased its two-party-preferred lead to 55.5 per cent over the coalition’s 45.5 per cent in the latest Roy Morgan poll, which echoes results shown in other surveys. On those struggles, Dutton claimed Labor had spent $20 million “throwing mud” at the coalition. “This election is between the PM and I and the reason you get all the negative ads and lies and mudslinging and the rest of it is that the government doesn’t have a good story to tell of the last three years,” he said. “We want support at the election ... to provide support straight away to help you with the cost of living crisis, and our reforms above that fix up the energy system which has caused the cost of everything including groceries to go up by 30 per cent.” Despite Australian families feeling the pinch of cost of living pressures, Albanese argued Labor was better placed to lead the country over the next term. “We understand that many people are doing it tough which is why we’ve provided significant cost of living relief,” he said. “But we’ve had to do it in a way that put that downward pressure on inflation. “At the same time, we’ve created a million jobs, we have provided cost of living relief whether it be cheaper childcare, free TAFE for 600,000 people, energy bill relief, importantly as well, tax cuts.” Before the last election, Albanese he had promised Australians would be better off at the end of Labor’s first term. It is questionable whether that is the case, with Dutton slamming the PM for Australia’s standard of living. “We certainly want people to be better off in three years’ time and that is what it’s about,” Albanese said on Tuesday. - More to come With AAP