Dutton pledges not to ‘lie my way to the Lodge’ – as it happened

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Peter Dutton is due to arrive any moment at a campaign rally in the Labor-held seat of Hawke in Melbourne's west.

The opposition leader is expected to deliver an energetic sermon to the party faithful ahead of the Coalition's last-week blitz".

Over the last three years, when defence comes to us, the independent strategic review identifies capabilities and assets that need to be bought, then we have put that in the budget. The biggest expansion in peacetime since World War II, you see defence spending growing as a share of the economy or GDP over the forward estimates and over the next ten years.

If more needs to be done, of course the prime minister has indicated we're open to doing that.