We’re prepared for election of small targets, which is deeply disappointing

As with the debates over energy, immigration and how to provide more affordable housing, all of this returns to the hip pockets of voters. In his election announcement, Albanese readily admitted that people had done it tough over the three years of his prime ministership. His message was, in essence, that they should “always keep a hold of nurse/for fear of finding something worse”.

It is one that will be tested across Victoria, a state in which spending questions come with added weight as Premier Jacinta Allan’s government heads further into the red. With Infrastructure Australia questioning federal funding for the Suburban Rail Loop, state opposition leader Brad Battin now demanding it be cancelled to save Victoria’s finances, and the federal opposition noncommittal on whether it will fund it, a victory for the federal Coalition will truly be – to quote Peter Dutton – a “sliding doors moment”.

The question, as our state political editor Chip Le Grand notes, is whether Victorian voters’ antipathy to Dutton is enough to prevent Coalition victories in such key seats as Kooyong and Goldstein, Bruce, Dunkley and Aston, as well as McEwen and Hawke. If the Liberals can take these seats, they will be a significant step closer to the minimum of 19 gains they need to form majority government. The Age will bring you the latest developments and in-depth analysis from each of these electorates in the weeks to come.

It is our hope that whatever the party’s line, campaigning will focus on the issues confronting Victorians and all Australians, and avoid the sort of behaviour we saw in Kooyong this week, when MP Monique Ryan’s husband took it upon himself to police the placement of corflutes. Those who remember the Lindsay leaflet affair of 2007 or the antics of Andrew Landeryou and David Boutros-Asmar in 2016 will know that politicians’ spouses don’t always handle election season very well. We would make a plea for decorum on all sides in the weeks to come.

Of particular interest to Victorians will be the performance of minor parties and independents, who will seek to capitalise on the sinking primary vote of the major parties. In this state, there will be contests in which Simon Holmes a Court-backed teals and rural independents stand to win or hold prized seats in major party heartland. Meanwhile, the Greens will look to grow their influence by claiming new inner city electorates with high-profile candidates such as former Victorian leader Samantha Ratnam in Wills.

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The question of poise under pressure will be particularly important for Dutton, who is placing a bet on the public’s perception of him to overturn a first-term government for the first time since the 1930s. The opposition leader has a record of avoiding set pieces with the media, but for five weeks they will dog his every step. If this election is indeed one of small targets, then slight shifts in sentiment on the campaign trail could have an outsized impact.

We could not summarise The Age’s position on the current state of politics any better than David Crowe did on Friday, when he wrote that Australians deserve better than the kind of visionless politics currently being dished up by the major parties.

“The leader who is bold enough to set out a better vision for this country will be the leader who deserves victory, but neither will meet that test if they merely play it safe,” he wrote. “A feeble campaign will mean a feeble future. Nobody should want that.”