Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will tell voters hit by high prices that he knows what it’s like to “struggle and strive”, while issuing a grim warning about the opposition stoking “fear and division”.

Two years after Labor’s federal election win, Albanese will give a keynote speech on Friday at the Western Sydney Leadership dialogue to reflect on his tenure.

As Australians prepare to return to the polls in tough times, he will accuse the Peter Dutton-led opposition of causing more “conflict fatigue”.

Though he remains optimistic about the nation’s future, Albanese will say Australia cannot return to a time when the then-Coalition government treated every issue “as just a pretext for picking a phoney fight”.

“Australians have worked too hard to be dragged back to the era of conflict fatigue,” he is expected to say on Friday.

“We’ve seen what happens when the only test that politicians apply is their political self-interest – we saw it with Scott Morrison, we’re seeing it again with Peter Dutton.

“The stakes right now are too high for the shallow and shambolic approach we see too often from the opposition – the challenges we face are too urgent for a retreat to denial and delay, the progress we have made together is too important to go back to fear and division.”

The government has not called a federal election yet, but must hold one by September 2025.

Albanese will say that since taking office his government has navigated the nation through the economic shocks and aftershocks of the Covid pandemic, international supply chain issues caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and three federal budgets.

He will appeal to voters hit by rising prices by acknowledging “there are still people doing it tough right now”.

“I know that when you are living week to week, it’s hard to even find the time to think about the future, let alone plan for it with confidence,” he is expected to say.

Albanese will tell Australians he feels their pain and has not forgotten what it’s like to “struggle and strive”.

Recent polls show Labor is less popular than when it won government in 2022.

However, the latest Newspoll published in The Australian found it leads the Coalition 52 to 48 per cent on a two-party preferred vote and Albanese still trumps Opposition Leader Peter Dutton as preferred PM 52 to 33.

“Serving as Prime Minister is the greatest honour of my life,” Albanese will say.

“There are still problems we have to solve – still opportunities we must grasp.

“What I want every Australian to know is that the challenges we have faced through the past two years have only strengthened my determination to deliver and my confidence that our country can succeed.”

-with AAP