Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has hit back after Treasurer Jim Chalmers branded him the “most divisive” party leader in Australia’s history.

It follows a speech on Monday night, in which Chalmers warned that while Australian politics is relatively free of political violence, this couldn’t be taken for granted and relied on leadership that avoided the politics of division.

“Leadership which is destructive, and divisive, is not really leadership at all and that’s what we are seeing from Peter Dutton,” Chalmers said as he delivered the 2024 Curtin Oration in Melbourne, as a federal election looms.

“He is the most divisive leader of a major political party in Australia’s modern history – and not by accident, by choice.”

Chalmers accused Dutton of embracing division, saying it was the only tool in the Opposition Leader’s political arsenal.

“He divides deliberately, almost pathologically,” he told the Labor Party faithful.

“This is worse than disappointing, it is dangerous.”

On Tuesday, Dutton hit back, saying Chalmers wanted to start a culture war because he “has no idea how to fight inflation”.

“If Australians were doing it so well, and if the economy was running as great as Jim Chalmers claims it is, why’s he dedicating his speech to me?” Dutton said.

“It seems – when you have a look at the Labor Party at the moment – you’ve got Tony Burke saying look at me, you’ve got Bill Shorten saying look at me, you’ve now got Jim Chalmers saying look at me.”

Meanwhile, deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley accused Chalmers of hypocrisy.

“Divisive is to unleash the [Indigenous] Voice, spend $500 million and then say that if you vote no, you’re a bad person – that’s divisive,” she told Sky News on Tuesday.

Chalmers was trying to “talk tough” in front of Labor colleagues, Ley said.

“I feel a bit sorry for Jim Chalmers. He spent his whole life planning and plotting in Labor’s factional queue, only to come up with this sort of stuff,” she said.

“He’s got a PhD in politics, not economics, and that’s on full display.”

But Chalmers did have the backing of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who said Dutton was “just constantly looking for the negative”.

“He always looks for what will divide Australians rather than what will bring Australians together. And in the last short period of time, just in the last 24 hours, we’ve seen examples of that, with [shadow Treasury spokesman] Angus Taylor announcing $100 billion of cuts on the agenda from the Coalition government,” he said.

“It’s up to the Coalition to announce where those $100 billion of cuts will be. We know that Peter Dutton … he’ll be a reverse thrust on the economy. He’ll stifle the economy.”

Ley refused to clarify reports that the opposition plans to make the cuts if it wins next year’s federal election.

“They’re spending on public service fat cats, they’re spending on things that don’t deliver productivity for this country,” she said.

“We would do it better, and we’ll show Australians how we would do it better.”

The Coalition’s policies would be outlined before the next election, as “the work’s being done”, Ley said.

The election is due by May 2025.

The John Curtin Research Centre is a left-leaning think tank dedicated to developing ideas and policies for a better, fairer Australia, according to its website.

-with AAP