Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s budget reply on Thursday night has been overshadowed by speculation that the prime minister is set to call the federal election.

Multiple reports suggest Anthony Albanese will call the election as early as Friday, with voters to go to the polls in May.

On Thursday morning Albanese told ABC radio: “It’ll be soon, it’ll be soon.”

When asked on Triple M, Albanese said the election would “be called pretty imminently, I can assure you of that as well”.

“I will call it soon,” he said.

“Australians want to get on with it, certainly my caucus colleagues do.”

The dates an election could be held after a 33-day campaign are May 3, 10 and 17 .

The ABC said it had confirmed with sources that an election announcement on Friday could be very likely.

Nine newspapers also reported several sources suggesting Albanese intended to make the drive to Governor-General Sam Mostyn’s residence in Canberra on Friday morning.

The Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet appeared to make a potentially telling mistake when it posted to X that the government was operating in “caretaker mode”  — which happens once an election has been called and parliament is dissolved.

The post was deleted minutes later.

The speculation and timing have overshadowed Coalition leader Peter Dutton’s budget reply speech.

Dutton has vowed to repeal Labor’s latest $10 per week tax cuts for workers from 2027 in favour of the Coalition’s plan to halve the fuel excise for 12 months.

Albanese said Dutton’s promise to effectively impose “higher taxes” was “extraordinary”.

Dutton is instead promising to lower the rate on petrol and diesel from about 50 cents to 25 cents per litre.

When Australia last cut the fuel excise under the former Liberal government, oil prices happened to spike around the same time due to the war in Ukraine, and the perceived savings were “eaten up”.

Dutton has maintained his plan is better than Labor’s tax cuts as it would take effect immediately.

“People will get relief at the bowser straight away … Labor’s plan comes in 15 months time and it’s about 70 cents a day,” he told the Today show on Thursday.

“Australians need support now.”

Asked if he would offer voters cuts to taxes and the fuel excise, Dutton said it was an “either-or” option.

“We just can’t pretend that we’ve got endless amounts of money,” he said.

While the excise will provide some relief to some middle-income families, it will also benefit transport tycoons like Lindsay Fox and will not help the thousands of electric vehicle owners across Australia.

Albanese said the opposition leader had “gone back to the Morrison playbook”.

“This is what Scott Morrison did in the 2022 budget but then it disappeared because it was time-limited,” he told ABC radio.

“This is time-limited as well – just for one year, no ongoing cost-of-living help.”

The Coalition voted against the tax cuts baked into the budget, saying they were too little, too late for struggling Australians — though the reforms passed regardless.

Taxpayers will save up to $268 on their tax bills in 2026/27 and up to $536 every year after under Labor’s proposal, eventually equating to about $10 a week.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has insisted the cuts are “modest in isolation but substantial when combined with all of the ways that we are helping”.

The Opposition has so far remained tight-lipped on tax relief or economic policy it will offer voters at the election.

It has pledged to fast-track gas approvals and extend ageing coal-fired power plants to reduce electricity prices in the medium term, in a move slammed by environmental groups.

-with AAP