Albanese gets some help from Roger Cook in final campaign blitz as he visits primary school in Perth

Anthony Albanese has declared he is a “reformist” not a revolutionist as he made his last ditch pitch to Western Australia two days out from the Federal election.

The Prime Minister is adamant he is running a positive campaign and that his vision for the future – criticised by some as lacking ambition – is that of a sensible, mainstream government.

Despite the insistence that he’s standing on optimism and positivity, his remarks were peppered with attacks on his opponent Peter Dutton and he avoided questions on difficult areas.

While in Perth on Thursday, Mr Albanese said the Opposition leader had just two days left to visit any of the locations where he wants to build a nuclear reactor, but avoided questions himself about growing concerns globally about renewables.

“If you’re working in a mine and same job, same pay has given you … $34,000 additional in your pocket, you know that has made a difference,” he said.

He promised to have another crack at truth in political advertising laws but avoided answering whether they would have made a difference this campaign.

He insisted he was focused on practical reconciliation while not saying if he would still pursue the truth-telling and treaty elements of the Uluru statement, and completely side-stepped a question over whether he thought Donald Trump had lost the plot.

People would vote based on what they were being offered for the future, the Prime Minister declared in a direct counterpoint to the Opposition leader’s campaign focused on the past three years.

“I don’t pretend to be a revolutionary,” Mr Albanese said.

“I’m a reformist, putting in place sensible mainstream reforms in a mainstream government that is making a difference for Australians, working with business and working with unions and working with civil society.”

He described his opponent as “a deeply conservative man” and implied Mr Dutton had chased all the moderates out of the Liberal Party.

“I’ve not been interested in fighting culture wars. I’ve been interested in fighting for Australians,” Mr Albanese said.

“The campaign of the Liberal Party has become more and more right wing under Peter Dutton.”

But he still wouldn’t say he had anything in the bag — be that a majority or minority government.

Instead, he reverted to his age-old metaphor about Labor having a mountain to climb and said his aim was “maximising our position.”

“The Australian people will vote, and we’ll see what happens on Saturday. But I think we’ve run a positive campaign. We’ve run a clear campaign,” he said.

“I’m optimistic about Australia’s future. I want to not just talk us up, but raise us up as a nation.

“Peter Dutton spends every waking moment trying to talk Australia down, trying to divide Australians.”

Running into a rockstar reception at Winthrop Primary School — whose students were told to be “excited” but “regulated” while practising their cheering and clapping — Mr Albanese talked up their importance to Australia’s future, despite the fact the children he met were years away from being able to vote.

It was reminiscent of the final days of his 2022 campaign, when three years ago, Mr Albanese was mobbed by enthusiastic school kids in South Australia alongside freshly elected leader Peter Malinauskas.

He even again had a popular State premier in tow.

On Thursday, it was Mr Cook playing the hype man for the Prime Minister and, helping to cement Labor’s prospects of holding onto majority government, for Tangney MP Sam Lim.

“He’s pretty much a local, and it’s fantastic to see him here again,” Mr Cook said of Mr Albanese before adding his considerable political capital to an endorsement.

“We are living in difficult times. Western Australia is in a geopolitically uncertain area. And in these uncertain times, you need trusted and you need experienced leadership at the helm, and only Anthony Albanese will provide that leadership to continue to take Western Australia forward.”

Mr Lim, Labor’s most marginal WA seat holder, limited himself to brief welcoming remarks and vigorous yeses and nods at his boss’s answers during a press conference which followed Mr Albanese’s question and answer session with students.

The upper primary school students were prepped for the politicians’ visit with cautions from their teachers that they should be “loud and happy and cheery – and regulated”.

The welcome was practised – clap, cheer, stop – and a calming singing session used to pass the waiting time.

The Prime Minister threw a spanner in the best laid plans by inviting some of the students to come on stage to ask him questions.

“I wish I was 11. I feel really old at the moment. I feel like I’ve been campaigning for 11 years,” he told 11-year-old James.

He fielded questions on his favourite part of being Prime Minister (making a difference to people’s lives through education), his daily schedule (very busy) and his plans for the future of Australia.

Then it was off to Adelaide - the second of his six states in 72 hours blitz - for another brief pre-poll visit in the seat of Sturt and a tour of a TAFE in the electorate of Boothby, the only two seats in play in SA.

For the second time today he was flanked by a popular Labor premier, reunited with Mr Malinauskas.

They chatted with plumbing apprentices digging dog-legs in a dirt hole in the middle of the impressive facility that occupies what used to be a Mitsubishi factory.

Elsewhere in the TAFE, carpentry apprentice Thomas offered the politicians a classic South Australian treat: a carton each of Farmers Union Iced Coffee.

Both leaders took a sip and the premier said he had one a day.

Mr Albanese asked Thomas why he picked carpentry.

“I don’t like digging holes,” comes the reply.