'Screams stay with me': Dutton opens up on suicide toll

Peter Dutton says the coalition would set aside $15 million for research into suicide prevention. (Mick Tsikas/AAP PHOTOS)

Peter Dutton has recalled responding to suicides as a police officer as he unveiled further funding promises for mental health.

Campaigning in Melbourne on Thursday, the opposition leader pledged a coalition government would set aside $15 million for research into suicide prevention.

Mr Dutton spoke of being called out to suicide incidents as a police officer and delivering news of them to family members.

Peter Dutton recalls attending suicide scenes when he was a police officer. (Mick Tsikas/AAP PHOTOS)

"I will never forget delivering a message to a mother one night and her screams still stay with me, of her son who had died by suicide," he told reporters.

"I've been to suicide scenes and they are confronting and anything that we can do as a country, we should be doing that and more to provide support to frontline services and to clinicians, and today, to the researchers."

The funding would go towards a national suicide prevention research fund, which had been set up under the coalition in 2016.

Earlier, the opposition leader defended the coalition's vetting process after reports the party's candidate for the Melbourne-based seat of Wills had pleaded guilty to obtaining financial advantage by deception.

It came after the party was forced to dump its candidate for the NSW seat of Whitlam after comments that women should not serve in the defence force.

But Mr Dutton said the party had chosen candidates that would represent the community well.

"If you have a look at the standard of candidates that we've selected across the board, I think we've selected some amazing people," he said.

Jacinta Nampijinpa Price says a coalition government would consider the "lay of the land" on waste. (Mick Tsikas/AAP PHOTOS)

Despite the opposition back flipping on plans to ban public servants from working from home and cutting 41,000 government jobs, a coalition senator said cuts to federal departments were still on the cards.

Audits would be carried out within each department for cuts, opposition government efficiency spokeswoman Jacinta Nampijinpa Price said.

However, she said it was too early to tell if there was wasteful spending going on within departments.

The coalition has been looking to distance itself on the campaign trail from comparisons with US President Donald Trump's department of government efficiency, headed up by billionaire Elon Musk.

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