The risk posed by independents to previously safe Liberal seats is due to economic prosperity in those electorates, not the Coalition's perceived shortcomings, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has said.
The Prime Minister said members at risk from well-ranked independents, which include Dave Sharma in Wentworth, Trent Zimmerman in North Sydney and Josh Frydenberg in Kooyong, have done an "extraordinary job".
Mr Morrison said independents had more cut through this election as those electorates were "less vulnerable to the impacts of the economy", during an interview on ABC's 7:30 program.
"Supporting independents in those seats will only produce a Parliament of chaos," the Prime Minister said.
He said it was regional communities that could not afford to vote out the Coalition.
"They're the places that cannot afford the sort of risk that comes with a Labor party and a leader that just is a bit loose on the economy. They will pay the price for that," Mr Morrison said.
"Perhaps some parts of our country may feel they're a bit more insulated from the impacts of that."
In his first televised interview with the national broadcaster this election campaign, Mr Morrison was quizzed on his self-assessment of being a "bit of a bulldozer" and pledge to change if reelected.
"I'm just being honest, Leigh," he replied.
The Prime Minster rejected the claim his government had used community sports grants to channel money to marginal seats, despite findings from the Australian National Audit Office that money was unequally distributed.
Mr Morrison said his government had continued to provide support for local clubs in need, irrespective of their location.
He said members of parliament were part of their communities and better placed than public servants in Canberra to know where money should be distributed.
"We're very clear about what we plan to do and the commitments we make," he said.
The prime minister also doubled down on claims unlocking superannuation for first home buyers would have a marginal impact on house prices, after Superannuation Minister, Jane Hume, admitted prices would rise in the short term.
"The suggestion this will have any sort of significant impact, I don't think bears up to scrutiny," Mr Morrison said.
"What this does is enables people to have control over their own money, to help them buy a home, when they go to retirement, they will be better off.
"This is how you help people with the cost of living. You let them use their own money. You don't lock it away from them."
Mr Morrison has pointed to the war in Ukraine and the disruption of supply chains from the pandemic as the source of inflation in Australia.
He said higher levels of inflation in New Zealand and the United States was evidence Australia had avoided the worst impacts of the pandemic.
"The economic shield that we've put in place to protect Australians from those forces and the additional things we did in this budget - is there to help Australians better cope with this," he said.
Mr Morrison refused to give a timeframe on the phasing out of coal, saying shutting down the majority of coal-fired power stations by 2030 was not crucial for Australia to get to net zero by 2050.
"That will be decided by those who are actually using and running those power stations based on their commercial viability," he said.
Mr Morrison faced tough questioning during the wide-ranging interview, with host Leigh Sales asking: "How do you campaign effectively when even you are admitting the biggest drag on the government's re-election chance is yourself?"
The Prime Minister had previously turned down multiple requests to appear on ABC throughout this campaign, including repeated invites from RN Breakfast host Patricia Karvelas and Insiders host David Speers.
Labor leader Anthony Albanese said last week it was like "he has an allergy to the ABC" after failing to appear on the public broadcaster for the first five weeks of the election campaign.
This election will also be the first in almost two decades without a leaders' debate hosted on the network.
The opposition leader seized the opportunity to point out this absence during his appearance on Insiders on Sunday.
"It's good to have a political leader appearing on the ABC," Mr Albanese opened with.
Mr Albanese will appear on 7:30 later in the week.
