Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has confirmed the Coalition will not offer tax cuts to match Labor during the election campaign.

It means the cost-of-living battle will be fought on Labor’s tax reduction versus the opposition’s fuel excise cut.

“We have a great desire at some stage [to introduce tax cuts] when we clean up Labor’s mess, but we won’t be able to provide tax cuts during this campaign,” Dutton said in an ABC 7.30 interview following his speech, adding that Labor might ditch its own income tax plan if it was forced to by the Greens in a minority government.

Senior MPs confirmed earlier to this masthead that they were confident the fuel excise cut was a more immediate and popular measure.

The $6 billion price tag of the petrol policy over one year meant the opposition had minimal wriggle room to match or go further than Labor on its tax cut that costs $17 billion over four years.

Dutton also confirmed in the 7.30 interview that he would announce during the election campaign a target for net overseas migration, after he last year walked back a commitment to lower that measure of migration that is more difficult to reduce than the permanent migration intake.