After 36 days of campaigning, 16 petrol stations, four debates and a broken down bus, Peter Dutton is ready to face the judgment of the electorate.
The man who could soon be prime minister was feeling confident about his chances as millions of Australians prepared to head to the polls.
"Absolutely, I do," he said when asked if he believed he could win over a coffee at the crack of dawn on Saturday.
Mr Dutton spent little more than 10 minutes with Liberal candidate for Macnamara Benson Saulo at a cafe in Elsternwick in Melbourne's inner-south.
With hours remaining until polls close on the east coast, he has no time to waste.
Soon he was on to engagement number two of the day, meeting with Tim Wilson a few suburbs over in Brighton, at a cafe in his former electorate Goldstein.
Mr Wilson is attempting to reclaim the seat he lost to former ABC journalist Zoe Daniel in 2022.
Goldstein and Macnamara, which is held by Labor's Josh Burns, have some of the highest concentrations of Jewish constituents in the country.
Mr Dutton has painted himself as a protector of the Jewish community, trying to outflank Labor on his support for Israel and criticising the government for not doing enough to stamp out anti-Semitism.
Victoria will be crucial to his chances of victory, with the coalition aiming to capitalise on the unpopular Labor state government and local concerns over crime and cost-of-living.
Mr Dutton hinted he would look to stay on in politics if he lost the election.
"I'm 54. I'm still very young and I've just got a burning passion for this country," he told Nine's Today Show.
He goes into polling day the clear underdog, with Labor ahead 52.2 per cent to 47.8 per cent on a two-party preferred basis, a final YouGov poll showed.
Mr Dutton has a packed schedule as he looks to swing the remaining undecided voters his way and is expected to lodge his own vote in his Brisbane electorate of Dickson.
An estimated 10 million people are expected to cast their ballot on Saturday.
But with more than seven million people having already voted during the two-week pre-poll period, Mr Dutton's last-day dash may be in vain.
