Immigration Minister Peter Dutton says his electoral office has been plagued by protesters

IMMIGRATION Minister Peter Dutton said he’s faced a “very tough campaign” locally against bikies and the CFMEU but was confident of the Coalition retaining power.

“There’s a good feeling on the ground, a good mood. Candidates are always nervous until the ballot boxes are open and the counting starts but my sense is that there is a good mood and the government will be reelected,” he said.

He warned voters to be cautious of voting for minor parties, likening them to Clive Palmer’s disastrous time in government.

“There is a level of support for minorities and I think that people need to be very careful about voting for an independent. Because people who thought the independent Clive Palmer was going to be good for our country or good for Queensland saw very quickly that he wasn’t and many of these same independent candidates are in the same mould.”

Mr Dutton cast his vote this morning at Albany Creek State School in his electorate of Dickson with his wife Kirrily by his side and four security officers nearby.

Mr Dutton has held the seat since 2001 and secured the electorate at the last election with a 6.7 per cent margin.

His electorate office has been plagued by protesters during the campaign with a Rebels gang member photographed with representatives of the controversial CFMEU outside his office brandishing anti-LNP posters.

“We’ve had a very tough campaign here. We’ve had bikies and CFMEU members and GetUp campaigning on behalf of the Greens and they’ve thrown a lot at our campaign but I think we’ve been successful in the end but every vote counts between now and six o’clock,” Mr Dutton said.

He said the current political chaos in Europe caused by border control issues made Australians “want strong borders”.

“They look to what’s happening in Europe where countries have lost control of their borders, they’ve seen the success the government has had in stopping boats, drownings at sea and getting every child out of detention and I get overwhelmingly positive feedback on the ground and in other marginal seats around the country as well and that’s I think one of the reasons we got elected at the last election - was to clean up the mess of Labor’s loss of control of our borders and obviously it will be a significant issue at this election as well.”

Mr Dutton said he wanted to work with ‘sensible people’ in the Senate.

Before he cast his vote Mr Dutton obliged the request of mum-of-two who wanted a picture with him while she did squat jumps.

“I just saw him walk in and people started taking photos and I thought ‘oh I know him’,” Kate Hutton said.

While Mr Dutton didn’t attempt the fitness test he did happily pose with Ms Hutton.