Scott Morrison steps onto the porch of a half-built house to survey a Sydney "field of dreams".
Eight hours and 4000 kilometres later, the prime minister plants his feet in Perth's sandy soils to do it all over again.
A truck shrieked and squealed in Sydney's early morning light as it spluttered concrete onto a block next door.
Painters and plasterers bustle along the freshly-paved footpaths as roof tilers teeter above.
Endless rows of display homes are packed tight into the suburban horizon.
"That is the dream," the prime minister tells a young couple looking to buy their first property.
"This is the field of dreams."
Mr Morrison is hitching his re-election bid to a plan to boost home ownership.
He took the campaign to the western Sydney seat of Lindsay on Monday morning, which he is hoping to snatch back from Labor in five days' time.
With streaks of building dust smeared down his sleeves, the prime minister spruiked his first home buyer deposit scheme.
A re-elected coalition government would act as guarantor for up to 10,000 low and middle income earners, allowing them to buy houses with deposits of just five per cent.
Mr Morrison played down the prospect of pushing people into unsustainable debt or overheating the property market.
"There's no free money here," he told reporters in Penrith.
However, he refused to reveal just how much the policy could push up property prices.
"It's difficult to say, but I do know this: Labor's housing tax will force the value of your home down."
Labor has matched the home loan program, sucking some of the sting from the political fight.
But the prime minister is peeved Labor also wants to limit negative gearing and capital gains tax perks.
"It's like putting your foot on the brake and the accelerator at the same time."
Mr Morrison said he was sick of watching people scrimp and save for deposits, only to be locked out of the housing market.
"They're trying, they're working so hard to do it, but the mountain just keeps getting bigger and bigger."
Less than an hour later, the prime minister was flying from Penrith to Perth, pondering the political hill he must climb ahead.
Mr Morrison, who turned 51 on Monday, had woken up to a most unwelcome birthday present.
The latest Newspoll shows he remains poised to lose the federal election, with Bill Shorten also closing the gap in the "better prime minster" stakes.
His words of wisdom to two first home buyers may ring true in five days' time.
"Getting in is the hardest part."
Across the other side of the country, the stars aligned when the prime minister rolled up to Taurus Crescent in suburban north-east Perth.
A decadent chocolate mud cake sat on the semi-constructed kitchen bench as Mr Morrison talked to local workers.
"That's the birthday present I want - you guys in jobs," he told them.
A second backyard press conference came and went - replete with warnings of Labor's "Canberra taxes" wafting across the Nullarbor - while nearby tradies fired nail guns and tossed steel offcuts from roofs.
The prime minister was then swiftly whisked away - but not before grabbing himself a slice of cake for the long limousine ride ahead.
