They are in Malcolm's Turnbull's words the "engine room of the economy".

Not quite a tinker, a tailor and a candlestick maker but a builder, a plastic maker and a hardware store manager were waiting for the Prime Minister in the Brisbane seat of Forde on Tuesday morning.

It was supposed to be a walk-through visit but ended up as more a talkathon - all on the preferred terrain of the PM: business tax cuts, jobs and the evil influence of the construction union.

In 2013, Tony Abbott would have been straight out the back to get some splinters in his fingers by helping out in the lumber yard or jumping aboard a fork-lift.

Turnbull made it three metres through the front door of Mitre 10 in Loganholme before getting deep into conversation with the three businessmen (with roughly 40 media and five TV cameras watching on).

"We're so committed to supporting businesses like yours. You're the engine room of the economy. We always say that but it's absolutely true," Turnbull enthused.

"This is where the real investment, additional employment comes from. This is where the jobs and growth are to be found. That's why we are backing you. Backing you up to the hilt."

Not everyone inside Mitre 10 was was stirred by the PM's rhetoric. Just metres away a customer was trying to duck under the media pack to make it to the counter to buy some putty.

Local builder and golf course owner Henri Van Baack (no relation to Forde MP Bert Van Manen, who had brought him a along) was on board.

The CFMEU operated like the "mafia" on large construction sites, he told Fairfax Media after meeting the PM.

"If you want to work on the big jobs you have to join them but in the domestic building industry they don't exist," he said.

"You'll find the work costs 30 per cent more [in the large commercial building sector] and the finishes are never as good. I've hired about six or eight apprentices from large sites and after three years all they can do is use a broom or hang a door."

Turnbull's laser focus in the first two days of the campaign has been on the economy-boosting potential of small business tax cuts.

Mitre 10 franchisee Ian Gill veered off message when he said the dividend of lower corporate tax could result in him hiring another worker or simply "making more money".

Probably not the way Turnbull would put it. Asked about Gill's comment later he insisted more jobs was the "inevitable consequence" of the Coalition's tax policy.

The Prime Minister's staff were so thrilled with the cast that Mr Van Manen brought that they were spotted getting testimonials from the builder and the contractor.

It's a mixed up campaign in 2016, with government staffers acting like journalists and journalists acting like photographers and video makers.

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