Soaring electricity prices under Labor's green energy agenda, a new attempt to legislate "job-creating" company tax cuts, and new savings to fund more affordable childcare are shaping as key government battlelines in the political contest this year as Malcolm Turnbull prepares to outline his strategy on Wednesday.

The Prime Minister, under growing pressure from voter disaffection and simmering discontent on his right flank, will unveil his objectives for 2017 at the National Press Club in Canberra, hoping to regain the political initiative, silence internal critics, and lay bare the dangers to growth and household budgets of the Labor alternative.

In a keenly anticipated nationally televised speech pitched as "optimistic but realistic" in tone, the embattled Prime Minister plans to pit his recipe for jobs growth, lower business costs, and cheaper energy prices, against Bill Shorten's plan for increased business regulation and an unaffordable 50 per cent renewable energy target by 2030.

"This isn't an abstract issue. Higher electricity prices mean more pressure on household budgets and businesses. That's why energy will be a defining debate in this Parliament. We're determined to help families and businesses by making electricity affordable and reliable; Labor's policies mean higher power prices and energy insecurity," he will say, according to notes provided.