It keeps getting worse: Astonishing gaffe by member of Albo’s inner circle after Grace Tame T-shirt debacle… and four words give away the election date: PVO

With four words, has Albo shown his election hand?

Did Albo accidentally give away his plans to call the federal election next weekend, after the Reserve Bank hands down its decision on interest rates?

I think so, if an off-handed remark he made in Question Time on Thursday is anything to go by. Unless he’s that much of a political animal that the comment was intentional misdirection?

Veteran Queensland Labor MP and all round good bloke Graham Perrett is retiring at the next election. Perhaps knowing that his days in Canberra are soon coming to an end, he was boisterous in the final Question Time for the week, yelling out all sorts of unparliamentary observations about his political opponents.

You know, taking advantage of parliamentary privilege while he still has access to it.

The Speaker eventually had enough and booted Perrett out of the chamber, leading the PM to exclaim in protest: ‘On his last day?!’

But last week wasn’t the end of parliamentary sittings before the election, and Thursday wasn’t therefore Perrett’s last day in the chamber.

MPs are due to return in late March for budget week… unless Albo calls the election between now and then, that is.

As retiring Labor MP Graham Perrett was booted out of the chamber on Thursday, Albo yelled out, ‘On his last day?!’ This remark may have inadvertently confirmed his election date plans

So did the PM give away his intentions, belling the cat on plans to call the election early? Almost certainly he did, surely? Unless after 30 years in politics he still doesn’t realise parliament sits during budget week, or alternatively his rat cunning is so astute that the remark was deliberately delivered to confuse those listening in.

When I contacted Perrett to get his thoughts, he was unequivocal that Albo doesn’t do anything unintentionally in Question Time: ‘If anyone thinks Anthony forgets he’s in front of the press gallery and a live microphone I have a large bridge in Sydney they might like to purchase from me’, Perrett said. 

So perhaps it was just rat cunning then.  

If not, Albo might be planning to take advantage of an interest rate cut next week and call the election soon afterwards, in the hope voters will give him some credit for bringing inflation down such that the rate cut became possible.

The PM might also want to go to the polls early to avoid his Treasurer Jim Chalmers having to hand down another budget, this time covered in red ink. Debt and deficits as far as the eyes can see – not a good look when economic management could be a central theme on the campaign trail.

But there is a serious downside to going to the polls early, if that is indeed what Albo plans to do. Missing out on delivering a budget also means missing out on collecting all those political donations accumulated from business types during budget week.

The PM, Treasurer and all of the ministry sell their time (if not their souls) to the highest bidders in corporate Australia when budgets get handed down. Trawling in hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations for campaign headquarters….useful spare cash ahead of a close election.

Such prostitution of democratic processes is deeply tawdry, but both sides of politics do it. Even the virtue-signalling teals and Greens have fundraisers planned for budget week.

Parliament really can resemble a house of ill repute. No wonder voters are turning off politics in their collective droves.

Before waving goodbye to Perrett, if indeed he has sat for the last time in the chamber, it is worth revealing why he decided to get himself kicked out of Question Time one last time. ‘It was deliberate’, he told me. ‘Nick Champion (a former federal Labor MP now a state minister in South Australia) and I were tied for the record, both kidded out 106 time during our careers’, Perrett pointed out. ‘I had to beat him by one.’ Apparently after it happened Champion texted Perrett, simply saying: ‘You couldn’t help yourself could you!’ 

A record is a record is a record…congrats Graham.  

Labor staffer’s eye-watering typo 

Weeks after Grace Tame wore a grubby T-shirt at the Lodge, and suggested an unnamed Labor staffer had given it the nod of approval, Albo’s inner circle is facing another embarrassing gaffe

We all make mistakes, and typos are all too common in many workplaces, and that includes newsrooms. But it also includes prime ministerial offices, as we saw this week.

On Wednesday, an embargoed copy of the PM’s speech to be delivered the following day in Canberra was circulated to journalists in advance – a not-uncommon practice.

The email described the upcoming event as the ‘National Apology to the Social Generation Breakfast at Parliament House’.

Obviously it was a stolen (not social) generation speech set to be delivered by Albo.

We won’t name the staffer who made the unfortunate typo, but the same fellow also happened to be present at the Australia Day event at The Lodge last month when Grace Tame claimed a prime ministerial staffer told her they liked the ‘F*** Murdoch’ T-shirt she was wearing.

Tame went public with the claim after the PM admonished her poor choice of garb, but she wouldn’t name who the staffer was.

I’m (somewhat reliably) assured that the staffer in question would never flag his appreciation of such a crass T-shirt. He has more class than that, I was told, in a not-so-subtle dig at Tame.

Former Guardian Australia Political Editor Katherine Murphy, now spinning for Albo from the ranks of his political staffing allowance, might not be so shy when it comes to Tame’s antics, however.

On Wednesday, an embargoed copy of one of Anthony Albanese’s (pictured) speeches was released to the press with a clanger of a typo. The staffer behind it was present at the Lodge on the day of Tame’s stunt, but I’m reliably informed he wasn’t the person who praised her T-shirt

Murpharoo had more than her fair share of cracks at the Murdoch empire during her days in journalism. And she was a fan of Tame’s decision to rudely stand sour-faced next to former PM Scott Morrison at the same event a few years back.

But the ex-journo wasn’t at the Australia Day event, so it couldn’t have been her.

I should leap to Murpharoo’s defence on other grounds: I couldn’t imagine her endorsing a T-shirt that vulgar.

While she might be the staffer most likely to beg Albo to enter into a partnership with the Greens after the next election if a minority government awaits us, even being ideologically left wing enough to believe that wouldn’t be a bad political strategy, Murpharoo is in no way crass and unedifying the way Tame self-evidentially is.

Albo seized the opportunity to make the opposition look like fools this week when asked if he would rule out appointing Alan Joyce (pictured) as CEO of embattled regional airline Rex. If he continues to show mojo like this, he might just fare better in the election

Albo nails a rare zinger after opposition’s Rex fail 

If the parliamentary week just passed does indeed turn out to be the final sitting week of the season, it also delivered the worst own-goal by the opposition.

A question was directed at the PM asking him to rule out appointing Alan Joyce as CEO of embattled regional airline Rex, in the event the government goes ahead with plans to take over the carrier.

It drew some cheap laughs when asked, but those doing the laughing soon lost their voices when the PM hit his stride.

Albo pointed out a former Coalition minister sat on the board of Rex at a time when governance issues were raised. He also quoted former Nationals leader Michael McCormack (who is still an MP, by the way) as recently saying taking over Rex might become necessary to ensure regional Australians aren’t disadvantaged.

The rest of his answer was a chance to slam all manner of inadequacies within the opposition. It may have been the PM’s best performance this term. The usually low-energy Albo found some mojo. His Labor HQ strategists will want to bottle it ahead of the election campaign.

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