Anthony Albanese has been roasted in Parliament for the five things he was ‘caught not knowing’ in the past four months.
The prime minister was hit with a rhetorical zinger from deputy Liberal Party leader Sussan Ley about his gaffes during question time on Wednesday.
‘In the last four months alone, you were caught not knowing the cash rate, not knowing the unemployment rate, not knowing that Australia’s borders were open, not knowing your own NDIS policy, and prioritising the CFMEU over women’s safety on work sites,’ she began.
‘Now that you have been caught, giving families false hope about a $275 cut to their power bill, why won’t you confess and apologise to struggling Australians?’
Ms Ley originally claimed the PM was caught ‘not knowing how to keep women safe on worksites’ but was told to rephrase her question under Parliament rules.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been roasted in Parliament for the five things he was ‘caught not knowing’ in the past four months
Mr Albanese, as he often does when asked about his $275 power bills cut plan, ignored the question and stuck the boot into the Coalition.
‘There is one day in particular that sticks in my mind over the last four months. It’s the 21st of May,’ he said, referring to his election victory.
The PM used the four months part of the question to rattle off what he’d done since getting elected, calling his government one ‘that actually governs, as opposed to just engages in sheep tawdry politics every day’.
Ms Ley interjected to complain about ‘all this shouting in a family-friendly Parliament’, and Mr Albanese gloated ‘I’ve had worse four months’.
The opposition has on many occasions since Parliament resumed last Tuesday asked Mr Albanese about Labor’s $275 policy, and he has never given a straight answer.
He was asked in question time both on Monday and Tuesday this week, and on both occasions pivoted to either restating his climate change plan or bashing the opposition – or both.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton opened Monday’s question time berating the PM for ‘dumping his promise to cut power prices for Australian families by $275’
‘Can the prime minister cut the hubris and tell Australian families whether power prices will be higher or lower when they get their next bill?’ he said.
Later in the session, Ted O’Brien pointed out that the $275 pledge was still on the Labor Party’s official website.
‘Will the prime minister please tell us why he’s giving false hope to Australians, who are already struggling with their cost of living, that they’re going to get a cut in their power bills?’ he said.
Mr Albanese was hit with a rhetorical zinger from deputy Liberal Party leader Sussan Ley (pictured) about his gaffes during question time on Wednesday.
Ms Ley’s first two points referred to an infamous press conference on April 11 where he almost derailed his election campaign in its first week.
The Labor leader was asked if he knew what the cash rate was but dodged the question by saying: ‘We can do the old Q and A over 50 different figures’.
He was later asked what the national unemployment rate is. He tried to guess but got it wrong.
‘The national unemployment rate at the moment is… I think it’s 5.4… sorry. I’m not sure what it is,’ he said.
The unemployment rate was four per cent at the time, the lowest since 2008.
This disastrous press conference dominated headlines for the whole week and made the first week of the campaign a writeoff, but he rebounded and won the election.
A week later Mr Albanese made another gaffe when he said Australia’s borders were still closed due to Covid, when they had opened two months earlier.
Mr Albanese mistakenly said on ABC News that the closed border was helping to keep unemployment down to four per cent.
Host Lisa Millar asked him: ‘Two days before an election campaign, though, and an unemployment rate sitting so low will surely give the government a boost for their argument about how they run the economy?’
The Labor leader replied: ‘Our borders are closed, Lisa. Our borders are closed. People are doing it tough.
Mr Albanese clarified in a press conference hours later that he meant to say the borders were closed.
‘The borders were closed. The borders were closed,’ he said.
‘And I was asked a question about skills shortages, and one of things that business say is that they were impacted by the fact that the borders were closed.
Three weeks out from the election, Mr Albanese had another disastrous press conference where he had to be handed a cheat sheet by an adviser about his own policy.
The PM was asked about his six-point plan for the National Disability Insurance Scheme on May 3 when he was lost for words.
He could only say ‘we will put people a the centre of the NDIS’ before one reporter shouted: ‘You do not know your own policy, Mr Albanese’.
After a few more questions on different topics, Mr Albanese went off camera and journalists saw an advisor hand him a document.
Reporters immediately accused the Labor leader of being handed the NDIS policy document which detailed the plan.
‘You’ve just been handed a policy document,’ one journalist said.
‘Is that the six point plan there,’ another asked.
‘That’s not right,’ Mr Albanese said with a wry smile as he shuffled his papers. He then read out the six point plan.
Finally, Ms Ley’s point about protecting women in the construction industry was one she frequently goes back to – abolishing the building watchdog.
Labor has already defunded the Australian Building and Construction Commission and will legislate to dismantle it in coming weeks – which the Coalition bitterly opposes.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton even went so far as to accuse Mr Albanese of condoning the harassment and assault of women on building sites.
‘So when you see the next report from a building site of a female stop and go member who’s just there to do her job being abused by some bikie or some member of the CFMEU, know that it is sanctioned by this prime minister,’ he said last week.
‘Know that the next act of assault of assault or unlawful conduct on a building site that results in a worker being injured, is the result of this PM.’
Mr Dutton on several occasions likened Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union officials to thugs who regularly committed crimes and had bikie friends.
However, Employment Minister Tony Burke pointed out in reply that investigating such matters was outside the ABCC’s jurisdiction.
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