As the election heads into the final turn, Anthony Albanese is repeating both the same mistakes he has repeatedly made during the campaign, and the hubris of Bill Shorten at the same point of the last election.
Albanese’s campaign has been dogged from the start by his inability to answer difficult questions. Granted, the question in the first week was a bit of a “gotcha”, but he has since spectacularly failed to answer questions on his own policy announcements. Even before the election, Albanese drew flak for refusing, point blank, to answer a voter’s unscripted question, in WA. Yesterday, he treated journalists with the same contempt.
Anthony Albanese abruptly cut short his press conference at a railway manufacturing facility on the hustings in Perth after refusing to answer several questions about his policy costings.
It was a repeat of his WA performance nearly two months ago, where he abruptly turned and stalked away from the cameras and microphones. Yet again, WA premier Mark McGowan was left like a shag on a rock, trying to pick up the ball the opposition leader had just dropped.
Dissatisfied members of the press pack chased after the Opposition Leader, continuing their interrogation after he brushed off questions on the size of projected ALP deficits.
“Isn’t there a problem with transparency here, Mr Albanese?” said one journalist in pursuit of the Labor leader as he walked silently out of the nearest door.
“We are following you for answers Mr Albanese. And you are now just not giving them,” said another.
But it’s not just reporters whom Albanese is treating with contempt.
With the Coalition releasing its costings on Tuesday morning, one journalist said the release of Labor’s costings on Thursday would give voters only 48 hours to decide which policy platform they preferred ahead of polling day on Saturday.
“There’s no point announcing it now,” Mr Albanese said. “I want you to be there on Thursday. I don’t want to disappoint you.”
But the tactic failed […]
Speaking on Tuesday morning, Josh Frydenberg declared: “What is Anthony Albanese hiding from? The answer is proper scrutiny.”
The same could be said of the Coalition, frankly. Up to 20% of voters have already cast their votes in pre-poll voting. I did so for the first time ever, on account of travelling interstate on the election weekend. I was astonished at the queues, a week before the actual polling day.
This is a growing trend which political parties are going to have to factor into their campaigning. Traditionally, campaigns save their big policy announcements for the final week of the campaign. Yet, up to a fifth of voters have already cast their decision by then.
Similarly, delaying costings until after a significant proportion of people have voted denies them the chance of an informed decision.
But, if Albanese is putting on one of the worst campaign performances of recent history, he’s not short of confidence. In a move reminiscent of Bill Shorten’s rumoured pre-election packing, ready to move into the Lodge, Albanese is already putting himself forward to strut the international stage next week.
Anthony Albanese will have himself sworn in as prime minister and Penny Wong as foreign minister as soon as Sunday or Monday in order to attend the Quadrilateral meeting in Tokyo on Tuesday, if Labor wins the election.
In an exclusive final-week interview, the Labor leader accepted there would be no time for the Labor caucus to meet in Canberra to elect ministers, as is required under party rules, ahead of the Quad meeting with leaders from the US, Japan and India.
The Australian
Too many political leaders have failed to heed the crucial lesson: hubris will be your downfall.