Labor leader Anthony Albanese found an unlikely ally in former Prime Minister John Howard after his interest and unemployment rate stumble on the first full day of the election campaign.
Howard was in Perth kick-starting the campaigns of Swan candidate Kristy McSweeney and Hasluck MP and Indigenous Affairs Minister Ken Wyatt when he was asked whether it was bad that Albanese didn’t know the nation’s unemployment rate, which sits at 4 per cent.
John Howard was in Perth to support Liberal candidates on day one of the election campaign.Credit:Kate Geldart
He responded incredulously: “Is that a serious question?”
“Anthony Albanese didn’t know the unemployment, alright, so what?” Howard said.
Howard was himself asked what the unemployment rate was and said it had a ‘3’ in front of it.
Wyatt then stepped in and said it was coming down.
Albanese was repeatedly asked what Australia’s unemployment and interest rates were at a press conference in Tasmania on Monday.
He first guessed it was at 5.4 per cent before handballing the question to Labor’s finance spokeswoman Katy Gallagher, who correctly answered 4 per cent.
Interest rates continue to sit at a historic low of 0.1 per cent.
Wyatt’s seat of Hasluck is held by a margin of 5.9 per cent and is a target for the Labor party.
Howard, who was ousted from government by Kevin Rudd in 2007, has helped Wyatt campaign in every election since 2010 and said he did so because he was a “talented local member and a good Liberal”.
“I admire him a lot and I’ve learned a lot from him, and I’m very happy to campaign for him,” he said.
“If I’m around in three years’ time, I’ll campaign for him again.”
Howard said it would be a tough election for the government after nine years in office but lauded Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s handling of the pandemic.
Tony Abbott was another former Liberal prime minister scheduled to visit Perth this week but was forced to pull out after contracting COVID-19.
Labor member for Brand Madeleine King weaponised the former Liberal leaders’ visits at an earlier press conference alongside Wyatt’s opponent Tania Lawrence.
“I think that speaks a lot about what Scott Morrison knows is that the people of Western Australia don’t trust him,” she said.
“They don’t like him and they don’t want to see him so poor old John Howard gets rolled out to fly the flag.”
King also attacked the Morrison government’s record on COVID, framing Western Australia’s solid health and economic outcomes on the state Labor government.
“They backed Clive Palmer in the court case against Mark McGowan and Western Australians remember that they’re angry about it and they always will be,” she said.
“The people of Hasluck should remember that because it was the federal government led by Scott Morrison that wanted to endanger their health and open up our borders to COVID.”
Jacqueline Maley cuts through the noise of the federal election campaign with news, views and expert analysis. Sign up to our Australia Votes 2022 newsletter here.
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