The only upside for Anthony Albanese, if there is one, from Monday’s major stumble, was that it happened in the first week of the campaign and not the last, when people are really tuning in.

Even so, it was a shocker to not know such basic numbers as the unemployment rate or the cash rate – more so given Scott Morrison was so publicly caught out at the National Press Club at the start of the year not knowing the price of milk, bread or petrol. And this is an election campaign when mistakes of such nature are far more damaging.