Julia Gillard joins Anthony Albanese in final day of 2022 federal election campaign
Former prime minister Julia Gillard has made a rare campaign appearance to help Anthony Albanese kick off the last day of the election campaign in Adelaide.
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Former prime minister Julia Gillard has joined Anthony Albanese for an eleventh-hour blitz of two key South Australian seats ahead of tomorrow’s federal election.
The pair began the final day of the campaign in Sturt, a once-safe Liberal seat now believed to be within reach for Labor, before they moved on to the marginal battleground of Boothby.
In that electorate, Mr Albanese, Ms Gillard and Premier Peter Malinauskas were met with a rockstar welcome at Cabra Dominican College in Cumberland Park, where excited students swarmed the leaders and requested selfies as they moved through the school grounds.
Ms Gillard said she never appears at press conferences anymore, but made “a particular exception today” to appear alongside Mr Albanese, Mr Malinauskas and other senior Labor figures.
“The reason I’ve done that is because I wanted to come and support my friend Albo,” she said.
“He’s ready to be prime minister, he would be a great prime minister.”
Having served as Australia’s first and only female prime minister, she also directed a message at the country’s women.
“What I want to see for this country is a government that cares about, values and includes women, and I know that a government led by Albo would do precisely that,” she said.
Ms Gillard added that she lives in Boothby, and threw her support behind Labor candidate Louise Miller-Frost.
“I get a postal vote, I’ve already proudly voted for Louise so can I call on the people of Boothby to do exactly the same thing,” she said.
Year 11 student Iris said it was “a very good experience” to have Mr Albanese visit the school.
“We were able to see up-close how he acted and what he might bring to the electorate,” she said.
Earlier, Ms Gillard and Mr Albanese had coffee with federal SA Labor MPs at Sfizio Cucina Cafe on the Parade at Norwood – just metres from the office of the Liberal MP for Sturt James Stevens.
The seat was formerly held by frontbencher Christopher Pyne and is currently held by Mr Stevens on a 6.9 per cent margin.
Supporters of Mr Stevens entered the cafe displaying anti-Albanese corflutes but they were quickly asked to leave and ushered out of the premises.
Asked whether she had any advice for Mr Albanese, Ms Gillard said “he doesn’t need my advice”.
Mr Albanese cuddled MP Mark Butler’s baby son, Charlie, and spoke with patrons of the cafe.
Matt Kassebaum, 43, of Kent Town, said he happened to be having breakfast with his family when the Labor contingent arrived.
He said Sturt was “really due for a change”, and did not believe the Coalition had done enough for the area.
“We’d be very happy to see it flip,” he said.
“There was a big swing here at the state election, people weren’t happy, so we’ll see if that happens with this one too.”
Mr Albanese, who was joined by partner Jodie Haydon, is hoping to seize the two South Australian Liberal bastions in a bid to form majority government with at least 76 lower house seats.
Polls have Labor well ahead in Boothby, but Sturt is on a knife edge, with a recent YouGov poll predicting the two party-preferred vote was split 50-50.
Sturt had not attracted considerable attention from senior Labor figures until Wednesday, when climate change spokesman Chris Bowen arrived to rush out an announcement on a solar battery for the area.
Boothby has been in Liberal hands since 1949.
Ahead of his visit, Mr Albanese told The Advertiser he felt it was important to visit South Australia as one of his last campaign stops.
“I wanted to spend time on the last day of the campaign with my SA team who will play such an influential role in government if we are elected,” he said.
“There is so much at stake for South Australia at this election – not least the River Murray and delivering the upgrade the Flinders Medical Centre desperately needs.”
Mr Albanese revealed his party’s costings on Thursday, showing Labor’s plan would add $7.4bn to budget deficits, or $8.4bn more than the Coalition.
The Opposition leader said Labor had prioritised investments that would not push up inflation, which is currently expected to reach 6.1 per cent.
“The way that you can boost wages and boost profits, without putting pressure on inflation, is by making sure that you boost productivity,” he said.
The extra spending by Labor would be funnelled into childcare, skills and training and clean energy if Mr Albanese wins the election.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison attacked Labor for increasing the deficit.
“What we have always seen from the Labor Party is when they can’t manage money, they come after yours in higher taxes,” Mr Morrison said.
gabriel.polychronis@news.com.au
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Originally published as Julia Gillard joins Anthony Albanese in final day of 2022 federal election campaign
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