Deputy Premier Steven Miles confident Anthony Albanese can ‘bounce back’

Queensland’s Acting Premier Steven Miles believes Anthony Albanese can bounce back from a bad first week on the campaign trail.

Acting Premier Steven Miles says he’s very confident Labor leader Anthony Albanese can “bounce back” after conceding he’d had a “bad” first week of campaigning.

But he said Scott Morrison had a bad week leading into the campaign and that things would “ebb and flow” in coming weeks.

The Courier-Mail today revealed there were Labor frontbenchers, backbenchers, staffers and operatives who weren’t surprised by Mr Albanese’s performance this week which saw several gaffes and backflips that dogged daily press conferences.

Insiders have claimed the leader was “infamous” for not properly reading his policy briefings and had been exposed as a political “chameleon” on the campaign trail.

Acting Premier Steven Miles. Picture: Sarah Marshall

Mr Miles said it was important to realise that it was a long campaign and that it was only now reaching the point of when a normal-length election would start.

“Albo might have had a bad last week, ScoMo had a pretty bad week before that,” he said.

“Things will ebb and flow over the next few weeks but I think a lot of people have made up their mind.”

Mr Miles said he was very confident Mr Albanese could bounce back and that voters would look at how Scott Morrison had performed during his term.

“They’re not going to be thinking about whether Albo forgot a number on the first day of the campaign and so particularly when it comes to Queenslanders … Queenslanders have a really clear memory of the last few months and the last few years and they’ll be voting to get rid of Scott Morrison,” he said.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese on the campaign trail. Picture: Toby Zerna

But Mr Miles wouldn’t comment directly when asked what the mood was in Queensland Labor, instead saying there was a long way to go in the campaign.

“We’re really just reaching the point now that a normal length campaign would start and so there’s plenty of time for us to be out there, talking to voters about what Labor’s plans are for the country’s future,” he said.

“The Queenslanders I talk to, they’ve made up their mind about Scott Morrison.

“Now it’s Labor’s job to convince them to vote for us.”

The Acting Premier wouldn’t say whether he thought Federal Labor should review the JobKeeper rate – after it was revealed the party had dumped its 2019 policy to review it should it win.

“I’m not going to get into the details on those federal policies but I’m very confident that by the time it comes to election day we’ll be able to put the policies of the two parties next to each other and make a really clear decision,” he said.