Anthony Albanese grilled over his latest campaign mistake

Anthony Albanese has been grilled over his third campaign mistake in a week after claiming a flagship Labor policy was “fully costed”.

Anthony Albanese has been grilled over his third campaign mistake in a week after claming a signature policy was “fully costed” when it was not.

The Labor leader stopped outside church after attending a Good Friday service to offer brief remarks to the waiting media.

Repeatedly asked about the $135 million health policy, Mr Albanese walked back his earlier remarks, saying the price tag was “informed” by work from the Parliamentary Budget Office.

“All of our policies will be fully costed and fully released,” he told reporters.

Mr Albanese turned around and walked away after being asked five variations of the same question.

His backdown comes after Labor finance spokeswoman Katy Gallagher revealed the party’s plan to trial Medicare urgent care clinics had not been formally costed.

During the first week of the federal election campaign, Labor announced a $135 million policy to take pressure off emergency departments by establishing 50 Medicare urgent care centres across Australia.

Anthony Albanese’s horror start to the election campaign began when he could not recall the Australian unemployment rate or Reserve Bank cash rate. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Flavio Brancaleone

When questioned about whether $135m over four years would enough to deliver the 50 clinics — given Labor promised to build an urgent care medical facility in a Brisbane suburb for $33m at the 2019 election — Mr Albanese said the policies in the 2022 campaign were different.

“There’s a different commitment, different policy,” he said on Wednesday.

“This (policy) has been fully costed by the Parliamentary Budget Office, the PBO.”

Labor’s finance spokesperson Katy Gallagher. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

Labor’s Katy Gallagher posted a statement to Twitter on Thursday evening to clarify the policy was not fully costed.

She said while the independent PBO had done work on the policy, ”for the avoidance of any confusion, has not been formally costed by the PBO”.

“All of Labor’s policies and costings will be released before the election,” Senator Gallagher said.

The coalition has seized on the remarks and used them to reinforce its case that Labor is not ready for to form a government.

“Anthony Albanese said the project was fully costed … he’s either ill-informed, not across the facts, or have they fudged the figures?” Health Minister Greg Hunt said.

“You can’t trust Labor with health because you can’t trust them with economic management.”

Originally published as Anthony Albanese grilled over his latest campaign mistake