Anthony Albanese’s first election campaign gaffe a real win for Scott Morrison

Scott Morrison’s re-election bid rests on the claim Anthony Albanese can’t be trusted to manage the economy. After failing to answer two simple questions the Labor leader has to do better.

Those who have worked closely with Anthony Albanese say he prides himself on being genuine.

The Labor leader prefers to speak from the heart rather than from a script, and so he tends to trust his instincts in public, sometimes at the expense of the advice he is provided and the preparation most politicians would ordinarily do.

This can make Albanese seem refreshing and authentic. It can also make him seem waffly and imprecise. On Monday, the first full day of the election campaign, the man who wants to be Australia’s next prime minister looked incompetent.

Journalists can trip up politicians with “gotcha” questions. It happened to Scott Morrison a couple of months ago, when he failed to nominate the price of bread, petrol and a rapid antigen test. Labor had a field day at his expense.

A politician in Anthony Albanese’s position should automatically know the two central economic indicators. Picture: Toby Zerna

But being asked about the national unemployment rate and the Reserve Bank cash rate is different. Albanese shouldn’t even need to prepare for such questions; a politician in his position should automatically know those two central economic indicators.

After all, a central part of Labor’s pitch to voters is that they will get real wages growing again in government. Anyone with even a passing interest in economics understands that you can’t do that without knowing what is happening with the unemployment rate.

Albanese looked crushed to be caught out. Maybe it was a nervous moment of forgetfulness, not actual incompetence. But when Scott Morrison’s re-election bid rests on the claim that the Labor leader can’t be trusted to manage the economy, Albanese simply has to be better.

The only upside for Labor is that he made this mistake in the first week of the campaign, not the last. Then again, it is a gaffe that will be replayed again and again until May 21.