Rita Panahi: Gaffe-prone Albanese seems clueless about the country he wants to run

Worryingly the man seeking to lead our country doesn’t know the unemployment rate, doesn’t know his own party’s policies and doesn’t know borders reopened months ago.

Anthony Albanese lacks the intelligence and work ethic to be prime minister but that doesn’t mean he won’t be elected.

The opposition leader has demonstrated that he struggles with key economic data and concepts and just as importantly appears ignorant of Labor’s own policies from changes to the NDIS to the party’s harebrained shared housing scheme.

When he’s asked about detail he blathers, defers to others and if that doesn’t work he simply walks away as he has done on more than one occasion in the past two weeks.

On Thursday he bizarrely claimed on the ABC’s News Breakfast program that Australia’s unemployment rate – which has fallen to a 48-year low of 3.9 per cent – was only low because our borders remained close.

Asked by host Lisa Millar whether the historic low unemployment rate would be a boost for the government, Albanese said: “Our borders are closed, Lisa. Our borders are closed. People are doing it tough.”

Australia’s borders have in fact been open since February not just for returning residents and citizens but for workers and tourists.

Somehow Albanese missed the emotional scenes at airports of families reunited after two years apart.

The bloke doesn’t know the unemployment or cash rates, doesn’t know his own party’s policies and doesn’t know Australia’s borders reopened months ago.

What exactly does he know about the country he wants to run?

Labor Leader Anthony Albanese lacks the work ethic to be prime minister.

On Thursday Labor finally released their election costings and it was immediately clear why they had waited so long to do so.

Labor’s own figures show that they would blow the budget by another $7.4bn.

Close to six million people had already cast their vote before Labor’s costings were announced.

Given the significant increase in the numbers who are pre-polling or registering for postal votes it is incumbent on both sides to release their policy details earlier.

It is simply not good enough that so many voters have cast their vote without knowledge of crucial data.

Albanese’s team then attempted to shield him from journalists and their pesky questions about Labor’s policies and costs.

The plan was for the media pack travelling with Albanese to be dumped in Canberra as he jetted off to Queensland, and only an almighty backlash from journalists saw the gaffe-prone Labor leader reverse course.

To distract from his shortcomings Albo again bragged about his humble beginnings and to ensure no one missed the message he conducted TV interviews on Thursday outside the council house where he lived for a period with his mother.

It’s a message he has hammered home repeatedly but the electorate deserves to know who Albanese is now, what he believes and how he will deliver on his promises, not his humble origin story. The federal election is not an episode of The Voice where a contestant’s sad backstory is as important as how well they perform.

If the polls are right and Labor wins on Saturday then the Liberals face a critically important vote that will determine their electoral fortunes for years to come.

Losing Josh Frydenberg would be a major blow to the Coalition.

Josh Frydenberg has been one of the government’s best performers and is the frontrunner to be the next Liberal leader but that would be a mistake.

The worst outcome for the Coalition would be for Labor to win and for the treasurer to survive in Kooyong and be elected leader.

That would see the party lurch even more to the Left, further fracturing the conservative vote, and decimating their chances of returning to office.

A leader trying to hold on to a marginal seat like Kooyong will see the party formulate Green-lite policies that appeal to that affluent electorate, precisely the opposite direction to where the Liberals need to head.

Trying to hold on to a handful of inner city seats will cost the Coalition dearly; their focus needs to be on the masses in the suburbs and regions who are aspirational, socially conservative and no longer identify with modern Labor’s often radical policy positions.

Peter Dutton is disliked and maligned by the media but he is the minister Labor fear most and he is the best credentialed candidate to lead the Liberals post Scott Morrison.

It remains to be seen whether that occurs in a few days or a few years.