Anthony Albanese’s understudy laughs off awkward question

Anthony Albanese’s understudy has brushed off one question about the election by saying Aussies will choose between “Honest Albo” and “Smirking Scott”.

Anthony Albanese’s understudy has laughed off a suggestion he should take on the Labor leadership.

Labor frontbencher Jason Clare fronted the media on Friday after Mr Albanese tested positive for Covid-19, with less than a month to go before the federal election on May 21.

Mr Clare was asked if he was not the Labor leader that many people have been looking for, given the relative unpopularity of both Mr Albanese and Scott Morrison.

“There’s a few laughs in the room,” Mr Clare responded.

“The short answer is: Anthony Albanese is the leader that this country desperately needs.”

Anthony Albanese’s understudy has come out swinging against the Morrison government over the Solomon Islands’ security pact with China. Picture: Tim Hunter.

Mr Clare said it was “time to give Albo ago” and he believed Australians would vote for Labor and “a better future”.

“They’ve got a choice here between Honest Albo and Smirking Scott and I think over the course of the next four weeks Australians will make that choice very clear,” he said.

‘If Scott Morrison’s saying this is as good as it gets, I reckon Aussies will be saying, ‘No way mate, you are so out of touch. It’s time to get out of the lodge and into the real world’.”

Mr Clare also came out swinging against the Prime Minister and the coalition over Solomon Islands’ security deal with China.

He lashed the “bin fire” government over the China deal, saying senior ministers had spent the week contradicting each other over how it should have been handled.

The agreement that will allow Beijing to send military personnel to Solomon Islands has been inked to the alarm of Australian and New Zealand officials.

Mr Clare called the deal an “epic failure” by the coalition, pointing out it was signed despite Australia’s last-minute attempt to prevent it.

“Have a look at what Scott Morrison said only two days ago. He said there won’t be any military bases here,” Mr Clare told reporters.

“On to other side, you’ve got Barnaby Joyce saying this is the second Cuban missile crisis.

“This government is a bin fire on this. You have Scott Morrison who has one position, a totally different position from the Deputy Prime Minister of Australia here.”

Mr Morrison is under pressure to explain what Australia knew about the deal before a draft version of it was leaked online last month, as well as why he decided send a junior minister on the failed eleventh-hour dash to stop it.

The deal has also renewed questions around how Australia manages relationships with its smaller Pacific neighbours, particularly on the issues of foreign aid, security and climate change.

Mr Morrison has insisted it was a strategic decision to send Pacific Minister Zed Seselja instead of Foreign Minister Marise Payne to the Pacific nation to try to persuade officials not to go ahead with the agreement.

The Prime Minister said on Friday he didn’t believe Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare would have changed his position if a more senior minister visited the nation.

“There was no opportunity, I think, for him to change his mind on this,” Mr Morrison told Nine, adding he had not spoken to Mr Sogavare since the deal was finalised.

Senator Payne’s predecessor in the portfolio, Julie Bishop, has criticised the decision to send Senator Seselja and said a foreign minister should have been dispatched instead.

Scott Morrison, pictured here on the campaign trail, is under pressure to explain his decisions in the lead-up to the deal being inked. Picture: Jason Edwards

Mr Morrison has downplayed the likelihood of China establishing a naval base in the Pacific nation by saying there is “no credible information” Beijing would be allowed to do it, despite warnings from senior cabinet ministers.

Deputy Prime Minster Mr Joyce and Defence Minister Peter Dutton have both contradicted Mr Morrison by claiming the agreement could lead to a permanent Chinese military presence in the Pacific Island nation.

Mr Clare seized on the disputes in his press conference on Friday.

“You have the former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull saying this is the failure of foreign policy,” Mr Clare said.

“You have the former (Australian Defence Force) chief Chris Barrie saying exactly the same thing. Julie Bishop said the foreign minister should‘ve been sent there.

“They’re the facts. There’s a competition here. You got to get on the field. You can’t sit in the sheds. That’s what this Prime Minister has done here.”