Caleb Bond: This isn’t a question of whether Anthony Albanese can recite the price of bread and milk ­

These people are just barracking for their candidate and upset he is being shown up by easy questions and doesn’t deserve to be PM, writes Caleb Bond.

There seem to be two things at which Anthony Albanese excels – making up policy on the run and not remembering any of the policies that weren’t made up on the run.

It really isn’t a big ask for the bloke who wants to be prime minister of this country to remember his flagship policies.

Journalists aren’t asking the Opposition Leader to recite the King James Bible or rub his head and his stomach while he jumps around on one leg.

They’re asking him to articulate his plan for a different – or, by his standards, better – Australia.

Bizarrely, some in the media have decried this as so-called “gotcha journalism”.

This isn’t a question of whether Mr Albanese can recite the price of bread and milk ­– it’s a question of whether he knows what he wants to do with Australia.

These people are simply barracking for their candidate and upset that he is being shown up by easy questions.

They are, incidentally, the same people who loved every minute of Donald Trump being pilloried by the media.

People have, since time immemorial, been judged on their recall skills.

Opposition leader Anthony Albanese. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

You took tests in school and university to prove you had soaked in information. And in the case of Mr Albanese’s most recent blunder – not knowing his policy to fix the NDIS – it is a mark of respect.

If Mr Albanese truly cared about the plight of people with disabilities, he would be able to articulate his policy to improve the NDIS.

Not being able to remember the key points of this policy sent the message that, as far as he is concerned, the NDIS is a political football rather than something about which he truly cares.

And when he’s not forgetting such basic information, Mr Albanese is dropping policy bombs such as his desire to raise the minimum wage by five per cent.

Was it a brain fart or a long-held policy position that he held on to until a journalist asked exactly the right question in a press conference? You be the judge.

While it is an unfortunate and difficult reality that many people’s pay packets will, in real terms, reduce, forcing more money into the economy would only stand to create more inflationary pressure.

And if Mr Albanese cares so much about wages keeping in line with inflation, why has he not pledged to increase public service pay and declined to increase welfare payments – two things over which the government has complete control? Because he made it up on the spot.

Come Thursday, he was walking it back.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison visits Launceston. Picture: Jason Edwards

Do we really want someone who does not know his own policies and rashly makes up others to be in charge of the country when we
face difficult economic and geopolitical times?

It demonstrates a lack of commitment and consideration – two qualities we should expect from all leaders.

Scott Morrison may not have done much to endear himself to the public. He is not, by any means, the perfect prime minister.

But he demonstrates fight and determination. Campaigning is Mr Morrison’s strength. He can sell a message and, importantly, he is across policy detail.

He can hold his own when questioned.

But Mr Albanese has none of this mongrel in him – and has more than proved that he does not deserve to be prime minister.

Originally published as Caleb Bond: This isn’t a question of whether Anthony Albanese can recite the price of bread and milk ­