Handwritten addition spotted on Anthony Albanese’s notes following NDIS gaffe

A handwritten addition to Anthony Albanese’s notes shows he clearly knew he was in for a grilling today after yesterday’s gaffe.

Anthony Albanese brought a note scrawled in pen with the key points of Labor’s plan for the NDIS and a script of what to say when asked about it at today’s press conference.

The Labor leader on Thursday was accused of not being across the plan as he failed to recall the six areas of improvement to the scheme.

On Friday, he was involved in a back-end-forth with a reporter over whether he had stuffed up.

Mr Albanese responded by saying Labor’s plan for the NDIS “wasn’t about gotcha questions” but about putting people at the centre of the scheme.

He then spoke at length about his mum’s battle with rheumatoid arthritis and why the NDIS was so important.

Cameras at the press conference picked up on a note that he was referring during the press conference.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese's notes fly off the lectern during a press conference at Addison Road Community Centre, Marrickville. Picture: Liam Kidston

At the top, you can see the key points of the NDIS policy written in blue pen – in case he was asked to rattle them off again.

And below, in large typed up letters, there is a prepared response for Mr Albanese about what to say if he was grilled again on the policy.

“I’ve been asked about the NDIS as if it is a quiz,” the note reads. “What is important is that Labor created the NDIS and Labor will always protect and strengthen the NDIS.

“And if I sound passionate about that it is because I remember all too clearly what it was like for my mum, crippled and bedridden without an NDIS that would have made it that crucial bit better.

“I know it because I’ve lived it.”

There is then a highlighted statement about how Labor has identified the problem and how it is the party to fix the current issues with the system.

Further down, it reads: “This isn’t a game. This is real life.”

Anthony Albanese carrying a folder and notes to his press conference. Picture: Liam Kidston

Mr Albanese was grilled about his slip up over Labor’s NDIS plan. Picture: Liam Kidston

At the end of the press conference, he was asked by a reporter what was inside the file that he placed the note in. He gave the reporter a bemused look as he walked off without answering.

Speaking about his mum’s struggles at the press conference, he had this to say about the NDIS:

“I tell you why it is personal for me. Because where I grew up, not far from here, I grew up with a mum who was not diagnosed properly with rheumatoid arthritis,” he said.

“It was a two-storey house. My mum, because she wasn’t diagnosed and didn’t get the assistance for her health, couldn’t at one stage – two-storey place, the bedrooms are upstairs – she had to come down the steps, every day, every morning on her bum because she couldn’t walk down the steps.

“She couldn’t get the sort of support that she needed to use a knife and a fork to cut up food because her hands were crippled up.

“When, as her health deteriorated, she couldn’t get – I remember the battles to try and get bars so that she had – it was an old council house that had the old bath systems and the old gas hot water.

“She couldn’t get bars to get in and out of a shower – those simple things that the NDIS provide to improve people’s lives. That is what the NDIS is about. That is what a government that I lead will be about.”