‘Stop talking’: Anthony Albanese clashes with press pack

Labor Leader Anthony Albanese has clashed with reporters after he refused answer questions whether budget deficits will be higher under a Labor government.

Anthony Albanese has repeatedly declined to clarify whether budget deficits will be higher under a Labor government than under a re-elected Coalition.

At a press conference in Perth this morning, Mr Albanese was asked for a straight answer on the issue at least three times.

“Mr Albanese, will you say clearly today that the deficit will be higher under Labor? And are there specific targets for productivity under a Labor government?” said the first questioner.

Mr Albanese gave a lengthy answer arguing Labor had “prioritised investments that will boost productivity”. He did not give a clear answer on the deficit.

“I completely understand that you’re investing in productivity enhancement. But over the next four years, will those investments lead to higher budget deficits than the Coalition?” a subsequent questioner asked.

“Those investments will lead to higher productivity,” said Mr Albanese.

“It’s a yes or no question,” someone interjected.

“Well, you get to ask the question, then I get to answer. That’s part of the deal here,” said the Labor leader.

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Labor Leader Anthony Albanese declined to clarify whether budget deficits will be higher under a Labor government than under a re-elected Coalition. Picture: Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images.

“You’re not answering it,” said the reporter.

“The question is, will there be higher productivity?” said Mr Albanese.

“The question is will there be higher deficits,” the reporter shot back.

“If you want an answer, you’ve got to stop talking,” said Mr Albanese.

“What we will have is a fiscally responsible policy. You can’t say on the one hand, ‘Labor isn’t announcing enough expenditure, enough big things,’ and on the other hand say that we’re not being fiscally responsible. Everything we are investing in, is about is about boosting productivity.

“In terms of the fiscal position: the other thing that I have said repeatedly, but I’ll repeat it again, is that we will have Treasury and Finance go through and audit line by line to get rid of the waste that this government has had.”

Still no clear answer, then. So the press pack tried yet again.

“Will you confirm that the deficit will be higher?” another reporter asked, in addition probing when Labor would release its costings.

“We will put out all of our costings, as oppositions have, in the usual way, at the usual time frame,” he responded.

In other words, we’ll have to wait until within days of the election.

Mr Albanese pictured visiting Bentley Health Services talking with nurses and WA Premier Mark McGowan. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

As you’d expect, housing policies also featured heavily during the press conference, given the Coalition’s announcement yesterday.

“Do you agree with the idea that we do need to see some sort of drop or at the very least decline in the rapid rise of house prices to address the issue of affordability?” a reporter asked.

“And if so, don’t you therefore need to do something to make sure when you’re doing any policy that might increase demand, you’re also increasing supply?”

Mr Albanese took this as an invitation to whack the Coalition’s policy.

“Let’s be very clear about the difference in the housing policies between what we have announced and what the government has announced,” he said.

“The government, in its desperation, has come up with a thought bubble yesterday. They have no idea what the impact will be, except that Minister Jane Hume belled the cat this morning. She said that it will put upward pressure on house prices. That’s what that’s what they’ve said, they’ve acknowledged that that’s the case.

“In contrast, our policy includes the establishment of a housing supply and affordability council, working with Mark McGowan. And other state premiers and chief ministers on how we have a national strategy to increase supply of housing.”

So Labor’s argument here is that it’s going to push up housing supply as well as demand.

Mr Albanese cited a quote from economist Saul Eslake. Speaking to the ABC this morning, Eslake called the Coalition’s idea a “contender for one of the worst housing policies of the last 30 years”.

Both parties have gone hard on housing policies.

He neglected to mention other remarks from the economist suggesting Labor’s “Help to Buy” scheme, which involves the government taking equity in people’s homes, would also push up house prices.

“We have almost 60 years of evidence that, in my view, shows unequivocally that anything which allows Australians to spend more on housing than they otherwise would – be it first homeowner grants introduced in 1964, stamp duty concessions by state governments, tax preferences for property investors that were expanded under the Howard government, shared equity schemes – anything that allows Australians to spend more on housing than they otherwise would results primarily in more expensive housing rather than in more people owning homes,” Mr Eslake said.

“I agree with our policy,” Mr Albanese said when asked about that quote.

“Do you accept it will push up house prices?” the reporter interjected.

“It will make a positive difference, together with our policies in the Housing Australia Future Plan. It will make a difference in terms of increasing supply and putting a roof over people’s heads,” said Mr Albanese.

Western Australian Premier Mark McGowan was also at the presser. Journalists asked him about the Chinese intelligence gathering ship off the coast of his state – labelled an “aggressive act” by Defence Minister Peter Dutton.

“Prior to being a member of parliament, I was a naval officer, actually what’s called a naval legal officer. So I dealt with the law of the sea,” he said.

“Foreign warships transit through other countries’ economic exclusion zones. We do it in the waters of China. The United States does it in the waters of China. We do it all over the world.

“The exclusive economic zone concerns things like fishing rights and oil and gas and all those sorts of things. It doesn’t stop transit of ships. It was never designed to stop transit of ships.

“All this rhetoric by Mr Dutton is just politics, as is his language around war, saying we’ve got to be prepared to fight. All this sort of stuff that’s gone on for the last year is highly dangerous, and it’s against the national interest. And it’s actually it’s inflammatory and unnecessary.

“I just think he’s, you know, he’s the biggest threat to Western Australia.”

He said Australia needed to be careful with its language concerning the economic exclusion zone, or risk other nations criticising us for doing the same thing.