Anthony Albanese takes aim at journalist over election question

Anthony Albanese called out the journalist after he was asked whether the upcoming federal election would clash with a major sporting event.

Anthony Albanese has taken aim at a journalist attempting to ask a question about the timing of the federal election, interrupting the reporter before he could finish his question.

With the federal election due by May 17, the election date has been dominating the political agenda, much to the Prime Minister’s chagrin.

Speaking from Whyalla, South Australia where Mr Albanese and Industry and Science Minister Ed Husic announced a $2.4bn bailout for the steelworks operation, Mr Albanese was mid walking away from the press conference when he was interrupted by the journalist.

As the reporter asked, “PM, just quickly, you get asked this a lot but the (AFL) Gather Round and the election, they might coincide …”, Mr Albanese chimed in before he could finish.

The reporter was inferring that the Gather Round, which brings all AFL teams to South Australia to play nine games across April 10-13, could clash with the highly speculated election date of April 12.

Anthony Albanese accused the journalist of asking a boring question. Picture: NewsWire / Tim Joy

The date has been favoured by reporters, as it allows Labor to bypass handing down a budget on March 27. In this scenario, Mr Albanese would need to call the election on March 9, the day after the West Australia state election.

That would also allow the government to benefit from a potential Reserve Bank rate cut on April 1, which could carry favour with voters.

However, Mr Albanese said the question was “boring”.

“What’s boring is questions about election timing … and I’ve been asked it for a year,” he said before going on a rant against Peter Dutton’s opposition to Labor’s revamped stage 3 tax cuts.

“I’ll give you this tip. Peter Dutton a year ago called for an election to stop our tax cuts, our tax cuts for you getting more money in your pocket as a result of the changes that we made in legislation,” Mr Albanese continued.

“He not only said he was opposed to it before they saw what it was, then they said they’d reverse it. Then they said we should have an election, a year ago.”

Mr Albanese then reiterated his support for fixed four-year terms, which would require a referendum, however said the Liberal Party would likely oppose the change.

Mr Albanese also took aim at Peter Dutton after he called on the government to go to an election over its revamped stage 3 tax cuts. Picture: NewsWire/ John Gass

He also teased the possibility of a separate House election by May 17 and a half-senate election, which wouldn’t need to be held until September 27, despite previously shutting the idea down.

“You know what I’m focused on, not election days. I’m focused on working every single day for working Australians,” he said.

“Unless there’s a half-senate election, which will mean the election could be in September of this year, so in the middle of the (AFL) finals series, unless that occurs, the election will be May 17 or beforehand.”

To date, attempts to change election terms have failed across two referendums, with an overwhelming 67 per cent of voters nixing the rule in 1988.

Doing so would also reduce the terms served by state senators from six years to four years.

Earlier this week, independent senator David Pocock said a fixed date should be legislated, stating the current process was the most “ridiculous and most unproductive part of this end of the electoral cycle”.

“Even without a referendum to move to 4yr terms we could still legislate to set the date for 3 year terms. Seems sensible to me,” he shared on social media.