‘Disgusting lie’: Scott Morrison slams Anthony Albanese

Scott Morrison has accused Anthony Albanese of a “disgusting lie”, while the opposition leader has come out swinging as the campaign gets ugly.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has lashed out at Labor’s claim that the government will extend the cashless debit card to include pensioners, calling it a “disgusting lie”.

Both sides of politics have been ramping up their scare campaigns in the second week, with Labor reviving its old Mediscare tactics from 2016 and the Coalition falling back on the reliable old subject of border control.

Anthony Albanese used the words “scare campaign” six times during his fiery press conference.

But the cashless debit card claim is the one that seems to have irritated Mr Morrison the most.

“It is a despicable lie that is being told by the Labor Party,” he fumed during a press conference in Perth this morning.

“And what they seem to be doing in secret, the Labor Party, is ringing up people, pensioners, and scaring them that there’d be some suggestion that our government would be applying the debit card to pensioners.

“It’s just simply not true. And Anthony Albanese needs to come clean on us. He needs to rule this out, because it’s not true. And it’s not just me that’s saying that.”

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has lashed out at Labor’s claim that the government will extend the cashless debit card to include pensioners. Picture: Jason Edwards

Mr Morrison cited Ian Yates, CEO of Council of the Ageing, who has said the scare campaign is “just not true” and “there is no factual basis at all for what the Labor Party is saying”.

“He was saying that people were contacting him saying they were being scared, that they were in fear. Here is the Labor Party frightening older Australians with something that is a complete and utter lie.

“If (Albanese) wants to talk about trust and integrity, he should show some today, and the Labor Party should stop frightening pensioners. It is an out and out disgusting lie.”

Albo accuses the PM of running a ‘scare campaign’

Mr Albanese has also come out swinging today, repeatedly accusing Mr Morrison of running a “scare campaign” in what could mark a turning point in the ALP’s campaign.

The Labor leader was visibly fired up on Tuesday morning during a press conference at Brisbane electric vehicle charging company Tritium in Brisbane, where he spoke passionately about the ALP’s energy policies.

After a first week of campaigning dominated by a string of fumbles and concerning polls, it was a more confident and polished performance from Mr Albanese today, who has long supported environmental causes – and one which indicated a pivot into attack mode.

In fact, the phrase “scare campaign” was mentioned by Mr Albanese and his colleagues at least six times today, with the ALP boss speaking more loudly and forcefully than he has so far, and repeatedly sledging the opposition.

“The delay, prevarication and inaction from this government has meant that we’re missing out on opportunities,” Mr Albanese said.

“There’s such a thing as first mover now, we’ve lost that advantage. Now, we’ve lost that, but what we need to do is embrace the action that is there from climate change which will actually be good for our economy and good for jobs.

“And yet what today’s scare campaign really highlights is that nothing has changed for this government. All they’re left with is a scare campaign, no substance, which is why Scott Morrison went to the Glasgow conference, gave an empty speech to an empty room and has nothing to say about Australia’s future.”

Mr Albanese was particularly keen to rip into comments by Energy Minister Angus Taylor, who claimed an Albanese government would see Aussie power bills rise by $560 a year on average, based on the ALP’s Re-Wiring the Nation policy, which would update the nation’s infrastructure to accommodate far greater renewable energy.

“That scare campaign is based upon a view somehow that renewables aren’t the cheapest form of new energy,” Mr Albanese said in response, with Shadow Treasurer Jim Chalmers chiming in to accuse Mr Taylor of adding “fuel to the bin-fire of lies that this government tells about renewable energy”.

PM announces $50 million funding

The Prime Minister’s tirade came during a visit to Woodside Karda Robotics in the electorate of Perth, held by Labor’s Patrick Gorman.

Mr Morrison got the chance to control a dog-like robot - which was vaguely terrifying to witness, as he announced an investment of $50 million over four years for research and development.

The PM said Anthony Albanese “needs to come clean on us”. Picture: Toby Zerna

Earlier, before addressing to the WA Chamber of Minerals and Energy, the Prime Minister was grilled on a range of topics during an interview on Perth radio.

Speaking to Nova 93.7, Mr Morrison was first questioned about his verbal slip-up yesterday, when he said the JobSeeker rate was $46 per week instead of per day.

“There have been some gaffes recently. Albo did it, and then you did it the other day. It’s when you get numbers wrong, figures wrong,” one of the hosts told him.

“When that happens, it doesn’t bother me. How important do you think it is for you guys to be able to just pull figures out? Because I’m guessing there’s so many … that doesn’t bother me. I care more about the character and what the parties stand for, rather than whether you can recall figures.”

Mr Morrison cited Ian Yates, CEO of Council of the Ageing, who has said the scare campaign is “just not true”.

Mr Morrison pivoted straight into his usual attack on Labor’s economic credentials.

“We’ll I think what’s more important is that you’ve got to have an economic plan for the country. That is what Anthony doesn’t have,” he said.

“Yesterday I said day, not week. To be honest I didn’t realise I’d said it until later. Neither did the journalists pick it up at the time.

“But if you don’t know what the unemployment rate is - that’s pretty fundamental to running the economy. And he thought it had a five in front of it, not a four.”

“Yeah, but you know that the workings of what his party are doing, they know what the unemployment rate is, and they would have planned for that,” the host interjected.

“But he didn’t know. And the unemployment rate is one of the most important economic figures in the country,” said Mr Morrison.

“I mean if he’d said 4.2 or 4.1, fair enough, but he thought it was 5.4!”

“Yeah but you didn’t know the JobSeeker rate!” said the host.

“I did know. $46 a day,” Mr Morrison protested, asking listeners to “compare the pair” of gaffes.

He was also interrogated on the rising cost of living, particularly with regard to house prices, and his government’s response to the recent floods in Queensland and NSW.

Liberals come up with new chant

Scott Morrison finished his Tuesday of campaigning by addressing Liberal Party volunteers in Perth, firing them up for the remaining five weeks.

The event happened at the same venue, I believe, where Julie Bishop was mobbed by reporters during the last election campaign three years ago. Ahh, happy memories.

The vibe was noticeably less chaotic this time. A decent number of Liberal supporters - I’d place it at 100-150 people - waited patiently for the Prime Minister, who was introduced after a couple of brief, enthusiastic (i.e. loud) speeches from Swan candidate Kristy McSweeney and Attorney-General Michaelia Cash.

Ms McSweeney led the crowd in a chorus of the Coalition’s current favourite slogan.

“IT. WON’T. BE. EASY. WITH. ALBANESE!” she bellowed. Before imploring the room to repeat it back to her: “AGAIN!!”

“It won’t be easy with Albanese,” everyone chanted back, in much the same vein as a primary school class telling the teacher “good morning”.

Ms Cash then introduced the rest of the WA Liberal team, one by one.

I don’t know if you’ve ever been to an NBA game, dear reader, but if you have you’ll be familiar with the part where the announcer introduces the home team’s starting line-up.

Imagine that level of hype, but the announcer was Ms Cash, and the team members in question were balding politicians instead of photogenic sport stars (OK fine, they weren’t all balding).

Mr Morrison eventually took the stage. He spoke for about 20 minutes, combining elements of his standard campaign spiel - you know, all that stuff about the election being a “choice” - with some compelling anecdotes about regular WA voters who’ve been helped by government policies.

For example, he brought up Nicole Rakitic, the single mum he met at Bunnings yesterday who was able to buy a home because of the Coalition’s Home Guarantee Scheme.

There were also several instances of the characteristic “how good is xxx” line. “How good are jobs?” And so forth.

All of this went down very well with the friendly crowd. “You can feel the momentum change,” one supporter remarked on the way out.

Mr Morrison certainly hopes that momentum shift lasts until election day.

Originally published as ‘Disgusting lie’: Scott Morrison slams Anthony Albanese