‘I made a mistake’: How Albo’s shocker unfolded

He’s happy to reel off the price of petrol, fuel and milk but Labor leader Anthony Albanese has spectacularly come undone on two economy questions. Here’s how it unfolded.

A stumble on economics has put Anthony Albanese on the back foot early in the federal election campaign after he failed to name the nation’s unemployment and cash rates.

The Labor leader repeatedly tried to avoid answering if he knew what the Reserve Bank of Australia’s official cash rate - which dictates mortgage interest rates - as well as what the unemployment figures in Tasmania and Australia were, during a press conference in Launceston on Monday morning.

Eventually he took a guess at the national unemployment rate, telling journalists he thought it might be 5.4 per cent, but then confirmed he didn’t know.

“I think it’s five point … ah four … sorry, I’m not sure what it is,” he said.

The RBA cash rate has been at 0.1 per cent since November 2020 and the national unemployment rate is 4 per cent.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese came unstuck during a visit to Launceston, Tasmania on his first stop of the federal election campaign. Photo: Sky News

When asked if he believed leaders should not be expected to be across every detail impacting cost of living, he said he would not enter in an “auction” in terms of the Tasmanian unemployment rate and the “various rates that are put forward”.

“I’m happy to know that the last time I filled up, petrol was $2.20 a litre,” he said.

“I know how much the price of bread is, I know how much a litre of milk is, I know about those things that affect ordinary people.”

On the cash rate, Mr Albanese tried to play down the significance of the figure compared to knowing interest rates would be going up in the coming years.

“We can do the old Q and A stuff over 50 different figures,” he said when first asked about interest rates.

“The truth is that what they have said, the Reserve Bank, is that over the coming period… there will be multiple interest rate increases regardless of who is in government.

“We can do the 20 questions stuff through all of it.”

Labor leader Anthony Albanese couldn’t answer two questions about the economy. Picture: Toby Zerna

Mr Albanese later apologised for not knowing the official cash rate.

“Earlier today I made a mistake,” he said.

“I’m human, but when I make a mistake, I’ll fess up to it. And I’ll set about correcting that mistake.

“I won’t blame someone else. I’ll accept responsibility. That’s what leaders do.”

When asked again by a reporter whether he knew what the figures are, he responded “yes I do”.

“Zero point one is the cash rate, which is very different from the interest rate people pay of course, and four per cent is the unemployment rate,” he said.

Mr Albanese had sought to make his first full day on the campaign trail about health and the care sector, stopping first in the ultra-marginal Liberal seat of Bass, and then continuing to Braddon in north west Tasmania, but instead the day was dominated by economics.

The Coalition, which is trying to paint Labor and Mr Albanese as inexperienced on the economy, was quick to seize on the stumble, with Prime Minister Scott Morrison later giving the correct answers at his own press conference in NSW.

Originally published as ‘I made a mistake’: How Albo’s shocker unfolded