Election 2022: Get across the detail, MPs tell Anthony Albanese

Concerns are growing among Labor MPs that Anthony Albanese’s stumbles are hurting the party’s chances of winning the election.

Concerns are growing among Labor MPs that Anthony Albanese’s campaign stumbles are damaging the party’s chances of winning the election after the ­Opposition Leader was unable to remember his party’s own “six-point plan” for the National ­Disability Insurance Scheme.

The stumble came just 16 days after the Opposition Leader ­unveiled the policy alongside his NDIS spokesman, Bill Shorten, and follows his failure to recall the unemployment rate and ­Reserve Bank cash rate on the first day of the campaign.

Mr Albanese not only repeatedly deflected when asked to list the six points, but was also forced to hurriedly seek a copy of the policy from his ­minders, awkwardly leafing through the document ­before reading directly from it in a ­sequence glossed over in Labor’s transcript of the event.

The mistake sparked criticism from Labor MPs with one senior colleague declaring “he needs to get across the detail’’.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese flicks through a folder during a press conference at which he was questioned about the NDIS. Picture: Sky News

The NDIS question came during the Labor leader’s Thursday press conference at the Smart ­Energy Expo in Sydney, where he spruiked Labor’s renewable ­energy policy alongside his ­climate change spokesman, Chris Bowen.

Ahead of a lunchtime speech to the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, in which his team had indicated he planned to speak of building upon Labor legacies such as the NDIS, and after he had made reference on Wednesday to Labor’s “six-point plan”, Mr Albanese was asked to outline the six points.

“The six points are, what we will do, in terms of, was outlined by Bill Shorten,” Mr Albanese replied. Pressed again, Mr Albanese said: “What that’s about is making sure that we take pressure off ­people who are at the moment having their programs cut.”

“We will make sure that there’s administrative efficiencies,” he said.

“So much is being wasted by the claims that are going forward with legal battles for individuals. What we will do is put people at the centre of the NDIS.”

Asked to outline the “other five points”, Mr Albanese could only repeat that he would put “people at the centre of the NDIS”.

Mr Albanese is grilled by the media. Picture: AAP

He then took questions on ­several other topics, including an energy query he referred to Mr Bowen, before being asked to again clarify whether he knew the six points, prompting one of his ­advisers to hand him a folder and a journalist to interject: “You’ve just been handed your policy ­document, Mr Albanese. You don’t know. Mr Albanese, this is embarrassing, isn’t it?”

The journalist’s loud, clear ­interjection was described as ­“inaudible” in Labor’s transcript of the exchange.

“That’s not right. That’s not right,” Mr Albanese replied.

“You’ve just been handed the points, Mr Albanese. What are they?” the journalist hit back, as the Labor leader leafed through pages of documents to find the relevant policy, from which he then read directly.

“Our policy on the NDIS, is to defend and fix the NDIS, lifting the NDIA staffing cap, doubling existing funding for advocacy, ­fixing regional access and stopping waste,” he read.

Pressed to confess that he had not been across his own policy, Mr Albanese said: “No, we did. It’s to put people at the centre of the NDIS.”

A week after the still recovering Labor leader emerged from home quarantine, one of his MPs quipped it could be better for the campaign if Mr Albanese “got Covid again”.

“He needs to get across the detail, or at least get better at deflecting questions,” the MP said.

Another Labor MP complained of the stumble: “How many times have we seen this now?”

A senior Labor figure described the mistake as “horrible” and “embarrassing”.

“The bloke didn’t know his own policy,” the Labor figure said.

Other Labor MPs and figures dismissed the mistake as being inconsequential to the campaign.

“He didn’t know one six point policy, big deal,” a Labor MP said.

“If you ask any punter or any voter they are worried about the price of bills not whether someone knows the dot points on a piece of paper.”

The Labor MP said people were “over the gotchas”.

Australian of the Year Dylan Alcott used the incident as an ­opportunity to beg all politicians to prioritise the policy area.

“Pretty, pretty please – can all sides of parliament take the time to understand the NDIS and it’s (sic) importance. People’s lives depend on it,” the disability ­advocate tweeted.

The stumble prompted comparisons with an incident during the 2013 campaign, when Liberal candidate for the western Sydney seat of Greenway, Jaymes Diaz, was unable to detail then opposition leader Tony Abbott’s “six-point plan” to “stop the boats”.

While Mr Abbott won government, Mr Diaz ­failed to win the marginal seat, the stumbles ­becoming the most memorable part of his campaign.

Mr Albanese also faced questions on Thursday about his ­ habit of deferring to his frontbenchers, having this week handballed questions to Jim Chalmers, Jason Clare, Tanya Plibersek and Chris Bowen.

“No, that is not right,” the Labor leader said when asked if his reliance on his shadow ministers demonstrated that he wasn’t capable of answering the questions himself.

“There have been some ­bizarre articles which suggest that it is inappropriate for the ... shadow treasurer (Chalmers) to want to comment on Treasury issues, (that) Jason Clare, as the ­housing spokesperson, might not want to comment on housing ­policy or Chris Bowen might not want to comment on climate change and energy,” Mr Albanese said.

“I find that extraordinary. I am captain of a team and I am very proud of the team that we have. What we had yesterday, for example, was the education ­shadow, Tanya Plibersek, with me, the education shadow answering questions on education as well as myself.

“Scott Morrison doesn’t have a team. He doesn’t have a team. He has run out when it comes to ­policies and when it comes to ­appearances. (Education Minister) Alan Tudge is in witness ­protection. So many of the government ministers are in witness protection.”