Federal election 2022: Challenger finds economics not so Albanese

Anthony Albanese was forced into an embarrassing apology for not knowing two key indicators central to the cost-of-living debate.

Anthony Albanese sticks out his tongue as he stumbles on the current unemployment rate in Launceston on Monday. Picture: Sky News

Anthony Albanese was forced into an embarrassing apology for not knowing two key economic indicators central to the cost-of-living debate at the centre of the election battle

The gaffe was a major setback for the Opposition Leader, who will spend the next six weeks countering government attacks of economic incompetence and facing demands he prove to voters he can lead the next phase of the economic recovery.

Launching his 41-day campaign in the marginal Tasmanian seat of Bass on Monday, the Opposition Leader wrongly guessed the unemployment rate was 5.4 per cent before admitting he wasn’t “sure what it is”.

Mr Albanese’s blunder was 1.4 percentage points higher than the current unemployment rate, which was expected to plunge below 4 per cent on Thursday and hit 50-year lows.

“The national unemployment rate at the moment is, I think it’s 5.4 – sorry, I’m not sure what it is,” Mr Albanese said.

The Labor leader was also stumped on Tasmania’s unemployment rate and the record low 0.1 per cent cash rate set by the Reserve Bank, which has been at the same level for almost 18 months.

After Labor’s primary vote slumped four percentage points in the past two Newspolls, Mr Albanese said he could still win the May 21 election, despite falling five points behind Scott Morrison as preferred prime minister.

Following the embarrassing gaffe on day one of the six-week campaign, opposition frontbenchers Tanya Plibersek, Jim Chalmers, Jason Clare and Katy Gallagher were forced to publicly defend Mr Albanese.

Mr Clare said politics and leadership were “not a pop quiz”.

Speaking at his first campaign press conference on Monday, Mr Albanese was also unable to give a direct commitment on the make-up of his front bench following the election, aside from Dr Chalmers being Treasurer.

As Labor went into damage control, the Prime Minister joined former state Liberal minister and Gilmore candidate Andrew Constance on the hustings in the Labor-held southern NSW marginal seat where he talked up the Coalition’s jobs recovery and weaponised his opponent’s gaffe.

“Well, 0.1 is the cash rate,” Mr Morrison said. “It’s been there for some time. In addition to that, the unemployment rate, I’m happy to tell you, is 4 per cent and it’s falling to a 50-year low. And it’s come down from 5.7 per cent when we were first elected. But more importantly than that, as we went into the pandemic, we were facing unemployment rates up around 15 per cent and now it’s 4 per cent.”

Mr Morrison also faced questioning on Monday over reports that Rachelle Miller, the former media adviser to stood-aside ­education minister Alan Tudge, was negotiating a $500,000 ­payout from the federal Finance Department.

Ms Miller alleged in December that Mr Tudge abused her emotionally and was, on one occasion, physically abusive during their consensual affair in 2017. An investigation found there was insufficient evidence to make findings against Mr Tudge who denies the claims.

Mr Morrison said in a radio interview he knew nothing about the payment. “Those are private matters between the Department of Finance and Ms Miller, and they’re appropriately at arm’s length from me,” he said.

Mr Albanese’s economic blunder follows other infamous ­campaign slip-ups headlined by former Liberal leader John Hewson’s clanger ahead of his 1993 election defeat when he stumbled over the impact of a GST on the cost of a birthday cake.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese visits Launceston, Tasmania, on Mnday. Picture: Toby Zerna

Former prime minister John Howard got the interest rate wrong in the lead-up to his 2007 election loss and Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk still beat Campbell Newman at the 2015 state election despite not knowing what the level of GST was set at. Ms Palaszczuk blamed the gaffe, made two days before polling day, on missing out on her morning coffee.

After Coalition campaign headquarters released election ads mocking Mr Albanese’s failure to know the unemployment and cash rates, the Labor leader apologised for his “mistake”.

“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,” he said.

Business groups said Mr Albanese should know the key ­economic indicators. Council of Small Business Organisations chief executive Alexi Boyd said it was “important for the leaders to have their fingers on the pulse, economically”. Ms Boyd said that small business owners also had other key figures on their minds, such as the cost of food and petrol, and whether they would be able to pass these higher prices on to their customers, or face a squeeze on profitability.

An Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry spokesman said Mr Albanese’s ignorance of the unemployment and cash rates was “a bit surprising, but we all have moments where we forget”.

Finance Minister Simon Birmingham said: “If you don’t know what the interest rate is, you can’t be trusted to put the right policies in place to keep them low. If you don’t know what the unemployment rate is, you can’t be trusted to keep Australians in jobs.”

Mr Albanese’s campaign error comes at a time when the country is on track to achieve what Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe has referred to as “historic” low levels of unemployment.

Economists expect March labour force statistics due to be ­released on Thursday will show the jobless rate slipped below 4 per cent for the first time since August 1974. Last month’s budget forecast unemployment would fall to 3.75 per cent by September, with some private sector forecasts putting it below 3.5 per cent by the end of 2022. New data from the National Skills Commission on Monday revealed the number of online job advertisements lifted by a further 10,200 to 282,400 in March – 24 per cent higher than a year earlier, and 68 per cent above pre-Covid levels.

With Mr Morrison flagging he will announce the retiring Greg Hunt’s successor in the health portfolio later this week and stick with his core cabinet team, Mr Albanese on Monday came under pressure over the post-election make-up of his senior leadership team. After The Australian last month revealed that Mr Albanese was likely to move Richard Marles back into the defence portfolio and Kristina Keneally out of the home affairs portfolio, the Opposition Leader said: “I have full confidence in all of my team, including Jim Chalmers, as treasurer, and others in their respective portfolio.