Election 2022: Richard Marles the man if Anthony Albanese has to hightail it to Japan

Anthony Albanese has revealed Richard Marles will be immediately sworn in as deputy prime minister in the event of a Labor victory.

Deputy Labor leader Richard Marles. Picture: Liam Kidston

Anthony Albanese has revealed Richard Marles will be immediately sworn in as deputy prime minister in the event of a Labor victory, taking the helm of government while the ALP leader and Penny Wong travel to Japan on Monday to attend the Quad meeting.

It follows questions over the issue after Mr Albanese told The Australian on Tuesday he and Senator Wong would be sworn in as soon as Sunday and fly to Tokyo on Monday, with no clarity as to who would run the country while they were away.

Mr Albanese clarified on Thursday that Mr Marles, the current deputy leader, would be sworn in and act as prime minister in the Labor leader’s absence. “Mr Marles, if we are successful, would also be sworn in,” he said. “I met with the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet yesterday. There are various briefings taking place. There are obviously other briefings that have been held, as are appropriate … given we’re in caretaker period.”

Mr Albanese originally told The Australian Mr Marles would be sworn in later with the full cabinet, but backtracked on this after concerns emerged the country would be left without a leader if its new prime minister flew immediately to Japan.

The plan to have Mr Albanese sworn in as soon as possible after the election evokes memories of Gough Whitlam’s duumvirate government with Lance Barnard. Together they held all 27 portfolios of government for 14 days in 1972.

But when asked if the country would be seeing a repeat of that moment in history, Mr Albanese said Australians would not be waiting weeks for his ministry to be sworn in.

“We’re not looking at weeks at all. We’d be looking at a caucus meeting and processes being established the week after next,” he said.