Election 2022: There’ll be no shift on emissions, says Anthony Albanese

Anthony Albanese has ruled out increasing Labor’s greenhouse gas emissions target to secure power in the event of a hung parliament.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese on ABC's Q&A on Thursday. Picture: ABC

Anthony Albanese has ruled out increasing Labor’s greenhouse gas emissions target to secure power in the event of a hung parliament, despite demands from the teal independents for a goal of 60 per cent lower emissions by 2030. Labor’s target is 43 per cent.

Asked on the ABC’s Q&A program on Thursday whether he was willing to budge, the Opposition Leader said: “No, because what we did, we didn’t come up with a figure and then work out how to get there. What we did was the opposite.

“We worked out what’s a good policy. What happens if you fix electricity transmissions so that renewables can fit into the grid. What happens if you shift towards and encourage the take-up of electric vehicles. What happens if you have new industries that support cleaner energy.”

Pressed on what he would do if that was not enough to win over independents, Mr Albanese said: “They will have a choice between the Labor government that’s fair dinkum about taking on the ­opportunities that are there from climate change and a government that has Angus Taylor as its ­(energy) minister, Scott Morrison, who has never taken these issues seriously – they will have a choice.”

He said Labor also had a clear position on other issues the teal independents have championed, such as establishing an anti-corruption commission and adopting the recommendations of the ­Respect at Work report on women’s safety.

Earlier, Mr Albanese claimed he “wasn’t given the opportunity” to recall Labor’s “six-point plan” for the National Disability Insurance Scheme after a another stumble on the campaign trail.

The claim came after he repeatedly failed to detail the six points during a press conference on Thursday, before resorting to having a staff member pass him policy notes from which he read verbatim.

Quizzed whether he would “own” his failure to answer the repeated question as a “mistake”, the Labor leader said: “No, it wasn’t. One of the things that puts people off politics, I think, is this sort of thing of gotcha game-playing. The essential point is, I’ve just run through the six points,” he said, having just having done so.

“But today you couldn’t,” Q&A host David Speers interjected. “No, no,” Mr Albanese said. I wasn’t given the opportunity.”

In response to other questions, Mr Albanese guaranteed Labor would not overturn the government’s legislated stage-three tax cuts, which will give people on $200,000 a year a cut of more than $9000.

He also revealed his proposed anti-corruption commission would look into “whatever it wants”, leaving the door open to enabling the body to investigate the conduct of the Morrison government.

He reiterated his position that a Labor government would prioritise a referendum on Indigenous recognition in the Constitution over a referendum on the republic, making the latter highly unlikely in its first term.

Mr Albanese also ruled out changing the date of Australia Day.