Election 2025: Perhaps narky Anthony Albanese is not so confident after all

Anthony Albanese in the Brisbane electorate of Moreton on Tuesday. Picture: Jason Edwards / NewsWire

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Anthony Albanese is starting to get testy, narky and nasty as the pressure builds in the final days of the election campaign, belying Labor’s lead in the polls.

The Prime Minister is starting to look just a little bit rattled, ­impatient and not so in control as he was at precisely the wrong time in the campaign cycle. Although about three million people have already voted, there is still a large number of people who are “undecided”, according to the polls.

He started like a whirlwind, weeks before the formal campaign began, announcing tens of billions of dollars in spending promises and appearing ebullient and confident. Peter Dutton’s campaign started more slowly and Labor got the lead in the published national polls.

A confident Albanese corralled the travelling media, set up protocols of control and, in what was and still is, a highly orchestrated campaign, seemed relaxed when meeting voters.

The Opposition Leader looked less confident as the self-declared “underdog”, facing feisty reporters and with less control of the rolling press conferences. A growing advantage for Albanese as preferred prime minister in the polls and a fall in Dutton’s personal standing demonstrated Labor’s relentless attacks on the “arrogant, risky and reckless” Liberal leader were working.

Albanese oozed confidence, talked about serving a full term if re-elected, doubled down on the personal attacks and got away with dismissive treatment of questions about his actions, policies and agenda. But suddenly Albanese’s previous claims about a questionable $600bn estimate for the Coalition’s nuclear energy plan, downplaying of a Russian request to use Indonesian airfields, the scare over Medicare and an angry rejection of the warning from ratings agency S&P that the election spendathon risked a ­credit downgrade came under hard scrutiny.

For almost 10 days Albanese riffed on a stupid mistake Dutton made in attributing to the Indonesian President a statement about a Russian request to use a Papua air base for long-range planes.

But on Monday Albanese started to face hard questions about his knowledge of the request – revealed in The Australian – and why it had been dismissed as similar to a fake moon landing or the Loch Ness monster. At a press conference, an angry Albanese ­reacted to a question from a young reporter: “I’m sorry, but adults, adults, when it comes to intelligence, act like adults.”

He refused to answer further questions and fell back on “Peter Dutton verballed the Indonesian President. That’s the issue here.”

After S&P warned that Australia’s AAA credit rating was at risk due to election spending pledges, Albanese snapped back on the ABC’s 7.30 program: “There’s no suggestion, frankly – the AAA ­credit rating is there.”

On Tuesday he cut off a question about S&P, simply saying: “I know what I did on the 7.30 report last night.”

Asked about Labor’s Mediscare campaign and doctors’ doubts bulk-billing promises could be met, Albanese dragged up AMA objections to Medicare under Bob Hawke in the 1980s.

Despite giving his second preference in his own Grayndler electorate to a Greens candidate who helped blockade his office for six months, Albanese dismisses questions about it, saying he doesn’t even know the candidate’s name and his preferences don’t matter.

He has started to drop references to the Labor claim the ­Coalition’s nuclear energy policy will cost $600bn and pushes blame for the failed promise of a $275 cut in power bills on to the “modelling” done at the time.

When he was asked a question about Jobseeker payments, he ­responded: “I deserve better, in treating you with respect, without being verballed.”

Dutton’s frustration with what he says is a disconnect between the polls, what is happening on the ground and the questions he is being asked has been obvious from the start, but Albanese’s fluster is new. Albanese needs to be careful that turning on the media for asking hard questions, particularly young women doing their jobs, is not seen as a sign of desperation and a lack of confidence in what the polls are suggesting.