Boats balls-up but Albanese ​claims win in leaders’ debate

The PM and the Labor leader have clashed on China, border security and aged care in the first leaders’ debate of the election campaign.

Civility was a keynote on Wednesday night in the first of three debates between Anthony Albanese and Scott Morrison. Picture: Jason Edwards

Scott Morrison and Anthony ­Albanese have clashed on China, border security and aged care in the first leaders’ debate of the election campaign, with the ­Opposition Leader forced to ­concede he didn’t support boat turnbacks in 2013.

The Prime Minister tripped up the Opposition Leader over his previous position on boat turnbacks when he was deputy prime minister under Kevin Rudd.

In front of 100 undecided ­voters at a Sky News-Courier Mail people’s forum at the Gabba in Brisbane, Mr Morrison asked Mr Albanese why he did not support turnbacks. Mr Albanese said he was a member of the national security committee when Labor established offshore processing and that he would continue the boat turnback policy if elected.

But Mr Morrison intervened, asking Mr Albanese why he didn’t support turnbacks at the time.

“You weren’t proposing (it) back then. You were not proposing (it),” Mr Albanese said.

Mr Morrison replied: “I’m sorry it was our policy … I was the shadow immigration minister. I designed the policy … so you were going to do turnbacks?”

“No,” Mr Albanese said.

Hear our debate special on The Front, right here or wherever you get your podcasts.

In the first of three planned ­debates before the May 21 election, Mr Morrison accused Labor of being on “China’s side” after Beijing signed a security deal with the Solomon Islands, prompting Mr Albanese to describe the ­Coalition’s regional strategy as a “Pacific stuff-up”.

The leaders projected optimistic outlooks in their pitches to the nation and despite a few flare-ups, both showed restraint, with neither landing fatal blows.

Mr Albanese claimed a narrow victory, with 40 per cent of undecided voters rating his performance ahead of Mr Morrison’s, who recorded 35 per cent support. A quarter remained undecided.

After a gaffe-prone first week of the campaign, Mr Albanese survived the first face-to-face clash with Mr Morrison on the back of questions on priority Labor issues, including a federal integrity commission, the ­National Disability Insurance Scheme and aged care.

In the fiercest clash of the ­debate, Mr Morrison defended his government’s dealings with the Solomon Islands and said it was China and not Australia that had brought trouble to the South ­Pacific.

In the fiercest clash of the debate, Scott Morrison defended his government’s dealings with Solomon Islands and said it was China and not Australia that had brought trouble to the South ­Pacific. Picture: Jason Edwards

He attacked Labor for taking “China’s side” when it was Beijing that had changed in the past five years. “It’s odd that the Labor Party, rather than acknowledging what is happening here … it isn’t because China is interfering in our region, somehow it’s Australia’s fault,” Mr Morrison said.

“I was the one who called them out on the pandemic and was called a racist … when we shut the borders at the start of the ­pandemic.”

Mr Albanese attacked claims that Labor was defending China ahead of Australia as an “outrageous slur” and mocked the ­Coalition’s Pacific step-up strategy. “The truth is that we all know that China has changed. China has changed its posture. It’s more aggressive. It’s more active in the region, and we need to understand that and respond,” he said.

Referring to the government’s policy in the ­region, Mr Albanese said: “They’re not really stepping up. This isn’t so much a Pacific step-up but a Pacific stuff-up.”

Asked how the government would train more nurses to fill gaps in the health system and end the reliance on foreign workers, Mr Morrison said Labor’s promise to install 24/7 nurses into nursing homes by mid-next year would force the shutdown of aged-care facilities across ­regional Australia.

“We can’t just make nurses all of a sudden fall out of the sky and be able to go and meet a 24/7 commitment to have a nurse in every single aged care,” he said.

“If you make that the standard in aged-care facilities right across Australia right now, then you will be closing aged-care facilities in rural and regional communities right across the country.”

Mr Albanese said Labor would meet its commitments by training more nurses and helping them ­secure full-time work.

He attacked the Coalition for failing to fully respond to the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety.

“One of the things about nurses in the aged-care sector … is that some 80 per of them in the aged-care sector are part-time and what they want is extra hours,” Mr Albanese said.

Mr Morrison drew fire from Labor after an audience member asked about cuts to her autistic son’s NDIS package. Mr Morrison said he and his wife had been “blessed’’ with two children, who “haven’t had to go through that’’. He said that was why he “can only try and understand your aspirations for those children’’.

With 29 per cent of voters in this week’s Newspoll indicating they would vote for minor parties and independents, Mr Morrison blamed social media platforms for dwindling levels of engagement with politics among younger ­people. He said the way people were engaging on social media was ­“incredibly dangerous” and ­“terribly sad”. “There are things that people would never say to each other but they write it in a comment and it’s hurtful and it’s destructive,” he said.

Mr Albanese said the federal government must do more to engage with young people on issues such as climate change.

Integrity in government was another key issue, with Mr Morrison ­defending his model for a corruption watchdog, arguing that it would deal with criminal matters and not set up a “kangaroo court” or result in a trial by media of ­public figures.

Mr Albanese said there was a “stench around a whole range of issues in Canberra” and his corruption watchdog would have the capacity to hold public hearings when it served the public interest.