Anthony Albanese hits Longman by-election campaign trail

Having declined to say whether he’d seek the ALP leadership if Bill Shorten failed in Longman, the infrastructure spokesman commits $2.24bn for rail.

Anthony Albanese is campaigning with Susan Lamb. Picture: Zak Simmonds

Anthony Albanese has hit the campaign trail in Brisbane’s north, recommitting Labor to $2.24 billion project to ease rail congestion across several hotly contested federal electorates that could decide the next election.

Mr Albanese, the opposition infrastructure spokesman, has declined to directly answer whether he would seek the ALP leadership if Bill Shorten failed to win the Longman by-election, saying he expected Labor to retain all of its seats on “Super Saturday” July 28.

Defeat in Longman would bruise Mr Shorten’s credibility and make him the first opposition leader since Frank Tudor in 1920 to lose a seat to the government at a by-election.

Mr Albanese, who narrowly lost the Labor leadership to Bill Shorten in 2013 despite being the choice of party members, recommitted Labor to spend $2.24bn subsidising the Cross-River Rail project.

“The Turnbull Government’s latest budget failed to make any investment in Brisbane’s much-needed Cross River Rail, a transformative project that will unlock South East Queensland’s passenger rail network and deliver more trains, more often for commuters,” Mr Albanese said in Kippa-ring alongside Labor candidates Corinne Mulholland for Petrie, Ali France for Dickson and Anika Wells for Lilley.

The federal Coalition has declined to fund the project, noting the state’s Palaszczuk Labor government has already committed to fully fund the scheme.

Mr Albanese said 90 per cent of the Coalition’s promised new infrastructure spending would not materialise for at least four years.

“Queenslanders waiting for the extra rail and road funding promised in the days leading up to the 2018 Budget will have to re-elect the Coalition not once, but twice more before the bulk of the money flows. This is simply absurd,” he said.

“As a fast growing, decentralised state, Queensland needs investment in job creating, productivity enhancing infrastructure projects now, not years from now.”

Comment was sought from Infrastructure Minister Michael McCormack.

Labor’s candidate for Longman, Susan Lamb, is campaigning alongside Amanda Rishworth, the opposition’s early childhood spokeswoman, in Burpengary this afternoon. Mr Albanese has also committed to campaign with Ms Lamb, whose now-renounced British citizenship prompted the by-election, during his visit to Brisbane.

Tudor Labor lost the Kalgoorlie by-election to the Nationalist government in 1920 after the sitting ALP member Hugh Mahon was expelled from parliament over his “seditious and disloyal” criticism of Britain’s “bloody and accursed despotism” in Ireland.

Parliament no longer has the power to expel members.