Albanese says Dutton should have fronted up to National Press Club
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The news: Anthony Albanese has upped his personal attacks on Peter Dutton in a major speech three days out from the election, saying the opposition leader doesn’t have the temperament to be prime minister.
The context: Albanese is delivering his address to the National Press Club in Canberra, reiterating that he is focused on securing the election of a “stable, reforming, majority Labor government” on 3 May.
The prime minister took aim at Dutton’s now dumped policy for public servants to be forced out of work-from-home arrangements and doubled down on his claims that Dutton would cut Medicare to pay for nuclear reactors.
Albanese said Dutton’s suggestion that female public servants who couldn’t work five days a week should “job share” was “so out of touch with the lives of modern families and the flexibility that working from home gives parents in particular”.
He said the statement also “misunderstands the national productivity benefit of supporting greater opportunity for women and the essential right of women to make their own choices about their own careers”.
What they said: “The man who spends so much time telling everyone how tough he is the person putting himself forward to lead the nation for the next three years, is unwilling to face-up to the scrutiny of the National Press Club,” Albanese said, referring to Dutton declining an invitation to also address the NPC.
“Instead, he prefers to accuse journalists of being ‘activists’ and labels the national broadcaster, ‘hate media’.
“Outbursts that, frankly, say more about his temperament than anything else.
“For a leader, being here in the last week of the election campaign is more than a matter of respect for tradition.
“Standing here is about taking responsibility for your plans. Being here is about being accountable, to the people, to the democratic process.
"And given that Peter Dutton is going to this election with a $600 billion nuclear reactor scheme that no state or territory government — from either side of politics — supports.
"That no commercial investor is willing to back. And that the private sector doesn’t want to touch with a bargepole.
"He should have the guts to front up and explain where the money will come from to pay for it — before Australians cast their vote.
"He should come clean on what he will cut to pay for his nuclear reactors."
The source: Labor campaign
