Liar liar
Both Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton have made some dubious claims that have bordered on lying. The difference is Labor's ones are cutting through.
There was a key moment in last night’s debate on Channel Nine which encapsulated why Anthony Albanese has out-campaigned Peter Dutton.
In one of the first questions of the night, Nine’s political editor Charles Croucher asked both leaders to rebut what they saw as their opponent’s biggest lie.
Dutton went first, hitting back at Labor’s claim that his nuclear reactors will cost $600 billion as well as Albanese’s ‘Mediscare’ campaign that claims he would cut bulk-billing. Considering that both claims are highly dubious, yet are clearly damaging to Dutton, it was understandable that the opposition leader raised these two points.
When it was Albanese’s turn, the prime minister chose not to rebut any of the Coalition’s questionable attacks, such as its claim that Labor has cut $80 billion out of Defence (which fails to take into account reprioritisations and increases in spending within the Defence budget). Instead, Albanese repeated his assertion that Dutton would cut health funding and said his nuclear policy “just doesn’t stack up”, without repeating his claim that it would cost $600 billion.
