On the eve of the federal election Opposition leader Anthony Albanese speaks to Leigh Sales on ABC 7.30.
Catch up on the interview with our live blog below.
Live updates
By Jacqueline Howard
Thanks for spending time on the blog
This is where we will wrap things up.
Thanks for joining us for this short but sweet blog of the Prime Minister's appearance on 7.30.
Don't forget to check out the ABC's special Federal Election page on the website for more details and expert analysis from the election.
If you missed the interview or want to watch it back, check out the show on ABC iView or you can watch back on the ABC's YouTube channel.
By Jacqueline Howard
Australia Votes 2022 - Vote Compass
Just in case you didn't know, the election is tomorrow!
So, if you're still not sure where your political views align with the major political parties, now might be a good time to check out the ABC's Vote Compass.
By Jacqueline Howard
Some of your thoughts
That's a wrap from the interview. Here's what you thought about Anthony Albanese's performance.
Feels like Ms Sales is being a lot more interrogative of Labor’s policies than she was of LNP’s policies when she interviewed Morrison.
-Kellie
Great job by Albo
-Colin
Good Evening Jacqueline
Albo is totally correct.
Morrison delayed our vaccine
Delayed PPE
Delayed RATs
Pushed states to open Borders when NSW and VIC we're rising in cases.
Mandates were removed, and now again the cases of Covid are higher .
It's time Morrison stepped down. If he's voted back in tomorrow, he will bring Australia to its knees.
-Qlder
I don't care what he says!!!!!
-Istvan
Professional interview. Albo presented Labor's policy agenda without resorting to knocking the LNP.
-Maggie Smith
This guy, this guy, can't answer a question, he repeats, repeats!! I love Leigh, but I can't watch this
-Natty
By Jacqueline Howard
On Keneally running in the seat of Fowler and opinion polls
Sales asks: What would you say to a voter on Fowler who might think "Labor's parachuted in Kristina Keneally, who doesn't live in our seat and I don't want a rich white woman from somewhere else to come in. I'll take the local who knows my concerns, who speaks Vietnamese and who gets our community."
Albanese: What I'd say is that Kristina Keneally is a senior member of the Labor Party. She served as Premier of New South Wales. She's passionate about making a difference in politics, including to the community of Fowler in south-west Sydney. She will have a seat around the Cabinet table and will make an enormous difference to that electorate.
Kristina is someone with great capacity, intelligence and able to advocate for that community. She'll be an outstanding, strong representative, and I'm sure that they'll be very proud of what she's able to deliver as part of a Labor government.
Sales then quotes from the opinion polls, that after a 6-week campaign, about a third of voters don't want to vote for either major party. She asks, without reference to the Coalition, what does that say to Mr Albanese about Labor?
Albanese: Well, Labor's primary vote is up ... We've seen over a period of time, a drift away from the tradition whereby people were born into a Labor family or a conservative family. Society has changed. And we have far more various views and a growth of minor parties. But every opinion poll shows that Labor, in terms of our primary vote, is attracting more support than we did at the last election or the one before that, or the one before that.
By Jacqueline Howard
On education, housing and coal
Mr Albanese is asked about Labor's promise to attract high performers to the teaching profession. She says the issue is not necessarily about attracting new teachers to the workforce, but retaining teachers because of the workload and the stress. Here's how he responded:
Well, one of the things that we can do is to take some pressure off the education system. We make no apologies for the policy about attracting more high-performance teachers into the profession. We need to value teaching. It's an honourable profession. And we need to lift its status.
We have a range of other policies that we've announced, including funding for schools to bounce back from COVID. We know that students and teachers have done it really tough. And providing a additional support for every school for mental health support or for excursions in order to, according to the priorities of those schools, will make a difference as well.
Sales then asks Mr Albanese about the Coalition's promise to allow some prospective home-buyers to draw on their super to make a deposit. She asks: What shouldn't Australians have a choice of what to do with their super savings as the Morrison Government is offering? Here's how Albanese responded:
Because we don't think that you should get an asset by getting rid of another asset. And what we have here is a policy that is consistent with the Government that has undermined superannuation every opportunity that it has had. We already know that women retire with less income than men.
This Government have continued to undermine superannuation at every step. And we don't believe this is a policy that didn't last, really, until the Monday morning, when Minister Hume went on TV and said this would push up house prices and therefore, wouldn't provide any substantial benefit.
Sales then pivots to renewables. She asks what year Mr Albanese thinks that Australia will be out of coal production?
Albanese: That will be determined by decisions in board rooms here in Australia and around the world.
Sales: So, what do you mean by that? Do you mean that the private sector will choose whether or not there's a market for coal? And what is the role for Government?
Albanese: The role for Government is our Powering Australia plan that provides a mechanism of support for renewables. Under our plan, renewables will be 82 per cent of the national energy market by 2030. That plan will see the creation of 604,000 additional jobs. Five out of every six in regional Australia. It will deliver some $52 billion of private sector investment.
Sales: But you haven't done any modelling to check, what would the timeline therefore be for a full transition out of coal into renewables?
Albanese: Well, the reputechs have done, Australia's leading energy economics firm, Reputex, and what they found is the figures coming through. There hasn't been a new coal fired power station built under this Government. And one can expect that there's no signs of that continuing in the... Changing in the future, because the market is speaking. The cheapest form of new energy in Australia is renewables. There's great prospect in areas like green hydrogen and other emerging industries as well. That is what is happening, and it's being driven by the market. And during the last election campaign, the Federal Government in another example of waste committed millions of dollars to the proponents of a new coal-fired power station in Colinsville that hasn't happened and won't happen, because it doesn't stack up in terms of the energy market.
By Jacqueline Howard
Albanese on filling job vacancies
Leigh Sales asks Mr Albanese how Labor will, in the short-term, fix the issue of business owners struggling to fill staffing vacancies.
Albanese: Well, we will have 465,000 fee-free TAFE places in areas of skills shortage. We'll also have an additional 20,000 university places. We understand that we need to train Australians for those jobs.
Sales: But sorry to interrupt you, but the gaps are there right now. So there's urgent need right now and the policies don't fix it right now?
Albanese: Well, you can't just change ten years of damage in one day. What you need to do is train people for those jobs. You need also to look at the migration system. I've said that very up-front in areas like nurses, historically Australia is a great migration country. One of the things that we need to do, though, is to be less reliant upon temper labour, and one of the things that we can task Jobs Australia, a body we will set up that will include private representatives and business representatives as well as different levels of Government, is to identify what are the skills that we'll need this year, next year, five years, ten years time? How do we train Australians for those jobs? How does the migration system fit in with that, and make sure that we get a better match-up of the labour market with the skills that Australia needs.
By Jacqueline Howard
Things are getting heated
Leigh Sales tries to call Albanese out on an occurrence at the beginning of the campaign trail, when he failed to recall the unemployment figure. Mr Albanese disputed her summary of the situation. Read the exchange below:
Sales: During the campaign, you made the unemployment figure mistake. You said this week that Australia's borders were closed when they're not. You supported a 5.1 per cent wage increase and then wound it back to say that it would only be for minimum wage earners.
Albanese: That's not right.
Sales: You did.
Albanese: That's not right!
Sales: You said it the first time and then you clarified.
Albanese: That's not right. That's not right. Some of the nonsense that has gone on!
Sales: It is.
Albanese: I'll tell you what happened. We were asked a question. We were asked a question about if the Fair Work Commission came out with a 5.1 per cent increase, would you welcome it? And I said absolutely. Absolutely I would.
Sales: You didn't specify... You specified a couple of days later.
Albanese: No, that's not right. That's not right. And during this campaign, with respect, some of the nonsense that's gone on from some of journalists... Thinking that the campaign was about them and gotcha moments is one of the things that puts people off politics. The whole debate that day was about the case that is before the Fair Work Commission on the minimum wage increase. That's what the case is about.
Sales: I take your point about about some of the questioning that people ask. But let me ask you about the unemployment figure one. People make mistakes, so I'm not siding you about that. But it really did set your campaign off to a shaky start. What actually happened there? Did you not know it? What actually happened?
Albanese: I fessed up to just having a memory lapse at that particular time in that context. I'm not about making excuses. I owned it. And moved on.
Sales: OK.
By Jacqueline Howard
Albanese claims Medicare has taken a hit under the Coalition
Leigh Sales continues questions on the pandemic, and puts it to Albanese that, under Mr Morrison's leadership, "the outcomes for Australia are among the best in the world". Here's how Mr Albanese responded:
"Our health system, because of Medicare, is one of the best in the world, if not the best. Australians responded magnificently to the challenges. That's what Australians do. The strength of our Australian society was shown.
"But also, at the same time, the vulnerabilities of our economy, the fact that we're at the end of global supply chains meant that we didn't have enough PPE, we didn't have enough ventilators, we struggled to get access to vaccines.
"The problem for this Government is that they don't have a plan for the future. And during the pandemic, we were responsible, we were constructive, we didn't play politics. We actually went into the Parliament and said 'we have some disagreements with this legislation, but in advance, if our amendments aren't carried, we won't allow the perfect to be the enemy of the good'."
Leigh Sales asks Mr Albanese about Labor's 2016 campaign claim that Medicare would be privatised under the Coalition.
Mr Albanese concedes it has not been privatised, but asserts the health system has become more difficult to access.
"Well, what we had last year was some 900 changes to the Medicare schedule, including for things like hip surgery and those changes not brought forward in a way that was transparent.
"What people out there know is that right now, it's harder to see a GP. Harder to see a doctor. That's one of the reasons why we have our urgent care clinics proposals. And I stand by our policies about strengthening Medicare. We know that the incoming Health Minister, if this government is re-elected tomorrow, has said in the past that the Medicare system is unsustainable."
By Jacqueline Howard
Albanese says Coalition downfall was Morrison taking time in COVID pandemic
Mr Albanese put the credit on the general public and said Mr Morrison's lack of urgency meant the response to the pandemic was worse.
"The Australian people have been magnificent. They responded by looking after each other, whether they were people in the care sector or just people going out and getting vaccinated.
"But what we know is that the impact was worse from the pandemic because Scott Morrison said it wasn't a race for getting the vaccines to Australia. And then he did the same thing when it came to rapid antigen tests. When it came to issues like economic support, Scott Morrison described wage subsidies as a dangerous idea.
"Eventually they put it in and when they did put it in, they designed a scheme that gave $20 billion to companies who were actually increasing their profits, even though they knew that that was happening. They didn't adjust in the same way that New Zealand, for example, did."
By Jacqueline Howard
Watch Morrison's interview
While we wait for the program to begin, you can watch Scott Morrison's interview with 7.30 from earlier in the week below.
By Jacqueline Howard
Albanese on 7.30
Tonight, on the eve of the election, the Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese is joining Leigh Sales for his major election campaign interview.
Tune in via the stream above, YouTube, on ABC TV and ABC iview, and we'll bring the key points to you here on the blog.
