After a shaky start to the campaign, Labor frontbenchers have insisted the election was still in its early days, with plenty of time for Anthony Albanese to regain ground.
Ahead of a brief campaign truce over the Easter period, Mr Albanese is spending day four of the campaign in the NSW seat of Hunter.
While Hunter is normally a safe electorate for Labor, the opposition suffered an almost 10 per cent swing in 2019, almost losing a seat the party had held for more than 100 years.
Mr Albanese on Wednesday announced that Labor would fund a Medicare urgent care clinic in the regional town of Cessnock in the electorate, one of 50 similar clinics across the country.
It is expected Mr Albanese will spend the rest of Thursday campaigning in other marginal seats in NSW.
Labor frontbencher Katy Gallagher said despite the early gaffe from the opposition leader, there was still a long way to go until polling day.
“There’s no doubt that there was a difficult moment I think on Monday, but … the campaign moves on, it’s not about one thing,” she told ABC Radio on Thursday.
“It has to be about the future of the country and the policies that the parties outline and a contest of ideas and that’s what it should be.”
The opposition will also use Thursday to outline a promise to keep Centrelink shopfronts open, as well as hire 200 new workers.
The opposition said almost 30 shopfronts have closed under the government, with Labor guaranteeing there would not be a net reduction.
While Wednesday marked a change in strategy for Mr Albanese, undergoing shorter press conferences and taking fewer questions, Labor’s Tanya Plibersek said the move did not mean he was avoiding scrutiny.
“We’ve got a prime minister that will happily turn up for the photo op but he’s never there for the follow up. Anthony is always there to step up, speak up, take responsibility,” she told Sky News.
“That’s just such a contrast between the two men.”
Labor has also taken aim at the government following Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s refusal to commit to establishing a national integrity commission, despite making a similar pledge in 2019.
Senator Gallagher said it was another sign of a government broken promise.
“(Scott Morrison) is going back on what he said to the Australian community before the last election,” she said.
“They haven’t done anything to progress it, and the model they did table was hopeless.”
