Victorian and Queensland Labor leaders have passed a pop quiz on their unemployment numbers while defending federal Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese for flubbing his lines.
On the first full day of 2022 federal election campaign on Monday, Mr Albanese could not recite the cash or unemployment rates on the spot and later conceded his mistake.
The federal Labor leader invoked US pop star Taylor Swift when the gaffe was raised again on Tuesday.
“My theory is ‘Shake it off’,” he told reporters in Tasmania on Tuesday.
Despite former Liberal prime minister John Howard and Mr Albanese’s federal colleagues playing down the moment, it has prompted other state leaders to be put through their paces.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews noted the unemployment rates is currently three per cent in regional Victoria and 4.2 per cent across the state while defending the would-be prime minister.
“There’ll be some people who will be endlessly negative,” he told reporters in Ballarat.
“I’m not negative when it comes to Anthony and the work that he’s done, the track record that he has, and the promises that he’s already made.”
After correctly recalling his state’s unemployment rate of 4.3 per cent, Queensland’s Acting Premier Steven Miles took aim at Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
“When it comes to election day, weeks and weeks away, Queenslanders will remember how the prime minister failed them, not so much what number was forgotten at a press conference on day one,” Mr Miles said from Gladstone.
Mr Morrison told reporters on Tuesday his competition’s error tells him Mr Albanese “doesn’t know (and) doesn’t understand” the economy.
