Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese ended Q+A with David Speers by taking a swipe at the Coalition, after calling them out over diplomatic failures in the Solomon Islands and for failing to implement a federal ICAC.
And while the Opposition Leader struck some blows, he was also held to account for missteps in his own campaign, including a failure to name the six points in Labor's plan for the NDIS earlier on Thursday and, on Q+A, failing to answer a repeated question from Speers on whether pork-barrelling is indeed corruption.
While the episode was wide-ranging — and with Speers reiterating the Prime Minister has also been invited to appear — Mr Albanese used the final question of the night to deliver a pitch to Australian voters.
Asked if he would compromise on issues if there were a hung parliament, his answer was an emphatic "No" as he took square aim at the Scott Morrison-led Coalition.
"I will campaign for the next two weeks to make sure that Australia has the certainty of a majority Labor government, with 76 members at least in the House of Representatives," Mr Albanese said.
Asked by Speers if he was confident he would get there, Mr Albanese said he was in a position he wanted to be in.
"When I became Labor leader, my objective was for us to be competitive, we're at least that, "he said.
"We're at least that and we're in a position, I think, whereby we have a clear, coherent plan for a better future. Or you can have just more of the same.
Part of what has been perceived by Mr Albanese and other members of the Opposition as a government failing is China making inroads into the Pacific.
This has been most notable in Solomon Islands, where a security deal has been signed among worsening relations between Australia and Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare.
The fear is that China would then build a defence base there.
However, while Mr Albanese did not miss the opportunity to haul the Coalition over the coals on the issue, he did not provide a real answer on what Australia would be able to do if China did build a defence base on one of Australia's closest neighbours.
"What happened here is that we've had a dropping of the ball," Mr Albanese said of the degradation of the relationship with Solomon Islands.
Asked what he would do if he were prime minister and China built a base there, Mr Albanese preached a policy of prevention but, like Mr Morrison before him, failed to say exactly what Australia would be able to do as a measure of response.
"Certainly that [Chinese base on Solomon Islands] would be unacceptable and we need to make sure that we engage with the Solomons," Mr Albanese said.
"The objective will be to stop that happening, through the programs and policies that we've put forward, by engaging."
Albo's mistake or 'gotcha game-playing'?
Engaging with Solomon Islands politicians is one thing but engaging with the Australian public through the media is one area where Mr Albanese has stumbled multiple times in this campaign.
Initially, he was caught in a "gotcha" moment for not knowing the unemployment rate and, on Thursday, was unable to name Labor's own six-point policy on the NDIS.
Asked about that by Speers, Mr Albanese moved to dismiss the issue as he had done earlier in the day and, once again, claimed he did know his own policy, despite only rattling off the six points, as Speers pointed out, after he had been given the details by an advisor.
The pair then went on a back and forth as Speers turned up the heat on the Opposition leader.
"You did say earlier in the campaign, when you stumbled, you would own it. Was that another mistake today?" Speers asked.
"Sure, I mean, some people see it as a gotcha question and other people want you to have the details, so there are mixed views on this," Speers retorted.
"I'm just wanting to clarify here when today, and, you know, it has been all over the news tonight, you were asked what the six points are and you didn't know, someone gives you a folder and you read it out — are you saying you did know off the top of your head?" Speers asked.
Mr Albanese then again took aim at gotcha questions before he outlined his NDIS policy further.
"The point here is putting people back in charge of the NDIS and at the centre of it — and one of the things I reckon that really alienates people from the political system completely is this idea that politics is about a sort of series of gotchas and game-playing," Mr Albanese said.
The issue arose after a single mother, Kathleen Campbell, asked via video what Mr Albanese would do to fix the NDIS. She said she was struggling to care for her son with a disability due, she said, to government red tape.
Mr Albanese said that, in his view, the problem with the NDIS was that people had been put second to bureaucracy.
"The problem is that people have been forgotten," he said. "So many people have had their funding cut and we will stop the cuts, we'll stop the waste, we'll improve efficiencies."
Asked point-blank what he would do to help Kathleen and others like her whose children "don't have a particular label", Mr Albanese replied: "Getting rid of the bureaucracy so that the NDIA, the agency, actually has operations that treat people as humans."
Albanese wants ICAC but deflects pork-barrelling question
One of the election promises Mr Morrison made last time was to introduce a federal ICAC but that has not been delivered by the government and, on Q+A, Mr Albanese was asked if he would implement one with retrospective powers.
Mr Albanese said that would be up to what he said would be an independent ICAC, before he thrice failed to answer questions from Speers as to whether "pork-barrelling" was tantamount to corruption.
"The whole point here is that what I want is an independent system, at arm's length from myself and from government, that can look at any areas of corruption in the political system, in the bureaucracy, at any time," Mr Albanese said.
"And do you regard pork-barrelling as corruption?" Speers asked of the practice of spending public funds to try to gain political advantage.
Mr Albanese gave an answer but not to that question, which the host asked two more times.
"I think that in terms of … look, commitments will be given by all political parties," he said.
"In marginal seats, with our money, one of the things that I did — well, I'll tell you what I did — as the minister responsible for community infrastructure and regional development and local government, all funding went through local government."
Speers responded with: "But now you're promising money for dog ovals and footy grounds in marginal seats at this election."
It was a claim Mr Albanese did not deny before once again looking to torch the Morrison government.
"We're making commitments across a range of electorates, both safe and marginal, at this election. That is true," he said.
"They've done it in community safety, sports rorts, regional grants, the full bit, and it's red-hot."
Australia Day won't change
One of the major promises Labor has made is for an Indigenous Voice to Parliament and it was something Mr Albanese repeated he would make a priority over a referendum on making Australia a republic.
However, on another hot-button issue — the national day of celebration being January 26 — Mr Albanese said he would not change the date.
"Quite clearly, it's an issue out there but January 26 is an important historical day and I recognise it is a very difficult day," he said.
Watch the full episode of Q+A on iview.
