Labor will not make promises it cannot keep ahead of the election, the opposition leader says.
State premiers have long called for more support from the federal government to help fund public hospitals, and Anthony Albanese promised a Labor government would work constructively with each state on the issue.
But while all premiers are clear about their desire for an even split between federal and state on hospital funding, Labor would be upfront about what was possible, Mr Albanese said.
“We’re not promising things in advance and then saying something different after the election campaign. What we’re doing is being very clear,” he told reporters in Brisbane on Monday.
“What we will do is sit down with premiers constructively and work these issues through.”
Mr Albanese said Labor’s proposal to establish urgent-care clinics would help take pressure off hospital emergency departments.
“We’re inheriting off a government that doubled the debt before the pandemic, a trillion dollars of debt,” he said.
“So that is why we are being very responsible, very measured in the proposals that we have put forward.”
Meanwhile, campaign spokesman Jason Clare said practical reforms were taking priority over any “showpiece policy” being offered by Labor.
He pointed to the party’s proposed reforms in childcare and aged care, as well as the centrepiece housing policy as examples.
“I know people are saying that they’re looking for some sort of shining light here, look at the policy that we’re offering on childcare … this will make a big difference to more than a million Aussies who’ve got kids in childcare,” he told ABC Radio National.
“That may not be the sort of policy that you say is the one big thing but it’s one of a number of important things that will make a difference in people’s lives.”
Labor leader Anthony Albanese is attending the Labour Day march in Brisbane as a Newspoll published in The Australian shows his party is leading the coalition 53-47 on a two-party preferred basis.
If realised, the coalition could lose 10 seats at the May 21 election.
Yet Mr Clare warned it was a mistake to pay the polls too much attention.
“The bottom line is we need to win seats, not polls. We need to win people’s votes all across the country,” he said.
“And it’s going to be a massive effort from us over the course of the next three weeks to earn the trust and support of the Australian people.”
