The first rule of social media is “don’t feed the trolls”. Unfortunately I have completely and utterly broken that rule.
On Sunday I made the unfortunate mistake of making a joke: “I watched [Anthony Albanese’s] campaign launch speech today, but I have to admit it didn’t convince me to vote ALP.” The joke, of course, being that I cannot legally vote yet. It’s a joke I’d made before, but many of the responses this time were feral.
Some immediately went with the “pro-Liberal” claim, while others compared me to a Mussolini supporter. One went back to the “his dad controls it” conspiracy theory, and some even said I was a “fake” because of the way I pronounce my Italian surname.
I suspect that first claim will continue throughout this week for a different reason: 6 News’ interview with Albanese (broadcast tonight at 8pm AEST).
As I wrote for Crikey last month, we asked the opposition leader for an interview at the same time we asked the PM’s office, early February. However, we managed to lock in an interview with him with less than 24 hours’ notice, leaving our political reporter Roman Mackinnon and me with little time to prepare.
But the interview went ahead, and it went well.
The two major issues were simple: the truth, and how Labor is actually different from the Liberal Party in terms of policies. That first point was something we brought up with Scott Morrison too, so it was necessary to do the same with Albanese.
First, we looked at Albanese’s comments that he was “not Scott Morrison” and “doesn’t run away from press conferences”. Just days after saying that, he walked out of one after only eight minutes as journalists continued to try to ask questions.
When Roman asked if he had broken his promise, the Labor leader gave a direct answer: “Not at all.” He went on to defend his comments, which you can see in the full interview.
I also made sure to ask him — at the very end of our discussion — that if he becomes prime minister would he own up to mistakes and factual inaccuracies if he made them, and whether he would come on 6 News again.
On that first point, he indirectly mentioned his gaffe regarding the unemployment rate, and said: “We can do much better than that.” On the second point, he says it would be a “pleasure” to return to 6 News.
The other main point was getting down to the basics of Labor and what Labor is — because traditionally the Coalition has been called centre right and Labor centre left. Albanese said that was a “fair assessment”.
In a follow-up question, I asked what separates the ALP from the Liberals in terms of real policy differences, citing Albanese saying the party was not ditching offshore processing, it supported boat turn-backs, had made no commitment to an increase in JobSeeker payments if elected, and the fact that it would essentially abandon a previous plan to review the rate of unemployment benefits.
Despite this, Albanese says he can’t understand why some voters — especially on the left — label Labor “Liberal lite”, and spoke about having “a plan”.
Overall, the interview was polite, respectful and in-depth — like the one with the PM (although with fewer interruptions).
We asked the tough questions and pushed for answers, but also let Albanese respond without cutting him off. For the record, the interview is slightly longer than Morrison’s because Albanese actually spoke for longer.
If you can only see one preelection interview with the Labor leader this campaign, make it this one.
The full interview will be out at 8pm AEST today on the 6 News YouTube channel.
