Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese have traded verbal blows during the first leaders’ debate of the 2022 election campaign.
In a debate before 100 undecided voters in Brisbane on Wednesday night, both leaders faced questions from the public on home ownership, nursing in aged care and the need for a federal integrity commission.
The prime minister said he was optimistic about the direction of the country despite the pandemic and recent disasters.
“Australians are incredibly resilient, they’ve overcome, we’ve pushed through,” he said in his opening statement.
“Now we’re in a very strong position despite the many challenges we continue to face.”
Mr Albanese said the government had failed to learn from its errors during its time in office.
“They keep repeating (mistakes), and they don’t have a plan for the future,” Mr Albanese said.
“We must do better and we can do better.”
Funding for programs such as the NDIS came into focus, after one questioner spoke of her four-year-old son with autism, who had funding for support cut by 30 per cent.
The opposition leader said the situation was not an isolated one and the NDIS was a “proud Labor reform that we will fix”.
When asked about how the nursing workforce would be supported in aged care, Mr Albanese said there was a critical need for more nurses to be trained up.
“Most people would be surprised that there aren’t nurses in nursing homes, because it seems so fundamental,” he said.
“Our aged care plan isn’t something we’ve dreamed up, it is something that comes from the royal commission.”
While the opposition has pledged to have a nurse on call 24/7, Mr Morrison said extra staff couldn’t just “fall out of the sky”, warning the plan would have repercussions in the sector.
“If you make that standard in aged care facilities right across Australia right now, then you will be closing aged care facilities in rural and regional communities across the country,” he said.
“There’s the best of intentions, I think, right across the parliament to want to be able to do more.”
How both parties would handle large debt levels was also addressed, with the prime minister indicating the economy had had its biggest turn-around in a decade.
“The reason for that is we’ve got people into work, off welfare … that is the major way you turn a budget around,” Mr Morrison said.
The two leaders were also questioned about their recent scare tactics on the campaign trail.
The prime minister accused the opposition leader of being inconsistent on boat turnbacks, while Mr Albanese said Labor supported the turnbacks.
“Other countries around the world have said Australia got it right,” Mr Morrison said.
“You’ll know I’ll do it because I’ve done it.”
When asked by Mr Albanese about why the prime minister was “looking for division”, Mr Morrison responded he was “looking for the accuracy”.
