Anthony Albanese’s government has been branded by Today Show host Karl Stefanovic as “failing” Australians on cost-of-living pressures.
Acting Prime Minister Richard Marles appeared on the program on Friday after the Reserve Bank announced the 13th rate hike in 18 months earlier this week.
The cash interest rate now stands at 4.35 percent, sending monthly mortgage bills soaring, while electricity bills, gasoline and groceries continue to hover around twenty-year high prices.
“I know it’s not all your fault, but I think Australians are starting to feel like you’re letting them down badly,” Stefanovic told Marles.
“You’re letting them down because of cost-of-living pressures,” he added.
Mr Albanese is in the Cook Islands this week for the Pacific Leaders Forum (pictured)
Marles, who is acting prime minister while Albanese attends the Pacific Islands Forum, argued that inflation is a problem felt around the world and had initially risen in Australia under the former coalition government.
“The cost of living has clearly been the focus of what the government has been dealing with since we came to power because we understand the pressure this is putting on Australian household budgets and businesses,” Marles said.
“Last week we saw the tripling of the bulk billing incentive, the largest investment of that type in Medicare history.”
‘That’s about making it cheaper to go to a doctor. We fought for cheaper medicines, more affordable childcare and free Tafe.”
Stefanovic fired back: “Every time you are asked about this, everyone in your government comes up with the same lines.”
“I feel like you don’t understand the pressures that Australian households are under right now.”
Marles said he understood those pressures “of course” and that the Albanian government was focusing on managing the budget so as not to “contribute to the inflationary environment.”
“We have done something the previous Liberal government never did and that is run a budget surplus.”
“The biggest increase in inflation occurred when the Liberals were in power.”
Acting Prime Minister Richard Marles told Stefanovic that inflation was a problem in many countries and was higher under the former Liberal government
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, also a member of the programme, said it was “incredible” that the cost of living was Labour’s top priority.
‘Over the past 18 months the Prime Minister has been solely focused and absorbed by the Vote, making decisions in two Budgets that have made it harder for households to drive up inflation.’
“People are going backwards under this government, the Prime Minister doesn’t understand because he’s never here.”
Mr Albanese joined Pacific leaders in the Cook Islands this week for the annual meeting of regional power brokers.
He has held formal bilateral talks with Tuvalu, Kiribati and the Cook Islands on the sidelines of the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) leaders meeting, and informal discussions with other leaders from Nauru, Samoa, Tonga and the Federated States of Micronesia.
Mr Albanese has pledged $350 million for climate-related infrastructure and energy projects in the Pacific.
“The reception Australia has received here has been extremely positive,” Mr Albanese said.
“It is recognized that my government is committed to climate action and that we are playing a positive role, not only with our pledge to reduce our emissions by 43 percent by 2030 and achieve net zero emissions by 2050, but more importantly, playing a role in the region and even around the world.’
Critics of Mr. Albanese have dubbed him “Airbus Albo” because of his international jet-setting.
Despite intense domestic pressure, including the cost of living crisis and the Voice referendum, he started the year with a trip to Papua New Guinea, followed by India and then the United States to announce the AUKUS deal.
This was followed by a bilateral meeting in Fiji and then a return to London for the King’s coronation.
The G7 summit was held in Japan in May and the Prime Minister embarked on two-day trips to Singapore and Vietnam in June.
In July he spent three days in Germany and Lithuania, followed later that month by New Zealand.
In September, the Prime Minister visited Indonesia, the Philippines and India – again for just two days in each location.
He traveled straight from this week’s trip to China to the Cook Islands. He will briefly return to Australia next week for the parliament meeting before heading back to San Francisco.
Just last week, retired political journalist Laurie Oakes branded Mr. Albanese an “incompetent wimp.”
Nine News’ iconic political editor said he thought the whole referendum debate was “pretty bad” and said it could damage the Prime Minister’s reputation with the public.
“I think it was quite damaging, I think he (Mr Albanese) handled it incompetently and I assumed the voters noticed there wasn’t a lot of competence involved,” Oakes told 2GB’s Afternoons with Deborah Knight.
‘If you handle something as big as the Voice as poorly as he handles it, people naturally assume that you don’t handle other things very well either.
‘And that is the risk that Anthony Albanese runs. He’s going to come out of this Voice referendum looking like an incompetent dill and he might be stuck with that.”
The veteran journalist also gave his opinion on both the Yes and No campaigns.
He said that while the No side’s disinformation was “quite shameful”, the Yes campaign was “unconvincing and pointless”.
“It didn’t explain anything,” he said.
The Voice was decisively rejected on October 14, with 60 percent of Australians voting against.
Every state and territory except the ACT voted against the constitutional amendment to enshrine an Indigenous voice in parliament and executive government.