Former prime minister John Howard has doubled down on criticisms of Anthony Albanese’s election gaffe, saying if Paul Keating had made the same mistake the result would be different.
Mr Howard initially brushed off the Labor leader not being able to name the reserve bank cash rate or the national unemployment rate.
When asked by reporters later the same day he replied, “Is that a serious question? Okay, well Anthony Albanese didn’t know the unemployment rate. So what?”
However on Tuesday he said the context behind the fumble made all the difference.
“The context is that he’s not regarded as being the sharpest tool in the shed when it comes to economics and because the Labor Party doesn’t have a well-developed economic plan,” Mr Howard told Sky News.
“A xjmtzywstumble like that is magnified because it’s emblematic of the state of affairs.
“Now if that had been a mistake made by say, Paul Keating when he was Prime Minister or leader of the opposition, treasurer, well people would have said ‘so what’ and moved on because he was regarded as having strength in that area.”
Despite the tough start to the campaign for Labor Mr Howard said he thinks the election will be close.
“I think the election will be really close. I know often people automatically say that but I think it really will be,” Mr Howard said.
“Now one of Mr Albanese’s real problems is he’s not identified with any big policy causes, I mean I can’t think something really big that Albo has campaigned for over the years.”
Mr Howard identified the government’s “problem” as the period of time it had already been in office.
The Liberal prime minister from 1996 to 2007, spent much of Tuesday backpedaling his initial dismissing of Mr Albanese’s own goal.
“If (Mr Albanese) had a reputation for being on top of the economic argument it probably wouldn’t have mattered,” he told Perth’s 6PR radio.
“One of his problems is that I can’t think of an economic or major political issue that he’s really championing.”
Mr Howard experienced his own televised pre-election stumble over interest rates in an interview with A Current Affair before the 2007 poll.
Asked at the time if he could nominate the reserve bank’s official rate, Mr Howard answered: “It’s 6.25 per cent”.
Then opposition leader Kevin Rudd – who went on to win that year’s election for the Labor Party – correctly quoted the figure of 6.5 per cent in a separate interview later that night.
Mr Albanese was quick to apologise after his gaffe on Monday, telling reporters in Tasmania he had made a mistake.
“I’m human. But when I make a mistake, I’ll fess up to it, and I’ll set about correcting that mistake,” he said.
“I won’t blame someone else, I’ll accept responsibility. That’s what leaders do.”
The unemployment rate is at 4 per cent, and the reserve bank cash rate is at a historic low of 0.1 per cent.
