Leaders contradicted in campaign ‘pause’

Finbar O'Mallon, Tess Ikonomou and Maeve Bannister | April 15, 2022

Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Labor Leader Anthony Albanese have stayed on message during their Good Friday campaign “pause”. 

Mr Morrison joined Treasurer Josh Frydenberg for a Passover service at a synagogue in Melbourne’s Hawthorn East.

“We can become complacent about freedom, about our prosperity, about so many things we could take for granted in a country as amazing as Australia,” he told the congregants on Friday night.

“But as we come together to celebrate Passover … it is a time to remember all of these things never came easily.”

Meanwhile, both leaders were contradicted by their own party members on policy issues.

Liberal MPs spent Friday morning trying to walk back Mr Morrison’s lack of enthusiasm to establish a federal corruption watchdog despite it being a election promise in 2019.

Labor’s finance spokeswoman also appeared to contradict Mr Albanese’s suggestion the party’s proposed urgent care clinic policy had been specifically costed by independent bureaucrats.

The prime minister and opposition leader attended Good Friday church services after both promising to suspend the political warfare on the public holiday.

Mr Morrison attended Syndal Baptist Church in Melbourne’s west while Mr Albanese attended a Maronite mass at St Charbel’s in Sydney’s southwest.

“Easter is not about politics. My faith isn’t about politics,” Mr Morrison said.

“One of the great things about Australia is that people are allowed to practise their faith with respect,” Mr Albanese said.

Mr Albanese was joined by the prime minister’s wife and former Liberal prime minister Tony Abbott at the Good Friday mass in Sydney.

Mr Morrison’s wife Jenny and their daughters Abbey and Lily were greeted by Mr Albanese, as was Mr Abbott. Mr Albanese and Mrs Morrison both gave readings.

Elsewhere, three of the four police from the prime minister’s security detail injured in a car crash in Tasmania on Thursday are out of hospital.

Two Tasmanian Police officers and one federal police officer have been discharged. A second federal officer is still being treated in hospital for his injuries. 

Mr Morrison, who spoke to the two federal officers on Friday, said the incident was a reminder to stay safe on the roads this Easter.

“If you are travelling around of course, please be safe, be careful,” he said.

Mr Morrison wasn’t involved in the two-car crash and the driver of the other vehicle involved was unhurt. Tasmania Police are still investigating.

Mr Albanese said he spoke to the prime minister on Thursday night about the collision and passed on his well wishes to the injured officers.

Labor finance spokeswoman Katy Gallagher clarified comments made by Mr Albanese earlier in the week about Labor’s plan to set up urgent care clinics.

“This has been fully costed by the Parliamentary Budget Office,” Mr Albanese said on Wednesday.

But Senator Gallagher tweeted late on Thursday the policy “has not been formally costed by the PBO” and that the $135 million cost over four years was “based on work done by the PBO”.

Mr Albanese echoed Senator Gallagher on Friday, saying the policy was informed by PBO work and all policies would be fully costed.

Meanwhile, government frontbenchers Stuart Robert and Simon Birmingham spent Friday saying the coalition would try again to establish a federal anti-corruption watchdog after Mr Morrison backflipped on a promise to set it up after the 2019 poll.

“We will come back again and we will seek, through a bipartisan level, to get that going,” Mr Robert told Nine Network.