Anthony Albanese accused of failing to give ‘finer details’ of healthcare pledge

‘Each place is different. We know for example the melanoma institute… will use that funding of $14 million to employ additional nurses. That will allow them to employ 35 additional nurses,’ Mr Albanese said.

Mr Albanese has promised all 50 clinics will be up and running in 2023 if he is elected prime minister on May 21.

‘We know that it’s a challenge but we also know that we have an obligation regardless of who’s in government to train more nurses, to train more doctors,’ he said on Monday as he kicked off the second week of official campaigning.

A local reporter accused him of failing to provide the ‘finer details’ of the plan.

He argued clinics would be run by GPs and nurses who would be able to determine their exact staffing needs at a later date.

Anthony Albaneseould not answer exactly how many nurses would be needed to fulfil his election promise of 50 urgent care clinics across Australia

Labor critics are seen near where Australian Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese holds a press conference after inspecting a street affected by recent flooding

Mr Albanese wasn’t the only politician to make a blunder on Monday.

Just hours later, Prime Minister Scott Morrison was talking to reporters in Perth about the cost of living when he wrongly stated that Australians on welfare get $46 a week. The actual figure is $46 a day.

Jason Clare, Labor’s housing and homelessness spokesman, highlighted the gaffe on Twitter.

‘Today Scott Morrison got the Jobseeker rate wrong,’ Mr Clare wrote. ‘Not by a little – he was out by $276 a week.’

Despite Mr Albanese’s blunder, he did have the facts at hand regarding the Coalition’s perceived failings during natural disasters and crises.

‘What we saw from the federal government, whether it be bushfires, floods or the pandemic… a real pattern of behaviour,’ the opposition leader said.

When put on the spot during a press conference in Brisbane on Monday morning, the Labor leader gave a vague answer about every clinic having different needs

‘Scott Morrison, after the election in the 2019-20 bushfires, went missing. And he failed to act soon enough, and he only acted when the political pressure was really put on.

‘On floods we saw again a political response rather than a human response. Rather than looking at people who were going through a really tough time and saying, ‘What can we do to help?’

Mr Albanese was in Brisbane meeting with flood victims who have not yet been able to return to their homes.

Labor senator Murray Watt, who stood by Mr Albanese’s side during the conference in Brisbane, also addressed Queenslanders directly saying residents in the Sunshine State had more reasons than most to abandon the Coalition.

‘Why is it [that] wherever Queenslanders need Scott Morrison the most, he always turns his back – whether it’s Covid, whether it’s floods, whether it’s infrastructure or anything else,’ Mr Watt said.

‘It’s about time Queenslanders and all of Australians had a prime minister who’s prepared to work with the whole country, bring the whole country together, not pit state against state and mate against mate.’