KATINA CURTIS: Anthony Albanese adds the personal touch to climate attack
Anthony Albanese opened his remarks to media in Canberra with a not-so-subtle reminder he was the Prime Minister.
“The first time I spoke from here in the Prime Minister’s courtyard,” he said, speaking from that venue for the first time in a month.
He went on to mention Peter Dutton by name six times in three minutes as he attacked apparent confusion within the Opposition over its climate policy.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.If a prime minister wants to have a crack at their opponents they, of course, have multiple opportunities to do so. But they generally have some other pretence for fronting media, such as, for example, announcing the imminent visit of a Chinese leader.
Not so on Monday, a public holiday and thus slow on the news front for much of the east coast.
Comments by Mr Dutton in a newspaper interview published on Saturday have been dissected and attacked by the Government as if they amounted to a full policy announcement.
Climate and Energy Minister Chris Bowen summoned reporters on both Saturday and Sunday to attack the Coalition’s climate stance.
Cabinet colleagues Madeleine King and Jason Clare had a crack in separate outings, followed by Mark Butler and Murray Watt on Monday morning.
It has left the Coalition clarifying, backpedalling, and blaming a misconstruction of what Mr Dutton actually said.
“It was never the comment that Peter Dutton made. It was disingenuous for that media outlet to make that as a headline in their paper on the weekend,” Nationals leader David Littleproud said on Monday.
Did the Prime Minister have to weigh in as well?
His intervention comes after he personally led attacks on the Opposition’s (unreleased) nuclear power policy last week.
It points to where he sees the Coalition’s vulnerabilities as thoughts turn to shaping the offers for the next election, due inside of a year.
This will be the seventh campaign where the climate wars have played out.
Industry, investors and voters have made it clear they just want politicians to get on with acting on climate change in a way that offers certainty.
Mr Albanese clearly wants people to see his party as the only credible one in the arena.
