Anthony Albanese has spent the day campaigning in Brisbane talking up Labor’s plan for childcare and a proposal to wipe 20 per cent off HECS debt.
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00:00It's been a jam-packed day on the Labor bus, Joe, but we squeezed in a visit to a child
00:07care centre and a pub, but now Anthony Albanese is back in Sydney after that whistle-stop tour
00:13to Brisbane.
00:14But as we know, Brisbane is Peter Dutton, the opposition leader's home turf, so this
00:18was a bit of a psychological tactic, if you will, and it's part and parcel of the election
00:23campaign.
00:24The strategy more broadly in Queensland is to defend the five seats that it currently
00:29holds, but also it's only offensive in key seats such as Brisbane, Ryan and Griffith.
00:35They're currently held by the Greens, who snatched them off them in 2022, and this year Labor
00:41wants to return the favour.
00:43As we know, the key policy issues this week have been housing and health.
00:48Today, the emphasis, though, was very much on childcare and education, and that was fitting
00:53considering the flavour of last night's ABC's Leaders' Debate, where Anthony Albanese explicitly
00:59said that he wants his legacy to be providing cheaper childcare.
01:03He refused to be drawn low about whether he would commit to providing further pay increases
01:09for childcare workers.
01:11Have a listen.
01:12What we have done is make sure as part of the condition, not only are we paying early educators
01:18more, but we're making sure that families don't pay higher fees.
01:24That's part of the arrangements that have been put in place.
01:31Later, the Prime Minister visited a pub in the seat of Brisbane, so that's held by the Greens,
01:37and he was joined by the Treasurer.
01:38They were chatting, really, with university students who stand to benefit from Labor's
01:44promise to cut HECS debts by 20% if they're re-elected.
01:49That part of the doorstop was carefully curated by the campaign organisers.
01:54But as is often the case with these political visits, you never know exactly who the leaders
01:59will speak to.
02:00And there was quite a funny interaction between the Treasurer and a punter named Eddie, who
02:06told Jim Chalmers that he'd like him to be the next Prime Minister.
02:10Luckily, Anthony Albanese was out of earshot.
02:13OK.
02:14And was the Prime Minister asked about how he thought he'd gone in the debate last night?
02:17And is it going to be a fairly quiet day tomorrow?
02:21Yeah, look, Anthony Albanese seemed pretty happy with his performance last night.
02:26He defended some of those potential tension points, that being around negative gearing,
02:32modelling.
02:33He says that Labor has no intention of changing that particular policy.
02:38But as you say, things are going to start to wind down over the Easter long weekend.
02:44Good Friday is traditionally a day where, if you like, both sides of the political aisle
02:49lay down the arms, if you like, and have a reprieve and do a note to that more solemn occasion.
02:55This will be a brief rest, though, from next week on Tuesday.
03:00Early polling begins again.
03:02So the big challenge, really, for Labor in the second half of this election campaign is
03:08to convince voters across the country, whether that's the suburbs, the Labor base, or even
03:13the politically blasé, that Labor deserves their vote.
03:18And essentially, the key issue, as we know, is the cost of living.
03:21So essentially, providing that argument that they're the steady pair of hands and the worst
03:27of the economic turbulence we've seen over the past couple of years is over.