Anthony Albanese has slammed a journalist when asked about his election promise that energy bills would be cut by $275 this year.
When the journalist objected that Mr Albanese was not answering the question he had been asked, the Prime Minister interrupted him.
“I know, but you can ask the questions and I can ask the answers,” he said during the roadside news conference on Tuesday alongside the Bruce Highway, near the central eastern Queensland city of Rockhampton.
“That’s how it works.”
The journalist originally asked if it was time for Albanese to admit that his 2022 election promise – Australians would enjoy a $275 reduction in their energy bill this year – wasn’t going to happen.
Albanese, instead of talking about a price fall from 2022, began listing the measures his government and other Labor states have taken to soften the relentless price rises since then.
‘One of the things we did was get a $300 relief on the energy bill. “The Queensland government under Steven Miles had an additional $1000 on top of that.”
“The Coalition was opposed to that,” Mr Albanese said before the journalist intervened and got the brief response.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was unhappy when pressed by a journalist to answer a question about energy bills.
On Monday, Albanese also expressed his displeasure at the journalist who he claimed was parroting LNP lines.
After silencing the journalist, Mr. Albanese continued.
“We’ve achieved that (energy bill relief),” he said.
‘That was opposite. Energy prices would have been higher if Peter Dutton was in government.’
Albanese was in Queensland to promote his government’s $7.2 billion pledge to repair a 1,700 kilometer stretch of the Bruce Highway, which has been deemed one of Australia’s deadliest roads.
He showed little patience with another journalist who on Monday asked whether the “build back better” slogan used by the government in relation to the highway had been borrowed from US President Joe Biden’s election campaign.
“You have to be careful just reading things that are sent out from the LNP,” Mr Albanese responded.
The Albanese government on Monday pledged $7.2 billion to upgrade the 1,700 kilometer stretch of road considered one of Australia’s deadliest roads.
Albanese is embarking on a multi-state pre-election blitz, which will also cover Western Australia and the Northern Territory over the next week, as well as a series of morning show appearances.