Scott Morrison has accused Anthony Albanese of being “a bit presumptuous” after declaring he will be sworn in within hours if he wins the election.
The Labor leader said he and foreign affairs spokeswoman Penny Wong would be sworn in on Sunday and leave on Monday for a Quad meeting with leaders from India, Japan and the United States.
After making these comments in an interview with The Australian, Albanese was immediately accused of being overconfident ahead of election day.
In 2019, Bill Shorten was mocked after his senior MPs posted a photo of them posing in Canberra with the caption “we’re ready” ahead of the election.
Morrison referenced this when he attacked Albanese over the revelation, saying: “You seem to think this election is already made, and we saw that last time, when we had the last election, remember?”
‘We had Bill Shorten with the Addams family photo before the last election, everyone there pretending they were already at work.
“We’re seeing a lot of that again in the Labor Party and when I was asked about this (the Quad meeting) the other day I said I wouldn’t be presumptuous about it.”
Australian Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese (right) and Shadow Foreign Minister Penny Wong at her campaign launch in Perth.
Labor was accused of getting ahead of itself in 2019 with this image. Chris Bowen posted this photo of himself, Bill Shorten, Tanya Plibersek, Penny Wong and Bill Shorten on Nine News with the caption ‘we’re ready’.
Defense Minister Peter Dutton harshly criticized Albanese on 2GB radio.
‘(This is) arrogance writ large. Instead of taking the people’s vote for granted, they should correctly calculate their costs,” he stated.
“He’s taking a lot of things for granted. He thinks he’s already got this in the bag. He’s already packing his bags.
Host Ben Fordham described Albanese’s travel plans as a “very strange own goal” and said it seemed like he “has a bit of Kevin 07 in him”.
“Anthony Albanese will stand in front of the Australians on Saturday and the Australians will decide who will be the next prime minister,” he said.
“But in his mind he is already thinking about going to Tokyo and meeting world leaders from Japan, India and the United States.
‘And that’s what Kevin 07 suffered. Always wanting to be on the international stage and forgetting about his base.’
Anthony Albanese will be sworn in within hours if he wins the election, so he can attend an important meeting in Tokyo
Fordham asked Dutton who he thought would take over as acting prime minister in Albanese’s absence.
“No one can answer that,” Mr Dutton replied.
“It can’t be Richard Marles because he won’t take the oath, he wants to be defense minister, but he won’t say it.” He’s been giving his speeches in front of the Chinese embassy and that never looks good.
“I think the show is moving pretty quickly, and Anthony Albanese is obviously desperate to get on the plane and be photographed with Joe Biden.
And having Penny Wong there walking next to him. It’s a recipe for disaster.’
Albanese accepted there would be little time to choose his ministers in Canberra if he plans to attend the meeting of world leaders.
Australian Defense Minister Peter Dutton (pictured) criticized Albanese for his comments.
He said he hoped to represent Australia as prime minister in the Quad and would seek advice on logistics from officials.
“We are not anticipating the outcome (of the election) but clearly Australian officials have asked us what our intention would be and we have indicated that if we are successful, the intention would be to go,” he said. The Australian.
Albanese said he would “renew” his relationship with US President Joe Biden and meet for the first time with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
He said he had received advice from the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet that, if successful, he would be sworn in quickly so he could attend the meeting.
If the outcome of Saturday’s election is indecisive, Scott Morrison will remain prime minister until a new leader with majority support in the House of Representatives can be sworn in.
Albanese said he will seek advice on how to send a representative with Morrison to the Quad meeting if the results are undecided.
It comes as a new poll, just four days after the federal election, showed a dramatic shift in voter sentiment with the Liberal Party slowly gaining ground.
Party leaders are now neck and neck according to the latest Resolve poll as Australians prepare to go to the polls on Saturday.
Voters have eased their support for Labor in the past two weeks, with the party’s primary vote falling from 34 per cent to 31 per cent, apparently erasing the rise in Anthony Albanese’s appeal earlier in the campaign.
While the poll shows Morrison’s focus on economic policy and a concerted effort to present his government as stronger on national security is paying off, with the Liberals moving from 33 to 34 per cent.
The poll, conducted for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, shows that when preference votes are taken into account, the Coalition gets 49 per cent of the total vote and the ALP 51 per cent.
Interestingly, 34 per cent of all voters avoided the number one vote for the major parties, preferring to go with minor parties, most notably the Greens at 14 per cent.
One Nation saw a small rise from 5 to 6 per cent, while the United Australia Party fell from 5 to 4 per cent.
Morrison (pictured in a selfie with his wife Jenny, their two daughters and their dog) has attacked Mr Albanese.