Prime Minister Anthony Albanese spends today campaigning in Brisbane

ABC NEWS (Australia)

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.

Transcript

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.

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