Anthony Albanese has chastised a journalist for daring to ask a question about the date of the election.
The Prime Minister was speaking at a press conference alongside SA Premier Peter Malinauskas on Thursday after the state government placed the Whyalla steelworks into administration.
Mr Albanese, who unveiled a $2.4billion pledge to keep the steelworks going, was peppered with questions by journalists.
He had just walked away from the lectern when another reporter tried their luck.
‘PM, just quickly, you get asked this a lot but gather round and the election, they might coincide…’, the reporter began.
But before they could finish their question the Prime Minister snapped back: ‘It’s so boring’.
‘It’s so boring. Gather round is fantastic… what’s boring is questions about election timing because I’ve been asked it for a year,’ Mr Albanese said as he returned to the lectern.
‘I’ll give you this tip, Peter Dutton a year ago called for an election to stop our tax cuts. Our tax cuts for you getting more money in your pocket as a result of the changes that we made in legislation.’
The Prime Minister was speaking at a press conference alongside SA Premier Peter Malinauskas on Thursday after the state government placed the Whyalla steelworks into administration
He had just walked away from the lectern when he was asked about the election potentially clashing with the AFL gather round in April – and could not resist beating the question back
He added: ‘I support four-year fixed terms. Unfortunately the Liberal party, as is their wont, has opposed two referendums that would have got that done.’
The election must be held on or before May 17.
Fevered speculation has coalesced around April 12 as a possible date for the election.
But that would clash with the AFL’s gather round, which will run from Thursday April 10 to Sunday April 13 and will coincide with school holidays in South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia, New South Wales and Queensland.
Mr Albanese must give at least 33 days notice before the election.
Political observers have suggested he might call it after the WA state elections on March 8, where the Labor party is expected to perform well.
It comes as ACT independent Senator David Pocock has called for the election date to be legislated because he believes the ‘constant election date speculation a waste of time’.
‘I find it the most ridiculous and unproductive part of tis end of the electoral cycle,’ he said on Wednesday.
‘We should just fix the date. We could do that in parliament, we could say “the date of the election is the first Saturday of whatever month”. Why don’t we do that?’
