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The recent budget also forecast a slowdown in job creation after the strong post-COVID-restrictions recovery,slipping from 2.75 per cent this year to 1.5 per cent over the next two financial years. Unemployment could fall even further this week with the March job figures due for release on Thursday.
The Reserve Bank is expected tolift the official cash rate in its first meeting after the May 21 election. Financial markets on Monday become more hawkish,tipping a cash rate of 3.5 per cent by the end of 2023. The cost on government debt increased on Monday,hitting a 14-year high.
Albanese’s economic stumble came on the first day of the six-week election campaign as he visited the ultra-marginal Liberal seat of Bass,which Labor hopes to win.
Asked about Tasmania’s unemployment,he tried and failed to answer a follow-up on the national rate.
“The national unemployment rate at the moment is ... I think it’s 5.4. Sorry,I’m not sure what it is,” he said.
Shadow finance minister Katy Gallagher then stepped in to correctly say that the national jobless rate is 4 per cent and the cash rate is at 0.1 per cent,where it has been since November 2020. The unemployment rate has driven the political debate about wage rises.
In his press conference on the NSW South Coast,Morrison did not mention his opponent by name but gave specific figures for the unemployment rate,Medicare bulk-billing rates,growth across the whole economy to the end of December,and the Reserve Bank’s cash rate.
“Well,0.1 per cent is the cash rate,it’s been there for some time. The unemployment rate,I’m happy to say,is 4 per cent and it’s fallen to a 50-year low,” he said when asked the same question as Albanese had been asked.
At his Devonport press conference,Albanese conceded he had made a mistake and needed to own it.
“I won’t blame someone else,I’ll accept responsibility. That’s what leaders do,” he said.
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Former prime minister John Howard,who incorrectly stated the cash rate during his unsuccessful 2007 campaign,played down the Labor leader’s mistake.
“Anthony Albanese didn’t know the unemployment. All right. So what?” Howard said at a campaign event in Perth.
Howard said he thought the unemployment rate “has got a three in front of it”.
Albanese will continue his swing through Tasmania on Tuesday,promising to reinstate Medicare support for telehealth mental health consultations.
The ability to bulk bill psychiatry consultations through telehealth ended in December. Albanese will promise its reintroduction at a cost of $31.3 million over the next four years,supporting 450,000 consultations.
Jacqueline Maley cuts through the noise of the federal election campaign with news,views and expert analysis.Sign up to our Australia Votes 2022 newsletter here.