“From that point,the states have largely gone their own way.
“The state premiers have shown leadership but I think the problem with national cabinet has been Morrison saying one thing publicly but a different thing privately.”
Mr Albanese said Mr Morrison had taken sides between states in a way that undermined unity,such as by calling Ms Berejiklian’s measures the “gold standard” when Mr Andrews was imposing lockdowns.
“The distinction between the way that he has spoken about Victoria and NSW,for example,or Victoria and Queensland and NSW,is the most obvious,” he said.
“It’s just there for all to see.”
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Mr Albanese also criticised the way the federal government initially backed mining magnate Clive Palmer in his challenge to West Australian Labor Premier Mark McGowan over border controls.
“If you’re going to have a national cabinet process,you can’t barrack for one state,” he said.
The government initially joined Mr Palmer’s case but dropped its support in August. The High Court ruled against Mr Palmerin November.
Mr Albanese did not say a Labor government would scrap national cabinet but said he would take a different approach.
“I would talk to the states and territories about how it’s going to function and try to get a genuinely more cohesive approach,” he said.
”I think we do need more uniformity and there’s a need for a better discussion about how our Federation operates in practice.“
Mr Morrison rarely mentions Mr Albanese by name in interviews but last month accused him of having an “absurd plan” for recovery that depended upon local manufacturing of messenger RNA vaccines such as Pfizer,something that could not happen before 2023.
The Prime Minister has defended national cabinet by saying it has met 46 times,more than all similar federal and state leadership meetings since federation,and got things right “nine times out of 10” despite occasional political disputes.
Yet the criticism of the peak body has crossed party lines,with former prime minister Tony Abbott describing national cabinet as a “dog’s breakfast” two weeks ago.
“At the very least,we should stop calling this a national cabinet. Because frankly,a cabinet makes decisions that bind all its members. And the national cabinet is not a cabinet in that sense,” Mr Abbott told the Liberal Party’s Menzies Research Centre in comments reported byThe Australian.
“That’s a marketing ploy,calling it a cabinet. The national cabinet is a co-ordinating committee at best. So let’s call it that.”
Mr Albanese said a lot of Mr Abbott’s critique was “pretty right” because premiers were making their own decisions and Mr Morrison was not showing leadership.
“It’s not a cabinet. It’s not a binding process. It’s not something that is bringing people together. That’s not happening,” Mr Albanese said.
Parliament meets on Tuesday with eight weeks of sittings before the end of the year and widespread expectations of an election in March. This Saturday is the earliest date for a standard half-Senate election,according to theParliamentary Library.
Mr Albanese defended his move to drop ambitious tax policies from the last election on negative gearing and capital gains while also accepting Coalition tax cuts for those on higher incomes,but said Labor would go to the election with measures to stop some multinational companies avoiding tax.
“One of the things that we’ve said is that we need certainty going forward. And there’s no doubt that the idea that you can propose major reform from Opposition has been shown to be very difficult,whether Labor has done it or whether the Coalition has done it,” he said.
Asked to respond to criticism that he stood for nothing,Mr Albanese said:“I want to be defined by our policies for the future,not re-litigating the past.”
He said he stood for a stronger economic recovery with more secure work,national reconstruction with new industries,more support for skills and training,faster adoption of renewable energy and net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
Amid complaints from Labor supporters that he was taking a “small target” approach to the next election,Mr Albanese said his agenda included policies to tackle the aged care crisis,a $10 billion social housing plan and a path toward the universal provision of affordable childcare based on a $6.2 billion funding boost announced last October.
“That’s a positive agenda going forward,not being defined by a response to the government’s agenda,which has already been legislated,” he said.
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Labor caucus members fear more policy retreats,however,such as a move to drop the $2.3 billion spending boost for cancer treatment unveiled by Mr Shorten in the last election campaign.
Mr Albanese dismissed reports he would dump the cancer policy and said he would increase support for health as well as education.
“Our health policy has been focused on the pandemic and there’s been no discussion about or finalisation of any other issues,” he said.
“Labor will always be better on and will always take a stronger position on health and education to every election and in government.”
As an example,he cited Labor’swarnings about changes made last month to Medicare rebates on hundreds of medical procedures. The Coalition dismissed the Labor criticisms as a scare campaign.
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