A key crossbencher has urged leaders to think before they speak after a series of diplomatic fumbles marred the election campaign.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton admitted during the Wednesday night leaders’ debate that he made a mistake when he earlier falsely attributed comments to the Indonesian president.
He wrongly said Prabowo Subianto had made a public statement about Russia wanting to station military planes at a base in Papua.
Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie also backtracked and apologised for comments claiming Russia and China wanted Labor to win the election.
She said the Russian defence minister and Chinese president “both have made very public comments that they do not want to see Peter Dutton as the prime minister” before acknowledging she couldn’t verify those claims.
Some 12 hours later, Senator McKenzie found herself in another tangle as she misattributed a quote from the Chinese premier to the president when defending the crux of her earlier statement.
“It’s pretty clear from President Xi’s public commentary that he finds Albo a very handsome boy, he’s been very complimentary about the prime minister,” she told Nine’s Today Show on Thursday.
It was Chinese Premier Li Qiang who commented “people were saying that we have a handsome boy coming from Australia” when Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visited Beijing.
Independent senator David Pocock said it was prudent for politicians to ensure they had their facts straight when talking about world leaders.
“We keep hearing that we’re in really tense and delicate times when it comes to geopolitics … so you would probably expect people to really think through what they’re saying,” he told AAP.
Labor campaign spokesman Jason Clare chastised Mr Dutton for his statements as coalition frontbenchers defended their leader’s about-face, saying Australians wanted a leader who would front up when they made a mistake.
“The relationship between Australia and Indonesia is critical, if this is not a disqualifying moment, I don’t know what is,” Mr Clare told ABC radio.
Climate and energy policy tripped both leaders up in their debate, with Mr Albanese repeatedly refusing to say when power bills would come down and Mr Dutton side-stepping whether climate change impacted natural disasters.
“I’m not a scientist and I can’t tell you whether the temperature has risen in Thargomindah as a result of climate change,” Mr Dutton said.
Coalition finance spokeswoman Jane Hume was forced to mop up after the comments on Thursday, saying Mr Dutton believed in climate change and listened to the scientists.
Senator Pocock said neither major party listened to scientists on climate change as “we would be doing a lot more if they were”.
“It’s pretty appalling to have someone who wants to be prime minister in 2025 in a country that stands to lose a lot from climate inaction, not being stronger on climate,” he said.
Mr Albanese takes a slight lead over the opposition into the second half of the campaign as Mr Dutton’s support drops, according to a Freshwater poll published in the Australian Financial Review.
Labor and the coalition are tied at 50-50 in the two-party preferred vote – a one per cent improvement for the government since the start of the campaign – while Mr Dutton dropped in support as preferred prime minister.
Further analysis from the pollsters indicated Labor could still finish short of a majority with 71 seats, compared to 66 seats for the coalition under the same modelling.
Other recent polls have put Labor well ahead on a two-party preferred basis, including a lead for the government of 54.5 to 45.5 per cent in a recent Roy Morgan survey.
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