‘Not terribly clever’: Frustrated PM lashes out at interviewer
ByOlivia Ireland
Frustration ran high in a tense 20-minute interview between Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and ABC RN Breakfast presenter Patricia Karvelas, in which a grumpy PM accused the host of asking “not terribly clever questions”.
The Greens calling on the government to consider capital gains tax concessions and negative gearing in its housing package was the line of questioning that spurred Albanese and Karvelas to engage in a tense back-and-forth. Karvelas: “Are you saying negative gearing and capital gains tax concessions are absolutely off the table for you?” Albanese: “Well they’re tax policies.” Karvelas: “Are those tax policies completely off the table for you?” Albanese: “Well Patricia, I don’t answer … those sort of questions.” Karvelas: “You mean good ones? That’s a good question! Are you going to say no to those things or not?” Albanese: “They’re not, they’re things that journalists [ask] – the next question is, when will the election be?” Karvelas: “That’s not my next question.” Albanese: “Well they’re not terribly clever questions. You ask all of that. We’re interested in the tax policy that we are implementing, not the ones that we’re not.”
As Karvelas went to her next question on whether Albanese would call a double dissolution election, the prime minister interrupted: “See you have got to the next question!” he called out.
Karvelas replied that she was “always going to get to [her] next question”.
“I do delight in our conversations. A double dissolution election would mean Senate quotas are halved, wouldn’t that lead to an even more difficult-to-manage upper house, prime minister?”
Albanese responds with curt frustration: “Journalists raise it with me, Patricia. What I’m interested in is governing … you could ask these hypotheticals, as I said to you, about the last hypothetical that you just [asked].”
Karvelas interrupts, “Couldn’t you just say, ‘Nah, I’m not interested’ though?”
“We’re governing Patricia, we’re governing. The election will be held on a day when I get in the little car with the flag on the front and visit Yarralumla,” Albanese said.
Later in the interview, asked about the US Federal Reserve’s decision to cut interest rates, Albanese again snapped back at the line of questioning. Karvelas: “The RBA is taking a long time and people are in a protracted period of pain over its decision to hold interest rates.” Albanese: “That’s correct, and that’s a global phenomenon, Patricia.” Karvelas: “Well in the US they’re cutting rates, prime minister.” Albanese: “Because the economy is so slow, that’s why they’re cutting rates, Patricia.” Karvelas: “Their economic growth is higher than ours.” Albanese: “Inflation peaked higher in the United States and interest rates peaked higher in the United States than they did here.”
