Barnaby Joyce has criticised Tanya Plibersek for laughing throughout a heated television debate about Australia’s cost of living crisis.
The former Nationals leader was trying to explain how a coalition government would stabilise the economy when the Labour party leader stepped in, accusing him of having no plan to deal with the crisis during an appearance with him on Sunrise.
Mr Joyce was annoyed and tried to get his point across, despite repeated interruptions from the smiling Mrs Plibersek.
‘[Labor] it just pours [immigrants] “If we went to Australia, they think this is how they’re going to solve the problem: by just sending people there,” Mr Joyce claimed.
“He has no plan,” Mrs. Plibersek replied.
‘I’ll give you an answer… Do you think you did a good job of getting people in as quickly as possible? [others] “I can’t get a house,” Mr. Joyce replied.
“Why are you laughing? It’s not funny at all,” he said when he saw the Minister of the Environment grin. Her smile didn’t stop.
Ms Plibersek said the government was “totally focused” on lowering the cost of living, after a recent poll by Resolve Political Monitor found 51 per cent of voters believed this was the federal government’s job.
Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce criticised Government Leader Tanya Plibersek for laughing during their Sunrise debate on the cost of living
Host Natalie Barr repeatedly tried to get the conversation back on topic as the two political guests kept talking over each other
Hostess Natalie Barr He repeatedly tried to get the conversation back on topic, as the two political guests kept talking over each other.
Ms Plibersek argued that the Labour Party had already brought inflation down from six per cent to three per cent.
She accused the previous coalition government of causing the crisis and insisted that Albania’s government had “inherited inflation”.
Ms Plibersek said the government was “working every day to make sure people understand we are helping to lower the cost of living”.
She said the opposition had no plan yet for the upcoming federal elections, just months away.
Mr Joyce rejected Ms Plibersek’s claims and accused the government of only being interested in “issues such as what goes into the census”.
He said the opposition’s plan was to ‘‘to keep our base load power running’.
“One of the fundamental commodities that keeps inflation low is affordable energy. Affordable power. It’s in … everything you do,” he said.
“Why are you laughing? It’s not funny at all,” Mr Joyce asked Ms Plibersek when he saw the Environment Minister grinning during his remarks.
Mr Joyce also said the coalition would focus on infrastructure, particularly regional roads and dams, two areas he said the government had overlooked.
Ms Plibersek said the opposition was doing nothing to prevent the closure of 24 coal-fired power stations, but Mr Joyce responded by saying the stations were “closed under you, Tanya”.
The conversation turned to immigration when he accused the government of massively importing migrants, leading to a rental crisis.
The battle for power in the next election has become tense in recent months, with Albanian opposition leader Peter Dutton narrowly defeated by 35-34 in the latest Resolve poll.
Albania’s government maintained its lead over the coalition by 51-49 in the two-party preference vote among 1,614 voters surveyed.
However, in economic management, Mr Dutton has a wide lead, with 37 per cent of Australians believing he could do better than Mr Albanian support is 26 percent.