Anthony Albanese confuses minimum pay rise of $1 an hour for $1 a week

Anthony Albanese has made another blunder during his campaign – this time getting the figures wrong for how much a worker on minimum wage would receive under his 5.1 per cent increase.

The opposition leader stumbled over his words as he said Australia’s lowest-paid workers would get $1 a week more – when it’s actually an hour.

Mr Albanese has made the $1-an-hour rise a core part of his election campaign, and correctly stated it dozens of times in the past week.

But on Sunday, Mr Albanese was asked whether he would follow through on his promise to increase the minimum wage in line with the 5.1 per cent inflation rate.

‘Clear this up for us: Will you put a submission to the Fair Work Commission asking for a 5.1 per cent increase?’ David Speers asked on ABC’s Insiders on Sunday.

Mr Albanese responded confidently that he would not hesitate to bring in the change if he was elected prime minister. 

‘We will put a submission to the Fair Work Commission,’ he said. 

‘They will take submissions until June 7, and that submission will say people who are on the minimum wage can’t afford to go backwards.’ 

Mr Albanese then held a $1 coin in the air before he went on and made the embarrassing blunder.

‘We are talking about a $1 a week increase for people who earn $20.33 an hour,’ he said. 

Speers was quick to correct the Labor leader: ‘OK. And just to clear up – I think you said a dollar a week. It’s a dollar an hour.’ 

Mr Albanese smiled and nodded before clarifying his mistake.

‘A dollar an hour,’ he said. 

It was another blunder for Mr Albanese, who failed to recall basic economic numbers during the first week of his campaign in April.

In a train-wreck press conference in Launceston, Tasmania, the Labor leader could not state the interest rate, which was at a historic low of 0.1 per cent.

Mr Albanese was later asked for the national unemployment rate, which was at four per cent.

‘The national unemployment rate at the moment is… I think it’s 5.4… sorry. I’m not sure what it is,’ he said.

The Opposition leader was furious with himself over the blunder and privately told colleagues he ‘f**ked up’ and ‘it won’t happen again’, according to news.com.au.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison branded Mr Albanese a ‘loose unit’ on the economy after the Labor leader on Tuesday said he would ‘absolutely’ support hiking the minimum wage by 5.1 per cent in line with inflation.

The leaders locked horns over the contentious wage increase in the early stages of the final election debate hosted by Channel 7 on Wednesday night.

Mr Morrison again blasted the Labor leader for being ‘loose with the economy’ and said such a large increase would stoke price rises further.

‘You’ve got to understand how the economy works, and if you just say 5.1 per cent and try to jawbone the Fair Work Commission, that puts Australia’s economy at great risk and we can’t afford that sort of lack of understanding about how our economy works,’ the PM said.