Anthony Albanese last night joined a small band of prime ministers to have made televised addresses to the nation but the reaction has been muted.
The opposition leader, Angus Taylor, told 7News last night that the prime minister did not give enough detail about how much fuel the country had in reserve and urged him to be more transparent.
“There has consistently been a lack of detail, but also a lack of a plan,” Taylor said on Wednesday night. “We know we’ve got a problem with 600 servos, we also know that the government keeps telling us there’s more than enough stock and so we need clarity on this. We need a plan to go with that.”
Some newspapers were more direct, with Sydney’s Daily Telegraph running a story on less than complimentary reaction from Australians online, the gist of which was that they thought it was a “nothing burger” and a waste of time.
The Nine stable was a little more polite but an opinion piece argued the PM shouldn’t have bothered because his message was ultimately a bit meh.
Read our full story on Albanese’s address here:
And here’s that address in full:
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the best of the breaking stories before Natasha May takes the helm.
Anthony Albanese used a rare address to the nation to attempt to allay public fears over dwindling fuel supplies, vowing to keep petrol prices down by shoring up international supplies and ramping up local production.
He will be up at the National Press Club later today, where he’ll announce new interest-free loans for businesses hit the hardest by fuel shortages and collapsing consumer confidence.
The opposition leader, Angus Taylor, has criticised the prime minister’s response to the crisis, pushing for more clarity.
Let’s get started.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: theguardian.com
