Fiery moment Anthony Albanese blows up at ABC presenter Leigh Sales after she accuses him of back-flipping on wage increase promise: ‘That’s not right’

Anthony Albanese has snapped at Leigh Sales after she accused him of back-flipping on a wage increase promise, insisting ‘that’s not right’.

The Opposition Leader appeared on 7:30 in his final interview of the gruelling six-week election campaign where he faced off with the ABC presenter and was grilled over his recent run of gaffes.

‘During the campaign, you made the unemployment figure mistake. You said this week that Australia’s borders were closed when they’re not. You supported a 5.1 per cent wage increase and then wound it back to say that it would only be for minimum wage earners,’ Sales said.

A fired-up Mr Albanese said: ‘That’s not right, Leigh. That’s not right,’

‘You did,’ Sales responded, but the Opposition Leader continued to speak over her saying: ‘We were asked a question about ‘if the Fair Work Commission came out with a 5.1 per cent increase would you welcome it?’ and I said ‘absolutely’.’

Mr Albanese rejected the idea that he had to specify it days later, as he had never made the promise. He again shut down Ms Sales line of questioning with ‘That’s not right, Leigh.’

Mr Albanese (pictured) blew up at 7:30 host Leigh Sales after she claimed he made an empty promise to voters

 ‘In this campaign with respect some of the nonsense that’s gone on from some of the journalists thinking the campaign was about them and gotcha moments is one of the things that puts people off politics.

‘The whole debate that day was about the case that is before the Fair Work Commission on the minimum wage increase,’ Mr Albanese said, clarifying the 5.1 per cent increase was never slated to apply to all wages but only those on minimum wage, most at risk in the climate of runaway inflation.

Ms Sales then turned Mr Albanese’s earliest blunder, saying she took his point about journalist’s questioning during the campaign before asking what really happened in his infamous unemployment figure gaffe. 

‘That’s not right, Leigh’: The opposition leader said the 7:30 host (pictured) didn’t have all the context behind the announcement he made saying his party would welcome a minimum wage increase recommendation from the Fair Work Commission

‘People make mistakes, right, I’m not criticising you about that, but it really did set your campaign off to a shaky start, what actually happened there, dd you not know it? Was it a brain snap?’ She asked the prime ministerial hopeful.

‘Leigh, I fessed up to just having a memory lapse at that particular time in that context,’ Mr Albanese responded.

‘I’m not about making excuses. I owned it. And moved on. But some of the other things, including ones that you’ve raised. I actually gave a straight answer to a straight question about 5.1 per cent and minimum wage,’ he said.

Mr Albanese (pictured with girlfriend Jodie Haydon, left) said he ‘owned’ his first gaffe and ‘moved on’

The opposition leader (pictured with Jodie Haydon) will be hoping to come out victorious on Saturday night as tightening polls show the Labor party is still out in front

‘And I stand by that. It’s a dollar an hour increase. And I don’t believe, and I said throughout the entire campaign, we don’t think that people should fall behind, and we don’t think that people should be held back. And people on minimum wages can’t afford a real cut in their wages.’

Inflation in the year to March surged by 5.1 per cent, the fastest annual pace in 21 years.

Wages, however, grew by less than half of inflation at just 2.4 per cent, the Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed this week.

Mr Albanese said at a press conference he would ‘absolutely’ back the Fair Work Commission if it decided to increase the minimum wage by 5.1 per cent to keep in line with inflation.

Election-eve polls have the Labor party just in front of the Coalition but all will be revealed after Australia votes on Saturday

The latest figures show Labor has a chance of winning on Saturday night, but the Coalition clawed back ground earlier in the week with the current Prime Minister making promises to change.

Without a late swing to the Coalition though, election-eve Newspoll data shows Labor ahead in the two-party-preferred measure, at 53-47.

Primary votes for Labor fell by two points to 36 per cent since last Friday, without causing a rise to the LNP’s own primary vote, still stuck on 35 per cent.

Instead support for independents rose two points to a total of nine per cent in the same period.

Whoever is able to form government after Saturday will have to switch their focus and grapple with the rising cost of living and increased borrowing costs in the country’s quickly changing economic environment.