Sussan Ley tells Anthony Albanese ‘there are real issues at home’ amid Opposition anger over his absence during NSW floods

The Deputy Liberal leader has taken a swipe at Prime Minister Anthony Albanese over a comment he made when he touched down in Australia following his NATO and Ukraine trip.

Deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley has criticised Anthony Albanese for being absent amid Australia’s economic crisis and the New South Wales flooding disaster.

The Prime Minister’s overseas trips to Japan, Indonesia, Spain for the NATO summit and a tour of war-torn Ukraine in the first six weeks of his leadership have come under scrutiny in recent days as thousands of Sydneysiders faced a flood emergency.

He touched down back in Australia on Tuesday where he was forced to defend the jaunts that saw him mingle and build relationships with world leaders, which included meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky over the weekend.

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Mr Albanese argued the importance of his presence at the NATO summit and mending Australia’s relationship with France, as well as showing solidarity with the people of Ukraine as the war with Russia continues to rage on five months later.

“We can’t separate international events from the impact on Australia and Australians, and for those people who might like to say which of the events that I’ve attended on behalf of Australia, that I shouldn’t have attended,” he said in Perth on Tuesday.

The Prime Minister added he has not “had a day off in a very long period of time”.

Deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley took Mr Albanese to task on that particular comment during an interview with Sky News Australia on Wednesday.

“I heard him have a bit of a grumble that he hadn’t had a day of since taking on the prime ministership, less than two months ago, and I’ve got news for him: prime ministers don’t have days off,” she told Pete Stefanovic on First Edition.

“I saw that over nine years in the government having worked with many – so get used to the work rate.”

Stefanovic then posed to Ms Ley whether Mr Albanese should have been away for an extended period of time while Sydneysiders dealt with the floods.

“Look, it’s up to him,” Ms Ley responded about the Prime Minister’s trips.

“(But) It’s up to Mr Albanese to explain to the flood victims what his doing for them and what his program involves and entails.”

She added the Opposition “appreciated” the importance of the international events but there were “real issues at home”.

“There are real issues at home and we saw interest rate rises yesterday and remember this is a PM who didn’t know what the interest rate was less than two months ago.

“Australians can rightly be concerned whether he is the man with a plan, the economic plan, to address the cost of living concerns they have. We’ve had a lot of the government diagnosing the problem … we need to know what the plan is, the management, the control and again, the reassurance.”

Shadow treasurer Angus Taylor doubled down on his criticism of Mr Albanese being missing during the fourth NSW flood in 18 months.

“It was flooding for 48 hours, and he’s only just picked up the phone to Dominic Perrottet to ask if he needs a hand,” Mr Taylor told 2GB on Tuesday.

“There’s 30,000 people who have been told to evacuate their homes but the PM’s more concerned about his reputation on the global stage then making a call like that and making sure people in NSW have a place to sleep.”

One day earlier, shadow immigration minister Dan Tehan suggested it was “concerning” the number of overseas trip Mr Albanese has made since becoming leader.

“It is concerning because what he seems to be doing is focusing completely on the international front and good prime ministers can do both,” he told Stefanovic.

“They understand that ultimately the domestic front is the most important place and that is where you have to have the majority of your focus, and then you’ve got to be able to deal with international events.

“What we’re seeing from Mr Albanese is very much a focus on everything international and we’re starting to see serious drift when it comes to incredibly important domestic issues, like energy, like skills shortages, like these floods we’re now confronting on the eastern seaboard.”

Mr Albanese hit back hours later saying his government was not “a one-person show”.

“This isn’t a one-person show, I have a very strong team that I am very proud of and will continue to do all of our jobs to the best of our capacity and part of that job is to be represented in international forums.

“Australia cannot remain isolated from our national interests and I have a government that has a lot of talent and has ministers who are doing their job,” he said.

He will tour flood affected regions of NSW the next couple of days before he is scheduled to attend the Pacific Island Forum in Fiji next week.