Albo stuffed up on unemployment. Admitting it is good, but it doesn't change the facts

That's probably how Albo feels right now. By his own admission it was a shocker of a start to a campaign. We can all have bad moments, and bad days - but for a would-be PM, the unemployment rate should fall as easily off the tongue as what his name is, or the seat he represents.

It's one of the key indicators of the wellbeing of Australians. There was an old Labor slogan that said "If you think the system is working, talk to someone who isn't." You just can't prattle on about a better life for Australians, battlers, and be at least 20 per cent wrong when asked about the unemployment rate. His answer seemed a wild guess from someone who just leaves important details up to others.

Leaders can't know everything - in fact please save us from those who think they do - but the unemployment rate is a basic building block of policy. Basic.

To his credit, he has been strong enough to admit it. Not that he had much choice. But at least there wasn't that pathetically weak drivel that some come out with. You've heard it all before: "I was distracted", "I'm on medication" or some other rubbish. Fessing up is a good thing. Always.

Of course, the problem is the mistake or incapacity doesn't go away just because you've fessed up. Effectively he just told Australians that his lot were ready to govern, but no he didn't know the unemployment rate. Quite a few in the media have rightly taken him to task. Can you imagine the mental gymnastics going on in the minds of some in the media who would have been howling from the rooftops if it had been ScoMo, but have let this slip away after a tut-tut? The pain they must be enduring. That joke about the Australian cucumber and the Harrods grocery clerk comes to mind. There's got to be a bit of schadenfreude being enjoyed somewhere.

It doesn't matter in one sense if some in the media let this slip - or revelation of incompetence - go. Any voter who heard it or has heard about it will never forget it. The plain speakers will be thinking: "Are you shitting me? You want the top job, to run the country and the economy, but you don't know the unemployment rate? I have to know my stuff to keep my job." The more ponderous might say: "I really think that should be firsthand knowledge for someone who wants to be PM." It all adds up to the same thing: lawyers, plumbers, financial advisors are all required to know their stuff. Ditto would be prime ministers.

Now Albo is trying to beef up his economic credentials by calling himself an adviser to the Hawke government. It's rubbish. New electorate staff are not ministerial advisers. The desperation in this overselling of credentials is very, very troubling.

The fact that Albo has nominated Jim Chalmers as the guy who would be treasurer doesn't help much either. He's something of a charmer, and not stupid. So what? Millions of Australians are in that club. He recently withdrew a tweet wherein he got some figures wrong about, you guessed it, unemployment. Future treasurers shouldn't get unemployment stuff wrong. It's embarrassing that a would-be future treasurer is out there tweeting either mistakes or lies. Has to be one or the other.

There's also void in terms of economic policy changes. A void, or a vacuum.

Anyway, Labor will have to man up, press on and hope that the old adage "A week is a long time in politics" blows some good fortune their way. It's clear their own smarts aren't delivering that now.

MORE ELECTION OPINION:

Another mistake in the Albo camp was that ridiculous presser in the west, where a normal punter couldn't get Albo to answer his question. I expect it was dumb advice from minders rather than his own instincts, but he took the advice. Fancy saying to a voter that they'll have to wait because the media will be annoyed if they come first! And it's not like this happened in a private press room.

ScoMo on the other hand did chat to an intruder at a private function - until he realised it was a set-up.

In addition to the "I'm not listening to voters" message, there's another problem Albo's slip revealed. Labor is trying to script what you hear. They're trying to control the messaging each day. That's par for the course - who amongst all of us doesn't try and control our messaging? Street walks are never favoured by campaign teams. But if you get so paranoid about it that you shut out a voter because your campaign team says to give him the boot, you've seriously lost the plot.

Elections are about voters. You just can't tell them that they're not important enough to be heard because you're in the middle of sucking up to the media to get the job you want.

Labor clearly have been running an anti-Morrison campaign for some time. They want to incite voters to vote against him (as if that hasn't been obvious for ages). On the other hand, he opened his campaign with the clear statement that this election is about you, Australians, and nothing else. It's a broader and much more inclusive approach than the schoolyard stuff which generates comments about ScoMo's smile being a smirk.

There a lot more to come in this campaign. National security will clearly feature. How Labor will try and rewrite its appalling history will be fascinating. The mental gymnastics will be of Olympian standard.