The upcoming federal election will be interesting. The government seems to be standing on its past record and the opposition seems to want to make it personal. What is interesting in the early stages is the clouding of the line between state and federal responsibility. Albanese has fired a shot across the bows claiming that Labor will re-open after hours medical facilities that have been closed.

He wants to blame the federal government for closing the after hours facilities and claims it's because of a lack of funding. The truth (the first casualty in an election) is that the state government made the decision to close the after hours medical facility and that a lack of federal funding was never a part of the decision making.

Albanese is also going to sort out the TAFE problem but, again, TAFE is a state issue. He has made the broad statement without any clarification and, sadly, the media has not asked the simple question as to how Albanese will do that nor how much it will cost. Can we have an election that is fought on the correct jurisdictional responsibilities without lying to us voters about areas over which the federal government has no input apart from giving the states and territories funding they can use any way they choose.