After a week in COVID-19 isolation, Anthony Albanese has made his return to the campaign trail, saying he is raring to go for the second half of the election.
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The opposition leader will start the day in Sydney before flying to Western Australia ahead of Labor's campaign launch on Sunday.
While coming days will see Mr Albanese take it easier on the campaign trail as he recovers from the virus, he said he was looking forward to a return to in-person campaigning.
"It's no use not looking after your health, there's still three and a bit weeks to go in this campaign," he told ABC TV on Friday.
"I certainly feel much better today than I did yesterday ... for me the peak was day three and four of iso, but now I'm feeling good."
Mr Albanese sought to turn the campaign spotlight back onto the rising cost of living, coming off the back of high inflation figures announced earlier this week.
The opposition also pledged to lower electricity bills, after new figures from the Australian Energy Market Operator showed wholesale power prices rising by 141 per cent in the first three months of this year compared to the same time period in 2021.
"Australia has the capacity to be a renewable energy superpower for the world, and if we get this right, if we fix the grid ... we will see those energy prices dropped," he said.
As the election campaign moves into the second half, Mr Albanese said he was up for further leaders' debates with Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
Mr Morrison said he had agreed to participating in two debates next week, one on the Nine Network and the other on Seven.
However, Mr Albanese said he wanted to see a debate on the ABC.
"The national broadcaster can have a role here as well and the prime minister thinks that he is the only person who has a say in this," he said.
"The idea the ABC would be excluded from any participation is rather extraordinary, and that is the suggestion being made by Scott Morrison."
Both leaders faced off at a people's forum in Brisbane hosted by Sky News last week, with Mr Albanese emerging as the narrow winner among the undecided voters in the audience.
Mr Albanese said the national secretaries of both major parties should be able to work through a debate schedule for the remainder of the campaign.
"I'm up for more debates, but I'm not up for the prime minister deciding when, who, how that occurs," he said.
"We both need to be involved in this process and the Labor Party needs to be engaged."
Australian Associated Press
