{"id":920615,"date":"2026-10-08T12:32:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T12:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/920615\/"},"modified":"2026-10-08T12:32:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T12:32:12","slug":"labor-source-tells-news24-host-sharri-markson-business-figures-believe-anthony-albanese-has-thrown-jim-chalmers-under-the-bus-amid-sinking-polls-for-labor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/920615\/","title":{"rendered":"Labor source tells News24 host Sharri Markson business figures believe Anthony Albanese has thrown Jim Chalmers &#8216;under the bus&#8217; amid sinking polls for Labor"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Senior Labor sources have told News24 host Sharri Markson that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had stopped the Treasurer from making additional spending cuts in the latest budget.<\/p>\n<p>Markson told viewers on Thursday that Jim Chalmers wanted to rein in government spending but Mr Albanese blocked him, with one Labor source saying the party&#8217;s higher ups are not blaming the Treasurer for the economy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s a fair bit of finger-pointing at Jim about the messaging and the communication about the Budget, the housing market and anxiety around the economy,\u201d a senior Labor source said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s not a serious voice in Caucus blaming Jim for the economy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe frustration is he is the Treasurer, the messaging and communication about the economy and why it\u2019s not in the position we would want it to be.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It comes as the latest <a class=\"body-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.news24.com.au\/politics\/australian-politics\/treasurer-jim-chalmers-blame-game-backfires-as-majority-of-voters-reject-middle-east-interest-rate-excuse\/news-story\/89533206af37d1104add77ea664403e4\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">News24.com.au \/ YouGov poll<\/a> saw Labor sink to just 25 per cent of the primary vote, one point lower than its previous result.<\/p>\n<p>It marks Labor\u2019s lowest ever primary vote across every federal election since 1901 and was driven by a collapse in support among working class voters.<\/p>\n<p>The Labor source told Markson there has been a degree of surprise at how openly Mr Albanese is criticising his Treasurer, which has led business leaders to believe he had &#8220;thrown Jim under the bus&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI know he\u2019s blaming Chalmers and he\u2019s saying Chalmers wanted to do even more in the budget and I blocked him,\u201d the source said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBusiness people have said Albo has thrown Jim under the bus.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Asked for comment by Markson, a spokeswoman said the claims were &#8220;nonsense.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"poster-img\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/a805cac2ad4a1e9089610f62e806301d.jpeg\" data-sctrack=\"op-poster-img\" alt=\"\u2018Do the hard work\u2019: Albanese and Chalmers urged to tackle electricity costs\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Mr Albanese has faced calls to either step down or dump Treasurer Chalmers to stem the loss of votes, as the party loses ground to One Nation.<\/p>\n<p>Labor sources previously told News24.com.au that <a class=\"body-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.news24.com.au\/politics\/australian-politics\/albanese-facing-internal-calls-to-dump-treasurer-jim-chalmers-or-resign-himself-as-labor-loses-ground-to-one-nation\/news-story\/0e667117abfa26e4fb0c8266a43b0486\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">federal backbenchers feared losing their electorates in the next election<\/a>, due to the government&#8217;s inability to handle the cost of living crisis.<\/p>\n<p>On Thursday, Markson revealed multiple Labor sources said that Mr Albanese would not dump Mr Chalmers as it would be a \u201cvery silly\u201d political move.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt would be an admission of economic failure,\u201d the source said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt would be politically very silly to do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In the NSW Right faction of Labor, there is a growing concern the Albanese government\u2019s abysmal popularity could sink NSW Premier Chris Minns.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Minns is a member of Labor\u2019s Right faction and has himself described One Nation as a \u201cgenuine threat\u201d to the party ahead of the March 2027 election.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Minns last week publicly urged governments to rein in spending as inflation remained elevated and the Reserve Bank lifted interest rates.<\/p>\n<p>The NSW Premier has also <a class=\"body-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.news24.com.au\/politics\/australian-politics\/nsw-premier-chris-minns-reminds-pm-about-his-responsibility-to-control-migration-levels\/news-story\/38ba946c38241290357849154736cf77\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">recently pressed the Albanese government on migration<\/a>, reminding the Prime Minister that population settings remain a federal responsibility.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Senior Labor sources have told News24 host Sharri Markson that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had stopped the Treasurer&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":920616,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[8932,64,63,47743,1788,44,399346,84],"class_list":["post-920615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-albanese","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-chalmers","tag-labor","tag-news","tag-news24","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/920615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=920615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/920615\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/920616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=920615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=920615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=920615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}