Opposition leader Anthony Albanese has been questioned on being a "Liberal lite" and allegedly running away from press conferences in an interview with the teen journalists at 6 News.
The interview, which aired on YouTube on Tuesday night but was filmed during the tail-end of Mr Albanese's COVID-19 isolation, saw 14-year-old Leonardo Puglisi and 13-year-old Roman Mackinnon probe the Labor leader just weeks out from the federal election.
The pair also made headlines in April after questioning Prime Minister Scott Morrison about "lies and falsehoods".
In their latest interview, they asked the Opposition leader if he had broken his promise on day three of the election campaign by ending a press conference after eight minutes.
"You said at the start of the campaign you are not Scott Morrison and you don't run away from press conferences, yet days later you ran out of a press conference, just eight minutes later," Channel 6's federal political reporter Roman Mackinnon began.
"Did you break your promise?"
"Not at all," Mr Albanese replied. "I never said I'd answer every question forever."
The Labor leader said a press conference had not initially been planned for 13 April, after his speech at the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation in Melbourne where he spruiked his new $135 million policy for urgent care clinics. But he held one anyway.
"That day I’d done a major speech and indeed we weren’t scheduled to hold a press conference ... often when you give a big speech that’s what you want to get the run [get publicity].
“It was an opportunity for us to talk about our plan for aged care, our plan to strengthen Medicare and that was what the emphasis was on.
"But I have held a press conference every day of the campaign except once I went down from COVID."
Roman said some people had labelled the Opposition leader "bland, unknown and even vanilla."
"Tell us now. Who is Anthony Albanese?" the young reporter asked.
Leo Puglisi of 6 News Australia speaks to Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
He said he "loved his sport" and dabbled in some DJ-ing for charity. The Feed looked into some of Mr Albanese's song choices and found that he played 'Mr Brightside' by The Killers during a campaign rally in Brisbane in April.
Leo asked the Labor leader if he could understand why he had been labelled by some as "Liberal lite", noting Labor's support of offshore processing, boat turn-backs, and decision to keep JobSeeker at its current rate.
Mr Albanese disagreed with the proposition, telling Leo Labor's plans for Medicare, cheaper childcare and tackling climate change set the major parties firmly apart.
On increasing JobSeeker payments, he called the line of questioning a "beat up" by "the media", adding that the payment would still be reviewed at every Budget, but he was not in a position to "just promise things".
"Now when it comes to payments. Be very clear, this is just a beat up essentially, by the media. What I've said is that each and every budget, each and every budget, all of our payment systems should be subject to review. That's what we do, not a one off," Mr Albanese said.
"We know that people would like some increase in JobSeeker, and so would I, but we have to be clear about it. We can't just promise things and then not do it after the election."
In the 25-minute interview, Mr Albanese was also asked to weigh in on gender identity, amid an ongoing political debate on transgender participation in sport.
"Are trans men, men? " Leo asked.
Following Mr Albanese's initial answer, the young interviewer doubled down.
"It's a yes or no question. Are trans men, men? Yes or no," Leo said.
"Well, it's up to them to define, people are able to define themselves as they are, " Mr Albanese said.
"So if someone goes through and becomes transgender then yes".
"I'm of the view that I respect people's rights to be able to talk about these issues in ways that they see fit. It's not up to me to judge those matters."
The reporters' time with the Opposition leader didn't get as heated as their interview with Mr Morrison in which he accused “the media” of twisting his words around visiting the Hillsong Church and referring to Sam Dastyari as “Shanghai Sam”.
“They’ve completely taken out of context what I’ve said,” Mr Morrison told the pair in April.
Leo Puglisi prepares for filming from a set-up in his Melbourne home.
"That's not a good start. If you're starting with Crikey and you're talking about credibility, it's not a good start," Mr Morrison said.
Leo doubled down again, asking the prime minister, “you don’t think Australians are interested if their leader tells the truth or not?”
Leo founded 6 News three years ago when he was just 11, looking to inject his passion for news and public speaking into an online news outlet.
In recent weeks, the outlet has interviewed Independent candidate Allegra Spender, Independent MP Bob Katter, and Independent MP Zali Steggall.
