Turns out Albo isn’t much good at his job

Despite chairing more than 94 of the 150 seats in the Federal Parliament, Anthony Albanese has turned out to be not much of a politician, writes Anthony Albanese Michael Pascoe.

Given the circumstances he faced and the combination of opposition leaders, Anthony Albanese should be called the luckiest Labor leader ever, perhaps even the Steven Bradbury of Australian politics.

There’s nothing wrong with being lucky in politics or life. But the problem that has arisen now is further evidence that Albo is not very good at his job and will need the chance to face ragtag opposition to keep his job.

Albanese has performed well, twice setting a small election target and carrying out massively incremental reforms on health, industrial relations and housing – Labour’s key strengths – as well as a minor budget overhaul and tax/pension adjustment. This was more than enough to win the political game, given the quality of the competition: post-COVID Morrison, Dutton and Trump, Ley (if anyone remembers) and now Taylor.

Hanson factor

And now One Hanson is riding the wave of political dissatisfaction to which Labor has contributed.

This contribution stems from the fact that Albanese, when put to the test, turned out to be not very good at his job. No one should forget that his job is not “Prime Minister”, but “politics”. Prime Minister is the position he plays as a politician, just as Fraser McReight’s job is as a “rugby player”, which he does in the position of winger. (Editor’s note: Apologies to AFL fans, we haven’t heard of him either.)

The main task of being a politician is to influence and persuade. It would be nice if this were to influence and persuade towards leadership for the greater good, the betterment of the Commonwealth, but it is mostly geared towards occupying the Treasury benches.

Ignoring the gift of the opposition, I would rate Albanese’s ability as a politician as five major tests, failing five.

1. AUKUS, unsuccessful

It is politically wise before the 2022 election not to get stuck, not to miss the chance to review and escape after the election, when the US is reviewing and the UK is reviewing and the US backs out and again the cost of needing to renew the Collins submarines becomes apparent.

AUKUS. We will never switch from ‘best’ to second-hand submarines

2, The Voice, colossal failure

As detailed by Don Watson Monthly ($)“He probably felt that if the likes of Pat Dodson, Noel Pearson and Marcia Langton and many others had given so much of their lives to the cause, he should have had the courage to support them.

But what he needed was the courage to lead them as a prime minister, as a politician, as someone paid to read political signs: “I can’t go on with this knowing I’m going to lead you over a cliff. Courage is very important, but defeat in this is unthinkable. We must find another way.”

But he didn’t, he dealt a powerful slap in the face to Indigenous and wider Australian hopes, setting reconciliation back decades, putting the beautiful Statement from the Heart in the Very Hard basket marked “must not be opened in my political lifetime”, hiding away from the other two pillars of the declaration, Treaty and Truth (Makarrata).

3. Bondi, no winner

He tried to stand firm, misjudged the reaction, and then attempted to overcompensate.

Albo’s “knights and dames” moment?

4. Housing, which is the core of our “cost of living” problem. Mistake

Being less bad than the Liberal Party is still a failure. Despite all the announcements, some positive, and all the money and crumbs, the Labor Party center has barely maintained the status quo in disaster: the lack of adequate public/social housing.

Jim Chalmers accuses the Liberals of being the party of the status quo; but Labor is equally to blame for housing for the people who really need it most; This accounts for the one-fifth of Australians who will never become first home buyers.

Since I wrote this for Saturday Newspaper ($) There was no progress two years ago and there will be no progress. The level of the last bar in this chart from the Budget’s articles can be replicated with growth in community social housing matched at best by the continued decline from public housing alone.

Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute’s January social housing report It showed multiple governments backtracking on providing public housing.

More public housing was demolished than built.

Meanwhile, the Commonwealth Rental Relief bill, which effectively subsidizes private landlords, rose to $7.4 billion in the new financial year from $4.7 billion in 2021-22.

5. Tax reform: political failure of process and ambition

Yes, our negative approach to capital gains tax, homesteads and various trusts required reform. So is our GST, the taxation of resources (especially offshore gas), land, payrolls, income and dividend accrual. Most of these are state issues, and with the exception of offshore gas, they are all in the political Very Difficult basket.

Adhering to Bismarck’s view that politics is the art of the possible, how could a first-rate politician implement possible tax reform when he had promised not to?

He will begin by helping develop the case, exploring the issues, explaining the options, developing a consensus of will that will convince him of the necessity of changing his previously stated position; This will not happen by blatantly backing down and then blindly announcing changes that must be changed within a month by a fierce media campaign with the label “liar” plastered.

what could have been

The 2011 tax summit was an example of what can be done. With the encouragement of independent Rob Oakeshott, Gillard and Treasurer Swan brought together the good and the good from business, unions, academia, states and the social sector for three days of public discussion and debate that laid out the need for post-Henry Review change.

It was a shame that Abbott’s Total Opposition refused to participate; They might have learned something. It was a further shame that the tightness of the political race at the time meant that reform failed to move beyond the later resource rent tax and carbon pricing.

And of course, it was a national tragedy, an act of policy bastardization, that the Coalition’s donors followed orders to cancel these two reforms as soon as possible.

However, there was precedent that a savvy politician could use. Labor has been accused of refusing to lead, waiting for others to make a case that it could then follow, but standing back without getting involved does not give it ownership of the case. Taking the argument and the issue, building and selling the need to backflip first rather than later, is what a good politician does.

Non-reform

And then there’s the popular reform that isn’t: Minimalist, taking some of the windfall profits from the sale of our offshore gas. When left to other people to do the running, it wasn’t necessarily the entire 25 percent tax that attracted attention; This had to be more than just tummy tucking on Chalmers’ part about highlighting PRRT revenue rather than increasing it.

These are my headline failures, but of course there are other problems that show a similar lack of judgment and political ability.

Albanese’s call for the Captain to hold a state funeral for Graham Richardson is notable. NACC’s miserable excuse is one thing. I fear that the delivery of Dan Duggan to the Trump regime will be decisive.

A cry of joy. Where to go when trust in our state is lost?

The sum of the failures contributes to voter disgruntlement, a desire to “kick Canberra’s ass”, as an old friend put it to me last week; For someone who isn’t a fan of Hanson but sees no other way to kick, the Coalition is at least that useless.

Perspective is needed on how scary the kick looks. A. SMaj report ($) Labour’s voting dive included this telling paragraph:

“The Labor primary vote is the lowest the party has recorded since its 25 per cent result in February 2025, when the Peter Dutton-led Coalition came out on top with 39 per cent of the primary vote before suffering a crushing turnaround and defeat in the May election.”

That was just three months ago. Hanson’s attacks on workers, women, and anyone who isn’t like him still has a long way to go. This is the best thing to do for Albanese.

But the nation will still need a leader who is actually good at politics to calm its mood. This is looking less and less like the politician who is now in the role of Prime Minister.

Dying? Albanese’s nuclear attack on transparency

Michael Pascoe is an independent journalist and commentator with five decades of experience in print, television and online journalism here and abroad. His book, Summertime of Our Dreams, was published by Ultimo Press.