Anthony Albanese’s pitch to return Labor to office so that no one is left behind starts with the obvious problem that most people have gone backwards in his first three years as prime minister.

He wants another three years to “build on the foundations” of Labor’s first term. Yet, despite Labor’s 2022 promises of higher real wages and lower electricity bills, more Australians have gone backwards financially than even during the last fair dinkum recession in the early 1990s. That’s just about everyone apart from the mostly older asset rich.