It is easy to talk a big game about consensus government in the style of Hawke and Keating, but Labor’s opposition to the omnibus workplace bill does not inspire confidence.
In the space of 24 hours this week, Anthony Albanese invoked four of Labor’s greatest prime ministers and one of the Liberal Party’s best, as he sought to define the attributes he would bring to the job.
On Thursday, locked in a pre-election arms race with Scott Morrison, Albanese cited John Curtin shifting allegiance from Great Britain to the United States in 1941, and promised a foreign policy that would be guided by “Australia acting in its own interest, making its own alliances and deciding its place in the region”.
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Phillip Coorey is the political editor based in Canberra. He is a two-time winner of the Paul Lyneham award for press gallery excellence. Connect with Phillip on Facebook and Twitter. Email Phillip at pcoorey@afr.com
