By his own telling, Anthony Albanese is an unusual prime minister. When he put up his hand to succeed Bill Shorten after Labor’s 2019 election defeat, he said he had not considered himself as a future leader until the troubled period of the previous Labor government in 2010-13, with Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard playing musical chairs.

Albanese was then on the cusp of turning 50, and was 56 when he slipped into the leader’s chair.