Prime Minister Anthony Albanese secured an emphatic and historic mandate at Saturday’s election. Labor’s 55.1 per cent share of the two-party-preferred vote (as of midday Sunday) is the highest since Malcolm Fraser’s 55.7 per cent in 1975, and has been exceeded on only three other occasions in the past 100 years.

But a mandate for what? Yes, for more spending on Medicare and a range of other health measures, for helping people to purchase homes with deposits of as little as 5 per cent, for reducing student debt, for fee-free TAFE, for incentives for the installation of domestic solar batteries, for cheaper child care and for a two-year freeze on beer excise.