Albanese starting to plan for a third-term Labor government

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has begun planning how to win a third term, even as he and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton spent the final full day of the 2025 election scrambling for votes in key marginal seats across the country.

Asked in an exclusive interview if he had already begun thinking about policies and strategies to secure Labor a third term, should the party succeed on Saturday, Albanese gave a one-word answer: “Yes.”

Three years ago, the prime minister revealed to this masthead that he had a two-term strategy, if elected, to bed down Labor’s reform agenda, which has included finalising historic Gonski school funding deals, moving to universal affordable childcare and driving the transition from coal-fired power to renewable energy backed by gas and batteries.

A veteran of the Rudd-Gillard years who saw that government’s carbon and mining taxes torn down by the Abbott government, he is determined that Labor will not make the same mistake again.

“We are not getting ahead of ourselves. The premiership quarter is the third quarter, and the third quarter is when we started to, last year, do a 20 per cent cut of HECS debt and free TAFE in November, childcare in December, all the things leading up to this year, where we kicked off on January 5,” he said.

The campaign plan for this election has been locked in place for a long time, Albanese said.

“I could have told you what seats I’d be in and where [during the election] a long time ago. I thought a lot about what the campaign looked like, how we would do it, what would be rolled out. And part of that, working backwards from election day, is knowing that on some of the big issues you needed [more time] to explain [an argument or policy], whether it’s the positive or the negative.”

During the interview, he offered no other details about his plans for a third term, perhaps fearing even at this late stage that sounding too confident could cost Labor votes.

That caution was evident in the Labor campaign machine travelling with the prime minister, one of the most well-oiled political outfits in decades.

Albanese’s discipline has been steadfast and, for many voters, stultifying, but his rehearsed stump speeches have contrasted with Dutton’s inconsistency.

Albanese was emotional at the end of his morning press conference as he outlined his vision for Australia’s future.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Earlier this week, Albanese described himself as a reformer, rather than a revolutionary – an apt description after a cautious first term when he used captain’s calls to quash at least three controversial policies – but Australia’s 31st prime minister wants to reshape politics. He just doesn’t want to alarm voters while doing it.

His rival warned voters in several interviews to be wary of Albanese’s promises about his agenda.

Pulling a photocopy of a page one from The Australian during the 2022 election campaign, Dutton pointed to the photo of Albanese and the headline “Life will be ‘cheaper’ under me”.

“This was the prime minister’s main pitch going into the last election,” Dutton told reporters in Perth. “I haven’t found one Australian who can say that they’re paying less for their power.”

However, the prime minister wants federal Labor – which has spent much of its history in opposition, despite being the oldest party in the country – to become the default party of government, in much the same way that state Labor governments have dominated for the last three decades.

But to do that Albanese first has to win, which means the last three days of the 2025 election campaign have been spent visiting every state and, increasingly, visiting seats Labor wants to win from the Coalition, rather than those it needs to win to secure a majority.

Earlier on Friday, while visiting a Medicare urgent care clinic in Brisbane, the prime minister had looked close to tears as he claimed a future Dutton government could close those clinics and withdraw from the Paris climate change agreement – claims Dutton has repeatedly denied.

Albanese also accused the opposition of having “contempt” for Australians by holding back key details of its economic program.

Later, on an RAAF flight to Tasmania with Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles and media chief Fiona Sugden, the prime minister argued voters should give his government a second term to shore up increased Medicare funding, protect the NDIS and raise taxes on people with superannuation balances above $3 million.

“With some reforms you need time to entrench them,” he said.

“The biggest economic area is, of course, the clean energy transition, you want to move to green steel, green aluminium. You want to make sure that advanced manufacturing gets a crack here, in places like the Hunter Valley, the Spencer Gulf, the Pilbara … and all of that is at risk tomorrow.”

“I think you need long-term Labor governments and the best example of that is Medibank, which was introduced by the Whitlam government [and wound back by the Fraser government] or the damage that was done on climate policy [when] we lost in 2013,” he says.

He would not be drawn on when he would speak, or travel to meet, with US President Donald Trump, and won’t even say if he has spoken to newly elected Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, though he did say he would hope Carney would invite him to the next G7 meeting in Canada if he wins re-election.

Right now, Albanese’s focus is on one thing: “Tomorrow, 6pm.”

Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter.