James Campbell: Whether it’s now or later, Anthony Albanese’s election call delays the inevitable

As every poll makes absolutely clear, people have decided Anthony Albanese is rubbish at his job. Holding the election in six or ten weeks won’t make a lick of difference to the result.

If the rumours are right next Sunday Albo will head to Yarralumla to ask Governor-General… *checks Wikipedia*.. Sam Mostyn to send us to the polls on April 5 or 12.

Or he might change his mind and go later… and … and honestly who cares?

It won’t make a lick of difference whether the election is held in six or ten weeks.

By which I mean the outlines, contours, parameters or whatever you want to call them, of the present election are already clear and barring a political asteroid won’t change.

As every poll makes absolutely clear people have had a long hard look at Anthony Albanese and decided he’s basically rubbish at his job.

Normally this would be a problem for a first term Prime Minister.

Normally you would expect a PM in his position would be desperately keen to tell us about all the exciting things he’s going to do for us if we give him another go.

Instead until he announced on Sunday he’d be pouring billions into reversing the 11 per cent drop in bulk billing rates that’s happened on his watch, he’d been curiously low key.

The public has already decided Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is rubbish at his job. Picture: NewsWire

Of course he hasn’t been totally inactive – last week he dropped into Whyalla to give its voters $2.4 billion – but for a man in his position he’s been strangely complacent.

A couple of weeks ago he gave Victoria $2.2 billion for its white elephant suburban rail loop and didn’t even bother turning up for the announcement.

Technically of course the money had been promised almost three years ago and so in no sense could be described as “new”.

But since when has that ever stopped a Prime Minister who wants to look busy?

It might be the case that the desultory approach to his job is just the latest manifestation of the semi-detached nature of his approach to the job.

He underwhelmed us on the way in and he’s damned if he’s not going to underwhelm us on the way out!

But it’s also true that since we’ve decided Albo is no good, the election isn’t really about him.

It’s all about whether enough we think Peter Dutton and his compares are ready to return to office.

Obviously Labor will be trying to scare people into believing that Dutton poses some kind of existential threat to our way of life.

If the rumours are true Anthony Albanese will head to Yarralumla to ask the Governor-General to send us to the polls either April 5 or 12. Picture: Picture: NCA NewsWire

And by a strange coincidence the obvious place to start this campaign is by talking about bulk billing rates!

So while Labor folk are right to say getting bulk billing back rates back to where they were under Greg Hunt, would be a fine legacy for a Labor Prime Minister, Sunday’s announcement made almost as much of Dutton’s record as health minister than it did of the new goodies themselves.

If the Coalition had been out of office for a few more years putting Dutton’s greatest Medicare hits on high rotation – especially the time he tried get us to pay to see the quack – would be deadly.

Labor’s problem is that in between that fun time and three years ago the previous government did so much of a reverse ferret that the state of the health system, was, if not an advantage to the Coalition, at least so neutral a subject with voters that it didn’t have the usual salience in the 2022 campaign.

The single-minded Labor focus on Dutton is to be expected of course given how central he is to the Coalition campaign but in choosing to concentrate all its fire on the opposition leader, you can’t help but wonder if they’re not missing an opportunity.

Opposition Peter Dutton appears the clear choice in the upcoming federal election. Picture: NewsWire

If you were looking for a nickname for Dutton’s frontbench it would hard to go past “the leftovers” because by and large that’s what they are, they remnants of Scott Morrison’s government.

The exceptions of course are James Paterson and Jacinta Price who have been the two stand out new talents since 2022.

The rest of them?

Looking down the full shadow ministry list it’s hard not wonder what they’ve been up to for the past few years.

Be honest with yourself about the last time you heard from Michaelia Cash.

I knew Barnaby Joyce had given up the booze and the fags but did you also know he’s apparently got carriage of Veterans Affairs?

Similarly I knew Michael Sukkar had responsibility for housing but the list tells me he’s also got the NDIS and the Centrelink.

To be fair some of the players who were there in Morrison-time have moved up a step since then – Finance spokeswoman Jane Hume springs to mind as well Sussan Ley who no one could ever accuse of not having a crack – but they’re the exceptions.

The ministry looks like what it will basically be – a third term of the Morrison Government.

And like many I suspect, what I want to know is how can they show us they will be any better than they were last time?

Originally published as James Campbell: Whether it’s now or later, Anthony Albanese’s election call delays the inevitable