Peta Credlin: Anzac Day has focused nation on PM’s weaknesses and bizarre inconsistencies

Rather than distracting Australians from the cost of living crisis as Anthony Albanese no doubt hoped, Anzac Day has focused voters on where this country is headed and the bizarre inconsistencies of the Labor government.

Right now, if the published polls are accurate (and in recent elections that’s not always been the case), Anthony Albanese is on track to be put back in power, not so much by voters choosing him, but via a series of deals involving Greens MPs and their Teal siblings who are funded by those who make millions out of renewable power as they lecture us on integrity but don’t practice it.

An incumbent government with no real record to run on was always going to chase every bit of advantage. Like running the election campaign over the long weekends of Easter and Anzac Day in the hope that distracted voters stayed distracted and just leave them there. On important national days, it’s thought, politics takes a back seat. But maybe not this year, especially with an election that matters much more than normally, given the green-left’s obvious antipathy to national symbols like the flag; and to national values like a fair go for everyone, regardless of ethnicity or religion.

The Prime Minister talks a lot about honouring our veterans and upholding their ideals – but they never fought under three flags. And my sense is that, rather than giving the PM the leave pass he hoped for, via distracting us from the economic stagnation and social divisions fostered by his government, Anzac Day could make us much more focused on where our country is headed plus the critical choice before us at the ballot box.

A member of the Catafalque Party at the Martin Place Cenotaph during the annual Anzac Day Dawn Service in Sydney. Picture: Izhar Khan/Getty Images

For one thing, it’s striking how much these times resemble those preceding both world wars, with great power competition; and dictators on the march, threatening freedom around the globe. The Albanese government, especially Defence Minister Richard Marles, routinely declares that there have been no more perilous times in eight decades.

Even Labor icon Kim Beazley has called for a swift lift in defence spending to 3 per cent of GDP. Yet when the Coalition announced that it would lift defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP within five years and to 3 per cent within a decade, the PM derided the increase, claiming it is not needed. This from the leader of a government that’s cancelled orders for new aircraft, prematurely retired frigates, is giving up our minesweeping capability and buried surplus helicopters rather than gift them to Ukraine.

Perhaps worst of all, as uncovered last week, has even just bought new military boats from China!

When Labor’s outrage machine unearthed 2018 comments from shadow defence spokesman Andrew Hastie that females should not serve in close combat units, Marles rushed into the media to declare that he should be thereby disqualified from ever being defence minister. Former SAS Captain Hastie’s point is that every member of a close combat unit needs to meet exceptional strength and fitness standards; it’s actually about capability, not gender. And the brutal truth is that few men, let alone women, will meet the standards.

Shadow defence spokesman Andrew Hastie, a former SAS captain, was unfairly targeted by Labor’s outrage machine. Picture: Richard Dobson/NewsWire

When a small group of hecklers jeered a Welcome to Country at the main Melbourne Dawn Service, the Prime Minister condemned their actions. Fair enough, too, because even those who find being welcomed to their own country insufferable should hold their peace during a solemn ceremony that honours the best of our nation.

But this dissent will not stop until we have an adult debate about the forced adoption of these “welcomes” at almost every event of significance. If it’s an Indigenous event, I have no problem with the inclusion of cultural motifs, and have witnessed many such moving ceremonies. However, the appropriateness of those Indigenous relevant ceremonies has been tarnished by the mandatory, manufactured and divisive “welcomes to country” that are thrust upon all of us at almost every event, big or small.

At an Anzac Day service, isn’t it almost offensive to “welcome to country” the very veterans who have put their lives on the line to defend it? Why do we need a “welcome to country” given Indigenous people have fought in almost every conflict where we have sent our military? After all, the whole point of the uniform is to unite everyone who wears it into one force, and that race and religion is secondary to their service of Australia; so why then divide by race with a “welcome”?

Bunurong elder Uncle Mark Brown delivers a Welcome to Country on Anzac Day in Melbourne, which stirred a debate on its relevance to national events. Picture: Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images

Let’s never forget that the magnificent Shrine in Melbourne owes its very existence to our legendary Great War general Sir John Monash. As many know, Monash was a proud Jewish man and so, when the PM was quick to condemn Friday’s protesters as out of line, I immediately remembered the time when he wasn’t so quick to voice his condemnation when the Sydney Opera House was marred with the advance of an anti-Semitic mob just hours after the October 7 atrocity. And his government’s passivity in the face of 18 months of growing Jew-hatred, including the firebombing of synagogues?

But why should we expect consistency from a Prime Minister who fell off a stage and, despite the fact we all saw it, denied it was a fall, later admitted he fell, and then denied he fell all over again?

If the political adage, “oppositions don’t win elections; governments lose them”, still holds, there could yet be a change of government, despite the Coalition’s lacklustre campaign so far. A government that lied its way into office on the basis of a never-credible commitment to cut power prices by $275 per household per year; that’s demonstrated epic incompetence in office, with a record fall in living standards made worse by government policy; and that’s now lying to stay in office, with more-or-less-made-up claims about the cost of nuclear power, certainly should not be rewarded with another term.

Especially, as its defence lethargy is putting at risk the freedom that the Anzacs won at such high cost to themselves.

2025 is not an election with two charismatic leaders, and big policy driving the national debate. Anything but, as I am sure you have observed. Instead, it is a hyper-local campaign with seat-by-seat battles in all 150 electorates that’s almost impossible to track in the published national polls. Meaning anyone who says they know the result next Saturday is kidding themselves.

This election, Liberals have selected better candidates and have much more energised local campaigns than last time. If good local campaigns can add, say, 3 per cent to the underlying vote, that alone spells big danger for the PM.

THUMBS UP

Publican Joe Rumoro from the Tower hotel in Hawthorn who has refused to take down a sign exposing Teal MP Monique Ryan’s record of voting with the Greens 77% of the time. The local council says it’s too big. He’s now put the sign on stubby holders that are flying out the door!

THUMBS DOWN

Labor’s preference deal with the Greens: In 149 out of 150 seats across the country, Labor is giving its top preference vote to the Greens. The PM says: “I won’t do a deal with the Greens”. That’s because he already has!

Watch Peta on Credlin on Sky News, weeknights at 6pm

Originally published as Peta Credlin: Anzac Day has focused nation on PM’s weaknesses and bizarre inconsistencies