Tom Minear: Anthony Albanese learns the wrong lesson from Kamala Harris’s defeat

In the wake of Donald Trump’s return to power, Anthony Albanese offered a surprising criticism of Kamala Harris. Tom Minear argues he misunderstood her biggest mistake.

Anthony Albanese was taking a page from Donald Trump’s playbook last week – giving a long podcast interview – when he offered a surprising criticism of Kamala Harris’s campaign.

Asked on The Squiz why he thought the President won the US election, the Prime Minister pointed to “the fragmentation of the media”, along with the fact that “we live in times where people are frustrated, times of economic change, and there’s been a response to that”.

Then he added: “In the Democrats, I think if there was a mistake from a distance that they did in the campaign, they in the Harris campaign spoke about what the Biden administration had achieved with Kamala Harris … There wasn’t enough about the offer. What next?”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese addressing the National Press Club last week. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

This seemed to be quite an important insight for Mr Albanese, given that like most people in his position, he has typically avoided offering any commentary on American politics.

What it revealed, however, was that the Prime Minister may have taken the wrong lesson from Ms Harris’s defeat. Her problem was not that she focused too much on spruiking Joe Biden’s record – it was that she did not do enough to distance herself from it.

Ms Harris’s advisers have since said she avoided breaking from Mr Biden out of loyalty. Of course, she could not criticise his failures – particularly on inflation and immigration – without escaping her complicity in them. She was in an unenviable position.

US President Donald Trump speaks to the media in the Oval Office last week. Picture: Roberto Schmidt (AFP)

Mr Albanese’s analysis really only drew attention to the fact that he is in even more of a pickle. He can talk about the future as much as he likes – he is pressing hard with a series of new policy commitments this month – but he will be directly judged on his record.

Mr Biden, for all his flaws, could boast impressive legislative achievements with generational investments in clean energy, infrastructure and hi-tech manufacturing. What will Australians remember from Mr Albanese’s first term when they go to the polls?

As the Prime Minister prepares to call the election, he has also sharpened his attacks on Peter Dutton, out of an apparent belief that his opponent is too extreme to be electable.

Australia is evidently a more moderate country than the US. But Mr Trump was indicted four times, impeached twice and convicted once, and Americans fed up with the cost of living voted for him anyway. Mr Albanese might want to spend some more time thinking about that.

Originally published as Tom Minear: Anthony Albanese learns the wrong lesson from Kamala Harris’s defeat