Albanese front bench will be full of same faces who failed during Rudd years

It is clear is that there is not the same level of enthusiasm for Anthony Albanese as there was for Kevin Rudd in 2007, writes Piers Akerman.

Maybe it’s the effect of the plethora of anti-social media, the fascination with faux celebrity trivia or the decreasing attention span of the population, but there has yet to be any deep focus on real issues in this federal election span.

The Canberra press gallery, overwhelmingly, has succumbed to self-promotion with a me-too style of reporting that doesn’t meet any standard of journalism.

The occasional comparison of policies between the two major parties published or commented upon to date has been once-over lightly.

Voters have been encouraged to consider what should be a contest of ideas as a reality game show, ScoMo v Albo, with highly partisan judges (unsurprisingly weighted toward Labor) sneering and sniping as they argue, interrupt and ignore the fact audiences want answers not narky performances.

A case in point was the media fascination with a highly agitated fellow identified as Newcastle pensioner Ray Drury, who interrupted Prime Minister Scott Morrison during a rowdy moment at the Edgeworth Tavern in the NSW Hunter Valley.

Pensioner Raymond 'Ray' Drury following his altercation with the PM. Picture: NBN

Drury, who was abusive, berated the Prime Minister about loss of income to do with what seemed a complex pension issue. As Morrison later said “it was involving iCare and immigration issues. It was also involving income definitions under the pension regimen. He has had a lot of complications with those cases”.

“My staff met with him also, after I carefully listened to what he had to say and respectfully listened to what he had to say. He was not asked to leave or anything like that. I can understand he was very upset about some very significant issues that happened in his life.”

In other words, Drury had a beef with a state workers’ compensation insurer, not a federal government agency, and was given a hearing and in all probability, has had his case fast-tracked after being put in touch with the right agency.

This was not the case when a bystander interrupted a Perth press conference being held by Opposition leader Anthony Albanese and the king of the hermit kingdom, Western Australian Premier Mark McGowan. Citing protocol, Albanese claimed a union “the media alliance would be a bit upset” and “we can’t really do that”.

The tradition of listening to hecklers and responding appears to have died and we may never know what the anonymous interloper’s “tough question” was. More importantly perhaps, we’ll never know how Labor plans to finance its pie-in-the-sky policies because there are no details.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese. Picture: AAP/Trevor Collens

Albanese promises he would govern like Hawke and like Keating but the record shows he violently opposed their economic policies and railed against their radical privatisation and tariff policies. His front bench would contain many of the same faces who stuffed Australia during the truly hopeless days of the Rudd government and floundering Gillard term.

Why aren’t we told this daily? The polls this far out are not indicative of how voters may feel on election day.

While it would seem things are more difficult for the Coalition parties now than they were at the same time in the last electoral cycle, it is inevitable the current gap between the parties will narrow as the election draws nearer.

What is clear is that there is not the same level of enthusiasm for Albanese as there was for Kevin Rudd in 2007.

For all the makeover and soft interviews with television entertainers, Albanese remains an unknown quantity to all but the most rusted-on Labor supporters – and they will remember him best as the Tory-hating socialist who opposed the Hawke and Keating reforms.

He does have the ABC, the Guardian, Crikey, GetUp and other Green-Left media in his pocket but their adherents were never voting conservative.

The same media axis is also supporting the so-called “independent” Holmes a Court candidates who by some weird coincidence are all trying to unseat Coalition MPs while campaigning as “liberals”.

Given the anti-government voting record of current crossbenchers, and their preoccupation with secondary issues, that experiment has been a waste of time.

Security is the primary concern here and globally but so far only the Coalition has addressed this issue with any conviction. Focus on freedom and liberty and vote accordingly, ignore the frippery.

As we’re seeing to our horror in Europe, hopey-wishy politics, windmills and solar panels, are irrelevant to those who would do us harm.