Joe Hildebrand: In the political cesspit, Albo must prove he’s a man of his word

In a swirling cesspit of lies and broken promises, Anthony Albanese has an opportunity to prove he’s man of his word and that Australian politics can be honest once more.

On Saturday, Anthony Albanese saw his beloved Swans lose the AFL grand final and his beloved Rabbitohs lose the NRL preliminary final.

It’s about time something went wrong for the bloke. All newly minted Prime Ministers get a honeymoon period but Albo has got the full complimentary love-shack at Niagara Falls with no check-out date in sight.

Labor’s primary and 2PP vote is well up — where it should have been at the election to be frank — and his personal approval rating is stratospheric.

Part of it is no doubt that the nation has a shiny new toy but a much more important factor is that Albanese hasn’t squandered his political capital on any quixotic crusades.

He has held strong on national security, been tough and clear-eyed about the economy and cautious about his big ambitious projects such as the Indigenous Voice to parliament.

At every turn he has sought consensus and inclusion, be it bringing unions and employers together on workplace reform, solemnly and effusively honouring the Queen despite his republican convictions or warmly taking the mickey out of both himself and Opposition leader Peter Dutton in the same gag at the high-powered grand final breakfast.

Albanese saw his beloved Rabbitohs lose the NRL preliminary final on Saturday.

But, like all great leaders, he is only one bad decision away from disaster and there is already a giant one lurking in the wings. This is, of course, the much-maligned “stage three” tax cuts, which will effectively create a flat tax rate of 30 per cent for the vast majority of Australians earning between $45,000 and $200,000.

This is a policy that is widely blamed on the Morrison government but is, in fact, the continuation of tax reforms introduced by Malcolm Turnbull, the darling of the teals and the affluent left.

Back then, the plan was a flat rate of 32.5 per cent for everyone earning between $41,000 and $200,000 by 2024-25. Now I personally oppose the concept of a flat tax. But that doesn’t matter. And Labor opposed it at the time too. But that doesn’t matter either.

Because after losing the 2019 election and failing to get its amendments through, Labor under Anthony Albanese — and a huge amount of scrutiny — said it would support the full tax cut package.

And that is all that matters.

After 15 years of backflipping, backstabbing and betrayals, Australia has its first cleanskin PM in a very long time. Albo may not be an angel but, in comparison to those who preceded him, he might as well be Mother Teresa.

He stayed loyal to Kevin Rudd even when it was clear the last Labor leader to win government from opposition was about to be rolled by his own party on the back of the most dodgy internal polling ever to hit a backbencher’s inbox and despite Rudd’s personal toxicity within the caucus.

Albanese then offered his resignation to Julia Gillard when the inevitable result occurred but she graciously refused to accept it. And despite Rudd shamelessly, albeit understandably, white-anting Gillard in the three years that followed, Albanese never publicly undermined his new PM or formally moved against her, even though his private loyalty to Rudd remained. Then when Bill Shorten became Labor leader despite Albanese winning the rank and file vote, Albo was quietly accepting and publicly loyal for two full terms — although it is testament to both Shorten’s pragmatism and Albanese’s power that the latter’s office operated with autonomy from his leader’s.

And, of course, when Labor lost the unloseable in 2019, Albanese ascended to the leadership uncontested and presided over the most remarkable amelioration of the ALP’s people and policies, going to the 2022 election with an unashamedly pragmatic agenda.

Needless to say, it worked. And the scepticism that Albanese was a socialist in centrist clothing has been utterly dispelled by his actions since.

The public’s unbridled relief and rejoicing in this can be seen in the stratospheric approval ratings he now enjoys. Yet once more there are one-eyed ideologues on the hard left who are pressuring the PM to torch this hard-won reputation and backflip on the tax cut commitment.

Based purely on the reasons above, this would be nothing short of insane. But given insanity is the currency of the hard left, let’s spell it out some more.

Since becoming PM, Albanese has ditched the “Each-way Albo” tag but if he backflips on this clear commitment, it will never leave him. And that’s only the beginning. Worse still, he will be accused of being a liar who will say anything to win an election only to renege once he’s in the Lodge.

This doesn’t just apply to the tax cuts. It will apply to every promise and commitment he makes from here on in.

And even worse again, his opponents will forever use it as proof that he and the ALP are still, and always will be, class war-waging socialists.

In a swirling cesspit of lies and broken promises, Albanese has an opportunity to prove he is a man of his word and that Australian politics can be honest once more. And while the tax cuts may be painfully expensive, that opportunity is priceless.