James Morrow: How Anthony Albanese is turning into another Scott Morrison

The opposition leader attacks the Morrison government on moral high ground and then fails when it comes to his own party, writes James Morrow.

The most curious thing has happened over the past fortnight: Anthony Albanese has become Scott Morrison.

Or, rather, he has become the caricature of the clueless and vaguely misogynist dolt Mr Albanese and his supporters have spent the last year trying to turn the prime minister into.

Yet ever since the tragic death of much-loved Victorian Labor senator Kimberley Kitching, far too soon at the age of just 52, the man who has so profitably tarred the PM as utterly hopeless when it comes to the struggles of women in politics has shown himself to be, well, utterly hopeless.

Federal ALP leader Anthony Albanese at Kimberley Kitching’s funeral service. Picture: David Caird

Victorian Labor senator Kimberley Kitching.

To put it another way, he has shown himself vulnerable on everything the left has accused of the Morrison government.

Failing to act on reports of bad behaviour? Tick.

Stonewalling an inquiry? Tick.

Generally gaslighting, distracting, and saying there’s nothing to see here?

Tick, tick and tick again.

That Mr Albanese had a problem on his hands became clear just hours after the senator’s death, as a growing number of reports about her alleged treatment at the hands of fellow Labor women started to come out.

Faced with the choice of stonewalling and hoping the problem would go away, or calling an inquiry that might air what is beginning to smell like some very dirty laundry, Mr Albanese chose the former.

Presumably the calculation was that he would get an easier run from the media on the subject than Scott Morrison had over Brittany Higgins and Grace Tame and countless other issues and non-issues alike.

But if he was counting on an easy ride he was not going to get it – though for days there would have been Guardian readers and followers of ABC journos’ Twitter accounts who would have had idea what was going on.

Even normally soft morning TV interviews have turned contentious.

And after Mr Albanese tried to shut down the controversy, saying it was “an unfortunate discussion” to have two days before Ms Kitching’s funeral, Laura Tingle shot back on 7:30 that “those who argue the media shouldn’t be covering this story misunderstand that the story has been driven by the very family, friends and allies who were closest to her”.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese. Picture NCA Newswire / Gaye Gerard

Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

Which is exactly why his repeated outright refusal to hold an inquiry into the bullying alleged to have occurred in Ms Kitching’s case – or into Labor’s cultural issues more broadly – and his promise to instead look at complaints processes seem so hollow.

And the opposition leader is taking voters for idiots if he thinks they won’t recall the way he demanded the government launch a formal investigation into whether Christian Porter was a “fit and proper” person to be attorney-general and roasted the PM for his office’s investigation into who knew what and when about the alleged rape of Brittany Higgins that is now before the courts.

For similar reasons, it is also why his early attempts to shut down the use of the term Ms Kitching herself used – “mean girls” – to describe the clique that her friends and family said made her life in Canberra a nightmare came off so false, and indeed, as gaslighting.

All of this is electoral poison for Labor.

Mr Albanese and his supporters clearly know this to be true, if the desperate attempts to portray the question as nothing more than a kamikaze run by factional opponents seeking to blow up the party before the election.

And indeed it does introduce a whole new measure of risk into the game.

Polling conducted for The Daily Telegraph in marginal electorates across the country has found that the race in key seats is tighter than broad national polls would suggest.

The issue of how women are treated in and around politics has been one of Labor’s key points of difference with the Coalition.

Brittany Higgins at the National Press Club in February. Picture: Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images

Ever since Brittany Higgins’ allegations of rape at the hands of a fellow staffer within Parliament House hit Mr Albanese and his supporters have been chipping away at what was once Mr Morrison’s unassailable lead.

Take this away and voters are left increasingly with a choice between Mr Morrison and an opposition leader who’s been tacking hard to the right to get away from his past as a young socialist and reassure voters a Labor government would be sound on national security (especially China) and the economy.

All of which plays into the hands of the government, which despite being down in the polls is looking to use the PM’s stable ordinariness as a not-so-secret weapon.

Or as Mr Morrison said the other night at Paul Murray’s Pub Test: “I’m happy in my own skin and I’m not pretending to be anyone else.”

Mr Albanese’s recent transformations will make the obvious question that stems from this challenge that much more difficult to answer.