Tough times ahead for ALP’s easygoing Albo

Anthony Albanese is an easy going guy and while that’s all well and good, perhaps he shouldn’t be so carefree when everything is pointing to a Coalition victory, writes Joe Hildebrand.

One of the Prime Min­ister’s biggest problems is an accident of grammar.

His surname rhy­mes with “easy”, prompting the Coali­tion’s schoolyard sledge that “it won’t be easy under Albanese”.

That is some champagne comedy but there is a real concern among Labor figures that the PM’s image is overwhelmingly one of taking it easy while everyone else is doing it hard.

Albo, as the nickname suggests, is a genuinely easygoing guy. His confidence is both his greatest strength and his greatest weakness.

Of course, this attitude is all well and good when everyone else is feeling confident – such as when we all emerged from the darkness of the Covid era. But now that the cost-of-living vice has been crushing Australians for two years, it is all too squeezy and not so easy for Albanese.

Yet still the PM radiates optimism at a time when many want to see dogged Churchillian grit.

Or alternatively, as a Labor figure recently vented after he returned from Canberra: “Why the hell aren’t they all panicking?”

Certainly according to all the polls they should be. One recently registered Labor’s primary vote as low as 25 per cent. Others have been less apocalyptic but still point to a Dutton victory.

More troubling for Labor, the bookies also favour the Coalition to win.

The Prime Minister Anthony Albanese attended the Bob Hawke Beer and Leisure Centre in Marrickville. Picture: NewsWire/ Tim Pascoe

But as always in politics, the truth is more messy and vague.

As a true barometer of public opinion I trust my barber as much as any pollster, and so during my regular short-back-and-sides and in between pretending to know about football, I casually asked him how he thought the government was going.

“People want change,” he said.

Now, that might sound like a death knell for the government, but it’s not.

“Do they want a change of government or do they want the government to change what it’s doing?” I asked.

“It doesn’t matter,” he said. “They just want change.”

This kernel of truth should be the  best news Albo has heard in 18 months.

Of course people want change in difficult times, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that they will change the government – if the government changes first.

Thus the Albanese government needs a reset, a reboot. It needs Albo 2.0.

The Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Tim Ayres play pool at Bob Hawke Beer and Leisure Centre in Marrickville. Picture: NewsWire/ Tim Pascoe

It cannot campaign on its record. Whatever pride the government might have in its achievements, this would only remind people of the hardships they have endured – resulting in the ugly ironic optics of the ­government inadvertently taking ­credit for them.

Instead, Albanese and his team need to lay out a clear and plausible plan for economic prosperity and increased productivity that will deliver easily understandable and tangible benefits to families.

To their credit they have tried this, with simplifying and boosting access to free childcare and free GP visits. But both are a home game for Labor. The party needs to prove its credentials beyond its comfort zone.

Handing out money to fix problems is all well and good but there is a strong sense the electorate wants less Santa Claus and more Rambo.

Likewise on national security, the other area where Labor most constantly and cripplingly flails behind the Coalition.

Labor constantly flails behind the Coalition on inssues like national security. Picture: Richard Dobson

Strategic defence guru Peter Jennings wrote a column in The Aus­tralian over the weekend excoriating the PM’s response to the Chinese warship debacle.

It would have made tough reading for any Labor supporter, and yet it was hard to fault.

Of course, there is little Australia can do on its own to stand up to China, but one of Jennings’s criticisms was that the PM should have been on the phone to other world leaders to build up a network of pressure that could chasten Beijing.

And this was when the penny dropped – and I’m not talking about Wong.

If this had been an internal ALP matter, if someone was threatening Albo’s standing in the party or destabilising it, that’s exactly what he would have done without even thinking about it.

In fact, one of the criticisms of Albanese from within the party is that he spends too much time focusing on internal machinations and not enough on the national interest.

For an old factional warrior, that’s a hard habit to break. And yet the very fact Albo is where he is, is testament to his ability to be shrewd and strong.

Now all he needs to do is unleash those powers on the world instead of on Sussex Street.

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