Opinion: Anthony Albanese will be judged kindly by history

Anthony Albanese may well lose the federal election, but like Jimmy Carter, history will judge him well, writes Paul Williams.

History will judge Prime Minister Anthony Albanese kindly.

When US President James Earl “Jimmy” Carter died this week, he took with him a kinder, gentler form of politics.

Contrast the humble Carter with the returning braggart Donald Trump. When first elected, Carter divested his modest peanut farm in Georgia. And, on leaving the presidency, he faced a personal debt of $1m. By contrast, Trump paid mere lip service to accountability, and feathered his nest with the trappings of office, including revenue from government officials staying at Trump hotels.

Indeed, the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington reported Trump made $1.6bn from his presidency.

Carter, a naval veteran, also defended the dead and injured veterans Trump called losers and suckers. And, as a committed Christian who once defined adultery as “looking at any woman with lust in your heart”, Carter could quote the bible chapter and verse. Trump – despite winning the support of America’s evangelical churches – could recite no verses when asked, has engaged in extramarital affairs, and has led a wholly hedonistic life.

But Carter was no liberal. A Southern conservative out of place among today’s left-leaning Democrats – Carter took a dim view of President Bill Clinton’s own peccadillos – Jimmy achieved much as leader of a self-styled “competent and compassionate” government.

US president Jimmy Carter was more popular out of office than in.

His greatest achievements were in international affairs, including finding peace between Egypt and Israel, signing a nuclear arms reduction treaty with the Soviet Union, and handing the Panama Canal back to Panama. The Iran hostage crisis of 1979, however, damaged Carter’s reputation, as did a global economic slump that saw fuel and grocery prices soar. Sound familiar?

Trump, by comparison, wants to re-acquire the canal, buy Greenland, and throw Ukraine, South Korea and Taiwan under the bus of tyranny. He will also reintroduce tariffs that will again unleash the global inflation beast. If so, say goodbye to Australian interest rate cuts.

Despite well-regarded education reforms – Carter established the federal Department of Education Trump now wants to abolish, and the Head Start program to assist poor children – and despite allowing gay Americans to serve in the military, Jimmy has been rated poorly by historians. Indeed, a 2022 survey of experts ranked him just 24th from 46 presidents – still far higher than Trump’s 43rd place.

Carter’s post-presidential life, in which he and wife Rosalynn built – literally, with tools in hands – low-cost housing for the non-profit Habitat for Humanity program did, however, endear him to a jaded public. In fact, a 2021 survey found 27 per cent of Americans now rate Carter as outstanding or above-average, with just 24 per cent seeing him as poor.

And this brings us to Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who is not merely deep under water across personal approval polls (minus 26 per cent compared with Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s minus two, according to a recent Resolve Strategic survey), but a man some are already labelling Australia’s worst prime minister ever.

Really? Ever hear of Billy McMahon or Stanley Bruce or Joseph Cook or George Reid? Look them up.

Billy McMahon

Julia Gillard

Many during Julia Gillard’s prime ministership also rated her as Australia’s worst prime minister, despite Gillard bringing stability to a fraught minority government, and overseeing the passage of hundreds of bills, including the initiation of the National Disability Insurance Scheme. In hindsight, Gillard stacks up as a pretty effective prime minister, despite breaking her promise not to introduce carbon pricing.

With the power of hindsight, Australians might also become more generous in their future assessment of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. After all, Albo has delivered an increased minimum wage while allowing employees to disconnect from work, provided a $300 electricity rebate while increasing investment in clean energy, assisted affordable housing, expanded paid parental leave, improved our relationship with China, slowed inflation while overseeing record jobs growth, revived Medicare bulk-billing, initiated two-for-one pharmacy prescriptions, funded free TAFE places, established an anti-corruption commission and – the big one – delivered tax cuts to the low paid workers ignored by the Morrison Government.

Compare that to a Liberal National opposition whose descent into Trumpism has thrown up such policies as nuclear power and a ban on wokeism, whatever that means.

Sadly, Albanese is being pilloried by an impatient electorate cranky at stubbornly high interest rates and grocery prices (we are yet to hear how Peter Dutton will address these problems). But they’re also weary of a man many see as uncharismatic, uninspiring, and perhaps even weak.

Albo will suffer a huge backlash at the looming federal election. He might even lose. But, like Jimmy Carter, history will judge him well.

Paul Williams is an associate professor at Griffith University

Originally published as Opinion: Anthony Albanese will be judged kindly by history