Is Anthony Albanese channeling Paul Keating?

Campaign Confidential: Australia’s oldest candidate hits the hustings, Anthony Albanese channels Paul Keating, and the Climate 200 founder says he’s not ready for his close-up.

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‘Seniors are revolting’: 87-year-old Senate hopeful

Independent Senate candidate Laurence Quinlivan. Picture: Facebook

The odds are stacked against Laurence Quinlivan in his campaign for a Senate spot in Queensland. He doesn’t have the backing of a political party, his placement on the Senate ballot paper is “all the way over on the right, in the second last column,” and nobody aged in their 80s has ever won or been appointed to a seat in the Australian Senate. (The oldest MPs we have are Senator Derryn Hinch, who is 78, and Bob Katter, who will turn 77 the day after polling day.) But the 87-year-old knows how to write a press release, hooking Campaign Confidential’s attention with the headline, “Seniors are revolting,” and he’s quick to point out the over-50s constitute 38.7 per cent of the electoral roll, so they’d be a potent political force if properly harnessed. Mr Quinlivan has just the one policy; he’s calling for the creation of a pilot hospital for seniors, specialising in geriatric medicine. The former veteran says he was motivated to campaign on the issue after seeing his wife’s experiences with the Queensland hospital system while she was in aged care. Sadly, Mrs Quinlivan died just before Christmas, but Mr Quinlivan said all too often she was looked after by “generalists” in hospitals during her final years, rather than doctors and nurses who are “well-versed in the special needs of seniors”. As for his own health, Mr Quinlivan says he recently passed the medical tests for his heavy vehicle drivers licence “with flying colours” and he doesn’t even need a walking stick. Perhaps he can take inspiration from Strom Thurmond, the legendary South Carolina Republican who served in the US Senate until the age of 100.

Stars come out in Kooyong

Simon Holmes a Court at the Hawthorn pre polling booth in Kooyong. Picture: Twitter

The first day of early voting at the pre-polling centre in Hawthorn, in the Melbourne seat of Kooyong, was an all-star affair. Besides the high profile candidates Josh Frydenberg and Dr Monique Ryan, Campaign Confidential’s spy spotted Senator James Paterson and former Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu, as well as Mr Baillieu’s son Rob, who is volunteering for Dr Ryan. Julian Burnside, who contested the seat for The Greens in 2019, dropped by to vote, while Climate 200 mover-shaker-and-moneymaker Simon Holmes a Court seemed keen on keeping a low profile, reacting angrily after having his photograph taken. “I think that’s dodgy,” he told a Herald Sun reporter. “I asked you not to take my photograph and you have.”

Straight from the Keating playbook

King of the kids. Anthony Albanese visits St Mary’s Cathedral School in Sydney on Monday. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

Rock star moment. Paul Keating said hello to the girls at Our Lady of Mercy College, Parramatta during the 1996 Federal Election.

Question: is Albo cribbing from the Keating playbook? At first, the two seem pretty different, but Campaign Confidential is starting to wonder if the Labor leader is taking his cues from the Prime Minister we had to have. First: the look. Keating was renowned for his elegant Italian suits, and often avoided wearing a red tie; Albo quietly upped his tailoring game sometime over the past few years, and has also generally declined showing a flash of socialist red during the campaign (unlike his predecessor Bill Shorten in 2019). Then there was the “cool” magazine cover story. Keating posed in his Ray-Bans for Rolling Stone in 1993, while Albo popped his collar in moody black and white for InStyle last month. Then on Monday, Albo caused mob scenes among the young students at St Mary’s school in Sydney, stirring memories of Paul Keating’s impromptu visit to Our Lady of Mercy College in Parramatta in ’96, which gave an otherwise closely stage-managed campaign a nice moment of mayhem. What’s next? If during the third leaders’ debate Albo tells ScoMo “I want to do you slowly,” echoing Keating’s legendary riposte to John Hewson, we’ll know something’s up.

Keating on the March 1993 issue of Rolling Stone.

Last month’s InStyle magazine cover with Anthony Albanese.

Things that (g)rate

Anthony Albanese and Scott Morrison during the second leaders' debate on Sunday night. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen

Channel Nine has spruiked its ratings for Sunday night’s leaders’ debate, declaring the 60 Minutes special dominated its timeslot and helped the network “to an overwhelming Sunday win”. But with social viewers slamming the network for the debate format, the inadequate moderation, sometimes bizarre questioning, malfunctioning tech and self-congratulatory analysis, you really have to wonder what they’re crowing about. According to TV Tonight, the debate garnered 641,000 viewers in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. While this was less than the total audience for Lego Masters, which aired just beforehand and attracted 664,000 viewers, it was better than 60 Minutes’ February fizzer, when just 574,000 people tuned in to watch Scott Morrison softly strum the ukulele. (That singular moment in Australian televisual history was beaten in the ratings by an episode of Vera on the ABC.) Incidentally, 60 Minutes’ top-rater for 2022 so far was its exclusive interview with the family of kidnap victim Cleo Smith, which took in 750,000 viewers – a decent haul, but a far cry from the million-plus people who would tune in to the big scoops, back in the day.

Game on, polls

Down but not dead. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison during Sunday night’s debate. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen

There’s no shortage of received wisdom when it comes to federal election campaigns, and they’re not always right. (“Elections are always called on Sundays!” “Whoever wins Eden-Monaro wins government!” And so on.) Another little pearl is the idea that the polls “always narrow before election day”. This may be generally true (hello, 2019, 2016 and 2007), but it’s not always true (take a bow, 2013). This week’s Newspoll had Labor on 54 per cent of the two-party-preferred vote, with the Coalition on 46 per cent: the exact same position the parties were on back in March 2019. Scott Morrison of course made up ground and pulled off a “miracle” victory in that election, but back then he had two months to do it – not the two weeks he has this time. If he does manage to do it in 2022, it will be an impressive turnaround.

Originally published as Is Anthony Albanese channeling Paul Keating?